they poffibly could have been with the want of it. I CONFESS, having a mind to pay my Court to Fortune, I became an Adventurer in one of the late Lotteries; in which, though I got none of the great Prizes, I found no Occafion to envy fome of thofe that did; comforting myfelf with this Contemplation, That Nature and Education having difappointed all the Favours Fortune could bestow upon them, they had gained no Superiority by an unenvied Affluence. 'TIS pleasant to confider, that whilft we are lamenting our particular Afflictions to each other, and repining at the Inequality of Condition, were it poffible to throw off our present miferable State, we can't name the Perfon whose Condition in every Particular we would embrace and prefer; and an impartial Inquiry into the Pride, ill Nature, ill Health, Guilt, Spleen, or Particularity of Behaviour of others, generally ends in a Reconciliation to our dear felves. THIS my way of Thinking is warranted by Shakespear in a very extraordinary Manner, where he makes Richard the Second, when depos'd and imprison'd, debating a Matter, which would foon have been difcufs'd by a common Capacity, whether his Prison or Palace was most eligible, and with very Philofophical Hefitation leaving the Preference undetermined, in the following Lines. ---Some Sometimes am I a King, Then Treafon makes me wish myself a Beggar, And fo indeed I am. Perfuades me I was better when a King, Prior fays very prettily, Against our Peace we arm our Will; GIVE me leave to fortify my unlearned Reader with another Bit of Wisdom from Juvenal by Dryden. Look round the habitable World, how few Know their own Good, or knowing it, purfue? But, when we have our Wish, we wish undone? EVEN the Men that are diftinguish'd by, and envied for, their fuperior Good Senfe and Delicacy of Tafte, are subject to several Uneafineffes upon this Account, that the Men of less Penetration are utter Strangers to; and every little Abfurdity ruffles thefe fine Judgments, which would never disturb the peaceful State of the lefs Difcerning. I I SHALL end this Effay with the following Story. There is a Gentleman of my Acquaintance, of a Fortune, which may not only be called eafy but fuperfluous; yet this Perfon has, by a great deal of Reflexion, found out a Method to be as uneafy as the worst Circumstances could have made him. By a free Life he had swelled himself above his natural Proportion, and by a restrained Life had fhrunk below it, and being by Nature Splenetick, and by Leifure more fo, he began to bewail this his Lofs of Flesh (tho' otherwise in perfect Health) as a very melancholy Diminution. He became therefore the Reverse of Cæfar, and as a lean hungry-look'd Rafcal was the Delight of his Eyes, a flat fleek-headed Fellow was his Abomination. To fupport himself as well as he could, he took a Servant, for the very Reafon every one else would have refused him, for being in a deep Confumption; and whilft he has compared himfelf to this Creature, and with a Face of infinite Humour contemplated the Decay of his Body, I have seen the Master's Features proportionably rife into a Boldnefs, as thofe of his Slave funk and grew languid. It was his Intereft therefore not to fuffer the too hafty Diffolution of a Being, upon which his own, in fome Measure, depended. In fhort the Fellow, by a little too much Indulgence, began to look gay and plump upon his Master, who, according to Horace, Invidus Invidus alterius macrefcit rebas opimis. Ep. 2. 1. t. v. 57. Sickness, thro' Envy at Another's Good. and as he took him only for being in a Confumption, by the fame way of thinking, he found it abfolutely neceffary to dismiss him for not being in one; and has told me fince, that he looks upon it as a very difficult Matter to furnish himself with a Footman that is not altogether as happy as himself. N° 55 Thursday, May 14. I quis enim virtutem ample&titur ipfam, Pramia fi tollas? Juv. Sat. 10. v. 141. For who wou'd Virtue for herself regard, DRYDEN. T is ufual with Polemical Writers to object ill Designs to their Adverfaries. This turns their Argument into Satire, which instead of fhewing an Error in the Understanding, tends only to expofe the Morals of those they write againft. I fhall not act after this manner with refpect to the Free-thinkers. Virtue, and the Happiness of Society, are the great Ends which all Men ought to promote, and fome of that Sect would be thought to have at Heart above the rest of Mankind. But fuppofing those those who make that Profeffion to carry on a good Defign in the Simplicity of their Hearts, and according to their best Knowledge, yet it is much to be feared, those well-meaning Souls, while they endeavoured to recommend Virtue, have in reality been advancing the Interefts of Vice, which as I take to proceed from their Ignorance of Human Nature, we may hope, when they become fenfible of their Mistake, they will, in confequence of that beneficent Principle, they pretend to act upon, reform their Practice for the future. THE Sages whom I have in my Eye speak of Virtue as the most amiable thing in the World; but at the fame time that they extol her Beauty, they take care to leffen her Portion. Such innocent Creatures are they, and fo great Strangers to the World, that they think this a likely Method to increase the Number of her Admirers. VIRTUE has in herself the most engaging Charms; and Christianity, as it places her in the ftrongeft Light, and adorned with all her Native Attractions, fo it kindles a new Fire in the Soul, by adding to them the unutterable Rewards which attend her Votaries in an Eternal State. Or if there are Men of a Saturnine and heavy Complexion, who are not easily lifted up by Hope, there is the Profpect of everlasting Punishments to agitate their Souls, and frighten them into the Practice of Virtue, and an Averfion from Vice. WHEREAS |