ations, and of art in private affairs; they have been confidered as the effects of great qualities, and as unattainable by men of the common level: yet I have not found many performances, either of art or policy, that required fuch fupendous efforts of intellect, or might not have been effected by falfehood and impudence, without the affiftance of any other powers. To profefs what he does not mean, to promife what he cannot perform, to flatter ambition with profpects of promotion, and mifery with hopes of relief; to footh pride with appearances of fubmiffion, and appeafe enmity by blandifhments and bribes; can furely imply nothing more or greater than a mind devoted wholly to it's own purpofes, a face that cannot blufh, and a heart that cannot feel.

Thefe practices are fo mean and bafe, that he who finds in himfelf no tendency to use them, cannot eafily believe that they are confidered by others with lefs deteitation; he therefore fuffers himfelf to flumber in falfe fecurity, and becomes a prey to those who applaud their own fubtilty, because they know how to fteal upon his fleep, and exult in the fuccefs which they could never have obtained, had they not attempted a man better than themfeives, who was hindered from obviating their ftratagems, not by folly, but by innocence.

Sufpicion is, indeed, a temper fo unafy and reftlefs, that it is very juftly appointed the concomitant of guilt. It is faid, that no torture is equal to the inhibition of fleep long continued; a pain to which the state of that man bears a very exact analogy who dares never give reft to his vigilance and circumfpection, but confiders himself as fur-' rounded by fecret foes, and fears to intruft his children, or his friend, with the fecret that throbs in his breast, and the anxieties that break into his face. To avoid, at this expence, thofe evils to. which eafinefs and friendship might have expofed him, is furely to buy fafety at too dear a rate, and, in the language of the Roman fatirift, to fave life by lofing all for which a wife man would live.

When in the diet of the German empire, as Camerarius relates, the princes were once difplaying their felicity, and each boasting the advantages of his own dominions, one who poffeffed a country not remarkable for the grandeur of it's Cities, or the fertility of it's foil, rofe

to fpeak, and the rest listened between pity and contempt, till he declared, in honour of his territories, that he could travel through them without a guard, and, if he was weary, fleep in fafety upon the lap of the first man whom he fhould meet; a commendation which would have been ill exchanged for the boat of palaces, paftures, or ftreams.

Sufpicion is not lefs an enemy to virtue than to happinefs: he that is al-' ready corrupt is naturally fufpicious, and he that becomes fufpicious will quickly be corrupt. It is too common for us to learn the frauds by which ourselves have fuffered; men who are once perfuaded that deceit will be employed against them, fometimes think the fame arts justified by the neceffity of defence. Even they whofe virtue is too well established to give way to example, or be fhaken by fophiftry, muit yet feel their love of mankind diminished with their esteem, and grow lefs zealous for the happiness of thofe by whom they imagine their own happiness endangered.

Thus we find old age, upon which fufpicion has been ftrongly impreffed by long intercourfe with the world, inflexible and fevere, not easily foftened by fubmiffion, melted by complaint, or fubdued by Tupplication. Frequent experience of counterfeited mifèries, and diffembled virtue, in time overcomes that difpofition to tenderness and fympathy, which is fo powerful in our younger, years; and they that happen to petition the old for compaffion or affiftance, are doomed to languish without regard, and fuffer for the crimes of men who have formerly been found undeferving or ungrateful.

Hiftorians are certainly chargeable with the depravation of mankind, when ` they relate without cenfure those stratagems of war by which the virtues of an enemy are engaged to his deftruction. A fhip comes before a port, weatherbeaten and shattered, and the crew implore the liberty of repairing their breaches, fupplying themfelves with neceffaries, or burying their dead. The humanity of the inhabitants inclines them to confent, the ftrangers enter the town with weapons concealed, fall fuddenly upon their benefactors, deftroy thofe that make resistance, and become maiters of the place; they return home rich with plunder, and their fuccefs is recorded to encourage imitation. Z 2

But

But furely war has it's laws, and ought to be conducted with fome regard to the universal intereft of man. Thofe may justly be purfued as enemies to the community of nature, who fuffer hof tility to vacate the unalterable laws of right, and purfue their private advantage by means which, if once eftablished, muft deftroy kindness, cut off from every man all hopes of affiftance from another, and fill the world with perpetual fufpicion and implacable malevolence. Whatever is thus gained ought to be restored; and those who have conquered by fuch treachery may be juft

ly denied the protection of their native country.

Whoever commits a fraud is guilty not only of the particular injury to him whom he deceives, but of the diminution of that confidence which conftitutes not only the cafe but the existence of fociety. He that fuffers by impofture has too often his virtue more impaired than his fortune. But as it is neceffary not to invite robbery by fupineness, fo it is our duty not to fupprefs tenderness by fufpicion. It is better to fuffer wrong than to do it; and happier to be fometimes cheated than not to trust.

HOR.

As in S Providence has made the human patient for novelty, and struggling for fomething yet unenjoyed with unwearied progreffion, the world feems to have been eminently adapted to this difpofition of the mind; it is formed to raise expectations by conftant viciffitudes, and to obviate fatiety by perpetual change.

Wherever we turn our eyes, we find fomething to revive our curiofity, and engage our attention. In the dusk of the morning we watch the rifing of the fun, and fee the day diverfify the clouds, and open new profpects in it's gradual advance. After a few hours, we fee the fhades lengthen, and the light decline, till the fky is refigned to a multitude of fhining orbs different from each other in magnitude and fplendour. The earth varies it's appearance as we move upon it; the woods offer their fhades, and the fields their harvefts; the hill flatters with an extenfive view, and the valley invites with fhelter, fragrance, and flowers.

The poets have numbered among the felicities of the golden age, an exemption from the change of feafons, and a perpetuity of spring, but I am not certain that in this state of imaginary hap

DRYDEN.

infatiable pinefs they have made fufficient provi

gratifications, which feems particularly to characterize the nature of man. Our fenfe of delight is in a great meafure comparative, and arifes at once from the fenfations which we feel, and thofe which we remember: thus eafe after torment is pleasure for a time, and we are very agreeably recreated, when the body, chilled with the weather, is gradually recovering it's natural tepidity; but the joy ceafes when we have forgot the cold, we muft fall below eafe again, if we defire to rife above it, and purchase new felicity by voluntary pain. It is therefore not unlikely that, however the fancy may be amufed with the defcription of regions in which no wind is heard but the gentle zephyr, and no fcenes are difplayed but vallies enamelled with unfading flowers, and woods waving their perennial verdure, we should foon grow weary of uniformity, find our thoughts languifh for want of other subjects, call on Heaven for our wonted round of feafons, and think ourfelves liberally recompenfed for the inconveniencies of fummer and winter, by new perceptions of the calmnefs and mildness of the intermediate variations.

Every feafon has it's particular power of ftriking the mind.

The naked

nefs and afperity of the wintry world always fills the beholder with penfive and profound astonishment; as the variety of the fcene is leffened, it's grandeur is increased; and the mind is fwelled at once by the mingled ideas of the prefent and the paft, of the beauties which have vanished from the eyes, and the wafte and defolation that are now before them.

It is obferved by Milton, that he who neglects to vifit the country in spring, and rejects the pleafures that are then in their first bloom and fragrance, is guilty of jullennefs against nature. If we allot different duties to different seasons, he may be charged with equal disobedience to the voice of nature who looks on the bleak hills and leaflefs woods, without feriousness and awe. Spring is the feafon of gaiety, and winter of terror; in fpring the heart of tranquillity dances to the melody of the groves, and the eye of benevolence fparkles at the fight of happiness and plenty: in the winter, compaffion melts at univerfal calamity, and the tear of foftnefs ftarts at the wailings of hunger, and the cries of the creation in diftrefs.

Few minds have much inclination to indulge heaviness and forrow; nor do I recommend them beyond the degree neceffary to maintain in it's full vigour that habitual fympathy and tenderness which, in a world of fo much mifery, is neceflary to the ready discharge of our moft important duties. The winter therefore is generally celebrated as the proper feafon for domeftick merriment and gaiety. We are feldom invited by the votaries of pleasure to look abroad any other purpofe, than that we may fhrink back with more fatisfaction to our coverts, and when we have heard the howl of the tempeft, and felt the gripe of the froft, congratulate each other with more gladness upon a close room, an eafy chair, a large fire, and a fmoking dinner.

for

Winter brings natural inducements to jollity and converfation. Differences, we know, are never fo effectually laid afleep, as by fome common calamity: an enemy unites all to whom he threatens danger. The rigour of winter brings generally to the fame fire-fide those who, by the oppofition of incli

nations, or difference of employment, moved in various directions through the other parts of the year; and when they have met, and find it their mutual intereft to remain together, they endear each other by mutual compliances, and often with for the continuance of the focial feafon, with all it's bleakness and all it's feverities.

To the men of ftudy and imagination the winter is generally the chief time of labour. Gloom and filence produce compofure of mind, and concentration of ideas; and the privation of external pleasure naturally caufes an effort to find entertainment within. This is the time in which those whom literature enables to find amusements for themselves, have more than common convictions of their own happiness. When they are condemned by the elements to retirement, and debarred from most of the diverfions which are called in to affift the flight of time, they can find new fubjects of enquiry, and preferve themselves from that wearinef's which hangs always flagging upon the vacant mind.

It cannot indeed be expected of all to be poets and philofophers; it is neceffary that the greater part of mankind fhould be employed in the minute bufinefs of common life; minute, indeed, not if we confider it's influence upon our happinefs, but if we refpect the abilities requifite to conduct it. These must neceffarily be more dependent on accident for the means of fpending agreeably those hours which their occupations leave unengaged, or nature obliges them to allow to relaxation. Yet even on thefe I would willingly imprefs fuch a sense of the value of time, as may incline them to find out for their careless hours amufements of more use and dignity than the common games, which not only weary the mind without improving it, but ftrengthen the paffions of envy and avarice, and often lead to fraud and to profufion, to corruption and to ruin. It is unworthy of a reasonable being to fpend any of the little time allotted us, without fome tendency, either direct or oblique, to the end of our exiftence. And though every moment cannot be laid out on the formal and regular im provement of our knowledge, or in the Itated practice of a moral or religious duty, yet none fhould be fo fpent as to exclude wifdom or virtue, or pafs with

out

out poffibility of qualifying us more or lefs for the better employment of thofe which are to come.

It is fcarcely poffible to pafs an hour in honeft converfation, without being able when we rife from it, to please ourfelves with having given or received fome advantages; but a man may fhuffle cards, or rattle dice, from noon to midnight, without tracing any new idea in his mind, or being able to recollect the day by any

other token than his gain or lofs, and a confufed remembrance of agitated paffions, and clamorous altercations.

However, as experience is of more weight than precept, any of my readers, who are contriving how to spend the dreary months before them, may confider which of their pait amufements fills them now with the greatest fatisfaction, and refolve to repeat thofe gratifications of which the pleafure is molt durable.

HEAR, AND BE JUST.

Adifculled without any approach to

MONG queftions which have been

decifion, may be numbered the precedency or fuperior excellence of one virtue to another, which has long furnished a fubject of difpute to men whofe leifure fent them out into the intellectual world in fearch of employment, and who have, perhaps, been fometimes withheld from the practice of their favourite duty, by zeal for it's advancement, and diligence in it's celebration.

The intricacy of this difpute may be alleged as a proof of that tenderness for mankind which Providence has, I think, univerfally difplayed, by making attainments eafy in proportion as they are neceflary. That all the duties of mo- . rality ought to be practifed, is without difficulty difcoverable, because ignorance or uncertainty would immediately involve the world in confufion and diftrefs; but which duty ought to be moft efteemed, we may continue to debate, without inconvenience, fo all be diligently performed as there is opportunity or need; for upon practice, not upon opinion, depends the happinefs of mankind; and controverfies, merely fpeculative, are of finall importance in themfelves, however they may have fometimes heated a difputant, or provoked a faction.

Of the divine author of our religion it is impoffible to perufe the evangelical hiftorics, without obferving how little he favoured the vanity of inquifitiveness; how much more rarely he condefcended, to fatisfy curiofity, than to relieve diftrefs; and how much he defired that his

VIRG.

followers fhould rather excel in goodnefs than in knowledge. His precepts tend immediately to the rectification of the moral principles, and the direction of daily conduct, without oftentation, without art, at once irrefragable and plain, fuch as well-meaning implicity inay readily conceive, and of which we cannot miftake the meaning, but when we are afraid to find it.

The measure of justice preferibed to us, in our tranfactions with others, is' remarkably clear and comprehenfive: Whatfoever ye would that men should do unto you, even fo do unto them. A law by which every claim of right may be immediately adjusted, as far as the private confcience requires to be informed; a law of which every man may find the expofition in his own breast, and which may always be obferved without any other qualifications than honefty of intention and purity of will.

Over this law, indeed, fome fons of fophiftry have been fubtle enough to throw mifts, which have darkened their own eves. To perplex this univerfal principle, they have enquired whether a man, confcious to himfelf of unreafonable wishes, be bound to gratify them in another. But furely there needed no long deliberation to conclude, that the defres, which are to be confidered by us as the measure of right, must be fuch as we approve, and that we ought to pay no regard to thofe expectations in others which we condemn in ourselves, and which, However they may intrude upon our imagination, we know it our duty' to refift and fupprefs.

One of the most celebrated cafes which have been produced as requiring fome fkill in the direction of confcience to adapt them to this great rule, is that of a criminal afking mercy of his judge, who cannot but know, that if he was in the state of the fupplicant, he fhould defire that pardon which he now denies. The difficulty of this sophisin will vanith, if we remember that the parties are, in reality, on one fide the criminal, and on the other the community, of which the magiftrate is only the minifter, and by which he is intrufted with the publick fafety. The magiftrate, therefore, in pardoning a man unworthy of pardon, betrays the truft with which he is invefted, gives away what is not his own, and, apparently, does to others what he would not that others fhould do to him.. Even the community, whofe right is ftill greater to arbitrary grants of mercy, is bound by thote laws which regard the great republick of mankind, and cannot juffv fuch forbearance as may promote wickedness, and lefen the general confidence and fecurity in which all have an equal intereft, and which all are therefore bound to maintain. For this reafon the state has not a right to erect a general fanctuary for fugitives, or give protection to fuch as have forfeited their lives by crimes against the laws of common morality, equally acknowledged by ail nations, ecaufe no people can, without infraction of the univerial league of focial beings, incite, by profpects of impanity and fafety, thofe practices in another dominion which they would themselves punish in their own,

One occafion of uncertainty and hefitation, in those by whom this great rule has been commented and dilated, is the confution of what the exacter cafuifts are careful to distinguish, debts of juice and debts of charity. The immediate and primary intention of this precept is, to effablish a rule of juice; and I know not whether invention, or fophiftry, can itart a fingle difficulty to retard it's application, when it is thus expreffed and explained-Let every man allow the claim of right in another, which le fould think bimfelf entitled to make in the like circumflances.

The difcharge of the debts of charity, or duties which we owe to others, not merely as required by juftice, but as d ctated

by benevolence, admits in it's own nature greater complication of circumstances, and greater latitude of choice. Juftice is indifpenfably and univerfally neceffary, and what is neceflary must always be limited, uniform, and distinct. But beneficence, though in general equally enjoined by our religion, and equally needful to the conciliation of the Divine favour, is yet, for the most part, with regard to it's fingle acts, elective and voluntary. We may, certainly, without injury to our fellow-beings, allow in the diftribution of kindness fomething to our affections, and change the measure of our liberality according to our opinions and profpects, our hopes and fears. This rule, therefore, is not equally determinate and abfolute with refpect to offices of kindness and acts of liberality, becaufe liberality and kindnefs, abfolutely determined, would lofe their nature; for how could we be called tender, or charitable, for giving that which we are pofitively forbidden to withhold?

Yet even in adjusting the extent of our beneficence, no other measure can be taken than this precept affords us, for we can only know what others fuffer or want, by confidering how we should be affected in the fame ftate; nor can we proportion our affiftance by any other rule than that of doing what we should then expect from others. It indeed generally happens that the giver and receiver differ in their opinions of generofity; the fame partiality to his own intereit inclines one to large expectations, and the other to fparing diftributions. Perhaps the infirmity of human nature will fcarcely fuffer a man groaning under the preffure of diftrefs, to judge rightly of the kindness of his friends, or think they have done enough till his deliverance is completed; not therefore what we might wish, but what we could demand from others, we are obliged to grant, fince, though we can easily know how much we might claim, it is impoffible to determine what we fhould hope.

But in all enquiries concerning the practice of voluntary and occafional virtues, it is fafeft for minds not oppreffed with fuperftitious fears to determine against their own inclinations, and fecure themfeives from deficiency by doing more than they believe strictly neceffary. For of this every man may be certain, that, if he were to exchange

conditions