man, even under the unjust frowns of fortune; and, if he has obtained this esteem, he reputes himfelf the poffeffor of the moft defirable wealth. In fact, whatever indifference we pretend to, fhew for the public opinion, every one feeks after fame, and believes he is more worthy of being placed by it in a confpicuous light, in proportion as he finds himself more generally esteemed.

As our wants, our paffions, and, above all, our indolence, do not flife in our minds this ardent defire of fame, there is no perfon, who does not ftrive to deferve it, and does not wish for the public fuffrage, as a furety for the high opinion he has of himself. Therefore a contempt for reputation, and the facrifice faid to be made of it to fortune, or other views, is always infpired by the defpair of rendering ourfelves illuftrious.

The neceffary effects of mifguided pride are to boast of what we have, and defpife what we have not. It is not fo with the man who courts fame by public-fpirited actions: if he confiders as a benefit all the evil that is not done to him, and, as a gift, all that the wickedpefs of mankind fuffers him to enjoy; if he pours over the faults of others the lenient balfam of pity, and is flow in difcovering them; it is because the elevation of his mind will not permit him to expatiate upon the vices and follies of fingle perfons, but upon thofe of mankind in general, If he confiders their faults, it is not with a malevolent eye, which is always unjuft, but with the ferenity wherewith two men, defirous of knowing. the human heart, reciprocally examine each other, as two fubjects of inftruction, and two living ftreams of moral experience. If he is tender of his good name, it is because he has given ample proofs of having deferved it. The public can nei

ther know nor efleem any merit, nor any pretenfions to fame, that are not proved by facts, Are they to judge of men of different ranks, they afk the military man, what victory have you obtained? The minilier of ftate, the member of parliament, the man in place: what relief have you afforded to the miseries of the people? the private perfon by what have you contributed to the good of fociety? Whoever can make no answer to thefe questions fhould neither, be known to, nor efteemed by the public. There are, however, a great many who, feduced by the delufions of power, by the pomp of grandeur, and the hope of favours, mechanically found the praifes of the merit of perfons in high ftations: But their elogiums, as fleeting as the credit of those on whom they are beltowed, cannot impofe on the fenfible part of the public. Uninfluenced by intereft, the public judge as a stranger, who acknowledges for a man of merit him only who is diftinguished by

his talents.

He who would exactly know his own value, or the degree of fame he has merited, can therefore only learn it from the public, and ought therefore to fubmit himself to its judgment. All actions are not equally great and heroic; and we find that the efleem of the public, for fuch and fuch an action, is not proportioned to the degree of ftrength, courage, or generofity, necefiary to execute it, but to the importance of that action, and the public advantage derived from it. When, encouraged by the prefence of an army, one man fights against. three who are wounded, the action is undoubtedly brave; but it is what numbers of our common foldiers are capable of, though they might never be mentioned for it in hiftory; but, when the fafety of an empire, formed to fubdue the

univerfe,

he

univerfe, depends on the fuccefs of this battle, Horatius is an hero; is the admiration of his fellow citizens; and his name, celebrated in history, is handed down to the most diftant ages. Two perfons throw themselves into a gulph: this was an action common to Sappho and Curtius; the firft did it to put an end to the torments of love, the other to fave Rome; Sappho was therefore a fool, and Curtius a hero. When the Dutch had erected a ftatue to William Buckelft, who had taught them the fecret of falting and barrelling herrings, they did not confer this honour upon him on account of the extent of genius neceffary for that difcovery, but from the importance of the fecret, and the advantage it procured to the nation.-Nifi utile fit quod facimus, parva eft gloria.

But, fetting afide the motive of utility, which is principally confidered by a state, in the diftribution of rewards to thofe who have deferved well of it, we may observe in general, that a ftrong paffion for fame is the first moving force, and perhaps the only, that prompts men to the execution of thofe heroic actions, and gives birth to thofe grand ideas, which are the 'aftonishment and admiration of all ages.

Paffions are, in the moral, what motion is in the natural world. If motion creates, deftroys, preferves, animates in its proper fphere of action, paffions do the fame in theirs. It is avarice which conducts hips over the defarts of the ocean; it is pride which fills up vallies, levels mountains, hews for itself a paffage through rocks, raises the pyramids of Memphis, digs the lake Maris, and cafts the Coloffus of Rhodes. It was the enthufiafm of gratitude which claffed the benefactors of mankind among the Gods, and invented the extravagance of falfe religions and fuperftitions. It is to the paffion of being reputed of fome confequence in the world, that we

owe the invention and wonders of arts and fciences. It is from a defire of glory that the aftronomer is feen placing his inftruments on the icy fummits of the highest mountains; that the botanist clambers over precipices in queft of plants and that the ancient lovers of the sciences travelled into Egypt, Ethiopia, and the Indies to vifit the moft celebrated philofophers, and acquire, from their converfation, the principles of their doctrine. How ftrongly did this paffion exert itself in Demofthenes, who, in order to perfect his pronunciation, ufed every day to ftand on the fea-fhore, and, with his mouth full of pebbles, harangue the agitated waves! it was from the fame defire of glory that the young Pythagoreans fubmitted to a filence of three years, to habituate themfelves to recollection and meditation. In fhort, it is under the powerful influence of this paffion that we fuftain dangers, pain, and death, and that by it we are animated to take and purfue the boldest resolutions.

Cato, when a child, going with his Tutor to Sylla's palace, at fee-· ing the bloody heads of the profcribed, asked, with impatience, the name of the monfter who had caused fo many Roman citizens to be murdered? he was answered it was Sylla: how, fays he, does Sylla murder thus, and is Sylla ftill alive?"

Yes, replied the Tutor, the very name of Sylla difarms our citizens.'

O Rome, cried Cato, deplorable is thy fate, fince, within the vaft compafs of thy walls, not a man of virtue can be found, and the arm of a feeble child is the only one that will oppofe itself against tyranny! Then turning towards his Governor, Give me thy fword; I will conceal it under my robe, approach Sylla, and flay him. Cato lives, and Rome is again free.

In what climates has not this virtuous love of one's country, this generous pride, this paffion of patri

otifm

otifm and glory, determined fome noble fpirits to perform the most heroic actions? Thrafea being counfelled to make fubmiffion to Nero,

How, faid he, fhall I ftoop fo low to prolong my life a few days? No, death is a debt: I'll difcharge it like a free man, and not pay it like a flave.' It is only from men of fuch strong paffions for fame and immortality that fuch fpeeches can be expected. Genius itself in fuch cafes, can never supply the want of fentiment. We are ignorant of the language, of paffions we never felt. It is the perpetual fermentation of fuch paffions, in exalted minds, that fertilifes in them the fame ideas, which, in frigid fouls, are barren, and would be no more than feed scattered on a rock; it is the fame caufe, which ftrongly fixes the attention on the object of defire, and presents it to view under appearances unknown to others; and confequently promps Heroes to plan and execute thofe hardy enterprises, which, till fuccefs has proved the propriety of them, appear ridiculous or romantic, and indeed must appear fo to the multitude. The reafon Cardinal Richlieu was wont to fay, why a timorous mind perceives an impoffibility in the most fimple projects, when to an elevated mind, the most arduous feem easy, is because, before the latter mountains fink, and before the former, mole-hills are metamorphofed into mountains. It is therefore only fuch a ftrong paffion, which by being more confpicuous than good fenfe, can teach us to diftinguish the extraordinary from the impoffible, which men of fenfe are ever confounding; because, not being animated by ftrong paffions, these fenfible perfons never rife above mediocrity.

When Tamerlane erected his en

gines before the ramparts of Smyrna, from which the forces of the Ottoman empire had lately been obliged to retire with great lofs, he

was aware of the difficulty of his enterprise; he well knew that he was attacking a place which the Chriftian powers might continually fupply with provisions: but the paffion for glory which excited him to the enterprife, fuggefted to him the means of executing it. He fills up the large abyfs of the waters, checks the feas, and baffles the European fleets by a dyke; displays his victorious ftandards on the breaches of Smyrna, and fhews the astonished world, that nothing is impoffible to great men.

When Lycurgus formed a plan making Lacedemon a republic of heroes, he did not proceed by infenfible alterations, according to the flow, and therefore fteady step of what is called wifdom. This great man heated by a paffion for virtue, perceived that by speeches, or fuppofed oracles, he could infpire his countrymen with the fame fentiments that glowed in himfelf; and that, by feizing the first inftant of ardor, he might change the conftitution of the government, and bring about, in the manners of that people, a fudden revolution, which, in the common methods of prudence, would have required many years. He knew that paffions are like volcanoes, whofe fudden eruptions alter the channel of a river, which art could not have diverted, but by digging another bed for it, and, confequently, not till after a long fucceffion of time and prodigious expence. By these means, he fucceeded, in a plan, perhaps the boldest ever undertaken, and which would have been too difficult for any fenfible man, who, deriving that title only from his incapacity of being excited by ftrong paflions, is alfo incapable of infpiring them. And, indeed, if fenfible men attempted to put fuch methods in practice, they would never be happy in the application, for want of a certain experimental acquaintance with the paffions. They muit follow beaten

paths;

paths if they forfake them, they bewilder themfelves. Indolence is always a predominant quality in a man of fenfe; he has nothing of that activity of foul, by which a great man in power forms new iprings for moving the world, or fows the feeds of future events. is only to the man of paffion, and to him who thirfts after glory, that the book of futurity is open; it is eagle-eyed paffion which penetrates into the dark abyfs of futurity; indifference is born blind and ftupid.

It

When the love of glory does not interfere, if the ideas and actions arifing from their paffions, as avarice and love, are in general little valued, it is not that thefe ideas and actions do not often require great understanding and a multitude of combinations; but becaufe, as being indifferent or detrimental to the public, we cannot fuppofe that they have a juft claim to be accounted virtuous, ingenuous, or noble. Now, of all paffions, the love of glory is that alone which is never at a lofs; for, being the foul of men of genius and talents in every kind, it must refcue its votaries from floth, and alone impart to them that continued attention productive of fuperior intellects.

Thus it is that fome are found to unite, with the art of intriguing, an extraordinary elevation of mind. If, after the example of Cromwell, a man is defirous of mounting a throne; the power and luftre of a crown, and the pleafures annexed to government, may doubtlefs, in his eyes, ennoble the baseness of his plots, fince they deface the horror of his crime in the opinion of pofterity, who place fuch an one in the rank of the greatest men: but if, by an infinite number of intrigues, a man endeavours to raife himself to thofe little pots which he can never deferve; if he is mentioned in hiftory by the name of villain or cheat, he is rendered defpicable in the eyes of all honeft men. He ought to re

main a little man who defires little things. Whoever finds himself above want, without being by his rank entitled to the firft pofts, can have no other motive than that of glory, and has no other part to chufe, if he is a man of abilities, than to fhew himself steadily virtu

ous.

We may hence conclude, than an abfence of the paffion of fame, glory, honour, or whatever other appellation it may receive, would reduce us to the most abfolute ftupidity; whereas, to the reverfe, a portion of that celeftial fire which vivifies the moral 'world, we owe the discovery of arts and fiences, and all the elevation of the human foul. What! if the paffion of glory is often the fource of vice and many misfortunes: it may be fo; but the good accruing from it more than counterbalances the inconveniencies it may occafion. Sublime virtue and difcerning wifdom are its products," whereby we muft furely be refcued from that felf-indulgence and force of indolence to which we are otherwife inceffantly gravitating,

RELIGION.

Go

ITS BENIGN INFLUENCE IN A STATE OF ADVERSITY. FOOD men are comforted under their troubles by the hope of Heaven, while bad men are not only deprived of this hope, but diftreffed with fears arifing from a future ftate. The foul of man can never diveft itself wholly of anxiety about its fate hereafter. There are hours when even to the profperous, in the midft of their pleasures, eternity is an awful thought. But much more when thofe pleasures, one after another, begin to withdraw; when life alters its forms, and becomes dark and cheerlefs; when its changes warn the most inconfiderate, that what is fo mutable will foon pafs entirely away; then with pungent earneftnefs comes

home

home that question to the heart, into what world are we next to go ? How miferable the man, who, under the distractions of calamity, hangs doubtful about an event which fo nearly concerns him; who, in the midst of doubts and anxieties, approaching to that awful boundary which feparates this world from the next, fhudders at the dark profpect before him, wishing to exift after death, and yet afraid of that existence, catching at every feeble hope which fuperftition can afford him, and trembling in the fame moment from reflection upon his crimes!

But bleffed be God who hath brought life and immortality to light; who hath not only brought them to light, but fecured them to good men; and by the death and refurrection of Jefus Chrift, hath begotten them unto the lively hope of an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away. Juftly is this hope filed in Scripture, the anchor of the foul, both fure and fted faft. For what an anchor is to a hip in a dark night, or an unknown coaft, and amidst a boisterous ocean, that is this hope to the foul when distracted by the confufions of the world. In danger, it gives fecurity; amidst general fluctuation, it affords one fixed point of reft. It is indeed the most eminent of all the advantages which religion now confers. For, confider the mighty power of hope over the human mind. It is the univerfal comforter. It is the fpring of all human activity. Upon futurity, men are constantly fufpended. Animated by the profpect of fome diftant good, they toil and fuffer through the whole courfe of life; and it is not fo much what they are at prefent, as what they hope to be in fome after-time, that enlivens their motions, fixes attention, and timulates induftry. Now, if in the common affairs of life fuch is the energy of hope, even when its object is neither very confiderable, VOL. II. No. 11.

nor very certain; what effects may it not be expected to produce, when it refts upon an object fo fplendid as a life of immortal felicity? Were this hope entertained with that full perfuafion which chriftian faith demands, it would, in truth, not merely alleviate, but totally annihilate, all human miferies. It would banish discontent, extinguish grief, and fufpend the very feeling of pain.

But allowing for the mixture of hu man frailty; admitting those abatements which our imperfection makes upon the effect of every religious principle, ftill you will find, that in proportion to the degree in which the hope of Heaven operates upon good men, they will be tranquil under fufferings; nay, they will be happy, in comparifon of thofe who enjoy no fuch relief. What indeed, in the course of human affairs, is fufficient to diftrefs, far lefs to overwhelm, the mind of that man who can look down on all human things from an elevation fo much above them? He is only a paffenger through this world. He is travelling to a happier country. How difagreeable foever the occurrences of his journey may be, yet at every stage of that journey, he receives the af furance that he is drawing nearer and nearer to the period of reft and felicity. Endure, and thou fhalt overcome. Perfevere, and thou fhalt be fuccefsful. The time of trial haftens to a clofe. Thy manfion is prepared above; thy reft remaineth among the people of God. The diforders which vice has introduced into the works of God, are about to terminate; and all tears are foon to be wiped away from the eyes of the juft. The firm affurance of this happy conclufion to the vexations and the vanities of life, works a greater effect on the fincere illiterate Chriftian, than all the. refinements of philofophy can work on the moft learned Infidel. These may gratify the mind that is at eate;

may