they are remote. fures and pains which lie hid in eternity, approach nearer to him every moment; and will be prefent with him in their full weight and meafure, as much as those pains and pleasures which he feels at this very inftant. For this reafon, he is careful to fecure to himself that which is the proper happiness of his nature, and the ultimate defign of his being.

He confiders that those plea

He carries his thoughts to the end of every action; and confiders the most diftant, as well as the most immediate effects of it. He fu perfedes every little prospect of gain and advantage which offers itself here, if he does not find it confiftent with his views of an hereafter. In a word, his hopes are full of immortality; his fchemes are large and glorious; and his conduct fuitable to one who knows his true intereft, and how to pursue it by proper methods.

ADDISON.

SECTION V.

On the Government of our Thoughts.

A MULTITUDE of cafes occur, in which we are no lefs accountable for what we think, than for what we do.

As, firft, when the introduction of any train of thought depends upon ourselves, and is our voluntary act; by turning our attention towards fuch objects, awakening fuch paffions, or engaging in fuch employments, as we know muft give a peculiar determination to our thoughts. Next, when thoughts, by whatever accident they may have been originally fuggefted, are indulged with delibe

ration and complacency. Though the mind has been paffive in their reception, and, therefore, free from blame; yet, if it be active in their continu

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ance, the guilt becomes its own. They may have intruded at firft, like unbidden guefts; but if, when entered, they are made welcome, and kindly entertained, the cafe is the fame as if they had been invited from the beginning. If we be thus

accountable to God for thoughts either voluntarily introduced, or deliberately indulged, we are no lefs fo, in the last place, for thofe which find admittance into our hearts from fupine negligence, from total relaxation of attention, from allowing our imagination to rove with entire licence, "like the eyes of the fool towards the ends of the earth." Our minds are, in this cafe, thrown open to folly and vanity. They are prostituted to every evil thing which pleases to take poffeffion. The confequences must all be charged to our account; and in vain we plead excufe from human infirmity. Hence it appears, that the great object at which we are to aim in governing our thoughts, is, to take the most effectual measures for preventing the introduction of fuch as are finful, and for haftening their expulfion, if they fhall have introduced themselves without confent of the will.

But when we defcend into our breafts, and examine how far we have ftudied to keep this object in view, who can tell," how oft he hath offended?" In no article of religion or morals are men more culpably remifs, than in the unrestrained indulgence they give to fancy; and that too, for the moft part, without remorse. Since the time that reafon began to exert her powers, Thought, du

ring our waking hours, has been active in every breaft, without a moment's fufpenfion or paufe. The current of ideas has been always flowing. The wheels of the fpiritual engine have circulated with perpetual motion. Let me afk, what has

been the fruit of this inceffant activity with the greater part of mankind? Of the innumerable hours that have been employed in thought, how few are marked with any permanent or useful effect? How many have either passed away in idle dreams; or have been abandoned to anxious dif contented mufings, to unfocial and malignant paffions, or to irregular and criminal defires? Had I power to lay open that ftorehoufe of iniquity which the hearts of too many conceal; could I draw out and read to them a lift of all the imaginations they have devifed, and all the paffions they have indulged in fecret; what a picture of men fhould I prefent to themselves! What crimes would they appear to have perpetrated in fecrecy, which to their most intimate companions they durft not reveal!

Even when men imagine their thoughts to be innocently employed, they too commonly fuffer them to run out into extravagant imaginations, and chimerical plans of what they would wish to attain, or choofe to be, if they could frame the courfe of things according to their defire. Though fuch employments of fancy come not under the fame defcription with those which are plainly crimi nal, yet wholly unblamable they feldom are. fides the wafte of time which they occafion, and the mifapplication which they indicate of thofe intellectual powers that were given to us for much

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nobler purposes, fuch romantic fpeculations lead us always into the neighbourhood of forbidden regions. They place us on dangerous ground. They are for the most part connected with fome one bad paffion; and they always nourish a giddy and frivolous turn of thought. They unfit the mind for applying with vigour to rational pursuits, or for acquiefcing in fober plans of conduct. From that ideal world in which it allows itself to dwell, it returns to the commerce of men, unbent and relaxed, fickly and tainted, averfe from difcharging the duties, and fometimes difqualified even for relishing the pleasures of ordinary life.

BLAIR.

SECTION VI.

On the Evils which flow from unrestrained Paffions.

WHEN man revolted from his Maker, his pasfions rebelled against himself; and, from being originally the ministers of reason, have become the tyrants of the foul. Hence, in treating of this fubject, two things may be affumed as principles: first, that through the prefent weakness of the understanding, our paffions are often directed towards improper objects; and next, that even when their direction is juft, and their objects are innocent, they perpetually tend to run into excefs; they always hurry us towards their gratification, with a blind and dangerous impetuofity. On thefe two points then turns the whole government of our paffions: firft, to afcertain the proper objects of their purfuit; and next, to reftrain them in

that purfuit, when they would carry us beyond the bounds of reason. If there be any paffion which' intrudes itself unfeasonably into our mind, which darkens and troubles our judgment, or habitually difcomposes our temper; which unfits us for properly discharging the duties, or difqualifies us for cheerfully enjoying the comforts of life, we may certainly conclude it to have gained a dangerous afcendant. The great object which we ought to propofe to ourselves, is, to acquire a firm and fted faft mind, which the infatuation of paffion fhall not feduce, nor its violence thake; which, refting on fixed principles, fhall, in the midft of contending emotions, remain free, and mafter of itself; able to listen calmly to the voice of conscience; and prepared to obey its dictates without hesitation.

To obtain, if poffible, fuch command of paffion, is one of the highest attainments of the rational nature. Arguments to fhow its importance crowd upon us from every quarter. If there be any fertile fource of mifchief to human life, it is, beyond doubt, the misrule of paffion. It is this which poifons the enjoyment of individuals, overturns the order of fociety, and ftrews the path of life with fo many miferies, as to render it indeed the vale of tears. All thofe great fcenes of public calamity, which we behold with astonishment and horror, have originated from the fource of violent paffions. These have overspread the earth with bloodshed. These have pointed the affaffin's dagger, and filled the poifoned bowl. Thefe, in every age, have furnished too copious materials for the orator's pathetic declamation, and for the poet's tragical fong.