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minating with their childhood, who, from a want of knowing other purfuits, continue a fondness for the delights of that age, after the relish of them is decayed.

Providence hath with a bountiful hand prepared a variety of pleasures for the various ftages of life. It behoves us not to be wanting to ourselves in forwarding the intention of nature, by the culture of our minds, and a due preparation of each faculty for the enjoyment of thofe objects it is capable of being affected with.

As our parts open and difplay by gentle degrees, we rife from the gratifications of fenfe, to relish thofe of the mind. In the fcale of pleasure, the lowest are fenfual delights, which are fucceeded by the more enlarged views and gay portraitures of a lively imagination; and thefe give way to the fublimer pleafures of reafon, which discover the caufes and designs, the frame, connection, and fymmetry of things, and fill the mind with the contemplation of intellectual beauty, order, and truth.

Hence I regard our public fchools and univerfities, not only as nurseries of men for the fervice of the church and flate, but alfo as places defigned to teach mankind the most refined luxury, to raise the mind to its due perfection, and give it a tafte for thofe entertainments which afford the higheft tranfport, without the groffness or remorse that attend vulgar en

Joyments.

In those bleffed retreats men enjoy the fweets of folitude, and yet converfe with the greatest genii that have appeared in every age; wander through the delightful mazes of every art and science, and as they gradually enlarge their fphere of knowledge, at once rejoice in their prefent poffeffions, and are animated by the boundless profpect of future discoveries. There, a generous emulation, a noble thirst of fame, a love of truth and honourable regards, reign in minds as yet untainted from the world. There, the stock of learning tranfmitted down from the ancients, is preferved, and receives a daily increafe; and it is thence propagated by men, who having finished their ftudies, go into the world, and fpread that general knowledge and good tafte throughout the land, which is fo diftant from the barbarifm of its ancient inhabitants, or the fierce genius of its invaders. And as it is evident that our literature is owing to the fchools and univerfities; fo it cannot be

denied, that these are owing to our religion.

It was chiefly, if not altogether, upon religious confiderations that princes, as well as private perfons, have erected colleges, and affigned liberal endowments to ftudents and profeffors. Upon the fame account they meet with encouragement and protection from all chriftian ftates, as being efteemed a neceflary means to have the facred oracles and primitive traditions of christianity preferved and underftood. And it is well known, that after a long night of ignorance and fuperftition, the reformation of the church and that of learning began together, and made proportionable advances, the latter having been the effect of the former, which of courfe engaged men in the ftudy of the learned languages and of antiquity.

Guardian.

§ 20. On Chearfulness.

I have always preferred chearfulness to mirth. The latter I confider as an act, the former as a habit of the mind. Mirth is fhort and tranfient, chearfulness fixed and permanent. Thofe are often raised into the greateft tranfports of mirth, who are fubject to the greatest depreffions of melancholy: on the contrary, chearfulness, though it does not give the mind fuch an exquifite gladnefs, prevents us from falling into any depths of forrow. Mirth is like a flash of lightning, that breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment; chearfulness keeps up a kind of day-light in the mind, and fills it with a fteady and perpetual ferenity.

Men of auftere principles look upon mirth as too wanton and diffolute for a ftate of probation, and as filled with a certain triumph and infolence of heart that is inconfiftent with a life which is every moment obnoxious to the greatest dangers. Writers of this complexion have obferved, that the facred Perfon who was the great pattern of perfection, was never feen to laugh.

Chearfulness of mind is not liable to any of thefe exceptions; it is of a serious and compofed nature; it does not throw the mind into a condition improper for the prefent ftate of humanity, and is very conare looked upon as the greatest philofophers fpicuous in the characters of those who among the heathens, as well as among those who have been defervedly esteemed as faints and holy men among Chriftians,

If we confider chearfulness in three Lights, with regard to ourselves, to thofe we converfe with, and to the great Author of our being, it will not a little recommend itself on each of thefe accounts. The man who is poffeffed of this excellent frame of mind, is not only easy in his thoughts, but a perfect mafter of all the powers and faculties of the foul: his imagination is always dear, and his judgment undisturbed; his temper is even and unruffled, whether in action or folitude. He comes with a relith to all thole goods which nature has provided for him, taftes all the pleafures of the creation which are poured about him, and does not feel the full weight of those accidental evils which may befal him.

If we confider him in relation to the perions whom he converfes with, it naturally produces love and good-will towards him. A chearful mind is not only difpofed to be affable and obliging, but raises the fame good-humour in thofe who come within its influence. A man finds himself pleafed, he does not know why, with the chearfulness of his companion: it is like a fadden funfhine, that awakens a fecret delight in the mind, without her attending to

The heart rejoices of its own accord, and naturally flows out into friendship and benevolence towards the perfon who has fo kindly an effect upon it.

When I confider this chearful ftate of mind in its third relation, I cannot but look upon it as a confiant habitual gratitude to the great Author of nature. An inward chearfulness is an implicit praise and thankfgiving to Providence under all its difpentations. It is a kind of acquiefcence in the ftate wherein we are placed, and a fecret approbation of the divine will in his conduct towards man.

There are but two things, which, in my opinion, can reasonably deprive us of this chearfulness of heart. The first of thefe is the fenfe of guilt. A man who lives in a state of vice and impenitence, can have no title to that evennefs and tranquillity of mind which is the health of the foul, and the natural effect of virtue and innocence. Chearfulness in an ill man deferves a harder name than language can furnish us with, and is many degrees beyond what we commonly call felly or madness.

Atheism, by which I mean a difbelief of a Supreme Being, and confequently of a future ftate, under whatfoever title it thelters i felf, may likewife very reafonably deprive a man of this chearfulness of tem

per. There is fomething fo particularly gloomy and offenfive to human nature in the profpect of non-existence, that I cannot but wonder, with many excellent writers, how it is poffible for a man to outlive the expectation of it. For my own part, I think the being of a God is fo little to be doubted, that it is almost the only truth we are fure of, and fuch a truth as we meet with in every object, in every occurrence, and in every thought. If we lock into the characters of this tribe of infidels, we generally find they are made up of pride, ipleen, and cavil: it is indeed no wonder, that men, who are unely to themselves, fhould be fo to the reft of the world; and how is it potible for a man to be otherwife than unealy in himself, who is in danger every moment of his entire exiitence, and dropping into nothing?

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The vicious man and Atheist have therefore no pretence to chearfulness, and would act very unreasonably, fhould they endeavour after it. It is impoffible for any one to live in good-humour, and enjoy his prefent exiftence, who is apprehenfive either of torment or of annihilation; of being miferable, or of not being at all.

After having mentioned thefe two great principles, which are deftructive of chearfulness in their own nature, as well as in right reafon, I cannot think of any other that ought to banish this happy temper from a virtuous mind. Pain and fickness, fhame and reproach, poverty and old-age, nay death itfelf, confidering the fhortnefs of their duration, and the advantage we may reap from them, do not deferve the name of evils. A good mind may bear up under them with fortitude, with indolence, and with chearfulnefs of heart. The toffing of a tempeft does not difcompofe him, which he is fure will bring him to a joyful harbour.

A man, who ufes his beft endeavours to live according to the dictates of virtue and right reafon, has two perpetual fources of chearfulness, in the confideration of his own nature, and of that Being on whom he has a dependence. If he looks into himself, he cannot but rejoice in that exiftence, which is fo lately bestowed upon him, and which, after millions of ages, will be fill new, and fill in its beginning. How many fit-congratulations naturally arife in the mind, when it reflects on this its entrance into eternity, when it takes a view of thofe improveable faculties, which

in a few years, and even at its first fetting out, have made fo confiderable a progrefs, and which will be still receiving an increafe of perfection, and confequently an increase of happiness! The confcioufnefs of fuch a being spreads a perpetual diffufion of joy through the foul of a virtuous man, and makes him look upon himself every moment as more happy than he knows how to conceive.

The fecond fource of chearfulness to a good mind is, its confideration of that Being on whom we have our dependence, and in whom, though we behold him as yet but in the first faint difcoveries of his perfections, we fee every thing that we can imagine as great, glorious, or amiable. We find ourfelves every where upheld by his goodness, and furrounded with an immenfity of love and mercy. In short, we depend upon a Being, whofe power qualifies him to make us happy by an infinity of means, whofe goodnefs and truth engage him to make thofe happy who defire it of him, and whofe unchangeablenefs will fecure us in this happiness to all eternity.

Such confiderations, which every one fhould perpetually cherish in his thoughts, will banifh from us all that fecret heaviness of heart which unthinking men are subject to when they lie under no real affliction, all that anguish which we may feel from any evil that actually oppreffes us, to which I may likewife add thofe little cracklings of mirth and folly, that are apter to betray virtue than fupport it; and establish in us fuch an even and chearful temper, as makes us pleafing to ourselves, to thofe with whom we converfe, and to him whom we are made to please. Spectator.

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Chearfulness is, in the first place, the beft promoter of health. Repinings and fecret murmurs of heart give imperceptible ftrokes to thote delicate fibres of which the vital parts are compofed, and wear out the machine infensibly; not to mention thofe violent ferments which they flir up in the blood, and thofe irregular disturbed motions, which they raife in the animal fpirits. I fcarce remember, in my own obfervation, to have met with many old men, or with fuch, who (to use our Englith phrafe) wear well, that had not at least a certain indolence in their humour, if not

a more than ordinary gaiety and chearfulnefs of heart. The truth of it is, health and chearfulness mutually beget each other; with this difference, that we feldom meet with a great degree of health which is not attended with a certain chearfulness, but very often fee chearfulness where there is no great degree of health.

Chearfulnefs bears the fame friendly regard to the mind as to the body: it banifhes all anxious care and difcontent, foothes and compofes the paffions, and keeps the foul in a perpetual calm. But having already touched on this laft confideration, I fhall here take notice, that the world in which we are placed, is filled with innumerable objects that are proper to raife and keep alive this happy temper of mind.

If we confider the world in its fubferviency to man, one would think it was made for our ufe; but if we confider it in its natural beauty and harmony, one would be apt to conclude it was made for our pleasure. The fun, which is as the great foul of the univerfe, and produces all the neceffaries of life, has a particular influence in chearing the mind of man, and making the heart glad.

Thofe feveral living creatures which are made for our fervice or fuitenance, at the fame time either fill the woods with their mufic, furnish us with game, or raise pleafing ideas in us by the delightfulness of their appearance. Fountains, lakes, and rivers, are as refreshing to the imagination, as to the foil through which they pafs.

There are writers of great diftinction, who have made it an argument for Providence, that the whole earth is covered with green, rather than with any other colour, as being fuch a right mixture of light and fhade, that it comforts and strengthens the eye inftead of weakening or grieving it. For this reafon, feveral painters have a green cloth hanging near them, to eafe the eye upon, after too great an application to their colouring. A famous modern philofopher accounts for it in the following manner: All colours that are more luminous, overpower and diffipate the animal fpirits which are employed in fight; on the contrary, thofe that are nore obfcure do not give the animal fpirits a fufficient exercife; whereas, the rays that produce in us the idea of green, fall upon the eye in fuch a due proportion,

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that they give the animal fpirits their proper play, and, by keeping up the struggle a juft balance, excite a very pleafing and agreeable sensation. Let the caufe be what it will, the effect is certain; for which reafon, the poets afcribe to this particular colour the epithet of chearful.

To consider further this double end in the works of nature, and how they are, at the fame time, both useful and entertaining, we find that the most important parts in the vegetable world are thofe which are the most beautiful. Thefe are the feeds by which the feveral races of plants are propagated and continued, and which are always lodged in flowers or bloffoms. Nature feems to hide her principal defign, and to be industrious in making the earth gay and delightful, while the is carrying on her great work, and intent upon her own prefervation. The hufbandman, after the fame manner, is employed in laying out the whole country into a kind of garden or landskip, and making every thing fmile about him, whilft, in reality, he thinks of nothing but of the harveit, and increafe which is to arife from it.

We may further obferve how Providence has taken care to keep up this chearfulness in the mind of man, by having formed it after fuch a manner, as to make it capable of conceiving delight from feveral objects which feem to have very little ufe in them; as from the wildnefs of rocks and deferts, and the like grotefque parts of nature. Thofe who are verfed in philofophy may ftill carry this confideration higher, by obferving, that if matter had appeared to us endowed only with thofe real qualities which it actually poffees, it would have made but a very joyles and uncomfortable figure; and why has Providence given it a power of prodating in us fuch imaginary qualities, as tates and colours, founds and fmells, heat and cold, but that man, while he is converfant in the lower stations of nature, might have his mind cheared and delighted with agreeable fenfations? In fhort, the whole univerfe is a kind of theatre filled with objects that either raife in us pleafure, amufement, or admiration.

tertainments of art, with the pleasures of friendship, books, converfation, and other accidental diverfions of life, because I would only take notice of fuch incitements to a chearful temper, as offer themfelves to perfons of all ranks and conditions, and which may fufficiently fhew us, that Providence did not design this world should be filled with murmurs and repinings, or that the heart of man fhould be involved in gloom and melancholy.

I the more inculcate this chearfulness of temper, as it is a virtue in which our countrymen are observed to be more deficient than any other nation. Melancholy is a kind of demon that haunts our island, and often conveys herself to us in an eafterly wind. A celebrated French novelist, in oppofition to those who begin their romances with a flowery feafon of the year, enters on his ftory thus: In the gloomy month of November, when the people of England hang and drown themselves, a difconfolate lover walked out into the fields,' &c.

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Every one ought to fence against the temper of his climate or cotitution, and frequently to indulge in himfelf those confiderations which may give him a ferenity of mind, and enable him to bear up chearfully againit thofe little evils and misfortunes which are common to human nature, and which, by a right improvement of them, will produce a fatiety of joy, and an uninterrupted happiness.

At the fame time that I would engage my reader to confider the world in its moit agreeable lights, I must own there are many evils which naturally spring up amidit the entertainments that are provided for us; but thefe, if rightly confidered, should be far from overcafting the mind with forrow, or destroying that chearfulness of temper which I have been recommending. This interfperfion of evil with good, and pain with pleasure, in the works of nature, is very truly afcribed by Mr. Locke, in his Effay upon Human Understanding, to a moral reason, in the following words:

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Beyond all this, we may find another reafon why God hath fcattered up and I down feveral degrees of pleasure and

The reader's own thoughts will fuggeftpain, in all the things that environ and to him the viciffitude of day and night, the change of feafons, with all that variety of fcenes which diverfify the face of nature, and fill the mind with a perpetual fucceffion of beautiful and pleafing images.

I fhall not here mention the feveral en

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affect us, and blended them together, in almost all that our thoughts and fenfes have to do with; that we, finding imperfection, diffatisfaction, and want of complete happinefs in all the enjoyments, which the creatures can afford us, might

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§ 22. On Truth and Sincerity. Truth and reality have all the advantages of appearance, and many more. If the fhew of any thing be good for any thing, I am fure fincerity is better: for why does any man diffemble, or feem to be that which he is not, but because he thinks it good to have fuch a quality as he pretends to? for to counterfeit and diffemble, is to put on the appearance of fome real excellency. Now the best way in the world for a man to feem to be any thing, is really to be what he would feem to be. Befides, that it is many times as troublefome to make good the pretence of a good quality, as to have it; and if a man have it not, it is ten to one but he is discovered to want it, and then all his pains and labour to seem to have it is loft. There is fomething unnatural in painting, which a skilful eye will eafily difcern from native beauty and complexion.

It is hard to perfonate and act a part long; for where truth is not at the bottom, nature will always be endeavouring to return, and will peep out and betray herself one time or other. Therefore, if any man think it convenient to feem good, let him be fo indeed, and then his goodness will appear to every body's fatisfaction; fo that, upon all accounts, fincerity is true wifdom. Particularly as to the affairs of this world, integrity hath many advantages over all the fine and artificial ways of diffimulation and deceit; it is much the plainer and eafier, much the fafer and more fecure way of dealing in the world; it has lefs of trouble and difficulty, of entanglement and perplexity, of danger and hazard in it; it is the fhortet and nearest way to our end, carrying us thither in a strait line, and will hold out and last longeft. The arts of deceit and cunning do continually grow weaker and lefs effectual and ferviceable to them that use them; whereas integrity gains ftrength by ufe; and the more and longer any man practifeth it, the greater fervice it does him, by confirming his reputation, and encouraging thofe with whom he hath to do to repofe the greatest trust and confidence in him, which is an unspeakable advantage in the bufinefs and affairs of life.

Truth is always confiftent with itself,

and needs nothing to help it out; it is always near at hand, and fits upon our lips, and is ready to drop out before we are aware; whereas a lie is troublesome, and fets a man's invention upon the rack, and one trick needs a great many more to make it good. It is like building upon a falfe foundation, which continually itands in need of props to fhore it up, and proves at last more chargeable than to have raised a fubftantial building at firft upon a true and folid foundation; for fincerity is firm and fubftantial, and there is nothing hollow or unfound in it, and because it is plain and open, fears no difcovery; of which the crafty man is always in danger, and when he thinks he walks in the dark, all his pretences are so tranfparent, that he that runs may read them; he is the laft man that finds himself to be found out, and whilst he takes it for granted that he makes fools of others, he renders himself ridiculous.

Add to all this, that fincerity is the most compendious wisdom, and an excellent inftrument for the fpeedy difpatch of bufinefs; it creates confidence in those we have to deal with, faves the labour of many inquiries, and brings things to an iffue in few words; it is like travelling in a plain beaten road, which commonly brings a man fooner to his journey's end than bye-ways, in which men often lofe themfelves. In a word, whatfoever convenience may be thought to be in falfhood and diffimulation, it is foon over; but the inconvenience of it is perpetual, because it brings a man under an everlafting jealoufy and fufpicion, fo that he is not believed when he speaks truth, nor trufted perhaps when he means honefly. When a man has once forfeited the reputation of his integrity, he is fet faft, and nothing will then ferve his turn, neither truth nor falfhood.

And I have often thought that God hath, in his great wisdom, hid from men of falie and dishoneft minds the wonderful advantages of truth and integrity to the prof perity even of our worldly affairs; thefe men are fo blinded by their covetousness and ambition, that they cannot look beyond a prefent advantage, nor forbear to feize upon it, though by ways never fo indirect; they cannot fee fo far as to the remote confequences of a feady integrity, and the vaft benefit and advantages which it will bring a man at laft. fort of men wife and clear-fighted enough to difcern this, they would be honest out of very knavery, not out of any love to

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