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The Folly of inconsistent Expectations.

THIS

HIS world may be confidered as a great mart of commerce, where fortune exposes to our view various commodities, riches, eafe, tranquillity, fame, integrity, knowledge. Every thing is marked at a fettled price. Our time, our labour, our ingenuity, is fo much ready money, which we are to lay out to the best advantage. Examine, compare, choose, reject: But ftand to your own judgment; and do not, like children, when you have purchased one thing, repine that you do not poffefs another which you did not purchafe. Such is the force of well-regulated industry, that a steady and vigorous exertion of our faculties, directed to one end, will generally infure fuccefs. Would you, for inftance, be rich? Do you think that fingle point worth the facrificing every thing else to? You may then be rich. Thousands have become fo from the lowest beginnings, by toil, and patient diligence, and attention to the minutest articles of expence and profit. But you must give up the pleasures of leifure, of a vacant mind, of a free unfufpicious temper. If you preferve your integrity, it must be coarsefpun and vulgar honefty. Those high and lofty notions of morals which you brought with you from the schools must be confiderably lowered, and mixed with the baser alloy of a jealous and worldly-minded prudence. You must learn to do hard, if not unjust things; and, for the nice embarraffments of a delicate and ingenuous fpirit, it is neceffary for you to get rid of them as fast as poffible. You must shut your heart against the Mufes, and be content to feed your underftanding with plain household truths. In fhort, you must not attempt to enlarge your ideas, or polish your tafte, or refine your fentiments; but must keep on in one beaten track, without turning afide either to the right hand or to the left." But I cannot fubmit to F

drudgery

drudgery like this-I feel a fpirit above it." "Tis well: Be above it then; only do not repine that you are not rich.

Is knowledge the pearl of price? That, too, may be purchased by steady application, and long folitary hours of ftudy and reflection. Bow to thefe, and you fhall be learned. "But," fays the man of letters, "what a hardship is it, that many an illiterate fellow, who cannot conftrue the motto of the arms of his coach, fhall raise a fortune and make a figure, while I have little more than the common conveniences of life!" Was it to grow rich that you grew pale over the midnight lamp, and distilled the sweetness from the Greek and Roman fpring? You have then mistaken your path, and ill employed your industry. "What reward have I then for all my labours?" What reward! A large comprehenfive foul, well purged from vulgar fears, and perturbations, and prejudices; able to comprehend and interpret the works of man-of God. A rich, flourishing, cultivated mind, pregnant with inexhauftible ftores of entertainment and reflection. perpetual spring of fresh ideas, and the confcious dignity of fuperior intelligence. Good Heaven! and what reward can you ask befides?

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"But is it not fome reproach upon the economy of Providence, that fuch a one, who is a mean, dirty fellow, fhould have amaffed wealth enough to buy half a nation?" Not in the leaft. He made himself a mean, dirty fellow for that very end. He has paid his health, his confcience, his liberty, for it; and will you envy his bargain? Will you hang your head, and blufh in his prefence, because he outfhines you in equipage and fhow? Lift up your brow with a noble confidence, and fay to yourself, "I have not these things, it is true; but it is because I have not fought, because I have not defired them; it is because I poffefs fomething better: I have chosen my lot; I am content and fatisfied."

You are a modest man-you love quiet and independence, and have a delicacy and reserve in your tem

per

per which renders it impoffible for you to elbow your way in the world, and be the herald of your own merits. Be content, then, with a modeft retirement, with the esteem of your intimate friends, with the praises of a blameless heart, and a delicate, ingenuous fpirit; but refign the splendid distinctions of the world to those who can better scramble for them.

The man, whofe tender fenfibility of confcience and ftrict regard to the rules of morality make him fcrupulous and fearful of offending, is often heard to complain of the difadvantages he lies under in every path of honour and profit. "Could I but get over some nice points, and conform to the practice and opinion of those about me, I might stand as fair a chance as others for dignities and preferment." And why can you not? What hinders you from difcarding this troublesome fcrupulofity of yours, which stands fo grievoufly in your way? If it be a small thing to enjoy a healthful mind, found at the very core, that does not fhrink from the keenest inspection; inward freedom from remorfe and perturbation; unfullied whitenefs and fimplicity of manners; a genuine integrity,

"Pure in the last recesses of the mind;"

if you think these advantages an inadequate recompence for what you refign, difmifs your fcruples this inftant, and be a dave-merchant, a director-or what you please.

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On Good-Nature.

MAN is fubject to' innumerable pains and forrows

by the very condition of humanity; and yet, as if nature had not fown evils enough in life, we are continually adding grief to grief, and aggravating the common calamity by our cruel treatment of one another. Every man's natural weight of afflictions is ftill made more heavy by the envy, malice, treachery, or injuftice of his neighbour. At the fame time that the ftorm beats upon the whole fpecies, we are falling foul upon one another.

Half the mifery of human life might be extinguished, would men alleviate the general curfe they lie under, by mutual offices of compaffion, benevolence, and humanity. There is nothing therefore which we ought more to encourage in ourselves and others, than that difpofition of mind which in our language goes under the title of good-nature.

Good-nature is more agreeable in conversation than wit, and gives a certain air to the countenance which is more amiable than beauty. It fhews virtue in the faireft light, takes off in fome measure from the deformity of vice, and makes even folly and impertinence fupportable.

There is no fociety or conversation to be kept up in the world without good-nature, or fomething which must bear its appearance, and supply its place. For this reafon mankind have been forced to invent a kind of artificial humanity, which is what we express by the word good-breeding. For if we examine thoroughly the idea of what we call fo, we shall find it to be nothing elfe but an imitation and mimickry of good-nature, or, in other terms, affability, complaifance, and eafinefs of temper reduced into an art.

Thefe exterior shows and appearances of humanity render a man wonderfully popular and beloved, when

they

they are founded upon real good-nature; but, without it, are like hypocrify in religion, or a bare form of holinefs, which, when it is difcovered, makes a man more deteftable than profeffed impiety.

Good-nature is generally born with us: Health, profperity, and kind treatment from the world, are great cherishers of it where they find it: But nothing is capable of forcing it up, where it does not grow of itself. It is one of the bleffings of a happy conftitution, which education may improve, but not produce.

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