صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

PART II.
CHAP. I
S. cr. IV.

grity and goodnefs. But before we proceed to state the conclufion of
this
in
argument, any general expreffion of the fupreme good to
which human nature is competent, it is proper to take into our
account also, what may occur on the fubject of profperity, or of
those external advantages in which the gifts of fortune confist.

SECTION

SECTION V.

Of Profperity and Adverfity, or the Gifts and Privations of
Fortune.

To this title may be referred health, strength, birth, riches, and Part. II. whatever else may be fuppofed to constitute the difference of fi- CHAP. I. tuation or rank in fociety. The poffeffion of them is coveted, and the privation is fhunned, for reafons peculiar to each.

Health is to the animal frame, what wisdom and goodness are to the intellectual nature of man, its found and perfect state. Strength is alfo the measure of animal power, in furmounting difficulties, and performing the labours that require it. Birth conftitutes rank, apart from any confideration of fortune or perfonal qualities. Riches confist in the store which is provided for the fupply of animal wants, accommodation, or ornament.

The reafons for which thefe advantages are feverally coveted are extremely obvious. Health is an exemption from the fufferings incident to disease; and it is a fitness of the living frame

for

SECT. V.

PART II.
CHAP. I.

SECT. V.

for all its active exertions. It enhances the value of life, as implying all the principles of life in their state of greatest advantage. This bleffing, however pofitive as it may appear to be, is most fenfibly felt in the privation of it. Ill health and disease greatly increase the difficulties which patience and fortitude have to encounter, and tend to weaken or disqualify the mind for the practice of these virtues.

Strength of body is in fome measure an appurtenance of health. It is unequal in the make of different perfons; but is most entire in any given constitution, in the most profperous state of the animal functions. So far as the constituents of wealth are necessary to the preservation of animal life, their value is evidently commenfurate to that of life itfelf: But it is difficult to draw the line of feparation betwixt convenience and abfolute neceffity, or between articles of convenience and those of mere decorum and fancy. There is a gratification proposed in the use of all or any of them separately, which gives rife to a hafty prefumption that men are happy in proportion as they have accummulated the means of fuch gratifications. The rich can purchase the services of the poor, obtain their attendance and refpect; and by these circumstances seem to rank in a superior station. Birth is attended with fimilar advantages; and, although it may have originated in the riches, as well as fome heroic diftinction of ancestors, at fome diftant period, is nevertheless by a wonderful caprice in the imaginations of men, reckoned the more illuftrious the farther back that its source, or the original merit from which it is derived is retired from the fight.

The poffeffion or privation of these advantages depend upon circumstances which mankind cannot command, nor even enu

[ocr errors][merged small]

im

CHAP. I.
SECT. V.

merate: They are therefore, independent of the human will. They PART II. form the occafions on which a perfon may adopt a proper or proper conduct; and for this he is accountable, although he is no ways accountable for the event that may follow from his best endeavours. Happily for mankind, in this distribution of their trust, it is observed, even to a proverb, that they are happy or miferable, not in proportion to the measure in which they poffefs or are deprived of external advantages, but in proportion to the temper of their own minds, the conduct which they themfelves have adopted, and the ufe which they make of the means with which they are furnished by providence.

To the perfon who abuses his health, it is no advantage; because he has taken occafion from it to give scope to his folly or his vice. And if it has encouraged or fupported him in the practice of either, although to another it might be the occasion of good, to him it is at least the occafion of evil. To preferve, under the disadvantage of ill health, equanimity and a temper undisturbed; to fubmit with chearfulness to the restraints which disease may impofe, ferves to difarm this enemy, or render his presence an occasion of good to the person who can thus acquit himself properly.

The effects of difeafe in different perfons are no doubt unequal; and in some instances, whether owing to comparative weakness of mind, or intensity of suffering, it is no doubt sufficient to deprive animal life of its value: But this is rarely the lot or condition of man; nor is it that, against which a perfon, who would avoid the evils of human life, is moft concerned to be on his guard. "You are afraid of sickness, poverty, and death," fays Epictetus; “but, "if you had been afraid of fear itself, you would have fhewn "yourself better apprised of your real enemy." Disease of the VOL. II.

[ocr errors]

G

mind

PART II.
CHAP. I.
SECT. V.

mind is more to be dreaded than that of the body: For one that is afflicted with a gangrene of the flesh, thousands incur the gangrene of envy and malice, or are bloated with vanity and folly.

Bodily strength, as well as health may be abused; and, to those who confider it as an article of vanity, is for the most part an occafion of brutality and extreme folly. Joined to strength of mind, it may qualify the hero to act his part in the field, or in fcenes of violence: But strength of mind without it can find many substitutes; and the heroic part may be acted as well on the fick man's litter as on the warrior's horse.

Riches, it cannot be doubted, derive their value from the use to which they may be employed, in preferving, accommodating, or adorning the state of man, in profit to ourselves or beneficence to others. With riches, as well as birth, there is an affociation of perfonal excellence, tending to constitute a fuperiority of estimation or rank; and, with poverty, there is an affociation of comparative defect or meannefs. The first accordingly is from a defire of preferment ardently coveted; the other, under a notion of degradation, is carefully fhunned.

Among rude nations, although property be acknowledged and unequally diftributed, its principal ufe being to fecure the neceffaries of life, and this ufe being obtained, without being rich, it is difficult to perceive in what confifts the advantage of wealth. "A Hottentot," fays Sparman, "is rich, in proportion to the number "of his cattle: But the richeft is cloathed, fed, and attended, no bet"ter than the poor; more trinkets of brafs, offhells, or beads; more fat "in dreffing his victuals, or in anointing his body: The honour

[ocr errors][merged small]
« السابقةمتابعة »