deep into thy heart. Remember, my fon, that "human life is the journey of a day. We rife in "the morning of youth, full of vigour and full of expectation; we fet forward with spirit and hope, "with gaiety and with diligence, and travel on a "while in the ftraight road of piety towards the "manfions of reft. In a flort time we remit our "fervor, and endeavour to find fome mitigation of "our duty, and fome more eafy means of obtain ing the fame end. We then relax our vigour, " and refolve no longer to be terrified with crimes at a diftance, but rely upon our own conftancy, and venture to approach what we refolve never to "touch. We thus enter the bowers of ease, and repofe in the shades of fecurity. Here the heart foftens, and vigilance fubfides; we are then will"ing to enquire whether another advance cannot be "made, and whether we may not, at least, turn our cr eyes upon the gardens of pleasure. We approach "them with fcruple and hesitation; we enter them, but enter timorous and trembling, and always hope to pass through them without lofing the road "of virtue, which we, for a while, keep in our fight, and to which we propofe to return. But temptation fucceeds temptation, and one compliance prepares us for another; we in time lofe "the happiness of innocence, and folace our dif "quiet with fenfual gratifications. By degrees we "let fall the remembrance of our original inten tion, and quit the only adequate object of ra"tional defire. We entangle ourselves in business, immerge ourselves in luxury, and rove through "the labyrinths of inconftancy, till the darkness "of old age begins to invade us, and difeafe and anxiety obftruct our way. We then look back upon our lives with horror, with forrow, with repentance; and wish, but too often vainly wish, "that we had not forfaken the ways of virtue. "Happy are they, my fon, who fhall learn from thy example not to defpair, but fhall remember, "that though the day is paft, and their strength is "wafted, there yet remains one effort to be made; "that reformation is never hopeless, nor fincere en"deavours ever unaffifted, that the wanderer may "at length return after all his errors, and that he "who implores ftrength and courage from above, "fhall find danger and difficulty give way before "him. Go now, my fon, to thy repofe, commit thyfelf to the care of Omnipotence, and when the morning calls again to toil, begin anew thy jour ney and thy life." 66 NUMB. 66. SATURDAY, November 3, 1750. Pauci dignofcere poffunt Vera bona, atque illis multum diverfa, remota Juv Erroris nebula. How few Know their own good; or, knowing it, purfue? DRYDEN. HE folly of human wishes and pursuits has al TH ways been a standing fubject of mirth and declamation, and has been ridiculed and lamented from age to age; till perhaps the fruitless repetition of complaints and cenfures may be justly numbered among the subjects of cenfure and complaint. Some of thefe inftructors of mankind have not contented themselves with checking the overflows of paffion, and lopping the exuberance of defire, but have attempted to deftroy the root as well as the branches; and not only to confine the mind within bounds, but to smooth it for ever by a dead calm. They have employed their reason and eloquence to perfuade us, that nothing is worth the wifh of a wife man, have represented all earthly good and evil as indifferent, and counted among vulgar errors the dread of pain, and the love of life. It is almost always the unhappiness of a victorious difputant, to destroy his own authority by claiming too many confequences, or diffufing his propofition to to an indefenfible extent. When we have heated our zeal in a caufe, and elated our confidence with fuccefs, we are naturally inclined to pursue the fame train of reafoning, to establish some collateral truth, to remove fome adjacent difficulty, and to take in the whole comprehenfion of our fyftem. As a prince, in the ardour of acquifition, is willing to fecure his first conqueft by the addition of another, add fortress to fortrefs, and city to city, till despair and opportunity turn his enemies upon him, and he lofes in a moment the glory of a reign. The philofophers having found an eafy victory over those defires which we produce in ourfelves, and which terminate in fome imaginary state of happinefs unknown and unattainable, proceeded to make further inroads upon the heart, and attacked at last our fenfes and our inftincts. They continue to war upon nature with arms, by which only folly could be conquered; they therefore loft the trophies of their former combats, and were confidered no longer with reverence or regard. Yet it cannot be with juftice denied, that these men have been very useful monitors, and have left many proofs of ftrong reafon, deep penetration, and accurate attention to the affairs of life, which it is now our business to separate from the foam of a boiling imagination, and to apply judiciously to our own ufe. They have fhewn that moft of the conditions of life, which raise the envy of the timorous, and rouse the ambition of the daring, are empty fhows of felicity, which, when they become familiar, lofe their power of delighting; and that the most profperous and exalted have very few advantages over a meaner and more obfcure fortune, when their dangers and folicitudes are balanced against their equipage, their banquets, and their palaces. It is natural for every man uninftructed to murmur at his condition, because in the general infelicity of life, he feels his own miferies, without knowing that they are common to all the reft of the fpecies; and therefore, though he will not be lefs fenfible of pain by being told that others are equally tormented, he will at least be freed from the temptation of feeking by perpetual changes that ease which is no where to be found, and though his difcafe ftill continues, he efcapes the hazard of exafperating it by remedies. The gratifications which affluence of wealth, extent of power, and eminence of reputation confer, must be always, by their own nature, confined to a very small number; and the life of the greater part of mankind must be loft in empty wishes and painful comparisons, were not the balm of philosophy shed upon us, and our difcontent at the appearances of an unequal diftribution foothed and appeased. It seemed, perhaps, below the dignity of the great mafters of moral learning, to defcend to familiar life, and caution mankind against that petty ambition which is known among us by the name of vanity; which yet had been an undertaking not unworthy of the longest beard, and moft folemn au fterity. For though the paffions of little minds, acting in low ftations, do not fill the world with bloodfhed and devaftations, or mark, by great events, the periods of time, yet they torture the breast on which they |