brothels; not in lazars or prisons, but in the synagogues, and in the temples, in the streets, and in the market places of the great capitals of the Roman world. But it is with some writers too common a practice, invidiously to detract from that merit, which has rendered great and disinterested characters, objects of approbation to their fellow-creatures.

The noblest propriety of conduct may, it is true, be supported in adversity as well as in prosperity. But as the first is much more difficult than the latter, it is surely upon that account more admirable. Perils and misfortunes are not only the proper school of heroism, they are the only proper theatre which can exhibit its virtues to advantage, and draw upon it the full applause of the wise and good. Can there be shame in that distress, which is brought upon men without any fault of their own, and in which they behave with firmness, and unsullied integrity? The generous mind cannot but exultingly admire, even in contemplation, those vanquished difficulties, in which, from no rashness of their own, the unfortunate have been involved. How gratefully will he adore the bounty of the Divine Being, who could endue them with virtues, so suitable

*Bishop Watson.

to

to their situation. Were the trial pleasure, they have had temperance given them, to refrain from it; were it pain, they have had constancy given them to bear it ; were it danger or death, they have had magnanimity and fortitude given them to despise it.

An upright and a determined spirit never complains of the destiny of Providence, nor thinks the universe in confusion, though he be out of order himself. He does not look upon himself, according to what self-love would suggest, as a whole, separated and detached from every other part of nature, to be taken care of by itself, and for itself. He regards himself in the light, in which he imagines the great Ruler of human nature, and of the world, regards him. He enters, if I may say so, into the sentiments of that Divine Being, and considers himself as an atom, a particle of an immense and infinite system, which must, and ought to be disposed of, according to the conveniency of the whole. Assured of the wisdom which directs all the events. of human life, whatever lot befals him, he accepts it with joy, satisfied that, if he had known all the connections, and dependencies of the different parts of the universe, it is the very lot which he himself would have wished for: if

it

it be life, he is contented to live; and if it be death, as nature has no farther occasion for his presence here, he willingly goes where he is appointed.*

In the primitive Christian missionary, therefore, we may contemplate the greatest resolution productive of the most assiduous and painful exertions. Impressed by the deepest sense of duty, and eager to diffuse that divine light of revelation, which burned with undiminished heat in his own breast, he disengaged himself from the strong attachments, to his native country, and went forth to convert an idolatrous world. As his life was devoted to the interests of his religion, all the causes by which its pains are aggravated, or its continuance shortened, were stripped of their terror. His imagination presented to him the scourge, the rack, and the cross; yet was his resolution unshaken by the apprehensions of persecution and death. At the loud and solemn calls of duty, he was loosened even from the ties of consanguinity; and with a spirit elevated above common mortality, he suffered principle to predominate over affection, turned aside from the tears of friendship, and was even deaf to the tender supplications of love.

VOL. VI.

Adam Smith,

love. The bright object of his ambition was not the barren praise of inflexible constancy, but the crown of immortal happiness. The dangers of travel, the precariousness of subsistence, the perfidy of pretended friends, and the violence of open enemies, were, in his estimation, no more than light afflictions, which endure for a moment. Lost in the solitude of the wilderness, ex-posed to the tempests of the ocean, or assailed by the outrage of the multitude, he was not destitute and forsaken, for the Almighty was his guide, and his comforter. With patience he saw the frowns of the great, and heard the scoffs of the vulgar. He proclaimed, with the unshaken confidence of truth, the wondrous tidings of the new dispensation, and exhorted a guilty race to repentance and amendment. Elate with the accomplishment of his pious task, in bringing many sheep to the fold of Christ, he gloried amid the flames of martyrdom, and breathed out his soul with joy. *

*

This is, indeed, I will allow you, but an uninviting picture to the little Epicurean being self, which would always repose in the voluptuous lap of luxury, and, heroically disdainful of the fate of its fellow-creatures, would never interrupt

* Kett.

terrupt the repetition of the jucunda oblivia vita.* But can the greatest unbelievers deny, that Europe has been civilized and enlightened, by the missionaries who are thus traduced? Or can the classical Pyrrhonist deny, that not only the Romans, but the very conquerors of the Romans, have each of them been indebted in gratitude to the same harmonizing source? Let us, however, pay some attention to the early institutions of Christianity; and from them we shall, perhaps, be able to gather up something satisfactory towards the decision of this question.