regretted separation from Miss Anne Cracroft, to whom he was ardently attached, and whom he at length married in the year 1767. The connection, which commenced in 1759, and which was broken off on the part of the lady from prudential motives, threw an air of tender melancholy over the doctor's life and early compositions; and there is reason to suppose, from a little poem written in the year 1760, and entitled Theodosius to Constantia, that the probability of an approaching separation had rendered him more than ordinarily alive to the fate of these ill-starred lovers. The following beautiful lines, it is not unlikely paint his own peculiar feelings : Let raptur'd fancy on that moment dwell, and * Mrs. Langhorne died in child-bed in May 1768; an elegy on her death, entitled Constantia, was written by Mr. Edmund Cartwright. The Essays on Cheerfulness * present us with a most pleasing view of the author's habitual temper of mind, and are written with great perspicuity of argument, and in a strain of the most persuasive eloquence. The definitions of mirth and cheerfulness with which the first essay opens are uncommonly just and beautiful. "Mirth," says he, "is short and transient, cheerfulness fixed and permanent.-Mirth is like a flash of lightning, that breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment; cheerfulness keeps up a kind of day-light in the mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity." He considers cheerfulness in three points of view, as it regards ourselves, or those we converse with, or the Author of our being; and affirms that nothing but guilt or infidelity ought reasonably to deprive us of its blessings. He details its salutary effects both upon the health of the body and mind, delivers observations on the goodness of the Deity in rendering creation in all its parts subservient to the promotion of this desirable state, and concludes by recommending a taste for natural history, and by inculcating a religious sense of obligation to the Creator of all that is good and beautiful. "The cheerfulness of heart," he observes, "which springs up in us from the survey of nature's *Spectator, Nos. 381, 387, 393. works, is an admirable preparation for gratitude. The mind has gone a great way towards praise and thanksgiving, that is filled with such secret gladness. A grateful reflection on the Supreme Cause who produces it, sanctifies it in the soul, and gives it its proper value. Such an habitual disposition of mind consecrates every field and wood, turns an ordinary walk into a morning or evening sacrifice, and will improve those transient gleams of joy which naturally brighten up and refresh the soul on such occasions, into an inviolable and perpetual state of bliss and happiness." The influence of hope in supplying the soul with motives to action, and in sweetening the cares and mitigating the evils of life, is the subject of N° 471 of the Spectator; in conducting which Addison has displayed his usual felicity of arrangement and suavity of style, whilst the moral and religious uses of the passion are dwelt upon in a manner alike pleasing and impressive. Hope, without which our existence here would be insupportable, and to whose suggestions we adhere with unabated fondness, he has illustrated by the ancient apologue of Pandora's Casket; upon opening which, though all the calamities incident to human life immediately sprang from its cavity, Hope remained to soothe and heal the wounds that her companions were about to inflict. This very striking mythological fable has been thrown into most exquisite poetry by the genius of Sayers. Pandora is represented on her passage from heaven to earth, and, tempted by curiosity, in the act of opening the casket with which Jupiter had entrusted her-chagrined at discovering it apparently empty, she exclaims: What! empty! empty!-yet methought a wind And mocking point at me-speak, speak, who are ye? [A voice from the air. Thanks to her who gave us birth, Eager sailing to the earth, We haste to act the deeds of woe, And prey on all that breathes below. PANDORA. Ah me! who are ye?-wretched, wretched woman! [The voice continues. Bloody Strife, and gnawing Care, Pride, and Hatred, and Despair Hover o'er thee in the air: We haste to act the deeds of woe, And prey on all that breathes below. PANDORA. What have I done?-hush, hush, a softer sound! [Another voice from the air. Hear thou luckless maiden, hear, The plan which Addison has adopted in this paper has been followed by Mr. Campbell, in his elegant and truly sublime poem on the "Pleasures of Hope." The essayist and the poet alike commence with the moral and physical effects of hope, and alike terminate with its best result, the hope of happiness hereafter. "Religious hope," remarks Addison," has this advantage above any other kind of hope, that it is able to revive the dying man, and to fill his mind not only with secret comfort and refreshment, but sometimes with rapture and transport. He triumphs in his agonies, whilst the soul springs forward with delight to the great object which she has always had in view, and leaves the body with an expectation of being reunited to her in a glorious and joyful resurrec tion." * Sayer's Poems, 2d edition, 8vo. p. 164. |