I To the RAMBLER. SIR, Have lately been called, from a mingled life of business and amusement, to attend the last hours of an old friend; an office which has filled me, if not with melancholy, at least with ferious reflections, and turned my thoughts toVOL. III. B wards wards the contemplation of those fubjects, which, though of the utmost importance, and of indubitable certainty, are generally fecluded from our regard, by the jollity of health, the hurry of employment, and even by the calmer diverfions of ftudy and fpeculation; or if they become accidental topics of argument and converfation, yet rarely fink deep into the heart; but only give occafion to fome fubtilties of reafoning, or fome elegancies of declamation, which are heard, applauded, and forgotten. It is, indeed, not hard to conceive how a man accustomed to extend his views through a long concatenation of causes and effects, to trace things from their origin to their period, and compare means with ends, may difcover the weakness of human schemes, detect the fallacies by which we are deluded, thew the infufficiency of wealth, honours, and power, to real happiness, and please himfelf, and his auditors, with learned lectures on the vanity of life. But though the fpeculatift may fee and fhew the folly of terreftrial hopes, fears, and defires, every hour will give proofs that he never felt it. Trace him through the paths of life, and you will find him acting upon principles which he has in common with unenlightened mortals; angry and pleafed like the loweft of the vulgar; purfuing, with the fame ardour, the fame defigns; grafping, with all the eagerness of tranfport, thofe riches which he knows he cannot keep; and fwelling with the applaufe which he has gained, by proving that applaufe is of no value. The only conviction which rushes upon the foul, and takes away from our appetites and paffions the power of refiftance, is to be found, where I have received it, at the bed of a dying friend. The school of wisdom is not fhut to all but geometricians. The moft fublime and important precepts require no peculiar opportunities, nor labo rious preparations; they are enforced without the aid of eloquence, and understood without skill in analytic fcience. Every tongue can utter them, and every understanding can conceive them. He that defires in earnest to obtain just fentiments concerning his condition, he that would be intimately acquainted with the world, may find inftructions on every fide: he that defires to enter behind the scene, which every art has been employed to decorate, and every paffion labours to illuminate, and fee life ftripped of thofe ornaments which make it glitter on the stage, and expofed in its natural meannefs, impotence, and nakedness, may find all the delufion laid open in the chamber of difeafe; he will there find vanity divefted of her robes, power deprived of her fceptre, and hypocrify without her mask. The friend whom I have loft, was a man eminent for genius, and, like others of the fame clafs, fufficiently pleafed with applaufe. Being careffed by thofe who have preferments and riches in their difpofal, he confidered himself as in the direct road of advancement, and had caught the flame of ambition by his approaches to its object. But in the midft of his hopes, his projects, and his gaieties, he was feized by a lingering difeafe, which from its first stage he knew to be incurable. Here was an end of all his vifions of greatness and happiB 2 nefs. nefs. From the first hour that his health declined, all his former pleasures grew tastelefs. His friends expected to please him by thofe accounts of the growth of his reputation, which were formerly certain of being well received; but they foon found how little he was now affected by compli¬ ments, and how vainly they attempted, by flattery, to exhilarate the languor of weakness, and relieve the folicitude of approaching death. Whoever would know how much piety and virtue furpafs all external goods, might here have seen them weighed against each other; where all that gives motion to the active, and elevation to the great, all that sparkles in the eye of hope, and alarms the jealoufies of fufpicion, at once became duft in the balance, without weight and without regard. Riches, authority, and praife, lofe all their influence when they are confidered as riches which tomorrow fhall be bestowed upon another, authority which fhall this night expire for ever, and praise which, however merited, or however fincere, fhall, after a few moments, be heard no more. In thofe hours of ferioufnefs and wisdom, nothing appeared to raise his fpirits or gladden his heart, but the recollection of acts of goodness; nor to excite his attention, but fome opportunity for the exercise of the duties of religion. Every thing that terminated on this fide of the grave, was received with coldness and indifference; and regarded rather in confequence of the habit of valuing it, than from any opinion that it deferved value; it had little more influence over his mind than a bubble that was now broken, a dream from which he was awake. His whole powers were engrosled by the confideration of another state; and all converfation |