país away his time without it ; not to mention how our delight in any particular ftudy, art, or fcience, rifes and improves in proportion to the application which we beltow upon it. Thus what was at firft an exercise, becomes at length an entertainment. Our employments are changed into our diverfion. The mind grows of those actions fhe is accuftomed to, and is drawn with reluctancy from thofe paths in which he has ufed to walk.

fond

Not only fuch actions as were at firft indifferent to us, but even fuch as were painful, will by cuftom and practice become pleasant. Sir Francis Bacon obferves in his natural philofophy, that our taste is never pleafed better than with thofe things which at firft created a disgust in it. He gives particular inftances of claret, coffee, and other liquors, which the palate feldom approves upon the first tafte; but when it has once got a relish of them, generally retains it for life. The mind is conftituted after the fame manner, and after having habituated herself to any particular exercife or employment, not only lofes her firft averfion towards it, but conceives a certain fondness and affection for it. I have heard one of the greatest genius's this age has produced, who had been trained up in all the polite ftudies of antiquity, af fure me, upon his being obliged to fearch into feveral rolls and records, that notwithstanding fuch an employment was at first very dry and irkfom to him, he at laft took an incredible pleasure in it, and preferred it even to the reading of Virgil or Cicero. The reader will obferve, that I have not here confidered cuftom as it makes things eafy, but as it renders them delightful; and tho' others have often made the fame reflexions, it is poffible they may not have drawn thofe ufes from it, with which Tintend to fill the remaining part of this paper.

If we confider attentively this property of human nature, it may inftruct us in very fine moralities. In the first place. I would have no man difcouraged with that kind of life or feries of action, in which the choice of others, or his own neceffities, may have engaged him. It may perhaps be very difagreeable to him at first; but ufe and application will certainly render it not only less painful, but pleafing and fatisfactory.

In the fecond place, I would recommend to every one that admirable precept which Pythagoras is faid to have given to his difciples, and which that philofopher muft have drawn from the obfervation I have enlarged upon, Optimum vitæ genus eligito, nam confuetudo faciet jucundiffimum. Pitch upon that courfe of life which is the most excellent, and cuftom will render it the moft delightful. Men whofe circumftances will permit them to choose their own way of life, are inexcufable if they do not puriue that which their judgment tells them is the moft laudable. The voice of reafon is more to be regarded than the bent of any prefent inclination, fince by the rule above-mentioned, inclination will at length come over to reason, though we can never force reafon to comply with inclination.

In the third place, this obfervation may teach the moft fenfual and irreligious man, to overlook thofe hardhips and difficulties, which are apt to difcourage him from the profecution of a virtuous life. The gods, faid Hefied, have placed labour before virtue; the way to her is at first rough and difficult, but grows more Smooth and eafy the further you advance in it. The man who proceeds in it, with steadiness and refolution, will in a little time find that her ways are ways of pleasantness, and that all her paths are peace.

To enforce this confideration, we may further obferve that the practice of religion will not only be attended with that pleasure, which naturally accompanies thofe actions to which we are habituated, but with thofe fupernumerary joys of heart, that rife from the confcioufnefs of fuch a pleasure, from the fatisfaction of acting up to the dictates of reafon, and from the profpect of an happy immortality.

In the fourth place, we may learn from this obfervation which we have made on the mind of man, to take particular case, when we are once fettled in a regular courfe of life, how we too frequently indulge ourselves in any the most innocent diverfions and entertainments, fince the mind may infenfibly fall off from the relish of virtuous actions, and, by degrees, exchange that pleasure which it takes in the performance of its duty, for delights of a much more inferior and unprofitable nature.

The

The laft ufe which I fhall make of this remarkable property in human nature, of being delighted with those actions to which it is accustomed, is to fhew how abfolutely neceffary it is for us to gain habits of virtue in this life, if we would enjoy the pleasures of the next. The ftate of blifs we call Heaven will not be capable of affecting thofe minds, which are not thus qualified for it; we muft, in this world, gain a relish of truth and virtue, if we would be able to tafte that knowledge and perfection, which are to make us happy in the next. The feeds of thofe fpiritual joys and raptures, which are to rife up and flourish in the foul to all eternity, must be planted in her during this her prefent ftate of probation. In short, Heaven is not to be looked upon only as the reward, but as the natural effect of a religious life.

On the other hand, thofe evil spirits, who, by long coftom, have contracted in the body habits of luft and fenfuality, malice and revenge, an averfion to every thing that is good, juft or laudable, are naturally seasoned and prepared for pain and mifery. Their torments have already taken root in them; they cannot be happy when divefted of the body, unless we may fuppofe, that Providence will in a manner, create them anew, and work a miracle in the rectification of their faculties. They may, indeed, taste a kind of malignant pleasure in those actions to which they are accustomed, whilft in this life; but when they are removed from all those objects which are here apt to gratify them, they will naturally become their own tormentors, and cherish in themselves thofe painful habits of mind which are called in Scripture phrafe, the worm which never dies. This notion of Heaven and Hell is fo very conformable to the light of nature, that it was discovered by feveral of the most exalted Heathens. It has been finely improved by many eminent divines of the last age, as in particular by Archbishop Tillotson and Dr. Sherlock: but there is none who has rais'd fuch noble fpeculations upon it as Dr. Scot, in the first book of his Christian Life, which is one of the finest and most rational schemes of divinity, that is written in our tongue, or in any other. That excellent author has fhewn how every particular cuftom and habit of virtue will, in its own nature, produce the heaven, or a ftate of happi

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nefs, in him who fhall hereafter practife it: As on the contrary how every cuítom or habit of vice will be the natural hell of him in whom it fubfifts.

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N° 448

Monday, August 4.

Fadius hoc aliquid quandoque audebis.

Juv. Sat. 2. v. 82.

In time to greater bafeness you'll proceed.

T

HE firft fteps towards ill are very carefully to be avoided, for men infenfibly go on when they are

once entered, and do not keep up a lively abhorrence of the least unworthinefs. There is a certain frivolous falfhood that people indulge themfelves in, which ought to be had in greater deteftation than it commonly meets with: What I mean is a neglect of promises made on small and indifferent occafions, fuch as parties of pleasure, entertainments, and fometimes meetings out of curiofity, in men of like faculties, to be in each other's company. There are many causes to which one may affign this light infidelity. Jack Sippet never keeps the hour he has appointed to come to a friend's to dinner; but he is an infignificant fellow who does it out of vanity. He could never, he knows, make any figure in company, but by giving a little disturbance at his entry, and therefore takes care to drop in when he thinks you are just feated. He takes his place after having discompofed every body, and defires there may be no ceremony; then does he begin to call himself the faddeft fellow, in difappointing fo many places as he was invited to elsewhere. It is the fop's vanity to name houses of better chear, and to acquaint you that he chofe yours out of ten dinners which he was obliged to be at that day. The last time I had the fortune to eat with him, he was imagining how very fat he should have been had. he eaten all he had ever been invited to. But it is impertinent to dwell upon the manners of fucn a wretch as

obliges

obliges all whom he difappoints, though his circumftances conftrain them to be civil to him. But there are thofe that every one would be glad to fee, who fall into the same detestable habit. It is a merciless thing that any one can be at eafe, and fuppose a set of people who have a kindness for him, at that moment waiting out of refpect to him, and refufing to taste their food or converfation with the utmost impatience. One of these promisers sometimes fhall make his excuses for not coming at all, fo late that half the company have only to lament, that they have neglected matters of moment to meet him whom they find a trifler. They immediately repent of the value they had for him; and fuch treatment repeated, makes company never depend upon his promifes any more; fo that he often comes at the middle of a meal, where he is fecretly flighted by the perfons with whom he eats, and curfed by the fervants, whofe dinner is delayed by his prolonging their master's entertainment. It is wonderful, that men guilty this. way, could never have obferved, that the whiling time, and gathering together, and waiting a little before dinner, is the most awkwardly paffed away of any part in the four and twenty hours. If they did think at all, they would reflect upon their guilt, in lengthning fuch a fufpenfion of agreeable life. The conftant offending. this way, has, in a degree, an effect upon the honesty of his mind who is guilty of it, as common fwearing is a kind of habitual perjury: It makes the foul unattentive to what an oath is, even while it utters it at the lips. Phocion beholding a wordy orator, while he was making a magnificent fpeech to the people, full of vain promiles; Methinks, said he, I am now fixing my eyes. upon a cypress tree; it has all the pomp and beauty imaginable in its branches, leaves and height, but alas it bears no fruit.

Though the expectation which is raised by impertinent promifes is thus barren, their confidence, even after failures, is fo great, that they fubfift by ftill promifing. I have heretofore difcourfed of the infignificant liar, the boaster, and the caftle-builder, and treated them as no ill defigning men, (though they are to be placed among the frivolously falfe ones) but perfons who fall into

on.

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that