out any other guard than itself; that it is poffible to maintain that purity of thought fo neceffary to the completion of human excellence even in the midst of temptations; when they have no friend within, nor are affifted by the voluntary indulgence of vicious thoughts.

If the infertion of a story like this does not break in on the plan of your paper, you have it in your power to be a better friend than her father to

PERDITA.

NUMB. 43. SATURDAY, February 10, 1759.

HE natural advantages which arife from the

THO
pofition of the earth which we inhabit with

respect to the other planets, afford much employ-
ment to mathematical fpeculation, by which it has
been discovered, that no other conformation of the
fyftem could have given fuch commodious diftribu-
tions of light and heat, or imparted fertility and
pleasure to so great a part of a revolving sphere.

It may be perhaps obferved by the moralift, with equal reason, that our globe feems particularly fitted for the refidence of a being, placed here only for a fhort time, whofe task is to advance himself to a higher and happier ftate of existence, by unremitted vigilance of caution, and activity of

virtue.

The

The duties required of man are fuch as human nature does not willingly perform, and fuch as those are inclined to delay who yet intend fome time to fulfil them. It was therefore neceffary that this univerfal reluctance fhould be counteracted, and the drowsiness of hesitation wakened into resolve; that the danger of procraftination fhould be always in view, and the fallacies of fecurity be hourly detected.

To this end all the appearances of nature uniformly confpire. Whatever we fee on every side, reminds us of the lapfe of time and the flux of life. The day and night fucceed each other, the rotation. of seasons diverfifies the year, the fun rises, attains the meridian, declines and fets; and the moon every night changes its form,

The day has been confidered as an image of the year, and the year as the reprefentation of life. The morning anfwers to the fpring, and the fpring to childhood and youth; the noon correfponds to the fummer, and the fummer to the ftrength of manhood. The evening is an emblem of autumn, and autumn of declining life. The night with its filence and darkness fhews the winter, in which all the powers of vegetation are benumbed; and the winter points out the time when life fhall cease, with its hopes and pleasures.

He that is carried forward, however fwiftly, by a motion equable and eafy, perceives not the change of place but by the variation of objects. If the wheel of life, which rolls thus filently along, paffed on through undiftinguishable uniformity, we fhould never mark its approaches to the end of

the

173/ the courfe. If one hour were like another; if the paffage of the fun did not fhew that the day is wafting; if the change of feafons did not impress upon us the flight of the year; quantities of duration equal to days and years would glide unobserved. If the parts of time were not variously coloured, we fhould never difcern their departure or fucceffion, but fhould live thoughtlefs of the past, and careless of the future, without will, and perhaps without power to compute the periods of life, or to compare the time which is already loft with that which may probably remain.

But the course of time is fo vifibly marked, that it is observed even by the birds of paffage, and by nations who have raised their minds very little above animal instinct: there are human beings whose language does not fupply them with words by which they can number five, but I have read of none that have not names for day and night, for fummer and winter.

Yet it is certain that these admonitions of nature, however forcible, however importunate, are too often vain; and that many who mark with fuch accuracy the courfe of time, appear to have little fenfibility of the decline of life. Every man has fomething to do which he neglects; every man has faults to conquer which he delays to combat.

So little do we accuftom ourselves to confider the effects of time, that things neceffary and certain often furprise us like unexpected contingencies. We leave the beauty in her bloom, and, after an abfence of twenty years, wonder, at our return, to find her faded. We meet thofe whom we left

children,

children, and can fcarcely perfuade ourselves to treat them as men. The traveller vifits in age thofe countries through which he rambled in his youth, and hopes for merriment at the old place. The man of business, wearied with unfatisfactory prosperity, retires to the town of his nativity, and expects to play away the last years with the companions of his childhood, and recover youth in the fields where he once was young.

From this inattention, fo general and fo mifchievous, let it be every man's study to exempt himself. Let him that defires to fee others happy, make hafte to give while his gift can be enjoyed, and remember that every moment of delay takes away fomething from the value of his benefaction. And let him who purposes his own happiness, reflect, that while he forms his purpose the day rolls on, and the night cometh when no man can work.

NUMB. 44. SATURDAY, February 17, 1759.

M

EMORY is, among the faculties of the human mind, that of which we make the most frequent ufe, or rather that of which the agency is inceffant or perpetual. Memory is the primary and fundamental power, without which there could be no other intellectual operation. Judgment and ratiocination fuppofe fomething already known, and draw their decifions only from experience. Imagination felects ideas from the treafures of remembrance, and produces novelty only by varied combinations. We do not even form conjectures of diftant, or anticipations of future events, but by concluding what is poffible from what is past.

The two offices of memory are collection and distribution; by one images are accumulated, and by the other produced for ufe. Collection is always the employment of our firft years, and diftribution commonly that of our advanced age.

To collect and repofite the various forms of things, is far the most pleasing part of mental occupation. We are naturally delighted with novelty, and there is a time when all that we fee is new. When first we enter into the world, whitherfoever we turn our eyes, they meet knowledge with pleafure at her fide; every diversity of nature pours ideas in upon the foul; neither fearch nor labour are neceffary; we have nothing more to do than to open our eyes, and curiofity is gratified.