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"fo much care as he who endeavours after "the most happiness."

In the fecond place, every one ought to reflect how much more unhappy he might be than he really is. The former confideration took in all those who are fufficiently provided with the means to make themfelves eafy; this regards fuch as actually lie under fome preffure or misfortune. Thefe may receive great alleviation from fuch a comparison as the unhappy perfon may make between himself and others, or between the misfortunes which he suffers and greater misfortunes which might have befallen him.

I like the ftory of the honeft Dutchman, who, upon breaking his leg by a fall from the main-maft, told the ftanders-by, it was a great mercy that it was not his neck. To which, fince I am got into quotations, give me leave to add the faying of an old philofopher, who, after having invited fome of his friends to dine with him, was ruffled by his wife that came into the room in a paffion, and threw down the table that ftood before them: "Every one,” fays he, has his calamity, and he is a happy

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man that has no greater than this." We find an inftance to the fame purpose in the life of Doctor Hammond, written by Bifhop Fell. As this good man was troubled with a complication of distempers, when he had the gout upon him he used to thank God that it was not the ftone; and when he had the ftone, that he had not both these diftempers on him at the fame time.

I cannot

I cannot conclude this Effay without obferving that there never was any fyftem befides that of Christianity, which could effectually produce in the mind of man the virtue I have hitherto been fpeaking of. In order to make us content with our prefent condition, many of the ancient philofophers tell us that our Difcontent only hurts ourselves, without being able to make any alteration in our circumftances; others, that whatever evil befalls us is derived to us by a fatal neceflity, to which the gods themselves are fubject; while others very gravely tell the man who is miferable, that it is neceffary he should be fo to keep up the harmony of the univerfe, and that the icheme of Providence would be troubled and perverted were he otherwife. Thefe, and the like confiderations, rather filence than fatisfy a man. They may fhew him that his Difcontent is unreafonable, but are by no means fufficient to relieve it. They rather give defpair than confolation. In a word, a man might reply to one of these comforters, as Auguftus did to his friend who advised him not to grieve for the death of a perfon whom he loved, because his grief could not fetch him again: "It is for that very reafon," faid the emperor, "that I grieve."

On the contrary, Religion bears a more tender regard to human nature. It prefcribes to every miferable man the means of bettering his condition; nay, it fhews him that the bearing of his afflictions as he ought to do will naturally end in the removal of them: it makes him

eafy

eafy here, because it can make him happy hereafter.

Upon the whole, a CONTENTED MIND is the greatest bleffing a man can enjoy in this world; and if in the prefent life his happiness arifes from the fubduing of his defires, it will arife in the next from the gratification of them.

N° 575.

Monday, August 2, 1714.

Nec morti effe locum

No room is left for death.

LEWD

*

VIRG. Georg. iv. 226.

DRYDEN.

A young fellow feeing an aged

hermit go by him barefoot, "Father," fays he, "

you are in a very miferable condition if there is not another world." "True, "fon," faid the hermit, "but what is thy "condition if there is?" Man is a creature defigned for two different ftates of being, or rather for two different lives. His firft life is short and tranfient; his fecond permanent and lafting. The queftion we are all concerned in is this, in which of these two lives it is our chief intereft to make ourfelves happy? Or, in other words, whether we fhould endeavour to fecure to ourselves the pleafures and gratifications of a life which is uncertain and precarious,

By ADDISON, on the authority of Mr. Tho. Tickell.
The indicative for the potential mood.

and at its utmost length of a very inconfiderable duration; or to fecure to ourfelves the pleafures of a life which is fixed and fettled, and will never end. Every man, upon the first hearing of this queftion, knows very well which fide of it he ought to close with. But however right we are in theory, it is plain that in practice we adhere to the wrong fide of the queftion. We make provifions for this life as though it were never to have an end, and for the other life as though it were never to have a beginning.

Should a fpirit of fuperior rank, who is a ftranger to human nature, accidentally light upon the earth, and take a furvey of its inhabitants; what would his notions of us be? Would not he think that we are a fpecies of beings made for quite different ends and purposes than what we really are? Muft not he imagine that we were placed in this world to get riches and honours? Would not he think that it was our duty to toil after wealth, and station, and title? Nay, would not he believe we were forbidden poverty by threats of eternal punishment, and enjoined to purfue our pleasures under pain of damnation? He would certainly imagine that we were influenced by a scheme of duties quite oppofite to thofe which are indeed prefcribed to us. truly, according to fuch an imagination, he must conclude that we are a fpecies of the most obedient creatures in the univerfe; that we are conftant to our duty; and that we keep a steady eye on the end for which we were fent hither.

And

But

But how great would be his aftonishment when he learned that we were beings not defigned to exist in this world above threefcore and ten years, and that the greatest part of this bufy fpecies fall fhort even of that age? How would he be loft in horror and admiration, when he fhould know that this fet of creatures, who lay out all their endeavours for this life, which fcarce deferves the name of existence; when, I say, he fhould know that this fet of creatures are to exist to all eternity in another life, for which they make no preparations? Nothing can be a greater difgrace to reason, than that men, who are perfuaded of these two different ftates of being, thould be perpetually employed in providing for a life of threefcore and ten years, and neglecting to make provifion for that, which after many myriads of years will be ftill new, and ftill beginning; efpecially when we confider that our endeavours for making ourfelves great, or rich, or honourable, or whatever elfe we place our happinefs i, may after all prove unfuccefsful; whereas, if we conftantly and fincerely endeavour to make ourfelves happy in the other life, we are fure that our endeavours will fucceed, and that we fhall not be difappointed of our hope.

The following queftion is ftarted by one of the fchoolmen. Suppofing the whole body of the earth were a great ball or mass of the finest fand, and that a fingle grain or particle of this fand fhould be annihilated every thousand years? Suppoling then that you had it in your choice

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