vour to explain what their improvements will probably be in that which is to come. I begin with the powers of the understanding. The pofitive evils which attend our progrefs through this state of trial are fenfibly felt by every human being. Pain and ficknefs, forrow and disappointment, are at times the lot of all; but there are fufferings of a different kind, of which the most cultivated minds are most fufceptible, as they are perceived and felt in proportion to the delicacy of our taste, and the improvement of our mental powers. We may place in the rank of intellectual evils the natural imperfection of our faculties. Our understanding and memory are weak, and various inevitable impediments prevent us from employing thefe talents to the utmost. Established errors, inftructors who who teach ill, or (if we are reduced to proceed without a guide) the want of proper means to inform ourselves; and various circumstances of life, which prevent us from attaining those acquirements for which we have the greatest inclination; in a word, innumerable accidents, and unfavourable events, either turn us aside from the truth, or permit us to difcern it only through an obfcure and perplexing medium. If any person should be furprised that there are fo few people in the world who make a progrefs in elegant and useful knowledge, I intreat him only to confider how rare is the advantage of an uninterrupted and regular meditation; how many neceffities òr diforders derange or retard our researches. By the tyranny of man alfo, we frequently find ourselves stopt in the career of the most fublime fublime and interesting studies. The defire of knowledge is univerfal; and yet whole nations, almost all the nations of the world, shamefully enslaved by prejudice, and proud of their infatuation, persist with an invincible obftinacy in a dark and intricate path, and frequently only advance further into error; or, perhaps, fatisfied with the labours of their predeceffors, and abandoning themfelves to an unmanly indolence, they enquire no further: they know already all which they defire. Not content with indulging this unworthy inactivity, they oppose the exertions of those noble individuals, who, animated by an ardent love of truth, dare to fhake off fuch difhonourable and dangerous fetters, and endeavour to deliver others from them. We may rank amongst mental evils those which, from the natural influence of the body upon upon the mind, are occafioned by corporeal diforders. Pain and sickness not only frequently betray us into a restleffness and im patience of fpirit, which it requires the ftrictest watch over ourselves to avoid, but often, by deranging those finer parts which more immediately act upon the mental powers, produce the most deplorable effects, and degrade the faculties of the immortal foul almost to a level with the instinct of the beafts that perish. To this we may add, that dejection of mind, that penfive fadness, the cause of which cannot be discovered either in the foul itself or in any external event; and which, therefore, can be fuppofed to proceed only from fome corporeal derangement, which, without this grievous effect, would have remained imperceptible. We frequently see, and even more frequently than elfe where, where, in these happy climates, where liberty and enlightened reafon eminently prevail, perfons of an excellent understanding, perfectly regular in their manners, rich in advantages both of nature and fortune,-fall into a deep melancholy, which they pronounce to be infurmountable. Nothing gives them pleasure: every thing wearies them. But are we very certain that no afflictive event has befallen them? Yes, they themfelves confefs it. Every thing around smiles upon them as before. It is, therefore, an internal and infenfible disorder which thus affects their intellectual faculties. "The cor"ruptible body preffeth down the foul, and "the earthly tabernacle weigheth down the "mind that museth upon many things. And 66 hardly do we guess aright at things that are upon earth; and with labour do we find the ❝ things |