can be unhappy; that a great nobleman, who keeps a plentiful house, who has mistreffes, domeftics, equipages, palaces, and manors, can be tormented with a thousand uneafineffes: but wife men know that this fovereign, who does not govern by the rules of juftice, finds that he is hated by his people, defpifed by foreign nations, and doomed to be tranfmitted to pofterity as a wicked prince. There is no man, be he ever fo bad, but is forry to be hated and despised. The wicked have a love for themfelves as well as the good; and, while they have so, hatred and contempt wound them. If we read the hiftory of the moft cruel and favage tyrants, we shall find them more than once lamenting that they were the abhorrence of mankind; and their vexation at the thoughts of it made them ftill more fierce and barbarous; whereas they had not been fo bloody and inflexible, if they knew they had not been fo much detefted. They committed the more crimes, to be revenged for the abhorrence formed of them; and fuch their vengeance added to the measure of their own uneafinefs and of their public hatred.

Therefore no man can be truly happy, let his condition be what it will, if he be not virtuous. The prince and the peafant are on the fame footing in this refpect; and the one is as much punished by remorfe on his throne, as the other at his plough.

Whoever

Whoever feeks to live a happy life, ought to be more afraid of guilt than of death; for the latter only puts an end to our days, whereas the former only renders them unhappy. The virtuous man, when he dies, goes to the enjoyment of much greater happiness than what he lofes; whereas the criminal, while he lives, is overwhelmed with misfortunes here, and tormented with the fear of thofe that threaten him in the life to come; and, though he fhould not believe the immortality of the foul, yet he would not be the less unhappy, becaufe he would have no hopes of finding a change in his misfortunes into happiness after his death.

The second thing which is abfolutely neceffary towards leading a happy life is, to know how to make ourselves eafy in the ftation wherein Heaven has placed us. If a man has a competency, if he has every thing that is needful to keep him from want, why fhould he envy others the poffeffion of great riches, which perhaps would only conduce to make him unhappy? It is not wealth,' as Horace wifely fays, that makes a man happy. None can be 'esteemed happy, but they who are fo wife as to "be fatisfied with whatever the Gods fend them.' When men give themfelves up to their ambition, and do not put a check to their defires, they become flaves to their paffions; and whenever those bear arbi

trary

trary fway over a man, he is fure to be always unhappy. The wifest and most important thing in life is, to be able to know how to be content with the portion allotted us by Heaven. He who is for increasing his revenue by illegal methods, is tormented by remorfe; and he who ftrives to increase them by honest methods, but such as are painful, is oppreffed with care and anxiety; two faults, which muft equally be avoided, if we would live happy. Why should we be perpetually thinking of what we may want fome years hence? We should leave every thing to contingencies, and make the best of it that we can. Befides, do we know certainly that it would be for our advantage, if Heaven were to gratify our wishes? Perhaps, from the very moment that we saw them fulfilled, we should date the beginning of misfortunes which would fink us, and never leave us till death; at least certain it is, that they would increase the thirst after riches in us, and would only render our avarice the stronger. When once the heart is fet upon the amaffing of wealth, the treasures of all the princes upon earth cannot fatisfy it: the more a man has, the more he covets. Avarice is a paffion which never can be fatisfied: the more we feek to gratify it, the ftronger it grows, and the more it manifefts its power. A man needs not to be a philofopher, to be fenfible that an honest

mediocrity

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mediocrity is infinitely more defirable than immense riches; it is fufficient if we hearken to plain reason, and if we will but make use of it.

Great honours and dignities are altogether as unlikely as riches to procure a happy life. A peafant may be happy, though he is not a judge, or justice of the peace, in his village; a citizen ought not to envy the office of the fheriff, nor a member of parliament that of the chancellor. In all states we may be eafy, if we acquit ourselves in all relations to them with honour and prudence. Employments are fo far from rendering a man the more happy, that commonly they do but diminifh his felicity, by subjecting him to a greater number of duties, that are indifpenfable, and which he cannot neglect without failing in his obligations to himself and the public, and confequently without forfeiting his happiness; because, by the principle we have established, it is proved, that whoever is dishonest cannot be happy.

It may be faid of offices, birth, kindred, and riches, that all these things are according as they are confidered by those who enjoy them. reckoned as bleffings to thofe that

They may be

know how to

make use of them; but they become great misfortunes to those who do not make the use of them which they ought to do: and, as it requires great

wisdom

wifdom for a man to know how to conduct himself in profperity, the wealth and grandeur which raise us above other men are commonly more prejudicial than useful: from being real advantages they become misfortunes, and are obstructions to the happiness of life.

Perhaps it will be afked, that, if it be easier for mere private men to be happy than great ones, why the latter, who defire to be happy and tranquil, do not defcend to be private men? The reafon is very plain; it is because they are fo attached to their office or ftation, by what they owe to their family, their country, their prince, and themselves, that they cannot quit it without a breach of their duty. Should they take a ftep which they knew was not fitting for them, they would not be happy in fuch new state, because the thing which is moft effential to the happiness of life is, to have nothing wherewith a man can reproach himfelf. It is natural, therefore, for men of wisdom and penetration to continue in the pofts wherein Heaven has placed them, and to which it is allotted them; and that they fhould endeavour therein to make themselves happy, without having recourse to an alteration, which, instead of being for the better, would be to their prejudice, and . diftance them for ever from the mark which they would fain arrive at.

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