Man is feldom willing to let fall the opinion of his own dignity, or to believe that he does little only because every individual is a very little being. He is better content to want diligence than power, and fooner confeffes the depravity of his will than the imbecillity of his nature.

From this mistaken notion of human greatness it proceeds, that many who pretend to have made great advances in wisdom fo loudly declare that they defpife themfelves. If I had ever found any of the felf-contemners much irritated or pained by the confcioufnefs of their meannefs, I fhould have given them confolation by obferving, that a little more than nothing is as much as can be expected from a being who with refpect to the multitudes about him is himself little more than nothing. Every man is obliged by the fupreme Master of the universe to improve all the opportunities of good which are afforded him, and to keep in continual activity fuch abilities as are beftowed upon him. But he has no reafon to repine, though his abilities are finall and his opportunities few. He that has improved the virtue or advanced the happiness of one fellow-creature, he that has afcertained a fingle moral propofition, or added one ufeful experiment to natural knowledge, may be contented with his own performance, and, with respect to mortals like himfelf, may demand, like Auguftus, to be difiniffed at his depature with applaufe.

NUMB. 89. SATURDAY, December 29, 1759.

Ανέχει και απέχε.

EPICT.

How

OW evil came into the world; for what reason it is that life is overfpread with fuch boundless varieties of mifery; why the only thinking being of this globe is doomed to think merely to be wretched, and to pafs his time from youth to age in fearing or in fuffering calamities, is a question which philofophers have long asked, and which philofophy could never answer.

Religion informs us that mifery and fin were produced together. The depravation of human will was followed by a diforder of the harmony of nature; and by that providence which often places antidotes in the neighbourhood of poisons, vice was checked by mifery, left it should fwell to univerfal and unlimited dominion.

A ftate of innocence and happiness is fo remote from all that we have ever feen, that though we can easily conceive it poffible, and may therefore hope to attain it, yet our fpeculations upon it must be general and confufed. We can difcover that where there is univerfal innocence, there will probably be univerfal happiness; for why fhould afflictions be permitted to infeft beings who are not in danger of corruption from bleffings, and where there is no use of terrour nor caufe of punishment?

But in a world like ours, where our fenfes affault us, and our hearts betray us, we should pafs on from crime to crime, heedlefs and remorfelefs, if mifery did not ftand in our way, and our own pains admonifh us of our folly.

Almost all the moral good which is left among us, is the apparent effect of phyfical evil.

Goodness is divided by divines into sobernefs, righteoufnefs, and godlinefs. Let it be examined how each of thefe duties would be practifed if there were no phyfical evil to enforce it.

Sobriety, or temperance, is nothing but the forbearance of pleasure; and if pleasure was not followed by pain, who would. forbear it? We fee every hour thofe in whom the defire of present indulgence overpowers all fenfe of paft and all forefight of future mifery. In a remiffion of the gout the drunkard returns to his wine, and the glutton to his feaft; and if neither difeafe nor poverty were felt or dreaded, every one would fink down in idle fenfuality, without any care of others, or of himfelf. To eat and drink, and lie down to fleep, would be the whole bufinels of mankind.

Righteoufnefs, or the fyftem of focial duty, may be fubdivided into juftice and charity. Of juftice one of the heathen fages has fhewn, with great acuteness, that it was impreffed upon mankind only by the inconveniences which injuftice had produced. "In the first ages," fays he, "men acted "without any rule but the impulfe of defire, they practifed injuftice upon others, and fuffered it from others in their turn; but in time it was difcovered, that the pain of fuffering wrong way 66 greater

greater than the pleasure of doing it; and mankind, by a general compact, fubmitted to the re«ftraint of laws, and refigned the pleasure to escape "the pain."

Of charity it is fuperfluous to observe, that it could have no place if there were no want; for of a virtue which could not be practifed, the omiffion could not be culpable. Evil is not only the occafional but the efficient caufe of charity; we are incited to the relief of mifery by the confcioufnefs that we have the fame nature with the fufferer, that wę are in danger of the fame diftreffes, and may fometimes implore the fame affiftance.

Godliness, or piety, is elevation of the mind towards the Supreme Being, and extenfion of the thoughts of another life. The other life is future, and the Supreme Being is invifible. None would have recourse to an invifible power, but that all other fubjects had eluded their hopes. None would fix their attention upon the future, but that they ⚫ are difcontented with the prefent. If the fenfes were feafted with perpetual pleafure, they would always keep the mind in fubjection. Reafon has no authority over us, but by its power to warn ys against evil.

In childhood, while our minds are yet unoccupied, religion is impreffed upon them, and the first years of almost all who have been well educated are passed in a regular discharge of the duties of piety. But as we advance forward into the crowds of life, innumerable delights follicit our inclinations, and innumerable cares diftract our attention; the time of youth is paffed in noify frolicks; manhood is led

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on from hope to hope, and from project to project ; the diffolutenefs of pleasure, the inebriation of fuccefs, the ardour of expectation, and the vehemence of competition, chain down the mind alike to the present scene, nor is it remembered how foon this mift of trifles must be fcattered, and the bubbles that float upon the rivulet of life be loft for ever in the gulph of eternity. To this confideration fcarce any man is awakened but by fome preffing and refiftlefs evil. The death of those from whom he derived his pleasures, or to whom he deftined his poffeffions, fome difeafe which fhews him the vanity of all external acquifitions, or the gloom of age, which intercepts his profpects of long enjoyment, forces him to fix his hopes upon another ftate, and when he has contended with the tempefts of life till his ftrength fails him, he flies at laft to the fhelter of religion.

That mifery does not make all virtuous, experience too certainly informs us; but it is no lefs certain that of what virtue there is, mifery produces . far the greater part. Phyfical evil may be therefore endured with patience, fince it is the cause of moral good; and patience itself is one virtue by which we are prepared for that ftate in which evil fhall be no

more.