decent and asfectionate testimony of kindness and esteem; something will be extorted by nature, and something may be given to the world. But all beyond the bursts of passion, or the forms of solemnity, 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 talk of our station. Yet it too often happens that sorrow, thus lawfully entering, gains such a firm possession of the mind, that it is not asterwards to be ejected; the mournful ideas, first violently impressed, and afterwards willingly received, so much engrofs the attention, as to predominate in every thought, to darken gaiety, and perplex ratiocination. An habitual fadness seizes upon the soul, and the faculties are chained to a single object, which can never be contemplated but with hopeless uneasiness. From this state of dejection it is very disficult to rise to cheersulness and alacrity, and theresore 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 suspended in such indifference, due we may change the objects about us without emotion. An exact compliance with this rule might, perhaps, contribute to tranquillity, but surely it would never produce happiness. He that regards none so much as to be asraid of losing them, must live for ever without the gentle pleasures of sympathy and confidence; he must seel no melting fondness, no warnath of benevolence, nor any of those honest joys which which nature annexes to the power of pleasing. And as no man can justly claim more tenderness than he pays, he must forseit his mare in that officious and watchsul kindness which love only can dictate, and thofe lenient endearments by which love only can soften life. He may justly be overlooked and neglected by such as have more warmth in their heart; for who would be the friend of him, whom, with whatever assiduity he may be courted, and with whatever services obliged, his principles Will not suffer to make equal returns, and who, when you have exhausted all the instances of good will, can only be prevailed on not to be an enemy? Ah attempt to preserve lise in a state of neutrality and indifserenee, is unreasonable and vain. If by excluding joy we could shut our grief, the scheme would deserve very serious attention $ but since, however we may debar ourselves from happiness, misery will find its way at many inlets, and the assaults of pain will force our regard, though we may withhold it from the invitations of pleasure, we may surely endeavour to raise lise above the middle point of apathy at one time, since it will necessarily sink below it at another. But though it cannot be reasonable not to gain happiness for sear of losing it, yet it must be consessed, that in proportion to the pleasure of possession, will be for some time our sorrow for the lofs; it is therefore the province of the moralist to enquire whether such pains may not quickly give way to mitigation. Some have thought that the most certain way to clear the heart from its embarrassment is to drag it by force into scenes of merriment. Others imagine, that such a transition is too violent, and recommend rather to sooth it into tranquillity, by making it acquainted with miseries moire dreadsul and afflictive, and diverting to the calamities of others the regard which we are inclined to fix too clofely upon our own misfortunes. It may be doubted whether either of thofe remedies will be sufficiently powersul. The esficacy of mirth it is not always easy to try, and the indulgence of melancholy may be suspected to be one of thofe medicines, which will destroy, if it happens not to cure. The sase and general antidote against sorrow, isr employment. It is commonly observed, that among soldiers and seamen, though there is much kindness, there is little grief; they see their friend sall without any of that lamentation which is indulged in security and idleness, because they have no leisure to spare from the care of themselves; and whoever shall keep his thoughts equally busy, will find himself equally unafsected with irretrievable losses. Time is observed generally to wear out sorrow, and its efsects might doubtless be accelerated by quickening the succession, and enlarging the variety ps objects. Si tempore Ictigo 'Tis long ere time can mitigate your grief; To wisdom fly, she quickly brings relief. F- Lewis. Sorrow Sorrow is a kind of rust of the foul, which every new idea contributes in its passage to scour' away* It is the putresaction of stagnant lise> and is remedied by exercise and motion. Numb. 48. Saturday, Sept. 1, 1750* • Kon eft .vi.vere, sed <valcrc, •vita. Marti For lise is not to live, but to be well. Elphinston. AMONG the innumerable follies, by which we lay up in our youth repentance and remorse for the succeeding part of our lives, there is scarce any against which warnings are of less efficacy, than the neglect of health. When the springs of motion are yet elastick, when the heart bounds with vigour, and the eye sparkles with spirit, it is with difficulty that we are taught to conceive the imbecility that every hour is bringing upon us, or to imagine that the nerves which are now braced with so much strength, and the limbs which play with so much activity, will lofe all their power under the gripe of time, relax with numbness, and totter with debility. To the arguments which have been used against complaints under the miseries of lise, the philofophers have, I think, forgot to add the incredulity of thofe to whom we recount our sufferings. But is the purpofe of lamentation be to excite pity, it is surely superfluous for age and weakness to tell their plaintive stories; for pity presuppofes sympathy, and a little attention will shew them, that thofe X. 2 Who who do not seel pain, seldom think that it is selt; and a short recollection will insorm almost every man, that he is only repaid the insult which he has given, since he may remember how often he has mocked infirmity, laughed at its cautions, and censured its impatience. The valetudinarian race have made the care of Uealth ridiculous by suffering it to prevail over all other considerations, as the miser has brought frugality into contempt, by permitting the love of money not to share3 but to engrofs his mind: they both err alike, by consounding the means with the end; they grasp at health only to be well, as at money only to be rich; and forget that every terrestrial advantage is chiefly valuable, as it surnishes abilities for the exercise of virtue. Health is indeed so necessary to all the duties, as well as pleasures of lise, that the crime os squandering it is equal to the folly; and he that for a short gratification brings weakness and diseases upon himself, and for the pleasure of a sew years passed in the tumults of diversion, and clamours of merriment, condemns the maturer and more experienced part of his lise to the chamber and the couch, may be justly reproached, not only as a spendthrift of his own happiness, but as a robber of the publick; as a wretch that has voluntarily disqualified himself for the business of his station, and resused that part which providence assigns him in the general task of human nature. There are perhaps very sew conditions more to be pitied than that of an active and elevated mind, Ubouring under the weight of a distempered body; 5 the |