Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

port of one another against the endeavours of those whom they ought to look upon as their common enemies, whatsoever side they may belong to. Were there such an honest body of neutral forces, we should never see the worst of men in great figures of life, because they are useful to a party; nor the best uuregarded, because they are above practising those methods which would be grateful to their faction. We should then single every criminal out of the herd, and hunt him down, however formidable and overgrown he might appear: on the contrary, we should shelter distressed innocence, and defend virtue, however be set with contempt or ridicule, envy or defamation. In short, we should not any longer regard our fellow. subjects as Whigs or Tories, but should make the man of merit our friend, and the villain our enemy.

Were there a combination of honest men, who with. out any regard to places, would endeavour to extir. pate all such furious zealots as would sacrifice one half of their country to the passion and interest of the other; as also such infamous hypocrites, that are for promoting their own advantage under colour of the public good; with all the profligate immoral retainers to each side, that have nothing to recommend them but an implicit submission to their leaders; we should soon see that furious party-spirit extinguished, which may in time expose us to the derision and contempt of all the nations about us.

A member of this society, that would thus carefully employ himself in making room for merit, by throw. ing down the worthless and depraved part of mankind from those conspicuous stations of life to which they have been sometimes advanced, and all this without any regard to his private interest, would be no small benefactor to his country.

I remember to have read in Diodorus Siculus an account of a very little active animal, which I think he

calls the little ichneumon, that makes it the whole bu. siness of his life to break the eggs of the crocodile, which he is always in search after. This instinct is the more remarkable, because the ichneumon never feeds upon the eggs he has broken, nor any other way finds his account in them. Were it not for the incessant labours of this industrious animal, Egypt, says the historian, would be overrun with crocodiles; for the Egyptians are so far from destroying those pernicious creatures, that they worship them as gods.

If we look into the behaviour of ordinary partizans, we shall find them far from resembling this disinterested animal, and rather acting after the example of the wild Tartars, who are ambitious of destroying a man of the most extraordinary parts and accomplishments, as thinking that upon his decease the same talents, whatever post they qualified him for, enter of course into his destroyer.

I observe that the spirit of party reigns more in the country than in the town. It here contracts a kind of brutality and rustic fierceness, to which men of a politer conversation are wholly strangers. It extends itself even to the return of the bow and the hat; and at the same time that the heads of parties preserve towards one another an outward show of good-breeding, and keep up a perpetual intercourse of civilities, their tools that are dispersed in these outlying parts will not so much as mingle together at a cock-match. This humour fills the country with several periodical meetings of whig jockies and tory fox hunters; not to mention the innumerable curses, frowns, and whispers, it produces at a quarter-sessions.

It gives a serious concern to see such a spirit of dissention in the country; not only as it destroys virtue and common sense, and renders ns in a manner barbarians towards one another, but as it perpetuates our animosities, widens our breaches, and transmits our present passions and prejudices to our posterity. I

am sometimes afraid that I discover the seeds of a civil war in these our divisions; and therefore cannot but bewail, as in their first principles, the miseries and calamities of our children.

C.

WORLDLY PURSUITS.

Audire, atque togam jubeo componere, quisquis Ambitione mala, aut argenti pallet amore,

Quisquis luxaria

HOR.

Sit still, and hear, those whom proud thoughts do

swell, Those that look pale by loving coin too well; Whom luxury corrupts.

CREECH.

MANKIND is divided in two parts, the busy and

the idle. The busy world may be divided into the virtuous and the vicious. The vicious again into the covetous, the ambitious, and the sensual. The idle part of mankind are in a state inferior to any one of these. All the other are engaged in the pursuit of happiness, though often misplaced, and are therefore more likely to be attentive to such means as shall be proposed to them for that end. The idle, who are neither wise for this world nor the next, are empha tically called, by Doctor Tillotson, foolз at large. They propose themselves no end, but run adrift with every wind. Advice therefore would be but thrown away upon them, since they would scarce take the pains to read it. I shall not fatigue any of this worthless tribe with a long harangue; but will leave them with this short saying of Plato, that "labour is preferable to idleness, as brightness to rust."

The pursuits of the active part of mankind are either

in the paths of religion or virtue; or, on the other hand, in the roads to wealth, honours, or pleasure. I shall, therefore, compare the pursuits of avarice, ambition, and sensual delight, with their opposite virtues; and shall consider which of these principles engages men in a course of the greatest labour, suffering, and assiduity. Most men, in their cool reasonings, are willing to allow that a course of virtue will in the end be rewarded the most amply; but represent the way to it as rugged and narrow. If therefore it can be made appear, that men struggle through as many troubles to be made miserable, as they do to be happy, my readers may perhaps be persuaded to be good, when they find they shall lose nothing by it.

First, for avarice. The miser is more industrious than the saint: the pains of getting, the fears of losing, and the inability of enjoying his wealth, have been the mark of satire in all ages. Were his repentance upon his neglect of a good bargain, his sorrow for being over-reached, his hope of improving a sum, and his fear of falling into want, directed to their proper objects, they would make so many different christian graces and virtues. He may apply to himself a great part of St. Paul's catalogue of sufferings. "In journeying often; in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils among false brethren. In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often." At how much less expense might he "lay up to himself treasures in heaven?" or if I may, in this place, be allowed to add the saying of a great 'philosopher, he may "provide such possessions, as fear neither arms, nor men, nor Jove himself."

In the second place, if we look upon the toils of ambition, in the same light as we have considered those of avarice, we shall readily own that far less trouble is requisite to gain lasting glory, than the power and reputation of a few years; or, in other words, we may with more ease deserve honour, than obtain it. The ambitious man should remember Car

dinal Wolsey's complaint: "Had I served God with the same application wherewith I served my king, he would not have forsaken me in my old age." The Cardinal here softens his ambition by the specious pretence of "serving his king;" whereas his words, in the proper construction, imply, that if, instead of being actuated by ainbition, he had been actuated by religion, he should now have felt the comforts of it, when the whole world turned its back upon him.

Thirdly, let us compare the pains of the sensual, with those of the virtuous, and see which are heavier in the balance. It may seem strange, at the first view, that the men of pleasure should be advised to change their course, because they lead a painful life. Yet when we see then so active and vigilant in quest of delight; under so many disquiets, and the sport of such various passions; let them answer, as they can, if the pains they undergo do not outweigh their enjoy. ments. The infidelities on the one part between the two sexes, and the caprices on the other, the debase. ment of reason, the pangs of expectation, the disappointments in possession, the stings of remorse, the va nities and vexations attending even the most refined delights that make up this business of life, render it so silly and uncomfortable, that no man is thought wise. until he hath got over it, or happy, but in proportion as he hath cleared himself from it.

The sum of all is this: Man is made an active being. Whether he walks in the paths of virtue or vice, he is sure to meet with many difficulties to prove his patience and excite his industry. The same, if not greater labour, is required in the service of vice and folly, as of virtue and wisdom; and he hath this easy choice left him, whether, with the strength he is master of, he will purchase happiness or repentance.

« AnteriorContinuar »