bour, or danger, more than others. They are unable to rouse themselves to action, to ftrain in the race of competition, or to ftand the fhock of conteft; but though they therefore decline the evil of climbing, they nevertheless with themfelves aloft, and would willingly enjoy what they dare not feize.

Others have retired from high stations, and voluntarily condemned themselves to privacy and obfcurity. But even these will not afford many occafions of triumph to the philofopher: for they have commonly quitted that only which they thought themselves unable to hold, and prevented difgrace by refignation; or they have been induced to try new measures by general inconftancy, which always dreamed of happiness in novelty; or by a gloomy difpofition, which was difgufted in the fame degree with every ftate, wifhed every scene of life to change as foon as it was beheld; and fuch men found high and low ftations equally unable to fatisfy the cravings of a diftempered mind, and were unable to fhelter themfelves in the clofeft retreat from difappointment, folicitude, and mifery.

Yet though these admonitions have been thus neglected by those who either enjoyed riches, or were able to procure them, it is not rafhly to be determined that they are altogether without ufe: for fince far the greatest part of mankind must be confined to conditions comparatively mean, and placed in fituations from which they naturally look up with envy to the eminences before them, thofe writers cannot be thought ill employed that have administered remedies to discontent almost univerfal,

F 2

niverfal, by fhowing, that what we cannot reach, may very well be forborn; that the inequality of diftribution, at which we murmur, is for the molt part less than it seems; and that the greatness which we admire at a distance, has much fewer advantages, and much lefs fplendour, when we are fuffered to approach it.

It is the business of moralifts, to detect the frauds of Fortune, and to show that fhe impofes upon the careless eye, by a quick fucceffion of fhadows, which will fhrink to nothing in the gripe; that she disguises life in extrinfic ornaments, which can be of ufe only for fhow, and are laid aside in the hours of folitude, and of pleafure; and that when greatnefs either afpires to happiness or to wisdom, it shakes off, as vain, or cumbrous, the chief part of those distinctions which are of use to dazzle the gazer, and to awe the fupplicant.

It may be remarked, that they whose condition has not afforded them the light of moral or religious inftruction, and who collect all their ideas by their own eyes, and digest them by their own understandings, feem to confider those who are placed in ranks of remote fuperiority, as almost another and higher fpecies of beings; and as they themselves have known little other misery than the confequences of want, are with difficulty perfuaded, that where there is wealth there can be forrow; or that those who glitter in dignity, and glide along in affluence, can be acquainted with pains and cares like thofe which lie heavy upon the reft of mankind.

This prejudice is indeed confined to the lowest meanness,

meannefs, and the darkest ignorance: but it is fo confined only, because others have been fhewed its folly, and its falfehood; because it has been opposed in its progrefs by history and philofophy, and hindered from spreading its infection by powerful prefervatives.

The doctrine of the contempt of wealth, though it has not been wholly able to extinguish avarice or ambition, has certainly made them less importunate and overbearing: and though it has not wholly fuppreffed that reluctance with which a man paffes his life in a state of inferiority, it must, at least, have made the lower conditions lefs grating and wearifome; and had confequently contributed to the general fecurity of life, by hindering a great part of that fraud and violence, rapine and circumvention, which must have been produced by an unbounded eagernefs of wealth, arifing from an unfhaken conviction, that to be rich is to be happy.

Whoever finds himself incited, by fome violent impulse of passion, to purfue riches as the chief end of life, muft furely be fufficiently alarmed by the fucceffive admonitions of those whofe experience and fagacity have recommended them as the guides of mankind, to stop, and confider whether he is about to engage in an undertaking that will reward his toil; and to examine before he rushes to wealth, through right and wrong, what it will confer when he has acquired it: and this examination will feldom fail to reprefs his ardour, and retard his violence.

Wealth is nothing in itself. It is not useful but when it departs from us; and its value is found on

ly

ly in that which it can purchase; which, if we fuppofe it put to its best use by those that poffefs it, feems not much to deferve the defire or envy of a wife man. It is certain, that, with regard to corporal enjoyment, money can neither open new avenues to pleasure, nor block up the paffages of anguish. Disease and infirmity still continue to torture and enfeeble, perhaps exasperated by luxury, or promoted by foftnefs. With respect to the mind, it has rarely been obferved, that wealth contributes much to quicken the difcernment, enlarge the capacity, or elevate the imagination; but may, by hiring flattery, or laying diligence asleep, confirm error, and harden stupidity.

Even

Wealth cannot confer greatness; for nothing can make that great, which the decree of nature has ordained to be little. The bramble may be placed in a hot-bed, but can never become an oak. royalty itself is not able to give that dignity which it happens not to find; but oppreffes little minds, though it may elevate the great. The world has been governed in the name of kings, whose existence has scarcely been perceived by any real effects beyond their own palaces.

When therefore the defire of wealth takes hold of the mind, let us look round, and fee how it operates upon those whose industry or fortune has obtained it. When we find them oppreffed with their own abundance, luxurious without pleasure, idle without eafe, impatient and querulous in themfelves, and defpifed or hated by the reft of mankind, we shall foon be convinced, that, if the real wants of this condition are fatisfied, there remains little to be fought with folicitude, or defired with ardour.