look down upon that degree of perfection, as much as the now falls fhort of it. It is true, the higher nature ftill advances, fhe by that means preferves his distance and superiority in the fcale of being; but he knows, how high foever the ftation is, of which he ftands poffeffed at prefent, the inferior nature will at length mount up to it, and fhine forth in the fame degree of glory.

With what aftonifhment and veneration maywe look into our own fouls, where there are fuch hidden ftores of virtue and knowledge, fuch inexhaufted fources of perfection! We know not yet what we shall be, nor will it ever enter into the heart of man to conceive the glory that will be always in referve for him. The foul confidered with its Creator, is like one of thofe mathematical lines that may draw nearer to an other for all eternity, without a poffibility of touching it: And can there be a thought so transporting, as to confider ourselves in these perpetual approaches to him, who is not only the standard of perfection, but of happiness!

I am fully perfuaded, that one of the best fprings of generous and worthy actions, is the having generous and worthy thoughts of ourselves. Whoever has a mean opinion of the dignity of his nature, will act in no higher a rank than he has allotted himself in his own eftimation. If he confiders his being as circumfcribed by the uncertain term of a few years, his defigns will be contracted into the fame narrow fpan he imagines is to bound his exiftence. How can he exalt his

thoughts to any thing great and noble, who only believes, that, after a fhort turn on the ftage of this world, he is to fink into oblivion, and to lofe his confcioufnefs for ever?

For this reafon I am of opinion, that fo useful and elevated a contemplation as that of the foul's immortality cannot be resumed too often. There is not a more improving exercise to the human mind, than to be frequently reviving its own great privileges and endowments; nor a more effectual means to awaken in us an ambition raised above low objects and little pursuits, than to value ourfelves as heirs of eternity.

It is a vey great fatisfaction to confider the best and wifeft of mankind, in all nations and ages, afferting, as with one voice, this their birth-right, and to find it ratified by an express revelation. At the fame time, if we turn our thoughts inward upon ourselves, we may meet with a kind of fecret fense concurring with the proofs of our own immortality.

You have, in my opinion, raised a good prefumptive argument from the increasing appetite the mind has to knowledge, and to the extending its own faculties, which cannot be accomplished, as the more restrained perfection of lower creatures may, in the limits of a fhort life. I think another probable conjecture may be raised from our appetite to duration itself, and from a reflection on our progress through the feveral stages of it: we are complaining, as you obferve in a former fpeculation, of the shortnefs of life, and yet are perpetually

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hurrying over the parts of it to arrive at certain little fettlements, or imaginary points of rest, which are difperfed up and down in it.

Now let us confider what happens to us, when we arrive at these imaginary points of reft: Do we ftop our motion, and fit down fatisfied in the settlement we have gained? or are we not removing the boundary, and marking out new points of reft, to which we press forward with the like eagerness, and which cease to be fuch as faft as we attain them? Our cafe is like that of a traveller upon the Alps, who fhould fancy that the top of the next hill muft end his journey, because it terminates his prospect; but he no fooner arrives at it, than he sees new ground and other hills beyond it, and continues to travel on as before.

This is fo plainly every man's condition in life, that there is no one who has obferved any thing, but may obferve, that as faft as his time wears away, his appetite to fomething future remains. The use therefore I would make of it, is this; That, fince nature (as fome love to express it) does nothing in vain, or to speak properly, fince the Author of our being has planted no wandering paffion in it, no defire which has not its object, futurity is the proper object of the paffion fo conftantly exercised about it; and this restlessness in the prefent, this affigning ourselves over to farther ftages of duration, this fucceffive grasping at somewhat ftill to come, appears to me (whatever it may to others) as a kind of inftinct or natural fymptom which the mind of man has of its own immortality.

I take it at the fame time for granted, that the immortality of the foul is fufficiently established by other arguments: and if so, this appetite, which otherwife would be very unaccountable and abfurd, feems very reasonable, and adds ftrength to the conclufion. But I am amazed, when I confider there are creatures capable of thought, who, in fpite of every argument, can form to themfelves a fullen fatisfaction in thinking otherwife. There is fomething fo pitifully mean in the inverted ambition, of that man who can hope for annihilation, and please himself to think, that his whole fabric fhall one day crumble into duft, and mix with the mass of inanimate beings, that it equally deserves our admiration and pity. The mystery of such mene's unbelief is not hard to be penetrated; and indeed amounts to nothing more than a fordid hope that they shall not be immortal, because they dare not be fo.

This brings me back to my first observation, and gives me occafion to say 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 character of immortality is very willing to refign his pretenfions to it, and to fubftitute, in its room, a dark negative happiness in the extinction of his being.

The admirable Shakspeare has given us a very strong image of the unfupported condition of fuch a perfon in his laft minutes, in the fecond part of

King Henry VI. where Cardinal Beaufort, who

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had been concerned in the murder of the good Duke Humphrey, is represented on his death bed. After some short confused speeches which fhow an imagination disturbed with guilt, just as he is expiring, King Henry standing by him, full of compaffion, fays,

Lord Cardinal! if thou thinkest on heaven's bliss,
Hold up thy hand, make fignal of that hope!

He dies, and makes no sign!—

The despair which is here shown, without a word or action on the part of the dyingperfon, is beyond what could be painted by the moft forcible expreffions whatever.

I fhall not pursue this thought further, but only add, that as annihilation is not to be had with a wifh, so it is the moft abject thing in the world to with it. What are honor, fame, wealth, or power, when compared with the generous expectation of a being without end, and a happiness adequate to that being ?

The time prefent feldom affords fufficient employment to the mind of man. Objects of pain or pleasure, love or admiration, do not lie thick enough together in life to keep the foul in constant action, and fupply an immediate exercise to its faculties. In order therefore, to remedy this defect, that the mind may not want bufinefs, but always have materials for thinking, fhe is endued with certain powers, that can recal what is paffed, and anticipate what is to come.