Imagens da página
PDF
ePub

It is a common obfervation, that the most abandoned to all fense of goodness, are apt to wish those who are related to them to be of a different character; and it is very obfervable, that none are more ftruck with the charms of virtue in the fair fex, than those who by their very admiration of it are carried to a defire of ruining it. A virtuous mind in a fair body is indeed a fine picture in a good light, and therefore it is no wonder that it makes the beautiful fex all over charms.

As virtue in general is of an amiable and lovely nature, there are fome particular kinds of it which are more fo than others, and these are such as difpofe us to do good to mankind. Temperance and abftinence, faith and devotion, are in themselves perhaps as laudable as any other virtues; but those which make a man popular and beloved, are juftice, charity, munificence, and, in fhort, all the good qualities that render us be-neficial to each other. For which reafon even an extravagant man, who has nothing else to recommend him but a falfe generofity, is often more beloved and efteemed than a perfon of a much more finished character, who is defective in this particular.

The two great ornaments of Virtue, which fhew her in the most advantageous views, and make her altogether lovely, are cheerfulness and good-nature. Thefe generally go together, as a man cannot be agreeable to others who is not eafy within himself. They are both very requisite in a virtuous mind, to keep out melancholy from the many ferious thoughts it is engaged in, and to hinder its natural hatred of vice from fouring into severity and cenforioufnefs.

Remarks

15

Remarks on the Swiftness of Time. THE natural advantages which arife from the pofition of the earth which we inhabit, with respect to the other planets, afford much employment to mathematical fpeculation, by which it has been discovered, that no other conformation of the fyftem could have given fuch commodious diftribution of light and heat, or imparted fertility and pleasure to fo great a part of a revolving sphere.

It may be perhaps obferved by the moralift, with equal reason, that our globe feems particularly fitted for the refidence of a being, placed here only for a short time, whofe task is to advance himself to a higher and happier state of existence, by unremitted vigilance of caution, and activity of virtue.

The duties required of man are fuch as human nature does not willingly perform, and fuch as those are inclined to delay, who yet intend fome time to fulfil them. It was therefore neceffary that this universal reluctance should be counteracted, and the drowsiness of hesitation wakened into refolve; that the danger of procraftination fhould be always in view, and the fallacies of fecurity be hourly detected.

To this end all the appearances of nature uniformly confpire. Whatever we fee on every fide, reminds us of the lapfe of time and the flux of life. The day and night fucceed each other; the rotation of feafons diverfifies the year; the fun rifes, attains the meridian, declines, and fets; and the moon, every night, changes its form.

He that is carried forward, however fwiftly, by a motion equable and eafy, perceives not the change of place but by the variation of objects. If the wheel of life, which rolls thus filently along, paffed on through undistinguishable uniformity, we fhould never mark its approaches to the end of the course. If one hour were like another; if the paffage of the fun did not fhew

that

that the day is wafting; if the change of seasons did not imprefs upon us the flight of the year, quantities of duration equal to days and years would glide unobserved. If the parts of time were not variously coloured, we fhould never difcern their departure or fucceffion, but fhould live thoughtless of the paft, and careless of the future, without will, and perhaps without power, to compute the periods of life, or to compare the time which is already loft with that which may probably remain.

Yet it is certain that these admonitions of nature, however forcible, however importunate, are too often vain; and that many who mark with fuch accuracy the courfe of time, appear to have little fenfibility of the decline of life. Every man has fomething to do which he neglects; every man has faults to conquer, which he delays to combat.

So little do we accuftom ourselves to confider the effects of time, that things neceffary and certain often furprife us like unexpected contingencies. We leave the beauty in her bloom, and, after an abfence of twenty years, wonder, at our return, to find her faded. We meet those whom we left children, and can scarcely perfuade ourselves to treat them as men. The traveller vifits in age those countries through which he rambled in his youth, and hopes for merriment at the old place. The man of business, wearied with unfatisfactory profperity, retires to the town of his nativity, and expects to play away the last years with the companions of his childhood, and recover youth in the fields where he once was young.

From this inattention, fo general and so mischievous, let it be every man's ftudy to exempt himself. Let him that defires to fee others happy, make hafte to give while his gift can be enjoyed, and remember, that every moment of delay takes away fomething from the value of his benefaction. And let him who feeks his own happiness, reflect, that while he forms his purpose the day rolls on, and the night cometh, when no man can work.'

[graphic][merged small]

IDELIA is the only child of a decrepid father,

whofe life is wound up in hers. This gentleman has ufed Fidelia from her cradle with all the tendernefs imaginable, and has viewed her growing perfections with the partiality of a parent, that foon thought her accomplished above the children of all other men, but never thought fhe was come to the utmost improvement of which fhe was capable. This fondness has had very happy effects upon his own happiness; for the reads, the dances, the fings, ufes her fpinet and lute, to the utmost perfection: And the lady's ufe of all thefe excellencies is, to divert the old man in his easy chair, when he is free from the pangs of a chronical diftemper. Fidelia is now in the twenty-third year of her age; but the application of many lovers, her vigorous time of life, her quick fenfe of all that is truly gallant and elegant in the enjoyment of a plentiful fortune, are not able to draw her from the fide of her good old father. Certain it is, that there is no kind of affection

affection fo pure and angelic as that of a father to a daughter. He beholds her both with and without regard to her fex. In love to our wives there is desire, to our fons there is ambition; but in that to our daughters, there is fomething which there are no words to exprefs. Her life is defigned wholly domeftic; and the is fo ready a friend and companion, that every thing that paffes about a man is accompanied with the idea of her prefence. Her fex alfo is naturally fo much expofed to hazard, both as to fortune and innocence, that there is perhaps a new cause of fondness arising from that confideration alfo. None but fathers can have a true sense of this fort of pleasures and fenfations.

Fidelia, on her part, as accomplished as the is, with all her beauty, wit, air, and mien, employs her whole time in care and attendance upon her father. How have I been charmed to fee one of the most beautiful women the age has produced, on her knees, helping on an old man's flipper! Her filial regard to him is what the makes her diverfion, her bufinefs, and her glory. When she was afked by a friend of her deceased mother to admit of the courtship of her fon, fhe answered, That the had a great refpect and gratitude to her for the overture in behalf of one so dear to her, but that during her father's life fhe would admit into her heart no value for any thing that should interfere with her endeavour to make his remains of life as happy and eafy as could be expected in his circumstances. The lady admonished her of the prime of life with a smile; which Fidelia answered with a frankness that always attends unfeigned virtue: "It is true, Madam, there are to be fure very great fatisfactions to be expected in the commerce of a man of honour, whom one tenderly loves; but I find fo much fatisfaction in the reflection, how much I mitigate a good man's pains, whofe welfare depends upon my affiduity about him, that I willingly exclude the loofe gratifications of paffion for the folid reflections of duty. I know not whether any man's wife would be allowed, and (what I ftill more fear) I know

not

« AnteriorContinuar »