This diffatisfaction in the midst of human pleasure fprings partly from the nature of our enjoyments them. felves, and partly from circumftances which corrupt them. No worldly enjoyments are adequate to the high defires and powers of an immortal fpirit. Fancy paints them at a diftance with fplendid colours; but poffeffion unveils the fallacy. The eagernefs of paffion beftows upon them, at first, a brifk and lively relish. But it is their fate always to pall by familiarity, and fometimes to pass from fatiety into difguft. Happy would the poor man think himself, if he could enter on all the treasures of the rich; and happy for a fhort time he might be; but before he had long contemplated and admired his ftate, his poffeffions would feem to leffen, and his cares would grow.

Add to the unfatisfying nature of our pleasures, the attending circumftances which never fail to corrupt them. For, fuch as they are, they are at no time poffeffed unmixed. To human lips it is not given to taste the cup of pure joy. When external circumftances fhow faireft to the world, the envied man groans in private under his own burden. Some vexation difquiets, fome paffion corrodes him fome diftrefs either felt or feared, gnaws, like à worm, the root of his felicity. When there is nothing from without to disturb the profperous, a fecret poifon operates within. For worldly happiness ever tends to destroy itfelf, by corrupting the heart. It fofters the loofe and the violent paffions. It engenders noxious habits; and taints the mind with falfe delicacy, which makes it feel a thoufand unreal evils.

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But put the cafe in the most favourable light. Lay afide from human pleasures both difappointment in pursuit and deceitfulness in enjoyment; fuppofe them to be fully attainable and completely fatisfactory; ftill there remains to be confidered the vanity of uncertain poffeffion, and fhort duration. Were there in worldly things any fixed point of fecurity which we could gain, the mind would then have fome bafis on which to reft. But our condition is fuch, that every thing wavers and totters around us. "Boaft not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowelt not what a day may bring forth." It is much if, during t course, thou hearet not of fomewhat to difquiet or alarm thee. For life never proceeds long in a uniform train. It is continually varied by unexpected events. The feeds of alteration are every where fown; and the funshine of

profperity commonly accelerates their growth. If our enjoyments are numerous, we lie more open on different fides to be wounded. If we have poffeffed them long, we have greater cause to dread an approaching change. By flow degrees profperity rifes; but rapid is the progrefs of evil. It requires no preparation to bring it forward. The edifice which it coft much time and labour to erect, one in- ́ aufpicious event, one fudden blow, can level with the duft. Even fuppofing the accidents of life to leave us untouched, human blifs muft ftill be tranfitory; for man changes of himself. No courfe of enjoyment can delight us long. What amufed our youth, lofes its charm in maturer age. As years advance, our powers are blunted, and our pleasurable feelings decline. The filent lapfe of time is ever carrying fomewhat from us, till at length the period comes, when all must be swept away. The profpect of this termination of our labours and purfuits is fufficient to mark our state with vanity. "Our days are a hand's breadth, and our age is as nothing." Within that little space is all our enterprise bounded. We crowd it with toils and cares, with contention and ftrife. We project great defigns, entertain high hopes, and then leave our plans unfinished, and fink into oblivion.

This much let it fuffice to have faid concerning the vanity of the world. That too much has not been faid muft appear to every one who confiders how generally mankind lean to the oppofite fide; and how often, by undue attachment to the prefent ftate, they both feed the molt finful paffions, and "pierce themselves through with many forrows."

SECTION XIX.

BLAIR.

What are the real and folid Enjoyments of human Life.

It must be admitted that unmixed and complete happiness is unknown on earth. No regulation of conduct can altogether prevent paffions from difturbing our peace, and misfortunes from wounding our heart. But after this con

ceffion is made, will it follow, that there is no object on earth which deferves our pursuit, or that all enjoyment becomes contemptible which is not perfect? Let us furvey our state with an impartial eye, and be just to the various gifts of Heaven. How vain foever this life, confidered in itself, may be, the comforts and hopes of religion are fufficient to give folidity to the enjoyments of the righteous

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In the exercise of geod affections, and the teftimony of an approving confcience; in the fenfe of peace and reconciliation with God, through the great Redeemer of mankind; in the firm confidence of being conducted through all the trials of life, by Infinite Wisdom and Goodness; and in the joyful profpect of arriving, in the end, at immortal felicity; they poffefs a happiness which, defcending from a purer and more perfect region than this world, partakes not of its vanity.

Befides the enjoyments peculiar to religion, there are other pleasures of our prefent ftate, which, though of an inferior order, muft not be overlooked in the estimate of human life. It is neceffary to call attention to these, in order to check that repining and unthankful spirit to which man is always too prone. Some degree of importance must be allowed to the comforts of health, to the innocent gratifications of sense, and to the entertainment afforded us by all the beautiful scenes of nature; fome to the purfuits and harmless amusements of focial life; and more to the internal enjoyments of thought and reflection, and to the pleasures of affectionate intercourfe with those whora we love. Thefe comforts are often held in too low eti mation, merely because they are ordinary and common; although that is the circumftance which ought, in reafon, to enhance their value. They lie open, in some degree, to all; extend through every rank of life, and fill up agreeably many of thofe fpaces in our prefent existence, which are not occupied with higher objects, or with ferious

cares.

From this representation it appears that, notwithstanding the vanity of the world, a confiderable degree of com fort is attainable in the prefent ftate. Let the recollection of this ferve to reconcile us to our condition, and to repres the arrogance of complaints and murmurs. What art thou, O fon of man! who, having sprung but yesterday out of the duft, dareft to lift up thy voice against thy Maker, and to arraign his Providence, because all things are not ordered according to thy with? What title haft thou to find fault with the order of the univerfe, whofe lot is fo much beyond what thy virtue or merit gave thee ground to claim? Is it nothing to thee to have been in troduced into this magnificent world; to have been admitted as a fpectator of the divine wisdom and works, and to have had accefs to all the comforts which nature,

with a bountiful hand, has poured forth around thee? Are all the hours forgotten which thou haft paffed in eafe, in complacency, or joy? Is it a fmall favour in thy eyes, that the hand of Divine Mercy has been stretched forth to aid thee; and, if thou reject not its proffered affiftance, is ready to conduct thee to a happier state of existence? When thou compareft thy condition with thy defert, blush, and be ashamed of thy complaints. Be filent, be grateful, and adore. Receive with thankfulness the bleffings which are allowed thee. Revere that government which at present refufes thee more. Reft in this conclufion, that though there are evils in the world, its Creator is wife and good, and has been bountiful to thee.

SECTION XX.

Scale of Beings.

BLAIR.

THOUGH there is a great deal of pleasure in contemplating the material world; by which I mean that system of bodies, into which nature has fo curiously wrought the mass of dead matter, with the several relations that thofe bodies bear to one another; there is still, methinks, fome. thing more wonderful and furprifing, in contemplations on the world of life; by which I understand all those animals with which every part of the universe is furnished. The material world is only the shell of the universe the world of life are its inhabitants,

If we confider thofe parts of the material world, which lie the nearest to us, and are therefore subject to our obfervations and inquiries, it is amazing to confider the infinity of animals with which they are tocked. Every part of matter is peopled; every green leaf fwarms with inhabitants. There is fcarcely a fingle humour in the body of a man, or of any other animal, in which our glaffes do not discover myriads of living creatures. We find even in the moft folid bodies, as in marble itself, innumerable cells and cavities, which are crowded with imperceptible inhabitants, too little for the naked eye to difcover. On the other hand, if we look into the more bulky parts of nature, we see the feas, lakes, and rivers, teeming with numberlefs kinds of living creatures. We find every mountain and marfh, wildernefs and wood, plentifully stocked with birds and beafts; and every part of matter affording proper neceffaries and conveniences, for the livelihood of multitudes which inhabit it.

The author of "the Plurality of Worlds" draws a very good argument from this confideration, for the peopling of every planet; as indeed it seems very probable, from the analogy of reafon, that if no part of matter, with which we are acquainted, lies wafte and useless, those great bodies, which are at such a distance from us, are not defert and unpeopled; but rather, that they are furnished with beings adapted to their refpective fituations.

Existence is a bleffing to thofe beings only which are endowed with perception; and is in a manner thrown away upon dead matter, any farther than as it is fubfervient to beings which are confcious of their exiftence. Accordingly we find, from the bodies which lie under our obfervation, that matter is only made as the bafis and fupport of animals; and that there is no more of the one than what is neceffary for the exiftence of the other.

Infinite Goodness is of fo communicative a nature, that it feems to delight in conferring existence upon every degree of perceptive being. As this is a fpeculation, which I have often purfued with great pleasure to myself, I fhall enlarge farther upon it, by confidering that part of the fcale of beings, which comes within our knowledge.

There are fome living creatures, which are raised but just above dead matter. To mention only that fpecies of thell-fish, which is formed in the fashion of a cone; that grows to the furface of feveral rocks; and immediately dies, on being fevered from the place where it grew. There are many other creatures but one remove from thefe, which have no other fenfe than that of feeling and taste. Others have still an additional one of hearing; others, of fmell; and others, of fight.It is wonderful to obferve, by what a gradual progrefs the world of life advances, through a prodigious variety of fpecies, before a creature is formed, that is complete in all its fenfes and even among thefe there is such a different degree of excellence, in the fenfe which one animal enjoys beyond what appears in another, that though the fenfe in different animals is diftinguished by the fame common denomination, it seems almost of a different nature. If, after this, we look into the feveral inward perfections of cunning and fagacity, or what we generally call inftinct, we find them rifing, after the fame manner, imperceptibly one above another; and receiving additional improvements, according to the fpecies in which they are implanted. This progrefs in nature