NUMB. 47. TUESDAY, August 28, 1750.

Quanquam his folatiis acquiefcam, debiliter & frangor eadem illa humanitate quæ me, ut hoc ipfum permitterem, induxit, non ideo tamen velim durior fieri: nec ignoro alios hujufmodi cafus nibil amplius vocare quam damnum; eoque fibi magnos homines & fapientes videri. Qui an magni fapientefque fint, nefcio: bomines non funt. Hominis eft enim affici dolore, fentire: refiftere tamen, & folatia admittere; non folatiis non egere.

PLIN.

Thefe proceedings have afforded me fome comfort in my distress; notwithstanding which, I am ftill difpirited, and unhinged by the fame motives of humanity that induced me to grant fuch indulgences. However, I by no means wish to become lefs fufceptible of tendernefs. I know thefe kind of misfortunes would be estimated by other perfons only as common loffes, and from fuch fenfations they would conceive themselves great and wife men. I fhall not determine either their greatness or their wifdom; but I am certain they have no humanity. It is the part of a man to be affected with grief; to feel forrow, at the fame time that he is to refift it, and to admit of comfort. Earl of ORRERY.

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the paffions with which the mind of man is agitated, it may be obferved, that they naturally haften towards their own extinction, by inciting and quickening the attainment of their objects. Thus fear urges our flight, and defire animates our progrefs; and if there are fome which perhaps may be indulged till they outgrow the good appropriated to their fatisfaction, as it is frequently obferved of avarice and ambition, yet their immediate tendency is to fome means of happiness really exifting, and generally within the profpect. The miser always imagines

imagines that there is a certain fum that will fill his heart to the brim; and every ambitious man, like king Pyrrhus, has an acquifition in his thoughts that is to terminate his labours, after which he shall pafs the rest of his life in ease or gaiety, in repofe or devotion.

Sorrow is perhaps the only affection of the breast that can be excepted from this general remark, and it therefore deferves the particular attention of those who have affumed the arduous province of preferving the balance of the mental conftitution. The other paffions are difeafes indeed, but they neceffarily direct us to their proper cure. A man at once feels the pain, and knows the medicine, to which he is carried with greater hafte as the evil which requires it is more excruciating, and cures himself by unerring instinct, as the wounded ftags of Crete are related by Ælian to have recourfe to vulnerary herbs. But for forrow there is no remedy provided by nature; it is often occafioned by accidents irreparable, and dwells upon objects that have loft or changed their existence; it requires what it cannot hope, that the laws of the universe fhould be repealed; that the dead fhould return, or the paft fhould be recalled.

Sorrow is not that regret for negligence or error which may animate us to future care or activity, or that repentance of crimes for which, however irrevocable, our Creator has promifed to accept it as an atonement; the pain which arifes from thefe caufes has very falutary effects, and is every hour extenuating itself by the reparation of those miscarriages that produce it. Sorrow is properly that ftate of the

mind in which our defires are fixed upon the past, without looking forward to the future, an inceffant wish that something were otherwife than it has been, a tormenting and haraffing want of some enjoyment or poffeffion which we have loft, and which no endeavours can poffibly regain. Into fuch anguish many have funk upon fome fudden diminution of their fortune, an unexpected blaft of their reputation, or the lofs of children or of friends. They have fuffered all fenfibility of pleasure to be deftroyed by a single blow, have given up for ever the hopes of fubftituting any other object in the room of that which they lament, refigned their lives to gloom and defpondency, and worn themselves out in unavailing misery.

Yet fo much is this paffion the natural confequence of tenderness and endearment, that, however painful and however ufelefs, it is justly reproachful not to feel it on fome occafions; and fo widely and conftantly has it always prevailed, that the laws of fome nations, and the customs of others, have limited a time for the external appearances of grief caused by the diffolution of close alliances, and the breach of domeftick union.

It feems determined, by the general fuffrage of mankind, that forrow is to a certain point laudable, as the offspring of love, or at least pardonable as the effect of weakness; but that it ought not to be fuffered to increase by indulgence, but must give way, after a stated time, to focial duties, and the common avocations of life. It is at first unavoidable, and therefore must be allowed, whether with or without our choice; it may afterwards be admitted as a decent

decent and affectionate teftimony of kindness and esteem; fomething will be extorted by nature, and fomething may be given to the world. But all beyond the bursts of paffion, or the forms of folemnity, is not only useless, but culpable; for we have no right to facrifice, to the vain longings of affection, that time which providence allows us for the task of our station.

Yet it too often happens that forrow, thus lawfully entering, gains fuch a firm poffeffion of the mind, that it is not afterwards to be ejected; the mournful ideas, first violently impreffed, and afterwards willingly received, fo much engross the attention, as to predominate in every thought, to darken gaiety, and perplex ratiocination. An habitual fadnefs feizes upon the foul, and the faculties are chained to a fingle object, which can never be contemplated but with hopeless uneafiness.

From this state of dejection it is very difficult to rife to cheerfulness and alacrity, and therefore many who have laid down rules of intellectual health, think preservatives easier than remedies, and teach us not to trust ourselves with favourite enjoyments, not to indulge the luxury of fondness, but to keep our minds always fufpended in fuch indifference, that we may change the objects about us without emotion.

An exact compliance with this rule might, perhaps, contribute to tranquillity, but furely it would never produce happiness. He that regards none fo much as to be afraid of lofing them, muft live for ever without the gentle pleasures of fympathy and confidence; he muft feel no melting fondness, no warmth of benevolence, nor any of those honeft joys

which nature annexes to the power of pleafing. And as no man can justly claim more tenderness than he pays, he must forfeit his fhare in that officious and watchful kindness which love only can dictate, and thofe lenient endearments by which love only can foften life. He may justly be overlooked and neglected by fuch as have more warmth in their heart; for who would be the friend of him, whom, with whatever affiduity he may be courted, and with whatever services obliged, his principles will not fuffer to make equal returns, and who, when you have exhausted all the inftances of good will, can only be prevailed on not to be an enemy?

An attempt to preferve life in a state of neutrality and indifference, is unreasonable and vain. If by excluding joy we could fhut our grief, the fcheme would deferve very serious attention; but fince, however we may debar ourselves from happinefs, mifery will find its way at many inlets, and the affaults of pain will force our regard, though we may withhold it from the invitations of pleasure, we may furely endeavour to raise life above the middle point of apathy at one time, fince it will neceffarily fink below it at another.

But though it cannot be reasonable not to gain happinefs for fear of lofing it, yet it must be confeffed, that in proportion to the pleasure of poffeffion, will be for fome time our forrow for the lofs; it is therefore the province of the moralift to enquire whether fuch pains may not quickly give way to mitigation. Some have thought that the most certain way to clear the heart from its embarraffiment is to drag it by VOL. V.

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force