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པར ཡང |ཆོས

and most lively genius have the greatest sensibility, of consequence the most lively passions; the violence of which puts their conduct on a footing with that of fools. Fools discern the weaknesses which they have in common with themselves; but are not sensible of their excellencies, to which they have no pretensions; of course, always inclined to dispute the superiority. judgment.

Wit is the refractory pupil of Virtue should be considered as a part of taste (and perhaps it is so more in this age, than in any preceding one) and should as much avoid deceit or sinister meanings in discourse, as they would do puns, bad language, or false grammar.

Think, when you are enraged at any one, what would probably become your sentiments, should he die during the dispute. The man of a towering ambition, or a well-regulated taste has fewer objects to envy or to covet than the grovellers.

Refined sense to a person that is to converse alone with boors, is a manifest inconvenience. As Falstaff says

(with some little variation)—

"Company, witty company, has been the ruin of me." If envious people were universally to ask themselves, whether they would exchange their entire situations with the persons envied (I mean their minds, pașsions, notions, as well as their persons, fortunes, dignities, &c. &c.) I will presume the self-love common to human nature would make them all prefer their own condition:

"Quid statis? nolint-atqui licet esse beatis.'' If this rule were applied, as it surely ought to be, it bids fair to prove an universal cure for envy:

"Quanto quisque sibi plura negaverit,

a diis plura feret."-Self-denial.

A person, elevated one degree above the populace, assumes more airs of superiority than one that is raised ten. The reason is somewhat obvious. His superiority is more contestible. The character of a decent, well-behaved gentleman-like man seems more easily attainable by a person of no great parts or passions, than by one of greater genius and more volatility. It is there no mismanagement, for the former to be chiefly ambitious of it. When a man's capacity does not enable him to entertain or animate, the company, it is the best he can do to render himself inoffensive, and to keep his teeth clean. But the person who has talents for discourse, and a passionate desire to enliven conversation, ought to have many improprieties excused, which in the other were unpardonable. A lady of good-nature would forgive the blunder of a country esquire, who, through zeal to serve her with a glass of claret, should involve his spurs in her Brussels apron. On the contrary, the fop (who may in some sense use the words of Horace; "Quod verum atque decens curo & rogo & ❝omnis in hoc sum,")

would be entitled to no pardon for such unaccountable misconduct. Man, in general, may be considered as a mechanic, and the formation of happiness as his business or employment: virtue, his repository or collection of instruments; the goods of fortune as his materials: in proportion as the workman, the instruments, and the materials excel, the work will be executed in the greater perfection.

The silly censorious are the very "fel naturæ," "the most bitter of all bitter things;" from the hyssop that grows upon the wall, to the satirist that pisses against it. I have known a sensible man of

ཡར་::

opinion that one should not be solicitous about a wife's understanding. A woman's sense was with him a phrase to express a degree of knowledge, which was likely to contribute mighty little to a husband's happiness. I cannot be of his opinion. I am convinced, that as judgment is the portion of our sex, so fancy and imagination are more eminently the lot of their's. If so, after honesty of heart, what is there we should so much require? A wife's beauty will soon decay, it is doubtful whether in reality first, or in our own apinion. Either of these is sufficient to pall the raptures of enjoyment. We are then to seek for something that will retain it's novelty; or, what is equivalent, will change it's shape when her person palls by it's identity. Fancy and genius bid fairest for this, which have as many shapes, as there can happen occasions to exert them. Good-nature I always suppose. The former will be expedient to exhilarate and divert us; the latter to preserve our minds in a temper to be diverted. I have

known some attornies of reputable families, and whose original dispositions seemed to have been open and humane. Yet can I scarcely recollect one, in whom the gentleman, the christain, and even the man, was not swallowed up in the lawyer: they are not only the greatest tyrants, but the greatest pedants, of all mankind. Reconciliation is the tenderest part either of friendship or of love; the latter more especially, in which the soul is more remarkably softened. Were a person to make use of art in procuring the affection of his mistress, it were, perhaps, his most effectual method to contrive a slight estrangement, and then, as it were, impercept ibly, bring on a reconciliation. The soul here dis

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covers a kind of elasticity; and, being forced back, returns with an additional violence. Virtue may be considered as the only means of dispensing happiness in proper portions to every moment of our time. To judge whether one has sufficient pleasure to render the continuation of life agreeable, it is not enough to say, Would you die? Take away first, the hope of better scenes in this life, the fears of worse in another, and the bodily pain of dying. The fear of death seems as natural, as the sensation of lust or of hunger: the first and last, for the preservation of the individual; the other, for the continuation of the species.

It seems obvious that God, who created the world, intends the happiness and perfection of the system he created. To effect the happiness of the whole, self-love, in it's degree, is as requisite as social; for I am myself a part of that whole, as well as another. The difficulty of ascertaining what is virtue, lies in proportioning the degrees of self-love and social. "Proximus sum egomet mihi."-" Tunica pallio propior." "Charity begins at home." It is so. It ought to be so; nor is there any inconvenience arises to the public, because it is general. Were this away, the individual must soon perish, and consequently the whole body. A man has every moment occasion to exert his self-love for the sake of self-preservation; consequently this ought to be stronger, in order to keep him on his guard. A centinel's attention should be greater than that of a soldier on a review.

The social, tho' alike constant, is not equally intense; because the selfish, being universal, renders the social less essential to the well-being of one's neighbour. In short, the self-love and the social ought to

........

bear such proportion as we find they generally do. If the selfish passion of the rest preponderate, it would be self-destructive in a few individuals to be over-socially disposed. If the social one prevail generally, to be of remarkable selfishness must obstruct the good of society. Many feel a superfluous uneasiness for want of due attention to the following truth. We are oftentimes in suspense betwixt the choice of different pursuits. We chuse one, at last, doubtingly, and with an unconquered hankering after the other. We find the scheme, which we have chosen, answer our expectations but indifferently-most worldly projects will. We, therefore, repent of our choice, and immediately fancy happiness in the paths which we decline; and this heightens our uneasiness. We might, at least, escape the aggravation of it. It is not improbable, we had been more unhappy, but extremely probable, we had not been less so, had we made a different decision This, however, relates to schemes that are neither virtuous nor vicious. Happy dogs" (says a certain splenetic) "our footmen and the populace!" "Farewel," says Esop, in Vanbrugh, "whom I both envy and despise!"

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The servant meets with hundreds whose conversation can amuse him, for one that is the least qualified to be a companion for his master.

"A person cannot eat his cake and have it," is, as Lord Shaftesbury observes, a proper answer to many splenetic people.* But what imports it to be in the possession of a cake that you do not eat? "If then the cake be made to be eaten," says lady L"better eat it when you are most hungry." Poor woman! she seems to have acted by this maxim, but * Complainants.

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