it where there is a road, or where there is none; he trespasses without scruple, either on the forbidden ground of private property, or on those bye-paths where there is no legal thoroughfare; what he cannot reach over, he will overreach, and those obstacles he cannot surmount by climbing, he will undermine by creeping, quite regardless of the filth that may stick to him in the scramble. The consequence is that he frequently overtakes the honest man, and passes by him with a sneer. What then shall we say, that the rogue has more talent than the upright, let us rather say that he has less. For wisdom is nothing more than judgment exercised on the true value of things that are desirable; but of things in themselves desirable, those are the most so that remain the longest. Let us therefore mark the end of these things, and we shall come to one conclusion, the fiat of the tribunal both of God and of man ;-That honesty is not only the deepest policy, but the highest wisdom; since however difficult it may be for integrity to get on, it is a thousand times more difficult for knavery to get off; and no error is more fatal than that of those who think that virtue has no other reward, because they have heard that she is her own.

LVIII.

IN all civilized communities, there must of necessity exist a small portion of society, who are in a great measure independent of public opinion. How then is this seeming advantage balanced in the great account? These privileged individuals surrounded by parasites, sycophants, and deceivers, too often become the willing victims of self-delusion, flattery, or design. Such persons commence by being their own masters, and finish by being their own slaves, the automata of passion, the Heliogaboli of excess, and the martyrs of disease. Undelighted amidst all delight, and joyless amidst all enjoyment, yet sateless in the very lap of satiety, they eventually receive the full measure of the punishment of their folly, their profligacy, or their vice; nay, they often suffer more than other men, not because they

are as amenable as their inferiors, but because they go greater lengths. Experience speaks to such in vain, and they sink deeper in the abyss, in precise proportion to the height from which they have plunged.

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LIX.

IT has been said, that we are much deceived, when we fancy that we can do without the world," and still more so when we presume that the world cannot do without us. Against the truth of the latter part of the proposition I have nothing to depose; but, to return to the first feature of the proposition, quoted above, I am inclined to think that we are independent, very much in proportion to the preference we give to intellectual and mental pleasures, and enjoyments, over those that are sensual, and corporeal. It is unfortunate, that although affluence cannot give this kind of independence, yet that poverty should have a tendency to withhold it, not indeed altogether, but in part. For it is not a more unusual sight to see a poor man who thinks, acts, and speaks for himself, than to see a rich man, who performs all these important functions at the will of another; and the only polite phrase I know of, which often means more than it says, is that which has been adopted as the conclusion of our epistles; where for the word servant might not unfrequently be substituted, that of slave.

LX.

IT is astonishing how parturescent is evil, and with what incestuous fertility the whole family of vice increase and multiply, by cohabiting amongst themselves. Thus if kings are tyrannical and oppressive, it is too often because subjects are servile and corrupt; in proportion to the cowardice of the ruled, is the cruelty of the ruler, and if he govern by threats and by bribes, rather than by justice and by mercy, it is because fear has a stronger influence over the base than love, and gain more weight with the mercenary,

than gratitude. Thus the gladiatorial shews of ancient Rome, brought upon the institutors of them, their own punishment; for cruelty begat cruelty. The tyrant exercised those barbarities on the people, which the people exercised upon the prisoner, and the slave; the physical value of man fell with his moral, and a contempt for the lives of others, was bred in all, by a familiarity with blood.

LXI.

AS we cannot judge of the motion of the earth, by any thing within the earth, but by some radiant and celestial point that is beyond it, so the wicked by comparing themselves with the wicked, perceive not how far they are advanced in their iniquity; to know precisely what lengths they have gone, they must fix their attention on some bright and exalted character that is not of them, but above them. When all' moves equally (says Paschal) nothing seems to move, as in a vessel under sail; and when all run by common consent into vice, none appear to do so. He that stops first, views as from a fixed point the horrible extravagance that transports the rest.

LXII.

THERE are two questions, one of which is the most important, and the other the most interesting that can possibly be proposed in language; Are we to live after death? and if we are-in what state? These are questions confined to no climate, creed, or community; the savage is as deeply interested in them as the sage, and they are of equal import under every meridian where there are men. I shall offer some considerations that have been decisive with me, on a subject that might well warrant a much larger demand than I shall make on the patience of my readers. Those who agree with me in drawing their hopes of immortality from the purest and the highest source, will not be offended at an

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attempt to show, that on this most momentous question, the voice of reason re-echoes back the truths of Revelation, and that the calmest assent of philosophy coincides with the firmest conviction of faith. Many causes are now conspiring to increase the trunk of infidelity, but materialism is the main root of them all. Are we to live after death? and if we are, in what state? The second question evidently depends upon the first, for he that feels no conviction as to the certainty of a future life, will not be over-solicitous as to the condition of it; for to common minds the greatest things are diminished by distance, and they become evanescent, if to that distance be added doubt. But should the doubt of futurity introduce the denial of it, what must then be the result? all that endears us to our fellow men, and all that exalts us above them, will be swallowed up and lost, in the paltriness of the present, and the nothingness of now. The interests of

society demand that a belief in a future state should be general; the probability of such a state, is confirmed by reason, and its certainty is affirmed by Revelation. I shall confine myself altogether to such proofs as philosophy and reason afford, and in so doing, I shall attack neither motives nor men. But if an argument can be proved to be false in its premises, absurd in its conclusions, and calamitous in its consequences, it must fall; we cannot desire it, because it has nothing to allure, and we cannot believe it, because it has nothing to convince.

The analogical method of proof has very lately been

Analogy is a powerful weapon, and like all instruments of that kind, is extremely dangerous in unskilful hands. The grounds of probability which this mode of reasoning affords, will be more or less firm in proportion to the length, the frequency, and the constancy, of the recurrence of the phænomena, on which the analogy itself is built. In some cases analogical proof may rise almost to mathematical certainty, as, when from the undeviating experience of the past, we anticipate the future, and affirm that the sun will rise to-morrow. On other occasions, where the phænomena have occurred at long and broken intervals, and with no regard to dates or periods, the analogical presumption of their recurrence will mount no higher than the lowest stage of proba

resuscitated for the purpose of destroying the immortality of the soul. A bold and fresh attempt has been made to convert analogy into the As T T of materialism, by the help of which, as by a lever, the Archimedes of scepticism may be enabled to overturn, not earth indeed, but heaven! Analogy has in fact supplied the first stone of the foundation, and that alone; but infidelity has reared the superstructure, with an industry as fertile of resource, and we might add, of invention, as that of the children of Israel, who continued to deliver in the tale of bricks, after the materials were denied. As much talent has been displayed in the support of these opiinons which I am contributing my efforts to controvert, and as some of the positions on which the inferences are built, will be conceded, I think it right to commence, by observing, that falsehood is never so successful as when she baits her hook with truth, and that no opinions so fatally mislead us, as those that are not wholly wrong, as no watches so effectually deceive the wearer, as those that are sometimes right,

The argument I contend against is this: "The mind,” (we are told)" is infantile with the body, manly in the adult, sick and debilitated by disease, enfeebled in the decline of life, doting in decrepitude, and annihilated by death." Now it so happens that out of all the positions which make the links in this formidable analogical chain, the first alone is universally true, and disturbed by no exceptions; the intermediate links are sometimes right, and sometimes wrong, and the last is mere assertion, wholly unsupported by proof. The unibility, and will in no way affect the common concerns and business of life. It is on this principle that the inhabitants of Lisbon sleep securely in their beds, without any very disturbing perplexities on the probabilities of an earthquake. Where the phænomena occur with regularity, as in eclipses, mere distance of time does by no means invalidate the analogical proof, save and except that in consequence of the shortness of life, the verification of such phænomena, must be matter of testimony, rather than of experience. So powerful, however, is analogy, that in most disputes it has been courted as an ally by both parties; it has even sent arguments, as Switzerland troops, to both sides, and its artillery has at times by both been overcharged, until it has reacted upon themselves.