CROSSES IN LIFE.

MANY, many are the ups and downs of life, fortune must be uncommonly gracious to that mortal who does not experience a great variety of them ;— though perhaps to these may be owing as much of our pleasures as our pains; there are scenes of delight in the vale as well as in the mountain; and the inequalities of nature may not be less necessary to please the eye-than the varieties of life to improve the heart. At best, we are but a shortsighted race of beings, with just light enough to discern our way.-To do that is our duty, and should be our care; when a man has done this, he is safe; the rest is of little consequence

Cover his head with a turf or a stone,
It is all one! it is all one!

LETTER IV.

FLATTERY.

DELICIOUS essence! how refreshing art thou to nature! how strongly are all its powers and all its weaknesses on thy side! how sweetly dost thou mix with the blood, and help it through the most difficult and tortuous passages to the heart.

JOURNEY.

GRAVITY.

SOMETIMES, in his wild way of talking, he would say, that gravity was an arrant scoundrel; and he

would add, of the most dangerous kind too,-because a sly one; and that he verily believed, more honest, well-meaning people were bubbled out of their goods and money by it in one twelvemonth, than by pocket-picking and shop-lifting in seven. In the naked temper which a merry heart discovered, he would say, there was no danger,-but to itself: whereas the very essence of gravity was design, and consequently deceit; 'twas a taught trick, to gain credit of the world for more sense and knowledge than a man was worth; and that, with all its pretensions,-it was no better, but often worse, than what a French wit had long ago defined it, viz.-A mysterious carriage of the body to cover the defects of the mind.

T. SHANDY.

HEALTH.

O BLESSED health! thou art above all gold and treasure; 'tis thou who enlargest the soul,-and openest all its powers to receive instruction, and to relish virtue. He that has thee has little more to wish for! and he that is so wretched as to want thee, wants every thing with thee.

T. SHANDY.

HOBBY-HORSES.

NAY, if you come to that, sir, have not the wisest of men in all ages, not excepting Solomon himself, -have they not had their HOBBY-HORSES;—their

running-horses, their coins and their cockle-shells, their drums and their trumpets, their fiddles, their pallets,- -their maggots and their butterflies? and so long as a man rides his. HOBBY-HORSE peaceably and quietly along the king's highway, and neither compels you or me to get up behind him,-pray, sir, what have either you or I to do

with it?

De gustibus non est disputandum ;— -that is, there is no disputing against HOBBY-HORSES; and for my part, I seldom do; nor could I with any sort of grace, had I been an enemy to them at the bottom: for happening at certain intervals and changes of the moon, to be both fidler and painter, according as the fly stings:- -be it known to you, that I keep a couple of pads myself, upon which, in their turns, (nor do I care who knows it) I frequently ride out and take the air;—though sometimes, to my shame be it spoken, I take somewhat longer journies than what a wise man would think altogether right. But the truth is,-I am not a wise man ;-and besides, am a mortal of so little consequence in the world, it is not much matter what I do: so I seldom fret or fume at all about it: nor does it much disturb my rest, when I see such great lords and tall personages as hereafter follow; such, for instance, as my Lord A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, and so on, all of a row, mounted upon their several horses: some with large stirrups, getting on in a more grave and sober pace; others, on the contrary, tucked up to their very chins, with whips across their mouths, scouring and scampering it away like so many little party-coloured devils

astride a mortgage, and as if some of them were resolved to break their necks.- -So much the better--say I to myself; for in case the worst should happen, the world may make a shift to do excellently well without them; and for the rest,

why God speed theme'en let them ride on without opposition from me; for were their lordships unhorsed this very night-'tis ten to one but that many of them would be worse mounted by one half before to-morrow morning.

Not one of these instances therefore can be said to break in upon my rest. But there is an instance, which I own puts me off my guard, and that is, when I see one born for great actions, and, what is still more for his bonour, whose nature ever inclines him to good ones; when I behold such a one, my lord, like yourself, whose principles and con, duct are as generous and noble as his blood, and whom, for that reason, a corrupt world cannot spare one moment;-when I see such a one, my lord, mounted, though it is but for a minute beyond the time which my love to my country has prescribed to him, and my zeal for his glory wishes, then, my lord, I cease to be a philosopher, and in the first transport of an honest impatience, I wish the HOBBY-HORSE, with all his fraternity, at the Devil.

T. SHANDY.

HUMAN LIFE.

WHAT is the life of man! is it not to shift from side to side; from sorrow to sorrow?-to button up one cause of vexation,-and unbutton another!

T. SHANDY.

ILLUSION.

SWEET pliability of man's spirit, that can at once surrender itself to illusions, which cheat expectation and sorrow of their weary moments!-Longlong since had ye numbered out my days, had I not trod so great a part of them upon this enchanted ground: when my way is too rough for my feet, or too steep for my strength, I get off it to some · smooth velvet path which fancy has scattered over with rosebuds of delight; and having taken a few turns in it, come back strengthen'd and refresh'dWhen evils press sore upon me, and there is no retreat from them in the world, then I take a new Course- -I leave it and as I have a clearer idea of the Elysian fields than I have of heaven, I force myself, like Æneas, into them-I see him meet the pensive shade of his forsaken Dido-and wish to recognize it-I see the injured spirit_wave her head, and turn off silent from the author of her miseries and dishonours-I lose the feelings of myself in her's-and those affections which were wont to make me mourn for her when I was at school.

Surely this is not walking in a vain shadow nor