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fufficiently established by other arguments and if fo, this appetite, which otherwife would be very unaccountable and abfurd, seems very reasonable, and adds ftrength to the conclufion. But I am amazed when I confider there are creatures capable of thought, who, in fpite of every argument, can form to themselves a fullen fatisfaction in thinking otherwife. There is fomething fo pitifully mean in the inverted ambition of that man who can hopefor annihilation, and please himself to think that his whole fabrick fhall oneday crumble into duft, and mix with the mafs of inanimate Beings, that it equally deferves our admiration and pity. The mystery of fuch mens unbelief is C not hard to be penetrated; and indeed amounts to nothing more than a fordid hope that they thall not be immortal, because they dare not be fo.

This brings me back to my firft obfervation, and gives me occafion to fay further, That as worthy actions fpring from worthy thoughts, fo worthy thoughts are likewife the confequence of worthy actions: But the wretch who has degraded himself below the cha•racter

racter of immortality, is very willing to refign his pretenfions to it, and to • fubftitute in its room a dark negative "happiness in his extinction of his Being.

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The admirable Shakespear has given us a strong image of the unfupported condition of fuch a perfon in his last minutes, in the fecond part of King Henry the Sixth, where Cardinal Beaufort, who had been concerned in the murther of the good Duke Humphrey, is reprefented on his death-bed. After fome fhort confufed fpeeches which fhew an imagination disturbed with guilt, juft as he is expiring, King Henry standing by him full of compaffion, fays,

Lord Cardinal! if thou think'st on heav'ns bliss. Hold up thy band, make signal of that hope! He dies and makes no fign!

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The despair which is here fhewn, without a word or action on the part of the dying perfon, is beyond what could be painted by the moft forcible expreffions whatever.

I fhall not pursue this thought further, but only add, that as annihilation is not to be had with a wish, fo it is the most abject thing in the world to

"wish it. What are honour, fame, wealth or power, when compared with the generous expectation of a Being without end, and a happiness adequate to that. Being?

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I am, SIR,

Your most obedient, humble Servant, T. D.

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Ἐν ἐλπίσιν χρὴ τῆς φορὲς ἔχειν βίον. Euripid. copès

THE time prefent feldom affords fufficient employment to the mind of man. Objects of pain or pleasure, love or admiration, do not lie thick enough together in life to keep the Soul in constant action, and supply an immediate ex-ercife to its faculties. In order, therefore, to remedy this defect, that the mind may not want business, but always have materials for thinking, fhe is endowed with certain powers, that can recal what. is paffed, and anticipate what is to come.

That wonderful faculty, which we call the Memory, is perpetually looking back, when we have nothing present to entertain us. It is like thofe repofitories in feveral animals, that are filled with ftores.

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of their former food, on which they may ruminate when their prefent pafture fails.

As the memory relieves the mind in her vacant moments, and prevents any chafms of thought by ideas of what is past, we have other faculties that agitate and employ her upon what is to come.. These are the paffions of hope and fear.

By these two paffions we reach forward into futurity, and bring up to our prefent thoughts objects that lie hid in. the remoteft depths of time. We fuffer mifery, and enjoy happiness, beforethey are in Being; we can fet the fun and stars forward, or lofe fight of them by wandring into thofe retired parts of eternity, when the heavens and earth fhall be no more.

By the way; who can imagine that the Exiftence of a creature is to be circumfcribed by time, whofe Thoughts are not? But I fhall, in this paper, confine my felf to that particular paffion which goes by the name of Hope.

Our actual enjoyments are fo few and tranfient, that man would be a very miferable Being, were he not endowed with this paffion, which gives him a taste of thofe good things that may poffibly come

into his poffeffion. We should hope for every thing that is good, fays the old Poet Linus, because there is nothing which may not be hoped for, and nothing but what the Gods are able to give us. Hope quickens all the ftill parts of life, and keeps the mind awake in her most remifs and indolent hours. It gives habitual ferenity and good humour. It is a kind of vital heat in the foul, that chears and gladdens her, when she does not attend to it. pain eafy, and labour pleasant.

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Befide thefe feveral advantages which rife from Hope, there is another which is none of the leaft, and that is, its great efficacy in preferving us from fetting too high a value on prefent enjoyments. The faying of Cafar is very well known. When he had given away all his eftate in gratuities among his friends, one of them asked what he had left for himself; to which that great man replied, Hope. His natural magnanimity hindred him from prizing what he was certainly poffeffed of, and turned all his thoughts upon fomething more valuable that he had. in view. I queftion not but every rea der will draw a moral from this ftory, and apply it to himself without my direction. The

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