shall we be younger Are we sure we shall be healthier Will our passions become feebler and our love of the world less What shadow can be more vain than the life of a great Part of Mankind of all that eager and bustling Crowd which we behold on Earth how few discover the path of true Happiness How few can we find whose Activity has not been misemployed and whose Course terminates not in Confessions of Disappointment On the one Hand are the Divine Approbation and immortal Honour on the other remember and beware are the stings of Conscience and endless Infamy As in riper Years all unseasonable Returns to the Levity of Youth ought to be avoided an Admonition which equally belongs to both the Sexes still more are we to guard against those intemperate Indulgences of Pleasure to which the young are unhappily prone The bliss of man could pride that blessing find Is not to act or think beyond mankind Or why so long in life if long can be Lent Heav'n a parent to the poor and me CHAPTER VI. PROMISCUOUS EXAMPLES OF DEFECTIVE PUNCTUATION. See the Key, Part 4. Chap. 6. Sect. 1. SECTION 1. Examples in Prose. WHEN Socrates was asked what man approached the nearest to perfect happiness he answered That Man who has the fewest Wants She who studies her Glass neglects her Heart Between Passion and Lying there is not a Finger's breadth The freer we feel ourselves in the Presence of others the more free are they he who is free makes free Addison has remarked with equal Piety and Truth that the Creation is a perpetual Feast to the Mind of a good man He who shuts out all evasion when he promises loves truth The laurels of the Warrior are dyed in Blood and bedewed with the Tears of the Widow and the Orphan. Between Fame and true Honour a Distinction is to be made the former is a loud and noisy Appiause the latter a more silent and internal Homage Fame floats on the Breath of the Multitude Honour rests on the Judgment of the Thinking Fame may give Praise while it witholds Esteem true Honour implies Esteem mingled with respect The one regards Particular distinguished Talents the other looks up to the whole character. There is a certain species of religion if we can give it that Name which is placed wholly in Speculation and Belief in the Regularity of external Homage or in fiery Zeal about contested Opinions. Xenophanes who was reproached with being timorous because he would not venture his Money in a Game at Dice made this manly and sensible Reply I confess I am exceedingly timorous for I dare not commit an evil Action. He loves nobly I speak of Friendship who is not jealous when he has Partners of love Our happiness consists in the Pursuit much more than in the Attainment of any Temporal Good Let me repeat it He only is great who has the Habits of Greatness Prosopopia or Personification is a Rhetorical Figure by which we attribute Life and Action to inanimate objects as the Ground thirsts for Rain the Earth smiles with Plenty The proper and rational Conduct of Men with Regard to Futurity is regulated by two Considerations First that much of What it contains must remain to us absolutely Unknown Next that there are also Some Events in it which may be certainly known and foreseen The Gardens of the World produce only deciduous flowers Perennial ones must be sought in the Delightful Regions Above Roses without Thorns are the Growth of Paradise alone How many Rules and maxims of Life might be spared. could we fix a principle of Virtue within and inscribe the living Sentiment of the Love of God in the affections he who loves righteousness is Master of all the distinctions in Morali ty He who from the Benignity of his nature erected this World for the abode of Men He who furnished it so richly for our accommodation and stored it with so much Beauty for our entertainment He who since first we entered into Life hath followed us with such a Variety of Mercies this Amiable and Beneficent Being surely can have no pleasure in our Disappointment and Distress He knows our Frame he remembers we are dust and looks to frail Man we are assured with such Pity as a Father beareth to his children One of the first Lessons both of Religion and of Wisdom is to moderate our Expectations and Hopes and not to set forth on the Voyage of Life like Men who expect to be always carried forward with a favourable Gale Let us be satisfied if the Path we tread be easy and smooth though it be not strewed with Flowers Providence never intended that the Art of living happily in this World should depend on that deep Penetration that acute sagacity and those Refinements of Thought which few possess it has dealt more graciously with us and made happiness depend on Uprightness of Intention much more than on Extent of Capacity Most of our Passions flatter us in their Rise But their Be ginnings are treacherous their Growth is imperceptible and the Evils which they carry in their Train lie concealed until their Dominion is established what Solomon says of one of them holds true of them all that their Beginning is as When one letteth out Water it issues from a small Chink which once might have been easily stopped but being neglected it is soon widened by the Stream till the Bank is at last totally thrown down and the Flood is at Liberty to deluge the whole plain Prosperity debilitates instead of strengthening the Mind Its most common effect is to create an extreme sensibility to the slightest Wound It foments impatient Desires and raises Expectations which no Success can satisfy It fosters a false Delicacy which sickens in the midst of Indulgence by repeated Gratification It blunts the feelings of Men to what is pleasing and leaves them unhappily acute to whatever is uneasy Hence the Gale which another would scarcely feel is to the prosperous a rude Tempest Hence the Rose-leaf doubled below them on the Couch as it is told of the effeminate Sybarite breaks their Rest Hence the Disrespect shown by Mordecai preyed with such Violence on the Heart of Haman Anxiety is the poison of Human Life it is the Parent of many Sins and more Miseries in a World where every thing is so doubtful where we may succeed in our Wish and be miserable where we may be disappointed and be blessed in the Disappointment what mean this restless Stir and Commotion of Mind Can our Solicitude alter the Course or unravet the Intricacy of Human Events Can our Curiosity pierce through the Cloud which the Supreme Being hath made impenetrable to Mortal Eye No situation is so remote and no Station so unfavourable as to preclude access to the happiness of a future State a Road is opened by the Divine Spirit to those blissful Habitations from all Corners of the Earth and from all Conditions of Human Life from the peopled City and from the solitary Desert from the Cottages of the Poor and from the Palaces of Kings from the Dwellings of Ignorance and Simplicity and from the Regions of Science and Improvement The Scenes which present themselves at our entering upon the World are commonly flattering Whatever they be in themselves the lively Spirits of the Young gild every opening Prospect The Field of Hope appears to stretch wide Before them Pleasure seems to put forth its Blossoms On every Side Impelled by Desire forward they rush with inconsiderate Ardour prompt to decide and to choose averse to hesitate or to Inquire credulous because untaught by Experience rash because unacquainted with Danger headstrong because unsubdued by disappointment Hence arise the Perils to which they are exposed and which too often from Want of Attention to faithful Admonition precipitate them into Ruin irretrievable By the unhappy Excesses of irregular Pleasure in Youth how many amiable Dispositions are corrupted or destroyed how many rising Capacities and Powers are suppressed How many flattering Hopes of Parents and Friends are totally extinguished Who but must drop a Tear over Human Nature When he beholds that Morning which arose so bright overcast with such untimely Darkness that Sweetness of Temper which once engaged many Hearts that Modesty which was so prepossessing those Abilities which promised extensive Usefulness all sacrificed at the shrine of low Sensuality and one who was formed for passing through Life in the midst of Public Esteem cut off by his Vices at the Beginning of his Course or sunk for the whole of it into Insignificance and Contempt These O sinful Pleasure are thy Trophies It is thus that co-operating with the Foe of God and Man thou degradest Human Honour and blastest the opening Prospects of Human Felicity, SECTION 2. Examples in Poetry. See the Key, Part 4. Chap. 6. Section 2. Where thy true treasure Gold says not in me The scenes of business tell us what are men Wo then apart if wo apart can be From mortal man and fortune at our nod All this dread order break for whom for thee Man like the generous vine supported lives Know Nature s children all divide her care The Almighty from his throne on earth surveys Bliss there is none but unprecarious bliss Not gain d with ease nor safely lov d if gain d There is a time when toil must be preferr d Thus nature gives us let it check our pride See the sole bliss Heavn could on all bestow Whatever is is right This world tis true The first sure symptom of a mind in health |