Which, to him who seriously considers the importance of time, and that on the use we make of it hangs all our future hopes and expectations, must afford matter of melancholy reflection; especially in respect of those who have but little time at their command, and who spend it in a manner so unprofitable both to themselves and to those around them. Such an amusement, if so it must be accounted, is one surely which is accompanied with no small degree of folly and criminality.

Again: It is a character of legitimate amusement, that it prepares, or, at least, that it does not disqualify a man for a return to his serious duties. It must, therefore, be something which is suited to collect and quiet, and not to scatter and dissipate the spirits. When by this rule we examine our vulgar politics, we find them not of a quality to stand the trial, as being singularly hostile to composure and recollection. While a common newsmonger is at his desk, or behind his counter; at the anvil, or in the field; his thoughts are rambling to the ends of the earth; he is watching the wind, and

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 disposition 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 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

go

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