NUMB. 38. SATURDAY, July 28, 1750.

A MONG many parallels which men of imagi

nation have drawn between the natural and moral ftate of the world, it has been obferved that happiness, as well as virtue, confifts in mediocrity; that to avoid every extreme is neceffary, even to him who has no other care than to pass through the present state with ease and safety; and that the middle path is the road of fecurity, on either fide of which are not only the pitfals of vice, but the precipices of ruin.

Thus the maxim of Cleobulus the Lindian, péτρOV agirov, Mediocrity is beft, has been long confidered as an univerfal principle, extended through the whole compafs of life and nature. The experience of every age seems to have given it new confirmation, and to fhew that nothing, however fpecious or alluring, is pursued with propriety, or enjoyed with fafety, beyond certain limits.

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Even

Even the gifts of nature, which may truly be confidered as the moft folid and durable of all terrestrial advantages, are found, when they exceed the middle point, to draw the poffeffor into many calamities, easily avoided by others that have been lefs bountifully enriched or adorned. We fee every day women perish with infamy, by having been too willing to fet their beauty to fhew; and others, though not with equal guilt or mifery, yet with very fharp remorfe, languifhing in decay, neglect, and obfcurity, for having rated their youthful charms at too high a price. And, indeed, if the opinion of Bacon be thought to deferve much regard, very few fighs would be vented for eminent and fuperlative elegance of form; " for beautiful women," fays he, " are "feldom of any great accomplishments, because they, "for the most part, ftudy behaviour rather than

"virtue."

Health and vigour, and a happy constitution of the corporeal frame, are of abfolute neceffity to the enjoyment of the comforts, and to the performance of the duties of life, and requifite in yet a greater measure to the accomplishment of any thing illustrious or distinguished; yet even these, if we can judge. by their apparent confequences, are fometimes not very beneficial to thofe on whom they are most liberally bestowed. They that frequent the chambers of the fick, will generally find the sharpeft pains, and most stubborn maladies, among them whom confidence of the force of nature formerly betrayed to negligence and irregularity; and that fuperfluity of ftrength, which was at once their boaft and their fnare, has often, in the latter part of life, no other effect

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effect than that it continues them long in impotence

and anguish.

Thefe gifts of nature are, however, always bleffings in themselves, and to be acknowledged with gratitude to him that gives them; fince they are, in their regular and legitimate effects, productive of happiness, and prove pernicious only by voluntary corruption or idle negligence. And as there is little danger of pursuing them with too much ardour or anxiety, because no fkill or diligence can hope to procure them, the uncertainty of their influence upon our lives is mentioned, not to depreciate their real value, but to reprefs the difcontent and envy to which the want of them often gives occafion in those who do not enough fufpect their own frailty, nor confider how much less is the calamity of not poffeffing great powers, than of not ufing them aright.

Of all those things that make us fuperiour to others, there is none fo much within the reach of our endeavours as riches, nor any thing more eagerly or conftantly defired. Poverty is an evil always in our view, and evil complicated with fo many circumftances of uneafinefs and vexation, that every man is ftudious to avoid it. Some degree of riches is therefore required, that we may be exempt from the gripe of neceffity; when this purpofe is once attained, we naturally with for more, that the evil which is regarded with so much horrour, may be yet at a greater distance from us; as he that has once felt or dreaded the paw of a favage, will not be at reft till they are parted by fome barrier, which may take away all poffibility of a fecond attack.

To this point, if fear be not unreasonably indulged, Cleobulus would, perhaps, not refufe to extend his mediocrity. But it almoft always happens, that the man who grows rich, changes his notions of poverty, ftates his wants by fome new measure, and from flying the enemy that purfued him, bends his endeavours to overtake those whom he fees before him. The power of gratifying his appetites increases their demands; a thousand wifhes crowd in upon him, importunate to be fatisfied, and vanity and ambition open profpects to defire, which ftill grow wider, as they are more contemplated.

Thus in time want is enlarged without bounds; an eagerness for increase of poffeffions deluges the foul, and we fink into the gulphs of infatiability, only because we do not fufficiently confider, that all real need is very foon fupplied, and all real danger of its invafion easily precluded; that the claims of vanity, being without limits, must be denied at last; and that the pain of repreffing them is lefs pungent before they have been long accuftomed to compliance.

Whofoever shall look heedfully upon those who are eminent for their riches, will not think their condition fuch as that he should hazard his quiet, and much less his virtue, to obtain it. For all that great wealth generally gives above a moderate fortune, is more room for the freaks of caprice, and more privilege for ignorance and vice, a quicker fucceffion of flatteries, and a larger circle of voluptuoufness.

There is one reafon feldom remarked which makes riches lefs defirable. Too much wealth is very frequently the occafion of poverty. He whom the wantonnefs

wantonnefs of abundance has once foftened, eafily finks into neglect of his affairs; and he that thinks he can afford to be negligent, is not far from being poor. He will foon be involved in perplexities, which his inexperience will render unfurmountable; he will fly for help to those whofe intereft it is that he should be more diftreffed, and will be at laft torn to pieces by the vultures that always hover over fortunes in decay

When the plains of India were burnt up by a long continuance of drought, Hamet and Rafchid, two neighbouring shepherds, faint with thirft, flood at the common boundary of their grounds, with their flocks and herds panting round them, and in extremity of distress prayed for water. On a fudden the air was becalmed, the birds ceafed to chirp, and the flocks to bleat. They turned their eyes every way, and faw a being of mighty ftature advancing through the valley, whom they knew upon his nearer approach to be the Genius of Diftribution. In one hand he held the fheaves of plenty, and in the other the fabre of deftruction. The fhepherds ftood trembling, and would have retired before him; but he called to them with a voice gentle as the breeze that plays in the evening among the fpices of Sabæa; "Fly

not from your benefactor, children of the duft! I "am come to offer you gifts, which only your own "folly can make vain. You here pray for water, and "water I will bestow; let me know with how much

you will be fatisfied: fpeak not rafhly; confider, "that of whatever can be enjoyed by the body, excess "is no lefs dangerous than fcarcity. When you remem"ber the pain of thirft, do not forget the danger of "fuffocation. Now, Hamet, tell me your request."

"O Being,