N° 615. Wednesday, November 3, 1714. -Qui Deorum Muneribus fapienter uti, Duramque callet pauperiem pati, Aut patria timidus perire. HOR. 4 Od. ix. 47. པ། ས Who spend their treasure freely, as 'twas giv'n By the large bounty of indulgent heav'n "Who in a fix'd unalterable state Smile at the doubtful tide of Fate, And scorn alike her friendship and her hate : } But kindly for their friend embrace cold death, breath.' STEPNEY. T must be owned that FEAR is a very power IT ful paffion, fince it is efteemed one of the greatest of virtues to fubdue it. It being implanted in us for our prefervation, it is no wonder that it fticks clofe to us as long as we have any thing we are willing to preferve. But as life, and all its enjoyments, would be scarce worth the keeping, if we were under a perpetual dread of losing them, it is the business of religion and philofophy to free us from all unneceffary anxieties, and direct our fear to its proper object. If we confider the painfulness of this paffion, and the violent effects it produces, we fhall fee how dangerous it is to give way to it upon flight occafions. Some have frightened themselves into madnefs, others have given up their lives to thefe apprehenfions. The ftory of a man who grew grey in the space of one night's anxiety is very famous. O! nox quam longa es, quæ facis una fenem ! A tedious night indeed, that makes a young man • old!' Thefe apprehenfions, if they proceed from a confcioufnefs of guilt, are the fad warnings of reafon; and may excite our pity, but admit of no remedy. When the hand of the Almighty is vifibly lifted against the impious, the heart of mortal man cannot withstand him. We have this paffion fublimely reprefented in the punishment of the Egyptians, tormented with the plague of darkness, in the apocryphal book of Wildom afcribed to Solomon. For when unrighteous men thought to opprefs the holy nation; they being shut up in their houfcs, the prifoners of darknefs, and • fettered with the bonds of a long night, lay there • exiled from the eternal Providence. For while they fuppofed to lie hid in their fecret fins, they were scattered under a dark veil of forgetfulness, being horribly astonished and troubled with ftrange apparitions. For wickedness, condemned by her own witnefs, is very timorous and, being oppreffed with confcience, always forecafteth grievous things. For fear is nothing nothing else but a betraying of the fuccours ' which reason offereth-For the whole world 'fhineth with clear light, and none were hindered in their labour. Over them only was fpread a heavy night, an image of that darknefs which fhould afterwards receive them; but yet were they unto themselves more grievous than the darkness *.' 6 To fear fo justly grounded no remedy can be proposed; but a man (who hath no great guilt hanging upon his mind, who walks in the plain path of justice and integrity, and yet, either by natural complexion, or confirmed prejudices, or neglect of ferious reflection, fuffers himself to be moved by this abject and unmanly paffion) would do well to confider that there is nothing which deferves his fear, but that beneficent Being who is his friend, his protector, his father. Were this one thought ftrongly fixed in the mind, what calamity would be dreadful? What load can infamy lay upon us when we are fure of the approbation of him who will repay the difgrace of a moment with the glory of eternity? What sharpness is there in pain and difeafes, when they only haften us on to the pleasures that will never fade? What fting is in death when we are affured that it is only the beginning of life? A man who lives fo, as not to fear to die, is inconfiftent with himfelf if he delivers himself up to any incidental anxiety. The intrepidity of a juft good man is so nobly fet forth by Horace, that it cannot be too often repeated: * Wifd. xvii. passim. "The man refolv'd and fteady to his truft, "Inflexible to ill, and obftinately juft, May the rude rabble's infolence defpife, "Their fenfelefs clamours and tumultuous cries: "The tyrants fierceness he beguiles, "And the ftern brow, and the harth voice defies, "And with fuperior greatnefs fmiles. "Not the rough whirlwind that deforms. "Adria's black gulf, and vexes it with ftorms, "The ftubborn virtue of his foul can move; "Not the red arm of angry Jove, "That flings the thunder from the sky, "And gives it rage to roar, and strength to fly. "Should the whole frame of nature round him "break, "In ruin and confufion hurl'd, "He, unconcern'd, would hear the mighty crack, "And ftand fecure amidft a falling world." The vanity of fear may be yet if we reflect, father illuftrated First, What we fear may not come to pass. No human scheme can be fo accurately projected, but fome little circumftance intervening may fpoil it. He who directs the heart of man at his pleasure, and understands the thoughts long before, may by ten thousand accidents, or an immediate change in the inclinations of men, difconcert the moft fubtle project, and turn it to the benefit of his own fervants. In the next place we should confider, though the evil we imagine fhould come to pafs, it may be much more fupportable than it appeared to be. As there is no profperous state of life without its calamities, fo there is no adverfity without without its benefits. Afk the great and powerful if they do not feel the pangs of envy and ambition. Inquire of the poor and needy if they have not tafted the fweets of quiet and contentment. Even under the pains of body, the infidelity of friends, or the mifconftructions put upon our laudable actions; our minds, when for fome time accustomed to these preffures, are senfible of secret flowings of comfort, the present reward of a pious refignation. The evils of this life appear like rocks and precipices, rugged and barren at a distance; but at our nearer approach we find little fruitful fpots, and refreshing springs, mixed with the harshness and deformi ties of nature. In the last place we may comfort ourselves with this confideration, that, as the thing feared may not reach us, fo we may not reach what we fear. Our lives may not extend to that dreadful point which we have in view. He who knows all our failings, and will not fuffer us to be tempted beyond our ftrength, is often pleased, in his tender severity, to separate the foul from its body and miferies together. Like If we look forward to him for help, we shall never be in danger of falling down thofe precipices which our imagination is apt to create. those who walk upon a line, if we keep our eye fixed upon one point, we may ftep forward fecurely; whereas an imprudent or cowardly glance on either fide will infallibly deftroy us.* * From the intrinfic evidence in this paper, it appears to have been writen by ADDISON. N° 616. |