the greater and the present swallow up the lesser and the past. Our terrors are real evils; our expectations look forward into improbabilities. Fools, to dread as mortals, and to desire as if immortal! What part of life is it that we would wish to remain with us? Is it youth? can we be in love with outrage, licentiousness, and temerity? Is it age? then we are fond of infirmities. It is said, grey hairs are revered, and in length of days is honour. Virtue can add reverence to the bloom of youth: and without it age plants more wrinkles in the soul than on the forehead. Is age respected because it hateth riot? What justice is in this, when it is not age that despiseth pleasure, but pleasure that despiseth age. Be virtuous while thou art young, so shall thine age be honoured. Man considered in regard to his Infirmities, and their Effects. $272. VANITY. Inconstancy is powerful in the heart of man; intemperance swayeth it whither it will; despair engrosseth much of it; and fear proclaimeth, Behold, I sit unrivalled therein! but vanity is beyond them all. Weep not therefore at the calamities of the human state; rather laugh at its follies. In the hands of the man addicted to vanity, life is but the shadow of a dream. The hero, the most renowned of human characters, what is he but the bubble of this weakness! the public is unstable and ungrateful; why should the man of wisdom endanger himself for fools? His solicitude cannot rest with his bones; the grave is not deep enough to hide it; he extendeth his thoughts beyond his being; he bespeaketh praise to be paid when he is gone but whoso promiseth it, deceiveth him. The man who negleeteth his present concerns, to revolve how he will behave when greater, feedeth himself with wind, while his bread is eaten by another. Act as becometh thee in thy present station; and in more exalted ones thy face shall not be ashamed. As the man that engageth his wife to remain in widowhood, that she disturb not his soul; so is he who expecteth that praise shall reach his ears beneath the earth, or cherish his heart in its shroud. What blindeth the eye, or what hideth the heart of a man from himself like vanity? Lo! when thou seest not thyself, then others discover thee most plainly. Do well while thou livest; but regard not what is said of it. Content thyself with deserving praise, and thy posterity shall rejoice in hearing it. As the tulip that is gaudy without smell, conspicuous without use; so is the man who setteth himself up on high, and hath not merit. The heart of the vain is troubled while it seemeth content tais cares are greater than his pleasures. As the butterfly, who seeth not her own colours; as the Jessamine, which feeleth tot the scent it casteth around; so is the man who appeareth gay, and biddeth others to take notice of it. To what purpose, saith he, is my vesture of gold? to what end are my tables filled with dainties, if no eye gaze upon them? if the world know it not? Give thy raiment to the naked, and thy food unto the hungry; so shalt thou be praised, and feel that thou deservest it. Why bestowest thou on every man the flattery of unmeaning words! Thou knowest when returned thee, thou regardest it not. He knoweth he lieth unto thee; yet he knoweth thou wilt thank him for it. Speak in sincerity, and thou shalt hear with instruction. The vain delighteth to speak of hiniself; but he seeth not that others like not to hear him. If he have done any thing worth praise, if he possess that which is worthy admiration, his joy is to proclaim it, his pride is to hear it reported. The desire of such a man defeateth itself. Men say not, Behold, he hath done it: or, See, he possesseth it: but, mark, how proud he is of it! The heart of man cannot attend at once to many things. He who fixeth his sout on shew, loseth reality. He pursueth bubbles which break in their flight, while he treads to earth what would do him ho Those who gave thee a body, furnished it with weakness; but he who gave thee a soul, armed thee with resolution. Em-、 ploy it, and thou art wise; be wise, and thou art happy. Let him who doeth well, beware how he boasteth of it; for rarely it is of his own will. Is it not the event of an impulse from without, born of uncertainty, enforced by accident, dependent on somewhat else? To these men, and to accident, is due the praise. Beware of irresolution in the intent of thy actions, beware of instability in the execution; so shalt thou triumph over two great failings of thy nature. What reproacheth reason more than to act contrarieties? What can suppress the tendencies to these, but firmness of mind? The inconstant feeleth that he changeth, but he knoweth not why; he seeth that he escapeth from himself, but he perceiveth not how. Be thou incapable of change in that which is right, and men will rely upon thee. Establish unto thyself principles of action, and see that thou ever act according to them. First know that thy principles are just, and then be thou inflexible in the path of them. So shall thy passions have no rule over thee; so shall thy constancy ensure thee the good thou possessest, and drive from thy door misfortune. Anxiety and disappoint ment shall be strangers to thy gates. Suspect not evil in any one, until thou seest it: when thou seest it, forget it not. Whoso hath been an enemy, cannot be a friend; for man mendeth not of his faults. How should his actions be right who hath no re of life? Nothing can be just which proceedeth not from reason. The inconstant hath no peace in his soul; neither can any be at ease whom he concerneth himself with. His life is unequal; his motions are irregalar; his soul changeth with the weather. To-day he loveth thee, to morrow thou art detested by him: and why? himself knoweth not wherefore he loved, or wherefore he now hateth. Today he is the tyrant; to-morrow thy servant is less humble; and why? he who is arrogant without power, will be servile where there is no subjection. To-day he is profuse, to-morrow he grudgeth unto his mouth that which it should cat. Thus it is with him who knoweth not moderation. Who shall say of the camelion, he is black, when the moment after the verdure of the grass overspreadeth him! Who shall say of the inconstant, he is joyful, when his next breath shall be spent in sighing. What is the life of such a man but the phantom of a dream? In the morning he riseth happy, at noon he is on the rack: this hour he is a god, the next below a worm; one moment he laugheth, the next he weepeth; he now willeth, in an instant he willeth not, and in another he knoweth not whether he willeth or no. Yet neither ease or pain have fixed themselves on him; neither is he waxed greater, or become less; neither hath he had cause for laughter, nor reason for his sorrow: therefore shall none of them abide with him. The happiness of the inconstant is as a palace built on the surface of the sand: the blowing of the wind carrieth away its foundation: what wonder then that it falleth? But what exalted form is this, that hitherwards directs its even, its uninterrupted course? whose foot is on the earth, whose head is above the clouds ? On his brow sitteth majesty; steadiness is in his port; and in his heart reigneth tranquillity. Though obstacles appear in the way, he deigneth not to look down upon them; though heaven and earth oppose his passage, he proceedeth. The mountains sink beneath his tread; the waters of the ocean are dried up under the sole of his foot. The tyger throweth herself across his way in vain; the spots of the leopard glow against him unregarded. He marcheth through the embattled legions; with his hand he putteth aside the terrors of death. Storms roar against his shoulders, but are not able to shake them; the thunder bursteth over his head in vain; the lightning serveth but to shew the glories of his countenance. His name is RESOLUTION! He cometh from the utmost parts of the earth; he seeth happiness afar off before him; his eye discovereth her temple beyond the limits of the pole. He walketh up to it, he entereth boldly, and he remaineth there for ever. Establish Establish thy heart, O man in that which is right; and then know the greatest of human praise is to be immutable. $274. WEAKNESS., Vain and inconstant as thou art, O child of imperfection! how canst thou but be weak? Is not inconstancy connected with frailty? Can there be vanity without infirmity? avoid the danger of the one, and thou shalt escape the mischiefs of the other. Wherein art thou most weak? in that wherein thou seemest most strong: in that wherein thou most gloriest; even in possessing the things which thou hast in using the good that is about thee. Are not thy desires also frail? or knowest thou even what it is thou wouldest wish? When thou hast obtained what most thou soughtest after, behold it contenteth thee not. Wherefore loseth the pleasure that is before thee its relish? and why appeareth that which is yet to come the sweeter? Because thou art wearied with the good of this, because thou knowest not the evil of that which is not with thee, Know that to be content is to be happy. Couldest thou chuse for thyself, would thy Creator lay before thee all that thine heart could ask for? would happiness then remain with thee? or would joy dwell always in thy gates? Alas! thy weakness forbiddeth it; thy infirmity declareth against it. Variety is to thee in the place of pleasure; but that which permanently delighteth must be permanent. When it is gone, thou repentest the loss of it, though, while it was with thee, thou despisest it. That which succeedeth it, hath no more pleasure for thee: and thou afterwards quarrellest with thyself for preferring it; behold the only circumstance in which thou errest not! Is there any thing in which thy weakness appeareth more than in desiring things? It is in the possessing and in the using them. Good things cease to be good in our enjoyment of them. What nature meant pure sweets, are sources of bitterness to us; from our delights arise pain; from our joys, sorrow. Be moderate in the enjoyment, and it shall remain in thy possession; let thy joy be founded on reason; and to its end shall sorrow be a stranger. The delights of love are ushered in by sighs, and they terminate in languishment and dejection. The object thou burnest for, nauseates with satiety and no sooner hast thou possessed it, but thou art weary of its presence. Join esteem to thy admiration, unite friendship with thy love; so shalt thou find in the end, content so absolute, that it surpasseth raptures, tranquillity more worth than ecstasy. God hath given thee no good without its admixture of evil; but he hath given thee also the means of throwing off the evil from it. As joy is not without the alloy of pain, so neither is sorrow without its portion of pleasure. Joy and grief, though unlike, are united. Our own choice only can give them us entire. Melancholy itself often giveth delight, and the extremity of joy is mingled with tears. The best things in the hands of a fool may be turned to his destruction; and out of the worst the wise will find the means of good. So blended is weakness in thy nature, man! that thou hast not strength either to be good, or to be evil entirely. Rejoice that thou canst not excel in evil, and let the good that is within thy reach content thee. The virtues are allotted to various stations. Seek not after impossibilities, nor grieve, that thou canst not possess them at all. Wouldst thou at once have the liberality of the rich, and the contentment of the poor? or shall the wife of thy bosom be despised, because she sheweth not the virtaes of the widow? If thy father sink before thee in the divisions of thy country, can at once thy justice destroy him, and thy duty save his life! If thou beholdest thy brother in the agonies of a slow death, is it not mercy to put a period to his life, and is it not also death to be his murderer? Truth is but one; thy doubts are of thine own raising, He who made virtues what they are, planted also in thee a knowledge of their pre-eminence. Act as thy soul dictates to thee, and the end shall be always right. 275, of the INSUFFICIENCY of KNOWLEDGE. If there is any thing lovely, if there is any thing desirable, if there is any thing Bb3 within within the reach of man that is worthy of praise, is it not knowledge? and yet who is he that attaineth unto it? The statesman proclaimeth that he hath it; the ruler of the people claimeth the praise of it but findeth the subject that he possesseth it? Evil is not requisite to man; neither can vice be necessary to be tolerated: yet how many evils are permitted by the connivance of the laws? how many crimes committed by the decrees of the council? But be wise, O ruler! and learn, Othou that art to command the nations! One crime authorized by thee, is worse than the escape of ten from punishment. When thy people are numerous, when thy sons increase about thy table; sendest thou them not out to slay the innocent, and to fall before the sword of him whom they have not offended? If the object of thy desires demandeth the lives of a thousand, sayest thou not, I will have it? Surely thou forgettest that he who created thee, created also these; and that their blood is as rich as thine. Sayest thou, that justice cannot be executed without wrong! surely thine own words condemn thee. Thou who flatterest with false hopes the criminal, that he may confess his guilt; art thou not unto him a criminal? or is thy guilt the less, because he cannot punish it? When thou commandest to the torture him who is but suspected of ill, darest thou to remember, that thou mayest rack the innocent? Is thy purpose answered by the event? is thy soul satisfied with his confession? Pain will enforce him to say what is not, as easy as what is; and anguish hath caused innocence to accuse herself. That thou mayest not kill him without cause, thou dost worse than kill him: that thou mayest prove if he be guilty, thou destroyest him innocent. O blindness to all truth! O insuffi ciency of the wisdom of the wi e! know when thy judge shail bid thee account for this, thou shalt wish ten thousand guilty to have gone free, rather than one innocent then to stand forth against thee. Insufficient as thou art to the maintenance of justice, how shalt thou arrive at the knowledge of truth? how shalt thou ascend to the footstep of her throne. As the owl is blinded by the radiance of the sun, so shall the brightness of her countenance dazzle thee in thy approaches, If thou wouldst mount up unto her throne, first bow thyself at her footstool: If thou wouldst arrive at the knowledge of her, first inform thyself of thine own ignorance. More worth is she than pearls, therefore seek her carefully: the emerald, and the sapphire, and the ruby, are as dirt beneath her feet; therefore pursue her manfully. The way to her is labour; attention is the pilot that must conduct thee into her ports. But weary not in the way; for when thou art arrived at her, the toil shall be to thee for pleasure. Say not unto thyself, Behold, truth breedeth hatred, a. I will avoid it; dissimulation raiseth friends, and I will fol low it. Are not the enemies made by truth, better than the friends obtained by flattery? Naturally doth man desire the truth, yet when it is before him, he will not apprehend it; and if it force itself upon him, is he not offended at it? The fault is not in truth, for that is amiable; but the weakness of men beareth not its splendour. Wouldst thou see thine own insufficiency more plainly? view thyself at thy devotions! To what end was religion instituted, but to teach thee thine infirmities, to remind thee of thy weakness, to shew thee that from heaven alone thou art to hope for good? Doth it not remind thee that thou art dust! doth it not tell thee that thou art ashes? And behold repentance is not built on frailty! When thou givest an oath, when thou swearest thou wilt not deceive; behold it spreadeth shame upon thy face, and upon the face of him that receiveth it. Learn to be just, and repentance may be forgotten; learn to be honest, and oaths are un necessary. The shorter follies are, the better: say not therefore to thyself, I will not play the fool by halves. He that heareth his own faults with patience, shall reprove another with bold ness. He that giveth a denial with reason, shall suffer a repulse with moderation. If thou art suspected, answer with freedom: whom should suspicion affright, except the guilty? The tender of heart is turned from his purpose Feeble and insufficient as thou art, O man, in good; frail and inconstant as thou art in pleasure; yet there is a thing in which thou art strong and unshaken. Its name is Misery. It is the character of thy being, the prerogative of thy nature; in thy breast alone it resideth: without thee there is nothing of it. And behold, what is its source, but thine own passions? He who gave thee these, gave thee also reason to subdue them; exert it, and thou shalt trample them under thy feet. Thine entrance into the world, is it not shameful? thy destruction, is it not glorious? Lo! men adorn the instruments of death with gold and gems, and wear them above their garments. He who begetteth a man, hideth his face; but he who killeth a thousand is honoured. Know thou, notwithstanding, that in this is error. Custom cannot alter the nature of truth; neither can the opinion of men destroy justice; the glory and the shame are misplaced. There is but one way for man to be produced: there are a thousand by which he may be destroyed. There is no praise, or honour, to him who giveth being to another; but triumphs and empire are the rewards of murder. Yet he who hath many children, hath as many blessings; and he who hath taken away the life of another, shall not enjoy his own. While the savage curseth the birth of his son, and blesseth the death of his father, doth he not call himself a monster? Enough of evil is allotted unto man; but he maketh it more while he lamenteth it. The greatest of all human ills is sorrow; 100 much of this thou art born unto; add not unto it by thy own perverseness. Grief is natural to thee, and is always about thee; pleasure is a stranger, and visiteth thee but by times; use well thy reason, and sorrow shall be cast behind. thee; be prudent, and the visits of joy shall remain long with thee. Every part of thy frame is capable of sorrow; but few and narrow are the paths that lead to delight. Pleasures can be admitted only simply; but pains rush in a thousand at a time. As the blaze of straw fadeth as soon as it is kindled; so passeth away the brightness of joy, and thou knowest not what is become of it. Sorrow is frequent; pleasure is rare; pain cometh of itself; delight must be purchased: grief is unmixed; but joy wanteth not its alloy of bitterness.. As the souudest health is less perceived than the slightest malady, so the highest joy toucheth us less deep than the smallest sorrow. We are in love with anguish; we often fly from pleasure; when we purchase it, costeth it not more than it is worth? Reflection is the business of man: a sense of his state is his first duty; but who remembereth himself in joy. Is it. not in mercy, then, that sorrow is allotted unto us? Man foreseeth the evil that is to come; he remembereth it when it is past: he considereth not that the thought of affliction woundeth deeper than the affliction itself. Think not of thy pain, but when it is upon thee, and thou shalt avoid what most would hurt thee. He who weepeth before he needeth, weepeth more than he needeth; and why, but that he loveth weeping? The stag weepeth' not till the spear is lifted up against him; nor do the tears of the beaver fall, till the hound is ready to seize him: man anticipateth death, by the apprehensions of it; and the fear is greater misery than the event itself, Be always prepared to give an account of thine actions; and the best death is that which is least premeditated. $277. Of JUDGMENT. The greatest bounties given to man, are judgment and will; happy is he who misapplieth them not. As the torrent that rolleth down the mountains, destroyeth all that is borne away by it; so doth common opinion overwhelm reason in him who submitteth to it, without saying, What is thy foundation? See that what thou receivest as truth be not the shadow of it; what thou acknowledgest as convincing, is often but plausible. Be firm, be constant, determine for thyself; so shalt thou be answerable only for thine own weakness. |