tears.

A man waiting on the coast to go abroad wishes for nothing but a fair wind, and he does not think that he shall find other, and perhaps greater calamities in another climate than those, which compelled him to quit his native soil, This is an image of us all. Our minds are limited, and when an object presents itself to us we consider it only in one point of view, in other lights we are not competent to the examination of it.

Hence the interest we take in some events, in the revolutions of states, the phenomena of nature, and the change of seasons; hence that perpetual desire of change; hence sportive phantoms incessantly created by our imaginations; hence chimerical projects for ever revolving in our minds, or, as the wise man expresseth it, Eyes never satisfied with seeing, and ears never filled with hearing. O, saith one, could I get cured of this illness, which renders life a burthen-could I, says another, get free from the company that poison all my pleasures could I go, says a third, and settle in a country, where maxims and laws altogether different from those under which I live-could I but obtain that place, which would take me out of the obscurity, in which I am buried alive, and render me conspicuous--could I acquire a sufficient fortune to support a certain number of domestics, and to procure me certain accommodations, then in retirement and silence I would gratify the desire, that alone animates me, of employing my life in a pursuit of wisdom and virtue and happiness! Poor mortals, will you always run phantoms! No, it is not any of the revolutions you so earnestly desire can alter the vanity essential to human things with all the advantages which you so earnestly desire, you would find yourself as void, and as discontented as you are now. The thing, which hath been, is that which shall be; and that, which is done, is that which shall be done and there is no new thing under the sun. O that it were as easy to imprint these truths on our hearts, as it is to give evidence that they are truths to the judgment !

II. Let us endeavour to admit these truths with all their effects, (and this shall be the second part of our discourse) let us attempt the work, though we have so many reasons to fear a want of success. Let us first examine the destination of man-next let us look into the school of the world--then into the experience of Solomon-and lastly, let us review the history of our own lives. These are four barriers

against

against imaginary projects; four proofs, or rather four sources of demonstrations in evidence of the truth of the text. The thing, that hath been, is that which shall be ; and that, which is done, is that which shall be done and there is no new thing under the sun.

1. Let us first observe the appointment of man, and let us not form schemes opposite to that of our Creator. When he placed us in this world, he did not intend to confine us to it but when he formed us capable of happiness, he intended we should seek it in an economy different from this. Without this principle man is an inexplicable enigma; his faculties and his wishes, his afflictions and his conscience, his life and his death, every thing that concerns man is obscure, and beyond all elucidation,

His faculties are enigmatical. Tell us, what is the end and design of the faculties of man? Why hath he the faculty of knowing? What, is it only to arrange a few words in his memory? Only to know the sounds or the pictures, to which divers nations of the world have associated their ideas? Is it merely to learn greek and hebrew, to collect a chaos of ancient history, to go beyond remote ages, and to discover with some degree of probability what were the habits, the customs and the follies of the first inhabitants of this universe? Hath man intelligence only for the purpose of racking his brain, and losing himself in a world of abstractions, in order to disentangle a few questions from metaphysical labyrinths, what is the origin of ideas, what are the properties, and what is the nature of spirit? Glorious object of knowledge for an intelligent being! An object in general more likely to produce scepticism than demonstration of a science properly so called. Let us reason in like manner on the other faculties of mankind.

His desires are problematical. What power can eradicate, what power can moderate his desire to extend and perpetuate his duration? The human heart includes in its wish the past, the present, the future, yea eternity itself. Explain to us, what proportion there can be between the desires of man and the wealth, which he accumulates, the honours he pursues, the sceptre in his hand, and the crown on his head?

His miseries are enigmatical. This article opens a more ample field of meditation than the former, for the pleasures of mankind are only a point, only an atom in comparison of the miseries, which pursue and overtake him. Who can

reconcile

reconcile the doctrine of a good God with that of a miserable man, with the doubts that divide his mind, with the remorse that gnaws his heart, with the uncertainties that torment him, with the catastrophes that envelope him, with the vissisitudes which are always altering his situation, with the false friends who betray him, with pain that consumes him, with indigence that contracts him, with neglect and contempt which mortify him, and with such a number of other inconveniences and calamities as conspire to imbitter his existence?

His life is a mystery. What part, poor man, what part are you acting in this world? Who misplaced you thus?

13

His death is enigmatical. This is the greatest of all enigmas; four days of life, a life of sixty or an hundred years, all that this creature called man hath to expect in this world; he disappears almost as soon as he makes his appearance, he is gone in an instant from the cradle to the coffin, his swaddling bands are taken off and his shroud is put on.

Lay down the principle, which we have advanced, grant that the great design of the Creator, by placing man amidst the objects of this present world, was to draw out and extend his desires after another world, and then all these clouds vanish, all these veils are drawn aside, all these enigmas explained, nothing is obscure, nothing is problematical in

man.

His faculties are not enigmatical; the faculty of knowing is not confined to such vain science as he can acquire in this world. He is not placed here to acquire knowledge, but virtue, at least he is placed in this world to acquire knowledge only so far a scontributes to the acquisition of virIf he acquire virtue, he will be admitted into another world, where his utmost desire of knowledge will be gratified.

tue.

His desires are not mysterious. When the laws of order require him to check and controul his wishes, let him restrain them, When the profession of religion requires it let him deny himself agreeable sensations, and let him patiently suffer the cross, tribulations and persecutions. Let him subdue his passion for elevation and grandeur, and let him humbly rest in that mean situation where it hath pleased providence to place him. Let him moderate his love of riches, and let him patiently submit to poverty and indigence After he shall have thus submitted to the laws of his Creator, he may

may expect another period, in which his desires to be great will be satisfied.

His miseries are no more enigmatical; they exercise his virtue, and will be rewarded with glory:

His life ceases to be mysterious. It is a state of probation, a time of trial, a period given him to make choice of an eternity of happiness, or an eternity of misery.

His death is no longer a mystery, and it is impossible that either his life or his death should be enigmas, for the one unfolds the other. The life of man is not an enigma, because it tends to death, and death verifies, proves and demonstrates the idea we have given of life.

We conclude then, that the destination of man is one great barrier against imaginary schemes of happiness. Change the face of society; subvert the order of the world: put despotical government in the place of a democracy; peace in the place of war, plenty in the place of scarcity, and you will alter nothing but the surface of human things, the substance will always continue the same. The thing, that hath been, is that which shall be; and that, which is done, is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

2. The school of the world opens to us a second source of demonstrations. Enter this school, and you will renounce all vain schemes of felicity.

There you will learn that the greatest part of the pleasures of the world, of which you entertain such fine notions, are only phantoms, which scem indeed at a distance to have some solidity and consistence, but which vanish the moment you approach and try to enjoy them.

There you will learn that the extensive views, the great designs, the plans of immortality and glory, which revolve in the mind of an ambitious man, keep him continually upon the rack, trouble his repose, deprive him of sleep, and render him insensible to all the pleasures of life.

There you will understand that the friends, who attach themselves to us when we have favours to bestow, are venal souls, who put up their esteem to auction, and sell it to the highest bidder; blood suckers who live upon the substance of those, round whom they twist and twine; that the sacred names of friendship, tenderness, zeal, and devotedness, are nothing in their mouths but empty sounds, to which they affix no ideas.

There

There you will find that those passions, which men of high rank have the power of fully gratifying, are sources of trouble and remorse, and that all the pleasures of gratification is nothing in comparison of the pain of one regret caused by the remembrance of it.

There you will learn that the husband man, who all day follows the plough or the cart, and who finds at home in the evening a family of love, where innocent and affectionate children surround a table furnished with plain and simple diet, is incomparably more happy than the favourite of victory and fortune, who rides in a superb carriage attended by a splendid retinue, who sits at a table, where art and nature seem to vie with each other in lavishing out their treasures, who is surrounded with courtiers watching their fate in the cast of his eye, or the signal of his hand.

In a word, you will there understand, that what may seem the most fortunate events in your favour will contri bute very little to your happiness.

3. But if the school of the world is capable of teaching us: to renounce our fanciful projects of felicity, Solomon is the man in the world the most learned in this school, and the most able to give us intelligence. Accordingly we have made his declaration the third source of our demonstrations.

When your preachers declaim against the vanity of human things, you secretly say to yourselves, their judgment merits very little regard. You think that they, generally educated in silence and retirement, having breathed only the dusty air of schools and libraries, are unacquainted with that' world against which they declaim. I will not now examine this reproach. People of our order, I grant, are very apt to form false ideas of the world. But take our word for one truth, for which we could allege a thousand proofs, that is, that if they magnify worldly objects, it is because they are strangers to the world. A hermit, who hath spent all his days in dens and deserts; a nun sequestered from society in her childhood, and buried in the cells and solitary walks of a convent; a man, who hath grown gray over his books; people of this kind generally imagine that the world is full of pleasure, and that the demon of voluptuousness hath strewed all the paths with flowers and perfumes in favour of such as travel them. I know no one more proper to teach us a good course of morality than an old reformed courtier, who VOL. V.

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chooses