I

OPPRESSION VANQUISHED.

HAVE not been a furlong from Shandy Hall fince I wrote to you laft-but why is my pen so perverfe? I have been to *****, and my errand was of fo peculiar a nature, that I must give you an account of it. You will scarce believe me, when I tell you it was to out-juggle a juggling attorney; to put craft and all its powers to defiance; and to obtain juftice from one-who has a heart fell enough to take advantage of the mistakes of honest fimplicity, and who has raised a confiderable fortune by artifice and injuftice. However, I gained my point!-it was a star and garter to me; the matter was as follows:

"A poor man, the father of my Vestal, having by "the fweat of his brow, during a courfe of many laborious years, faved a fmall fum of money, applied "to this scribe to put it out to use for him: this was "done, and a bond given for the money.-The

honeft man, having no place in his cottage which "he thought fufficiently fecure, put it in a hole in "the thatch, which had ferved instead of a strong "box to keep his money. In this fituation the bond "remained 'till the time of receiving his interest

drew nigh. But, alas! the rain which had done no mifchief to his gold, had found out his paper "fecurity, and had rotted it to pieces!" It would be a difficult matter to paint the diftrefs of the old

Countryman upon this discovery -he came to me weeping, and begged my advice and affiftance!-it cut me to the heart!

Frame to yourself the picture of a man upwards of fixty years of age who having with much penury and more toil, with the addition of a small legacy, scraped together about fourfcore pounds to fupport him in the infirmities of old age, and to be a little portion for his child when he fhould be dead and gone-loft his little hoard at once-and, to aggravate his misfortune-by his own neglect and incaution."If I was young, Sir (faid he), my affliction would "have been light-and I might have obtained it "again!but I have loft my comfort when I most "wanted it; my staff is taken from me when I "cannot go alone; and I have nothing to expect in "future life, but the unwilling charity of a parifh"officer." Never in my whole life did I wish to be rich, with fo good a grace, as at this time! What a luxury would it have been to have said to this afflicted fellow-creature," There is thy money-go thy ways -and be at peace."

But, alas! the Shandy family were never much encumbered with money; and I (the poorest of them all) could only affist him with good counsel;—but I did not stop here.

I went myself with him to *****, where, by perfuafion, threats, and some art, which (by the bye) in fuch a cause, and with such an opponent, was very juftifiable-I fent my poor client back to his home,

with his comfort and his bond restored to him. Bravo! Bravo!

If a man has a right to be proud of any thing,it is of a good action, done as it ought to be, without any base interest lurking at the bottom of it.

LETTER VI. TO HIS FRIENDS.

I'

FORGIVENESS OF INJURIES.

T is the mild and quiet half of the world, who are generally outraged and borne down by the other half of if; but in this they have the advantage, whatever be the sense of their wrongs, that pride stands not fo watchful a fentinel over their forgiveness, as it does in the breafts of the fierce and froward; we should all of us, I believe, be more forgiving than we are, would the world but give us leave; but it is apt to interpofe its ill offices in remiffions, especially of this kind; the truth is, it has its laws, to which the heart is not always a party; and. acts fo like, an unfeeling engine in all cafes without diftinction, that it requires all the firmnefs of the most fettled humanity to bear up against it.

SERM. XVIII. P. 61.

HAPPINESS.

HE great purfuit of man is after happiness: it

THE

is the first and ftrongeft defire of his nature; -in every stage of his life, he searches for it as for hidden treasure; courts it under a thousand different fhapes, and though perpetually disappointed,-still perfifts, runs after and enquires for it afresh-asks every paffenger who comes in his way, Who will shew bim any good? who will affift him in the attainment of it, or direct him to the discovery of this great end of all his wishes?

He is told by one, to fearch for it among the more gay and youthful pleasures of life, in fcenes of mirth and fprightlinefs, where happiness ever prefides, and is ever to be known by the joy and laughter which he will fee at once painted in her looks. A fecond, with a graver afpect, points out to the coftly dwellings which pride and extravagance have erected: tells the inquirer, that the object he is in fearch of inhabits there, that happiness lives only in company with the great, in the midst of much pomp and outward state, that he will easily find her out by the coat of many colours the has on, and the great luxury and expence of equipage and furniture with which she always fits furrounded.

The Mifer bleffes God!-wonders how any one would mislead and wilfully put him upon fo wrong a

fcent convinces him that happinefs and extravagance never inhabited under the same roof; that if he would not be disappointed in his fearch, he must look into the plain and thrifty dwellings of the pru dent man, who knows and understands the worth of money, and cautioufly lays it up againft an evil hour: that it is not the prostitution of wealth upon the paffions, or the parting with it at all, that conftitutes happiness-but that it is the keeping it together, and the having and holding it faft to him and his heirs for ever, which are the chief attributes that form this great idol of human worship, to which fo much incenfe is offered up every day.

The Epicure, though he eafily rectifies fo grofs a miftake, yet at the fame time he plunges him, if poffi. ble, into a greater; for hearing the object of his purfuit to be happiness, and knowing of no other happiness than what is feated immediately in his fenfes he fends the enquirer there; tells him 'tis vain to fearch elsewhere for it, than where Nature herself has placed it in the indulgence and gratification of the appetites, which are given us for that end; and, in a word-if he will not take his opinion in the matterhe may truft the word of a much wifer man, who has affured us that there is nothing better in this world, than that a man should eat and drink, and rejoice in his works, and make his foul enjoy good in ́ labour: for that is his portion.

To refcue him from this brutal experiment-Ambition takes him by the hand, and carries him into the