existence ferves no other purpose, than that of enabling us to enjoy the reft.

Of the few moments which are left in our difpofal, it may reasonably be expected, that we should be fo frugal, as to let none of them flip from us without fome equivalent; and perhaps it might be found, that as the earth, however traitened by rock and waters, is capable of producing more than all its inhabitants are able to confume, our lives, tho' much contracted by incidental distraction, would yet afford us a large space vacant to the exercise of reafon and virtue; that we want not time, but diligence, for great performances; and that we fquander much of our allow ance, even while we think it fparing and infufficient.

This natural and neceffary comminution of our lives, perhaps, often makes us infenfible of the negligence with which we fuffer them to flide away. We never confider ourselves as poffefied at once of time fufficient for any great defign, and therefore indulge ourselves in fortuitous amusements. We think it unneceffary to take an account of a few fupernumerary moments, which, however employed, could have produced little advantage, and which were expofed to a thousand chances of difturbance and interruption.

It is obfervable, that, either by nature or by habit, our faculties are fitted to images of a certain extent, to which we adjust great things by divifion, and little things by accumulation. Of extenfive furfaces we can only take a furvey, as the parts fucceed one another; and atoms we cannot perceive, till they are united into maffes. Thus we break the vaft periods of time into centuries and years; and thus, if we would know the amount of moments, we must agglomerate them into days and weeks.

The proverbial oracles of our parfimonious ancestors have informed us, that the fatal waste of fortune is by finall expences, by the profufion of fums too little ingly to alarm our caution, and which we never fuffer ourselves to confider together. Of the fame kind is the prodigality of life; he that hopes to look back hereafter with fatisfaction upon past years, must learn to know the prefent value of fingle minutes, and endeavour to let no particle of time fall ufelefs to the ground.

It is ufual for those who are advised to the attainment of any new qualifications, to

look upon themselves as required to change the general courfe of their conduct, to dismiss their business, and exclude pleasure, and to devote their days or nights to a particular attention. But all common degrees of excellence are attainable at a lower price; he that fhould steadily and refolutely affign to any science or language those interstitial vacancies which intervene in the most crowded variety of diverfion or employment, would find every day new irradiations of knowledge, and difcover how much more is to be hoped from frequency and perfeverance, than from violent efforts and fudden defires efforts which are foon remitted when they encounter difficulty, and defires which, if they are indulged too often, will shake off the authority of reafon, and range capricioufly from one object to another.

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The difpofition to defer every important defign to a time of leifure, and a state of fettled uniformity, proceeds generally from a falfe eftimate of the human powers. If we except thofe gigantic and ftupendous intelligences who are faid to grafp a fyftem by intuition, and bound forward from one series of conclufions to another, without regular steps through intermediate propofitions, the moft fuccessful students make their advances in knowledge by fhort flights, between each of which the mind may lie at reft. For every single act of progreffion a fhort time is fufficient; and it is only neceffary, that whenever that time is afforded, it be well employed.

Few minds will be long confined to fevere and laborious meditation; and when a fuccessful attack on knowledge has been made, the ftudent recreates himself with the contemplation of his conqueft, and forbears another incurfion till the new-acquired truth has become familiar, and his curiofity calls upon him for fresh gratifications. Whether the time of intermiffion is fpent in company, or in folitude, in neceffary bufinefs, or in voluntary levities, the understanding is equally abstracted from the object of enquiry; but, perhaps, if it be detained by occupations lefs pleafing, it returns again to ftudy with greater alacrity than when it is glutted with ideal pleasures, and furfeited with intemperance of application. He that will not fuffer himself to be difcouraged by fancied impoffibilities, may fometimes find his abilities invigorated by the neceflity of exerting them in fhort intervals, as the force of a current is increafed by the contraction of its channel.

From

From fome caufe like this, it has probably proceeded, that among thofe who have contributed to the advancement of learning, many have rifen to eminence, in oppofition to all the obftacles which external circumstances could place in their way, amidst the tumult of bufinefs, the diftreffes of poverty, or the diffipations of a wandering and unfettled ftate. A great part of the life of Erafmus was one continual peregrination: ill fupplied with the gifts of fortune, and led from city to city, and from kingdom to kingdom, by the hopes of patrons and preferment, hopes which always flattered and always deceived him; he yet found means, by unfhaken conftancy, and a vigilant improvement of thofe hours, which, in the midst of the moft reftless activity, will remain unengaged, to write more than another in the fame condition would have hoped to read. Compelled by want to attendance and folicitation, and fo much verfed in common life, that he has tranfmitted to us the most perfect delineation of the manners of his age, he joined to his knowledge of the world fuch application to books, that he will stand for ever in the firft rank of literary heroes. How this proficiency was obtained, he fufficiently difcovers, by informing us, that the Praife of Folly, one of his molt celebrated performances, was compofed by him on the road to Italy; ne totum illud tempus quo equo fuit infidendum, illiteratis fabulis tereretur, left the hours which we was obliged to fpend on horfeback fhould be tattled away without regard to literature.

An Italian philofopher expreffed in his motto, that time was his eftate; an estate indeed, which will produce nothing without cultivation, but will always abundantly repay the labours of industry, and fatisfy the moft extenfive defires, if no part of it be fuffered to lie wafte by negligeuce, to be over-run with noxious plants, or laid out for fhew rather than for ufe. Rambler.

14. The Importance of Time, and the

proper Methods of spending it. We all of us complain of the fhortnefs of time, faith Seneca, and yet have much more than we know what to do with. Our lives, fays he, are spent either in doing nothing at all, or doing nothing to the purpofe, or in doing nothing that we ought to do. We are always complaining our days are few, and acting as though there would be no end of them. That noble philofopher has defcribed our inconfiftency with

ourselves in this particular by all thofe various turns of expreffion and thought which are peculiar in his writings.

I often confider mankind as wholly inconfiftent with itself, in a point that bears fome affinity to the former. Though we feem grieved at the fhortness of life, in genéral, we are wifhing every period of it at an end, The minor longs to be at age, then to be a man of bufinefs, then to make up an eftate, then to arrive at honours, then to retire. Thus, although the whole of life is allowed by every one to be short, the feveral divifions of it appear long and tedious. We are for lengthening our fpan. in general, but would fain contract the parts of which it is compofed. The ufurer would be very well fatisfied to have all the time annihilated that lies between the prefent moment and the next quarter-day. The politician would be contented lofe three years in his life, could he place things in the pofture which he fancies they will ftand in after fuch a revolution of time. The lover would be glad to strike out of his exiftence all the moments that are to pass away before the happy meeting. Thus, as fast as our time runs, we should be very glad, in moft parts of our lives, that it ran much fafter than it does. Several hours of the day hang upon our hands; nay, we wish away whole years, and through time, as through a country filled with many wild and empty waltes which we would fain hurry over, that we may arrive at thofe feveral little fettlements or imaginary points of reft which are difperfed up and down in it.

to

travel

If we divide the life of moft men into twenty parts, we fhall find that at leaft nineteen of them are mere gaps and chafms, which are neither filled with pleafure nor bufinefs. I do not however include in this calculation the life of thofe men who are in a perpetual hurry of affairs, but of those only who are not always engaged in fcenes of action; and I hope I fhall not do an unacceptable piece of fervice to these perfons, if I point out to them certain methods for the filling up their empty spaces of life. The methods I fhall propofe to them are as follow:

The first is the excrcife of virtue, in the moft general acceptation of the word. That particular fcheme which comprehends the focial virtues, may give employment to the most induftrious temper, and find a man bufinefs more than the most active ftation of life. To advise the ignorant,

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relieve the needy, comfort the afflicted, are duties that fall in our way almost every day of our lives A man has frequent opportunities of mitigating the fierceness of a party; of doing juftice to the character of a deferving man; of foftening the envious, quieting the angry, and rectifying the prejudiced; which are all of them employments fuitable to a reasonable nature, and bring great fatisfaction to the perfon who çan bufy himself in them with discretion. There is another kind of virtue that may find employment for those retired hours in which we are altogether left to ourselves, and deftitute of company and conversation; I mean that intercourfe and communication which every reasonable creature ought to maintain with the great Author of his being. The man who lives under an habitual fenfe of the divine prefence, keeps up a perpetual chearfulness of temper, and enjoys every moment the fatisfaction of thinking himfelf in company with his dearest and best of friends. The time never lies heavy upon him: it is impoffible for him to be alone. His thoughts and paffions are the moft bufied at fuch hours when thofe of other men are the most unactive. He no fooner fteps out of the world but his heart burns with devotion, fwells with hope, and triumphs in the consciousness of that prefence which every where furrounds him; or, on the contrary, pours out its fears, its forrows, its appréhenfions, to the great Supporter of its existence.

I have here only confidered the neceffity of a man's being virtuous, that he may have fomething to do; but if we confider further, that the exercise of virtue is not only an amusement for the time it lasts, but that its influence extends to those parts of our existence which lie beyond the grave, and that our whole eternity is to take its colour from those hours which we here employ in virtue or in vice, the argument redoubles upon us, for putting in practice this method of paffing away our time.

When a man has but a little ftock to improve, and has opportunities of turning it all to good account, what fhall we think of him if he fuffers nineteen parts of it to lie dead, and perhaps employs even the twentieth to his ruin or difadvantage? But because the mind cannot be always in its fervours, nor ftrained up to a pitch of virtue, it is neceffary to find out proper employments for it, in its relaxations.

The next method therefore that I would

propose to fill up our time, should be ufeful and innocent diverfions. I muft confefs I think it is below reasonable creatures to be altogether converfant in fuch diverfions as are merely innocent, and have nothing elfe to recommend them, but that there is no hurt in them. Whether any kind of gaming has even thus much to fay for itself, I fhall not determine; but I think it is very wonderful to fee persons of the beft fenfe paffing away a dozen hours together in fhuffling and dividing a pack of cards, with no other conversation but what is made up of a few game phrases, and no other ideas but thofe of black or red spots ranged together in different figures. Would not a man laugh to hear any one of this fpecies complaining that life is short?

The stage might be made a perpetual fource of the most noble and ufeful entertainments, were it under proper regulations.

But the mind never unbends itself fo agreeably as in the converfation of a wellchofen friend. There is indeed no blessing of life that is any way comparable to the enjoyment of a difcreet and virtuous friend. It eafes and unloads the mind, clears and improves the understanding, engenders thought and knowledge, animates virtue and good refolution, foothes and allays the paffions, and finds employment for most of the vacant hours of life.

Next to fuch an intimacy with a particular perfon, one would endeavour after a more general conversation with such as are capable of edifying and entertaining those with whom they converfe, which are qualities that feldom go afunder.

There are many other ufeful amusements of life, which one would endeavour to multiply, that one might, on all occafions, have recourfe to fomething rather than fuffer the mind to lie idle, or run adrift with any passion that chances to rise in it.

A man that has a tafte in mufic, painting, or architecture, is like one that has another fenfe, when compared with fuch as have no relish of those arts, The florift, the planter, the gardener, the husbandman, when they are only as accomplishments to the man of fortune, are great reliefs to a country life, and many ways ufeful to thofe who are poffefed of them.

Spectator.

15. Mif-spent Time, how punished. I was yesterday comparing the industry

of man with that of other creatures; in which I could not but obferve, that notwithstanding we are obliged by duty to keep ourselves in conftant employ, after the fame manner as inferior animals are prompted to it by instinct, we fall very short of them in this particular. We are here the more inexcufable, because there is a greater variety of business to which we may apply ourselves. Reafon opens to us a large field of affairs, which other creatures are not capable of. Beafts of prey, and I believe of all other kinds, in their natural state of being, divide their time between action and reft. They are always at work or asleep. In fhort, their waking hours are wholly taken up in seeking after their food, or in confuming it. The human fpecies only, to the great reproach of our nature, are filled with complaints, that "The day hangs heavy on them," that They do not know what to do with themselves," that "They are at a lofs how to pafs away their time," with many of the like fhameful murmurs, which we often find in the mouths of those who are ftiled reasonable beings. How monstrous are ich expreffions among creatures who have the labours of the mind, as well as thofe of the body, to furnish them with proper employments; who, befides the bufinefs of their proper callings and profeffions, can apply themselves to the duties of religion, to meditation, to the reading of ufeful books, to difcourfe; in a word, who may exercise themselves in the unbounded purfuts of knowledge and virtue, and every hour of their lives make themselves wifer or better than they were before!

Ater having been taken up for fome time in this courfe of thought, I diverted myfef with a book, according to my ufual cufton, in order to unbend my mind before I went to fleep, The book I made ufe of on this occafion was Lucian, where I amufed ny thoughts for about an hour among the dalogues of the dead, which in all probabiliy produced the following dream.

I vas conveyed, methought, into the entrance of the infernal regions, where I faw Rhadmanthus, one of the judges of the dead,feated on his tribunal. On his left, handftood the keeper of Erebus, on his right the keeper of Elyfium. I was told he fa upon women that day, there being fevera of the fex lately arrived, who had not yet heir manfions affigned them. I was furpifed to hear him ask every one of them the fame queftion, namely, "What they

had been doing?" Upon this queftion being propofed to the whole affembly, they ftared one upon another, as not knowing what to answer. He then interrogated each of them separately. Madam, fays he to the first of them, you have been upon the earth about fifty years; what have you been doing there all this while? Doing! fays fhe, really I do not know what I have been doing: I defire I may have time given me to recollect. After about half an hour's paufe, fhe told him that she had been playing at crimp; upon which Rhadamanthus beckoned to the keeper on his left hand, to take her into custody. And you, madam, fays the judge, that look with fuch a foft and languishing air; I think you set out for this place in your nine-and-twentieth year, what have you been doing all this while? I had a great deal of business on my hands, fays fhe, being taken up the firft twelve years of my life in dreffing a jointed baby, and all the remaining part of it in reading plays and romances. Very well, fays he, you have employed your time to good purpose. Away with her. The next was a plain country-woman: Well, mistress, fays Rhadamanthus, and what have you been doing? An't please your worship, fays the, I did not live quite forty years; and in that time brought my husband seven daughters, made him nine thoufand cheeses, and left my eldest girl with him, to look after his houfe in my abfence, and who, I may venture to fay, is as pretty a housewife as any in the country. Rhadamanthus fmiled at the fimplicity of the good woman, and ordered the keeper of Elyfium to take her into his care. And you, fair lady, fays he, what have you been doing these five-and-thirty years? I have been doing no hurt, I affure you, fir, faid the. That is well, faid he, but what good have you been doing? The lady was in great confufion at this question, and not knowing what to answer, the two keepers leaped out to feize her at the fame time; the one took her by the hand to convey her to Elyfium, the other caught hold of her to carry her away to Erebus. But Rhadamanthus obferving an ingenuous modefty in her countenance and behaviour, bid them both let her loose, and set her aside for a reexamination when he was more at leifure. An old woman, of a proud and four look, prefented herself next at the bar, and being asked what she had been doing? Truly, faid fhe, I lived threefcore-and-ten years in a very wicked world, and was fo angry at the behaviour of a parcel of young flirts,

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that I paffed most of my last years in condemning the follies of the times; I was every day blaming the filly conduct of people about me, in order to deter thofe I converfed with from falling into the like errors and mifcarriages. Very well, fays Rhadamanthus ; but did you keep the fame watchful eye over your own actions? Why truly, fays fhe, I was fo taken up with publishing the faults of others, that I had no time to confider my own. Madam, fays Rhadamanthus, be pleased to file off to the left, and make room for the venerable matron that ftands behind you. Old gentlewoman, fays he, I think you are fourfcore: you have heard the question, what have you been doing fo long in the world? Ah, Sir! fays fhe, I have been doing what I should not have done, but I had made a firm refolution to have changed my life, if I had not been fnatched off by an untimely end. Madam, fays he, you will please to follow your leader: and spying another of the fame age, interrogated her in the fame form. To which the matron replied, I have been the wife of a hufband who was as dear to me in his old age as in his youth. I have been a mother, and very happy in my children, whom I endeavoured to bring up in every thing that is good. My eldest fon is bleft by the poor, and beloved by every one that knows him. I lived within my own family, and left it much more wealthy than I found it. Rhadamanthus, who knew the value of the old lady, fmiled upon her in fuch a manner, that the keeper of Elyfium, who knew his office, reached out his hand to her. He no fooner touched her, but her wrinkles vanished, her eyes fparkled, her cheeks glowed with blushes, and the appeared in full bloom and beauty. A young woman obferving that this officer, who conducted the happy to Elyfium, was fo great a beautifier, longed to be in his hands; fo that preffing through the crowd, she was the next that appeared at the bar. And being asked what she had been doing the five-and-twenty years that he had paffed in the world? I have endeavoured, fays fhe, ever fince I came to years of difcretion, to make myself lovely, and gain admirers. In order to it, I paffed my time in bottling up May-dew, inventing white washes, mixing colours, cutting out patches, confulting my glafs, fuiting my complexion, tearing off my tucker, finking my ftays.Rhadamanthus, without hearing her out, gave the fign to take her

off.

Upon the approach of the keeper of Erebus, her colour faded, her face was puckered up with wrinkles, and her whole perfon loft in deformity.

I was then furprised with a diftant found of a whole troop of females, that came forward laughing, finging, and dancing. I was very defirous to know the reception they would meet with, and withal was very apprehenfive, that Rhadamanthus would fpoil their mirth: But at their nearer approach the noise grew so very great that it awakened me.

I lay fome time, reflecting in myself on the oddness of this dream, and could not forbear afking my own heart, what I was doing? I anfwered myself that I was writing Guardians. If my readers make as、 good a use of this work as I defign they fhould, I hope it will never be imputed to me as a work that is vain and unprofitable.

I fhall conclude this paper with recommending to them the fame fhort felf-examination. If every one of them frequently lays his hand upon his heart, and confders what he is doing, it will check him in all the idle, or, what is worfe, the vicious moments of life, lift up his mind when it is running on in a feries of indifferent actions, and encourage him when he is engaged in those which are virtuous and laudable. In a word, it will very much alleviate that guilt which the best of menhave reafon to acknowledge in their daily confeffions, of leaving undone thofe things which they ought to have done, and of doing thofe things which they ought not to have done.' Guardian,

§ 16. A Knowledge of the Ufe and Vaue of

Time very important to Youth.

There is nothing which I more wif that you should know, and which fewer pople do know, than the true ufe and valle of time. It is in every body's mouth; fut in few people's practice. Every fool who flatterns away his whole time in notings, utters, however, fome trite commonplace fentence, of which there are millias, to prove, at once, the value and the fletnefs of time. The fun-dials, likewife, allover Europe, have fome ingenious infcripton to that effect; fo that nobody fquanders way their time, without hearing and feing, daily, how neceffary it is to employ it well, and how irrecoverable it is if loft. But all these admonitions are ufelefs, where there is not a fund of good fenfe and rea