was Plutus the god of riches, and that he was just come out of the house of a mifer. Plutus further told him, that when he was a boy, he used to declare, that as foon as he came to age he would diftribute wealth to none but virtuous and juft men; upon which Jupiter confidering the pernicious confequences of fuch a refolution, took his fight away from him, and left him to ftroll about the world in the blind condition wherein Chremylus beheld him. With much ado Chremylus prevailed upon him to go to his house, where he met an old woman in a tattered raiment, who had been his gueft for many years, and whofe name was poverty. The old wonian refufing to turn out fo eafily as he would have her, he threatened to banish her not only from his own house, but out of all Greece, if she made any more words upon the matter. Poverty on this occafion pleads her caufe very notably, and reprefents to her old landlord, that should he be driven out of the country, all their trades, arts and sciences would be driven out with her ; and that if every one was rich, they would never be fupplied with thofe pomps, ornaments and conveniencies of life which made riches defirable. She likewife reprefented to him the feveral advantages which the betowed upon her votaries in regard to their shape, their health, and their activity, by preferving them from gouts, dropfies, unwieldinefs, and intemperance. But whatever he had to say for herself, he was at laft forced to troop off. Chremylus immediately confidered how he might reftore Plutus to his fight; and in order to it, conveyed him to the temple of Afculapius, who was famous for cures and miracles of this nature. By this means the deity recovered his eyes and began to make a right ufe of them, by enriching every one that was diftinguished by piety towards the gods, and juftice towards men; and at the fame time by taking away his gifts from the impious and undeferving. This produces feveral merry incidents, till in the last act Mercury defcends with great complaints from the gods, that fince the good men were grown rich they had received no facrifices, which is confirmed by a priest of Jupiter, who enters with a remonftrance, that fince this late innovation he was reduced to a starving condition, and could not live upon his office. Chremylus, who in the beginn ing of the play was religious in his poverty, concludes it with a propofal which was relished by all the good men who were now grown rich as well as himself, that they should carry Plutus in a folemn proceffion to the Temple, and inftal him in the place of Jupiter. This allegory inftructed the Athenians in two points, firft, as it vindicated the conduct of Providence in its ordinary distributions of wealth, and in the next place, as it fhewed the great tendency of riches to corupt the morals of those who poffeffed them. N° 465. Saturday, Auguft 23. C. Qua ratione queas traducere leniter a sum: How thou may'it live, how spend thine age in peace: Or fears fhou'd shake, or cares thy mind abuse, CREECH. HAVING endeavoured in my laft Saturday's paper to fhew the great excellency of faith, I fhall here con-fider what are the proper means of ftrengthening and confirming it in the mind of man. Thofe who delight. in reading books of controverfy, which are written on both fides of the queftion in points of faith, do very feldom arrive at a fixed and fettled habit of it. They are one day entirely convinced of its important truths, and the next meet with fomething that shakes and difturbs them. The doubt which was laid revives again, and fhews itself in new difficulties, and that generally for this reafon, becaufe the mind which is perpetually toft in controverfies and difputes, is apt to forget the reasons which had once fet it at reft, and to be difquieted with any former perplexity, when it appears in a new shape, or is started by a different hand. As nothing is more laudable than an inquiry after truth, fo nothing is more irrational than to pass away our whole lives, without determining ourselves one way or other in thofe points which are of the last importance to us. There are indeed many things from which we may withhold our affent; but in cafes by which we are to regulate our lives, it is the greateft abfurdity to be wavering and unfettled, without clofing with that fide which appears the moft fafe and the most probable. The first rule therefore which I fhall lay down is this, that when by reading or difcourfe we find ourselves thoroughly convinced of the truth of any article, and of the reasonableness of our belief in it, we fhould never after fuffer ourselves to call it into queftion. We may perhaps forget the arguments which occafioned our conviction, but we ought to remember the ftrength they had with us, and therefore still to retain the conviction which they once produced. This is no more than what we do in every com mon art or science, nor is it poffible to act otherwise, confidering the weakness and limitation of our intellectual faculties. It was thus, that Latiner, one of the glorious army of martyrs, who introduced the reforma-. tion in England, behaved himself in that great conference which was managed between the most learned among the proteftants and papifts in the reign of queen Mary. This venerable old man knowing how his abilities were impaired by age, and that it was impoffible for him to recollect all thofe reafons which had directed him in the choice of his religion, left his companions, who were in the full pofferion of their parts and learning, to baffle and confound their antagonists by the force of reafon. As for himself he only repeated to his adverfaries the articles in which he firmly believed; and in the profeffion of which he was determined to die. It is in this manner that the mathematician proceeds upon propofitions which he has once démonftrated; and though the demonftration may have flipt out of his memory, he builds upon the truth, because he knows it was demonstrated. This rule is abfolutely neceffary for weaker minds, and in fome measure for men of the greatest abilities; but to thefe laft would propofe in the fecond place, that they fhould lay up in their memories, and always keep by them in a readiness thofe arguments which appear to them of the greatest strength, and which cannot be got over by all the doubts and cavils of infidelity. But, in the third place, there is nothing which ftrengthens faith more than morality. Faith and morality naturally produce each other. A man is quickly convinced of the truth of religion, who finds it is not against his intereft that it fhould be true. The pleafure he receives at prefent, and the happinefs which he promifes himfelf from it hereafter, will both difpofe him very powerfully to give credit to it, according to the ordinary obfervation that we are easy to believe what we with.' It is very certain, that a man of found reafon cannot forbear clofing with religion upon an impartial examination of it; but at the fame time it is certain, that faith is kept alive in us, and gathers firength from practice more than from fpeculation. There is ftill another method which is more perfuafive than any of the former, and that is an habitual adora.. tion of the Supreme Being, as well in conftant acts of mental worship, as in outward forms. The devout man does not only believe but feels there is a deity. He has actual fenfations of him; his experience concurs with his reafon; he fees him more and more in all his intercourses with him, and even in this life almost loses his faith in conviction. The laft method which I fhall mention for the giving life to a man's faith, is frequent retirement from the world, accompanied with religious meditation. When a man thinks of any thing in the darkness of the night, whatever deep impreffions it may make in his mind, they are apt to vanish as foon as the day breaks about hin. The light and noife of the day, which are perpetually foliciting his fenfes, and calling off his attention, wear out of his mind the thoughts that imprinted themfelves in it, with fo much ftrength, during the filence and darkness of the night. A man finds the fame difference as to himself in a croud and in a folitude: the mind is stunned and dazzled amidft that variety of objects which prefs upon her in a great city. She cannot apply herself to the confideration of thofe things which N° 465. are of the utmoft concern to her. The cares or pleafures of the world strike in with every thought, and a multi tude of vicious examples give a kind of juftification to our folly. In our retirement every thing difpofes us to be ferious. In courts and cities we are entertained with the works of men; in the country with those of God. One is the province of art, the other of nature. Faith and devotion naturally grow in the mind of every reafonable man, who fees the impreffions of divine power and wisdom in every object, on which he cafts his eye. The Supreme Being has made the best arguments for his own existence in the formation of the heavens and the earth and these are arguments which a man of sense cannot forbear attending to, who is out of the noife ard hurry of human affairs. Ariftotle fays, that should a man live under ground, and there converfe with works of art and mechanism, and should afterwards be brought up into the open day, and see the several glories of the heaven and earth, he would immediately pronounce them the works of fuch a Being as we define God to be. The Pfalmift has very beautiful ftrokes of poetry to this purpofe, in that exalted ftrain: The heavers declare the glory of God: and the firmament fheweth his handywork. One day telleth another: and one night certifieth another. There is neither fpeech nor language: but their voices are heard among them. Their found is gone cut into all lanc's; and their words into the ends of the world.' As fuch a bold and fublime manner of thinking furnishes very noble matter for an ode, the reader may fee it wrought into the following one. ་ The fpacious firmament on high, And fpangled heavens, a fhining frame, Their great original proclaim: Th' unwearied fun from day to day, • Does his Creator's power display, |