felves upon his inclinations. This was that infupportable calamity which bereaved the King of all fentiment; which made his friends forget their own misfortunes; and which the Roman magnanimity could fcarce conceive how any man could be fo mean-fpirited as to bear to furvive.

"Love, fays my Lord Rochfoucault, is com"monly fucceeded by ambition; but ambition "is hardly ever fucceeded by love." That paífion when once it has got entire poffeffion of the breaft, will admit neither a rival nor a fucceffor. To thofe who have been accustomed to the poffeffion, or even to the hope of public admiration, all other pleasures ficken and decay. Of all the difcarded ftatefmen who for their own eafe have studied to get the better of ambition, and to despise those honours which they could no longer arrive at, how few have been able to fucceed? The greater part have fpent their time in the most liftlefs and infipid indolence, chagrined at the thoughts of their own infignificancy, incapable of being interested in the occupations of private life, without enjoyment except when they talked of their former greatness, and without fatisfaction except when they were employed in fome vain project to recover it. Are you in earneft refolved never to barter your liberty for the lordly fervitude of a Court, but to live free, fearless, and independent? There feems to be one way to continue in that virtuous refolution; and perhaps but one. Never enter the place from whence fo few have been able to return; never come within the circle of ambition; nor even bring yourself into comparison with those mafters of the earth

G4

earth who have already engroffed the attention of half mankind before you.

Of fuch mighty importance does it appear to be, in the imaginations of men, to ftand in that fituation which fets them moft in the view of general fympathy and attention. And thus, place, that great object which divides the wives of aldermen, is the end of half the labours of life; and is the cause of all the tumult and buftle, all the rapine and injuftice, which avarice and ambition have introduced into this world. People of fenfe, it is faid, indeed defpife place; that is, they despise fitting at the head of the table, and are indifferent who it is that is pointed out to the company by that frivolous circumstance, which the smallest advantage is capable of overbalancing. But rank, diftinction, pre-eminence, no man despises, unless he is either raised very much above, or funk very much below, the ordinary ftandard of human nature; unless he is either fo confirmed in wifdom and real philosophy, as to be fatisfied that, while the propriety of his conduct renders him the juft object of approbation, it is of little confequence though he be neither attended to, nor approved of; or fo habituated to the idea of his own meannefs, fo funk in flothful and fottish indifference, as entirely to have forgot the defire, and almost the very wish, for fu periority.

CHAP.

CHAP. III.

Of the ftoical philosophy.

WHEN we examine in this manner into the

ground of the different degrees of estimation which mankind are apt to beftow upon the different conditions of life, we fhall find, that the exceffive preference, which they generally give to fome of them above others, is in a great measure without any foundation. If to be able to act with propriety, and to render ourselves the proper objects of the approbation of mankind, be, as we have been endeayouring to show, what chiefly recommends to us one condition above another, this may equally be attained in them all. The nobleft propriety of conduct may be supported in adverfity, as well as in prosperity; and though it is fomewhat more difficult in the first, it is upon that very account more admirable. Perils and misfortunes are not only the proper school of heroifm, they are the only proper theatre which can exhibit its virtue to advantage, and draw upon it the full applause of the world. The man, whose whole life has been one even and uninterrupted course of profperity, who never braved any danger, who never encountered any difficulty, who never furmounted any diftrefs, can excite but an inferior degree of admiration. When poets and romance-writers endeavour to invent a train of adventures, which fhall give the greatest luftre to those characters

characters for whom they mean to intereft us, they are all of a different kind. They are rapid and fudden changes of fortune, fituations the moft apt to drive those who are in them to frenzy and distraction, or to abject defpair; but in which their heroes act with fo much propriety, or at least with fo much fpirit and undaunted refolution, as ftill to command our esteem. Is not the unfortunate magnanimity of Cato, Brutus, and Leonidas, as much the object of admiration, as that of the fuccefsful Cæfar or Alexander? To a generous mind, therefore, ought it not to be as much the object of envy? If a more dazzling fplendor feems to attend the fortunes of fuccefsful conquerors, it is because they join together the advantages of both fituations, the luftre of profperity to the high admiration which is excited by dangers encountered, and difficulties furmounted, with intrepidity and valour.

It was upon this account that, according to the ftoical philofophy, to a wife man all the different conditions of life were equal. Nature, they said, had recommended fome objects to our choice, and others to our disapprobation. Our primary appetites directed us to the purfuit of health, ftrength, cafe, and perfection, in all the qualities of mind and body, and of whatever could promote or fecure these, riches, power, authority; and the fame original principle taught us to avoid the contrary. But in chufing or rejecting, in preferring or poftponing, thofe first objects of original appetite and averfion, Nature had likewife taught us, that there was a certain order, propriety, and grace, to be observed, of infinitely greater confequence to happiness and per

fection,

fection, than the attainment of thofe objects themfelves. The objects of our primary appetites or averfions were to be purfued or avoided, chiefly because a regard to this grace and propriety required fuch conduct. In directing all our actions according to thefe, confifted the happiness and glory of human nature. In departing from thofe rules which they prescribed to us, its greateft wretchednefs and most complete depravity. The outward appearance of this order and propriety was indeed more easily maintained in fome circumftances than in others. To a fool, however, to one whose pasfions were fubjected to no proper controul, to act with real grace and propriety, was equally impoffible in every fituation. Though the giddy multitude might admire him, though his vanity might fometimes be elevated by their ignorant praifes into fomething that refembled felf-approbation, yet ftill when he turned his view to what paffed within his own breaft, he was fecretly conscious to himself of the abfurdity and meanness of all his motives, and inwardly blushed and trembled at the thoughts of the contempt which he knew he deferved, and which mankind would certainly beftow upon him if they faw his conduct in the light in which in his own heart he was obliged to regard it. To a wife man, on the contrary, to one whofe paffions were all brought under perfect fubjection to the ruling principles of his nature, to reafon and the love of propriety, to act fo as to deferve approbation was equally eafy upon all occafions. Was he in profperity, he returned thanks to Jupiter for having joined him with circumftances which were eafily maftered, and in which there was little temptation to do wrong. Was he in adverfity, he equally, re

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