with all the difference in my feelings between calm content and freeful impatience. Such occurrences have afforded me full proof both of the poffibility of being cheaply pleased, and of the confequence it is of to the fum of human felicity, not to neglect minute attentions to make the most of life as it paffes.

Reading may in every fenfe be called a cheap amufement. A tafle for books, indeed, may be made expensive enough; but that is a taste for editions, bindings, paper and type. If you are fatisfied with getting at the fenfe of an author in fome commodious way, a crown at a stall will fupply your wants as well as a guinea at a fhop. Learn, too, to diftinguish between books to be perused, and books to be poffeffed. Of the former you may find an ample store in every fubfcription library, the proper ufe of which to a fcholar is to furnish his mind without loading his fhelves. No apparatus, no appointment of time and place, is neceffary for the enjoyment of reading. From the midst of bustle and business you may, in an instant, by the magic of a book, plunge into the fcenes of remote ages and countries, and difengage yourself from prefent care and fatigue. "Sweet pliability of man's spirit (cries Sterne, on relating an occurrence of this kind in his Sentimental Journey,) that can at once furrender itself to illufions, which cheat expectation and forrow of their weary moments!"

The next of the procurable pleasures that I fhall point out to you is that of converfation. This is a pleafure of higher zeft than that of reading; fince in converfing we not only receive the fentiments of others, but impart our own; and from this reciprocation a fpirit and interest arife which books cannot give in an equal degree. Fitnefs for converfation must depend upon the ftore of ideas laid up in the mind, and the faculty of communicating them. Thefe, in a great degree, are the refults of education and the habit of fociety, and to a certain point they are favoured by fuperiority of condition. But this is only to a certain point; for when you arrive at that class in which fenfuality, indolence, and diffipation, are softered by excess of opulence, you lofe more by diminished energy of mind, than you gain by fuperior refinement of manner and elegance of expreffion. And, indeed, there are numbers of the higher ranks among us, whofe conversation has not even the latter qualities to recommend it, but to poverty of fentiment adds the utmost coarfenefs of language and behaviour. There is a radical meanness in debauchery, which even in the most elevated conditions of all, communicates the taint of vulgarity. To hear the high-bred party loudly contending in the praifes of their dogs and horfes, and difcuffing gambling queftions, intermixed with groffer topics, you could not poffibly discover by the flyle and matter, whether you were listening to the masters above, or the grooms below. It is by no means unfrequent to find the best company, the worfl converfation. Should your character and fituation for ever exclude you from fuch focieties you need not repine at your lofs. It will be amply compenfated by the opportunities you are

likely to enjoy of free intercourfe with the most cultivated and rational of both fexes, among whom decency of manners and variety of knowledge will always be valued, though very moderately decorated with the advantages of fortune.

I would not, however, inculcate too faftidious a taste with respect to the fubject and style of converfation, provided it poffefs the effentials of found fense and useful knoledge. Among those who have enjoyed little of the benefit of education, you will often find perfons of natural fagacity and a turn for remark, who are capable of affording both entertainment and inftruction. Who would not wish to have been acquanted with Franklin when a journeyman printer, even though he had never rifen to be one of the most distinguished characters of the age? Information, indeed, may be procured from almost any man in affairs belonging to his particular way of life; and when we fall into company from which little is to be expected with regard to general topics, it is beft to give the conversation a turn towards the technical matters with which they may be acquainted, whence fome profit may be made out of the most unpromising materials. Man, too, in every condition, is a fubject well worthy of examination; and the fpeculatift may derive much entertainment from obferving the manners and fentiments of all the various claffes of mankind in their feveral occupations and amusements.

me.

Another fource of cheap pleasure is the ftudy of nature. So many advantages with respect to health, tranquility of mind, useful knowledge and inexhaustible amusement, are united in this study, that I fhould not fail moft warmly to recommend it to your notice, had you not already acquired a decided tafte for its pursuits. Here, again, I can fpeak from my own experience; for the study of English botany caufed feveral fummers to glide away with me in more pure and active delight than almost any other fingle object ever afforded It rendered every ride and walk interefting, and converted the plodding rounds of bufinefs into excurfions of pleafure. From the impreffion of these feelings, I have ever regarded as perfectly fuperfluous the pains taken by fome of the friends of natural history, to fhew its utility in reference to the common purposes of life. Many of their obfervations, indeed, are true, and may serve to gain patrons for the study among thofe who measure every thing by the standard of economical values but is it not enough to open a fource of copious and cheap amufement, which tends to harmonize the mind, and elevate it to worthy conceptions of nature and its author? If I offer a man happiness at an eafy rate, unalloyed by any debafing mixture, can I confer on him a greater bleffing? Nothing is more favourable to enjoyment than the combination of bodily exertion and ardour of mind. This, the researches of natural history afford in great perfection; and fuch is the immense variety of its objects, that the labours of the longest life cannot exhaust them.

The study of nature is in itself a cheap ftudy; yet it may be purfued in a very expenfive manner, by all the apparatus of cabinets,

purchased collections, prints and drawings. But if you will con tent yourself with the great book of nature and a few of its ablest expofitors, together with the riches your own industry may accumulate, you will find enough of it within your compass to answer all reasonable purposes of inftruction and amusement. We are both acquainted with an excellent naturalift,* who, by a proper application of the time and money he has been able to fpare out of a common writing school, has made himself the poffeffor of more curious and accurate knowledge than falls to the lot of many owners of the most costly treasures. The recollection of his modest merit and fcientific content will ever, I am sure, endear to you these fertile ftores of cheap delight.

A tafte for the fublime and beautiful of nature, as exhibited in her larger works, and refulting from the varied combinations of her external forms, is also productive of many exquifite pleasures, which few perfons are at all times precluded from enjoying. To feel these in a fupreme degree, a mind enriched by literature and expanded by fancy and reflection is neceffary; and, in particular, a high relifh for poetry is almost an effential accompaniment. Much pains do not feem requifite in cultivating this fpecies of enjoyment, for it obtrudes itself unfought upon every elegant mind, and the danger is, left the defire fhould too foon exhaust its objects. More uneafy longings after what lay beyond my reach, have preyed upon my imagination on reading defcriptions of the ftriking fcenes of nature vifited by travellers, than on reflecting on all the other advantages which fortune and leisure have to bestow. Yet, certainly, I would not wish to have been less sensible than I am to this fource of pleafurable emotions. They may be rendered more distinct and varied, by calling in a tafte for what is properly termed the picturesque, or a reference of the natural fcene to its imitations and improvements by the pencil. But this I conceive to be almost neceffarily connected with practical skill in the art of painting; and unless it were made fubfervient to the purposes of this art, I fhould apprehend that more might be loft by opening an inlet to faftidious nicety, than would be gained by viewing things with a more learned eye.

This remark would naturally lead me to confider the pleafures to be derived from the practice of ornamental arts, and from the contemplation of their productions in others. But though I am fully fenfible of the pleafing addition these make to the general stock of human enjoyment, yet with respect to most individuals, they scarcely come within the catalogue of cheap pleasures. A tafte for them must be formed early in life, must be cultivated with much affiduity, and at confiderable expence both of time and money. They are not of all times and places, but require apparatus and opportunity. They are with difficulty kept within bounds, and are continually disposed to desert the eafy and fimple, in purfuit of what is more

* Mr. Wigg of Yarmouth.

complex and elaborate. A tafte for mufic appears to me, as far as I can judge from obfervation alone, to be eminently of this kind. Where it is marked out by nature, as in fome cafes it manifeftly is, and can be cultivated early and advantageously, it is capabic, I doubt not, of affording the most exquifite delights; but then it will probably take place of all other ornamental acquirements. And though fuch a facrifice may be worth making under the circumftances described, yet to make it with a view of creating a tafte for any purfuit merely amufive, is, I think, to eftimate faltely the value of things. If, however, experience fhews that mufical pleafures may be enjoyed in moderation, and fo as to make an agreeable variety, without occupying the place of any thing preferable, my objections are at an end. The fame may be faid of drawing, and various other tastes and acquifitions, concerning which, accident and inclination, if regulated by prudence, may be fuffered to determine the

choice.

I have now, I think, pointed out to you fources which will fupply fufficient materials of eafily procurable pleasure, if you bring to them what is abfolutely effential to the fuccefs of any external means of happiness-a mind in harmony with itfelf. This, nothing but confcious worth and virtue can bestow. This, "tibi ipfe parabis." Farewell!

T

ON THE ART OF THINKING.

HE fuccefs and happiness of men in this life, and their deftination in the next, depend upon their modes of thinking. It is of the utmost importance therefore to think correctly. Upon this fubject we beg leave to present our readers with the excellent obfer. vations of Mr. Mafon :

The right government of the thoughts requires no fmall art, vigilance, and refolution. But it is a matter of fuch vast importance to the peace and improvement of the mind, that it is worth while to be at fome pains about it. A man that hath fo numerous and turbulent a family to govern as his own thoughts, which are too apt to be at the command of his paffions and appetites, ought not to be long from home. If he be, they will foon grow mutinous and diforderly under the conduct of thofe two headftrong guides, and raife great clamours and disturbances, and fometimes on the flighteft occafions. And a more dreadful scene of mifery can hardly be imagined, than that which is occafioned by fuch a tumult and uproar within, when a raging confcience or inflamed paffions are let loose without check or control. A city in flames, or the mutiny of a drunken crew aboard, who have murdered the Captain, and are butchering one another, are but faint emblems of it. The torment of the mind, under fuch an infurrection and ravage of the paffions, is not eafy to be

conceived. The most revengeful man cannot wifh his enemy a greater.

Of what vaft importance then is it for a man to watch over his thoughts, in order to a right government of them! To confider what kind of thoughts find the eafieft admiffion, in what manner tncy infinuate themselves, and upon what occafions!

It was an excellent rule which a wife heathen prescribed to him. self, in his private meditations; manage (faith he) all your actions and thoughts in fuch a manner, as if you were just going out of the world.* Again, (faith he) a man is feldom, if ever, unhappy for not knowing the thoughts of others; but he that does not attend to the motions of his own, is certainly miferable.+

It may be worth our while then to difcufs this matter a little more precifely; and confider, 1. What kind of thoughts are to be excluded or rejected. And 2. What ought to be indulged and entertained.

1. Some thoughts ought to be immediately banished as foon as they have found entrance. And if we are often troubled with them, the safest way will be to keep a good guard on the avenues of the mind by which they enter, and avoid thofe occafions which commonly excite them. For fometimes it is much easier to prevent a bad thought entering the mind, than to get rid of it when it is entered.More particularly,

1. Watch againft all fretful and difcontented thoughts which do but chafe and corrode the mind to no purpose. To harbour these is to do yourself more injury than is in the power of your greatest enemy to do you. It is equally a chriftian's intereft and duty to learn, in whatever ftate he is, therewith to be content.

2. Harbour not too anxious and apprehenfive thoughts. By giving way to tormenting fears, fufpicions of fome approaching danger or troublesome event, we not only anticipate but double the evil we fear; and undergo much more from the apprehenfion of it before it comes, than from the whole weight of it when present. This is a great, but common weaknefs; which a man fhould endeavour to arm himself against by fuch kind of reflections as thefe ;-" Are not all thefe events under the certain direction of a wife providence? If they befal me, they are then that share of fuffering which God hath

* Marc. Anton. Medit. lib. 2. § 11. Marc. Anton. lib. 2. § 8.

"Nothing can be more unhappy than that man who ranges every where, ranfacks every thing, digs into the bowels of the earth, dives into other men's bofoms, but does not confider all the while that his own mind will afford him fufficient fcope for inquiry and entertainment, and that the care and improvement of himfelf will give him bufinefs enough." Id. lib. 2. § 13.

"Your difpofition will be fuitable to that which you most frequently think on; for the foul is, as it were, tinged with the colour and complexion of its own thoughts." Id. lib. 5. § 16.

‡ Phil. iv. 11.