him; for it is to no purpose that he alters his pofition, if his attention continues fixed to the fame point. The mind should be kept open to the accefs of every new idea, and fo far difengaged from the predominance of particular thoughts as eafily to accommodate itself to occafional entertain ment. A man that has formed this habit of turning every new object to his entertainment, finds in the productions of nature an inexhaustible stock of materials upon which he can employ himself, without any temptations to envy or malevolence; faults, perhaps, feldom totally avoided by thofe, whofe judgment is much exercised upon the works of art. He has always a certain profpect of difcovering new reafons for adoring the fovereign Author of the univerfe, and probable hopes of making fome discovery of benefit to others, or of profit to himself. There is no doubt but many vegetables and animals have qualities that might be of great use, to the knowledge of which there is not required much force of penetration, or fatigue of ftudy, but only frequent experiments, and clofe attention. What is faid by the chemifts of their darling mercury, is, perhaps, true of every body through the whole creation, that, if a thousand lives fhould be spent upon it, all its properties would not be found out. Mankind must neceffarily be diversified by various tastes, fince life affords and requires fuch multiplicity of employments, and a nation of naturalifts is neither to be hoped, or defired; but it is furely not improper to point out a fresh amufement to 6 thofe thofe who languifh in health, and repine in plenty, for want of fome fource of diverfion that may be lefs easily exhaufted, and to inform the multitudes of both fexes, who are burthened with every new day, that there are many fhows which they have not feen. He that enlarges his curiofity after the works of nature, demonftrably multiplies the inlets to happiness; and, therefore, the younger part of my readers, to whom I dedicate this vernal fpeculation, must excufe me for calling upon them, to make use at once of the fpring of the year, and the fpring of life; to acquire, while their minds may be yet impreffed with new images, a love of innocent pleasures, and an ardour for useful knowledge; and to remember, that a blighted spring makes a barren year, and that the vernal flowers, however beautiful and gay, are only intended by nature as preparatives to autumnal fruits. NUMB. 6. SATURDAY, April 7, 1750. Strenua nos exercet inertia, navibus atque Active in indolence, abroad we roam In queft of happiness which dwells at home: T HOR. ELPHINSTON. HAT man fhould never fuffer his happiness to depend upon external circumftances, is one of the chief precepts of the Stoical philofophy; a precept, indeed, which that lofty fect has extended beyond the condition of human life, and in which some of them seem to have comprised an utter exclufion of all corporal pain and pleasure from the regard or attention of a wife man. Such fapientia infaniens, as Horace calls the doctrine of another fect, fuch extravagance of philofophy, can want neither authority nor argument for its confutation: it is overthrown by the experience of every hour, and the powers of nature rife up against it. But we may very properly enquire, how near to this exalted state it is in our power to approach, how far we can exempt ourselves from outward influences, and fecure to our minds a state of tranquillity: for, though the boast of abfolute independence is ridiculous and vain, yet a mean flexiVOL. V. D bility bility to every impulfe, and a patient fubmiffion to the tyranny of cafual troubles, is below the dignity of that mind, which, however depraved or weakened, boafts its derivation from a celeftial original, and hopes for an union with infinite goodness, and unvariable felicity. Ni vitiis pejora fovens Unless the foul, to vice a thrall, The neceffity of erecting ourselves to fome degree of intellectual dignity, and of preferving refources of pleasure, which may not be wholly at the mercy of accident, is never more apparent than when we turn our eyes upon thofe whom fortune has let loofe to their own conduct; who, not being chained down by their condition to a regular and stated allotment of their hours, are obliged to find themfelves bufinefs or diverfion, and having nothing within that can entertain or employ them, are compelled to try all the arts of deftroying time. The numberless expedients practifed by this clafs of mortals to alleviate the burthen of life, is not lefs fhameful, nor, perhaps, much lefs pitiable, than thofe to which a trader on the edge of bankruptcy is reduced. I have feen melancholy overfpread a whole family at the difappointment of a party for cards; and when, after the propofal of a thoufand schemes, and the difpatch of the footmen upon a hundred meffages, they have fubmitted, with gloomy refigna refignation, to the misfortune of passing one evening in conversation with each other; on a fudden, fuch are the revolutions of the world, an unexpected vifitor has brought them relief, acceptable as provifion to a starving city, and enabled them to hold out till the next day. The general remedy of those, who are uneafy without knowing the caufe, is change of place; they are willing to imagine that their pain is the confequence of fome local inconvenience, and endeavour to fly from it, as children from their shadows; always hoping for fome more fatisfactory delight from every new fcene, and always returning home with disappointment and complaints. Who can look upon this kind of infatuation, without reflecting on those that fuffer under the dreadful symptom of canine madness, termed by phyficians the dread of water? Thefe miferable wretches, unable to drink, though burning with thirst, are sometimes known to try various contortions, or inclinations of the body, flattering themselves that they can fwallow in one posture that liquor, which they find in another to repel their lips. Yet fuch folly is not peculiar to the thoughtless or ignorant, but fometimes feizes thofe minds which feem most exempted from it, by the variety of attainments, quickness of penetration, or severity of judgment, and, indeed, the pride of wit and knowledge is often mortified by finding that they confer no fecurity against the common errors, which miflead the weakest and meanest of mankind. |