you, have it in their power to misrepresent and injure

you.

The more fervants you keep, the worse you will be ferved.

Great people think their inferiors do only their duty in ferving them: And that they do theirs in rewarding their fervices with a nod or a fmile. The lower part of mankind have minds too fordid to be capable of gratitude. It is therefore chiefly from the middle rank that you may look for a fenfe and return of kindness, or any thing worthy or laudable.

Do not let your enemy fee that he has it in his power to plague you.

Beware of one who has been your enemy, and all of a fudden, no body knows how, or why, grows mighty loving and friendly.

In propofing your bufinefs, be rather too full, than too brief, to prevent mistakes. In affairs, of which you are a judge, make the propofal yourfeif. In cafes which you do not understand, wait, if poffible, till another makes it to you.

Be fearful of one you have once got the better of You know not how you may have irritated him; nor how deeply revenge works in his heart against you. It is better not to feem to have got the advantage of enemy when you have.

your

If you ask a favour, which you had fome pretenfions to, and meet with a refufal, it will be impolitic to fhew that you think yourself ill ufed. You will act a more prudent part in feeming fatisfied with the reasons given. So you may take another opportunity of foliciting; and may chance to be fuccefsful: for the perfon you have obliged will, if he has any grace, be ashamed and puzzled to refufe you a fecond time,

If you are defamed, confider, whether the profecution of the perfon who has injured you is not more likely to fpread the report, than to clear your innocence. If fo, your regard for yourfelf will teach you what course to take.

THE

THE

DIGNITY

OF

HUMAN NATURE.

BOOK II.

Of KNOWLEDGE.

HA

INTRODUCTION.

AVING in the former book laid before the young reader a series of directions with regard to his conduct in most circumftances in life, which, if he will follow, fupplying their deficiences (as it is impoffible to frame a fyftem of prudentials that fhall fuit all poffible cafes without deficiency) by applying to the judicious and experienced for advice in all extraordinary emergencies, and by forming his conduct by the best rules and examples, he will have great reafon to hope for fuccefs and credit in life, and to have even his difappointments and misfortunes afcribed, at leaft by the candid and benevolent, to other caufes, rather than to error, or misconduct on his part; it follows next to proceed to the confideration of what makes another very confiderable part of the dignity of human life, to wit, The improvement of the mind by useful and ornamental knowledge.

It may be objected, that, as all our knowledge is comparatively but ignorance, it cannot be of much importance that we take the pains to acquire what is of fo little confequence when acquired.

But it is to be observed, that our knowledge is faid to be inconfiderable only in comparifon with that of fuperior beings, and that what we can know is not to be

named in comparison with what in the present ftate lies wholly out of our reach. And though this is the cafe not only of our fhort-fighted fpecies, but also of the highest archangel in heaven, whofe comprehenfion, being ftill finite, muft fall infinitely fhort of the whole extent of knowledge, which in the Divine Mind is ftrictly infinite; yet I believe hardly any man can be found fo weak as to defpife the knowledge of an angel, or fuperior being, or who would not willingly acquire it, if it were poffible.

If there is a certain measure of knowledge, which we are fure is attainable, because it has been attained by many of our own fpecies, muft we defpife it because we know there are vaft tracks of science to which human fagacity cannot reach? Muft we fall out with our eyes because they cannot take in the ken of an angel? Must we refolve not to make ufe of them to fee our way here on earth, because they are not acute enough to fhew us whether there are any inhabitants in the moon?

Truth may be compared to gold or diamonds in the mine, the smallest fragment of which is valuable. And if one had the offer of all the gold duft, or all the small diamonds of a mine, I believe he would hardly reject it, because he could not have the working of the rich vein wholly to himself. Truth is the proper object of the understanding, as food is the nourishment of the body. Lefs important truths are ftill worth fearching for. Truths of great importance are worth any labour the finding them may coft.

It is, therefore, plainly one thing to be conceited of any acquifitions we can make in knowledge, and another, to defpife thofe that are within our power. There is no doubt but the most enlightened angel above, is lefs conceited of the vaft treasures of knowledge he poffeffes, than a ftudent in his first year at the univerfity, is of the crude and indigefted fmattering he has gained. Nor is there any room to doubt, that knowledge is more efteemed by thofe fagacious beings who beft know the value of it, than by our fhort-fighted fpecies, who have gone fuch inconfiderable lengths in it.

norance.

The prefent is by no means an age for indulging igA perfon, who thinks to have any credit among mankind, or to make any figure in converfation, muft abfolutely refolve to take fome pains to improve himfelf. We find more true knowledge at present in fhops and counting-houses, than could have been found an age or two ago in univerfities. For the bulk of the knowledge of thofe times confifted in fubtle diftinctions, laborious difquifitions, and endless disputes about words. The univerfal diffufion of knowledge, which we obferve at prefent among all ranks of people, took its rife from the publishing thofe admirable effays, the Spectator, Tatler, and Guardian, in which learned fubjects were, by the elegant and ingenious authors, cleared from the fcholaftic rubbish of Latin and Logic, reprefented in a familiar ftyle, and treated in a manner which people of plain common fenfe might comprehend. The practice of exhibiting courfes of experiments in London, and other great cities, which was first introduced by. Whifton, Defaguliers, and others, has likewife greatly contributed to the fpreading a tafte for knowledge among the trading people, who now talk familiarly of things, their grandfathers would have thought it as much as their credit was worth to have been thought to know.

There is indeed greater danger, left the flood of luxury and vice, which overruns the nation, go on increafing, till it deftroy all that is truly noble and valuable in the people. I need not fay danger. There is not the leaft doubt but the debauchery of modern times will fhortly make an end, either of the nation or of itfelf. The hiftories of all the ftates of former times, where luxury has prevailed, fufficiently fhew what we have to expect. However, at prefent, it is abfolutely neceffary, in order to be on a foot with others, that we take a little pains to improve ourselves, especially in thofe parts of knowledge which enter commonly into converfation, as morals, hiftory, and phyfiology.

Nothing makes a greater difference between one being and another, than different degrees of knowledge. The mind of an ignorant perfon is an abfolute void. That of a wrong-headed perfon may be compared to a

town

town facked by an enemy, where all is overturned, and nothing in its proper ftate or place. That of a wife man is a magazine richly furnished. There important truths are ftored up in fuch regular arrangement, that reflection fees at once through a whole series of fubjects, and obferves diftinctly their relations and connections. We may confider the mind of an angelic being as a vaft palace, in which are various magazines ftored with fublime truths, the contemplation of whofe connections, relations, and various beauties, muft afford a happinefs to us inconceivable. The Divine Mind (if it may be allowed us to attempt to form any faint idea of the Original of all perfection) may be confidered as the immenfe and unbounded treasure of all truth, where the original ideas of all things that ever have been, that now are, and that ever shall be, or that are barely poffible, are continu, ally prefent; the continual contemplation of which infinitude of things, with the infinite beauties refulting from their various relations and connections, muft (if we may take the liberty of the expreffion) afford infinite entertainment and delight.

rant.

Thus, in proportion to the rank which any being holds in the universe, fuch are his views and his comprehenfion of things. And I know not whether the difference be greater betwixt the most enlightened of our fpecies, and the lowest order of angelic beings; than downward from the most knowing of our fpecies to the most ignoTo compare an illiterate clown, or even a nobleman funk in sensuality and ignorance, (for it is the fame thing whether you choose out of the great vulgar or the fmall) with a Newton or a Clarke; to compare, I fay, two minds, of which the one is wholly blind and infenfible to every thing above the mere animal functions, of which a brute is as capable as he; and the other is raised habitually above the regards of fenfe, and is employed in the contemplation of great and fublime truths, in fearching into the glorious works of his Almighty Maker in the natural world, and his profound fcheme of government in the moral, and, by the force of a stu pendous fagacity, is able to penetrate into, and lay open to others, truths feemingly beyond human reach; by knowing more of the Divine works, is capable of form