is certain that men have long been divided in their opinions with respect to the nature of happinefs; whether it confifts in promoting our own intereft, or that of our fellow-creatures; whether it is the gratification of fenfual appetite, or the cultivation of intellect. But taking happiness out of its abftract point of view, it is perhaps too much the nature of man to confider it to confift principally of thofe things which he does not poffefs, and never to estimate truly the things he does poffefs, till by fome circumstances he is deprived of them. Those who have examined the ftructure of organized bodies, and particularly thofe of rational beings, find that man is more apt to prefer the prefent, though fluctuating enjoyments of fenfe, to the permanent, though diftant joys of reafon; that fenfual enjoyments are abfolutely neceffary for the fuftenance of his nature, the impulfes to them always prefent, and always powerful, while the others are diftant, the impreffions which they make are faint, and easily effaced, and fubject to the continual controul of our material and groffer feelings. The confequence of this is, that luxury has fo many votaries, abftinence fo very few. inceffant pains the greater part of me kind take to become rich, (fo general is the love of gain, that it has long been confidered as the universal paffion,) might make us reasonably infer, that riches, like the rod of the conjuror, had the faculty of creating and fecuring all forts of pleasure at the will of the envied poffeffor; that poverty, on the contrary, from the univerfal dread it infpired, is always a flate of abfolute mifery, privation and pain. The Let us try this doctrine by the teft of philofophy, and reafon. There is fo much corruption in human nature, fuch a pronenefs to reduce itfelf to the level of brutes, that it requires the perpetual exercife of philofophy, to direct our powers to their proper ends, to enable us to fquare our moral conduct accordingly. The principles of degeneracy are contained in every bofom. The general ufage of the world, has taught us to confider the enjoyments of luxury, and the commerce of the fexes, as objects worthy the purfuit of mankind.-Set before me a delicious banquet, accompanied with a variety of wines, furrounded with a few gay and fprightly companions, I will perhaps feel a powerful motive to induce me to partake; I may indulge in the feaft, and continue to the latest hour of the evening. In the mean time, I do not difcover that I could be better employed. My fenfes are alive only to peafureable ideas, i exclude every unwelcome thought. But if I wait till morning morning, when the gay company has vanished, and the fumes of the wine have evaporated, my feverish pulse, my languid frame, my weakened ftomach, all forcibly proclaim that the temperate meal, though lefs coftly was undoubtedly to be preferred; and like Epicurus of old, I might in truth confefs, that the greateft, the moft wholefome luxuries were "fresh herbs and clear water." Over the effects of the other indulgences of fenfe, delicacy induces us to draw a veil.—The effects of love, pure and impure, have formed a prominent feature in the hiftory of the diftreffes of mankind-Many a fine genius has owed his ruin to the blandishments of a beautiful female. Chastity as a `moral virtue may be confidered as holding a more elevated place than that of temperance. A Fauftina, a Zenobia, a Cleopatra ferved to increafe the troubles of the old world. -Modern hiftory can add its Catherine, Mary of Medicis, and Madome du Barré.-We may reafon thus of illicit love if I seek an intercourfe with a woman, without wishing for her acquaintance, the commerce becomes conftrained, unnatural, and deftitute of that fympathy of foul which nature has ordained to it. If I become in any degree acquainted with a woman, who is willing for a pecuniary confideration to furrender her chastity, I demean myself in the scale of intelligent beings, I forfeit all claims to the title of a rational creature, for virtue ought not, cannot amalgamate with vice. My conduct as a moralift ought to be pure and founded on the unalterable maxims of truth, what fhall I think of myfelf, then, for interchanging my ideas with a fhamelefs woman, the difgrace of her own fex, and the dupe of mine, a stain upon the beauty of the animal creation. The votaries of these pleasures, like the miferable victims of Circe, retain only thofe faculties which engender as much of recollection, regret, and remorse as embitter every moment of remaining existence.* Are the circumstances I have enlarged upon pofitive pains or pofitive pleasures? What man is there but will give his affent to their being the former; it'only remains to add, then, that it may be a matter of our furprife and wonder, that mankind have exercifed their faculties fo very ingeniously to multiply, and refine upon the phyfical evils to which our common nature has made us liable. An ignorant and uninformed mind may find food for envy when it furveys the gorgeous equipage and glitter of the rich; but no mind enlightened by philofophy and sublimed by study, would indulge the most distant wish to envy those * See Shaftsbury's Inquiry concerning Virtue, B. 2. ch. 2. § 2. things which in themselves are intrinfically worth nothing. The philofopher fees nothing capable furely of creating envy in the crude, the illiterate, and the flippant converse that in general characterises high breeding; if any feeling is, or ought to be created, it is that of contempt. It is true that immense riches may be employed very much to the advantage of the poffeffor, and those who surround him; they might be employed in creating confidence, in fmoothing down the almoft infurmountable barrier which custom has opposed between beings of the fame fpecies; in removing the innumerable obftacles that ftand in the way of obfcure virtue and talents; but we feldom, nay, never fee them employed to these defireable purposes, and we may reasonably conclude, that the poffeffion of them hardens the human heart, and makes it totally indifferent to the wants and feelings of others. That ftate ought furely not to be fubject to our envy, which excludes us from the benevolent feelings of cur nature. Let me now endeavour to fhew the reasonableness and the poffibility of improving our moral conftitution, promoting individual happiness, and fetting forth examples worthy of imitation. The love of diftinction is natural to every man, there is no man living but thinks hinfelf capable of becoming fomething which he is not. All ages, all nations, from imperial Rome to the favage Indians in America would furnish instances; but the ftudy of hiftory makes us confefs that the great part of mankind have only been ftudious of being diftinguished by their vices; but by ftudying and revolving what has been advanced it may be confeffed that a contrary mode of conduct is quite as practicable, and that men have only to take it into ferious confideration to become in general as remarkable for virtue and talents as they have hitherto been distinguished for the want of them. To atchieve this it only requires a manly rejection of those fascinating allurements that are too apt to impofe upon mankind; it requires that all claims to weak and intoxicating pleafures fhould be religiously given up; that Paffion, which is the bane of happiness, if not eradicated, should be at least powerfully fubdued. Love is ftrong as death, jealoufy is cruel as the grave.'* The miferable wretch who plies for life, the oars of a galley, is not so abjećt a slave, as he who is under the dominion of paffion. A man who is the flave of fear, of love, of jealousy, or revenge, is a miferable tool in the hands of every one he comes in contact with, and he finds his perfonal happinefs influenced by every breath of wind that blows; but it is a principle of philofophy, that no perfon Song of Solomon, chap. viii. verse 6. fhould fhould depend for his happinefs on the will and conduct of others; the perfons moft defpicable in life are those who would wish to impofe fuch a chain, and likewise those who blindly and implicitly embrace it. Yet the depravity of man has rendered philofophy useless in the following cafes: Who has not heard of innocence being feduced to gratify brutal and wanton luft, of foreign provinces plundered for the purpofe of founding a family of diftinction at home; of numbers of lives being facrificed by the obtaining a paltry and a naufeating luxury. That man must be undeferving the name of human, who could enjoy a pleasure when wrung from the pangs of his agonifed fellow creatures! While the pleasures of fenfe carry along with them the feeds of their own mortality, the pleasures of intellect brighten and encrease by repeated indulgence; in oppofition to other pleafures, which depend on the uncertainty of our bodily ftructure for their fhort-lived existence, the capacity for reafon, for abftraction, recollection, and comparifon, and in fhort all the faculties the mind is capable of exerci fing, grows more extended, and becomes more acute, when all fenfual enjoyments fade and decay. It is likewife the peculiar character of thofe pleafures, that they have the property of converting calamities into bleffings. There is nothing in the black catalogue of human ills which a Chriftian philofophy cannot conquer; all that the malignity of fate can inflict, may be diffipated by a fixed adherence to never-fading virtue. Sickness and adverfity, circumstances which annihilate the enjoyments of the fenfualift, give a new zeft to the joys of intellect and make them appear more delicious than before. I fhall draw this effay to a conclufion by recommending a folitary or a fecluded refidence to those who wish to nurfe virtue and poffefs happinefs.I walk out in the morning, I embofom myfelf in the woods, I liften with rapture to the fong of the thruth, I fee with pleasure the hufbandman at his toil, I amufe myself with being the spectator of the gambols of the little cottage children who affemble in groups before my window. I walk out in the evening, and again envelope myfelf in the fhade. Beloved haunts, dear groves, ye are facred to meditation and pleafure; in your ample folitary turns, I lofe a fenfe of the evils that encompafs me, I ftray with flow pace among the thickeft part of the woods melodious by the birds, where the hazle budding, • Unfolds B 2 • Unfolds the first sweet promise of the purple year.? O Nature, what charms haft thou for me, can I regret, that for thefe fublime fcenes, I forego the gloomy haunt of care,. vice, and immorality, that I forego the amusements that are elicited from the collifion of all the paffions that deform human nature. Man is formed by circumftance, he is made by one ftimulant acting upon another, and in proportion to the predominance of the good or bad effects of these he becomes virtuous or vicious. 'The mind is in a state of perpetual flux.' * Among crowds I partake of all the littleness and infignificance that can demean man, I enter with avidity into any vice, I am contaminated by the foulness of example, I offend the Deity by numberlefs tranfgreffions, I ftudy only the gratification of appetite and forget the purposes. for which I was created, my life becomes dedicated to the most despicable pursuits; but here amid the serene smiles of Nature, I recover the use of my fufpended faculties, I meditate, I ruminate, and indulge in the moft pleafing day, dreams, every occurrence, every object gives me pleasure, and foothes my mind. Natural objects, dreffed in the most pleafing variety, pafs in fucceffion before my enraptured fenfes, and fill me with tranquillity and peace! Perth. * Godwin's Pol. Juft. DECIUS. TO THE EDITOR OF MISCELLANEA PERTHENSIS. Sir, OVID. WITH peculiar pleafure I observed your Propofal to renew the publication of,a Magazine. I have feldom been more puzzled, than to account for the little fuccefs which fimilar attempts have met with in this corner. My intention in troubling you at prefent is chiefly to avow my partiality to my own city, neighbourhood, acquaintances, cuftoms, and when I had opportunity, I acknowledge I was partial to the Perth Magazine, under whatever title it appeared. Judging of others, from my own feelings, I never could understand, that the only reafon to be affigned for the failure of former attempts, is expreffed in the old proverb, "Foreign fowls have fair feathers." I furely can be charged with no flattery, in faying to you who had no connection with them, that the selection, arrangement, and ex ecution |