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are the objects which engross their folitary mufings, and Atimulate their active labours; which warm the breasts of the young, animate the industry of the middle aged, and often keep alive the paffions of the old, until the very clofe of life.

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Affuredly, there is nothing unlawful in our wishing to be freed from whatever is difagreeable, and to obtain a fuller enjoyment of the comforts of life. But when these wishes are not tempered by reason, they are in danger of precipitating us into much extravagance and folly. Defires and wishes are the first springs of action. When they become exorbitant, the whole character is likely to be tainted. If we fuffer our fancy to create to itself worlds of ideal happiness, we shall difcompose the peace and order of our minds, and foment many hurtful paffions. Here, then, let moderation begin its reign; by bringing within reasonable bounds the wishes that we form. As foon as they become extravagant, let us check them, by proper reflections on the fallacious nature of those objects, which the world hangs out to allure defire.

You have frayed, my friends, from the road which conducts to felicity; you have dishonoured the native dignity of your fouls, in allowing your wishes to terminate on nothing higher than worldly ideas of greatness or happiness. Your imagination roves in a land of fhadows. Unreal forms deceive you. It is no more than a phantom, an illufion of happinefs, which attracts your fond admiration; nay, an illufion of happiness, which often conceals much real mifery.

Do you imagine, that all are happy who have attained to thofe fummits of distinction, towards which your wifhes afpire? Alas! how frequently has experience shown, that where rofes were fuppofed to bloom, nothing but briers and thorns grew! Reputation, beauty, riches, grandeur, nay, royalty itself, would, many a time, have been gladly exchanged by the poffeffors, for that more quiet and humble ftation, with which you are now diffatisfied. With all that is fplendid and fhining in the world, it is decreed that there fhould mix many deep fhades of wo. On the elevated fituations of fortune, the great calamities of life chiefly fall. There, the form fpends its violence, and there the thunder breaks; while, fafe and unhurt, the inhabitants of the vale remain below. Retreat, then, from thofe vain and pernicious excurfions of extravagant defire.

Satisfy yourselves with what is rational and attainable. Train your minds to moderate views of human life, and human happiness. Remember, and admire, the wisdom of Agur's petition: "Remove far from me vanity and lies. Give me neither poverty nor riches Feed me with food convenient for me: left I be full, and deny thee; and fay, who is the Lord? or left I be poor and steal; and take the name of my God in vain."

SECTION XV.

BLAIR.

Omniscience and Omniprefence of the DEITY, the Source of Con folation to good Men.

I WAS yesterday, about funfet, walking in the open fields, till the night infenfibly fell upon me. I at firft amufed myself with all the richness and variety of colours, which appeared in the western parts of heaven. In proportion as they faded away and went out, feveral ftars and planets appeared one after another, till the whole firmament was in a glow. The bluenefs of the ether was exceedingly heightened and enlivened, by the feafon of the year, and the rays of all thofe luminaries that paffed through it. The galaxy appeared in its most beautiful white. Το complete the scene, the full moon rofe, at length, in that clouded majesty, which Milton takes notice of; and opened to the eye a new picture of nature, which was more finely fhaded, and difpofed among fofter lights than that which the fun had before difcovered to us.

As I was furveying the moon walking in her brightness, and taking her progrefs among the conftellations, a thought arofe in me, which I believe very often perplexes and disturbs men of serious and contemplative natures. David himfeif fell into it in that reflection; "When I confider the heavens, the work of thy fingers; the moon and the ftars which thou haft ordained; what is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou regardeft him!" in the fame manner, when I confidered that infinite host of stars, or, to speak more philofophically, of funs, which were then fhining upon me; with those innumerable fets of planets or worlds, which were moving round their respective funs; when I ftill enlarged the idea, and fuppofed another heaven of funs and worlds, rifing ftill above this which we difcovered: and thefe ftill enlightened by a fuperior firmament of luminaries, which are planted at fo great a distance, that they may appear G

to the inhabitants of the former, as the stars do to us; in fhort, while I purfued this thought, I could not but reflect on that little infignificant figure, which I myself bore amidst the immenfity of God's works.

Were the fun, which enlightens this part of the creation, with all the hofts of planetary worlds that move above him, utterly extinguifhed and annihilated, they would not be miffed, more than a grain of fand upon the sea shore. The space they poffefs. is fo exceedingly little in comparison of the whole, it would fcarcely make a blank in the creation. The chafm would be imperceptible to an eye that could take in the whole compass of nature, and pass from one end of the creation to the other; as it is poffible there may be fuch a fenfe in ourselves hereafter, or in creatures which are at prefent more exalted than ourselves. By the help of glaffes, we fee many ftars, which we do not discover with our naked eyes; and the finer our telescopes are, the more ftill are our difcoveries. Huygenius carries this thought fo far, that he does not think it impoffible there may be ftars, whofe light has not yet travelled down to us, fince their firft creation. There is no question that the universe has certain bounds fet to it; but when we confider that it is the work of Infinite Power, prompted by Infinite Goodnefs, with an infinite fpace to exert itself in, how can our imagination fet any bounds to it?

To return, therefore, to my first thought, I could not but look upon myself with fecret horror, as a being that was not worth the fmalleft regard of one who had fo great a work under his care and superintendence. I was afraid of being overlooked amidst the immenfity of nature; and loft among that infinite variety of creatures, which, in all probability, fwarm through all these immeasurable regions of matter.

In order to recover myself from this mortifying thought, I confidered that it took its rife from those narrow conceptions, which we are apt to entertain of the Divine Nature. We ourselves cannot attend to many different objects at the fame time. If we are careful to inspect fome things, we must of courfe neglect others. This imperfection which we obferve in ourselves, is an imperfection that cleaves, in fome degree, to creatures of the highest capacities, as they are creatures, that is, beings of finite and limited natures. The prefence of every created being is confined to a certain measure of space; and confequently his obfervation is ftinted to a certain number of objects. The fphere in

which we move, and act, and understand, is of a wider circumference to one creature, than another, according as we rise one above another in the fcale of existence. But the wideft of these our spheres has its circumference. When, therefore, we reflect on the Divine Nature, we are fo ufed and accuftomed to this imperfection in ourselves, that we cannot forbear, in fome measure, afcribing it to HIM, in whom there is no fhadow of imperfection. Our reafon indeed affures us, that his attributes are infinite; but the poornefs of our conception is fuch, that it cannot forbear fetting bounds to every thing it contemplates, till our reafon comes again to our fuccour, and throws down all thofe little prejudices, which rife in us unawares, and are natural to the mind of man.

We shall therefore utterly extinguish this melancholy thought of our being overlooked by our Maker, in the multiplicity of his works, and the infinity of those objects among which he feems to be incently employed, if we confider, in the first place, that he omniprefent; and in the fecond, that he is omnifcient

If we confider him in his omniprefence, his being paffes. through, actuates, and fupports the whole frame of nature. His creation, in every part of it, is full of him. There is nothing he has made, which is either fo diftant, fo little, or fo inconfiderable, that he does not effentially refide in it. His fubftance is within the fubftance of every being, whether material or immaterial, and as intimately prefent to it, as that being is to itself. It would be an imperfection in him, were he able to move out of one place into another; or to withdraw himself from any thing he has created, or from any part of that space which he diffused and spread abroad to infinity. In fhort, to fpeak of him in the language of the old philofophers, he is a Being whofe centre is every where, and his circumference no where.

In the fecond place, he is omnifcient as well as omniprefent. His omniscience, indeed, neceffarily and naturally flows from his omniprefence. He cannot but be conscious of every motion that arises in the whole material world, which he thus effentially pervades; and of every thought that is ftirring in the intellectual world, to every part of which he is thus intimately united. Were the foul feparated from the body, and should it with one glance of thought start beyond the bounds of the creation; fhould it, fo millions of years, continue its progrefs through infinite fpace, with

the fame activity, it would ftill find itself within the embrace of its Creator, and encompaffed by the immensity of the Godhead.

In this confideration of the Almighty's omniprefence and omniscience every uncomfortable thought vanishes. He cannot but regard every thing that has being, especially fuch of his creatures who fear they are not regarded by him. He is privy to all their thoughts, and to that anxiety of heart in particular, which is apt to trouble them on this occafion; for as it is impoffible he fhould overlook any of his creatures, fo we may be confident that he regards, with an eye of mercy, thofe who endeavour to recommend themselves to his notice; and, in unfeigned humility of heart, think themselves unworthy that he fhould be mindful of them.

ADDISON.

CHAP. IV.

ARGUMENTATIVE PIECES.

SECTION I.

Happiness is founded in Reditude of Conduct.

ALL men purfue good, and would be happy, if they knew how not happy for minutes and miserable for hours; but happy, if poffible, through every part of their existence. Either, therefore, there is a good of this fteady, durable kind, or there is not. If not, then all good must be tranfient and uncertain; and if so, an object of the lowest value, which can little deferve our attention or inquiry. But if there be a better good, fuch a good as we are seeking, like every other thing, it must be derived from fome caufe; and that cause must either be external, internal, or mixed; in as much as, except these three, there is no other poffible. Now a teady, durable good cannot be derived from an external caufe; fince all derived from externals muft fluctuate as they fluctuate. By the fame rule, it cannot be de-. rived from a mixture of the two; because the part which is external will proportionably deftroy its effence. What then remains but the caufe internal? the very cause which we have fuppofed, when we place the fovereign good in mind,-in rectitude of conduct.

HARRIS.

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