redwing and the penguin. The former is, for the most part, a tuneless bird; but among the northern forests of maple it sings; and its song is in the highest degree delightful. The wings of the latter are of little use but to serve as paddles; and their legs are of as little use for walking. Where is the use of a talent for song, if we will not sing? Where the use of wings or feet, if we will neither walk nor fly?

It has been often objected to Seneca, that he wrote in praise of philosophy, and spoke of the advantages of poverty and the trials of life, when, at the same time, he was living in a palace, possessed of vast wealth, and knew not the want of a dinner any one day of his life. So far from this being an absurdity and a reproach, as some have interpreted, it is otherwise. It carries with it, indeed, a transcendent moral. For does it not teach us, that, so far from all this wealth contributing to Seneca's happiness, it added so little to it, that his imagination was always painting to his judgment, that a condition, the very reverse of his own, must be the happier of the two?

That Seneca did not give away all that he possessed, and become a poor man, is no more a proof of his not believing what he said, than it is an argument against a lover of fine climates, delicious fruits, and poetical associations, that he does not quit his villa on the banks of the Thames, and betake himself to the feet of the Pyrenees, the shores of Languedoc, the neighbourhood of Naples, or one of the delightful islands of the Grecian Archipelago. There are a thousand reasons why a man, having the power, does not adopt that

mode of life, which, in imagination, is the most agreeable to his wishes.

CLIV.

WHO RESIGN THE WORLD.

Quanto t' invidio, O mio fedele e caro,' &c.

'Mow much, dear friend, I envy thee,
That quiet life, from every turmoil free,

Which my sad fate hath still denied to me.'

Giov. Brevio.; Roscoe.

SOME relinquish all hopes and claims upon the world, on the principle, that it is better to do so than contend for them at the of their repose. expense Some quit the scene because they feel they are not fit for it; most men, however wearied with toil, cannot relinquish it; unconscious that happiness depends on the harmony, which subsists between our dispositions and the circumstances in which we have been placed by fortune; and, therefore, that those are the happiest men, whether savages, peasants, monarchs, or philosophers, whose enjoyments are commensurate with their capacities for enjoyment. For my own part, a small cottage, situated on the sea-shore, covered with vines, with a garden, an orchard, and a few fields, with my books, my family, and my friends, and I should fancy myself, like the Italian poet, enjoying the happiness of a superior sphere :

‹ Pace tranquilla, senza alcuno affanno,
Simile a quella ch' è nel cielo eterna,
Move dal loro innamorato riso.'

Whether an active life, or a contemplative one, is the more excellent was an almost perpetual subject for ancient reasoners. Surely, it depends on the man; and not only on the man, but on the situation and condition to which it may be likely for him to be called.

CLV.

WHO GIVE IMPULSES.

SOME persons, as Duclos and Scheffer said of Mons. de Cereste, have all the requisite qualifications to render them superior persons, without possessing one of them in a superior degree; the quantity of the whole making up the deficiency in the separate weights.

Some appear born to remove anomalies, to supply deficiencies, to adapt parts to the whole, and the whole to the parts. Confident of results, they await issues in repose; even though difficulties should start up like mountains under their feet.

- Crescit labor; ardua supra

Sese aperit fessis, at nascitur altera moles.'

Silius Italicus, iii., 529.

There have lived some few illustrious men, whose eminence has contributed to retard,-and very materially so, the progress of science. We may instance Aristotle.

What Aristotle advanced, no one, for many centuries, presumed to doubt; and few have, even now, the courage to argue against anything, even the assured errors, of the illustrious Newton. Few observers, therefore, dare to argue against his theory of the tides.

Warton makes a sensible remark* :

Interruptions

in the periods of learning may be sometimes favourable to the arts and sciences, by breaking the progress ' of authority, and dethroning the usurpers over human ' reason.'

Few eminent men in England have been able to give impulses to the age, in which they have respectively lived. Their influence,-unless they have coincided with an impulse already given,-has been reserved to a succeeding time. To succeed in our day, indeed, we must be content to float on the swell of the tide.

To have a knowledge of the real value of things, and of the genius of the age we live in, is, according to Rochefoucault, the height of ability; but who can be ignorant, that the most exalted of intellectual natures are seldom dominant in their own time? and who, also, knows not that, in national casualties, a circumstance, so small as scarcely to be noticed, sometimes gives an impulse and a direction to the whole course of human affairs?

CLVI.

WHERE DELUSIONS ARE USEFUL.

It cannot be denied that delusions are, sometimes, of great use for temporary purposes; and a remarkable instance has occurred, of late years, to confirm the truth of this assertion; viz., the establishment of the sinking fund. Thousands were deluded by this cheat, both at

*Notes to the Dunciad, b. iii., 108.

home and abroad; but no persons of enlarged political experience gave into it, even for a moment, except out of respect to the consequences it was sure to produce: -the preservation, and even the elevation, of the public credit.

CLVII.

ON THE EQUALITY OF EVENT TO THE WISE AND THE

FOOLISH.

THAT storm is more fatal, which prevents a ship from getting into port, than that which prevents it from sailing.

"Whate'er of virtue, or of power,

Or good or great, we vainly call,
Each moment eager to devour,

One vast Charybdis swallows all.'

Thus sings Simonides; and Solomon asserts, that wisdom is better than folly, yet that a 'like event happeneth to both.' Again' God maketh his sun to 'shine on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on 'the just and the unjust.', Milton, too, in Samson Agonistes:

'Just and unjust alike seem miserable;

For oft alike both come to evil end.'

In Hungary they have a precept,- Whether a man C moves fast or slow, no one is master of his own des

tiny. Some from high stations sink into obscurity; and others rise from the ashes, as it were, like a rocket, burst into splendour, and then drop into darkness. Livia lived all her life honoured by the affection of one of the