in the removal of them. It makes him easy here, because it can make him happy hereafter.

SECTION XII.

ADDISON.

Rank and riches afford no ground for envy.

1. Of all the grounds of envy among men, superiority in rank and fortune is the most general. Hence, the malignity which the poor commonly bear to the rich, as engrossing to themselves all the comforts of life. Hence, the evil eye with which persons of inferior station s rutinize those who are above them in rank; and if they approach to that rank, their envy is generally strongest against such as are just one step higher than themselves.

2. Alas! my friends, all this envious disquietude, which agitates the world, arises from a deceitful figure which imposes on the public view. False colours are hung out: the real state of men is not what it seems to be. The order of society requires a distinction of ranks to take place: but in point of happiness, all men come much nearer to equality than is commonly imagined; and the circumstances, which form any material difference of happiness among them are not of that nature which renders them grounds of envy.

3. The poor man possesses not it is true, some of the conveniences and pleasures of the rich; but, in return, he is free from many embarrassments to which they are subject. By the simplicity and uniformity of his life, he is delivered from that variety of cares, which perplex those who have great affairs to manage, intricate plans to pursue, many ene mies, perhaps, to encounter in the pursuit.

4. In the tranquillity of his small habitation, and private family, he enjoys a peace which is often unknown at courts. The gratifications of nature which are always the most satisfactory, are possessed by him to their full extent; and if he be a stranger to the refined pleasures of the wealthy, he is unacquainted also with the desire of them and by conse feels no want, His plain meal satisfies his appequence, tite, with a relish probably higher than that of the rich man, who sits down to his luxurious banquet

5. His sleep is more sound; his health more firm; he knows not what spleen. languor, and listlessness are. His accustomed employments or labours are not more oppres sive to him, than the labour of attendance on courts and the great, the labours of dress. the fatigue of amusements, the weight of idleness, frequently are to the rich.

6. In the mean time, all the beauty of the face of nature, all the enjoyments of domestic society, all the gaity and cheerfulness of an easy mind, are as open to him as to those of the highest rank. The splendour of retinue, the sound of titles, the appearances of high respect, are indeed soothing, for a short time, to the great. But, become familiar, they are soon forgotten. Custom effaces their impression. They sink into the rank of those ordinary things, which daily recur, without raising any sensation of joy.

7. Let us cease, therefore, from looking up with discontent and envy to those, whom birth er fortune has placed above us. Let us adjust the balance of happiness fairly. When we think of the enjoyments we want, we should think also of the troubles from which we are free.. If we allow their just value to the comforts we possess, we shall find reason to rest satisfied, with a very moderate, though not an opulent and splendid, condition of fortune. Often, did we know the whole, we should be inclined to pity the state of those whom we now envy.

SECTION XIII.

BLAIR.

Patience under provocations our interest as well as duty.

1. The wide circle of human society is diversified by an endless variety of characters, dispositions, and passions.Uniformity is, in no respect, the genius of the world. Every man is marked by some peculiarity which distinguishes him from another and no where can two individuals be found, who are exactly and in all respects, alike. Where so much diversity obtains, it cannot but happen, that in the intercourse which men are obliged to maintain, their tempers will often be ill adjusted to that intercourse; will jar, and interfere with each other.

2. Hence, in every station, the highest as well as the lowest, and in every condition of life, public, private, and domestic, occasions of irritation frequently arise. We are provoked sometimes, by the folly and levity of those with whom we are connected; sometimes, by their indifference or neglect; by the incivility of a friend, the haughtiness of a superior, or the insolent behaviour of one in lower station. 3. Hardly a day passes without somewhat or other occurring, which serves to ruffle the man of impatient spirit. Of course, such a man lives in a continual storm. He knows not what it is to enjoy a train of good humour. Servants,

neighbours, friends, spouse, and children, all, through the unrestrained violence of his temper, become sources of disturbance and vexation to him. In vain is affluence: in vain are health and prosperity. The least trifle is sufficient to discompose his mind, and poison his pleasures. His very amusements are mixed with turbulence and passion.

4. I would beseech this man to consider, of what small moment the provocations which he receives, or at least imagines himself to receive, are really in themselves: but of what great moment he makes them by suffering them to deprive him of the possession of himself. I would beseech him to consider how many hours of happiness he throws away, which a little more patience would allow him to enjoy and how much he puts it in the power of the most insignificant persons to render him miserable.

5. "But who can expect," we hear him exclaim, "that he is to possess the insensibility of a stone? How is it possible for human nature to endure so many repeated provocations? or to bear calmly with so unreasonable behaviour ?" My brother! if thou canst bear with no instances of unreasonable behaviour, withdraw thyself from the world.-Thou art no longer fit to live in it. Leave the intercourse of men. Retreat to the mountain, and the desert; or shut thyself up in a cell. For here, in the midst of society, offences must

come.

6. We mht as well expect when we behold a calm atmosphere, and a clear sky. that no clouds were ever to rise, and no winds to blow, as that our life were long to proceed without receiving provocations from human frailty. The careless and the imprudent, the giddy, and the fickle, the ungrateful and the interested, every where meet us.-They are the briers and thorns, with which the paths of human life are beset. He only, who can hold his course among them with patience and equanimity, he who is prepared to bear what he must expect to happen, is worthy of the name

of a man.

7. If we preserved ourselves composed but for a moment, we should perceive the insignificancy of most of those provocations which we magnify so highly. When a few suns more have rolled over our heads the storm will, of itself, have subsided; the cause of our present impatience and disturbance will be utterly forgotten. Can we not then, anticipate this hour of calmness to ourselves; and begin to enjoy the peace which it will certainly bring?

8. If others have behaved improperly, let us leave them

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Didactic Pieces.

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and treachery, resembles the traveller in the wilderness, who discerns no objects around him but such as are either dreary or terrible; caverns that open, serpents that hiss, and beasts of prey that howl.

SECTION VI.

Comfort of Religion.

BLAIR.

1. THERE are many who have passed the age of youth and beauty; who have resigned the pleasures of that smiling season; who begin to decline into the vale of years, impaired in their health, depressed in their fortunes, stript of their friends, their children, and perhaps still more tender connexions. What resource can this world afford them? It presents a dark and dreary waste, through which there does not issue a single ray of comfort.

2. Every delusive prospect of ambition is now at an end; long experience of mankind, an experience very different from what the upen and generous soul of youth had fondly dreampt of, has rendered the heart almost inaccessible to new friendships. The principal sources of activity are taken away, when they for whom we labour are cut off from us; they who animated, and who sweetened all the toils of life.

3. Where then can the soul find refuge but in the bosom of Religion? There she is admitted to those prospects of Providence and futurity, which alone can warm and fill the heart. I speak here of such as retain the feelings of humanity; whom misfortunes have softened and perhaps rendered more delicately sensible; not of such as possess that stupid insensibility, which some are pleased to dignify with the name of Philosophy.

4. It might therefore be expected, that those philosophers who think they stand in no need themselves of the assistance of religion to support their virtue, and who never feel the want of its consolations, would yet have the humanity to consider the very different situation of the rest of mankind; and not endeavour to deprive them of what habit at least, if they will not allow it to be nature, has made necessary to their morals, and to their happiness.

5. It might be expected. that humanity would prevent them from breaking into the last retreat of the unfortunate, who can no longer be objects of their envy or resentment; and tearing from them their only remaining comfort attempt to ridicule religion may be agreeable to some, by

The

and may

relieving them from restraint upon their pleasures; render others very miserable, by making them doubt those truths, in which they were most deeply interested; but it can convey real good and happiness to no one individual.

SECTION VII.

GREGORY.

Diffidence of our abilities, a mark of wisdom.

1. Ir is a sure indication of good sense, to be diffident of it. We then, and not till then, are growing wise, when we begin to discern how weak and unwise we are. An absolute perfection of understauding, is impossible: he makes the nearest approaches to it, who has the sense to discern, and the humility to acknowledge its imperfections

2. Modesty always sits gracefully upon youth; it covers a multitude of faults, and doubles the lustre of every virtue which it seems to hide the perfections of men being like those flowers which appear more beautiful, when their leaves are a little contracted and folded up, than when they are full blown, and display themselves without any reserve, to the view.

3. We are some of us very fond of knowledge, and apt to value ourselves upon any proficiency in the sciences: one science, however, there is, worth more than all the rest, and that is the science of living well; which shall remain, when "C tongues shall cease," and "knowledge shall vanish away."

4. As to new notions, and new doctrines, of which this age is very fruitful, the time will come, when we shall have no pleasure in them; nay, the time shall come, when they shall be exploded, and would have been forgotten, if they had not been preserved in those excellent books, which contain a confutation of them; like insects preserved for ages in amber, which otherwise would soon have returned to the common mass of things.

5. But a firm belief of Christianity, and a practice suitable to it, will support and invigorate the mind to the last; and most of all, at last, at that important hour, which must decide our hopes and apprehensions: and the wisdom, which, like our Saviour, cometh from above, will through his mer its, bring us thither. All our other studies and pursuits, however different, ought to be subservient to, and centre in, this grand point, the pursuit of eternal happiness, by being good in ourselves, and useful to the world.

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