an account of the errors committed by him in his wars of Gaul, and that Hippocrates, whofe name is perhaps in rational eftimation greater than Cæfar's, warned pofterity against a mistake into which he had fallen. So much, fays Celfus, does the open and artless. confeffion of an error become a man confcious that he has enough remaining to fupport his character. As all error is meannefs, it is incumbent on every man who confults his own dignity, to retract it as foon as he difcovers it, without fearing any cenfure fo much as that of his own mind. As juftice requires that all injuries fhould be repaired, it is the duty of him who has feduced others by bad practices or, falfe notions, to endeavour that fuch as have adopted his errors fhould know his retraction, and that thofe who have learned vice by his example, should by his example be taught amend ment. S NUMB. 32. SATURDAY, July 7, 1750. Οσσά τι δαιμονίησι τύχαις βροτοὶ ἄλγὶ ἔχεσιν, Of all the woes that load the mortal state, PYTHAC. ELPHINSTON. large a part of human life paffes in a state contrary to our natural defires, that one of the principal topicks of moral inftruction is the art of bearing calamities. And fuch is the certainty of evil, that it is the duty of every man to furnish his mind with those principles that may enable him to act under it with decency and propriety. The fect of ancient philofophers, that boafted to have carried this neceffary fcience to the highest perfection, were the ftoicks, or scholars of Zeno, whofe wild enthusiastick virtue pretended to an exemption from the fenfibilities of unenlightened mortals, and who proclaimed themselves exalted, by the doctrines of their fect, above the reach of those miferies, which embitter life to the reft of the world. They therefore removed pain, poverty, lofs of friends, exile, and violent death, from the catalogue of evils; and paffed, in their haughty ftyle, a kind of irreversible decree, by which they forbad them to be counted any longer among the objects of terror or anxiety, or to give any disturbance to the tranquillity of a wife man. This edict was, I think, not univerfally obferved; for though one of the more refolute, when he was tortured by a violent disease, cried out, that let pain harass him to its utmost power, it should never force him to confider it as other than indifferent and neutral; yet all had not ftubbornnefs to hold out against their fenfes: for a weaker pupil of Zeno is recorded to have confeffed in the anguifh of the gout, that he now found pain to be an evil. It may however be queftioned, whether these philofophers can be very properly numbered among the teachers of patience; for if pain be not an evil, there feems no inftruction requifite how it may be borne; and therefore, when they endeavour to arm their followers with arguments against it, they may be thought to have given up their firft pofition.. But fuch inconfiftencies are to be expected from the greatest understandings, when they endeavour to grow eminent by fingularity, and employ their strength in establishing opinions oppofite to nature. The controverfy about the reality of external evils is now at an end. That life has many miferies, and that thofe miferies are, fometimes at least, equal to all the powers of fortitude, is now univerfally confeffed; and therefore it is useful to confider not only how we may efcape them, but by what means those which either the accidents of affairs, or the infirmities of nature, muft bring upon us, may be mitigated and lightened, and how we may make thofe hours lefs wretched, which the condition of our prefent exiftence will not allow to be very happy. The The cure for the greatest part of human miferies is not radical, but palliative. Infelicity is involved in corporeal nature, and interwoven with our being; all attempts therefore to decline it wholly are useless and vain: the armies of pain fend their arrows against us on every fide, the choice is only between those which are more or lefs fharp, or tinged with poison of greater or less malignity; and the strongest armour which reafon can supply, will only blunt their points, but cannot repel them. The great remedy which heaven has put in our hands is patience, by which, though we cannot leffen the torments of the body, we can in a great measure preserve the peace of the mind, and fhall fuffer only the natural and genuine force of an evil, without heightening its acrimony, or prolonging its effects. There is indeed nothing more unfuitable to the nature of man in any calamity than rage and turbulence, which, without examining whether they are not fometimes impious, are at leaft always offenfive, and incline others rather to hate and defpife than to pity and affift us. If what we fuffer has been brought upon us by ourselves, it is obferved by an ancient poet, that patience is eminently our duty, fince no one should be angry at feeling that which he has deferved. Leniter ex merito quicquid patiare ferendum eft. Let pain deferv'd without complaint be borne. And furely, if we are confcious that we have not contributed to our own fufferings, if punishment falls upon innocence, or difappointment happens to VOL. V. P industry induftry and prudence, patience, whether more neceffary or not, is much eafier, fince our pain is then without aggravation, and we have not the bitterness of remorfe to add to the afperity of misfortune. In thofe evils which are allotted to us by providence, fuch as deformity, privation of any of the fenfes, or old age, it is always to be remembered, that impatience can have no prefent effect, but to deprive us of the confolations which our condition admits, by driving away from us thofe by whofe converfation or advice we might be amufed or helped; and that with regard to futurity it is yet lefs to be juftified, fince, without leffening the pain, it cuts off the hope of that reward, which he by whom it is inflicted will confer upon them that bear it well. In all evils which admit a remedy, impatience is to be avoided, because it wastes that time and attention in complaints, that, if properly applied, might remove the caufe. Turenne, among the acknowledgments which he used to pay in converfation to the memory of thofe by whom he had been inftructed in the art of war, mentioned one with honour, who taught him not to fpend his time in regretting any miftake which he had made, but to fet himself immediately and vigorously to repair it. Patience and fubmiffion are very carefully to be diftinguished from cowardice and indolence. We are not to repine, but we may lawfully ftruggle; for the calamities of life, like the neceffities of nature, are calls to labour and exercises of diligence. When we feel any preffure of distress, we are not to conclude that we can only obey the will of heaven by languifhing under it, any more than when we perceive |