which nature annexes to the power of pleafing. And as no man can juftly claim more tenderness than he pays, he must forfeit his fhare in that officious and watchful kindness which love only can dictate, and thofe lenient endearments by which love only can foften life.. He may juftly be overlooked and neglected by fuch as have more warmth in their heart; for who would be the friend of him, whom, with whatever affiduity he may be courted, and with whatever services obliged, his principles will not fuffer to make equal returns, and who, when you have exhaufted all the inftances of good-will, can only be prevailed on not to be an enemy?

An attempt to preserve life in a state of neutrality and indifference, is unreafonable and vain. If by excluding joy we could fhut out grief, the fcheme would deferve very ferious attention; but fince, however we may debar ourselves from happiness, mifery will find its way at many inlets, and the affaults of pain will force our regard, though we may withhold it from the invitations of pleasure, we may furely endeavour to raise life above the middle point of apathy at one time, fince it will neceffarily fink below it at another.

But though it cannot be reasonable not to gain happiness for fear of losing it, yet it must be confeffed, that in proportion to the pleasure of poffeffion, will be for fome time our forrow for the lofs; it is therefore the province of the moralift to enquire whether fuch pains may not quickly give way to mitigation. Some have thought that the most certain way to clear the heart from its embarraffment is to drag it by VOL. IV.

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force

force into fcenes of merriment. Others imagine, that fuch a tranfition is too violent, and recommend rather to footh it into tranquillity, by making it acquainted with miferies more dreadful and afflictive, and diverting to the calamities of others the regard which we are inclined to fix too clofely upon our own misfortunes.

It may be doubted whether either of thofe remedies will be fufficiently powerful. The efficacy of mirth it is not always eafy to try, and the indulgence of melancholy may be fufpected to be one of thofe medicines, which will deftroy, if it happens not to

cure.

The fafe and general antidote against forrow is employment. It is commonly obferved, that among foldiers and feamen, though there is much kindness, there is little grief; they fee their friend fall without any of that lamentation which is indulged in fecurity and idleness, because they have no leifure to fpare from the care of themfelves; and whoever fhall keep his thoughts equally bufy, will find himfelf equally unaf fected with irretrievable loffes.

Time is obferved generally to wear out forrow, and its effects might doubtlefs be accelerated by quickening the fucceffion, and enlarging the variety of objects.

Si tempore longo

Leniri poterit lulus, tu fperne morari,

Qui fapiet fibi tempus erit.

'Tis long ere time can mitigate your grief;

GROTIUS.

To wifdom fly, fhe quickly brings relief. F. LEWIS.

Sorrow

Sorrow is a kind of ruft of the foul, which every new idea contributes in its paffage to fcour away. It is the putrefaction of stagnant life, and is remedied by exercife and motion.

NUMB. 48. SATURDAY, Sept. 1, 1750.

Non eft vivere, fed valere, vita.

For life is not to live, but to be well.

MART.

ELPHINSTON.

AMONG the innumerable follies, by which we lay

up in our youth repentance and remorse for the fucceeding part of our lives, there is fcarce any against which warnings are of lefs efficacy, than the neglect of health. When the springs of motion are yet elastick, when the heart bounds with vigour, and the eye sparkles with spirit, it is with difficulty that we are taught to conceive the imbecility that every hour is bringing upon us, or to imagine that the nerves which are now braced with so much strength, and the limbs which play with so much activity, will lofe all their power under the gripe of time, relax with numbness, and totter with debility.

To the arguments which have been used against complaints under the miseries of life, the philofophers have, I think, forgot to add the incredulity of those to whom we recount our fufferings. But if the purpose of lamentation be to excite pity, it is furely fuperfluous for age and weakness to tell their plaintive ftories; for pity prefuppofes fympathy, and a little attention will flew them, that thofe who

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who do not feel pain feldom think that it is felt; and a fhort recollection will inform almost every man, that he is only repaid the infult which he has given, fince he may remember how often he has mocked infirmity, laughed at its cautions, and cenfured its impatience.

The valetudinarian race have made the care of health ridiculous by fuffering it to prevail over all other confiderations, as the mifer has brought frugality into contempt, by permitting the love of money not to share, but to engrofs his mind: they both err alike, by confounding the means with the end; they grafp at health only to be well, as at money only to be rich; and forget that every terreftrial advantage is chiefly valuable, as it furnishes abilities for the exercise of virtue.

Health is indeed fo neceffary to all the duties, as well as pleasures of life, that the crime of fquandering it is equal to the folly; and he that for a fhort gratification brings weakness and diseases upon himfelf, and for the pleafure of a few years paffed in the tumults of diverfion, and clamours of merriment, condemns the maturer and more experienced part of his life to the chamber and the couch, may be justly reproached, not only as a spendthrift of his own happiness, but as a robber of the publick; as a wretch that has voluntarily difqualified himself for the bufinefs of his ftation, and refufed that part which Providence affigns him in the general task of

human nature.

There are perhaps very few conditions more to be pitied than that of an active and elevated mind, labouring under the weight of a diftempered body;

the

309 the time of fuch a man is always fpent in forming schemes, which a change of wind hinders him from executing, his powers fume away in projects and in hope, and the day of action never arrives. He lies down delighted with the thoughts of to-morrow, pleases his ambition with the fame he shall acquire, or his benevolence with the good he shall confer. But in the night the skies are overcaft, the temper of the air is changed, he wakes in languor, impatience, and diftraction, and has no longer any wish but for ease, nor any attention but to mifery. It may be faid that difeafe generally begins that equality which death completes; the diftinctions which fet one man fo much above another are very little perceived in the gloom of a fick chamber, where it will be vain to expect entertainment from the gay or inftruction from the wife; where all human glory is obliterated, the wit is clouded, the reafoner perplexed, and the hero fubdued; where the higheft and brightest of mortal beings finds nothing left him but the confcioufnefs of innocence.

There is among the fragments of the Greek poets a fhort hymn to Health, in which her power of exalting the happiness of life, of heightening the gifts of fortune, and adding enjoyment to poffeffion, is inculcated with fo much force and beauty, that no one, who has ever languifhed under the difcomforts and infirmities of a lingering difeafe, can read it without feeling the images dance in his heart, and adding from his own experience new vigour to the wifh, and from his own imagination new colours to the picture. The particular occafion of this little compofition is not known, but it is probable that the