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We have less reason to be surprised 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 sometimes 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 retrofpection be able to difcover, that his mind has fuffered many revolutions; that the fame things have in the feveral parts of his life been condemned and approved, pursued and shunned: and that on many occafions, even when his practice has been steady, his mind has been wavering, and he has perfifted in a fcheme 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 constantly raise in him that contemplates them, a more striking example cannot eafily 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.

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Pofidippus, a comick poet, utters this complaint;

Through which of the paths of life is it eligible "to país? 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 distress; are you married? you are trou

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"bled with fufpicions; are you fingle? you languish "in folitude; children occafion toil, and a childless "life is a state of deftitution; the time of youth "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 '66 to lofe it."

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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? 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

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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 lofe 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 happinefs; and though they will

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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 ftation, 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 shall happen to predominate.

Such is the uncertainty in which we are always likely to remain with regard to queftions, wherein we have moft intereft, and which every day affords us fresh opportunity to examine: we may examine, indeed, but we never can decide, because our faculties are unequal to the subject: we fee a little, and form. an opinion; we fee 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

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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 mistaken; 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 fhall then find to have committed no fault, and who offended us only by refusing 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 rafhness, 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 small fatisfaction; fome have travelled life without obfervation, and fome willingly mislead The only thought, therefore, on which we can

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repose with comfort, is that which presents 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.

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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 fhall 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

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