thofe remedies will be fufficiently powerful. The efficacy of mirth it is not always eafy to try, and the indulgence of melancholy may be fufpected to be one of thofe medicines which will deftroy, if it happens not to cure.

The fafe and general antidote against forrow is employment. It is commonly obferved, that among foldiers and feamen, though there is much kindness, there is little grief; they fee their friend fall without any of that lamentation which is indulged in fecurity and idleness, becaufe they have no leifure to fpare from the care of themselves; and whoever fhall keep his thoughts equally bufy, will find himself equally unaffected with irretrievable loffes.

MART.

AMONG the innumerable follies, by which we lay up in our youth repentance and remorfe for the fucceeding part of our lives, there is fearce any against which warnings are of lefs efficacy, than the neglect of Health. When the fprings of motion are yet elastick, when the heart bounds with vigour, and the eye fparkles with fpirit, it is with difficulty that we are taught to conceive the imbecility that every hour is bringing upon us, or to imagine that the nerves which are now braced with fo much ftrength, and the limbs which play with fo much activity, will lofe all their power under the gripe of time, relax with numbnefs, and totter with debility.

To the arguments which have been ufed against complaints under the miferies of life, the philofophers have, I think, forgot to add the incredulity of thofe to whom we recount our fufferings. But if the purpose of lamentation be to excite pity, it is furely fuperfluous for age and weakness to tell their plaintive ftories; for pity prefuppofes fympathy, and a little attention will fhew them, that those who do not feel pain, feldom think that it is felt; and a fhort recollection will inform almost every man, that he is only repaid the infult which he has given, fince he may remember how often he has

mocked infirmity, laughed at it's cau tions, and cenfured it's impatience.

The valetudinarian race have made the care of health ridiculous by fuffering it to prevail over all other confiderations, as the mifer has brought frugality into contempt, by permitting the love of money not to fhare, but to engrofs his mind: they both err alike, by confounding the means with the end; they grafp at health only to be well, as at money only to be rich; and forget that every terreftrial advantage is chiefly valuable, as it furnithes abilities for the exercife of virtue.

Health is indeed fo neceflary to all the duties, as well as pleafures of life, that the crime of fquandering it is equal to the folly, and he that for a fhort gratification brings weakness and difeafes upon himself, and for the pleasure of a few years pailed in the tumults of diverfion, and clamours of merriment, condemns the maturer and more experienced part of his life to the chamber and the couch, may be juftly reproached, not only as a spendthrift of his own happinefs, but as a robber of the publick; as a wretch that has voluntarily difqualified himfelf for the bufinefs of his ftation, and refufed that part which Providence affigns him in the general task of human

There are perhaps very few conditions more to be pitied than that of an active and elevated mind, labouring under the weight of a diftempered body; the time of fuch a man is always spent in forming fchemes, which a change of wind hinders him from executing, his powers fume away in projects and in hope, and the day of action never arrives. He lies down delighted with the thoughts of tomorrow, pleases his ambition with the fame be fhall acquire, or his benevolence with the good he fhall confer. But in the night the fkies are overcaft, the temper of the air is changed, he wakes in languor, impatience, and distraction, and has no longer any wish but for ease, nor any attention but to mifery. It may be faid that difeafe generally begins that equality which death completes; the dif tinctions which fet one man fo much above another are very little perceived in the gloom of a fick chamber, where it will be vain to expect entertainment from the gay, or inftruction from the wife; where all human glory is obliterated, the wit is clouded, the reafoner perplexed, and the hero fubdued; where The highest and brighteft of mortal beings finds nothing left him but the confcioufnefs of innocence.

There is among the fragments of the Greek poets a fhort hymn to Health, in which her power of exalting the happinefs of life, of heightening the gifts of fortune, and adding enjoyment to posfeflion, is inculcated with fo much force and beauty, that no one who has ever languished under the difcomforts and infirmities of a lingering difeafe, can read it without feeling the images dance in his heart, and adding from his own experience new vigour to the wish, and from his own imagination new colours to the picture. The particular occafion of this little compofition is not known, but it is probable that the author had been fick, and in the first raptures of returning vigour addreffed Health in the following

manner:

Υγίεια πρεσβίσα Μακάρων,
Μετὰ σὲ ναίοιμε

Τὸ λειπόμενον βιοτᾶς·

Σε δέ μοι πρόφρων (ύνοικος εἴης
Ει γάρ τις ἢ πλύτη χάρις ἡ τεκέων,
Τᾶς εὐδαίμονος τ' ἀνθρώποις
Βασιληίδος ἀρχᾶς, ἡ απόθων,

Οις κρυφίοις Αφροδίτης ἄξουσιν θηρεύομεν;
Η εἴ τις ἄλλα θεόθεν ἀνθρώποις τέρψις,

Η πόνων αμπνοα στέφανα

Μετὰ ζεῖο μακαρία Υγίεια,

Τέθηλε πάντα, και λάμπει χαρίτων Παρ

Σέθεν δὲ χωρὶς, ὐδεὶς ἐυδαίμων στελείο

Health, moft venerable of the powers of Heaven! with thee may the remaining part of my life be paffed, nor do thou refufe to bless me with thy refidence. For whatever there is of beauty or of pleasure in wealth, in defcendants, or in fovereign command, the highest fummit of human enjoyment, or in thofe objects of defire which we endeavour to chafe into the toils of love; whatever delight, or whatever folace is granted by the celestials, to soften our fatigues, in thy prefence, thou parent of happinefs, all thofe joys spread out and flourish; in thy prefence blooms the fpring of pleasure, and without thee no man is happy.

Such is the power of health, that withis torpid and lifelefs, as the powers of out it's co-operation every other comfort vegetation without the fun. And yet this blifs is commonly thrown away in thoughtless negligence, or in foolish experiments on our own ftrength; we let it perifh without remembering it's value, or wafte it to how how much we have to fpare; it is fometimes given up to the management of levity and chance, and fometimes fold for the applaufe of jollity and debauchery.

Health is equally neglected, and with bufinefs and the followers of pleasure. equal impropriety, by the votaries of

Some men ruin the fabrick of their bodies by inceffant revels, and others by intemperate ftudies; fome batter it by excefs, and others fap it by inactivity. To the noify route of bacchanalian rioters, it will be to little purpofe that advice is offered, though it requires no great abilities to prove, that he lofes pleasure who lofes health; their clamours are too loud for the whispers of caution, and they run the courfe of life with too much precipitance to stop at the call of wisdom. Nor, perhaps, will they that are bufied in adding thoufands to thoufands, pay much regard to him that fhall direct them to haften more flowly to their wishes. Yet, fince lovers of money are generally cool, deliberate, and thoughtful, they might furely confider, that the greater good ought not to be facrificed to the lefs. Health is certainly more valuable than money, because it is by health that money is procured; but thousands and millions are of finall avail to alleviate the protracted tortures of the gout, to repair the broken organs of fenfe, or refufcitate the powers

lage, than the fecond in the capital of the world, has apparently kindled in himself defires which he never received from nature, and acts upon principles eftablished only by the authority of cuf

tom.

Of thofe adfcititious paffions, fome, as avarice and envy, are univerfally condemned; fome, as friendship and curiofity, generally praifed: but there are others about which the fuffrages of the wife are divided, and of which it is doubted, whether they tend moft to promote the happinefs, or increase the miferies of mankind.

Of this ambiguous and difputable kind is the love of fame, a defire of filling the minds of others with admiration, and of being celebrated by generations to come with praises which we fhall not hear. This ardour has been confidered by fome, as nothing better than fplendid madness, as a flame kindled by pride, and fanned by folly; for what, fay they, can be more remote from wisdom, than to direct all our actions by the hope of that which is not to exift till we ourselves are in the grave? To pant after that. which can never be poffeffed, and of which the value thus wildly put upon it, arifes from this particular condition, that, during life, it is not to be obtained? To gain the favour, and hear the applaufes of our contemporaries, is indeed equally defirable with any other prerogative of fuperiority, because fame may be of ufe to fmooth the paths of life, to terrify oppofition, and fortify tranquillity; but to what end fhall we be the darlings of mankind, when we can no longer receive any benefits from their favour? It is more reasonable to wifh for reputation, while it may yet be enjoyed; as Anacreon calls upon his companions to give him for prefent use the wine and garlands which they purpofe to bestow upon his tomb.

The advocates for the love of fame allege in it's vindication, that it is a paffion natural and univerfal; a flame lighted by Heaven, and always burning with greatest vigour in the most enlarged and elevated minds. That the defire of being praifed by potterity implies a refolution to deferve their praifes, and that the folly charged upon it is only a noble and difinterested generofity, which is not felt, and therefore not understood, by those who have been always accuftomed to refer every thing to them

felves, and whofe felfishness has contracted their understandings. That the foul of man, formed for eternal life, naturally fprings forward beyond the limits of corporeal existence, and rejoices to confider herself as co-operating with future ages, and as co-extended with endlefs duration. That the reproach urged with fo much petulance, the reproach of labouring for what cannot be enjoyed, is founded on an opinion which may with great probability be doubted; for fince we fuppofe the pow ers of the foul to be enlarged by it's feparation, why fhould we conclude that it's knowledge of fublunary transactions is contracted or extinguished?

Upon an attentive and impartial review of the argument, it will appear that the love of fame is to be regulated rather than extinguished; and that men fhould be taught not to be wholly carelefs about their memory, but to endea your that they may be remembered chiefly for their virtues, fince no other reputation will be able to tranfinit any pleafure beyond the grave.

It is evident that fame, confidered merely as the immortality of a name, is not lefs likely to be the reward of bad actions than of good; he therefore has no certain principle for the regulation of his conduct, whofe fingle aim is not to be forgotten. And history will inform us, that this blind and undiftinguished appetite of renown has always been uncertain in it's effects, and directed by accident or opportunity, indifferently to

the benefit or devaftation of the world. When Themistocles complained that the trophies of Miltiades hindered him from fleep, he was animated by them to perform the fame fervices in the fame canfe. But Cæfar, when he wept at the fight of Alexander's picture, having no honeft opportunities of action, let his ambition break out to the ruin of his country.

If, therefore, the love of fame is fo far indulged by the mind as to become independent and predominant, it is dangerous and irregular; but it may be ufefully employed as an inferior and fecondary motive, and will ferve fometimes to revive our activity, when we begin to languish and lofe fight of that more certain, more valuable, and more durable reward, which ought always to be our first hope and our laft. But it must be ftrongly impressed upon our minds, that virtue is not to be purfued as one of the

means