No. 71. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1750. Vivere quod propero pauper, nec inutilis annis, -F. LEWIS. ANY words and sentences are so frequently heard in the mouths of men, that a superficial observer is inclined to believe, that they must contain some primary principle, some great rule of action, which it is proper always to have present to the attention, and by which the use of every hour is to be adjusted. Yet, if we consider the conduct of those sententious philosophers, it will often be found, that they repeat these aphorisms, merely because they have somewhere heard them, because they have nothing else to say, or because they think veneration gained by such appearances of wisdom, but that no ideas are annexed to the words, and that, according to the old blunder of the followers of Aristotle, their souls are mere times even horror. I consider the sacrifice of the cock as a more certain evidence of the tranquillity of Socrates than his Discourse on Immortality."-Letters of David Hume, p. xxxviii. Johnson, unable to understand a state of mind so unlike his own, maintained that Hume had a vanity in being thought easy."-Boswell's Johnson, iii. 153. 1 Martial, ii. 90, 2. pipes or organs which transmit sounds, but do not understand them. Of this kind is the well-known and well-attested position, that life is short, which may be heard among mankind by an attentive auditor, many times a day, but which never yet within my reach of observation left any impression upon the mind; and perhaps, if my readers will turn their thoughts back upon their old friends, they will find it difficult to call a single man to remembrance, who appeared to know that life was short till he was about to lose it. It is observable that Horace, in his account of the characters of men, as they are diversified by the various influence of time, remarks, that the old man is dilator, spe longus,1 given to procrastination, and inclined to extend his hopes to a great distance. So far are we generally from thinking what we often say of the shortness of life, that at the time when it is necessarily shortest, we form projects which we delay to execute, indulge such expectations as nothing but a long train of events can gratify, and suffer those passions to gain upon us, which are only excusable in the prime of life. These reflections were lately excited in my mind, by an evening's conversation with my friend Prospero, who, at the age of fifty-five, has bought an estate, and is now contriving to dispose and cultivate it with uncommon elegance. His great pleasure is to walk among stately trees, and lie 1 Ars Poetica, 1. 172. 2 Prospero, of The Rambler, No. 200, was meant for Garrick. musing in the heat of noon under their shade; he is therefore maturely considering how he shall dispose his walks and his groves, and has at last determined to send for the best plans from Italy,1 and forbear planting till the next season. Thus is life trifled away in preparations to do what never can be done, if it be left unattempted till all the requisites which imagination can suggest are gathered together. Where our design terminates only in our own satisfaction, the mistake is of no great importance; for the pleasure of expecting enjoyment is often greater than that of obtaining it, and the completion of almost every wish is found a disappointment; but when many others are interested in an undertaking, when any design is formed, in which the improvement or security of mankind is involved, nothing is more unworthy either of wisdom or benevolence, than to delay it from time to time, or to forget how much every day that passes over us takes away from our power, and how soon an idle purpose to do an action, sinks into a mournful wish that it had once been done. We are frequently importuned, by the baccha 1 Addison, in the Spectator, No. 414, writes:-" Our English Gardens are not so entertaining to the fancy as those in France and Italy, where we see a large extent of ground covered over with an agreeable mixture of garden and forest, which represent everywhere an artificial rudeness, much more charming than that neatness and elegancy which we meet with in those of our own country. Our British gardeners, instead of humouring nature, love to deviate from it as much as possible. Our trees rise in cones, globes, and pyramids. We see the marks of the scissors upon every plant and bush." nalian writers, to lay hold on the present hour, to catch the pleasures within our reach, and remember that futurity is not at our command. Τὸ ῥόδον ἀκμάζει βαιὸν χρόνον, ἦν δὲ παρέλθῃ, Soon fades the rose; once past the fragrant hour; But surely these exhortations may, with equal propriety, be applied to better purposes; it may be at least inculcated that pleasures are more safely postponed than virtues, and that greater loss is suffered by missing an opportunity of doing good, than an hour of giddy frolic and noisy merriment. When Baxter had lost a thousand pounds, which he had laid up for the erection of a school, he used frequently to mention the misfortune as an incitement to be charitable while God gives the power of bestowing, and considered himself as culpable in some degree for having left a good action in the hands of chance, and suffered his benevolence to be defeated for want of quickness and diligence.2 2 1 "Vitæ rosa brevis est; properans si carpere nolis, Quærenti obveniet mox sine flore rubus." -Anthologia Græca, ii. 336; Johnson's Works, i. 182. About January this year [1672], the king shut up the Exchequer, which caused a general murmur in the City. For many merchants had put their money into the bankers' hands, and they had lent it to the King, who gave orders there should be no further payments, and so their estates were surprised, Among others Mr. Baxter had a £1000 there, which was the greatest part of what he had of his own then left. Having no child, he devoted it to a charitable use, intending to erect a Free School, as soon as he could meet with a suitable purchase It is lamented by Hearne, the learned antiquary of Oxford, that this general forgetfulness of the fragility of life, has remarkably infected the students of monuments and records; as their employment consists first in collecting, and afterwards in arranging or abstracting what libraries afford them, they ought to amass no more than they can digest; but when they have undertaken a work, they go on searching and transcribing, call for new supplies, when they are already overburthened, and at last leave their work unfinished. "It is," says he, "the business of a good antiquary, as of a good man, to have mortality "always before him." Thus, not only in the slumber of sloth, but in the dissipation of ill-directed industry, is the shortness of life generally forgotten. As some men lose their hours in laziness, because they suppose, that there is time enough for the reparation of neglect; others busy themselves in providing that no length of life may want employment; and it often happens, that sluggishness and activity are equally surprised by the last summons, and perish not more differently from each other, than the fowl that received the shot in her flight, from her that is killed upon the bush. with a good title. He had been seven years inquiring, and could not meet with a tolerable bargain, and let the money lie there till something that was suitable offered; and lying there it was lost, which made him admonish all that afterwards came near him, if they would do any good, to do it speedily and with all their might."-Calamy's Life of Richard Baxter, ed. 1702, p. 596. |