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tate, then to arrive at honors, then to retire. Thus, altho' the whole of life is allowed by every one to be fhort, the feveral divifions of it appear long and tedious.

3. 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 to 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.

4. The lover would be glad to ftrike out of his exiftence all the moments that are to pafs away before the happy meeting. Thus, as faft as our time runs, we should be very glad in most parts of our lives, that it fhould run much fafter than it does. Several hours of the day hang upon our hands, nay we with away whole years; and travel through time as through a country filled with many wild and empty waftes, which we would fain hurry over, that we may arrive at thofe several little fettlements or imaginary points of reft, which are dif perfed up and down it.

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5. If we may divide the life of most men into twenty parts, we fhall find that at leaft nineteen of them are mere gaps and chasms, which are neither filled with pleasure nor bufinefs. do not however include, in this calculation, the life of those only who are in a perpetual hurry of affairs, but of those alfo who are not always engaged in fcenes of action; and I hope I fhall not do an unacceptable piece of service to these persons, 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 follows:

6. The first is the exercife of virtue, in the most general acceptation of the word. The particular scheme which comprehends the focial virtues, may give employment to the most industrious temper, and find a man in bufinefs more than the moft active ftation of life. To advife the ignorant, relieve the needy, comfort the afflicted, are duties that fall in our way almost every day of our lives.

7. A man has frequent opportunities of mitigating the fiercenefs of party; of doing jaltice to the character of a deferving man; of foftening the envious, quieting the angry, and re&tifying the prejudiced, which are all of the n employmats

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fuited to a reasonable nature, and bring great fatisfaction to the perfon who can bufy himself in them with difcretion.

8. There is another kind of virtue that may find employment for those retired hours, in which we are altogether left to ourselves and destitute of company and converfation; I mean that intercourse and communication which every reasonable creature ought to maintain with the great Author of his being. 9. The man who lives under an habitual fenfe of the divine prefence, keeps up a perpetual cheerfulness of temper and enjoys every moment the fatisfaction of thinking himself in company with his dearest and best of friends. The time never lies heavy upon him; it is impoffible for him to be alone.

10. His thoughts and paffions are the most bufied at fuch hours when those of other men are the most inactive; he no fooner steps 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 apprehenfions, to the great fupporter of its exiftence.

II. I have here only confidered the neceffity of a man's being virtuous, that he may have something to do; but if we confider further, that the exercise of virtue is not only an amusement for the time it lafts, 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 color from thofe 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. 12. When a man has but a little flock 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 fervor nor strained up to a pitch of virtue, it is neceffary to find out proper employments for it in its relaxations.

13. The next method therefore that I would propofe to fill up our time, fhould be useful and innocent diverfion. I muft confefs, I think it is below reafonable creatures to be altogether converfant in fuch diverfions as are merely innocent, and have nothing else to recommend them but that there is no hurt in them.

14. Whether any kind of gaming has even thus much to

lay for itfelf, I fhall not determin; but I think it is very wonderful to fee perfons of the beft fenfe, paffing away a dozen hours together, in thuffling and dividing a pack of cards with no other converfation but what is made up of a few game phrafes, and no other ideas but those of black or red fpots, ranged together in different figures. Would not a man laugh to hear any one of his fpecies complaining that life is fhort?

15. But the mind never unbends itself so agreeably as in the converfation of a well chofen friend. There is indeed no bleffing of life that is any way comparable to the enjoyment of a difcreet and virtuous friend. It eafes aud unloads the mind, clears and improves the understanding, engenders thoughts and knowledge, animates virtue, and good refolutions, fooths and allays the paflions, and finds employment for most of the vacant hours of life.

16. Next to fuch an intimacy with a particular perfon, one would endeavor after a more general converfation with fuch as are able to entertain and improve those with whom they converfe, which are qualifications that feldom go afunder.

17. There are many other ufeful amufements of life, whicla one would endeavor to multiply, that one might on all occafions have recourse to something rather than suffer the mind to lie idle or run adrift with any paffion that chances to rife in it

18. A man that has a taste in music, painting, or architecture, is like one that has another fenfe when compared with fuch as have no relifh of thofe 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 poffeffed of the..

OF CHEERFULNESS.

I HAVE always preferred cheerfulness to mirth. The

latter I confider as an act, the former as a habit of the mind. Mirth is fhort and tranfient, cheerfulness fixed and permanent. Those are often raised into the greatest transports of mirth, who are fubject to the greatest depreffions of melancholy; on the contrary, cheerfulnefs, tho it does not give the mind fuch an exquifite gladnefs, prevents us from falling into any depths of forrow. 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 ferenity.

2. Men of auftere principles look upon mirth as too wan ton and diffolute for a state of probation, and as filled with al certain triumph and infolence of heart that is inconfiftent with a life which is every moment obnoxious to the greatest dangers. Writers of this complexion have obferved, that the sacred perfon who was the great pattern of perfection was never seen to laugh.

3. Cheerfulness of mind is not liable to any of these excep tions; it is of a ferious and compofed nature; it does not throw the mind into a condition improper for the prefent ftate of humanity, and is very confpicuous in the characters of thofe who are looked upon as the greatest philofophers among the Heathens, as well as among those who have been deservedly efteemed as faints and holy men among Chriftians.

4. If we confider cheerfulness in three lights, with regard to ourfelves, to thofe we converse with, and to the great Author of our being, it will not a little recommend itself on each of thefe accounts. The man who is poffeffed of this excellent frame of mind, is not only eafy in his thoughts, but a perfect mafter of all the powers and faculties of the foul; his imagi nation is always clear, and his judgment undisturbed: his temper is even and unruffled, whether in action or folitude. He comes with a relish to all thofe goods which nature has provided for him, taftes all the pleafures of the creation which are poured about him, and does not feel the full weight of thofe accidental evils which may befal him.

5. If we confider him in relation to the perfons whom he converfes with, it naturally produces love and good will towards him. A cheerful mind is not only disposed to be affable and obliging, but raifes the fame good humor in those who come within its influence. A man finds himself pleased he does not know why, with the cheerfulness of his companion': it is like a fudden funfhine that awakens a fecret delight in the mind without her attending to it. The heart rejoices of its own accord, and naturally flows out into friendship and benevolence towards the perfon who has fo kindly an effect upon it.

6. When I confider this cheerful ftate of mind in its third relation, I cannot but look upon it as a conftant habitual gratitude to the great Author of nature. An inward cheerfulness is an implicit praife and thanksgiving to providence under all

its difpenfations. It is a kind of acquiefcence in the ftate wherein we are placed, and a secret approbation of the Divine will in his conduct towards man.

7. There are but two things, which in my opinion, can reasonably deprive us of this cheerfulness of heart. The first of these is the sense of guilt. A man who lives in a state of vice and impenitence can have no title to that evenness and tranquility of mind which is the health of the foul, and the natural effect of virtue and innocence. Cheerfulness in an ill man deferves a harder name than language can furnish us with, and is many degrees beyond what we commonly call folly or madness.

8. Atheism, by which I mean a difbelief of a Supreme Being, and confequently of a future ftate, under whatfoever title it fhelters itfelf, may likewife very reafonably deprive a man. of his cheerfulness of temper. There is fomething fo particularly gloomy and offenfive to human nature in the profpect of non-existence, that I cannot but wonder, with many excellent writers how it is poffible for a man to outlive the expectation of it. For my own part, I think the being of a God is fo little to be doubted that it is almoft the only truth we are fure of, and fuch a truth as we meet with in every object, in every occurrence, and in every thought.

9. If we look into the characters of this tribe of infidels, we generally find they are made up of pride, fpleen and cavil; it is indeed no wonder, that men, who are uneafy to themfelves fhould be fo to the reft of the world; and how is it poffible for a man to be otherwife than uneafy in himself, who is in danger every moment of lofing his entire exiftence, and dropping into nothing?

10. The vicious man and Atheift have therefore no pretenfe to cheerfulness, and would act very unreafonably, fhould they endeavor after it. It is impoffible for any one to live in good humor and enjoy his prefent exiftence, who is apprehenfive either of torment or of annihilation; of being miferable, or of not being at all.

11. After having mentioned thefe two great principles, which are deftructive of cheerfulness in their own nature, as well as in right reafon, I cannot think of any other that ought to banith this happy temper from a virtuous mind. Pain and ficknefs, fhame and reproach, poverty and old age, nay death it

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