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get Riches and Honours? Would not he think that it was our Duty to toil after Wealth, and Station, and Title? Nay, would not he believe we were forbidden Poverty by Threats of eternal Punishment, and enjoined to purfue our Pleasures under Pain of Damnation? He would certainly imagine that we were influenced by a Scheme of Duties quite oppofite to those which are indeed prescribed to us. And truly, according to fuch an Imagination, he must conclude that we are a Species of the most obedient Creatures in the Univerfe; that we are constant to our Duty; and that we keep a fteddy Eye on the End for which we were fent hither.

BUT how great would be his Aftonishment, when he learnt that we were Beings not defigned to exist in this World above Threefcore and Ten Years? and that the greatest Part of this bufy Species fall fhort even of that Age? How would he be loft in Horror and Admiration, when he fhould know that this Set of Creatures, who lay out all their Endeavours for this Life, which fcarce deferves the Name of Exiftence, when, I fay, he fhould know that this Set of Creatures are to exift to all Eternity in another Life, for which they make no Preparations? Nothing can be a greater Difgrace to Reafon, than that Men, who are perfuaded of thefe two different States of Being, fhould be perpetually employed in providing for a Life of Threefcore and Ten Years, and neglecting to make Provifion for that, which after many Myriads of Years will be ftill new, and ftill beginning; efpecially when we confider that our Endeavours for making our felves great, or rich, or honourable, or whatever elfe we place our Happiness in, may after all prove unsuccessful; whereas if we conftantly and fincerely endeavour to make our felves happy in the other Life, we are fure that our Endeavours will fucceed, and that we shall not be difappointed of our Hope.

THE following Queftion is ftarted by one of the Schoolmen. Suppofing the whole Body of the Earth were a great Ball or Mafs of the fineft Sand, and that a fingle Grain or Particle of this Sand fhould be anni

hilated

hilated every thoufand Years. Suppofing then that you had it in your Choice to be happy all the while this prodigious Mafs of Sand was confuming by this flow Method till there was not a Grain of it left, on Condition you were to be miferable for ever after; or fuppofing that you might be happy for ever after, on Condition you would be miferable till the whole Mafs of Sand were thus annihilated at the Rate of one Sand in a thousand Years: Which of these two Cafes would you make your Choice?

IT must be confeffed in this Cafe, fo many Thoufands of Years are to the Imagination as a kind of Eternity, tho' in Reality they do not bear fo great a Proportion to that Duration which is to follow them, as an Unite does to the greatest Number which you can put together in Figures, or as one of thofe Sands to the fuppofed Heap. Reafon therefore tells us, without any Manner of Hefitation, which would be the better Part in this Choice. However, as I have before intimated, our Reafon might in fuch a Cafe be fo overfet by the Imagination, as to difpofe fome Perfons to fink under the Confideration of the great Length of the first Part of this Duration, and of the great Distance of that fecond Duration, which is to fucceed it. The Mind, I fay, might give it felf up to that Happinefs which is at hand, confidering that it is fo very near, and that it would last fo very long. But when the Choice we actually have before us is this, Whether we will choose to be happy for the space of only Threefcore and Ten, nay perhaps of only Twenty or Ten Years, I might fay of only a Day or an Hour, and miferable to all Eternity; or, on the contrary, miferable for this fhort Term of Years, and happy for a whole Eternity: What Words are fufficient to exprefs that Folly and want of Confideration which in fuch a Cafe makes a wrong Choice?

I here put the Cafe even at the worst, by fuppofing (what feldom happens) that a Courfe of Virtue makes us miferable in this Life: But if we fuppofe (as it generally happens) that Virtue would make us more happy even in this Life than a contrary Courfe of Vice; how can we fufficiently admire the Stupidity or Mad

nefs

N° 576. nefs of thofe Perfons who are capable of making fo abfurd a Choice?

EVERY wife Man therefore will confider this Life only as it may conduce to the Happiness of the other, and chearfully facrifice the Pleasures of a few Years to thofe of an Eternity.

N° 576. Wednesday, August 4.

I

Nitor in adverfum; nec me, qui cætera, vincit
Impetus; & rapido contrarius evehor Orbi.

Ovid.

Remember a young Man of very lively Parts, and of a fprightly Turn in Converfation, who had only one Fault, which was an inordinate Defire of appearing fashionable. This ran him into many Amours, and confequently into many Diftempers. He never went to Bed till two o' Clock in the Morning, becaufe he would not be a queer Fellow; and was every now and then knocked down by a Conftable, to fignalize his Vivacity. He was initiated into half a Dozen Clubs before he was One and Twenty, and fo improved in them his natural Gaiety of Temper, that you might frequently trace him to his Lodgings by a range of broken Windows, and other the like Monuments of Wit and Gallantry. To be fhort, after having fully established his Reputation of being a very agreeable Rake, he died of old Age at Five and Twenty.

THERE is indeed nothing which betrays a Man into fo many Errors and Inconveniences, as the Defire of not appearing fingular; for which Reafon it is very neceffary to form a right Idea of Singularity, that we may know when it is laudable, and when it is vicious. In the firft Place, every Man of Senfe will agree with me, that Singularity is laudable, when, in Contradiction to a Multitude, it adheres to the Dictates of Confcience, Morality, and Honour. In thefe Cafes we ought.

"

ought to confider, that it is not Custom, but Duty, which is the Rule of Action; and that we fhould be only fo far fociable, as we are reasonable Creatures. Truth is never the lefs fo, for not being attended to: and it is the Nature of Actions, not the Number of Actors, by which we ought to regulate our Beha viour. Singularity in Concerns of this kind is to be looked upon as heroick Bravery, in which a Man leaves the Species only as he foars above it. What greater Inftance can there be of a weak and pufillanimous Temper, than for a Man to pafs his whole Life in Oppofition to his own Sentiments? or not to dare to be what he thinks he ought to be?

SINGULARITY, therefore, is only vicious wl.en it makes Men act contrary to Reafon, or when it puts them upon diftinguishing themselves by Trifles. As for the first of thefe, who are fingular in any thing that is irreligious, immoral, or difhonourable, I believe every one will eafily give them up. I fhall therefore fpeak of thofe only who are remarkable for their Singularity in things of no Importance, as in Drefs, Behaviour, Converfation, and all the little Intercourfes of Life. In the fe Cafes there is a certain Deference due to Cuftom; and notwithstanding there may be a Colour of Reafon to deviate from the Multitude in fome Particulars, a Man ought to facrifice his private Inclinations and Opinions to the Practice of the Publick. It must be confeffed that good Senfe often makes a Humourift; but then it unqualifies him for being of any Moment in the World, and renders him ridiculous to Perfons of a much inferior Understanding.

I have heard of a Gentleman in the North of England, who was a remarkable Inftance of this foolish Singula rity. He had laid it down as a Rule within himself, to act in the most indifferent Parts of Life according to the moft abftracted Notions of Reafon and Good Senfe, without any Regard to Fashion or Example. This Humour broke out at firft in many little Oddneffes: He had never any ftated Hours for his Dinner, Supper or Sleep; becaufe, faid he, we ought to attend the Calls of Nature, and not fet our Appetites to our Meals, but

bring.

bring our Meals to our Appetites. In his Conversation with Country Gentlemen, he would not make use of a Phrase that was not strictly true: He never told any of them, that he was his humble Servant, but that he was his Well-wisher; and would rather be thought a Malecontent, then drink the King's Health when he was not a-dry. He would thruft his Head out of his ChamberWindow every Morning, and after having gaped for fresh Air about half an Hour, repeat fifty Verfes as loud as he could bawl them for the Benefit of his Lungs; to which End he generally took them out of Homer; the Greek Tongue, especially in that Author, being more deep and fonorous, and more conducive to Expectoration, than any other. He had many other Particularities, for which he gave found and philofophical Reasons. As this Humour ftill grew upon him, he chofe to wear a Turban instead of a Periwig; concluding very justly, that a Bandage of clean Linen about his Head was much more wholfom, as well as cleanly, than the Caul of a Wig, which is foiled with frequent Perfpirations. He afterwards judiciously obferved, that the many Ligatures in our English Drefs muft naturally check the Circulation of the Blood; for which Reason, he made his Breeches and his Doublet of one continued Piece of Cloth, after the manner of the Huffars. In fhort, by following the pure Dictates of Reason, he at length departed fo much from the reft of his Countrymen, and indeed from his whole Species, that his Friends would have clapped him into Bedlam, and have begged his Eftate; but the Judge being informed that he did no Harm, contented himself with iffuing out a Commiffion of Lunacy against him, and putting his Eftate into the Hands of proper Guardians.

THE Fate of this Philofopher puts me in mind of a Remark in Monfieur Fontenelle's Dialogues of the Dead. The Ambitious and the Covetous (fays he) are Madmen to all Intents and Purposes, as much as thofe who are shut up in dark Rooms; but they have the good Luck to have Numbers on their Side; whereas the Frenzy of one who is given up for a Lunatick, is a Frenzy hors d'œuvre; that is, in other Words, fomething which is fingular

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