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of man with that of other creatures; in which I could not but obferve, that notwithstanding we are obliged by duty to keep ourselves in conftant employ, after the fame manner as inferior animals are prompted to it by inftinct, we fall very fhort of them in this particular. We are here the more inexcufable, becaufe there is a greater variety of business to which we may apply ourselves, Reafon opens to us a large field of affairs, which other creatures are not capable of. Beafts of prey, and I believe of all other kinds, in their natural flate of being, divide their time between action and reft. They are always at work or afleep. In fhort, their waking hours are wholly taken up in feeking after their food, or in confuming it. The human fpecies only, to the great reproach of our natures, are filled with complaints, that The day hangs heavy on them," that "They do not know what to do with themfelves," that "They are at a lofs how to pafs away their time," with many of the like thameful murmurs, which we often find in the mouths of thofe who are filed reasonable beings. How monftrous are fach expreffions among creatures who have the labours of the mind, as well as thcfe of the body, to furnish them with proper employments; who, befides the bufinefs of their proper callings and profeffions, can apply themselves to the duties of religion, to meditation, to the reading of tiful books, to difcourfe; in a word, who may exercite themfelves in the unbounded parfaits of knowledge and virtue, and every hour of their lives make themfelves wifer or better than they were before!

After having been taken up for fome ime in this courfe of thought, I diverted myfelf with a book, according to my ufual custom, in order to unbend my mind before I went to fleep. The book I made ufe of on this occafion was Lucian, where I amufed my thoughts for about an hour among the dialogues of the dead, which in all probability produced the following dream.

I was conveyed, methought, into the entrance of the infernal regions, where I faw Rhadamanthus, one of the judges of the dead, feated on his tribunal. On his lefthand flood the keeper of Erebus, on his right the keeper of Elyfium. I was told he fat upon women that day, there being feveral of the fex lately arrived, who had not yet their manfions affigned them. I was furprised to hear him afk every one of them the fame queftion, namely, "What they

had been doing?" Upon this question being propofed to the whole affembly, they ftared one upon another, as not knowing what to anfwer. He then interrogated each of them feparately. Madam, fays he to the first of them, you have been upon the earth about fifty years; what have you been doing there all this while? Doing! fays fhe, really I do not know what I have been doing: I defire I may have time given me to recollect.

After about half an hour's paufe, fhe told him that the had been playing at crimp; upon which Rhadamanthus beckoned to the keeper on his left hand, to take her into cuftody. And you, madam, fays the judge, that look with fuch a foft and languifhing air; I think you fet out for this place in your nine-and-twentieth year, what have you been doing all this while? I had a great deal of business on my hands, fays he, being taken up the first twelve years of my life in dreffing a jointed baby, and all the remaining part of it in reading plays and romarces. Very well, fays he, you have employed your time to good purpofe, Away with her. The next was a plain country-woman: Well, miftrefs, fays Radamanthus, and what have you been doing? An't pleafe your worthip, fays fhe, I did not live quite forty years; and in that time brought my hufband feven daughters, made him nine thoufand cheefes, and left my eldeft girl with him, to look after his house in my abfence, and who, I may venture to fay, is as pretty a housewife as any in the country. Rhadamanthus fmiled at the fimplicity of the good woman, and ordered the keeper of Elyiium to take her into his care. And you, fair lady, fays he, what have you been doing thefe five-and-thirty years? I have been doing no hurt, I affure you, fir, faid fhe. That is well, faid he, but what good have you been doing? The lady was in great confufion at this queftion, and not knowing what to answer, the two keepers leaped out to feize her at the fame time; the one took her by the hand to convey her to Ely fium, the other caught hold of her to carry her away to Erebus. But Rhadamanthus obferving an ingenuous modefty in her countenance and behaviour, bid them both let her loofe, and fet her afide for a reexamination when he was more at leifure. An old woman, of a proud and four look, prefented herself next at the bar, and being afked what he had been doing? Truly, faid the, I lived threefcore-and-ten years in a very wicked world, and was fo angry at the behaviour of a parcel of young flirts,

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that I paffed moft of my last years in condemning the follies of the times; I was every day blaming the filly conduct of people about me, in order to deter thofe I converfed with from falling into the like errors and mifcarriages. Very well, fays Rhadamanthus; but did you keep the fame watchful eye over your own actions? Why truly, fays fhe, I was fo taken up with publishing the faults of others, that I had no time to confider my own. Madam, fays Rhadamanthus, be pleafed to file off to the left, and make room for the venerable matron that ftands behind you. Old gentlewoman, fays he, I think you are fourfcore: you have heard the queftion, what have you been doing fo long in the world? Ali, Sir! fays fhe, I have been doing what 1 fhould not have done, but I had made a firm refolution to have changed my life, if I had not been fatched off by an untimely end. Madam, fays he, you will pleafe to follow your leader: and fpying another of the fame age, interrogated her in the fame form. To which the matron replied, I have been the wife of a hufband who was as dear to me in his old age as in his youth. I have been a mother, and very happy in my children, whom I endeavoured to bring up in every thing that is good. My eldeft fon is bleft by the poor, and beloved by every one that knows him. I lived within my own family, and left it much more wealthy than I found it. Rhadamanthus, who knew the value of the old lady, fmiled upon her in fuch a manner, that the keeper of Elyfium, who knew his office, reached out his hand to her. He no fooner touched her, but her wrinkles vanished, her eyes fparkled, her cheeks glowed with blushes, and the appeared in full bloom and beauty. A young woman obferving that this officer, who conducted the happy to Elyfium, was fo great a beautifier, longed to be in his hands; fo that prefling through the crowd, fhe was the next that appeared at the bar. And being asked what the had been doing the five-and-twenty years that he had paffed in the world? I have endeavoured, fays fhe, ever fince I came to years of difcretion, to make myself lovely, and gain admirers. In order to it, I paffed my time in bottling up May-dew, inventing white washes, mixing colours, cutting out patches, confulting my glafs, fuiting my complexion, tearing off my tucker, finking my ftays Rhadamanthus, without hearing her out, gave the fign to take her

off. Upon the approach of the keeper of Erebus, her colour faded, her face was puckered up with wrinkles, and her whole perfon loft in deformity.

I was then furprifed with a diftant found of a whole troop of females, that came forward laughing, finging, and dancing. I was very defirous to know the reception they would meet with, and withal was very apprehenfive, that Rhadamanthus would fpoil their mirth: But at their nearer approach the noile grew fo very great that it awakened me.

I lay fome time, reflecting in myself on the odduefs of this dream, and could not forbear afking my own heart, what I was doing? I anfwered myfelf that I was writing Guardians. If my readers make as good a ufe of this work as I defign they fhould, I hope it will never be imputed to me as a work that is vain and unprofitable.

I fhall conclude this paper with recommending to them the fame short self-examination. If every one of them frequently lays his hand upon his heart, and confiders what he is doing, it will check him in all the idle, or, what is worfe, the vicious moments of life, lift up his mind when it is running on in a feries of indifferent actions, and encourage him when he is engaged in thofe which are virtuous and laudable. In a word, it will very much alleviate that guilt which the best of men have reafon to acknowledge in their daily confeffions, of leaving undone thofe things which they ought to have done, and of doing thofe things which they ought not to have done.' Guardian.

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§ 16. A Korvledge of the Ufe and Value of

Time very important to Youth.

There is nothing which I more wifh that you fhould know, and which fewer people do know, than the true ufe and value of time. It is in every body's mouth; but in few people's practice. Every fool who flatterns away his whole time in nothings, utters, however, fome trite common-place fentence, of which there are millions, to prove, at once, the value and the fleetness of time. The fun-dials, likewife, all over Europe, have fome ingenious infcription to that effect; fo that nobody fquanders away their time, without hearing and feeing, daily, how neceffary it is to employ it well, and how irrecoverable it is if loft. But all thefe admonitions are ufelefs, where there is not a fund of good fenfe and rea

for

fon to fuggeft them, rather than receive them. By the manner in which you now tell me that you employ your time, I flatter myelf, that you have that fund: that is the fund which will make you rich indeed. I do not, therefore, mean to give you a critical effay upon the ufe and abafe of time; I will only give you fome hints, with regard to the ute of one particular period of that long time which, I hope, you have before you; I mean the next two years. Remember then, that whatever knowledge you do not fondly lay the foundation of before you are eighteen, you wil never be mafter of while you breathe. Knowledge is a comfortable and neceffary retreat and shelter for us in an advanced

age; and if we do not plant it while young, it will give us no fhade when we grow old. I neither require nor expect from you great application to books, after you are once thrown out into the great world. I know it is impoffible; and it may even, in fme cafes, be improper: this, therefore, is your time, and your only time, for unwearied and uninterrupted application. If you should fometimes think it a little labericas, confider, that labour is the unavelable fatigue of a neceffary journey. The more hours a day you travel, the fconer you will be at your journey's end. The toner you are qualified for your liberty, the iooner you fhall have it; and your manumiffion will entirely depend upon the man er in which you employ the intermediate ume. I think I offer you a very good bargain, when I promise you, upon my werd, that, if you will do every thing that I would have you do, till you are ghteen, I will do every thing that you would have me do, ever afterwards.

Lord Chesterfield.

§ 17. On a lazy and trifling Difpofition. There are two forts of understandings; one of which hinders a man from ever being confiderable, and the other commonly makes him ridiculous; I mean the lazy mind, and the trifling frivolous mind. Yours, I hope, is neither. The lazy mind will not take the trouble of going to the bottom of any thing; but, difcouraged by the first difficulties, (and every thing worth knowing or having is attended with fome) ftops fhort, contents itself with eafy, and, confequently, fuperficial knowledge, and prefers a great degree of ignorance, to a fmall degree of trouble. Thefe people sither think, or reprefent, moft things as

impoffible; whereas few things are fo to industry and activity. But difficulties feem to them impoflibilities, or at least they pretend to think them fo, by way of excufe for their laziness. An hour's attention to the fame object is too laborious for them; they take every thing in the light in which it at firit prefents itfelf, never confider it in all its different views; and, in short, never think it thorough. The confequence of this is, that when they come to speak upon thefe fubjects before people who have confidered them with attention, they only difcover their own ignorance and laziness, and lay themselves open to answers that put them in confufion.

Do not then be difcouraged by the first difficulties, but contra audentior ito: and refolve to go to the bottom of all those things, which every gentleman ought to know well. Thofe arts or fciences, which are peculiar to certain profeffions, need not be deeply known by those who are not intended for thofe profeffions. As, for inftance, fortification and navigation; of both which, a fuperficial and general knowledge, fuch as the common courfe of converfation, with a very little enquiry on your part, will give you, is fufficient. Though, by the way, a little more knowledge of fortification may be of fome ufe to you; as the events of war, in fieges, make many of the terms of that fcience occur frequently in common converfations; and one would be forry to fay, like the Marquis de Mafcarille, in Moliere's Précieufes Ridicules, when he hears of une demie Lune: Ma foi, c'étoit bien une Lune toute entiere. But thofe things which every gentleman, independently of profeffion, fhould know, he ought to know well, and dive into all the depths of them. Such are languages, history, and geography, ancient and modern; philofophy, rational logic, rhetoric; and for you particularly, the conftitutions, and the civil and military ftate of every country in Europe. This, I confefs, is a pretty large circle of knowledge, attended with fome difficulties, and requiring fome trouble, which, however, an active and industrious mind will overcome, and be amply repaid.

The trifling and frivolous mind is always bufied, but to little purpofe; it takes little objects for great ones, and throws away upon trifles that time and attention which only important things deferve. Knickknacks, butterflies, fhells, infects, &c. are the objects of their molt ferious researches.

They

They contemplate the drefs, not the characters, of the company they keep. They attend more to the decorations of a play, than to the fenfe of it; and to the ceremonies of a court, more than to its politics. Such an employment of time is an abfolute lofs of it. Lord Chesterfield's Letters.

18. The bad Effects of Indolence.

No other difpofition, or turn of mind, fo totally unfits a man for all the focial offices of life, as Indolence. An idle man is a mere blank in the creation: he feems made for no end, and lives to no purpofe. He cannot engage himself in any employment or profeffion, because he will never have diligence enough to follow it: he can fucceed in no undertaking, for he will never purfue it; he must be a bad husband, father, and relation, for he will not take the leaft pains to preferve his wife, children, and family, from starving; and he must be a worthlefs friend, for he would not draw his hand from his bofom, though to prevent the deftruction of the univerfe. If he is born poor, he will remain fo all his life, which he will probably end in a ditch, or at the gallows if he embarks in trade, he will be a bankrupt and if he is a perfon of fortune, his ftewards will acquire immenfe eftates, and he himself perhaps will die in the Fleet.

It fhould be confidered, that nature did not bring us into the world in a state of perfection, but has left us in a capacity of improvement; which fhould feem to intimate, that we should labour to render ourfelves excellent. Very few are fuch abfolute idiots, as not to be able to become at leaft decent, if not eminent, in their feveral ftations, by unwearied and keen application: nor are there any poffeffed of fuch tranfcendent genius and abilities, as to render all pains and diligence unnecef. fary. Perleverance will overcome diffi. culties, which at first appear infuperable; and it is amazing to confider, how great and numerous obitacles may be removed by a continual attention to any particular point. I will not mention here, the trite example of Demofthenes, who got over the greatest natural impediments to oratory, but content myself with a more modern and familiar inftance. Being at Sadier's Wells a few nights ago, I could not but admire the furprising feats of activity there exhibited; and at the fame time reflected, what incredible pains and labour it must

have coft the performers to arrive at the art of writhing their bodies into fuch various and unnatural contortions. But I was most taken with the ingenious artist, who, after fixing two bells to each foot, the fame number to each hand, and with great propriety placing a cap and bells on his head, played feveral tunes, and went through as regular triple peals and bobmajors, as the boys of Chrift-church Hofpital; all which he effected by the due jerking of his arms and legs, and nodding his head backward and forward. If this artist had taken equal pains to employ his head in another way, he might perhaps have been as deep a proficient in numbers as Jedediah Buxton, or at least a tolerable modern rhymer, of which he is now no bad emblem: and if our fine ladies would use equal diligence, they might fashion their minds as fuccefsfully, as Madam Catharina diforts her body.

There is not in the world a more useless, idle animal, than he who contents himself with being merely a gentleman. He has an eftate, therefore he will not endeavour to acquire knowledge: he is not to labour in any vocation, therefore he will do nothing. But the misfortune is, that there is no fuch thing in nature as a negative virtue, and that abfolute idleness is impracticable. He, who does no good, will certainly do mifchief; and the mind, if it is not ftored with useful knowledge, will neceffarily become a magazine of nonfenfe and trifles. Wherefore a gentleman, though he is not obliged to rife to open his fhop, or work at his trade, fhould always find fome ways of employing his time to advantage. If he makes no advances in wisdom, he will become more and more a flave to folly; and he that does nothing, because he has nothing to do, will become vicious and abandoned, or, at best, ridiculous and contemptible.

I do not know a more melancholy object, than a man of an honeft heart, and fine natural abilities, whofe good qualities are thus destroyed by indolence. Such a perfon is a conitant plague to all his friends and acquaintance, with all the means in his power of adding to their happiness; and fuffers himself to take rank among the lowest characters, when he might render himfelf confpicuous among the higheft. Nobody is more univerfally beloved and more univerfally avoided, than my friend Carelefs. He is an humane man, who never did a beneficent action, and a man

of

of unfhaken integrity, on whom it is impoffible to depend. With the best head, and the best heart, he regulates his conduct in the most abfurd manner, and frequently injures his friends; for whoever neglects to do juftice to himself, muft inevitably wrong thofe with whom he is connested; and it is by no means a true maxim, that an idle man hurts nobody but himfelf.

Virtue then is not to be confidered in the light of mere innocence, or abstaining from harm; but as the exertion of our faculties in doing good: as Titus, when he had let a day flip undiflinguifhed by fome act of virtue, cried out, I have loft a day. If we regard our time in this light, how many days fhall we look back upon as irretrievably loft! and to how narrow a compafs would fuch a method of calculation frequently reduce the longeft life! If we were to number our days, according as we have applied them to virtue, it would occafion ftrange revolutions in the manner of reckoning the ages of Men. We should fee fome few arrived to a good old age in the prime of their youth, and meet with feveral young fellows of fourfcore.

Agreeable to this way of thinking, I remember to have met with the epitaph of an aged man four years old; dating his existence from the time of his reformation from evil courfes. The infcriptions on moft tomb-ftones commemorate no acts of virtue performed by the perfons who lie under them, but only record, that they were born one day, and died another. But I would fain have thofe people, whofe lives have been useless, rendered of fome fervice after their deaths, by affording leffons of inftruction and morality to thofe they leave behind them. Wherefore I could with, that, in every parish, feveral acres were marked out for a new and fpacious burying-ground: in which every perfon, whole remains are there depofited, should have a fmall ftone laid over them, reckoning their age, according to the manner in which they have improved or abufed the time allotted them in their lives. In fuch circumftances, the plate on a coffin might be the highest panegyric which the deceafed could receive; and a little fquare ftone, infcribed with Ob. Ann. Eta. 80, would be a nobler eulogium, than all the lapidary adulation of modern epitaphs.

Connoiffeur.

$ 19. The innocent Pleafures of Childhood.

As it is ufual with me to draw a fecret unenvied pleafure from a thousand incidents overlooked by other men, I threw myself into a fhort transport, forgetting my age, and fancying mytelf a fchool-boy.

This imagination was ftrongly favoured by the prefence of fo many young boys, in whofe looks were legible the fprightly paflions of that age, which raised in ine a fort of fympathy. Warm blood thrilled through every vein; the faded memory of thofe enjoyments that once gave me pleasure, put on more lively colours, and a thoufand gay amufements filled my mind.

It was not without regret, that I was forfaken by this waking dream. The cheapnefs of puerile delights, the guiltless joy they leave upon the mind, the blooming hopes that lift up the foul in the afcent of life, the pleasure that attends the gradual opening of the imagination, and the dawn of realon, made me think most men found that ftage the molt agreeable part of their journey.

When men come to riper years, the innocent diverfions which exalted the spirits, and produced health of body, indolence of mind, and refreshing flumbers, are too often exchanged for criminal delights, which fill the foul with anguifh, and the body with difeafe. The grateful employment of admiring and raining themfelves to an imitation of the polite file, beautiful images, and noble fentiments of ancient authors, is abandoned for law-latin, the lucubrations of our paltry news-mongers, and that fwarm of vile pamphlets which corrupt our tafte, and infeft the public. The ideas of virtue which the characters of heroes had imprinted on their minds, infenfibly wear out, and they come to be influenced by the nearer examples of a degenerate age.

In the morning of life, when the foul first makes her entrance into the world, all things look fresh and gay; their novelty furprizes, and every little glitter or gaudy colour tranfports the stranger. But by degrees the fenfe grows callous, and we lote that exquifite relifh of trifles, by the time our minds fhould be fuppofed ripe for rational entertainments. I cannot make this reflection without being touched with a commiferation of that fpecies called beaus, the happinefs of thofe men neceffarily ter

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