powder, and printing; and by the dulleft nation, as the Germans. One argument to prove, that the common relations of ghofts and fpectres are generally falfe, may be drawn from the opinion held, that fpirits are never seen by more than one perfon at a time; that is to fay, it feldom happens to above one perfon in a company, to be poffeffed with any high degree of spleen or melancholy. I am apt to think, that in the day of judgement there will be fmall allowance given to the wife for their want of morals, and to the ignorant for their want of faith, because both are without excufe. 'This renders the advantages equal of ignorance and knowledge. But fome fcruples in the wife, and fome vices in the ignorant, will perhaps be forgiven upon the ftrength of temptation, to each. The value of feveral circumstances in ftory leffens very much by distance of time, though fome minute circumstances are very valuable; and it requires great judgement in a writer to diftinguish. It is grown a word of courfe, for writers to fay, This critical age, as divines fay, This finful age. It is pleasant to obferve how free the prefent age is in laying taxes on the next: Future age fhall talk of this; this fhall be famous to all pefterity: whereas their time and thoughts will be taken up about prefent things, as ours are now. The cameleon, who is faid to feed upon nothing but air, hath of all animals the nimbleft tongue. When a man is made a spiritual peer he lofes his firname; when a temporal, his chirftian name. It is in difputes as in armics, where the weaker fide fets up falfe lights, and makes a great noife, to make the enemy believe them more numerous and ftrong than they really are. Some men, under the notions of weeding out prejudices, eradicate virtue, honefty, and religion. In all well inftituted commonwealths, care has been. *been taken to limit mens poffeffions; which is done for many reasons, and among the reft, for one which perhaps is not often confidered, that when bounds are fet to mens defires, after they have acquired as much as the laws will permit them, their private intereft is at an end, and they have nothing to do but take care of the public. There are but three ways for a man to revenge himself of the cenfure of the world; to defpife it, to return the like, or to endeavour to live fo as to avoid it the firft of thefe is ufually pretended, the laft is almoft impoffible, the univerfal practice is for the fecond. Herodotus tells us, that in cold countries beafts very feldom have horns, but in hot they have very large ones. This might bear a very pleafant appli cation. I never heard a finer piece of fatise against lawyers, than that of aftrologers, when they pretend by rules of art to tell when a fuit will end, and whether to the advantage of the plaintiff or defendant; thus making the matter depend entirely upon the influence of the ftars, without the least regard to the merits of the caufe. The expreffion in Apocrypha, about Tobit and his dog following him, I have often heard ridiculed, yet Homer has the fame words of Telemachus more than once; and Virgil fays fomething like it . of Evander. And I take the book of Tobit to be ¿partly poetical. I have known fome men poffeffed of good quali ties, which were very serviceable to others, but uselefs to themselves; like a fun-dial on the front of a houfe, to inform the neighbours and paffengers, but not the owner within. If a man would register all his opinions upon love, politics, religion, learning, &c. beginning from his youth, and fo go on to old age, what a bundle bundle of inconfiftencies and contradictions would appear at laft? What they do in heaven we are ignorant of; what they do not we are told exprefly, that they neither marry, nor are given in marriage. When a man observes the choice of ladies now a-days in the difpenfing of their favours, can he forbear paying fome veneration to the memory of thofe mares mentioned by Xenophon, who, while their manes were on, that is, while they were in their beauty, would never admit the embraces of an afs. It is a miferable thing to live in fufpence; it is the life of a spider. Vive quidem, pende tamen, improba, dixit. Ovid. Metam. The Stoical fcheme of fupplying our wants by lopping off our defires, is like cutting off our feet when we want fhoes. Phyficians ought not to give their judgement of religion, for the fame reason that butchers are not admitted to be jurors upon life and death. The reafon, why fo few marriages are happy, is because young ladies fpend their time in making nets, not in making cages. If a man will observe as he walks the streets, I believe he will find the merrieft countenances in mourning coaches. Nothing more unqualifies a man to act with prudence, than a misfortune that is attended with fhame and guilt. The power of fortune is confeffed only by the miferable; for the happy impute all their fuccefs to prudence or merit. Ambition often puts men upon doing the meaneft offices: fo climbing is performed in the fame pofture with creeping. * De Re Equeftri, Ill company is like a dog, who dirts thofe most whom he loves beft. Cenfure is the tax a man pays to the public for being eminent. Although men are accufed for not knowing their own weakness, yet perhaps as few know their own ftrength. It is in men as in foils, where fometimes there is a vein of gold which the owner knows not of. Satire is reckoned the easiest of all wit; but I take it to be otherwife in very bad times: for it is as hard to fatirize well a man of diftinguished vices, as to praise well a man of distinguished virtues. It is eafy enough to do either to people of moderate characters. Invention is the talent of youth, and judgement of age; fo that our judgement grows harder to pleafe, when we have fewer things to offer it: this goes through the whole commerce of life. When we are old, our friends find it difficult to please us, and are lefs concerned whether we be pleafed or no. No wife man ever wished to be younger. An idle reafon leffens the weight of the good ones you gave before. The motives of the beft actions will not bear too ftrict an inquiry. It is allowed, that the cause of moft actions, good or bad, may be refolved into the love of ourselves; but the felf-love of some men inclines them to pleafe others; and the felf-love of others is wholly employed in pleafing themfelves. This makes the great diftinction between virtue and vice. Religion is the beft motive of all actions, yet religion is allowed to be the higheft inftance of felflove.. When the world has once begun to ufe us ill, it afterwards continues the fame treatment with lefs fcruple or ceremony, as men do to a whore. Old men view best at a distance with the eyes of of their understanding as well as with thofe of na ture. Some people take more care to hide their wifdom than their folly. Arbitrary power is the natural object of temptation to a prince, as wine or women to a young fellow, or a bribe to a judge, or avarice to old age, or vanity to a woman. Anthony Henley's farmer dying of an asthma, faid, Well, if I can get this breath once out, I'll take care it fhall never get in again. The humour of exploding many things under the name of trifles, fopperies, and only imaginary goods, is a very falfe proof either of wisdom or magnanimity, and a great check to virtuous actions. For inftance, with regard to fame, there is in most people a reluctance and unwillingness to be forgotten. We obferve even among the vulgar, how fond they are to have an inscription over their grave. It requires but little philosophy to difcover and obferve that there is no intrinfic value in all this; however, if it be founded in our nature, as an incitement to virtue, it ought not to be ridiculed. Complaint is the largest tribute heaven receives, and the fincerest part of our devotion. The common fluency of fpeech in many men, and moft women, is owing to a scarcity of matter, and a fcarcity of words; for whoever is a master of language, and hath a mind full of ideas, will be apt in fpeaking to hefitate upon the choice of both : whereas common fpeakers have only one fet of iIdeas, and one fet of words to clothe them in; and these are always ready at the mouth: fo people come fafter out of a church when it is almost empty, than when a croud is at the door. Few are qualified to fhine in company; but it is in moft mens power to be agreeable. The reafon therefore, why converfation runs fo low at prefent, |