lived for a long time in a state of perfect happiness, and fhared his profperity with Zenderhoud, the idol of his heart. This happiness was, however, foon after disturbed by a vifion, in which he beheld a venerable old man, who earnestly exhorted him to make a pilgrimage to Medina, and offer up his prayers, at the tomb of the holy prophet; telling him at the fame time, that if he neglected to obey that injunction, the vengeance of heaven would certainly overtake him. This admonition he at first neglected, and attributed to the prejudices which he had imbibed in his infancy; but the fame advice being reiterated in three fubfequent dreams, he at length began to hefitate, and his mind was filled with fcruples.

Coming a few days afterwards from a caravanfera, where he had treated with fome Egyptian merchants concerning an affair in which they were all equally interefted, he was feized with the utmost horror and furprize to find, upon his return home, that his house, was robbed: he searched for his dear Zenderhoud, and not being able to find her, after having enquired all over Ormus, he left the city in defpair.

For fome time he wandered about, not knowing whither to direct his fteps; but at length, meeting with. a company of faquirs, who told him they were upon a journey to Medina, he recounted to them his dream; and he, yielding to their united folicitations, agreed to accompany them to Medina.

Being arrived there, they all devoutly paid their adorations at the

tomb of the holy prophet; and Hindbad, who had now entirely renounced the errors of the fect of Xaca, fet out with them for Ifpahan. Upon his arrival at that place, he met with a vaft concourfe of people affembled before the house of a cadi; and having enquired the cause thereof, was informed that feveral perfons were then examining before him, who were found por feffed of immense wealth, which they could not fatisfactorily make appear how they came by; and which a woman, named Zenderhoud, who was found in their company, claimed as the property of her husband Hindbad, a merchant at Ormus, whofe house they had rifled, and carried her off at the fame time.

Hindbad, overjoyed at this intelligence, intreated to be heard; and being admitted to the prefence of the cadi, was immediately known by Zenderhoud, who embraced him with a transport of joy inexpreflible. The cadi, after interrogating them, was fo fully convinced of their ve racity, that he caufed the robbers to make instant reftitution, and ordered them to receive the baltinado upon the spot.

Hindbad and Zenderhoud immediately returned to Ormus, where they ever after lived in perfect felicity; the former acknowledging his folly in having forfook the doctrine of God's prophet for the impious fect of Xaca, and the latter making it her only ftudy to please a husband who loved her with unabated af fection.

An.

A

Man of the most profound erudition, after having paffed his whole life in ftudy and meditation, will not, if he be wife, offer me the explanation of any phenomenon as certain: he will content himself with representing it as poffible; and it feems highly probable, that amongst all the poffible fyftems that have been found, there is not one in every respect conformable to truth. How vain a pursuit is it to ftudy during the whole courfe of one's life, merely to know what may poffibly exift!

Philofophy is faid to be nearer perfection in the prefent age, than ever it was before, yet men were never more thoroughly convinced that all fyftems are merely fictions of the imagination; fome more ingenious than others, but all false, or highly uncertain.

I have, fays a celebrated modern author, attached myself to philofophy these thirty or forty years pait, fully convinced of the truth of fome things; but now I begin to doubt concerning them. This is not the worst: there are many things concerning which I no longer doubt, as I despair of being ever able to comprehend them.' The ignorant are fenfible of their ignorance by a fort of instinct. The learned know, to a demonftration, that they know nothing, and that is all the advantage they have over them,

It is a very important queftion, and very hard to be decided, whether the sctences have contributed to promote or obftru&t the intereft of religion and government. They have been made ufe of both to at

tack and defend them; so that we cannot entirely adopt the opinion of the celebrated philofopher of Geneva, who maintains, that they are rather pernicious than ufeful. They are in themselves indifferent, and do harm or good according to the use that is made of them,

A gentleman of great parts and learning happening one day to affert, that the enormous depravity of the prefent age was owing to its being too knowing; was fully anfwered by another, who proved, by the most folid arguments, that it was owing to its not being fufficiently fo. It has been justly observed by Mr. Pope, that a little learning is a dangerous thing; and certain it is, that fhallow draughts of the Pierian fpring have an equal tendency to corrupt the heart, as to intoxicate the brain. The greatest ignorance is often difguifed by the moft infolent prefumption; and how few are capable of detecting it when it is masked with art? How many ignorant pretenders are believed upon their word, when they affirm themfelves to be learned? How many men of real learning live and die unnoticed through an excess of modefty? It has been juftly ob ferved, that men of learning contribute to render the fciences contemptible, each being strongly attached to that whereof he makes profeffion, and defpifing all the reft.

A chymift infatuated with his philofopher's ftone, holds in the utmost contempt whatever has no connexion with his furnaces and his mercury. An aftronomer thinks nothing worth his notice but the celeftial

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celestial bodies, and looks upon all observations as trifling, except fuch as relate to the different afpects of the planets. A logician, full of the perplexing jargon of the fchools, is delighted with a fophifm artfully propofed. Yet the chymift, the aftronomer, and the logician, tho' they differ in every thing elfe, perfectly agree in beholding each other with the eyes of fcorn and contempt. Were we to regulate our judgment by their opinions of one another, learning would no longer be looked upon as defirable and praife-worthy.

The uncertainty of hiftory is equal to that of philofophy; thofe that have made it their particular study, have declared that history undergoes the fame fate with meat in a kitchen. Every nation dreffes it according to its peculiar tafte; fo that the fame thing is ferved up in as many different ragouts as there are countries in the world, and every man is beft pleafed with that to which his palate has been accuftomed. It is the opinion of many perfons of difcernment, that a man must be very weak to think of coming to the knowledge of what has paffed by the ftudy of hiftory: we muft content ourfelves, fay they, with knowing what fuch and fuch authors have faid concerning events; and we should not expect to meet with the hiftory of facts, but the history of narratives and opinions.

Of all forts of knowledge, the moft contemptible is that of lan guages; yet there is none of which men are more vain. The vulgar, indeed, admire fuch as are poffeffed of it, and it seems probable that it is because they are more fully

convinced of their ignorance in this respect than any other.

To conclude, the futility of human fciences appears from nothing more ftrongly than from that dif guft by which the eagerness for knowledge is often fucceeded, and which has made many eminent men look with indifference or diflike upon what they had purfued with the utmost ardour in the early part of their lives. It was this, no doubt, that induced the celebrated Huet, archbishop of Avranche, to compofe his treatife upon the uncertainty of the sciences, and that forced from the celebrated Fenelon an acknowledgment, that in his youth he was too folicitous about acquiring knowledge, and in his old age began to doubt of every thing. Man should never expect fatisfaction of mind in his enquiries into nature, fince, as foon as one difficulty is furmounted, many others sprout up in its place, and his curiofity encreases with his acquirements. The vulture that preyed upon the liver of Prometheus, which grew again as foon as it was devoured, seems to be a just emblem of that curiofity which conftantly torments the minds of those who are engaged in learned purfuits, and renders their condition. much lefs defirable than that of those who are satisfied with their ignorance. Knowledge is a godlike attribute, but in this world will never conftitute the happinefs of a human mind, fince, as the ingenious Dr. Parnell expreffes it,

The reft it feeks, in seeking dies, And doubts instead of knowledge rife.

GENTLEMEN,

THE

N

Othing can be more certain than death; it was never yet so much as called in queftion. The example of all who have gone before as is a convincing proof, and amounts even to a demonstration.

Though most men look upon the laft moment of life as fomething dreadful, they comfort themselves, however, by the notion of its being at a great distance; and the uncertainty of death, which ought to render it terrible, is by felf-love converted into matter of confolation in this fatal neceffity.

The equality to which death reduces all men, would be fufficient to curb the vanity of the great, would they but take the trouble to reflect upon fo melancholy a fubject. This equality is fo exact, that it may juftly be compared to that which fubfifts between men at the time of their birth. These two extreams have an effential connexion with each other; we are born to die, and death, according to Seneca, resembles a fecond birth. There cannot be a more gloomy and difmal idea than that of death. A man must raife himself greatly above nature in order to furmount the dread of it, and the terrors it produces are not to be wondered at.

The celebrated Montagne has justly obferved, that the idea of our approaching diffolution is rendered 5

T. W.

ftill more dreadful by the circumftances which accompany it; the countenances of a whole family overcaft with forrow, the tears of an afflicted wife, and the lamentations of all who happen to be prefent in the chamber of a fick person, difpirited and weakened by the violence of his difeafe; befides many other ceremonies fufficient of themselves to ftrike terror into the mind of a man who feels his natural powers fail, and whofe dread is aggravated by uncertainty concerning his future state. The dying fhould, if poffible, be freed from fuch dreadful ideas, and the apparatus of death, which is a punishment more grievous than death itself, fhould be referved for criminals alone.

We are informed by travellers, that a certain barbarous people celebrated the deaths of their grandees by rejoicings, and indulged the dying with all the pleasures they were capable of enjoying. This cuftom has nothing barbarous in it, though it must be allowed to be inconfiftent with the precepts of our religion.

How great anguish muft that man feel, who, in the prime of life, and poffeffed of confiderable wealth, finds himself on a fudden attacked by a difeafe, which muft unavoidably end by his death. His affliction muft doubtlefs be extreme, for the happy feldom remember that they