no evidence of his having been, that he has added nothing to the system of life, but has glided from Youth to Age among the crowd, without any effort for distinction.

MAN is feldom willing to let fall the opinion of his own dignity, or to believe that he does little only because every individual is a very little being. He is better content to want Diligence than Power, and fooner confeffes the Depravity of his Will than the Imbecillity of his Nature,

FROM this mistaken notion of human Greatness it proceeds, that many who pretend to have made great Advances in Wifdom fo loudly declare that they despise themfelves. If I had ever found any of the Selfcontemners much irritated or pained by the consciousness of their meannefs, I fhould have given them confolation by observing, that a little more than nothing is as much as can be expected from a being who with respect to the multitudes about him is himself little more than nothing. Every man is obliged by the supreme Master of the Universe

to

to improve all the opportunities of Good which are afforded him, and to keep in continual activity fuch Abilities as are bestowed upon him. But he has no reason to repine, though his Abilities are small and his Opportunities few. He that has improved the Virtue or advanced the Happiness of one Fellow-creature, he that has afcertained a fingle moral Propofition, or added one useful Experiment to natural Knowledge, may be contented with his own Performance, and, with refpect to mortals like himself, may demand, like Auguftus, to be difmiffed at his departure with Applause.

器

No 89. Saturday, December 29.

Ανέχε καὶ ἀπέχε. EPICT.

HOW

OW Evil came into the world; for what reason it is that Life is overspread with fuch boundless varieties of mifery; why the only thinking being of this globe is doomed to think merely to be wretched, and to pass his time from youth to age in fearing or in fuffering calamities, is a queftion which Philofophers have long asked, and which Philofophy could never answer.

RELIGION informs us that Mifery and Sin were produced together. The depravation of human will was followed by a diforder of the harmony of Nature; and by that Providence which often places antidotes in the neighbourhood of poisons, vice was checked by mifery, left it should swell to universal and unlimited dominion,

A STATE

A STATE of Innocence and Happiness is fo remote from all that we have ever seen, that though we can easily conceive it poffible, and may therefore hope to attain it, yet our fpeculations upon it must be general and confufed. We can difcover that where there is univerfal Innocence, there will probably be univerfal Happiness; for why fhould Afflictions be permitted to infeft beings who are not in danger of corruption from Bleffings, and where there is no ufe of Terrour nor caufe of Punishment? But in a world like ours, where our Senfes affault us, and our Hearts betray us, we fhould pafs on from crime to crime, heedlefs and remorfelefs, if Mifery did not stand in our way, and our own Pains admonish us of our folly.

ALMOST all the moral Good which is left among us, is the apparent effect of phyfical Evil.

GOODNESS is divided by Divines into Sobernefs, Righteoufnefs, and Godliness. Let it be examined how each of thefe Duties

would be practifed if there were no phyfical Evil to enforce it.

SOBRIETY,

SOBRIETY, or Temperance, is nothing but the forbearance of Pleasure; and if Pleafure was not followed by Pain, who would forbear it? We see every hour those in whom the defire of present indulgence overpowers all fense of past and all forefight of future misery. In a remiffion of the Gout the Drunkard returns to his Wine, and the Glutton to his Feaft; and if neither Disease nor Poverty were felt or dreaded, every one would fink down in idle fenfuality, without any care of others, or of himself. To eat and drink, and lie down to fleep, would be the whole bufinefs of mankind.

RIGHTEOUSNESS, or the fyftem of social Duty, may be fubdivided into Justice and Charity. Of Juftice one of the heathen Sages. has fhewn, with great acuteness, that it was impreffed upon mankind only by the inconveniencies which Injustice had produced. "In the first ages, fays he, men acted with❝out any rule but the impulse of Desire, "they practised Injustice upon others, and "fuffered it from others in their turn; but

in time it was discovered, that the pain of

"fuffering