hardly defcribe to you the fituation of affairs here at present, they are in fuch a bad way. Several circumstances have concurrred to ruin our trade here this fpring. The Indian war, which we were made to believe was at an end, rages with as much violence as ever, and as little probability of its being foon terminated. All communication with the upper countries, that great resource for confumption and remittances, is entirely blocked up, and you will have few or no furrs home this year. All our hopes now depend on the speedy payment of the French paper currency. If that takes place, of which we are affured by our governor (agreeable I hope to his orders from the ministry) and the Indian war takes a favourable turn, things may ftill anfwer our expectations; if not, this valuable acquifition will be in a manner useless, at leaft for feveral years.

Difcourfe on the Utility of encouraging and ftrengthening the Paffion of Fame.

T

HE univerfal defire of fame is a rational proof, in a great meafure, of the immortality of the human foul. Infpired and elated by this principle in the profecution of virtuous actions, it must be pleafing to God himfelf to fee his creation for ever beautify ing in his eyes, and drawing nearer to him by greater degrees of refemblance. To look upon the foul as going on from ftrength to ftrength, from virtue to virtue, from knowledge to knowledge, and ftill fhining forth with a constant increase of fame and glory, carries in it fomething wonderfully agreeable to that ambition which is natural to the mind of man this world, therefore, with a view to fame, is only a nursery for the next; and the feveral generations of rational creatures, which rife up and disappear in fuch rapid fucceffions, are only to receive their firft rudiments of applause here, and afterwards to be tranfplanted into a more friendly climate,

where they may spread and flourish ‘amidft the fmiles of a perpetual remembrance.

The means or inftruments men have deviled for propagating their fame, confift in the erecting of monuments, impreffing medals, and obtaining a place in hiftory. Some, having just reafon to defpond of fhining in the laft, have been careful. during their own life time, to immortalife themselves by either of the other methods; but, as herein they have been influenced by vanity and pride, the memory becomes hateful; for it is not enough, that these monuments and medals fpeak; they muft fpeak truth, otherwife what was intended as a panegyric will be converted into reproach.

The best way to live in the annals of Fame is to fufpend the enjoyment of it. The jufteft character of a man is to be had of men. Grateful pofterity will

not fail to erect fepulchral monuments, obelisks, triumphal arches, to the deferving. The worst way to fame must furely be in fhewing ourselves too anxious about it. Death fets a kind of feal upon a man's character, and places him out of the reach of vice and infamy. Death only clofes a man's reputation, and determines it either good or bad. This makes it dangerous to praise men, while living; for, whilst they are capable of changing, we may be forced to retract our opinions. As no life can be called happy or unhappy, fo it cannot be called vicious or virtuous, till the end of it; and, as there is not a more melancholy confideration to a good man, than his being obnoxious to fuch a change, fo there is nothing more glorious than to keep up an uniformity in his actions, and preferve the purity in his character to the laft. The end of a man's life is often compared to the winding up of a well written play, where the principal perfons ftill act in character, whatever the fate is which they un dergo; for he, who has filled all the offices of life with dignity and honour till yesterday, and to-day forgets his duty, has done nothing,

It is obfervable, with regard to all well-policed States, that nothing has contributed more to the permanency of their profperous condition, than that noble love of fame and glory which they have endeavoured to cherish in the breaks of their subjects. Rewarding merit, wherever found, is the main fpring of this paffion; and this paffion must be always laudable, as having a manifeft tendency to promote the welfare of the State. The great and good man, who is therefore ambitious of raifing, for the pleafure of his own mind, the noble fuperftructure of lasting fame, will renounce all felt esteem for any private views and interest, fenfible that engaging in fuch mean and frivolous concerns will be of no advantage to his reputation, and that the public efteem is alone worthy of his af fectations, is alone defirable; fince it is always a teftimony of the public gratitude, and, confequently, a proof of real merit. Thus he finds every thing poffible in his endeavours to merit the general esteem; and, as the pride of commanding Kings recompenfed the Romans for enduring the feverity of military difcipline, fo the noble pleafure of being esteemed, comforts the illustrious man, even under the unjust frowns of fortune; and, if he has obtained this esteem, he reputes himself the poffeffor of the most desirable wealth. In fact, whatever indifference we pretend to fhew for the public opinion, every one feeks after fame, and believes he is more worthy of being placed by it in a confpicuous light, in proportion as he finds himself more generally efteemed.

As our wants, our paffions, and, above all, our indolence, do not stifle in our minds this ardent defire of fame, there is no perfon, who does not frive to deserve it, and does not with for the public fuffrage, as a furety for the high opinion he has of himself. Therefore a contempt for reputation, and the facrifice faid to be made of it to fortune, or other views, is always infpired by the despair of rendering ourselves illuftrious.

The neceffary effects of mifguided pride are to boast of what we have, and to defpife what we have not. It is not fo with the man who courts fame by public-fpirited actions: if he conders as a benefit all the evil that is not done him, and, as a gift, all that the wickedness of mankind fuffers him to enjoy; if he pours over the faults of others the lenient balfam of pity, and is flow in difcovering them; it is becaufe the elevation of his mind will not permit him to expatiate upon the vices and follies of fingle perfons, but upon thofe of mankind in general. If he confiders their faults, it is not with a malevolent eye, which is always unjust, but with the ferenity wherewith two men, defirous of knowing the human heart, reciprocally examine each other, as two fubjects of inftruction, and two living ftreams of moral experience. If he is tender of his good name, it is becaufe he has given ample proofs of having deferved it. The public can neither know nor esteem any merit, nor any pretenfions to fame, that are not proved by facts. Are they to judge of men of different ranks, they afk the military man, what victory have you obtained? The Minifter of State, the Member of Parliament, the Man in place: what relief have you afforded to the miseries of the people? the private Perfon: by what have you contributed to the good of fociety? Whoever can make no answer to these questions should neither be known to nor esteemed by the public. There are, however, a great many who, feduced by the delusions of power, by the pomp of grandeur, and the hope of favours, mechanically found the praises of the merit of persons in high ftations: But their elogiums, as fleeting as the credit of thofe on whom they are bestowed, cannot impofe on the fenfible part of the public. Uninfluenced by intereft, the public judge as a franger, who acknowledges for a man of merit him only who is distinguished by his talents.

He who would exactly know his own value, or the degree of fame he has

merit

merited, can therefore only learn it from the public, and ought therefore to fubmit himself to its judgment. All actions are not equally great and heroic; and we find that the esteem of the public, for fuch and such an action, is not proportioned to the degree of ftrength, courage, or generosity, neceffary to execute it, but to the importance of that action, and the public advantage derived from it. When, encouraged by the presence of an army, one man fights against three who are wounded, the action is undoubtedly brave; but it is what numbers of our common foldiers are capable of, though they might never be mentioned for it in history; but, when the fafety of an empire, formed to fubdue the univerfe, depends on the fuccefs of this battle, Horatius is an hero; he is the admiration of his fellow citizens; and his name, celebrated in history, is handed down to the most diftant ages. Two perfons throw themselves into a gulph: this was an action common to Sappho and Curtius; the first did it to put an end to the torments of love, the other to fave Rome; Sappho was therefore a fool, and Curtius a hero. When the Dutch had erected a statue to William Buckelft, who had taught them the fecret of falting and barrelling herrings, they did not confer this honour upon him on accouut of the extent of genius neceffary for that discovery, but from the importance of the fecret, and the advantage it procured to the nation. Nifi utile fit quod facimus, parva eft gloria.

But, fetting afide the motive of utility, which is principally confidered by a State, in the diftribution of rewards to those who have deserved well of it, we may obferve in general, that a strong paffion for fame is the first moving force, and perhaps the only, that prompts men to the execution of thofe heroic actions, and gives birth to those grand ideas, which are the aftonishment and admiration of all ages.

Paffions are, in the moral, what motion is in the natural world. If motion

creates, deftroys, preferves, animates in its proper fphere of action, paffions do the fame in theirs. It is avarice which conducts ships over the defarts of the ocean; it is pride which fills up vallies, levels mountains, hews for itself a paffage through rocks, raises the pyramids of Memphis, digs the lake Maris, and cafts the Coloffus of Rhodes. It was the enthusiasm of gratitude which claffed the benefactors of mankind among the Gods, and invented the extravagance of false religions and superftitions. It is to the paffion of being reputed of fome confequence in the world that we owe the invention and wonders of arts and fciences. It is from a defire of glory that the astronomer is feen placing his inftruments on the icy fummits of the highest mountains; that the botanist clambers over precipices in quest of plants; and that the ancient lovers of the sciences travelled into Egypt, Ethiopia, and the Indies to visit the most celebrated philofophers, and acquire, from their conver fation, the principles of their doctrine. How ftrongly did this passion exert itself in Demofthenes, who, in order to perfect his pronunciation, used every day to stand on the fea-shore, and, with his mouth full of pebbles, harangue the agitated waves! it was from the fame defire of glory that the young Pythago. reans fubmitted to a filence of three years, to habituate themselves to recollection and meditation. In fhort, it is under the powerful influence of this paffion that we fuftain dangers, pain, and death, and that by it we are animated to take and purfue the boldest refolutions.

Cato, when a child, going with his Tutor to Sylla's palace, at seeing the bloody heads of t e profcribed, asked, with impatience, the name of the monfter who had caused fo many Roman citizens to be murdered? he was anfwered it was Sylla: how, fays he, does Sylla murder thus, and is Sylla ftill alive? Yes, replied the Tutor, the very name of Sylla difarms our citizens. Rome, cried Cato, de

plorable

of a certain experimental acquaintance with the paffions. They must follow beaten paths: if they forfake them, they bewilder themselves. Indolence is always a predominant quality in a man of fenfe; he has nothing of that activity of foul, by which a great man in power forms new springs for moving the world, or fows the feeds of future events. It is only to the man of paffion, and to him who thirfts after glory, that the book of futurity is open; it is eagle-eyed paffion which penetrates into the dark abyfs of futurity; indifference is born blind and stupid.

When the love of glory does not in terfere, if the ideas and actions arifing from other paffions, as avarice and love, are in general little valued, it is not that thefe ideas and actions do not often require great understanding and a multitude of combinations; but because, as being indifferent or detrimental to the public, we cannot fuppofe that they have a juft claim to be accounted virtuous, ingenious, or noble. Now, of all paffions, the love of glory is that alone which is never at a lofs; for, being the foul of men of genius and talents in every kind, it must rescue its votaries from floth, and alone impart to them that continued attention productive of fuperior intellects.

Thus it is that fome are found to unite, with the art of intriguing, an extraordinary elevation of mind. If, after the example of Cromwell, a man is defirous of mounting a throne; the power and luftre of a crown, and the pleafures annexed to government, may doubtless, in his eyes, ennoble the bafenels of his plots, fince they deface the horror of his crime in the opinion of pofterity, who place fuch an one in the rank of the greatest men: but if, by an infinite number of intrigues, a man endeavours to raise himself to thofe little pofts which he can never deferve; if he is mentioned in hiftory by the name of villain or cheat, he is rendered defpicable in the eyes of all honeft men. He ought to remain a little man who defires little things. Whoever finds Himfelf above want, without being by

his rank intitled to the firft pofts, can have no other motive than that of glory, and has no other part to chuse, if he is a man of abilities, than to fhew himself steadily virtuous.

We may hence conclude, than an abfence of the paffion of fame, glory, honour, or whatever other appellation it may receive, would reduce us to the most absolute stupidity; whereas, to the reverse, a portion of that celestial fire which vivifies the moral world, we owe the difcovery of arts and sciences, and all the elevation of the human foul. What! if the passion of glory is often the fource of vice and many misfortunes: it may be fo; but the good accruing from it more than counterbalances the inconveniences it may occafi

on.

Sublime virtue and difcerning wifdom are its products, whereby we must surely be rescued from that felt-indulgence and force of indolence to which we are otherwise inceffantly gravitating.

From the UNIVERSAL MAGAZINE.

Thoughts upon feveral Subjects.

HE ruin of a state is generally

Tpreceded by a degeneracy of

manners, and contempt of religion. None are fit to govern who are not greater than those who are supposed to be fubject to them.

The train of our thought, and motion of foul, depend on custom; therefore good habits are highly neceffary to produce good thoughts.

There are but few things wanting to make the wife man happy; nothing can make a fool content, which is the reafon why almost all men are miserable.

Vice is the true object of hatred, as vicious men are of pity and contempt.

Our actual enjoyments are so few and tranfient, that man would be a very miferable being, were he not endowed with hope, which gives him a taste of those good things that may poffibly come into his poffeffion.

Mene