cares of avarice, and the joys of intemperance, from the lulling founds of deceitful flattery, and the tempt→ ing fight of profperous wickedness. NUMB. 8. SATURDAY, April 14, 1750. -Patitur pænas peccandi fola voluntas ; Nam fcelus intra fe tacitum qui cogitat ullum, For he that but conceives a crime in thought, Juv. CREECH. F the most active and induftrious of mankind I was active induftrious of mankind was able, at the clofe of life, to recollect diftinctly his paft moments, and diftribute them, in a regular account, according to the manner in which they have been spent, it is fcarcely to be imagined how few would be marked out to the mind, by any permanent or visible effects, how small a proportion his real action would bear to his feeming poffibilities of action, how many chafins he would find of wide and continued vacuity, and how many interftitial spaces unfilled, even in the moft tumultuous hurries of business, and the most eager vehemence of pursuit, It is faid by modern philofophers, that not only the great globes of matter are thinly fcattered. through the univerfe, but the hardest bodies are fo porous, that, if all matter were compreffed to per fect folidity, it might be contained in a cube of a few feet. In like manner, if all the employment of life were crowded into the time which it really occupied, perhaps a few weeks, days, or hours, would be fufficient for its accomplishment, fo far as the mind was engaged in the performance. For fuch is the inequality of our corporeal to our intellectual faculties, that we contrive in minutes what we execute in years, and the foul often ftands an idle fpectator of the labour of the hands, and expedition of the feet. For this reason, the ancient generals often found themselves at leifure to purfue the ftudy of philosophy in the camp; and Lucan, with hiftorical veracity, makes Cæfar relate of himself, that he noted the revolutions of the stars in the midft of preparations for battle. -Media inter prælia femper Sideribus, coelique plagis, fuperifque vacavi. Amid the ftorms of war, with curious eyes That the foul always exerts her peculiar powers, with greater or lefs force, is very probable, though the common occafions of our prefent condition require but a small part of that inceffant cogitation; and by the natural frame of our bodies, and general combination of the world, we are fo frequently condemned to inactivity, that as through all our time we are thinking, fo for a great part of our time we can only think. Left Left a power so restless should be either unprofitably or hurtfully employed, and the fuperfluities of intellect run to wafte, it is no vain fpeculation to confider how we may govern our thoughts, reftrain them from irregular motions, or confine them from boundlefs diffipation. How the understanding is beft conducted to the knowledge of fcience, by what fteps it is to be led forwards in its purfuit, how it is to be cured of its defects, and habituated to new ftudies, has been the inquiry of many acute and learned men, whofe obfervations I fhall not either adopt or cenfure; my purpose being to confider the moral discipline of the mind, and to promote the increase of virtue rather than of learning. This inquiry feems to have been neglected for want of remembering that all action has its origin in the mind, and that therefore to suffer the thoughts to be vitiated, is to poifon the fountains of morality: Irregular defires will produce licentious practices; what men allow themselves to wifh they will foon believe, and will be at last incited to execute what they please themselves with contriving. For this reafon the cafuifts of the Romish church, who gain, by confeffion, great opportunities of knowing human nature, have generally determined that what it is a crime to do, it is a crime to think. Since by revolving with pleasure the facility, fafety, or advantage of a wicked deed, a man foon begins to find his conftancy relax, and his deteftation foften; the happiness of fuccefs glittering before him, withdraws his attention from the atrociousness of the guilt, and acts are at last confidently perpetrated, of which the first conception only crept into the mind, disguised in pleafing complications, and permitted rather than invited. No man has ever been drawn to crimes by love or jealoufy, envy or hatred, but he can tell how eafily he might at first have repelled the temptation, how readily his mind would have obeyed a call to any other object, and how weak his paffion has been after some casual avocation, till he has recalled it again to his heart, and revived the viper by too warm a fondness. Such, therefore, is the importance of keeping reafon a constant guard over imagination, that we have otherwise no fecurity for our own virtue, but may corrupt our hearts in the most reclufe folitude, with more pernicious and tyrannical appetites and wishes than the commerce of the world will generally produce; for we are eafily fhocked by crimes which appear at once in their full magnitude, but the gradual growth of our own wickedness, endeared by intereft, and palliated by all the artifices of felf-deceit, gives us time to form diftinctions in our own favour, and reafon by degrees fubmits to abfurdity, as the eye is in time accommodated to darkness. In this disease of the foul, it is of the utmost importance to apply remedies at the beginning; and therefore I fhall endeavour to fhew what thoughts are to be rejected or improved, as they regard the past, present, or future; in hopes that fome may be awakened to caution and vigilance, who, perhaps, VOL. V. indulge E indulge themselves in dangerous dreams, fo much the more dangerous, because being yet only dreams, they are concluded innocent. The recollection of the paft is only useful by way of provifion for the future; and therefore, in reviewing all occurrences that fall under a religious confideration, it is proper that a man stop at the first thoughts, to remark how he was led thither, and why he continues the reflection. If he is dwelling with delight upon a ftratagem of fuccefsful fraud, a night of licentious riot, or an intrigue of guilty pleasure, let him fummon off his imagination as from an unlawful purfuit, expel those pasfages from his remembrance, of which, though he cannot seriously approve them, the pleasure overpowers the guilt, and refer them to a future hour, when they may be confidered with greater fafety. Such an hour will certainly come; for the impreffions of past pleasure are always leffening, but the fenfe of guilt, which refpects futurity, continues the fame. The ferious and impartial retrofpect of our conduct is indifputably neceffary to the confirmation or recovery of virtue, and is, therefore, recommended under the name of felf-examination, by divines, as the first act previous to repentance. It is, indeed, of fo great ufe, that without it we fhould always be to begin life, be feduced for ever by the fame allurements, and mifled by the fame fallacies. But in order that we may not lofe the advantage of our experience, we muft endeavour to fee every thing in its proper form, and excite in ourfelves those |