4. If we confider cheerfulness in three lights, with regard to ourselves, to those we converfe with, and to the great Author of our being, it will not a little recommend itself on each of these accounts. The man who is poffeffed of this excellent frame of mind, is not only eafy in his thoughts, but a perfect matter of all the powers and faculties of the foul; his imagination 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 perfone whom he converfes with, it naturally produces love and good will to words him; a cheerful mind is not only difpofed to be affable and obliging, but raises 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 fun-fhine that awakens a fecret delight in the mind without her attending to it. The heart rejoices of its own ace cord, and naturally flows out into friendship and benevolence towards the perfon, who has so kindly an effect upon it.

6. When I confider this cheerful state of mind in its third relation, I cannot but look upon it as a conftant habitual grat itude to the great Author of nature. An inward cheerfulness is an implicit praise and thanksgiving to Providence under all its difpenfations. It is a kind of acquiefcence in the ftate wherein we are placed, and a fecret approbation of the Diving will in his conduct towards man.

7. There are but two things which in my opinion, can rea fonably deprive us of this cheerfulness of heart. The first of thefe is the fenfe of guilt. A man who lives in a state of vice and impenitence can have no title to that evenness and tran quility of mind which is the health of the soul, and the natural effects of virtue and innocence. Cheerfulness in an ill man de ferves a harder name than language can furnish us with, and is many degrees beyond what we commonly call folly or madnefs.

8. Atheism, by which 1 mean a difbelief of a Supreme Be ing, and confequently of a future ftate, under whatsoever title it helters itfelf, may likewife very reafonably deprive a man of this cheerfulness of temper. There is fomething fo particular U

ly gloomy and offenfive to human nature in the profpect of non-existence, that I cannot but wonder, with many excel. lent 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 themselves, fhould be so to the reft of the world; and how it is possible for a man to be otherwise than uneafy in himself, who is in danger every moment of loûng his entire exiftence, and dropping in to nothing?

10. The vicious man and Atheist have therefore no pretence to cheerfulness, and would as very unreasonably, 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 miserable, or of not being at all..

11. After having mentioned the le two great principles, which are deftructive of cheerfulness in their own nature, as well as in right reason, I cannot think of any other that ought to banish their happy temper from a virtuous mind. Pain and ficknefs, fhame and reproach, poverty and old age, nay death itfelf, confidering the fhortness of their duration, and the adwantage we may reap from them, do not deserve the name of evils.

12. A good mind my bear up under them with fortitude, with compofure, and with cheerfulness of heart-the toffing of a tempect does not difcompofe. him, when he is fure it will bring him to a joyful harbor.

13. A man who uses his beft endeavors to live according to the dictates of virtue and right reafon, has two perpetual four. ces of cheerfulness, in the confideration of his own nature and of that Being on whom he has a dependence.

14. If he looks into himself, he cannot but rejoice in that existence, which is fo lately beftowed upon him, and which, after millions of ages will be ftill new, and ftill in its beginning. How many felf congratulations naturally arife in the mind, when it reflects on this its entrance into eternity, when it takes a view of thofe improvable faculties, which in a few years,

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and even at its first fetting out have made fo confiderable a progrefs, and which will be ftill receiving an increale of perfection and confequently an increase of happiness.

15. The confcioufnefs of fuch a Being spreads a perpetual diffufion of joy through the foul of a virtuous man, and makes him look upon himself every moment as more happy then he knows how to conceive.

16. The fecond fource of cheerfulness to a good mind is, its confideration of that Being on whom we have our dependence, and in whom, tho we behold him as yet but in the first faint discoveries of his perfections, we fee every thing that we can imagine as great, glorious or amiable. We find ourselves every where upheld by his goodness, and furrounded by an immenfity of love and mercy.

17. In fhort, we depend upon a Being, whose power qualifies him to make us happy by an infinity of means, whofe goodnefs and truth engage him to make thofe happy who defire it of him, and whofe unchangablenefs will fecure us in this happiness to all eternity.

18. Such confiderations, which every one fhould perpetually cherish in his thoughts, will banish from us all that fecret heaviness of heart, which unthinking men are fubject to when they lie under no real affliction, all that anguish which we may feel from any evil that actually oppreffes us; to which I may likewife add thofe little cracklings of mith and folly, that are apter to betray virtue than fupport it; and establish in us fuch an even and cheerful temper, as makes us pleafing to ourselves, to thofe with whom we converfe, and to him whom we are made to please.

I.

I

DISCRETION.

HAVE often thought if the minds of men were laid open we should fee but little difference between that of the wife man and that of the fool. There are infinite reveries, numberless extravagancies, and a perpetual train of vanities, which pafs through both. The great difference is, that the firft knows how to pick and cull his thoughts for conversation, by fuppreffing fome and communicating others; whereas the other lets them all indifferently fly out into words. This fort of discretion however, has no place in private conversation, between intimate friends. On fuch occafions the wifeft men very often talk like the weakest ; for indeed the talking with a friend is but thinking aloud.

2. Tully has therefore very juftly expofed a precept delivered by fome ancient writers, that a man fhould live with his enemy in fuch a manner as might leave him room to become his friend; and with his friend in fuch a manner, that if he became his enemy, it fhould not be in his power to hurt him. The first part of this rule, which regards our behavior towards an ene. my, is indeed very reafonable as well as prudential; but the latter part of it, which regards our behavior towards a friend, favors more of cunning than of difcretion, and would cut a man off from the greatest pleasures of life, which are the freedoms of converfation with a bofom friend. Befides, that when a friend is turned into an enemy, and (as the fon of Sirach calls Lim) a betrayer of fecrets, the world is just enough to accufe the perfidioufnefs of the friend, rather than the indiscretion of the perfon who confided in him.

3. Difcretion does not only fhew itself in words, but in all the circumstances of action; and is like an under agent of Providence to guide and direct us in the ordinary concerns of life.

4. There are many more fbining qualities in the minds of man, but there is none fo useful as difcretion; it is this indeed which gives a value to all the reft, which fets them to work in their proper times and places, and turus them to the advan tage of the perfon who is poffeffed of them. Without it learn. ing is pedantry, and wit impertinence; virtue itself looks like weakness; the beft parts only qualify a man to be more spright. ly in errors, and active to his own prejudice.

5. Nor does difcretion only make a man the mafter of his own parts, but of other men's. The difcreet man finds out the talents of those he converfes with, and knows how to apply them to proper uses. Accordingly, if we look into particular communities and divifions of men, we may obferve, that it is the difcreet man, not the witty, nor the learned, nor the brave, who guides the converfation, and gives meafures to fociety. A man with great talents, but void of difcretion, is like Polyphemus in the fable, ftrong and blind, endued with an irrefifti. ble force, which for want of fight, is of no ufe to him.

6. Though a man has all other perfections, and wants dif cretion, he will be of no great cenfequence in the world; but if he has this fingle talent in perfection, and but a common fhare of others, he may do what he pleafes in his ftation of life.

7. At the fame time that I think difcretion the most useful talent a man can be master of, I look upon cunning to be the accomplishment of little, mean, ungenerous minds. Difcre.

tion points out the nobleft ends to us, and purfues the moft proper and laudable methods of obtaining them: cunning has only private felfifh aims, and ftick at nothing which may make them fucceed.

8. Difcretion has large and extended views, and like a wellformed eye, commands a whole horizon: cunning is a kind of fhort-fightednefs, that discovers the minutest objects which are near at hand, but is not able to difcern things at a distance. Difcretion, the more it is difcovered, gives a greater authority to the perfon who poffeffes it cunning, when it is once de. tected, lofes its force, and makes a man incapable of bringing about even thofe events which he might have done, had he paffed only for a plain man. Diferetion is the perfection of reafon, and a guide to us in all the duties of life: cunning is a kind of inftinct that only looks out after our immediate intereft and welfare.

9. Difcretion is only found in men of strong fenfe and good understanding cunning is often to be met with in brutes themfelves, and in perfons who are but the feweft removes from them. In fhort, cunning is only the mimic of diferetion, and may pafs upon weak men, in the fame manner as vivacity is often mistaken for wit, and gravity for wifdom.

10. The caft of mind which is natural to a discreet man, makes him look forward into futurity and confider what will be his condition millions of ages hence, as well as what it is at prefent.

11. He knows, that the mifery or happiness which are re ferved for him in another world, lofe nothing of their reality. by being placed at fo great a diftance from him. The objects do not appear little to him because they are remote. He confiders that thofe pleafures and pains which lie hid in eternity, approach nearer to him every moment, and will be prefent with him in their full weight and measure, as much as thofe pains and pleasures, which he feels at this very inftant. For this reafon he is careful to fecure to himfelf that which is the happiness of his nature, and the ultimate defign of his being. 12. He carries his thoughts to the end of every action, and confiders the moft diftant as well as the most immediate effects of it. He fupercedes every little profpect of gain and advan tage which offers itfelf here, if he does not find it confiftent with his views of an hereafter. In a word, his hopes are full of immortality, his fchemes are large and glorious, and his conduct

proper