DXLII.

Estimation of the World. They take very unprofita. blc pains who endeavour to persuade men that they are obliged wholly to despise this world and all that is in it, even whilst they themselves live here: God hath not taken all that pains in forming, and framing, and furnishing, and adorning this world, that they who were made by him to live in it should despise it; it will be well enough if they do not love it so immoderately, to prefer it before him who made it.-Clarendon.

DXLIII.

Charity. It is an old saying, that charity begins at home: but this is no reason it should not go abroad: a man should live with the world as a citizen of the world; he may have a preference for the particular quarter or square, or even alley in which he lives, but he should have a generous feeling for the welfare of the whole.-Cumberland.

DXLIV.

Investigation.-Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual antidotes of error. Give them full scope, and they will uphold the truth, by bringing false opinions, and all the spurious offspring of ignorance, prejudice, and selfinterest, before their severe tribunal, and subjecting them to the test of close investigation. Error alone needs artificial support; truth can stand by itself.—Lawrence.

DXLV.

Marriages. When we see the avaricious and crafty taking companions to their tables and their beds, without any inquiry but after farms and money; or the giddy

and thoughtless uniting themselves for life to those whom they have only seen by the light of tapers; when parents make articles for children without inquiring after their consent; when some marry for heirs to disappoint their brothers; and others throw themselves into the arms of those whom they do not love, because they found themselves rejected where they were more solicitous to please; when some marry because their servants cheat them; some because they squander their own money; some because their houses are pestered with company; some because they will live like other people; and some because they are sick of themselves; we are not so much inclined to wonder that marriage is sometimes unhappy, as that it appears so little loaded with calamity; and cannot but conclude, that society hath something in itself eminently agreeable to human nature, when we find its pleasures so great, that even the ill choice of a companion can hardly overbalance them.-Those, therefore, of the above description, that should rail against matrimony, should be informed, that they are neither to wonder, or repine, that a contract begun on such principles has ended in disappointment.—Johnson.

DXLVI.

Prejudice. There is a high degree of difficulty in questioning opinions established by time, by habit, and by education; every religious and political innovation is opposed by the timidity of some, the obstinacy and pride of others, and the ignorance of the bulk of mankind, who are incapable of attention to reasoning and argument; and must, if they have any opinions, have opinions of prejudice. All improvements, therefore, in religion and politics, must be gradual. There was a time when the most

part of the inhabitants of Britain would have been as much startled at questioning the truth of the doctrine of transubstantiation, as they would, in this age, at the most sceptical doubts on the being of a God.—Anon.

DXLVII.

Speculation and Practice.—It is not difficult to con. ceive, that for many reasons, a man writes much better than he lives. For without entering into refined speculations, it may be shown much easier to design than to perform. A man proposes his schemes of life in a state of abstraction and disengagement, exempt from the enticements of hope, the solicitations of affection, the importunities of appetite, or the depressions of fear, and is in the same state with him that teaches upon land the art of navigation, to whom the sea is always smooth, and the wind prosperous.-Johnson.

DXLVIII.

Truth.-Truth whether in or out of fashion, is the measure of knowledge, and the business of the understanding; whatsoever is besides that, however authorized by consent, or recommended by rarity, is nothing but ignorance, or something worse.-Locke.

DXLIX.

Differences in Men.-Poverty, exile, loss of fame or friends, the death of children, the dearest of all pledges of a man's happiness, make not equal impressions upon every temper. You will see one man undergo, with scarce the expense of a sigh, what another, in the bitterness of his soul, would go mourning for all his life long; nay, a hasty word, or an unkind look, to a soft and tender

nature, will strike deeper than a sword to the hardened and senseless.

If these reflections hold true with regard to misfor. tunes, they are the same with regard to enjoyments; we are formed differently, and have different tastes and perceptions of things: by the force of habit, education, or a particular cast of mind, it happens that neither the use nor possession of the same enjoyments and advantages, produces the same happiness and contentment; but that it differs in every man almost according to his temper and complexion; so that the self-same happy accidents in life, which gives raptures to the choleric or sanguine man shall be received with indifference by the cold and phlegmatic; and so oddly perplexed are the accounts of both human happiness and misery in this world—that trifles light as air shall be able to make the hearts of some men sing with joy; at the same time that others, with real blessings and advantages, without the power of using them, have their hearts heavy and discontented. Alas! if the principles of contentment are not within us, the height of station or worldly grandeur will as soon add a cubit to a man's stature as to his happiness.—Sterne's Sermons.

DL.

Common Sense.-Common sense is nothing more than that which appears to be rational, whether it be so or not. It is the general opinion which it is the prerogative of reason to correct when it is enormous or savage. We grant also that there is no necessary connexion between reason and common sense; for common sense, when best explained, being no other than common opinion, will sometimes be true and sometimes be false, although it can never appear absurd to the community under the influence of its maxims.-Cogan's Ethical Questions.

DLI.

Education. The time which we usually bestow on the instruction of our children in principles, the reasons of which they do not understand, is worse than lost; it is teaching them to resign their faculties to authority; it is improving their memories, instead of their understandings; it is giving them credulity instead of knowledge, and it is preparing them for any kind of slavery which can be imposed on them. Whereas, if we assisted them in making experiments on themselves, induced them to attend to the consequence of every action, to adjust their little deviations, and fairly and freely to exercise their powers, they would collect facts which nothing could controvert. These facts they would deposite in their memories as secure and eternal treasures; they would be mate. rials for reflection, and in time be formed into principles of conduct which no circumstances or temptations could remove. This would be a method of forming a man who would answer the end of his being, and make himself and others happy.-David Williams.

DLII.

Slavery.-There is a strange coincidence, Sancho, in the little events (as well as in the great ones) of this world: for I had been writing a tender tale of the sorrows of a friendless poor Negro girl, and my eyes had scarce done smarting with it, when your letter of recommendation, in behalf of so many of her brethren and sisters, came to me-ay, why her brethren? or yours, Sancho? any more than mine? It is by the finest tints and most insensible gradations, that nature descends from the fairest face about St. James's, to the sootiest complexion in Africa: