mounts to nothing more than a fordid hope that they fhall not be immortal, because they dare not do so. This brings me back to my first observation, and gives me occafion to fay further, That as worthy actions fpring from worthy thoughts, fo worthy thoughts are likewife the confequence of worthy actions: But the wretch who has degraded himself below the cha'racter of immortality, is very willing to resign his pretenfion to it, and to fubftitute in its room a dark negative happiness in the extinction of his being. The adinirable Shakespear has given us a strong image of the unfupported condition of fuch a perfon in his last minutes, in the fecond part of King Henry the Sixth, where Cardinal Beaufort, who had been con⚫cerned in the murder of the good Duke Humphrey, is ⚫ reprefented on his death-bed. After fome fhort confufed fpeeches, which fhew an imagination disturbed with guilt, juft as he is expiring, King Henry standing by him, fullof compaffion, fays. "Lord Cardinal! if thou think'ft on heav'n's blifs, The defpair which is here fhewn, without a word ⚫or action on the part of the dying perfon, is beyond what could be painted by the most forcible expreffions whatever. I fhall not pursue this thought further, but only • add, that as annihilation is not to be had with a wish, fo it is the most abject thing in the world to with it. • What are honour, fame, wealth or power, when compared with the generous expectation of a being, without end, and a happiness adequate to that being. • I am, Sir, • Your most obedient, 'T. D.' Εν ελπισιν χρη τες σοφές έχειν βιον. EURIPID. THE time prefent feldom affords fufficient employment to the mind of man. Objects of pain or pleafure, love or admiration, do not lie thick enough together in life, to keep the foul in conftant action, and fupply an immediate exercise to its faculties. In order, therefore, to remedy this defect, that the mind may not want business, but always have materials for thinking, fhe is endowed with certain powers, that can recal what is paffed, and anticipate what is to come. That wonderful faculty, which we call the memory, is perpetually looking back, when we have nothing prefent to entertain us. It is like thofe repofitories in feveral animals, that are filled with ftores of their former food, on which they may ruminate when their prefent pafture fails. As the memory relieves the mind in her vacant moments, and prevents any chafms of thought, by ideas of what is past, we have other faculties that agitate and employ her upon what is to come. These are the pasfions of hope and fear. By thefe two paffions, we reach forward into futurity, and bring up to our prefent thoughts, objects that lie hid in the remoteft depths of time. We fuffer mifery, and enjoy happiness, before they are in being; we can fet the fun and ftars forward, or lofe fight of them by wandering into those retired parts of eternity, when the heavens and earth fhall be no more. . By the way; who can imagine that the existence of a creature is to be circumfcribed by time, whofe thoughts are not? But I fhall, in this paper, confine myself to that particular paffion, which goes by the name of Hope. Our actual enjoyments are fo few and tranfient, that man would be a very miferable being, were he not endowed with this paffion, which gives him a tafte of thofe good things, that may poffibly come into his poffeffion. "We should hope for every thing that is good, 66 fays " fays the old poet Linus, because there is nothing " which may not be hoped for, and nothing but what "the gods are able to give us." Hope quickens all the still parts of life, and keeps the mind awake in her moft remifs and indolent hours. It gives habitual ferenity and good humour. It is a kind of vital heat in the foul, that cheers and gladdens her, when she does not attend to it. It makes pain eafy, and labour pleafant. Befides these several advantages which rife from hope, there is another which is none of the leaft, and that is, its great efficacy in preferving us from fetting too high a value on prefent enjoyments. The faying of Cæfar is very well known. When he had given away all his eftate, in gratuities among his friends, one of them aiked what he had left for himself; to which that great man replied, Hope. His natural magnanimity hindered him from prifing what he was certainly poffeffed of, and turned all his thoughts upon fomething more valuable than he had in view. I queftion not but every reader will draw a moral from his ftory, and apply it to himfelf, without my direction. The old ftory of Pandora's box, (which many of the learned believe was formed among the heathens, upon the tradition of the fall of man) fhews us how deplorable a state, they thought the present life, without hope. To fet forth the utmoft condition of mifery, they tell us, that our fore-father, according to the Pagan theology, had a great vefiel prefented him by Pandora, Upon his lifting up the lid of it, fays the fable, there flew out all the calamities and distempers, incident to men, from which, 'till that time, they had been altogether exempt. Hope, who had been inclosed in the cup with fo much bad company, instead of flying off with the reft, ftuck so close to the lid of it, that it was shut down upon her, I fhall make but two reflections upon what I have hitherto faid. First, that no kind of life is fo happy, as that which is full of hope, especially when the hope is well grounded, and when the object of it is of an exalted kind, and in its nature proper to make the perfon happy who enjoys it. This propofition must be very evident to those who confider how few are the prefent enjoyments, of the most happy man, and how infufficient to give him an entire fatisfaction and acquiescence in them. My next obfervation is this, that a religious life is that which moft abounds in a well-grounded hope, and fuch an one as is fixed on objects that are capable of making us entirely happy. This hope, in a religious man, is much more fure and certain than the hope of any temporal bleffing, as it is ftrengthened not only by reafon, but by faith. It has, at the fame time, its eye perpetually fixed on that ftate, which implies in the Every notion of it, the moft full and the most compleat = happiness. I have before fhewn how the influence of hope in general, fweetens life, and makes our prefent condition fupportable, if not pleafing; but a religious hope has ftill greater advantages. It does not only bear up the mind under her fufferings, but makes her rejoice in them, as they may be the inftruments of procuring her the great and ultimate end of all her hope. Religious hope has likewife this advantage above any other kind of hope, that it is able to revive the dying man, and to fill his mind not only with fecret comfort and refreshment, but fometimes with rapture and tranfport. He triumphs in his agonies, whilst the foul fprings forward with delight, to the great object which he has always had in view, and leaves the body with an expectation of being reunited to her, in a glorious and joyful refurrection. I fhall conclude this effay, with thofe emphatical expreffions of a lively hope, which the pfalmift made ufe of in the midft of thofe dangers and adverfities which surrounded him; for the following paffage had its prefent and perfonal, as well as its future and prophetic fenfe. I have fet the Lord always before me: • becaufe • because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh alfo fhall reft in hope. For thou wilt not leave my foul in hell, neither wilt thou fuffer thine holy one to fee corruption. Thou wilt fhew me the path of life in thy prefence is fulness of joy, at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.' C. I T has been usual to remind persons of rank, on great occafions in life, of their race and quality, and to what expectations they were born; that by confidering what is worthy of them, they may be withdrawn from mean purfuits, and encouraged to ⚫ laudable undertakings. This is turning nobility into a principle of virtue, and making it productive of merit, as it is understood, to have been originally a reward of it. It is for the like reafon, I imagine, that you have in fome of your fpeculations, afferted to your readers, the dignity of human nature. But you cannot be • infenfible, that this is a controverted doctrine; there are authors who confider human nature in a very different view, and books of maxims have been written to fhew the falfity of all human virtues. The reflections which are made on this fubject usually take fome tincture from the tempers and characters of thofe that make them. Politicians can refolve the moft fhining actions among men, into artifice and defign; others, who are foured by difcontent, repulfes, or ill ufage, are apt to mistake their spleen for philofophy, men of profligate lives, and fuch as find themfelves incapable of rifing to any diftinction, among their fellow-creatures, are for pulling down all appearances of merit, which feem to upbraid them; and fatirifts defcribe nothing but deformity. From all these hands, we have fuch drafts of mankind, as 6 are |