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true Greatness of Mind than Children, or Lunatics, diverted with Play-things, and delighted with Baubles. -Let themselves be Judges.

I cannot difmifs this Article without a few melancholy Reflections upon the Vanity of worldly Greatness, and the Infatuation that generally attends it even beyond the Grave. I particularly mean that folemn mortifying Farce of Grandeur, that, by the Cuftom of many Nations, is acted over the Graves of great Men. There cannot (I think) be a feverer Satire upon human Weakness and Folly, than to see a Herald, dreffed in all his Habiliments, breaking the white Rod, and making folemn Proclamation, that, Whereas it has pleafed Almighty God to take out of this miferable World the Soul of the most noble, mighty, and puiffant Prince, &c. What pompous Epithets are these for a poor breathlefs Sinner, whofe Body is condemned to be Food for Worms and creeping Things, and his Soul perhaps-! Better, methinks, it would be to proclaim aloud to the Audience all the virtuous, memorable, and righteous Actions of the Deceased, to which all the People fhould give their folemn Attestation, and bless the Memory, whilft they bewail the Death of the departed Saint, or Hero; to challenge them to make full and due Proof of any unjust or difhonourable Action, with a Promife, in the Name of the Succeffor, of full and ample Reparation. This would be putting the Character upon a right Foot of Honour, and giving public Proof that he was determined to support and maintain the Honour of his Family, by making honourable Reparation for all the Injuries which the Ignorance or Iniquity of his Predeceffor might have committed.-Like that folemn

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and glorious Appeal, which the good and great Prophet Samuel made, in his own Perfon, to the Multitude, when he was refigning the Sovereignty, which he had fo long and fo gloriously executed among them. 1 Sam. xii. 3. Behold, here I am, witness against me, before the Lord, and before his Anointed. Whofe Ox have I taken, or whofe Afs have I taken? Whom have I defrauded, or whom have I oppressed? or of whose Hand have I received any Bribe to blind mine Eyes therewith? and Į will reftore it.-Bleffed and truly honourable would the Memory of that Man be, to whom the universal Voice of the People could give the fame folemn Atteftation that was then given: And they faid, Thou haft not defrauded nor oppressed us; neither haft thou taken aught of any Man's Hand. And he faid unto them, The Lord is Witness against you, and his Anointed is Witness against you, this Day, that ye have not found aught in my Hands. And they faid, HE IS WIT

NESS.

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LETTER VI.

Think I have sufficiently shewn the Vanity of being proud of any of the outward Advantages of Fortune, Birth, or Station, from this fingle Confideration, that nothing accidental or external can add any real Excellency to our Natures; can make us wifer or better, or more truly honourable; they add nothing to the Man, they communicate nothing to the Soul, which is the only Seat of true Greatness and Honour. Let us now examine whether those Things, that are more properly our own, be able to furnish

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furnish out any better Excufes for Vanity and Pride: These are either the Excellencies of the Body, or the Mind. Of the firft Sort, are Beauty and Strength: Of the second, Knowledge or Learning. That on the former of these there is no Dependence, is the melancholy Object of every Day's Experience. Sickness or Sorrow, Pain or Grief (from which the faireft and the strongest have no Exemption, no Protection) will quickly deface the finest Beauty, wither the most blooming Face into Paleness, Wrinkles, and Deformity, and break the Strength of the ftouteft and ftrongest Man in the World; fo that thefe, at firft Sight, appear too weak and infufficient to fupport that Superstructure of Vanity that the Weak and Silly are too apt to raise upon it. If there be any thing that can fupport or excufe this Prefumption, it must be the Talents of the Mind; these feem to be immediately our own, and intirely peculiar to us, and give a Man a Superiority much more agreeable to a spiritual and rational Being, than all the Advantages of Beauty, Birth, Titles, Riches, and Fortune, which are all external, and foreign to the Man; whereas the Mind is properly our own, or rather is ourselves, and conftitutes our very Effence.

That the moft exalted Improvements of human Understanding are no fufficient Foundation for Vanity or Boafting, might eafily be made appear from numberlefs Confiderations. Were I to confider particularly the Tedioufnefs and Difficulty of attaining to any tolerable Degree of Knowledge in any Art or Science, the Obfcurity and Shortnefs of our Conjectures upon the most concerning Queftions, the little Dependence we have upon the Strength or Continuance of our intellectual Abilities, the flender Partition

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there is betwixt Wisdom and Madness, Learning and Folly, how small an Accident or Disorder in the animal Oeconomy, the Ferment of the Fluids, or the Heat of the Brain, would confound and deftroy the finest Understanding; it would be fufficient to mortify the proudest Heart into a fober and religious Degree of Humility, Gratitude, and Devotion; it would convince every serious confiderate Man, that the highest Pitch of Knowledge he can attain, cannot furnish him with a tolerable Excufe for Vanity or Self-conceit; that there is really in the Nature of Things no Foundation to support it; that all the Appearances of it are founded in the weak and partial Comparisons we make between ourselves and others; and that this comparative Superiority is only betwixt Ignorance and Imperfection, and arifes purely from Self-love, and a narrow Understanding. If the most learned Man in the World would go out of himself, and furvey the numberlefs Works of God, and Wonders of Nature, where no Certainty can be obtained by the strongest human Genius, and moft comprehenfive Understanding, it would diffolve the Charm, break the Bubble, and remove the Illufion, which fwell the Hearts of the Silly and the Vain into an Opinion of fuperior Wifdom or Greatnefs, and fhew them the Imperfection of the most exalted human Knowledge.

All our Knowledge is either of Words or Things. The Knowledge of Words or Languages is the Gate of Science, the Path of Knowledge, but fo long and fo tedious, that it takes up a good deal of the fhort Span of Life to be able to attain to a competent Knowledge of them, infomuch that many are fo

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weary as to ftop there, to fit down contented with their prefent Attainments, and procced no further. Numbers of these are to be found in the learned World, who confider themselves and each other as Prodigies of Learning, Men of profound Erudition, only for being able to express their Ignorance in Variety of Languages. Their Converfation and Writings are embellished with Scraps of Foreign Languages, which they think much more valuable and inftructive than plain good Sense and found Reason, expreffed in their own native Language. I had once the Honour of being acquainted with one of those learned Gentlemen, who directly anfwered the Character that Boileau gives of a Pedant, Tout heriffe de Grec & bouffi d' Ignrance. Who could never be perfuaded that Norris and Locke were Men of Learning, because there was hardly a Quotation of Greek or Latin to be found in their Writings.

Our Knowledge of Things is at best short and imperfect, full of Obscurity and Uncertainty; the little the wifeft of us knows extends no further than our own System of the Parts, of which we have only a general and fuperficial Knowledge; we fee no further than the Surface and Outfide of Things, as directed by the general Law of Motion; all beyond this is mere Guefs-work, Conjecture, and Uncertainty. And the Vanity of our fuperior Knowledge can only proceed from fuperior Ignorance, the Ignorance of ourselves, our Souls, our Bodies, their Union, their mutual Affections, their feveral Relations to the rest of the System, and the Impreffions they receive from them. Let the wifeft Man but go out of himself, and furvey the immenfe Extent of Nature, the Va

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