ence this world can beftow, if offered to him upon the fevere terms of his being unconnected with a fingle mortal whom he could love, or by whom he fhould be beloved? This would be to lead the wretched life of a detefted tyrant, who, amidst perpetual fufpicions and alarms, passes his miferable days a ftranger to every tender fentiment; and utterly precluded from the heart-felt fatisfactions of friendfhip.

Melmoth's Tranflation of Cicero's Lalius.

SECTION FI.

On the Immortality of the Soul.

I was yesterday walking alone, in one of my friend's woods; and loft myself in it very agreeably, as I was running over, in my mind, the feveral arguments that establish this great point; which is the bafis of morality, and the fource of all the pleafing hopes and secret joys, that can arife in the heart of a reasonable creature. I confidered thofe feveral proofs drawn,

Firft, from the nature of the foul itself, and particularly its immateriality; which, though not abfolutely necessary to the eternity of its duration, has, I think, been evinced to almoft a demonftration.

Secondly, from its pafsions and fentiments; as, particularly, from its love of exiftence; its horror of annihilation; and its hopes of immortality; with that fecret fatisfaction which it finds in the practice of virtue ; and that uneafinefs which follows upon the commifsion of vice.

Thirdly, from the nature of the Supreme Being, whofe juftice, goodnefs, wifdom, and veracity, are all concerned in this point.

But among these, and other excellent arguments for the immortality of the foul, there is one drawn from the perpetual progrefs of the foul to its perfection, without a possibility of ever arriving at it; which is a hint that I do not remember to have feen opened and improved by others, who have written on this fubject, though it seems to me to carry a very great weight with it. How can it enter into the thoughts of man, that the foul, which is capable of fuch immenfe perfections, and of receiving new improvements to all eternity, fhall fall away into nothing, almoft as foon as it is created? Are fuch abilities made for no purpofe? A brute arrives at a point of perfection, that he can never pafs in a few years he has all the endowments he is capable of; and were he to live ten thousand more, would be the fame thing he is at prefent. Were a human foul thus at a ftand in her accomplishments; were her faculties to be full blown, and incapable of farther enlargements; I could imagine the might fall away infenfibly, and drop at once into a ftate of annihilation. But can we believe a thinking being, that is in a perpetual progrefs of improvements, and travelling on from perfection to perfection, after having just looked abroad into the works of its Creator, and made a few difcoveries of his infinite goodnefs, wifdom, and power, muft perish at her firft fetting out, and in the very beginning of her inquiries?

:

A man, confidered only in his prefent ftate, feems fent into the world merely to propagate his kind. He provides himfelf with a fuccefsor; and immediately quits

his poft to make room for him. He does not feem born to enjoy life, but to deliver it down to others. This is not surprising to confider in animals, which are formed for our ufe, and can finish their business in a fhort life. The filk-worm, after having fpun her tafk, lays her eggs and dies. But a man cannot take in his full meafure of knowledge, has not time to fubdue his passions, establish his foul in virtue, and come up to the perfection of his nature, before he is hurried off the stage. Would an infinitely wife Being make fuch glorious creatures for fo mean a purpose? Can he delight in the production of fuch abortive intelligences, fuch fhort-lived reasonable beings? Would he give us talents that are not to be exerted? capacities that are never to be gratified? How can we find that wisdom which fhines through all his works, in the formation of man, without looking on this world as only a nursery for the next; and without believing that the feveral generations of -rational creatures, which rife up and difappear in fuch quick fuccefsions, are only to receive their first rudiments of existence here, and afterwards to be transplanted into a more friendly climate, where they may spread and flourish to all eternity?

There is not, in my opinion, a more pleafing and triumphant confideration in religion, than this of the perpetual progrefs, which the foul makes towards the perfection of its nature, without ever arriving at a period in it. To look upon the foul as going on from ftrength to ftrength; to confider that fhe is to fhine for ever with new accefsions of glory, and brighten to all eternity; that she will be ftill adding virtue to virtue, and knowledge to knowledge; carries in it fomething wonderfully agreeable to that ambition, which is natural

to the mind of man. Nay, it must be a prospect pleafing to God himself, to fee his creation for ever beautifying in his eyes; and drawing nearer to him, by greater degrees of refemblance.

Methinks this fingle confideration, of the progrefs of a finite spirit to perfection, will be fufficient to extinguish all envy in inferior natures, and all contempt in fuperior. That cherub, which now appears as a god to a human foul, knows very well, that the period will come about in eternity, when the human foul fhall be as perfect as he himself now is: nay, when the shall look down upon that degree of perfection as much as fhe now falls fhort of it. It is true, the higher nature still advances, and by that means preferves his distance and fuperiority in the scale of being; but he knows that, how high foever the ftation is of which he stands possessed at prefent, the inferior nature will at length mount up to it; and shine forth in the fame degree of glory.

With what aftonishment and veneration, may we look into our own fouls, where there are fuch hidden ftores of virtue and knowledge, fuch inexhausted fources of perfection! We know not yet what we shall be; nor will it ever enter into the heart of man, to conceive the glory that will be always in reserve for him. The foul, confidered with its Creator, is like one of thofe mathematical lines, that may draw nearer to another for all eternity, without a pofsibility of touching it and can there be a thought so tranfporting, as to confider ourselves in these perpetual approaches to HIM, who is the ftandard not only of perfection, but of happiness! 8

ADDISON.

CHAPTER V.

DESCRIPTIVE PIECES.

SECTION I.

The Seafons.

AMONG the great blessings and wonders of the creation, may be clafsed the regularities of times and feafons. Immediately after the flood, the facred promife was made to man, that feed-time and harvest, cold and heat, fummer and winter, day and night, fhould continue to the very end of all things. Accordingly, in obedience to that promise, the rotation is conftantly prefenting us with fome ufeful and agreeable alteration; and all the pleafing novelty of life. arifes from these natural changes: nor are we lefs indebted to them for many of its folid comforts. It has been frequently the tafk of the moralift and poet, to mark, in polifhed periods, the particular charms and conveniences of every change; and, indeed, such difcriminate obfervations upon natural variety, cannot be undelightful; fince the blessing, which every month. brings along with it, is a fresh inftance of the wisdom and bounty of that Providence, which regulates the glories of the year. We glow as we contemplate; we feel a propenfity to adore, whilft we enjoy. In the time of feed-fowing, it is the feason of confidence: the grain which the husbandman trusts to the bofom of the