the caufe of any affliction, or could draw defences from my own judgment, I imbibed commiferation, remorfe, and an unmanly gentleness of mind, which has enfnared me into ten thoufand calamities, and from whence I can reap no advantage, except it be, that in fuch a humour as I am now in, I can the better indulge myself in the foftneffes of humanity, and enjoy that sweet anxiety which arifes from the memory of paft afflictions.

We who are very old, are better able to remember things which befel us in our diftant youth, than the paffages of later days. For this reafon it is that the companions of my strong and vigorous years prefent themselves more immediately to me in this office of forrow. Untimely or unhappy deaths are what we are most apt to lament; fo little are we able to make it indifferent when a thing happens, though we know it must happen. Thus we groan under life, and bewail thofe who are relieved from it. Every object that returns to our imagination raifes different paffions, according to the circumftance of their departure. Who can have lived in an army, and in a ferious hour reflect upon the many gay and agreeable men who might have long flourished in the arts of peace, and not join with the imprecations of the fatherlefs and widow, on the tyrant to whofe ambition they fell facrifices? But gallant men who are cut off by the fword, move rather our veneration than our pity And we gather relief enough from their own. contempt of death, to make it no evil, which was approached with fo much cheerfulnefs, and attended with fo much honour. But when we turn our thoughts from the great parts of life on fuch occasions, and inftead of lamenting those who stood ready to give death to those who had the fortune to receive it; I fay, when we let our thoughts wander from fuch noble objects, and confider the havock which is made among the tender and innocent, pity enters with an unmixed foftnefs, and poffeffes all our fouls at once.

Here (were there words to exprefs fuch fentiments with proper tenderness) I fhould record the beauty,

immocence, and untimely death, of the first object my eyes ever beheld with love. The beauteous virgin! How ignorantly did the charm, how carelessly excel ! O death! Thou haft a right to the bold, to the ambitious, to the high, and to the haughty; but why this cruelty to the humble, to the meek, to the undifcerning, to the thoughtlefs? Nor age, nor bufinefs, nor diftrefs, can erafe the dear image from my imagination. In the fame week, I saw her dreffed for a ball, and in a fhroud! How ill did the habit of death become the pretty trifler! I ftill behold the fmiling earch. TATLER, Vol. III. No. 181.

MY

HAPPINESS.

Y lady Lizard is never better pleafed than when The fees her children about her, engaged in any profitable difcourfe. I found her last night fitting in the midst of her daughters, and forming a beautiful femicircle about the fire. I immediately took my place in an elbow chair, which is always left empty for me in one corner.

Our conversation fell infenfibly upon the fubject of happiness, in which every one of the young ladies gave her opinion, with that freedom and unconcernedness which they always ufe when they are in company only with their mother and myself.

Mrs. Jane declared, that the thought it the greatest happiness to be married to a man of merit, and placed at the head of a well regulated family. I could not but observe, that in her character, of a man of merit, fhe gave us a lively defcription of Tom Worthy, who has long made his addreffes to her. The fifters did not discover this at firft, till fhe began to run down fortune in a lover, and among the accomplishments of a man of merit, the unluckily mentioned white teeth and black eyes.

Mrs. Arabella, after having rallied her fifter upon her man of merit, talked much upon conveniences of life, affluence of fortune, and cafinefs of temper, in

one whom the fhould pitch upon for a hufband. In fhort, though the baggage would not fpeak out, I found the fum of her wifhes was a rich fool, or a man fo turned to her purpofes, that he might enjoy his fortune, and infult his understanding.

The romantic Cornelia was for living in a wood among choirs of birds with zephyrs, echoes, and rivulets to make up the concert; fhe would not feem to include a hufband in her fcheme, but at the fame time talked fo paffionately of cooing turtles, moffy banks, and beds of violets, that one might eafily perceive the was not without thoughts of a companion in her folitudes.

Mifs Betty placed her fummum bonum in equipages, affemblies, balls, and birthnights, talked in raptures of Sir Edward Shallow's gilt coach, and my lady Tattle's room, in which the faw company; nor would the have eafily given over, had the not obferved, that her mother appeared more ferious than ordinary, and by her looks fhewed that fhe did not approve fuch a redundance of vanity and impertinence.

My favourite, the Sparkler, with an air of innocence and modefty, which is peculiar to her, faid that the never expected fuch a thing as Happiness; and that she thought the most any one could do, was to keep themfelves from being uneafy; for, as Mr. Ironfide has often told us, fays fhe, we fhould endeavour to be eafy here, and happy hereafter: At the fame time the begged me to acquaint them by what rules this cafe of mind, or if I would please to call it happiness, is beft attained.

My lady Lizard joined in the fame requeft with her youngest daughter, adding, with a ferious look, the thing feemed to be of fo great confequence, that fhe hoped I would, for once, forget that they were all women,and give my real thoughts of it with the fame juftnefs I would ufe among a company of my own fex. I complied with her defire, and communicated my fentiments to them on this fubject, as near as I can remember, pretty much to the following purpofe :

As nothing is more natural than for every o ne to

defire to be happy, it is not to be wondered at that the: wisest men in all ages have spent fo much time to difcover what happiness is, and wherein it chiefly confifts. An eminent writer, named Varro, reckons up no less than two hundred and eighty eight different opinions upon this fubject; and another called Lucian, after having given us a long catalogue of the notions of feveral philofophers, endeavours to fhew the abfurdity of all of them, without eftablishing any thing of his own.

That which feems to have made fo many err in this cafe, is the refolution they took to fix a man's happiness to one determined point, which I conceive cannot be made up but by the concurrence of several particulars.

I fhall readily allow Virtue the firft place, as fhe is the mother of Content. It is this which calms our thoughts, and makes us furvey ourselves with ease and pleasure. Naked virtue, however, is not alone fufficient to make a man happy. It must be accompanied with at least a moderate provifion of all the neceffaries of life, and not ruffled and difturbed by bodily pains. A fit of the ftone was fharp enough to make a ftoic cry out, that Zena, his master, taught him falfe, when he told him that pain was no evil.

But befides this, virtue is fo far from being alone fufficient to make a man happy, that the excefs of it in fome particulars, joined to a foft and feminine. temper, may often give us the deepeft wounds, and chiefly contribute to render us uneafy. I might intance in pity, love, and friendship. In the two laft paffions it often happens, that we fo entirely give up our hearts, as to make our happinefs wholly depend upon another perfon; a truft for which no human ereature, however excellent, can poffibly give us a fufficient fecurity.

The man therefore who would be truly happy, muft, befides an habitual virtue, attain to fuch a ftrength of mind, as to confine his happinefs within himself, and keep it from being dependent upon othA man of this make will perform all thef

ers.

VOL. II.

M 2

good-natured offices that could have been expected from the moft bleeding pity, without being fo far affected at the common misfortunes of human life, as to disturb his own repofe. His actions of this kind are fo much more meritorious than another's, as they flow purely from a principle of virtue, and a fenfe of his duty; whereas a man of a fofter temper, even while he is affifting another, may in fome measure be faid to be relieving himself.

A man endowed with that ftrength of mind I am here fpeaking of, though he leaves it to his friend or miftrefs to make him fill more happy, does not put it in the power of either to make him miferable.

From what has been already faid, it will alfo appear, that nothing can be more weak than to place our happiness in the applause of others, fince by this means we make it wholly independent of ourfelves. People of this humour, who place their chief felicity in reputation and applaufe,are alfo extremely fubject to Envy, the most painful as well as the most abfurd of all paffions."

The fureft means to attain that ftrength of mind, and independent ftate of happiness I am here recommending, is, a virtuous mind fufficiently furnished with ideas to fupport folitude, and keep up an agreeable converfation with itfelf. Learning is a very great help on this occafion, as it lays up an infinite number of notions in the memory, ready to be drawn out, and fet in order upon any occafion. The mind often takes the fame pleasure in looking over these her treafures, in augmenting and difpofing them into proper forms, as a prince does in a review of his army.

At the fame time I must own, that as a mind thus furnished, feels a fecret pleafure in the confcioufnefs of its own perfection, and is delighted with fuch occafions as call upon it to try its force, a lively imagination fhall produce a pleafure very little inferior to the former in perfons of much weaker heads. As the first therefore may not be improperly called, the heaven of a wife man; the latter is extremely well reprefented hy our vulgar expreffion, which terms it a fool's para