SECT. V. or advantage of being able to maintain more fervants and cow- PART II. "herds. And the divine pleasure of doing good to his fellow CHAP.II. 66 creatures, is that which conftitutes the diftinction of rank "in this fimple race of men. In the competitions of vanity, riches are more an object of oftentation than of enjoyment or use; but, in the breast of the miser, they are associated with fafety more than with either of the former confiderations. Perfons of this description, we are told, even in the midst of plenty, are haunted with the fear of want, whilst they hoard up riches, they refrain from the use of them; and, instead of affecting the rank which their wealth might bestow, still cling to their fuppofed pledge of fecurity, under the afpect of meannefs and poverty. Enjoyment, however, is the charm with which riches are fuppofed to attract the wishes of ordinary men. It is the fpur, under which mankind have striven to improve and to extend all the arts which tend to the accumulation of wealth. It is that which caufeth the poor to look up to the rich with fentiments of admiration or envy, and causeth the rich to look down on the poor with contempt or pity. But with respect to enjoyment, there is good reason to believe, that habit reconciles mankind, or renders them indifferent nearly alike to their refpective fortunes. It is not doubted, that the meal of the peafant is equally relifhed with that of his lord; that fleep on a ftraw matrafs is no lefs undisturbed than on a bed of down, or under a canopy of state: Infomuch that contentment, or the want of it, indifferent conditions of life, are even to a proverb observed to be equal. If the poor be haunted with wishes for fomewhat beyond his prefent condition, fo alfo is the rich; and it is probable that the comforts of either G 2 would CHAP. I. PART II would be more felt in the privation than in the actual use. The ordinary course of life appears indifferent: They are pleafed chiefly with acceffions that seem to exceed, or displeased with privations that impair the advantages to which they are accuftomed. Occafional privations, at the fame time, even of what are thought the effential comforts of life, are endured with alacrity and cheerfulness in the midst of any ardent purfuit, whether of business or sport. The foldier is chearful in the midst of hardship or toil, or in the face of danger, encountered in discharging the honourable duties of his ftation. The huntsman incurs almost equal danger with equal alacrity; and, whatever his hardships may be, has not any pretence for complaint, because they are voluntary. Compared to either, the ordinary life of a beggar, which is ever looked on with contempt or pity, is easy, affluent, and fecure. The enjoyments or fufferings, which we commonly ascribe to riches or poverty, are in reality, in a great measure, derived from the unequal degrees of confideration or esteem with which they are attended. The foldier and the gentleman hunter either gain, or do not lofe in point of rank, by the hardships or privations of ease to which they fubmit. The one is actually raised in his own, and in the esteem of others, by the danger he braves. The other too is no way degraded, or rather maintains his ftation by his contempt of repose, and by his parade of horses and dogs, which makes a part of the distinction he enjoys among his neighbours. Nothing is better established in reafon, than that the value of external circumstances depends on the degree in which they are 2 felt. CHAP. I. felt. Profperity is of no value, to those who feel it not; or to PART II. whom it only minifters an occasion of peevishness and difcontent. Adverfity is no evil to those, who fuffer nothing from it; or who are contented and chearful, in the midst of fuppofed diftrefs. And, if there were no other reason to deny the certainty of any effect from external circumstances, the unfettled opinions of men, refpecting the happiness of different fituations, are fufficient to fhew that experience does not warrant our fuppofition of happiness or mifery, attached to any particular meafures of fortune. Some conceive happiness to be the lot of thofe, who are placed in the higher ranks of life; others believe it to be the portion of those who remain in the lower ranks; and many believe, that both are mistaken, that it belongs to the middle station, equally remote from the exceffes of luxury, or the preffure of want. In the mean time, wherever folly, malice, cowardice, and debauchery are found, there is suffering and mifery to be found also. These are not the neceffary appurtenances of any fituation, whether middling, high, or low; nor is any fituation fecurely exempt from them. The oppofite virtues of wif dom, goodness, temperance, and fortitude, are equally a blessing in every fituation, wherever they are found; whether on the throne of Aurelius, in the fervitude of Epictetus, or any interme diate station: And, as there is scarcely a fituation to be found, in which the four and malignant do not complain; no more is there a fituation in which the good humoured and chearful are not content. From thefe and other appearances, it fhould feem, that although providence has deftined human life to pass away in the practice of arts; in tranfactions and purfuits, which relate to the gifts of fortune, as to their immediate object; that nevertheless there is not any precife measure of these gifts required, to enable the PART II. the poffeffor to pass his time agreeably. To be reasonably and properly occupied about them is enough: but this occupation may take place in any state of their diftribution; and, although it feems to be the inftitution of nature, relating to mankind, that their active exertions fhould originate from the want of a fupply to their animal neceflities; yet is it provided, also, that their felicity fhould be a quality of their own affections and actions, not of the supply they have obtained; that it fhould not depend on events, or on circumstances in which the conditions of men are fo unequal, and fo little at their own command. In confidering man's place and distinction in the system of nature, we have had occafion to obferve; that, being disposed to enjoy his own active exertions, and to improve by the exercife of his faculties, many apparent comparative defects of his animal frame, and the wants to which he is subjected, have a signal propriety in his lot. To him, difficulty, delay, and danger, are the occafions of ingenuity, perfeverance, and courage. He is master of his own actions; but the circumstances, in which he is to act, are wifely withheld from his disposal. For it being the nature of an active disposition to prefs towards every advantage; and to haften the removal of every obstruction, and of every inconvenience; if this could be done by a wish, there would not any longer be an occafion for active exertions: And if, on the contrary, the laws of nature were infcrutable, and events no way affected by any means in the power of man to employ, there would be nothing for him to study and nothing to be done. The scene of nature, indeed, is in both these respects well fuited to man. The powers that operate connot be controuled by his will; but the laws, according to which they proceed, may be known, and measures taken to influence the refult of their opera 3 tions. tions. He is encouraged to ply his industry and his fkill; and PART II. his work is not accomplished in fingle efforts. Upon a difap- ST. V. CHAP. I. pointment, he must renew his endeavours; and, even when most fuccessful, repeat or follow them up with fomewhat farther in the line of his purfuits. The mixed fcene of disappointment and fuccefs ever presents him with a fpur to his exertion, with admonitions to care, and incitements to industry, with encouragements to hope or apprehenfions of failure; and, furnishes him with occafions, and with the materials of beneficence to others, as well as of profit to himself. It is particularly happy, in respect to this inftitution of his nature, that the conduct, tranfaction, and intercourse, in which the materials of art engage mankind, are agreeable to their active disposition, while the measure in which these materials accrue to any one, is in fome measure indifferent. All the beft or the worst affections or paffions of the human mind, are to be found indifferently wherever mankind are placed. As the active scenes of life may be supported by the healthful and vigorous, the virtues of equanimity, patience, and fortitude, may be practifed by those who labour under all the infirmities of difeafe or a fickly constitution. As candour and humanity may be practifed by the powerful, towards those who depend on them; fo may the corresponding virtues of refpect and good will be practifed by the dependent towards their fuperiors. Although the gifts of fortune are to those who poffefs them materials of beneficence, yet they are not the fole materials, nor is this use of them limited to any measure or degree of the poffeffion. The poor man who kindly fhews the benighted traveller on his way, may have done an office of more real moment, than fortune may have given the rich occafion to perform in any circumftance of his life. The greatest |