with the most vigilant caution may guard against dangers on But fome unforeseen occurrence comes across, every fide. which baffles our wifdom, and lays our labours in the duft.

Were fuch disappointments confined to those who afpire at engroffing the higher departments of life, the misfortune would be lefs. The humiliation of the mighty, and the fall of ambition from its towering height, little concern the bulk of mankind. Thefe are objects on which, as on diftant meteors, they gaze from afar, without drawing perfonal inftruction from events fo much above them. But, alas! when we descend into the regions of private life, we find disappointment and blafted hope equally prevalent there. Neither the moderation of our views, nor the juftice of our pretenfions, can ensure success. "But "time and chance happen to all." Against the stream of events, both the worthy and the undeferving are obliged to ftruggle; and both are frequently overborne alike by the current.

mer.

Befides difappointment in pursuit, diffatisfaction in enjoyment is a farther vanity, to which the human ftate is subject. This is the fevereft of all mortifications, after having been fuccessful in the purfuit, to be baffled in the enjoyment itself. Yet this is found to be an evil ftill more general than the forSome may be fo fortunate as to attain what they have pursued; but none are rendered completely happy by what they have attained. Difappointed hope is mifery; and yet fuccefsiul hope is only imperfect blifs. Look through all the ranks of mankind. Examine the condition of those who appear most profperous; and you will find that they are never just what they defire to be. If retired, they languish for action; if busy, they complain of fatigue. If in middle life, they are impatient for distinction; if in high stations, they. figh after freedom and ease. Something is ftill wanting to that plenitude of fatisfaction, which they expected to acquire. Together with every with that is gratified, a new demand arifes.. One void opens in the heart, as another is filled. On wifhes, wifhes grow; and to the end, it is rather the expectation of what they have not, than the enjoyment of what they have, which occupies and interefts the most successful. This diffatisfaction in the midst of human pleasure, fprings partly from the nature of our enjoyments themselves, and

partly from circumftances which corrupt them. No worldly enjoyments are adequate to the high defires and powers of an immortal spirit. Fancy paints them at a distance with fplendid colours; but poffeffion unveils the fallacy. The eagernefs of paffion bestows upon them, at first, a brisk and lively relish. But it is their fate always to pall by familiarity, and sometimes to pafs from fatiety into difguft. Happy would the poor man think himself, if he could enter on all the treafures of the rich; and happy for a fhort time he might be : but before he had long contemplated and admired his ftate, his poffeffions would feem to leffen, and his cares would grow. Add to the unfatisfying nature of cur pleasures, the attending circumftances which never fail to corrupt them. For, fuch as they are, they are at no time poffeffed unmixed. To human lips it is not given to taste the cup of pure joy. When external circumftances fhow faireft to the world, the envied man groans in private under his own burden. Some, vexation difquiets, fome paffion corrodes him ; fome distress, either felt or feared, gnaws, like a worm, the root of his felicity. When there is nothing from without to disturb the profperous, a fecret poifon operates within. For worldly happinefs ever tends to destroy itself, by corrupting the heart. It fofters the loofe and the violent paffions. It engenders noxious habits, and taints the mind with falfe delicacy, which makes it feel a thousand unreal evils.

But put the cafe in the most favourable light. Lay afide from human pleafures both difappointment in purfuit, and deceitfulness in enjoyment; fuppofe them to be fully attainable, and completely fatisfactory; ftill there remains to be confidered the vanity of uncertain poffeffion and short duration. Were there in worldly things any fixed point of security which we could gain, the mind would then have fome bafis on which to reft. But our condition is fuch, that every thing wavers and totters around us. "Boaft not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knoweft not what a day may bring forth." It is much if, during its courfe, thou hearest not of fomewhat to difquiet or alarm thee. For life never proceeds long in a uniform train. It is continually varied by unexpected events. The feeds of alteration are every where fown; and the funfhine of profperity commonly accelerates

their growth. If our enjoyments be numerous, we lie more open on different fides to be wounded. If we have poffeffed them long, we have greater cause to dread an approaching change. By flow degrees profperity rifes; but rapid is the progrefs of evil. It requires no preparation to bring it forward. The edifice which it cost much time and labour to erect, one inaufpicious event, one fudden blow can level with the duft. Even fuppofing the accidents of life to leave us untouched, human blifs muft ftill be tranfitory; for man changes of himfelf. No courfe of enjoyment can delight us long. What amused our youth, loofes its charm in maturer age. As years advance, our powers are blunted, and our pleasurable feelings decline. The filent lapfe of time is ever carrying fomewhat from us, till at length the period comes, when all will be fwept away. The profpect of this termination of our labours and purfuits, is fufficient to mark our ftate with vanity. "Our days are a hand breadth, and our age is as nothing." Within that little space is all our enterprise bounded. We crowd it with toils and cares, with contention and ftrife. We project great defigns, entertain high hopes, and then leave our plans unfinished, and fink into oblivion.

This much let it fuffice to have faid concerning the vanity of the world. That too much has not been said, muft appear to every one who confiders how generally mankind lean to the oppofite fide; and how often, by undue attachment to the present ftate, they both feed the most finful paffions, and "pierce themselves through with many forrows."

SECTION XIX.

BLAIR.

What are the Real and Solid Enjoyments of Human Life. Ir must be admitted, that unmixed and complete happiness is unknown on earth. No regulation of conduct can altogether prevent paffions from difturbing our peace, and misfortunes from wounding our heart. But after this con

ceffion is made, will it follow, that there is no object on earth which deferves our purfuit, or that all enjoyment becomes contemptible which is not perfect? Let us furvey our state with an impartial eye, and be juft to the various gifts of

Heaven. How vain foever this life, confidered in itself, may be, the comforts and hopes of religion are fufficient to give folidity to the enjoyments of the righteous. In the exercise of good affections, and the teftimony of an approving conscience; in the fenfe of peace and reconciliation with God, through the great Redeemer of mankind; in the firm confidence of being conducted through all the trials of life, by Infinite Wisdom and Goodness; and in the joyful profpect of arriving, in the end, at immortal felicity, they poffefs a happiness which, defcending from a purer and more perfect region than this world, partakes not of its vanity.

Befides the enjoyments peculiar to religion, there are other pleasures of our prefent ftate, which, though of an inferior order, must not be overlooked in the estimate of human life. It is neceffary to call attention to thefe, in order to check that repining and unthankful spirit to which man is always too prone. Some degree of importance must be allowed to the comforts of health, to the innocent gratifications of fenfe, and to the entertainment afforded us by all the beautiful scenes of nature; fome to the purfuits and harmless amusements of focial life; and more to the internal enjoyments of thought and reflection, and to the pleasures of affectionate intercourfe with thofe whom we love. Thefe comforts are often held in too low eftimation, merely because they are ordinary and common; although that is the circumftance which ought, in reason, to enhance their value. They lie open, in fome degree, to all; extend through every rank of life, and fill up agreeably many of thofe fpaces in our prefent existence, which are not occupied with higher objects, or with ferious cares.

From this reprefentation it appears that, notwithstanding the vanity of the world, a confiderable degree of comfort is attainable in the present state. Let the recollection of this ferve to reconcile us to our condition, and to reprefs the arrogance of complaints and murmurs. What art thou, O fon of man! who, having fprung but yesterday out of the duft, dareft to lift up thy voice against thy Maker, and to arraign his Providence, because all things are not ordered according to thy with? What title haft thou to find fault with the order of the univerfe, whofe lot is fo much beyond what thy

virtue or merit gave thee ground to claim? Is it nothing to thee to have been introduced into this magnificent world; to have been admitted as a spectator of the divine wisdom and works; and to have had access to all the comforts which nature, with a bountiful hand, has poured forth around thee? Are all the hours forgotten which thou haft paffed in ease, in complacency, or joy? Is it a fmall favour in thy eyes, that the hand of Divine Mercy has been ftretched forth to aid thee; and, if thou reject not its proffered affiftance, is ready to conduct thee into a happier ftate of existence? When thou compareft thy condition with thy defert, blufh, and be afhamed of thy complaints. Be filent, be grateful, and adore. Receive with thankfulness the bleffings which are allowed thee. Revere that government which at prefent refuses thee more. Reft in this conclufion, that though there are evils in the world, its Creator is wife and good, and has been bountiful

to thee.

BLAIR.

SECTION XX.

Scale of Beings.

Though there is a great deal of pleafure in contemplating the material world; by which I mean, that fyftem of bodies, into which nature has fo curioufly wrought the mafs of dead matter, with the feveral relations that thofe bodies bear to one another; there is ftill, methinks, fomething more wonderful and furprifing, in contemplations on the world of life; by which I understand, all thofe animals with which every part of the universe is furnished. The material world is only the fhell of the univerfe: the world of life are its inhabitants.

If we confider thofe parts of the material world, which lie the nearest to us, and are therefore fubject to our obfervations and inquiries, it is amazing to confider the infinity of animals with which it is stocked. Every part of matter is peopled ; every green leaf fwarms with inhabitants. There is fcarcely a fingle humour in the body of a man, or of any other animal, in which our glaffes do not discover myriads of living We find even in the moft folid bodies, as in marble itself, innumerable cells and cavities, which are crowded with fuch imperceptible inhabitants, as are too little for the naked eye to difcover. On the other hand, if we look into

creatures.