CONTEMPT OF RICHES. No man is moved with part that neglect the whole. Remark. The best comment on this aphorism, is the story of the Roman Fabricius. Whether does he, who shews himself beyond the influence of gold; or he who thinks that "the highest virtue has its price;" manifest the magnanimity of a prince? Every honest mind can reply to this question, and every generous one will subscribe to it, although they cannot but confess gold to be a good in life. The means of acquiring is the point in debate: the sordid shrink from no baseness by which they may grub up gold; the generous must win it like men of honour, or are resolved to strive to be contented without it. Those who plume themselves on wealth, and those who despise it, are equally faulty. Riches are, in them selves good; and the tide of kindness never warmed the heart of him who covets them not. Is there a man so lost to every beneficent feeling, so dead to the sympathies of nature, as to be insensible to the pure joy resulting from the blessed consciousness of being extensively beneficial to his fellow-creatures? Let such a man, with an unqualifying contempt, contemn riches. How happy is that fortune which every day enables us to do good to thousands! Are riches to be inveighed against, because there are men who abuse. them? By this rule we should inveigh against genius, against learning, against religion.— Let men, then, leave off peevish, petulant exclamations against wealth, and consider riches in their true light; namely, à treasury of blessings, when possessed by the worthy; and an abused good in the hands of the ostentatious and unfeeling. FREEDOM. SHALL virtue become a slave to those that be slaves to vice. Better is it to consent to die: what death is so evil, as unworthy servitude? Remark. There is a private vassalage, as well as a public slavery: and the spirit that was formed for bondage, will find a yoke for itself, under any circumstance, and in any country. Pride, indolence, and the love of pleasure, are the sources of this baseness. For the sake of gratifications for which such men disdain to labour, and which they will not want, they sell their birth-right: sell it for a mere mess of pottage, when compared with the invaluable privileges of industry and independence. Many boast of mental independence, who are for ever thrusting their persons into the levees of the great; and if they do not receive that no tice, protection, and reward, which their situation or talents seem to merit, they deem themselves insulted and robbed of a natural right. But how do these men mistake the relative duties of society! The man who, with health of body and vigour of mind, untrammelled with any afore-gone circumstances, (and who lives in a free country,) that complains of being unprotected, places himself on the lowest step of the ladder of fortune. What protection ought a manly character to seek, but that of his own abilities and labour? To be really independent, is to support ourselves by our own exertions; never to solicit a favour, that it is possible to do without; and never to allow another's acquisitions to trespass upon our content. This is true independence; the other that assumes its name, is pride, which demands every thing with the voice of a tyrant; and who rails like a shrew, when its inordinate and arrogant desires are left unsatisfied. Such men do not ask for a man's good offices, but for his purse, his house, his homage. If the rich, who are stewards alike for suffering worth and fettered genius, if they were to uphold the extravagant idleness of every coxcomb, who presents himself with a pamphlet, or a string of bad rhymes, in his hand, they might soon exhaust the treasury, which a beneficent Providence confided to their care. Laziness, conceit, and presumption, would banquet on the widow's and the orphan's portion; and those sons of real genius, who do not desire to lean wholly upon any outward support, but only to be assisted to mount, where they are emulous to climb; these, like the glorious Chatterton, are left to perish in solitary desolation; while the impudent and the cringing, are taken to the boards and bosoms of the great. These are the wretches who can bear to be the hangers-on of a rich man's table; who can smile at his dullness, and applaud his follies. Feeble talents and strong propensities to luxury, make such men the suitors and the slaves of power. The possessor of great talents may require that patronage should open the path of his fame; but, conscious of their dignity, it is his pride, his privilege, and his reward, to gain the summit alone. |