were at all times calm and equal: as they enjoyed the advantages of life with indifference, they were able to resign them with the same temper ;and, consequently, were out of the reach of fortune. All which, however fine, and likely to satisfy the fancy of a man at ease, could convey but little consolation to a heart already pierced with sorrow; nor is it to be conceived how an unfortunate creature should any more receive relief from such a lecture, however just, than "a man racked with an acute fit of the gout or stone could be supposed to be set free from torture by hearing from his physicians a nice dissertation upon his case. The philosophic consolations in sickness, or in afflictions for the death of friends and kindred, were just as efficacious;—and were rather, in general, to be considered as good sayings than good remedies ;-so that, if a man was bereaved of a promising child, in whom all his hopes and expectations centred, or a wife was left destitute to mourn the loss and protection of a kind and tender husband; Seneca or Epictetus would tell the pensive parent and disconsolate widow, that tears and lamentations for the dead were fruitless and absurd!-that to die was the necessary and unavoidable debt of nature;—and, as it could admit of no remedy, 'twas impious and foolish to grieve and fret themselves upon it. Upon such sage counsel, as well as many other lessons of the same stamp, the same reflection might be applied, which is said to have been made by one of the Roman emperors to one who administered the same consolations to him on a like occasion; to whom advising him to be com

forted, and make himself easy, since the event had been brought about by fatality, and could not be helped, he replied, "That this was so far from lessening his trouble, that it was the very circumstance which occasioned it." So that, upon the whole, when the true value of these, and many more of their current arguments, have been weighed and brought to the test, one is led to doubt whether the greatest part of their heroes, the most renowned for constancy, were not much more indebted to good nerves and good spirits, or the natural happy frame of their tempers, for behaving well, than to any extraordinary helps which they could be supposed to receive from their instructors: and, therefore, I should make no scruple to assert, that one such instance of patience and resignation as this, which the Scripture gives us in the person of Job, not of one most pompously declaiming upon the contempt of pain and poverty, but of a man sunk in the lowest condition of humanity, to behold him when stripped of his estate, his wealth, his friends, his children, cheerfully holding up his head, and entertaining his hard fortune with firmness and serenity, and that not from a stoical stupidity, but a just sense of God's providence, and a persuasion of his justice and goodness in all his dealings; such an example, I say, as this is of more universal use, speaks truer to the heart than all the heroic precepts which the pedantry of philosophy has to offer.

STERNE.

THE WISDOM OF PERSEVERING IN

OUR ACTIVE DUTIES.

EVERY man of understanding acknowledges some obligation to apply our talents to the business of human life, or to the ends of our probation for the world to come, as long as we are capable of exercising them. It is impossible seriously to doubt that our personal duties must be indispensable, as long as we have the means of fulfilling them.

But when the doctrine is applied to practice, we are apt to take very different views of the subject. Though it is a truth fully established by experience, that it is best for every man, in the present life, and most for his advantage as an immortal being, to persevere in the active duties of his condition, as long as it is possible for him to discharge them; there is nothing which men more generally allow to dwell on their thoughts through life, than the idea, that a time shall come, long before they die, when they shall be able to relinquish their usual or professional occupations, and to spend the rest of their time, without labour or exertion, in the enjoyment of their private or domestic situations. Few in comparison are ever permitted to realize an idea which so many allow to occupy their imaginations. Of those who are enabled to relinquish their labours, if their lives are prolonged, the greater part have reason to repent what they have done. By the change produced on their habits, and by want of use, their faculties are gradually impaired, as the sources of their activity are diminished; and

they meet with chagrin and disappointment, where they expected to have found nothing but satisfaction or tranquillity.

I do not say that those who have retired from the bustle of affairs cannot employ, and employ faithfully," the fragments" both of their health and their vigour. They have certainly much in their power, if they consecrate their leisure to real duties, and keep their talents occupied as they ought to be; much which relates to the discipline of their own minds; much which can be done in domestic life, for the advantage of the old or of the young, to whom they can give their attention or their time; much by which they can be useful to those whose characters they can influence, whose hands they can strengthen; whom they can assist in their difficulties, or comfort in their sickness, or furnish with the means either of prosperity or of religion.

Those who apply the decline of life to such purposes as these, do not retire in vain from the bustle of the world. If they embrace heartily the opportunities of usefulness they still possess, nothing is lost which they are capable of attaining. That which they do in secret for the glory of God, or for the advantage of their fellow mortals, is sanctified by the prayer of faith, and shall be accounted to them as good service in "the day of Christ."

But though I say this, I have no hesitation to add, that those who abide by their active occupations from a sense of duty, and who employ the last portion of their talents where they spent their vigour, have much better reason to expect that

both their usefulness and their personal comfort shall be continued as long as they live.

No good man's conscience will suggest to him that he ought to become weary of his labours. He who delights in the service on which his duty or his usefulness depends, can have no wish to relinquish it. He is anxious to persevere in the duties which he can in any degree accomplish, even when he is conscious of his decline. He looks up to God, to whom he thinks he shall soon return; and though he knows that his summons to die cannot be distant, it continues to be the first wish of his heart that he may be found employing the last portions of his health and life in the duties of his proper place.

A man who is able to preserve this happy temper of mind to the end, has a far better prospect, than other habits could afford him, of possessing the vigour of his faculties to his last hour; and therefore of extending his labours and his usefulness far beyond the ordinary term of human activity. He hears the voice of his Master, urging his duties and his fidelity on his conscience, till his strength is gone: and he does not lose the impression of it till the last spark of life expires.

SIR HENRY WELLWOOD.