felf, I fhall not determine; but I think it is very wonderful to fee Perfons of the beft Senfe paffing away a dozen Hours together in fhuffling and dividing a Pack of Cards, with no other Conversation but what is made up of a few Game Phrases, and no other Ideas but thofe of black or red Spots ranged together in different Figures. Would not a Man laugh to hear any one of this Species complaining that Life is fhort?

THE Stage might be made a perpetual Source of the moft noble and useful Entertainments, were it under proper Regulations,

BUT the Mind never unbends it felf fo agreeably as in the Converfation of a well-chofen Friend. There is indeed no Bleffing of Life that is any way comparable to the Enjoyment of a difcreet and virtuous Friend. It eases and unloads the Mind, clears and improves the Underftanding, engenders Thoughts and Knowledge, animates Virtue and good Refolutions, fooths and allays the Passions, and finds Employment for most of the vacant Hours of Life.

NEXT to fuch an Intimacy with a particular Perfon, one would endeavour after a more general Converfation with fuch as are able to entertain and improve those with whom they converfe, which are Qualifications that feldom go afunder

THERE are many other useful Amufements of Life, which one would endeavour to multiply, that one might on all Occafions have Recourfe to fomething, rather than fuffer the Mind to lie idle, or run adrift with any Paffion that chances to rife in it.

A Man that has a Tafte of Mufick, Painting, or Architecture, is like one that has another Senfe, when compared with fuch as have no Relish of thofe Arts. The Florist, the Planter, the Gardiner, the Husbandman, when they are only as Accomplishments to the Man of Fortune, are great Reliefs to a Country Life, and many ways useful to thofe who are poffeffed of them.

BUT of all the Diverfions of Life, there is none fo proper to fill up its empty Spaces as the reading of useful and entertaining Authors. But this I fhall only touch upon, because it in fome measure interferes with the third .Method, which I fhall propofe in another Paper, for the

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Employment of our dead unactive Hours, and which I fhall only mention in general to be the Pursuit of Knowledge.

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N° 94.

Monday, June 18.

Hoc eft

Vivere bis, vita posse priore frui.

Mart.

HE laft Method which I propofed in my Saturday's Paper, for filling up thofe empty Spaces of Life which are fo tedious and burthenfome to idle People, is the employing our felves in the Purfuit of Knowledge. I remember Mr. Boyle, fpeaking of a certain Mineral, tells us That a Man may confume his whole Life in the Study of it, without arriving at the Knowledge of all its Qualities. The Truth of it is, there is not a fingle Science, or any Branch of it, that might not furnisha Man with Bufinefs for Life, though it were much longer than it is.

Ifhall not here engage on thofe beaten Subjects of the Ufefulness of Knowledge, nor of the Pleasure and Perfection it gives the Mind, nor on the Methods of attaining it, nor recommend any particular Branch of it, all which have been the Topicks of many other Writers; but shall indulge my felf in a Speculation that is more uncommon, and may therefore perhaps be more entertaining.

I have before fhewn how the unemployed Parts of Life appear long and tedious, and fhall here endeavour to fhew how thofe Parts of Life which are exercised in Study, Reading, and the Purfuits of Knowledge, are long but not tedious, and by that Means difcover a Method of lengthening our Lives, and at the fame time of turning all the Parts of them to our Advantage.

Mr. Lock obferves "That we get the Idea of Time, or Duration, by reflecting on that Train of Ideas which fucceed one another in our Minds: That for this Rea"fon, when we deep foundly without dreaming, we

"have no Perception of Time, or the Length of it, "whilft we fleep; and that the Moment wherein we leave "off to think, till the Moment we begin to think again, "feem to have no Diftance. To which the Author adds, "And fo I doubt not but it would be to a waking Man, "if it were poffible for him to keep only one Idea in his "Mind, without Variation, and the Succeffion of others : " and we fee, that one who fixes his Thoughts very intently on one thing, fo as to take but little Notice of the "Succeffion of Ideas that pafs in his Mind whilft he is "taken up with that earnest Contemplation, lets flip out of his Account a good Part of that Duration, and "thinks that Time fhorter than it is.

WE might carry this Thought further, and confider a Man as, on one Side, fhortening his Time by thinking on nothing, or but a few things; fo, on the other, as lengthening it, by employing his Thoughts on many Subjects, or by entertaining a quick and conftant Succeffion of Ideas. Accordingly Monfieur Mallebranche, in his Enquiry after Truth, (which was published feveral Years before Mr. Lock's Effay on Human Understanding) tells us, That it is poffible fome Creatures may think Half an Hour as long as we do a thousand Years; or look upon that Space of Duration which we call a Minute, as an Hour, a Week, a Month, or an whole Age.

THIS Notion of Monfieur Mallebranche is capable of fome little Explanation from what I have quoted out of Mr. Lock; for if our Notion of Time is produced by our reflecting on the Succeffion of Ideas in our Mind, and this Succeffion may be infinitely accelerated or retarded, it will follow, that different Beings may have different Notions of the fame Parts of Duration, according as their Ideas, which we fuppofe are equally diftinct in each of them, follow one another in a greater or lefs Degree of Rapidity.

THERE is a famous Paffage in the Alcoran, which looks as if Mahomet had been poffeffed of the Notion we are now fpeaking of. It is there faid, That the Angel Gabriel took Mahomet out of his Bed one Morning to give him a Sight of all Things in the Seven Heavens, in Paradife, and in Hell, which the Prophet took a distinct View of; and after having held Ninety thoufand Conferences with God, was brought back again to

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his Bed. All this, fays the Alcoran, was tranfa&ted in fo fmall a fpace of Time, that Mahomet at his Return found his Bed ftill warm, and took up an Earthen Pitcher, (which was thrown down at the very Inftant that the Angel Gabriel carried him away) before the Water was all fpilt.

THERE is a very pretty Story in the Turkish Tales which relates to this Paffage of that famous Impoftor, and bears fome Affinity to the Subject we are now upon. A Sultan of Egypt, who was an Infidel, used to laugh at this Circumftance in Mahomet's Life, as what was altogether impoffible and abfurd: But converfing one Day with a great Doctor in the Law, who had the Gift of working Miracles, the Doctor told him he would quickly convince him of the Truth of this Paffage in the Hiftory of Mahomet, if he would confent to do what he fhould defire of him. Upon this the Sultan was directed to place himself by an huge Tub of Water, which he did accordingly; and as he ftood by the Tub amidst a Circle of his great Men, the Holy Man bid him plunge his Head into the Water, and draw it up again: The King accordingly thruft his Head into the Water, and at the fame time found himself at the Foot of a Mountain on a Sea-Shore. The King immediately began to rage against his Doctor for this Piece of Treachery and Witchcraft; but at length, knowing it was in vain to be angry, he fet himself to think on proper Methods for getting a Livelihood in this ftrange Country: Accordingly he applied himself to fome People whom he faw at Work in a neighbouring Wood; thefe People conducted him to a Town that stood at a little Distance from the Wood, where, after fome Adventures, he married a Woman of great Beauty and Fortune. He lived with this Woman fo long till he had by her feven Sons and feven Daughters: He was afterwards reduced to great Want, and forced to think of plying in the Streets as a Porter for his Livelihood. One Day as he was walking alone by the Sea-Side, being feized with many melancholy Reflections upon his former and his prefent State of Life, which had raised a Fit of Devotion in him, he threw off his Cloaths with a Design to wash himfelf, according to the Custom of the Mahometans, before he faid his Prayers.

AFTER

AFTER his first Plunge into the Sea, he no fooner raifed his Head above the Water but he found himfelf standing by the Side of the Tub, with the great Men of his Court about him, and the holy Man at his Side. He immediately upbraided his Teacher for having fent him on fuch a Courfe of Adventures, and betrayed him into fo long a State of Mifery and Servitude; but was wonderfully furprized when he heard that the State he talked of was only a Dream and Delusion; that he had not stirred from the Place where he then stood; and that he had only dipped his Head into the Water, and immediately taken it out again.

THE Mahometan Doctor took this Occafion of inftructing the Sultan, that nothing was impoffible with God; and that He, with whom a Thousand Years are but as one Day, can, if he pleases, make a single Day, nay a fingle Moment, appear to any of his Creatures as a Thousand Years.

I fhall leave my Reader to compare thefe Eastern Fables with the Notions of thofe two great Philofophers whom I have quoted in this Paper; and fhall only, by way of Application, defire him to confider how we may extend Life beyond its natural Dimenfions, by applying our felves diligently to the Purfuits of Knowledge.

THE Hours of a wife Man are lengthened by his Ideas, as thofe of a Fool are by his Paffions: The Time of the one is long, because he does not know what to do with it; fo is that of the other, because he diftinguishes every Moment of it with ufeful or amufing Thoughts, or in other Words, because the one is always wifhing it away, and the other always enjoying it.

HOW different is the View of paft Life, in the Man who is grown old in Knowledge and Wifdom, from that of him who is grown old in Ignorance and Folly? The latter is like the Owner of a barren Country that fills his Eye with the Profpect of naked Hills and Plains, which produce nothing either profitable or ornamental; the other beholds a beautiful and fpacious Landskip, divided into delightful Gardens, green Meadows, fruitful Fields, and can fearce caft his Eye on a fingle Spot of his Poffeffions, that is not covered with fome beautiful Plant or Flower.

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Tuesday,