ページの画像
PDF
ePub

favour and confideration of our neighbour.

2. Again: the man who governs himfelf by the fpirit of the Apoftle's precept,

feit folicits their favour by dishonest compliances, and for the bafeft end.

viour.

Hurd.

expreffes his preference of another in fuch § 83. On Religious Principles and Beha a way as is worthy of himself; in all innocent compliances, in all honeft civilities, in all decent and manly condefcenfions.

On the contrary, the man of the world, who refts in the letter of this command, is regardless of the means by which he conducts himself. He refpects neither his own dignity, nor that of human nature. Truth, reafon, virtue, all are equally betrayed by this fupple impofter. He affents to the errors, though the most pernicious; he applauds the follies, though the most ridiculous, he foothes the vices, though the moft flagrant, of other men. He never contradicts, though in the fofteft form of infinuation; he never difapproves, though by a refpectful filence; he never condemns, though it be only by a good example. In fhort, he is folicitous for nothing, but by fome ftudied devices to hide from others, and, if poflible, to palliate to himself, the groffness of his illiberal adulation.

Laftly; we may be fure, that the ultimate ends for which these different objects are purfued, and by fo different means, must also lie wide of each other.

Accordingly, the true polite man would, by all proper teftimonies of refpect, promote the credit and eftimation of his neighbour; because he fees that, by this generous confideration of each other, the peace of the world is, in a good degree, preferved; because he knows that thefe mutual attentions prevent animofities, foften the fierce nefs of men's manners, and difpofe them to all the offices of benevolence and charity; because, in a word, the interefts of fociety are beft ferved by this conduct; and because he understands it to be his duty to love his neighbour.

The fallely polite, on the contrary, are anxious, by all means whatever, to procure the favour and confideration of thofe they converfe with; because they regard, ultimately, nothing more than their private intereft; because they perceive. that their own felfish defigns are best carried on by fuch practices: in a word, because they love themselves.

Thus we fee, that genuine virtue confults the honour of others by worthy means, and for the noblest purpoles; the counter

Religion is rather a matter of fentiment than reafoning. The important and interefting articles of faith are fufficiently plain. Fix your attention on these, and do not meddle with controverfy. If you get into that, you plunge into a chaos, from which you will never be able to extricate yourfelves. It fpoils the temper, and, I fufpect, has no good effect on the heart.

Avoid all books, and all conversation, that tend to shake your faith on those great points of religion, which should serve to regulate your conduct, and on which your hopes of future and eternal happiness depend.

Never indulge yourfelves in ridicule on religious fubjects; nor give countenance to it in others, by feeming diverted with what they fay. This, to people of good breeding, will be a fufficient check.

I wish you to go no farther than the Scriptures for your religious opinions. Embrace thofe you find clearly revealed. Never perplex yourselves about fuch as you do not underftand, but treat them with filent and becoming reverence.

I would advise you to read only fuch religious books as are addreffed to the heart, fuch as infpire pious and devout affections, fuch as are proper to direct you in your conduct; and not fuch as tend to entangle you in the endless maze of opinions and fyftems.

Be punctual in the flated performance of your private devotions, morning and evening. If you have any fenfibility or imagination, this will establish such an in tercourfe between you and the Supreme Being, as will be of infinite confequence to you in life. It will communicate an habitual chearfulness to your temper, give a firmness and steadiness to your virtue, and enable you to go through all the viciffitudes of human life with propriety and dignity.

I wish you to be regular in your attendance on public worship, and in receiving the communion. Allow nothing to inter rupt your public or private devotions, except the performance of fome active duty in life, to which they fhould always give place. In your behaviour at public wor

Thip, obferve an exemplary attention and gravity.

That extreme ftrictness which I recommend to you in thefe duties, will be confidered by many of your acquaintance as a fuperftitious attachment to forms; but in the advices I give you on this and other fubjects, I have an eye to the spirit and manners of the age. There is a levity and diffipation in the prefent manners, a coldness and liftleffness in whatever relates to religion, which cannot fail to infect you, unless you purposely cultivate in your minds a contrary bias, and make the devotional one habitual.

Gregory's Advice.

84. On the Beauties of the Pfalms. Greatnefs confers no exemption from the cares and forrows of life: its fhare of them frequently bears a melancholy proportion to its exaltation. This the Ifraelitish monarch experienced. He fought in piety, that peace which he could not ind in empire, and alleviated the dif quietudes of ftate, with the excrcifes of devotion. His invaluable Pfalms convey thofe comforts to others, which they afforded to helf. Compofed upon particular occañons, yet defigned for general ufe: delivered out as fervices for Ifraelites under the Law, yet no lefs adapted to the circumstances of Chriftians under the Gofpel; they prefent religion to us in the moft engaging drefs; communicating truths which philofophy could never investigate, in a style which poetry can never equal; while history is made the vehicle of prophecy, and creation lends all its Charms to paint the glories of redemption. Calculated alike to profit and to pleafe, they inform the understanding, elevate the affections, and entertain the imagination. Indited under the influence of Him, to whom all hearts are known, and all events foreknown, they fuit mankind in all fitu ations, grateful as the manna which de fcended from above, and conformed itfelf to every palate. The fairest productions of human wit, after a few perutals, like gathered flowers, wither in our hands, and lufe their fragrancy; but thefe unfading. plants of paradife become, as we are accatomed to them, ftill more and more beautiful; their bloom appears to be daily heightened; fresh odours are emitted, and rew fweets extracted from them. He who hath once tafted their excellencies, will defire to tate them yet again; and he

who taftes them ofteneft, will relish them beft. And now, could the author flatter himfelf that any one would take half the pleasure in reading his work which he hath taken in writing it, he would not fear the lofs of his labour. The employment detached him from the buftle and hurry of life, the din of politics, and the noise of folly; vanity and vexation flew away for a feafon, care and difquietude came not near his dwelling. He rofe, fresh as the morning, to his tafk; the filence of the night invited him to pursue it; and he can truly fay, that food and reft were not preferred before it. Every Pfalm improved infinitely upon his acquaintance with it, and no one gave him uneafinefs but the lait; for then he grieved that his work was done. Hap、 pier hours than thofe which have been pent in thefe meditations on, the fongs of Sion, he never expects to fee in this world. Very pleafantly did they pafs, and moved fmoothly and fwiftly along; for when thus engaged, he counted no time. They are gone, but have left a relish and a fragrance upon the mind, and the remem brance of them is fweet. Horne.

$85. The Temple of virtuous Love.

The ftructure on the right hand was (as I afterwards found) confecrated to virtuous Love, and could not be entered, but by fuch as received a ring, or fome other token, from a perfon who was placed as a guard at the gate of it. He wore a garland of rofes and myrtles on his head, and on his fhoulders a robe like an imperial mantle white and unspotted all over, excepting only, that where it was clafped at his breait, there were two golden turtle doves that buttoned it by their bills, which were wrought in rubies: he was called by the name of Hymen, and was feated near the entrance of the temple, in a delicious bower, made up of feveral trees that were embraced by woodbines, jeffamines, and amaranths, which were as fo many emblems of marriage, and ornaments to the trunks that fupported them. As I was fingle and unaccompanied, I was not permitted to enter the temple, and for that reafon am a stranger to all the mysteries that were performed in it. I had, however, the curiofity to obferve, how the feveral couples that entered were difpofed of; which was after the following manner: there were two great gates on the backfide of the editice, at which the whole croud was let out. At one of thefe gates

F 2

were

were two women, extremely beautiful, though in a different kind; the one having a very careful and compofed air, the other a fort of fmile and ineffable fweetnefs in her countenance: the name of the first was Difcretion, and of the other Complacency. All who came out of this gate, and put themselves under the direction of thefe two fifters, were immediately conducted by them into gardens, groves, and meadows, which abounded in delights, and were furnished with every thing that could make them the proper feats of happinefs. The fecond gate of this temple let out all the couples that were unhappily married; who came out linked together by chains, which each of them ftrove to break, but could not. Several of these were fuch as had never been acquainted with each other before they met in the great walk, or had been too well acquainted in the thicket. The entrance to this gate was poffeffed by three fifters, who joined themselves with thefe wretches, and occafioned most of their miferies. The youngest of the fifters was known by the name of Levity; who, with the innocence of a virgin, had the drefs and behaviour of a harlot: the name of the fecond was Contention, who bore on her right arm a muff made of the fkin of a porcupine, and on her left carried a little lap-dog, that barked and fnapped at every one that paffed by her. The eldeft of the fifters, who feemed to have an haughty and imperious air, was always accompanied with a tawny Cupid, who generally marched before her with a little mace on his fhoulder, the end of which was fafhioned into the horns of a ftag: her garments were yellow, and her complexion pale: her eyes were piercing, but had odd cafts in them, and that particular diftemper which makes perfons who are troubled with it fee objects double. Upon enquiry, I was informed that her name was Jealousy.

Tatler.

§86. The Temple of Luft. Having finished my obfervations upon this temple, and its votaries, I repaired to that which flood on the left hand, and was called the temple of Luft. The front of it was raised on Corinthian pillars, with all the meretricious ornaments that accompany that order; whereas that of the other was compofed of the chafte and matronlike Ionic. The fides of it were ador ed with feveral grotefque figures of goats,

fparrows, heathen gods, fatyrs, and monfters, made up of half men, half beaft. The gates were unguarded, and open to all that had a mind to enter. Upon my going in, I found the windows were blinded, and let in only a kind of twilight, that ferved to discover a prodigious number of dark corners and apartments, into which the whole temple was divided. I was here ftunned with a mixed noife of clamour and jollity: on one fide of me I heard finging and dancing; on the other, brawls and clafhing of fwords: in fhort, I was fo little pleafed with the place, that I was going out of it: but found I could not return by the gate where I entered, which was barred against all that were come in, with bolts of iron and locks of adamant; there was no going back from this temple through the paths of pleasure which led to it: all who paffed through the ceremonies of the place, went out at an iron wicket, which was kept by a dreadful giant called Remorfe, that held a scourge of fcorpions in his hand, and drove them into the only outlet from that temple. This was a paffage fo rugged, fo uneven, and choaked with fo many thorns and briars, that it was a melancholy fpectacle to behold the pains and difficulties which both sexes fuffered who walked through it: the men, though in the prime of their youth, appeared weak and enfeebled with old age: the women wrung their hands, and tore their hair, and feveral loft their limbs, before they could extricate themselves out of the perplexities of the path in which they were engaged. The remaining part of this vifion, and the adventures 1 met with in the two great roads of Ambition and Avarice must be the subject of another paper.

$87. The Temple of Virtue.

Ibid.

With much labour and difficulty I paffed through the first part of my vifion, and recovered the centre of the wood, from whence I had the profpect of the three great roads. I here joined myself to the middle-aged party of mankind, who marched behind the standard of Ambition. The great road lay in a direct line, and was terminated by the temple of Virtue. It was planted on each fide with laurels, which were intermixed with marble trophies, carved pillars, and statues of lawgivers, heroes, ftatefmen, philofophers, and poets. The perfons who travelled up this great path, were fuch whofe thoughts

were

were bent upon doing eminent fervices to mankind, or promoting the good of their country. On each fide of this great road, were feveral paths that were also laid out in ftraight lines, and ran parallel with it; thefe were most of them covered walks, and received into them men of retired virtue, who propofed to themselves the fame end of their journey, though they chose to make it in fhade and obfcurity. The edifices, at the extremity of the walk, were fo contrived, that we could not fee the temple of Honour, by reafon of the temple of Virtue, which food before it: at the gates of this temple, we were met by the goddefs of it, who conducted us into that of Honour, which was joined to the other edifice by a beautiful triumphal arch, and had no other entrance into it. When the deity of the inner ftructure had received us, the prefented us in a body, to a figure that was placed over the high altar, and was the emblem of Eternity. She fat on a globe, in the midst of a golden zodiac, holding the figure of a fun in one hand, ard a moon in the other: her head was veled, and her feet covered. Our hearts glowed within us, as we ftood amidit the fphere of light which this image caft on every fide of it. Tatler.

88. The Temple of Vanity. Having feen all that happened to the band of adventurers, I repaired to another pile of buildings that flood within view of the temple of Honour, and was raifed in imitation of it, upon the very fame model; bat, at my approach to it, I found that the ones were laid together without mortar, and that the whole fabric ftood upon fo weak a foundation, that it shook with every wind that blew. This was called the Temple of Vanity. The goddefs of it fat in the midst of a great many tapers, that burned day and night, and made her appear much better than the would have done in open day-light. Her whole art was to fhew herself more beautiful and majeftic than the really was. For which rezfon fhe had painted her face, and wore a cluster of falfe jewels upon her breaft: but what I more particularly obferved, was the breadth of her petticoat, which was made altogether in the fashion of a modern fardingal. This place was filled with hypocrites, pedants, free-thinkers, and prating politicians, with a rabble of thofe who have only titles to make them great men. Female votaries crowded the tem

ple, choaked up the avenues of it, and were more in number than the fand upon the fea-fhore. I made it my business, in my return towards that part of the wood from whence I firit fet out, to obferve the walks which led to this temple; for I met in it feveral who had begun their journey with the band of virtuous perfons, and travelled fome time in their company: but, upon examination, I found that there were feveral paths, which led out of the great road into the fides of the wood, and ran into fo many crooked turns and windings, that thofe who travelled through them, often turned their backs upon the temple of Virtue, then croffed the ftraight road, and fometimes marched in it for a little space, till the crooked path which they were engaged in again led them into the wood. The feveral alleys of thefe wanderers, had their particular ornaments: one of them I could not but take notice of, in the walk of the mischievous pretenders to politics, which had at every turn the figure of a perfon, whom, by the infcription, I found to be Machiavel, pointing out the way, with an extended finger, like a Mercury. Ibid.

§ 89. The Temple of Avarice.

I was now returned in the fame manner as before, with a defign to obferve carefully every thing that paffed in the region of Avarice, and the occurrences in that affembly, which was made up of perfons of my own age. This body of travellers had not gone far in the third great road, before it led them infenfibly into a deep valley, in which they journied feveral days with great toil and unea finefs, and without the neceffary refreshments of food and fleep. The only relief they met with, was in a river that ran through the bottom of the valley on a bed of golden fand: they often drank of this ftream, which had fuch a particular quality in it, that though it refreshed them for a time, it rather inflamed than quenched their thirst. On each fide of the river was a range of hills full of precious ore; for where the rains had washed off the earth, one might fee in feveral parts of them long veins of gold, and rocks that looked like pure filver. We were told that the deity of the place had forbad any of his votaries to dig into the bowels of these hills, or convert the treafures they contained to any ufe, under pain of ftarving. At the end of the valley ftood the temple of Avarice, made after

[blocks in formation]

the manner of a fortification, and furfortification, and furrounded with a thoufand triple-headed dogs, that were placed there to keep off beggars. At our approach they all fell a barking, and would have much terrified us, had not an old woman, who had called herfelf by the forged name of Competency, offered herfelf for our guide. She carried under her garment a golden bow, which the no fooner held up in her hand, but the dogs lay down, and the gates flew open for our reception. We were led through an hundred iron doors before we entered the temple. At the upper end of it, fat the god of Avarice, with a long filthy beard, and a meagre ftarved countenance, inclofed with heaps of ingots and pyramids of money, but half naked and hivering with cold: on his right hand was a fiend called Rapine, and on his left a particular favourite, to whom he had given the title of Parfimony; the firft was his collector, and the other his cashier. There were feveral long tables placed on each fide of the temple, with refpective officers attending behind them: fome of thefe I enquired into: at the firft table was kept the office of Corruption. Seeing a folicitor extremely bufy, and whifpering every body that paffed by, I kept my eye upon him very attentively, and faw him often going up to a perfon that had a pen in his hand, with a multiplication-table and an almanack before him, which, as I afterwards heard, was all the learning he was mafter of. The folicitor would often apply himself to his ear, and at the fame time convey money into his hand, for which the other would give him out a piece of paper, or parchment, figned and fealed in form. The name of this dexterous and fuccefsful folicitor was Bribery. At the next table was the office of Extortion: behind it fat a perfon in a bob-wig, counting over a great fum of money: he gave out little purfes to feveral, who, after a fhort tour, brought him, in return, facks full of the fame kind of coin. I faw, at the fame time, a perfon called Fraud, who fat behind the counter, with falfe fcales, light weights, and fcanty meafures; by the fkilful application of which inftruments, fhe had got together an immenfe heap of wealth; it would be endless to name the feveral officers, or defcribe the votaries that attended in this temple; there were many old men, panting and breathlefs, repofing their heads on

bags of money; nay many of them actually dying, whofe very pangs and convulfions (which rendered their purfes ufelefs to them) only made them grafp them the fafter. There were fome tearing with one hand all things, even to the garments and flesh of many miferable perfons who food before them; and with the other hand throwing away what they had feized, to harlots, flatterers, and panders, that ftood behind them. On a fudden the whole affembly fell a trembling; and, upon enquiry, I found that the great room we were in was haunted with a fpectre, that many times a day appeared to them, and terrified them to distraction. In the midft of their terror and amazement, the apparition entered, which I immediately knew to be Poverty, Whether it were by my acquaintance with this phantom, which had rendered the fight of her more familiar to me, or however it was, fhe did not make fo indigent or frightful a figure in my eye, as the god of this loathfome temple. The miferable votaries of this place were, I found, of another mind : every one fancied himself threatened by the apparition as fhe flalked about the room, and began to lock their coffers, and tie their bags, with the utmoft fear and trembling. I muft confefs, I look upon the paffion which I faw in this unhappy people, to be of the fame nature with thofe unaccountable antipathies which fome perfons are born with, or rather as a kind of phrenzy, not unlike that which throws a man into terrors and agonies at the fight of fo ufeful and innocent a thing as water. The whole affembly was furprized, when, inftead of paying my devotions to the deity whom they all adored, they faw me addrefs myfelf to the phantom. to the phantom. "Oh! Poverty! (faid I) my firft petition to thee is, that thou wouldeft never appear to me hereafter; but if thou wilt not grant me this, that thou wouideft not bear a form more terrible than that in which thou appeareft to me at prefent. Let not thy threats or menaces betray me to any thing that is ungrateful or unjuft. Let me not fhut my ears to the cries of the needy. Let me not forget the perfon that has deferved well of me. Let me not, from any fear of Thee, defert my friend, my principles, or my honour. If Wealth is to vifit me, and come with her ufual attendants, Vanity and Avarice, do thou, O Poverty! haften to my refcue; but bring along with Thee

thy

« 前へ次へ »