We have lefs reafon to be furprised or offended when we find others differ from us in opinion, because we very often differ from ourfelves. How often we alter our minds, we do not always remark; because the change is fometimes made imperceptibly and gradually, and the laft conviction effaces all memory of the former: yet every man, accustomed from time to time to take a furvey of his own notions, will by a flight retrospection be able to discover, that his mind has fuffered many revolutions; that the fame things have in the several parts of his life been condemned and approved, purfued and fhunned: and that on many occafions, even when his practice has been steady, his mind has been wavering, and he has perfifted in a scheme of action, rather because he feared the cenfure of inconftancy, than because he was always pleased with his own choice.

Of the different faces fhewn by the fame objects as they are viewed on oppofite fides, and of the dif ferent inclinations which they must conftantly raise in him that contemplates them, a more striking example cannot easily be found than two Greek epigrammatifts will afford us in their accounts of human life, which I fhall lay before the reader in English profe.

Pofidippus, a comick poet, utters this complaint; Through which of the paths of life is it eligible "to pafs? In publick affemblies are debates and "troublesome affairs: domeftick privacies are haunt"ed with anxieties; in the country is labour; on "the fea is terror: in a foreign land, he that has money must live in fear, he that wants it must "pine in diftrefs; are you married? you are trou

"bled

the

advice quon To Midis in

the forest

"bled with fufpicions; are you fingle? you languish "in folitude; children occafion toil, and a childless "life is a fate of deftitution; the time of youth

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in a time of folly, and grey hairs are loaded with infirmity. This choice only, therefore, can be "made, either never to receive being, or immediately to lofe it."

Such and fo gloomy is the profpect, which Pofidippus has laid before us. But we are not to acquiefce too haftily in his determination against the value of exiftence for Metrodorus, a philofopher of Athens, has fhewn, that life has pleafures as well as pains; and having exhibited the prefent ftate of man in brighter colours, draws with equal appearance of reafon, a contrary conclufion.

"You may pass well through any of the paths of "life. In publick affemblies are honours and tranf"actions of wisdom; in domeftick privacy is ftill"nefs and quiet in the country are the beauties of nature; on the fea is the hope of gain; in a foreign land, he that is rich is honoured, he that is poor may keep his poverty fecret; are you married? <6 you have a cheerful houfe; are you fingle? you are "unincumbered; children are objects of affection, to "be without children is to be without care: the time "of youth is the time of vigour, and grey hairs are "made venerable by piety. It will, therefore, never "be a wife man's choice, either not to obtain ex"istence, or to lose it; for every state of life has its felicity."

In thefe epigrams are included most of the queftions which have engaged the fpeculations of the enquirers after happiness; and though they will

not

not much affift our determinations, they may, perhaps, equally promote our quiet, by fhewing that no abfolute determination ever can be formed.

Whether a publick station, or pivate life be defirable, has always been debated, We fee here both the allurements and difcouragements of civil employments: on one fide there is trouble, on the other honour; the management of affairs is vexatious and difficult, but it is the only duty in which wisdom can be confpicuously displayed: it must then ftill be left to every man to choose either ease or glory; nor can any general precept be given, fince no man can be happy by the prescription of another.

Thus, what is faid of children by Pofidippus," that "they are occafions of fatigue," and by Metrodorus, "that they are objects of affection," is equally certain; but whether they will give most pain or pleasure, muft depend on their future conduct and difpofitions, on many caufes over which the parent can have little influence: there is, therefore, room for all the caprices of imagination, and defire must be proportioned to the hope or fear that fhall happen to predominate.

Such is the uncertainty in which we are always likely to remain with regard to questions, wherein we have most interest, and which every day affords us fresh opportunity to examine: we may examine, in-deed, but we never can decide, because our faculties are unequal to the subject: we see a little, and form an opinion; we see more, and change it.

This inconftancy and unfteadinefs, to which we must so often find ourselves liable, ought certainly to teach us moderation and forbearance towards

thofe

those who cannot accommodate themselves to our fentiments if they are deceived, we have no right to attribute their mistake to obftinacy or negligence, because we likewife have been miftaken; we may, perhaps, again change our own opinion; and what excufe fhall we be able to find for averfion and malignity conceived against him, whom we shall then find to have committed no fault, and who offended us only by refufing to follow us into error?

It may likewife contribute to foften that refentment which pride naturally raises against oppofition, if we confider, that he who differs from us, does not always contradict us; he has one view of an object, and we have another; each describes what he fees with equal fidelity, and each regulates his fteps by his own eyes: one man, with Pofidippus, looks on celibacy as a state of gloomy folitude, without a partner in joy, or a comforter in forrow; the other confiders it, with Metrodorus, as a ftate free from incumbrances, in which a man is at liberty to choose his own gratifications, to remove from place to place in queft of pleasure, and to think of nothing but merriment and diverfion: full of thefe notions one haftens to choose a wife, and the other laughs at his rafhnefs, or pities his ignorance; yet it is poffible that each is right, but that each is right only for himself.

Life is not the object of fcience: we fee a little, very little; and what is beyond we only can conjecture. If we enquire of thofe who have gone before us, we receive fmall fatisfaction; fome have travelled life without obfervation, and fome willingly mislead us. The only thought, therefore, on which we can

repofe

repofe with comfort, is that which prefents to us the care of Providence, whofe eye takes in the whole of things, and under whofe direction all involuntary errors will terminate in happiness.

NUMB. 108. SATURDAY, November 17, 1753.

Nobis, cum fimul occidit brevis lux,
Nox eft perpetuo una dormienda.

When once the short-liv'd mortal dies,

A night eternal feals his eyes.

CATULLUS.

ADDISON.

IT may have been obferved by every reader, that

there are certain topicks which never are exhausted. Of fome images and fentiments the mind of man may be faid to be enamoured; it meets them, however often they occur, with the fame ardour which a lover feels at the fight of his mistress, and parts from them with the fame regret when they can no longer be enjoyed.

Of this kind are many defcriptions which the poets have transcribed from each other, and their fucceffors will probably copy to the end of time; which will continue to engage, or as the French term it, to flatter the imagination, as long as human nature shall remain the fame.

When a poet mentions the fpring, we know that the 'zephyrs are about to whisper, that the groves are to recover their verdure, the linnets to warble forth their notes of love, and the flocks and herds

to