numbers in cyphers, and feeing the figure followed by a little dafh of the pen, as is customary in old manufcriprs, they perhaps mistook the dafh for a fecond figure and by cafting up both together, composed out of them the figure 2. But this I fhall leave to the learned, without determining any thing in a matter of fo great uncertainty. C. N' 471. Saturday, Auguft 30. Ἐν ἐλπίσι χρὴ τὰς σοφὺς ἔχειν βίον. EURIPID. The wife with hope fupport the pains of life. THE time prefent feldom affords fufficient employ ment to the mind of man. Objects of pain or pleasure, love or admiration, do not lie thick enough together in life to keep the foul in conftant action, and fupply an immediate exercife to its faculties. In order therefore, to remedy this defect, that the mind may not want bufinefs, but always have materials for thinking, the is endowed with certain powers, that can recall what is paffed, and anticipate what is to come. That wonderful faculty, which we call the memory, is perpetually looking back, when we have nothing prefent to entertain us. It is like thofe repofitories in feveral animals that are filled with ftores of their former food, on which they may ruminate when their prefent pafture fails. As the memory relieves the mind in her vacant moments, and prevents any chafins of thought by ideas of what is pait, we have other faculties that agitate and employ her upon what is to come. Thefe are the pasfions of hope and fear. By thefe two paflions, we reach forward into futurity, and bring up to our prefent thoughts objects that lie hid in the remoteft depths of time. We futter mifery, and enjoy happiness, before they are in being; we Can fet the fun and tars forward, or lose fight of them by wandering into thofe retired parts of eternity, when the heavens and earth fhall be no more. a creature By the way, who can imagine that the existence of to be circumfcribed by time whose thoughts are not? But I fhall, in this paper confine myfelf to that particular paffion which goes by the name of Hope. Our actual enjoyments are fo few and tranfient, that man would be a very miferable being, were he not endowed with this paffion, which gives him a taste of those good things that may poffibly come into his poffeffion. We fhould hope for every thing that is good,' fays the old poet Linus, because there is nothing which may not be hoped for, and nothing but what the gods are able to give us.' Hope quickens all the ftill parts of life, and keeps the mind awake in her moft remifs and indolent hours. It gives habitual ferenity and good humour. It is a kind of vital heat in the foul, that cheers and gladdens her, when he does not attend to it. It makes pain eafy, and labour pleasant. ་ Befides these feveral advantages which rife from Hope, there is another which is none of the leaft, and that is, its great efficacy in preferving us from fetting too high a value on prefent enjoyments. The faying of Cæfar is very well known. When he had given away all his eftate in gratuities amongft his friends, one of them asked what he had left for himfelf; to which that great man replied, Hope. His natural magnanimity hindered him from prizing what he was certainly poffeffed. of, and turned all his thoughts upon fomething more valuable that he had in view. I queftion not but every reader will draw a moral from this ftory, and apply it to himfelf without my direction. The old story of Pandora's box, which many of the learned believe was formed among the heathens upon the tradition of the fall of man, thews us how deplorable a ftate they thought the prefent life, without hope. To fet forth the utmost condition or mifery they tell us, that our forefather, according to the pagan theology, had a great veffel prefented him by Pandora: upon his 295 Lifting up the lid of it, fays the fable, there flew out all the calamities and distempers incident to men, from which until that time, they had been altogether exempt. Hope, who had been inclosed in the cup with so much bad company, instead of flying off with the reft, ftuck fo close to the lid of it, that it was fhut down upon her. I fhall make but two reflections upon what I have hitherto faid First, that no kind of life is fo happy as that which is full of hope, especially when the hope is well grounded, and when the object of it is of an exalted kind, and in its nature proper to make the perfon happy who enjoys it. This propofition must be very evident to thofe who confider how few are the prefent enjoyments of the moft happy man, and how infufficient to give him an entire fatisfaction and ac quiefcence in them. My next obfervation is this, that a religious life is that which most abounds in a well-grounded hope, and fuch an one as is fixed on objects that are capable of making us entirely happy. This hope in a religious man is much more fure and certain than the hope of any temporal bleffing, as it is ftrengthened not only by reafon but by faith. It has at the fame time its eye perpetually fixed on that state, which implies in the very notion of it the. moft full and the most complete happiness. I have before fhewn how the influence of hope in general fweetens life, and makes our prefent condition. fupportable, if not pleafing; but a religious hope has fill greater advantages. It does not only bear up the mind under her fufferings, but makes her rejoice in them, as they may be the inftruments of procuring her great and ultimate end of all her hope. the Religious hope has likewife this advantage above any other kind of hope, that it is able to revive the dying man, and to fill his mind not only with fecret comfort. and refreshment, but fometimes with rapture and tranfport. He triumphs in his agonies, whilft the foul fprings forward with delight to the great object which he has always had in view, and leaves the body with an expectation of being re-united to her in a glorious and joyful refurrection. I fhall conclude this effay with thofe emblematical expreffions of a lively hope, which the pfalmift made ufe of in the midft of thofe dangers and adversities which furrounded him; for the following paffage had its prefent and perfonal, as well as its future and prophetic fenfe. I have fet the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand I fhall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh alfo thall reft in hope. For thou wilt not leave my foul in hell, neither wilt thou fuffer thine holy one to fee corruption. Thou wilt fhew me the path of life in thy prefence there is fulness of joy, at thy right hand there are pleafures for evermore.' < : N° 474. Monday, September 1. Voluptas Salamenque mali: C. VIRG. Æn. 3. v. 660. DRYDEN. This only folace his hard fortune fends. I RECEI RECEIVED fome time ago a propofal, which had a preface to it, wherein the author difcourfed at large of the innumerable objects of charity in a nation, and admonished the rich, who were afflicted with any dif temper of body, particularly to regard the poor in the fame fpecies of affliction, and confine their tenderness to them, fince it is impoffible to affif all who are prefented to them. The propofer had been relieved from a malady in his eyes by an operation performed by Sir William Read, and being a man of condition, had taken a refolut on to maintain three poor blind men during their lives, in gratitude for hat great blefling. This misfortune is fo very great and unfrequent, that one would think, an eftablishment for all the poor un der it might be easily accomplished, with the addition of a very few others to thofe wealthy who are in the fame calamity. However, the thought of the propofer arafe from a very good motive, and the parcelling of ourfelves out, as called to particular acts of beneficence, would be a pretty ceme it of fociety and virtue. It is the ordinary foundation for inens holding a commerce with each other, and becoming familiar, that they agree in the fame fort of pleafure; and fure it may also be fone reafon for amity, that they are under one common diftrefs. If all the rich who are lame in the gout, from a life of ease, pleasure and luxury, would help those few who have it without a previous life of pleasure, and add a few of fuch laborious men, who are become lame from unhappy blows, falls, or other accidents of age or fickness; I fay, would fuch gouty perfons administer to the neceffities of men difabled like themselves, the confcioufnefs of fuch a behaviour would be the bett julep cordial, and anodyne in the feverish, faint and tormenting vicillitudes of that miferable diftemper. The fame may be faid of all other, both bodily and. intellectual evils. Thefe claffes of charity would certainly bring down bleffings upon an age and people; and if men were not petrified with the love of this world, against all fenfe of the commerce which ought to be among them, it would not be an unreasonable bill for a poor man in the agony of pain, aggravated by want and poverty, to draw upon a fick alderman after this form: Mr. BASIL PLENTY, SIR, YOU have the gout and stone, with fixty thousand pounds fterling; I have the gout and 'ftone not worth one farthing; I fhall pray for you, and defire you would pay the bearer twenty fhillings for value received from, Cripple-Gate, Aug. 29, 1712. • Sir, • Your humble servant, • LAZARUS HOPEFUL.' The reader's own imagination will fugget to him the reafonablenefs of fuch correfpondences, and diverfity |