is fo far indeed from being verified by fact, that a sense of our wants is the original cause of forming thefe amicable alliances; that, on the contrary, it is obfervable, that none have been more diftinguished in their friendships than thofe, whose power and opulence, but, above all, whofe fuperior virtue (a much firmer fupport) have raised them above every neceffity of having recourfe to the affiftance of others.

The true distinction, then, in this question is, that "although friendship is certainly productive of utility, yet utility is not the primary motive of friendship." Those selfish fenfualifts, therefore, who, lulled in the lap of luxury, prefume to maintain the reverse, have furely no claim to attention; as they are neither qualified by reflection, nor experience, to be competent judges of the fubject.

Is there a man upon the face of the earth, who would deliberately accept of all the wealth, and all the affluence this world can bestow, if offered to him upon the severe terms of his being unconnected with a fingle mortal whom he could love, or by whom he fhould be beloved? This would be to lead the wretched life of a detefted tyrant, who, amidst perpetual fufpicions and alarms, paffes his miferable days a ftranger to every tender fentiment; and utterly precluded from the heart-felt fatisfactions of friendship.

Melmoth's Tranflation of Cicero's Lælius.

SECTION VI.

On the Immortality of the Soul.

I was yesterday walking alone, in one of my friend's woods; and loft myself in it very agreeably, as I was running over, in my mind, the several arguments that establish this great point; which is the bafis of morality, and the fource of all the pleafing hopes and fecret joys, that can arife in the heart of a reasonable creature. I confidered thofe feveral proofs drawn,

Firft, from the nature of the foul itfelf, and particularly its immateriality; which, though not abfolutely neceffary to the eternity of its duration, has, I think, been evinced to almoft a demonftration.

Secondly, from its paffions and fentiments; as, particularly, from its love of exiftence; its horror of annihilation; and its hopes of immortality; with that fecret fatisfaction which it finds in the practice of virtue; and that uneafinefs which follows upon the commiffion of vice.

Thirdly, from the nature of the Supreme Being, whofe juftice, goodness, wifdom, and veracity, are all concerned in this point.

But among these, and other excellent arguments for the immortality of the foul, there is one drawn from the perpetual progress of the foul to its perfection, without a poffibility of ever arriving at it; which is a hint that I do not remember to have seen opened and improved by others, who have written on this fubject, though it feems to me to

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carry a very great weight with it. How can it enter into the thoughts of man, that the foul, which is capable of fuch immenfe perfections, and of receiving new improvements to all eternity, fhall fall away into nothing, almoft as foon as it is created? Are fuch abilities made for no purpofe? A brute arrives at a point of perfection, that he can never pafs in a few years he has all the endowments he is capable of; and were he to live ten thousand more, would be the fame thing he is at prefent, Were a human foul thus at a ftand in her accomplishments; were her faculties to be full blown, and incapable of farther enlargements; I could imagine fhe might fall away infenfibly, and drop at once into a state of annihilation. But can we believe a thinking being, that is in a perpetual progrefs of improvements, and travelling on from perfection to perfection, after having just looked abroad into the works of its Creator, and made a few difcoveries of his infinite goodness, wisdom, and power, must perish at her first setting out, and in the very beginning of her inquiries?

A man, confidered only in his present state, feems fent into the world merely to propagate his kind. He provides himself with a fucceffor; and immediately quits his poft to make room for him. He does not feem born to enjoy life, but to deliver it down to others. This is not furprifing to confider in animals, which are formed for our ufe, and can finish their bufinefs in a fhort life. The filk-worm, after having fpun her task, lays her eggs and dies. But a man cannot take in his full measure of knowledge, has not time to subdue his paffions, eftablish his foul in virtue, and come up

to the perfection of his nature, before he is hurried off the stage. Would an infinitely wife Being make fuch glorious creatures for fo mean a purpofe? Can he delight in the production of fuch abortive intelligences, fuch fhort-lived reasonable beings? Would he give us talents that are not to be exerted? capacities that are never to be gratified How can we find that wifdom which fhines through all his works, in the formation of man, without looking on this world as only a nursery for the next; and without believing that the feveral generations of rational creatures, which rife up and disappear in fuch quick fucceffions, are only to receive their first rudiments of exiftence here, and afterwards to be tranfplanted into a more friendly climate, where they may fpread and flourish to all eternity?

There is not, in my opinion, a more pleafing and triumphant confideration in religion, than this of the perpetual progrefs, which the foul makes. towards the perfection of its nature, without ever arriving at a period in it. To look upon the foul as going on from strength to ftrength; to confider that he is to fhine for ever with new acceffions of glory, and brighten to all eternity; that fhe will be ftill adding virtue to virtue, and knowledge to knowledge; carries in it fomething wonderfully agreeable to that ambition, which is natural to the mind of man. Nay, it must be a profpect pleafing to God himfelf, to fee his creation for ever beautifying in his eyes; and drawing nearer to him, by greater degrees of refemblance.

Methinks this fingle confideration, of the progrefs of a finite fpirit to perfection, will be fuffici

ent to extinguifh all envy in inferior natures, and all contempt in fuperior. That cherub, which now appears as a god to a human foul, knows very well, that the period will come about in eternity, when the human foul fhall be as perfect as he himfelf now is nay, when she shall look down upon that degree of perfection as much as fhe now falls fhort of it. It is true, the higher nature still advances, and by that means preferves his distance and fuperiority in the scale of being; but he knows that, how high foever the ftation is of which he ftands poffeffed at prefent, the inferior nature will at length mount up to it; and fhine forth in the fame degree of glory.

With what aftonishment and veneration, may we look into our own fouls, where there are fuch hidden ftores of virtue and knowledge, fuch inexhaufted fources of perfection! We know not yet what we fhall be; nor will it ever enter into the heart of man, to conceive the glory that will be always in referve for him. The foul, confidered with its Creator, is like one of those mathematical lines, that may draw nearer to another for all eternity, without a poffibility of touching it and can there be a thought fo transporting, as to confider ourfelves in thefe perpetual approaches to HIM, who is the standard not only of perfection, but of happinefs!

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ADDISON.