but I was tempted to leave them by the fight of ripe fruits, which feemed to hang only to be plucked. I therefore walked haftily forwards, but found, as I proceeded, that the colours of the field faded at my approach, the fruit fell before I reached it, the birds flew ftill finging before me, and though I preffed onward with great celerity, I was ftill in fight of pleasures of which I could not yet gain the poffeffion, and which feemed to mock my diligence, and to retire as I advanced. Though I was confounded with fo many alternations of joy and grief, I yet perfifted to go forward, in hopes that these fugitive delights would in time be overtaken. At length I faw an innumerable multitude of every age and fex, who feemed all to partake of fome general felicity; for every cheek was flushed with confidence, and every eye fparkled with eagerness: yet each appeared to have some particular and fecret pleafure, and very few were willing to communicate their intentions, or extend their concern beyond themselves. Moft of them feemed, by. the rapidity of their motion, too busy to gratify the curiofity of a stranger, and therefore I was content for a while to gaze upon them, without interrupting them with troublesome enquiries. At laft I obferved one man worn with time, and unable to ftruggle in the crowd; and, therefore, fuppofing him more at leifure, I began to accoft him: but he turned from me with anger, and told me he must not be disturbed, for the great hour of projection was now come, when Mercury should lofe his wings, and flavery fhould no longer dig the mine for gold. comparing it with the divine commands. There are others in a kind of equipoife between good and ill; who are moved on the one part by riches or pleasure, by the gratifications of paffion and the delights of fense; and, on the other, by laws of which they own the obligation, and rewards of which they believe the reality, and whom a very finall addition of weight turns either way. The third clafs confifts of beings immersed in pleasure, or abandoned to paffion, without any defire of higher good, or any effort to extend their thoughts beyond immediate and grofs fatisfactions. The fecond clafs is fo much the most numerous, that it may be confidered as comprising the whole body of mankind. Those of the last are not very many, and thofe of the firft are very few; and neither the one nor the other fall much under the confideration of the moralift, whofe precepts are intended chiefly for thofe who are endeavouring to go forward up the steeps of virtue, not for those who have already reached the fummit, or those who are refolved to stay for ever in their prefent fitua tion. To a man not verfed in the living world, but accustomed to judge only by fpeculative reason, it is fcarcely credible that any one should be in this ftate of indifference, or ftand undetermined and unengaged, ready to follow the first call to either fide. It seems certain, that either a man must believe that virtue will make him happy, and refolve therefore to be virtuous, or think that he may be happy without virtue, and therefore caft off all care but for his present intereft. It seems impoffible that conviction fhould be on one fide, and practice on the other; and that he who has seen the right way, fhould voluntarily fhut his eyes, that he may quit it with more tranquillity. Yet all these abfurdities are every hour to be found; the wifeft and best men deviate from known and acknowledged duties, by inadvertency or furprife; and moft are good no longer than while temptation is away, than while their paffions are without excitements, and their opinions are free from the counteraction of any other motive. Among the fentiments which almost every man changes as he advances into years, is the expectation of uniformity of character. He that without acquaintance with the power of defire, the cogency of distress, the complications of affairs, or the force of partial influence, has filled his mind with the excellence of virtue, and having never tried. his refolution in any encounters with hope or fear, believes it able to ftand firm whatever fhall oppose it; will be always clamorous against the smallest failure, ready to exact the utmost punctualities of right, and to confider every man that fails in any part of his duty, as without confcience and without merit; unworthy of truft or love, of pity or regard; as an enemy whom all fhould join to drive out of fociety, as a pest which all fhould avoid, or as a weed which all fhould trample. It is not but by experience, that we are taught the poffibility of retaining fome virtues, and rejecting others, or of being good or bad to a particular de gree. gree. For it is very eafy to the folitary reafoner to prove that the fame arguments by which the mind is fortified againft one crime are of equal force against all, and the confequence very naturally follows, that he whom they fail to move on any occafion, has either never confidered them, or has by fome fallacy taught himself to evade their validity; and that, therefore, when a man is known to be guilty of one crime, no farther evidence is needful of his depravity and corruption. Yet fuch is the state of all mortal virtue, that it is always uncertain and variable, fometimes extending to the whole compafs of duty, and fometimes fhrinking into a narrow fpace, and fortifying only a few avenues of the heart, while all the reft is left open to the incurfions of appetite, or given up to the dominion of wickednefs. Nothing therefore is more unjust than to judge of man by too short an acquaintance, and too flight infpection; for it often happens, that in the loose, and thoughtless, and diffipated, there is a fecret radical worth, which may fhoot out by proper cultivation; that the fpark of heaven, though dimmed and obftructed, is yet not extinguished, but may by the breath of counfel and exhortation be kindled into flame. To imagine that every one who is not com. pletely good is irrecoverably abandoned, is to fup. pofe that all are capable of the fame degree of excellence; it is indeed to exact, from all, that perfection which none ever can attain. And fince the pureft virtue is confiftent with fome vice, and the virtue of the greatest number with almost an equal propor proportion of contrary qualities, let none too hastily conclude, that all goodness is loft, though it may for a time be clouded and overwhelmed; for most minds are the flaves of external circumstances, and conform to any hand that undertakes to mould them, roll down any torrent of cuftom in which they happen to be caught, or bend to any importunity that bears hard against them. It may be particularly obferved of women, that they are for the most part good or bad, as they fall among those who practise vice or virtue; and that neither education nor reason gives them much fecurity against the influence of example. Whether it be that they have lefs courage to ftand against oppofition, or that their defire of admiration makes them facrifice their principles to the poor pleasure of worthless praise, it is certain, whatever be the cause, that female goodness feldom keeps its ground against laughter, flattery, or fashion. For this reafon, every one fhould confider himfelf as entrusted, not only with his own conduct, but with that of others; and as accountable, not only for the duties which he neglects, or the crimes that he commits, but for that negligence and irregularity which he may encourage or inculcate. Every man, in whatever ftation, has, or endeavours to have, his followers, admirers, and imitators, and has. therefore the influence of his example to watch with care; he ought to avoid not only crimes but the appearance of crimes, and not only to practise virtue, but to applaud, countenance, and fupport it. For it is poffible that for want of attention we may teach others |