ESSAY III.

LONGEVIT Y.

PASSAGE.

AND ALL THE DAYS OF METHUSELAH WERE NINE HUNDRED SIXTY AND NINE YEARS.

To

O what a fpan is existence. reduced in the comparison! Threefcore and ten, with nine hundred and fixty-nine! What a difference! Yet the scheme of ambition is vaft, as ever; and, per

haps,

haps, it is for the best it should be fo. I fear, pofterity is more indebted to our pride than any better principle: we build houses, lay out gardens, and pursue the most coftly and laborious projects very frequently, when we have meafured three fourths of our time, while the foot totters, and the hand fhakes. Yet, let us make an honeft, and candid confeffion. Is all this toil and expence to accommodate the new comers into life! Is it to render the paffage delightful to our heirs; or, is it to gratify a paffion for property; to furnish age with a fresh plaything; or to

fhew the world how unwilling we are to leave it, by making preparations to enjoy it? Whatever be the motive, the end is well anfwered. Whatever the impetus which prompts to magnificence, and convenience; which bids us delight in extensive improvements; whether it springs from our pride, or our pleasure, it is juft the fame; pofterity is ultimately the better for it. Thus, life hath pleafing attentions and amufements to the laft; the old are bufied in de

figns, which the young fhall enjoy the father fows, the fon rcaps; and a general and health

2

ful

ful exercise, both of body and mind, preserves us, equally from gloom, vacuity and stagnation.

ESSAY

ESSAY IV.

ORIGIN of SHIPPING.

PASSAGE.

AND GOD SAID UNTO NOAH, MAKE THEE AN ARK OF GOPHER-WOOD; ROOMS SHALT THOU MAKE IN THE ARK, AND SHALT PITCH IT WITHIN, AND WITHOUT, WITH PITCH.

THE moft ingenious and useful arts are of celeftial origin; and from this chapter, it is evident, that the first ship which ever floated on the world of waters, was built according to the

I

plan,