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spaces of the heavens; and, when with a great deal of time and pains he hath laboured a little way up the steep ascent of truth, and beholds with pity the grovelling multitude beneath, in a moment, his foot slides, and he tumbles down headlong into the grave.

Thinking on this, I am obliged to believe, in justice to the creator of the world, that there is another state when man shall be better situated for contemplation, or rather have it in his power to remove from object to object, and from world to world; and be accommodated with senses, and other helps, for making the quickest and most amazing discoveries. How doth such a genius as Sir Isaac Newton, from amidst the darkness that involves human understanding, break forth, and appear like one of another species? The vast machine we inhabit lies open to him; he seems not unacquainted with the general laws that govern it; and while with the transport of a philosopher he beholds and admires the glorious work, he is capable of paying at once a more devout and more rational homage to his Maker. But, alas! how narrow is the prospect even of such a mind? and how obscure to the compass that is taken in by the ken of an angel; or of a soul but newly escaped from its imprisonment in the body! For my part I freely indulge my soul in the confidence of its future grandeur; it pleases me to think that I who know so small a portion of the works of the Creator, and with slow and painful steps creep up and down on the surface of this globe, shall ere long shoot away with the swiftness of imagination, trace out the hidden springs of nature's operations, be able to keep pace with the heavenly bodies in the rapidity of their career, be a spectator of the long chain of events in the natural and moral worlds, visit the several apartments of the creation, know how they are furnished and how inhabited, comprehend the order, and measure the magnitudes and distances of those orbs, which to us

seem disposed without any regular design, and set all in the same circle; observe the dependence of the parts of each system, and (if our minds are big enough to grasp the theory) of the several systems upon one another, from whence results the harmony of the universe. In eternity a great deal may be done of this kind. I find it of use to cherish this generous ambition; for besides the secret refreshment it diffuses through my soul, it engages me in an endeavour to improve my faculties, as well as to exercise them conformably to the rank I now hold among reasonable beings, and the hope I have of being once advanced to a more exalted station.

The other, and that the ultimate end of man, is the enjoyment of God, beyond which he cannot form a wish. Dim at best are the conceptions we have of the Supreme Being, who, as it were, keeps his creatures in suspense, neither discovering, nor hiding himself; by which means, the libertine hath a handle to dispute his existence, while the most are content to speak him fair, but in their hearts prefer every trifling satisfaction to the favour of their Maker, and ridicule the good man for the singularity of his choice. Will there not a time come when the free-thinker shall see his impious schemes overturned, and be made a convert to the truths he hates; when deluded mortals shall be convinced of the folly of their pursuits, and the few wise who followed the guidance of heaven, and, scorning the blandishments of sense and the sordid bribery of the world, aspired to a celestial abode, shall stand possessed of their utmost wish in the vision of the Creator? Here the mind heaves a thought now and then towards him, and hath some transient glances of his presence: when, in the instant it thinks itself to have the fastest hold, the object eludes its expectation, and it falls back tired and baffled to the ground. Doubtless there is some more perfect way of conversing with heavenly beings. Are

not spirits capable of mutual intelligence, unless immersed in bodies, or by their intervention? Must superior natures depend on inferior for the main privilege of sociable beings, that of conversing with, and knowing each other? What would they have done, had matter never been created? I suppose, not have lived in eternal solitude. As incorporeal substances are of a nobler order, to be sure, their manner of intercourse is answerably more expedite and intimate. This method of communication we call intellectual vision, as somewhat analagous to the sense of seeing, which is the medium of our acquaintance with this visible world. And in some such way can God make himself the object of immediate intuition to the blessed; and as he can, it is not improbable that he will, always condescending, in the circumstances of doing it, to the weakness and proportion of finite minds. His works but faintly reflect the image of his perfections, it is a second-hand knowledge to have a just idea of him, it may be necessary that we see him as he is. But what is that? It is something that never entered into the heart of man to conceive; yet, what we can easily conceive, will be a fountain of unspeakable, of everlasting rapture. All created glories will fade and die away in his presence. Perhaps it will be my happiness to compare the world with the fair exemplar of it in the Divine Mind; perhaps, to view the original plan of those wise designs that have been executing in a long succession of ages. Thus employed in finding out his works, and contemplating their Author, how shall I fall prostrate and adoring, my body swallowed up in the immensity of matter, my mind in the infinitude of his perfections!

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THE INDEX.

A

ACTIONS, principles of, two in man, N. 588.
Adulterers, how punished by the primitive Christians, N. 579.
Aglaus, his story told by Cowley, N. 610.

Ambition, various kinds of it, N. 570; laudable, 613.

Anacharsis, the Corinthian drunkard, a saying of his, N. 569.
Ancestry, how far honour is to be paid to it, N. 612.
Answers to several letters at once, N. 581 and 619.
Antipathies, a letter about them, N. 609.

Anxieties, unnecessary, the evil of them and the vanity of them,
N. 615.

Applause and censure should not mislead us, N. 610.

Araspas and Panthea, their story out of Xenophon, N. 564.
Aristippus, his saying of content, N. 574.

Augustus, his saying of mourning for the dead, N. 575.

B

BACON Flitch, at Wichenovre in Staffordshire, who are
entitled to it, N. 607; several demands for it, 608.

Bantam, ambassador of, his letter to his master about the Eng-
lish, N. 557.

Baxter, what a blessing he had, N. 598.

Benevolence treated of, N. 601.

Beneficence, the pleasure of it, N. 588; a discourse of it,
601.

Bion, his saying of a greedy search after happiness, N. 574.
Blank, his letter to the Spectator about his family, N. 563.
Bonosus, the drunken Briton, a saying of him after he had
hanged himself, N. 569.

Burlesque authors the delight of ordinary readers, N. 616 and
625.

Burlesque humour, N. 616.

Busy world, N. 624.

C

CACOETHES, or itch of writing, an epidemical distemper,

N. 582.

Calamities, whimsical ones, N. 558.,

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