those I live with, and of all who have any dependence upon me? Have I preserved my understanding clear, my temper calm, my spirits chearful, my body temperate and healthy, and my heart in a right frame? If to all these questions I can humbly, yet confidently answer, that I have done my best: If I have truly repented all the faulty past, and made humble, yet firm, and vigorous, and deliberate resolutions for the future, poor as it is, the honest endeavour will be graciously accepted: And I may to-morrow, gladly and securely approach the sacred table, and partake that bread of life, which our blessed Saviour gave, to nourish to all goodness those who receive it worthily, and to be not only the means of grace, but the pledge of glory. Amen! ESSAY I. On the Employment of Time in the different Situations in Society. ONE scarce ever walked, with any set of company, by a neat cottage, but somebody or other has expressed their envy of the pastoral inhabitant. It is quite common, among peo ple of easy and affluent circumstances to ima gine, in a splenetic moment, every laborious situation happier than their own: and to wish an exchange with the plough-man, the shepherd, or the mechanic. I have sometimes thought this an affectation: and a very false sentiment it surely is. For if all made the im-` provement they ought of their own way of life, there can be little doubt, but the higher, and more leisurable stations would be, upon the whole, the happiest. That they rarely prove so in fact, is the fault of the possessors: who unable to avoid their necessary cares, and unindustrious to seek out their true E advantages, sink under a weight, that they might easily balance, so as not to feel it. What is generally called the spleen, is no other than the uneasy consciousness and dissatisfaction of a mind formed for nobler pursuits and better purposes, than it is ever put upon. Mere pleasure is an end too unworthy for a rational being to make its only aim. Yet persons, unconstrained by necessity, are so apt to be allured by indolence and amusement, that their better faculties are seldom exercised as they ought to be: though every employment that serves no other purpose than merely to while away the present moment, gives the mind a painful sensation, that whe ther distinctly attended to, or not, makes up, when frequently repeated, the sum of that satiety and tediousness so often lamented, in prosperous life. There is, doubtless, to many persons a real difficulty in making the choice of an employment, when they are let perfectly at liberty, to chuse what they will. Necessity is perhaps the most satisfactory guide: and, for that reason alone, the artificer, the shepherd, and the farmer, are happier than their affluent neighbours. The poor man must either work or starve: so he makes the best of his lot; works |