Page images
PDF
EPUB

minion, is so averse to all manner of violence, as totally to throw it aside, to slip into the more natural facility of her own progress; 'tis the nursing-mother of all humane pleasures, who, in rend'ring them just, renders them also pure and per manent; in moderating them, keeps them in breath and appe tite; in interdicting those which she herself refuses, whets our desires to those that she allows; and, like a kind and liberal mother, abundantly allows all that nature requires, even to satiety, if not to lassitude; unless we will declaim, that the regimen of health, which stops the toper's hand before he has drank himself drunk, or the glutton's before he hath eaten to a surfeit, is an enemy to pleasure. If the ordinary fortune fail, and that she meet with an indocile disposition, she passes that disciple by, and takes another not so fickle and unsteady as the other, which she forms wholly her own. She can be rich, be potent, and wise, and knows how to lie upon soft down, and perfumed quilts too: she loves life, beauty, glory, and health; but her proper and peculiar office is to know regularly how to make use of all these good things, and how to part with them without concern; an office much more noble than troublesome, and without which the whole course of life is unnatural, turbulent, and deformed; and there it is, indeed, that men may justly represent those monsters upon rocks and precipices. If this pupil shall happen to be of so cross and contrary a disposition, that he had rather hear a tale of a tub, than the true narrative of some noble expedition, or some wise and learned discourse, who, at the beat of drum, that excites the youthful ardour of his companions, leaves that, to follow another that calls to a morricedance or the bears, and who would not wish, and find it more delightful, and more pleasing, to return all dust and sweat Victorious from a battel, than from tennis or from a ball, with the prize of those exercises; I see no other remedy, but that he be bound apprentice in some good town to learn to make some good mince pyes, though he were the son of a duke; according to Plato's precept, That children are to be plac'd out, and dispos'd of, not according to the wealth, qualities, or condition of the father, but according to the faculties and the capacity of their own soul.""

I cannot omit to introduce in this place Miss Car ter's Ode to Wisdom:

The solitary bird of night

Thro' the pale shades now wings his flight,

And quits the time-shook tow'r,

Where, shelter'd from the blaze of day,
In philosophic gloom he lay,

Beneath his ivy bow'r

With joy I hear the solemn sound,
Which midnight echoes waft around,
And sighing gales repeat;
Fav'rite of Pallas! I attend,

And, faithful to thy summons, bend
At Wisdom's awful seat.

She loves the cool, the silent eve,
Where no false shows of life deceive,
Beneath the lunar ray;

Her folly drops each vain disguise,
Nor sports her gaily-colour'd dyes,
As in the glare of day.

O Pallas! queen of ev'ry art
That glads the sense, or mends the heart
Blest source of purer joys,
In ev'ry form of beauty bright,
That captivates the mental sight
With pleasure and surprise
To thy unspotted shrine I bow,
Assist thy modest suppliant's vow,
That breathes no wild desires;
But, taught by thy unerring rules,
To shun the fruitless wish of fools
To nobler views aspires.

Not fortune's gem, ambition s plume,
Nor Cytherea's fading bloom,

Be objects of my pray'r;
Let av'rice, vanity, and pride,
These glitt'ring envied toys divide,
The dull rewards of care.

To me the better gifts impart,
Each moral beauty of the heart,
By studious thought refin'd;
For wealth, the smiles of glad content,'
For pow'r, its amplest, best extent,
An empire o'er my mind.

When fortune drops her gay parade,
When pleasure's transient roses fade,
And wither in the tomb,
Unchang'd is thy immortal prize,
Thy ever-verdant laurels rise
In undecaying bloom.

By thee protected, I defy

The coxcomb's sneer, the stupid lie

Of ignorance and spite;

10.

Alike contemn the leaden fool,
And all the pointed ridicule
Of undiscerning wit.

From envy, hurry, noise, and strife,
The dull impertinence of life,
In thy retreat I rest;

Pursue thee to thy peaceful groves,
Where Plato's sacred spirit roves,
In all thy graces drest.

He bid Ilyssus' tuneful stream
Convey the philosophic theme
Of perfect, fair, and good;
Attentive Athens caught the sound,
And all her list'ning sons around
In awful silence stood.

Reclaim'd, her wild licentious youth
Confest the potent voice of truth,
And felt its just control;

The passions ceas'd their loud alarms
And virtue's soft persuasive charms
O'er all their senses stole

Thy breath inspires the poet's song,
The patriot's free unbiass'd tongue,
The hero's gen'rous strife;
Thine are retirement's silent joys,
And all the sweet endearing ties
Of still, domestic life.

No more to fabled names confin'a,
To thee, supreme, all-perfect Mind,
My thoughts direct their flight;
Wisdom's thy gift, and all her force
From thee deriv'd, unchanging source
Of intellectual light!

O send her sure, her steady ray,
To regulate my doubtful way
Thro' life's perplexing road;
The mists of error to control,
And thro' its gloom direct my soul
To happiness and good!
Beneath her clear discerning eye
The visionary shadows fly,

Of folly's painted show;

She sees thro' ev'ry fair disguise,
That all, but virtue's solid joys,
Is vanity and woe.

2 s

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

When a person of independent fortune, instead of leading a life of indolence, dissipation, or vice, employs himself in studying the marks of infinite wisdom and goodness which are manifested in every part of the visible creation, we know not which we ought most to congratulate, the public or the individual. Self-taught naturalists are often found to make no little progress in Knowledge, and to strike out many new lights by the mere aid of original genius and patient application. But the man who has possessed the advantage of a liberal education, engages in these pursuits with peculiar advantage." He takes more comprehensive views, is able to consult a greater variety of authors, and, from the early habits of his mind, is more accurate and more methodical in all his investigations. The world at large, therefore, cannot fail to be benefited by his labours; and the value of the enjoyments which, at the same time, he secures to himself, is beyond all calculation. No tedious vacant hour ever makes him wish for he knows not what, complain he knows not why. Never does a restless impatience at having nothing to do, compel him to seek a momentary stimulus to his dormant powers in the tumultuous pleasures of the intoxicating cup, or the agitating suspense of the game of chance. Whether he be at home or abroad, in every different clime, and in every season of the year, universal nature is before him, and invites him to a banquet richly replenished with whatever can invigorate his understanding or gratify his mental taste. The earth on which he treads, the air in which he moves, the sea along whose margin he walks, all teem with objects which keep his attention perpetually awake, excite him to healthful activity, and charm him with an ever-varying succession of the beautiful, the wonderful, the useful, and the new. And if, in conformity with the direct tendency of such occupations, he rise from the creature to the Creator, and consider the duties which naturally result from his own situation and rank in this vast system of being, he will derive as much satisfaction from the anticipation of the future as from the

experience of the present, and the recollection of the
past. The mind of the pious naturalist is always
cheerful, always animated with the noblest and most
benign feelings. Every repeated observation, every
unexpected discovery, directs his thoughts to the
great Source of all order and all good, and harmonizes
all his faculties with the general voice of nature.
The men

Whom nature's works can charm, with God himself
Hold converse; grow familiar, day by day,
With his conceptions, act upon his plan,
And form to his the relish of their souls!

A

Those only who seek Knowledge with a view to their moral improvement, will experience its genuine pleasures. In this view, Knowledge will prevent innumerable errors in conduct, for it has a powerful influence in forming the mind to habits of humility, modesty, charity, and piety. Ignorance is the fruitful parent of pride, arrogance, uncharitableness, and impiety. The man of true Knowledge pays little regard to the distinctions of sect and party, he knows that mankind are usually divided about words rather than things, and sounds rather than sense.

To sects and parties his large soul

Disdains to be confin'd;

He loves the good of every name,
And prays for all mankind.

It is the man of little Knowledge only who is vain, bigoted, confident, and censorious; his are not the pleasures of Knowledge, but of ignorance.—

A

A little learning is a dang'rous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring;
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.
Fir'd at first sight with what the muse imparts,
In fearless youth we tempt the heights of arts,
While from the bounded level of our mind,
Short views we take, nor see the lengths behind;
But more advanc'd, behold, with strange surprise
New distant scenes of endless science rise!
So, pleas'd, at first the tow'ring Alps we try,
Mount o'er the vales, and seem to tread the sky,

« PreviousContinue »