looking out with solicitude for the next mail, that may bring him intelligence of the politics and projects agitated at Paris, or at Petersburgh, at Vienna, or at Constantinople; or of the event of some war or negotiation, perhaps in the East or West Indies: objects indeed which may laudably engage the attention of a statesman, as they relate to his office; or of others who enjoy much leisure, together with a degree of public influence; but to a man who takes them up merely for amusement, and to the neglect of his proper calling, they can, at best, only prove a source of idle dissipation and unprofitable anxiety.

Further: A third unhappy consequence of a meddling political curiosity is, that it generates ill temper. Those who are ever prying into the character and quality of public men and measures, easily contract a captious and quarrelsome spirit that can be satisfied with nothing; every man is incompetent or knavish, and every measure absurd or pernicious. This spirit usually springs out of vanity, presumption, or malignity, (passions rooted in our com

mon nature) and sometimes from all of them in conjunction. From the first, since to criticise and censure others, those especially who are of rank or eminence in the state, seems to argue a superiority of parts and character, which is a distinction that, of all others, is most flattering to vanity. From the second, because, as nearly allied to vanity, it affects a like pre-eminence; and because too it is heady and violent, impatient of inquiry, apt to fasten upon single circumstances, and consequently prone to judge and condemn without a proper knowledge of the cause, and without that respect to persons and things to which they are entitled. And from the third, because it is of the very nature of malignity to be captious and hostile, to disparage whatever is excellent or eminent, and to aggravate every fault or imperfection. From the three, therefore, in conjunction, and operating within the sphere of vulgar politics, where they cannot fail to be powerfully exerted, and called forth into full activity, the contentious and dissocial spirit of which we are

here speaking, must proceed with increased vehemence.

Finally: The last and worst consequence of this spirit is its unhappy influence on a man's future interest. It devours that time which is necessary to secure it; it diverts that attention without which it can never be prosecuted with effect; and it goes to form that character which is utterly inconsistent with the felicity of a future state. Amidst the serenity of the heavenly regions, there can be no place for those unquiet tempers, those malevolent dispositions, or those turbulent passions, which so often deform our low political atmosphere. The censures of vanity, of presumption, or malignity, are for ever banished thence, with all those who indulge them; which, if no other consideration prevailed, should be sufficient to check a curiosity, that, besides its unfavourable aspect on his present comfort, so much endangers a man's final happiness.

There are only two things (as some have well observed) that are necessary for any

one to know, and these demand his most inquisitive and diligent search, namely, religion, and his own business; with this knowledge he may come to act both the part of a good man and of a good citizen; without it, he must certainly fail in one of them, and may perhaps fail in both.

II. On the second part of the rule now before us, namely, Not to admit a disposi tion to hunt after small or unknown grievances, the following general remark may be suf cient.

To live contentedly under the best government, it is necessary not to go curiously in search of mischief; like certain patriots belonging to a little German state, who some years ago, as I remember, beset the court with their clamours, and upon being asked what grievances they laboured under, made answer, "None that they knew of; but that as some such might exist, they came to search after them." Men that will thus go in quest of trouble, deserve to find it; and in a world such as this, they seldom need to go far without meeting with what

they seek. A prudent man will be otherwise minded; if he enjoy at present his liberty and property, he will not idly torment himself with imaginations of dangers he does not see, or of distresses that he does not feel; and will leave it to the public guardians to watch against evils that are too remote for his optics: and should they even come home to his sense and feeling, he will be careful not to aggravate them, or rashly to charge them upon those at the helm of affairs; remembering that it is the lot of human life to suffer under innumerable calamities, in spite of all human precaution or vigilance.

It is the misfortune of some men to reap no other fruit from their patriotism than their own fears and jealousies. The national credit is in danger, trade is declining, foreign nations are conspiring against us, or some dreadful plot is hatching at home against our rights and liberties; though they see every man going his own way, and acting as his interest or his pleasure dictates, and every market crowded with wares and customers. Should it be said, these are no