SECT. VIII. ought to incite the mind to noble actions, ferves to difcourage PART II. From the example of mankind, in numberlefs inftances, the importance of opinion or habitual conception is obvious. The perfon who habitually conceives that the church yard is haunted, or that goblins ply in the dark, trembles with fear, where another having no fuch conception is calm and undisturbed; and the mind, in either cafe, may be said to be the author of its own good, or its harm. The one may suffer himself to be infected with that weakness, or the other may be corrected of it, according as they neglect or employ their reafon to its proper ufe. The opinions which tend to happiness are the reverse of those which tend to mifery. In treating of the one, we naturally refer to the other. In oppofition to that corrupt ftate of apprehenfion, in which the distinctions of fortune are substituted for those of merit and demerit, we may obferve it is happy to be guided in our estimation of perfons not by fortune and fashion, but by the merit of intelligence, probity, equanimity, and candour. In matters of mere inclination or will, it is natural to become in ourfelves what we admire in other men. And perfons, to whom the standard of estimation is perfonal worth, have already received the bias of an ingenuous mind to integrity and honour; fo much, that to esteem and to love thofe virtues in others, amounts nearly to a poffeffion of them in ourselves. To be ready, on all occafions, with difcernment and truth, in matters 4 PART II. CHAP. I. SECT. VIII. matters of duty, to ftate to ourselves,-This is what I have to do, and this is the part for which I am refponfible; with a habit of limiting our own defires to a full and perfect discharge of the office fo affigned us, is rather indeed the effence of happiness than a mere conception tending to obtain it. All men partake in the concerns of ordinary life, and cannot without absurdity neglect their own fubfiftence and accommodation, the œconomy of their fortune, the fettlement of their families, the defence and welfare of their country; but happy are they who, in fuch matters, can distinguish the part affigned to themselves from the part which Providence has reserved to itself. To man it is given to exert his natural powers with diligence, benignity, and courage; but the event, in every transaction is at the difpofal of Providence; and the happieft conception or habit of thinking, of which man is susceptible, is, that the part affigned to him may be equally fupported under every change of events, and that events do but form a change of the fituation in which he is to act. Let him fincerely lament the misfortune of his friend or his country; but let him be ready, also, with all his ability, to retrieve fuch misfortunes. Life itself, with all its fupports, is precarious and temporary. The longest liver must die, and the fhortest liver can do no more. For us, it is happy to know, that our concern is to conduct ourfelves well through life, whether it be fhort or long. Benevolence and courage are fufficient to happiness; malice and cowardice constitute mifery, whether the life in which they are incurred be of long or fhort duration. It is happy to conceive the integrity, diligence, and fidelity, which are in our own power, though unobferved by others, as the completion of good to ourselves. It is happy to conceive the debafements of a malicious and cowardly nature, not as matters of degradation merely in the opinion of other men, but as in themselves the completion and effence of all the evil to which we are expofed. In the relations of mankind, the brother cannot rightly act the part of a stranger, the citizen the part of an alien, nor the individual, confidered apart from every particular relation, rightly forget that he is a man, and has a common caufe with mankind. On this fubject, every just conception is productive of happiness, and leads the individual to confider himself as furrounded with objects of affection, and the affection he bears in his mind as the principal excellence of his own nature. It is happy to know, that the cause of justice and goodness is fecured by infinite wifdom and power; to conceive ourselves as instruments in the hand of God, to be employed for the good of his creatures, and our happiness as confifting in the willing confent of our minds to be fo employed. The adorable perfections of God infpire a confidence, a veneration, and love; which amount, at the fame time, to a conviction, that goodness and wifdom, even in fuch measures of them as are communicable to created beings, are of the highest value; and the affection they inspire is in itself a difpofition to receive the communication of them. It is happy, in every place, to carry in our thoughts, that we are in the fituation in which it is the will of God that we fhould PART II act; and that to act, in fuch fituations, with diligence, integrity, and good will to mankind, is the part he requires of us. Whoever thus habitually thinks or conceives of himself, is poffeffed of religion, virtue, and happinefs. This no one can procure for another. It is left by the Almighty for every one only to procure it for himself. Aurelius accordingly procured it for himself, but could not for his fon. With this unhappy perfon, notions imbibed among the meaner domeftics of the palace precluded the instructions of the father and of the friend. If happiness were an attainment of the mind, to be acquired as a science or an art is learnt from a master, the teacher might justly be confidered as the vicegerent of God; and no place could contain the numbers that would flock to his school. But, in this the Almighty has delegated his power to every perfon only respecting himfelf: But he has provided a discipline, in the result of which, perhaps, even the most depraved may, in the end, become willing to avail themselves of the trust which the Author of their nature has repofed in them. When error, and folly, and profligacy, drained to the bottom of the cup, shall have led the mind to nauseate the draught, better thoughts may arife, and man, thoroughly apprifed of what is evil, may become willing to remove it, and intentionally work himself into habits of what he conceives. to be good. Such may be, refpecting the most refractory fubjects, the effect of a moral government, which actually operates in the nature of things, and in a manner of which we have formerly endeavoured to remark fome particulars. Reafon and knowledge may haften its effects; and for this purpofe our feeble endeavours to to erect the fabric of fcience, that they who refort to it may pro- PART. II. ceed on a just knowledge of their place and destination in the CHAP. II. fyftem of nature. The happy, without incurring either dejection or pride, from events whether profperous or adverfe, rely chiefly on what is of abfolute value, health of body and foundness of mind; and may reckon, as their highest privilege, the power to preserve, in all the varieties of fortune, a difpofition, candid, fearlefs, temperate, and juft. Even among the gifts of fortune, they can obferve and enjoy matters of abfolute value, in respect to which there is no poffible ground of interference or competition: Such are the bleffings which nature has equally provided for all men: The water of the fountain, or of the running ftream; the light of the fun; and the vital air of the atmosphere; existence itself, in fhort, or admiffion to behold this magnificent scene of the universe;-compared to which, any or all the comparative fuperiorities of one man to another disappear, and are as nothing. Society itself is felt, by the happy, as a common bleffing to all its members; and, like the air they breathe, equally necessary to the rich, who would avail themselves of the labour and skill of others, as it is to the poor, who would obtain the reward of their labour. SECT. I. VOL. II. CHAP. |