cares of avarice, and the joys of intemperance, from the lulling sounds of deceitsul flattery, and the tempting sight of prosperous wickedness. Numb. 8. Saturday, April 14, 1750. 1 Patitur pa Has feccandi sola 'vela it tat; Nam setUi intra se taciturn qui rigitat ullum, FaQi erimen bjbet. Jut. For he that but conceives a crime in thought, Contracts the danger of an actual fault. Chich. IF the most active and industrious of mankind was able, at the clofe of lise, to recollect distinctly his past moments, and distribute them, in a regular account, according to the manner in which they have been spent, it is scarcely to be imagined how sew would be marked out to the mind, by any permanent or visible effects, how small a proportion his real action would bear to his seeming possibilities of action, how many chasms he would find of wide and continued vacuity, and how many interstitial spaces unfilled, even in the most 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 scattered thrqugh the universe, but the hardest bodies are so porous, that, is all matter were compressed to per 6 sect sect solidity, it might be contained in a cube of a sew seet. In like manner, if all the employment of lise were crowded into the time which it really occupied, perhaps a sew weeks, days, or hours, would be sufficient for its accomplishment, so sar as the mind was engaged in the performance. For such is the inequality of our corporeal to our intellectual saculties, that we contrive in minutes what we execute in years, and the foul often stands an idle spectator of the labour of the hands, and expedition of the seet. For this reason, the ancient generals often found themselves at leisure to pursue the study of philosophy in the camp; and Lucan, with historical veracity, makes Cæsar relate of himself, that he noted the revolutions of the stars in the midst of preparations for battle. a Media inter pmlia femper Sideribus, ccclique plagis, fuperifque vacavi. Amid the storms of war, with curious eyes That the foul always exerts her peculiar powers, with greater or less force, is very probable, though the common occasions of our present condition require but a small part of that incessant cogitation; and by the natural frame of our bodies, and general combination of the world, we are so frequently condemned to inactivity, that as through all our time we are thinking, so for a great part of our time we can only think. Lest Lest a power so restless should be either unprofitably or hurtiully employed, and the superfluities of intellect run to waste, it is no vain speculation to consider how we may govern our thoughts, restrain them from irregular motions, or confine them from boundless dissipation. How the understanding is best conducted to the knowledge of science^ by what steps it is to be led forwards in its pursuit, how it is to be cured of its desects, and habituated to new studies, has been the inquiry of many acute and learned men, whofe observations I ssiall not either adopt or censure; my purpofe being to consider the moral discipline of the mind, and to promote the increase of virtue rather than of learning. This inquiry seems 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 poison the fountains of morality: Irregular desires will produce licentious practices; what men allow themselves to wish they will soon believe, and will be at last incited to execute what they please themselves with contriving. For this reason the casuists of the Romish church, who gain, by consession, 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 sacility, sasety, or advantage of a wicked deed, a man soon begins to find his constancy relax, and his detestation soften; the happiness of success glittering before him, withdraws his attention from the atrocioufness of the guilt, guilt, and acts are at last confidently perpetrated, of which the first conception only crept into the mind, disguised in pleasing complications, and permitted rather than invited. No man has ever been drawn to crimes by love or jealousy, envy or hatred, but he can tell how* easily 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 passion 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, theresore, is the importance of keeping reason a constant guard over imagination, that we have otherwise no security for our own virtue, but may corrupt our hearts in the most recluse solitude, with more pernicious and tyrannical appetites and wishes than the commerce of the world will generally produce; for we are easily shocked by crimes which appear at once in their sull magnitude, but the gradual growth of our own wickedness, endeared by interest, and palliated by all the artifices of self-deceit, gives us time to form distinctions in our own favour, and reason by degrees submits to absurdity, as the eye is in time accommodated to darkness. In this disease of the soul, it is of the utmost importance to apply remedies at the beginning; and theresore I shall endeavour to shew what thoughts are to be rejected or improved, as they regard the past, present, or suture; in hopes that some may be awakened to caution and vigilance, who, perhaps, Vol. V. E indulge Indulge themselves in dangerous dreams, so much, the more dangerous, because being yet only dreams, they are concluded innocent. The recollection of the past is only usesul by way of provision for the suture; and therefore, in reviewing all occurrences that sall under a religious consideration, 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 stratagem of successsul fraud, a night of licentious riot, or an intrigue of guilty pleasure, let him summon oft" his imagination as from an unlawsul pursuit, expel thofe passages from his remembrance, of which, though he cannot seriously approve them, the pleasure overpowers the guilt, and reser them to a suture hour, when they may be considered with greater sasety. Such an hour will certainly come; for the impressions of past pleasure are always lessening, but the sense of guilt, which respects suturity, continues the same. The serious and impartial retrofpect of our conduce is indisputably necessary to the confirmation or recovery of virtue, and is, therefore, recommended under the name of self-examination, by divines, as the first act previous to repentance. It is, indeed, of" so great use, that without it we should always be to begin lise, be seduced for ever by the same allurements, and milled by the same sallacies. But in order that we may not lofe the advantage of our experience, we must endeavour to see everything in its proper form, and excite in ourselves thofe |