him; for it is to no purpofe that he alters his position, if his attention continues fixed to the same point. The mind should be kept open to the access of every new idea, and so sar disengaged from the predominance of particular thoughts as easily to accommodate itself to occasional entertainment.

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; saults, perhaps, seldom totally avoided by thofe, whofe judgment is much exercised upon the works of art. He has always a certain profpect of discovering new reasons for adoring the sovereign Author of the universe, and probable hopes of making some 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 satigue of study, but only frequent experiments, and clofe attention. What is said by the chemists of their darling mercury, is, perhaps, true of every body through the whole creation, that, if a thousand lives should be spent upon it, all its properties would not be found out.

Mankind must necessarily be diversified by various tastes, since lise affords and requires such multiplicity of employments, and a nation of naturalists is neither to be hoped, or desired; but it is surely not improper to point out a fresh amusement'to

thofe who languish in health, and repine in plenty, for want of some source of diversion that may be less easily exhausted, and to inform the multitudes of both sexes, who are burthened with every new day, that there are many shows which they have not seen.

He that enlarges his curiofity aster the works of nature, demonstrably multiplies the inlets to happiness; and, theresore, the younger part of my readers, to whom I dedicate this vernal speculation, must excuse me for calling upon them, to make use at once of the spring of the year, and the spring of lise; to acquire, while their minds may be yet impressed with new images, a love of innocent pleasures, and an ardour for usesul knowledge; and to remember, that a blighted spring makes a barren year, and that the vernal flowers, however beautisul and gay, are only intended by nature as preparatives to autumnal fruits.

Numb. 6. Saturday, April 7, 1750,

Strenua nos extrcet inertia, navibus a! que

Quadrigii fetimus bene wvere: quod pctis, biceft;

Eft Ulubris, asrimui ft te non deficit aquus. Hor»

Active in indolence, abroad we roam

In quest of happiness which dwells at home:

With vain pursuits fatigu'd, at length you'll find,

No place excludes it from an equal mind. Elphisston*.

THAT* man should never suffer his happiness to depend upon external circumstances, is one of the chies precepts of the Stoical philofophy; a precept, indeed, which that lofty sect has extended beyond the condition of human lise, and in which some of them seem to have comprised an utter exclusion of all corporal pain and pleasure from the regard or attention of a wise man.

Such sapientia insaniens, as Horace calls the doc* trine of another sect, such extravagance of.philofophy, can want neither authority nor argument for its consutation: it is overthrown by the experience of every hour, and the powers of nature rise 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 secure to our minds a state of tranquillity: for, though the boast of absolute independence is ridiculous and vain, yet a mean flexi

Vol. V. D bility

biliry to every impulse, and a patient submission to the tyranny of casual troubles, is below the dignity of that mind, which, however depraved or weakened, boasts its derivation from a celestial original, and hopes for an union with infinite goodness, and unvariable selicity.

Ni visits pejorafevens
Prcprium defer at or turn.

Unless the soul, to vice a thrall,
Desert her own original.

The necessity of erecting ourselves to some degree os intellectual dignity, and of preserving resources 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 themselves business or diversion, and having nothing within that can entertain or employ them, are compelled to try all the arts of destroying time.

The numberless expedients practised by this class of mortals to alleviate the burthen of lise, is not less shamesul, nor, perhaps, much less pitiable, than thofe to which a trader on the edge of bankruptcy is reduced. I have seen melancholy overspread a whole samily at the disappointment of a party for cards; and when, aster the propofal of a thousand schemes, and the dispatch of the footmen upon a hundred meisages, they have submitted, with gloomy

resignaresignation, to the misfortune of passing one evening in conversation with each other; on a sudden, such are the revolutions of the world, an unexpected visitor has brought them relief, acceptable as provision to a starving city, and enabled them to hold out till the next day.

The general remedy of thofe, who are uneasy without knowing the cause, is change of place; they are willing to imagine that their pain is the consequence of some local inconvenience, and endeavour to fly from it, as children from their shadows; always hoping for some more satissactory delight from every new scene, and always returning home with disappointment and complaints.

Who can look upon this kind of insatuation, without reflecting on thofe that suffer under the dreadsul symptom of canine madness, termed by physicians the dread of water? These miserable 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 swallow in one posture that liquor, which they find in another to repel their lips.

Yet such folly is not peculiar to the thoughtless or ignorant, but sometimes seizes thofe minds which seem 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 conser no security against the common errors, which mislead the weakest and meanest of mankind.

These