add the fashionable ornaments of life. It is no very uncommon thing in the world to meet with men of probity; there are likewise a great many men of honour to be found; men of courage, men of sense, and men of letters, are frequent : but a true fine gentleman is what one seldom sees; he is properly a compound of the various good qualities that embellish mankind." NUMBER 25. "Order is Heaven's first law."-PorE. TO THE INSPECTOR. SIR,-Being frequently amused and entertained with your lucubrations, I take the liberty of presenting the public, through the medium of your paper, with a few desultory thoughts on a subject which has a close and intimate connection with our happiness. The gayest spirits have their serious moments, and in these the votaries of dissipation may be frequently heard to complain of the mutability and inequalities of our condition, and the general shortness of human life. Short indeed! at its longest period; but how frequently made shorter by the negligence of our habits, and the ruinous and destructive tendency of our vices. The most rigid philosophical investigation of the situation and connexions of human nature, proves, beyond all doubt, the first principle of all religion, which is, that man is placed in this world in a state of trial and probation; and that he is responsible to the ruler of the world, for his conduct in it. Now considering the vast importance of time, the many mighty effects which it produces, and the important consequences which result from a proper or improper mode of employing it, nothing appears more worthy of our attention than a well-digested general plan of regulating our multifarious occupations. To live without rule or method, is to live in confusion or disorder. The present hour will be occupied with what ought to have been done the last; many of our duties will be entirely neglected; and the rest performed at such a time, and in such a manner, as is the least favourable for giving efficacy and vigour to our conduct. There is an elegant correctness of action, to which every one ought to aspire that wishes to live really respectable in his own eyes, and also in the opinion of the world. To live without a wish of this kind, is a token of the completest depravity; while to have the wish, and yet to neglect. the means of accomplishing it, when they are so much in our own power, must certainly originate in a wretched imbecility of character, which must always make a man ridiculous, and will most assuredly render him miserable. The different wants of society require a great variety in the service of its members. All are not called upon to govern and take the helm of power; nor are all men capable of doing so. We are evidently formed for social life, and destined to act in reference to the necessities, the employments, and the pleasures of others. And nature has wisely adapted the constitutional peculiarities of man to his circumstances. His infinitely variegated talents correspond with the duties of his situation. With wise intent, The hand of nature on peculiar minds In the eye of reason, all stations may be considered as being upon a natural equality; and, however the prejudices of some may be shocked by the proposition, it is capable of clear demonstration on principles of the soundest philosophy. It is our passions, not nature, that constitute the difference. Some situations, we grant, have a greater and more extensive influence on the political interest of society than others; yet "let CC not the eye say to either the hand or the foot, I have no need of thee." In a moral point of view, we contend, without admitting any exceptions, that he who fills the lowest offices of society with faithfulness, however he may be overlooked amid the false glare of meretricious grandeur, is as essentially valuable a link, in the great chain of the community, as he who fills the highest. It is, perhaps, owing in a great measure to our vanity, that we are so apt to complain of our own condition in the actual constitution of society. It is our offended pride that is perpetually objecting that places of honour are monopolized by weakness and insignificance. The truth probably is, that the world is not quite so unjust as such objectors pretend. If mental strength and energy are sometimes seen to stagnate and languish, in situations that allow no scope for exertion, their neglect, it is not impossible, may be owing to some evident obliquity of character, which, in the natural course of things, might render their promotion an act of public injustice. I pretend not that the organization of society is perfect, nor that it does not admit of very considerable amelioration and improvement. But whatever defects may be observed in it, we have no just grounds for petulant complaint; as there does not exist any prescription, by which a man's attainments in life are bounded by the circumstances in which he is born. His personal character and condition have a reciprocal action on each other. By folly, some are reduced from ease and affluence to penury and want; and we are not without numerous instances, in which, by a contrary conduct, others have advanced from small beginnings to a pre-eminence in dignity and honour. Were we possessed of a more minute acquaintance with all the various circumstances that act upon a man's condition, we probably should be fully satisfied, that intellectual capacity, when joined with industry and good conduct, will always attain to that respectability in life to which it is entitled on the ground of genuine merit. What is the result? Every man has duties which it is creditable to discharge, and which it is disgraceful and ruinous to neglect. Our Maker claims our first and supreme attention; society has its manifold demands upon us; and we have many obligations in reference to our own personal feelings and character. The absurdity and folly of irreligion, may be reserved as the subject of another paper; and the present one shall be concluded by recurring to the principle with which I set out. If the various ramifications of social duty are considered, as well as |