here the most dangerous, and the people instead of helping us, misguide us. Let us not therefore follow, like beasts, but rather govern ourselves by reason, than by example.

4 It fares with us in human life as in a routed army; one stumbles first, and then another falls upon him, and so they follow, one upon the neck of another, until the whole field comes to be but one heap of miscarriages.

5 And the mischief is, "that the number of the multitude carries it against truth and justice;" so that we must leave the crowd if we would be happy: for the question of a happy life is not to be decided by vote: nay, so far from it, that plurality of voices is still an argument of the wrong; the common people find it easier to believe than to judge, and content themselves with what is usual, never examining whether it be good or not.

6 By the common people is intended the man of title as well as the clouted shoe: for I do not distinguish them by the eye, but by the mind, which is the proper judge of the

man.

"True

7 The true felicity of life is to be free from perturbations; to understand our duties toward God and man: to enjoy the present without any anxious dependence upon the future. The great blessings of mankind are within us, and within our reach; but we shut our eyes, and, like people in the dark, we fall foul upon the very thing we search for without finding it. 8 "Tranquillity is a certain equality of mind, which no condition of fortune can either exalt or depress." joy is a serene and sober motion;" and they are miserably out that take laughing for rejoicing. The seat of it is within, and there is no cheerfulness like the resolution of a brave mind, that has fortune under his feet. He that can look death in the face, and bid it welcome; open his door to poverty, and bridle his appetites; this is the man whom Providence has established in the possession of inviolable delights. The pleasures of the vulgar are ungrounded, thin, and superficial; but the other are solid and eternal.

9 As the body itself is rather a necessary thing than a great; so the comforts of it are but temporary and vain; beside that, without extraordinary moderation, their end is only pain and repentance; whereas, a peaceful conscience, honest thoughts, virtuous actions, and an indifference for casual events, are blessings without end, satiety, or measure.

10 This consummated state of felicity is only a submission to the dictate of right nature; "The foundation of it is wis

dom and virtue; the knowledge of what we ought to do, and the conformity of the will to that knowledge.'

SECTION III.

Human happiness is founded upon wisdom and virtue.

1 Taking for granted that human happiness is founded upon wisdom and virtue, we shall treat of these two points in order as they lie; and, first, of wisdom; not in the latitude of its various operations, but as it has only a regard to a good life, and the happiness of mankind.

2 Wisdom is a right understanding, a faculty of discerning good from evil; what is to be chosen, and what rejected; a judgment grounded upon the value of things, and not the common opinion of them; an equality of force, and a strength of resolution. It sets a watch over our words and deeds, it takes us up with the contemplation of the works of nature, and makes us invincible to either good or evil fortune.

3 It is the habit of a perfect mind, and the perfection of humanity, raised as high as nature can carry it. It differs from philosophy, as avarice and money; the one desires, and the other is desired; the one is the effect and the reward of the other. To be wise is the use of wisdom, as seeing is the use of eyes, and well speaking the use of eloquence.

4 He that is perfectly wise is perfectly happy; nay, the very beginning of wisdom makes life easy to us. Neither is it enough to know this, unless we print it in our minds by daily meditation, and so bring a good will to a good habit.

5 And we must practise what we preach: for philosophy is not a subject for popular ostentation; nor does it rest in words, but in things. It is not an entertainment taken up for delight, or to give a taste to our leisure; but it fashions the mind, governs our actions, tells what we are to do, and what

not.

6 It sits at the helm, and guides us through all hazards; nay, we cannot be safe without it, for every hour gives us occasion to make use of it. It informs us in all the duties of life, piety to our parents, faith to our friends, charity to the miserable, judgment in counsel; it gives us peace by fearing nothing, and riches by coveting nothing.

7 There is no condition of life that excludes a wise man from discharging his duty. If his fortune be good, he tempers it; if bad, he masters it; if he has an estate, he will exercise his virtue in plenty; if none, in poverty.

8 Some accidents there are, which I confess may affect

G

him, but not overthrow him; as bodily pains, loss of children and friends; the ruin and desolation of a man's country. One must be made of stone, or iron, not to be sensible of these calamities: and beside, it were no virtue to bear them, if a body did not feel them. If there were nothing else in it, a man would apply himself to wisdom, because it settles him in a perpetual tranquillity of mind.

SECTION IV.

There can be no Happiness without Virtue.

1. Virtue is that perfect good, which is the complement f a happy life; the only immortal thing that belongs to mortality: it is the knowledge both of others and itself; it is an invincible greatness of mind not to be elevated or dejected with good or ill fortune.

2. It is sociable and gentle, free, steady, and fearless: content within itself; full of inexhaustible delights; and it is valued for itself. One may be a good physician, a good governor, a good grammarian, without being a good man; so that all things from without are only accessaries: for the seat of it is a pure and holy mind.

3 It consists in a congruity of actions which we can never expect so long as we are distracted by our passions. It is not the matter, but the virtue, that makes the action good or ill; and he that is led in triumph may be yet greater than his conqueror.

4. When we come once to value our flesh above our honesty, we are lost; and yet I would not press upon dangers, no, not so much as upon inconveniences, unless where the man and the brute come in competition: and in such a case, rather than make a forfeiture of my credit, my reason, or my faith, I would run all extremities.

5. It is by an impression of nature that all men have a reverence for virtue; they know it, and they have a respect for it, though they do not practise it: nay, for the countenance of their very wickedness, they miscall it virtue. Their injuries they call benefits, and expect a man should thank them for doing him a mischief; they cover their most noto rious iniquities with a pretext of justice.

6. He that robs upon the highway, had rather find his booty than force it. Ask any of them that live upon rapine, fraud, oppression, if they had not rather enjoy a fortune honestly gotten, and their consciences will not suffer them to deny it.

7 Men are vicious only for the profit of villany; for, at the same time that they commit it, they condemn it. Nay, so powerful is virtue, and so gracious is Providence, that every man has a light set up within him for a guide; which we do all of us both see and acknowledge, though we do not pursue it.*

8 What I do shall be done for conscience, not ostenta. tion. I will eat and drink, not to gratify my palate, but to satisfy nature: I will be cheerful to my friends, mild and placable to my enemies: I will prevent an honest request, if I can foresee it, and I will grant it without asking: I will look upon the whole world as my country: I will live and die with this testimony, that I loved good studies and a good conscience; that I never invaded another man's liberty, and that I preserved my own.

9 Virtue is divided into two parts, contemplation and action. The one is delivered by institution, the other by admonition: one part of virtue consists in discipline; the other in exercise; for we must first learn, and then practise. The sooner we begin to apply ourselves to it, and the more haste we make, the longer shall we enjoy the comforts of a rectified mind; nay, we have the fruition of it in the very act of forming it: but it is another sort of delight, I must confess, that arises from the contemplation of a soul which is advanced into the possession of wisdom and virtue.

10 If it was so great a comfort to us to pass from the subjection of our childhood into a state of liberty and business, how much greater will it be when we come to cast off the boyish levity of our minds, and range ourselves among the philosophers?

11 We are past our minority, it is true, but not our indiscretion; and, which is yet worse, we have the authority of seniors, and the weaknesses of children, (I might have said of infants, for every little thing frights the one, and every trivial fancy the other.)

12 For virtue is open to all; as well to servants and exiles, as to princes: it is profitable to the world and to itself, at all distances and in all conditions; and there is no difficulty that can excuse a man from the exercise of it.

13 Nay, the mind itself has its variety of perverse pleasures as well as the body; as insolence, self-conceit, pride,

* "I know the right, and I approve it too;

"Condemn the wrong, and yet the wrong pursue."-Pope.

garrulity, laziness, and the abusive wit of turning every thing into ridicule; whereas virtue weighs all this and corrects it.

SECTION V.

Philosophy is the guide of Life.

1 Philosophy is divided into moral, natural, and rational: the first concerns our manners; the second searches the works of nature; and the third furnishes us with pro priety of words and arguments, and the faculty of distinguishing, that we may not be imposed upon with tricks and fallacies. The causes of things fall under natural philosophy, arguments under rational, and actions under moral.

2 Moral philosophy is again divided into matter of justice, which arises from the estimation of things and of men: and into affections and actions; and a failing in any one of these, disorders all the rest: for what does it profit us to know the true value of things, if we be transported by our passions? or to master our appetites without understanding the when, the what, the how, and other circumstances of our proceedings?

3 Socrates places all philosophy in morals; and wisdom in the distinguishing of good and evil. It is the art and law of life, and it teaches us what to do in all cases, and, like good marksmen, to hit the white at any distance. In poverty it gives us riches, or such a state of mind as makes them superfluous to us.

4 It arms us against all difficulties; one man is pressed with death, another with poverty; some with envy, others are offended at Providence, and unsatisfied with the condition of mankind: but philosophy prompts us to relieve the prisoner, the infirm, the necessitous, the condemned; to show the ignorant their errors, and rectify their affections.

5 It makes us inspect and govern our manners; it rouses us where we are faint and drowsy; it binds up what is loose, and humbles in us that which is contumacious; it delivers the mind from the bondage of the body, and raises it up to the contemplation of its divine original. The very shadow of glory carries a man of honor upon all dangers, to the contempt of fire and sword; and it were a shame if right reason should not inspire as generous resolutions into a man of virtue.

* Love of wisdom, from two Greek words, philos and sophia.