or even fo unfeeling, as not to be occafionally caft down by the petty cares, or greater vexations of life. Difcontent is the characteristic of humanity; the condition upon which we are permitted to hold our frail and feverish beings; and denotes the imperfection of our mortal ftate. "Man that is born of a woman," fays the patient and pious Job, " is of fhort continuance, " and full of trouble." The mild and peaceful Socrates, whofe outward demeanour no ad

verfity could difturb, who, amidft a multitude of miferies, ftill preserved the same serenity of countenance, was, as his disciple Plato informs us, greatly fubject to this melancholy difpofition: and Quintus Metellus, the celebrated Roman senator and conful, though wife, virtuous, rich, highly honoured, beloved by a beautiful wife, blessed in a happy offspring, furrounded with troops of friends, and in every refpect illuftriously fortunate, had his fhare of forrows, and frequently felt the pangs of this tranfitory dif ease. * It is, indeed, a doom from which no B 2

man

turn home with an unfettled countenance, In acquiring this entire dominion over his paffions and appetites, he had the greater merit, as it was not effected without a violent flruggle against his natural propenfities; for he admitted that he was by his natural difpofition prone to vice. He estimated the value of knowledge by its utility; and recommended the fciences only fo far as they admit of a practical application to the purposes of human life. His great object, in all his difcourfes, was to lead men to an acquaintance with themselves; to convince them of their follies and vices; to infpire them with the love of virtue; and to furnish them with useful moral inftruction. He was (fays Cicero) the first who called down philofophy from heaven to earth, and introduced her into the public walks, and domeftic retirements of men, that she might inftruct them concerning life and manners. He died acknowledging with his last breath his conviction of the immortality of the foul, and a fearful hope of a happy existence after death.

This obfervation cannot be intended of Quintus Metellus Celer, the confidential friend of Cicero, and Prætor during his confulate ;

fharpeft thorns; as the heavens are sometimes fair, and fometimes overcaft, alternately tempeftuous and ferene, fo is the life of man intermingled with hopes and fears, with joys and forrows, with pleasures and with pains. Invicem cedunt dolor et voluptas. "The heart," says Solomon,* even in the midst of laughter, is "forrowful; and the end of mirth is heaviness." Even in the midft of all our feafting and jollity, there is grief and discontent. †

for ftill fome bitter thought deftroys

Our fancied mirth, and poifons all our joys.‡

The world produces for every pint of honey, a gallon of gall; for every dram of pleasure, a pound of pain; for every inch of mirth, an ell of moan; and as the ivy twines around the oak, fo does mifery and misfortune encompass the happiness of man. Felicity, pure and unalloyed feliB 3

* Prov. xiv. 13.

† St. Austin on 41ft Pfalm.

quoniam medio de fonte lepôrum,

Surgit amari aliquid, quod in ipfis floribus angat.

city,

LUCRETIUS, Lib. 4. lig. 1124.

And which Dryden has finely tranflated,

"For in the fountain where the fweets are fought,'

"Some bitter bubbles up, and poisons all the draught.”

its power, lies in wait to annoy us every hour c our lives. The condition of human nature refem bles a table chequered with compartments of black and white: potentates and people have their rif and fall; cities and families their trines and fex tiles, their quartiles and oppofitions. Man is not placed on earth as the fun, the moon, the ftars, and all the heavenly hofts, are placed on high, to run their courfes, from age to age, with unerring conftancy, and undeviating rectitude 45 but is fubject to infirmities, miferies, interruptions; liable to be toffed and tumbled up and down, to be carried about with every veering wind, and to be difquieted and annoyed upon every light occafion. It is this fenfe of our fituation, and of the danger to which we are expofed both from ourfelves and others, that caufes all our woe; and he who does not know this, fays