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we may be allowed the expression, be thrust up in a corner, and yet enjoy scope enough for every valuable purpose. It is more necessary that we should not proscribe them, than that we should make them one of the eminent pursuits of our lives.

Secondly, we ought not only to confine them within limits considerably narrow, as to the time they should occupy, but should also be careful that they do not confound and inebriate our understandings. This is indeed necessary, in order to the keeping them in due subordination in the respect last mentioned. If they be not held in subjection as to their place in our thoughts, they will speedily usurp upon all other subjects, and convert the mind into a scene of tumult and confusion. Intellectual and elevated pursuits demand from us a certain calmness of temper; that the mind should rest upon its proper centre, that it should look round with steadiness and freedom, that it should be undisturbed by the intrusion of thoughts foreign to the present object of its attention, and that it should be capable of a severe and obstinate investigation of the point under review.

A further reason for moderation in our appetite for sensible pleasure, not less important than any other that can possibly be assigned, is that which was alluded to in the commencement of this essay, the preservation of our independence.

The man who is anxious to maintain his independence, ought steadily to bear in mind how few are the wants of a human being. It is by our wants that we are held down, and linked in a thousand ways, to human society. They render the man who is devoted to them, the slave of every creature that breathes. They make all the difference between the hero and the coward. The man of true courage is he who, when duty and public good demand it, can chearfully dispense with innumerable gratifications. The coward is he who, wedded to particular indulgences and a certain mode of life, is not able so much as to think with equanimity of the being deprived of them.

Hunc solem, et stellas, et decedentia certis

Tempora momentis, sunt qui, formidine nulla
Imbuti, spectent *.

HOR.

Such undoubtedly is the characteristic of genuine virtue. It teaches us to look upon events, not absolutely with indifference, but at least with tranquillity. It instructs us to enjoy the benefits which we have, and prepares us for what is to follow. It smiles upon us in the midst of poverty and adverse

*This vault of air, this congregated ball,

Self-centred sun, and stars that rise and fall,
There are, my friend! whose philosophic eyes
Look thro',

And view this dreadful All without a fear.

POPE.

circumstances. It enables us to collect and combine the comforts which a just observer may extract from the most untoward situation, and to be

content.

The weakness which too many are subject to in regard to the goods of fortune, puts such persons to a certain degree in every man's power. It is of little consequence how virtuous may be a man's habitual inclinations, if he be inordinately sensible to the presence or absence of the accommodations and luxuries of life. This man is not his own master. If he have not been seduced to the commission of base and dishonourable actions, he may thank accident for his escape, not the strength of his virtue. He is truly a slave. Any man, possessing the command of a certain portion of the goods of life, may order him this way or that at his pleasure. He is like those brute animals, that are allured to the learning innumerable postures and ridiculous tricks, by the attraction of a morsel of meat. He knows not whether he shall end his life with a virtue, plausible, hollow, and ever on the brink of dissolution; or whether, on the contrary, his character shall be hated and contemned, as long as his story endures.

He that desires to be virtuous, and to remain so, must learn to be content with a little; to use the recreations of sense for the purposes of living, and not to live for the sake of these recreations.

Summum credet nefas animam præferre pudori,

Et propter vitam vivendi perdere causas*. JUV.

How far then is it requisite that he, who would not be the slave of appetite, should rigidly restrain himself in the indulgence of appetite?

There have been men who, living in the midst of luxury and inordinate indulgence, have yet, when an adequate occasion presented itself to rouse their virtue, shewn that they were superior to these trivial accessories of human life, and that they could stoop with a chearful spirit to calamity and penury.

He however, who would desire to have reason to depend upon his fortitude, ought not probably to expose himself to so doubtful an experiment. It has often happened that those who, in the outset of their career, have been full of a gallant spirit, have been insensibly subdued by a course of unexpected gratification. There is something particularly dangerous in this situation. The man remembers with how much chearfulness he formerly submitted to inconvenience, and he does not feel, and cannot persuade himself, that he is worse than he was.. He does not advert to the

*He'd chuse

To guard his Honour, and his Life to lose,
Rather than let his Virtue be betrayed;
Virtue, the Noble Cause for which he's made.

STEPNEY..

way in which luxury is undermining all the energies of his soul. He does not see that it is twining itself about his heart, and will not be torn away but with life. This is unfortunately one of the peculiar characteristics of degeneracy, that it invades us in a secret and crafty manner, and is less easily perceived by its victim, than by the least sagacious of the bystanders.

ESSAY VII.

OF INDIVIDUAL REPUTATION.

SECT. I.

SOURCES OF POPULAR APPLAUSE.

Few speculations can be more interesting than that which relates to the truth or falshood of the ordinary standard of morality.

The just and sound standard of morality is easily assigned. The first object of virtue is to contribute to the welfare of mankind. The most essential attribute of right conduct therefore is, that it shall have a beneficent and salutary tendency. One further characteristic it is usual to add. Men, in the exercise of their rational faculties, are influenced by motives and inducements apprehended

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