universal dissatisfaction of mankind is principally to be ascribed. Care is the lot of life; and he that aspires to geatness in hopes to get rid of it, is like one who throws himself into a furnace to avoid the shivering of an ague." Could the individuals who thus speculate on the tendency of riches, but realise the pre-eminence for which they pant, they would find, with others of the same rank, that their stores of felicity would be soon exhausted; and, like them, would be found in quest of new sources of pleasure, and perhaps as easily persuaded to believe that, though hitherto disappointed, there are still sublunary objects in which permanent happiness may certainly be found. The love of variety in the human heart is incessant; and to the indulgence of this passion, many persons owe the principal part, if not the whole of their happiness. They are imperceptibly hurried from thing to thing; from one pursuit to another, and are frequently perplexed with the solicitations of different objects at the same time, and often bewildered in determining which to embrace. The felicity which the heart is anxious to secure, is never in fruition, but in hope; and it is owing to this insatiable propensity that we neglect, or at least do not duly appreciate that which might be actually enjoyed in the things we have already in possession. "Look not up with envy to those above thee," says a very ingenious writer. "Sounding titles, stately buildings, fine gardens, gilded chariots, rich equipages, what are they? They dazzle every one but the possessor: to him that is accustomed to them they are cheap and regardless things: they F He supply him not with brighter images, or more sublime satisfactions than the plain man may have, whose small estate may just enable him to support the charge of a simple unincumbered life. enters heedless into his rooms of state as you or I do under our poor sheds. The noble paintings and costly furniture are lost on him; he sees them not." When a solitary individual has passed me, sitting apparently at ease in his carriage, and I have been led to contemplate the various conditions of life, and the different sources from which they are expecting happiness, I have sometimes beheld him with a mixture of pity and benevolence. I have imagined it possible that, in consequence of being inured to ease and to affluence, he may feel little or no gratitude for the vehicle that facilitates his progress; that, however distinguished by opulence from others, he may nevertheless see nothing in his situation to communicate happiness which others around him in humbler circumstances do not equally enjoy; and that, while some are envying his felicity, he may himself perhaps be regretting the want of that content and cheerfulness which he saw impressed on the countenances of those whom he left behind. That splendour and elegance are not desirable, I am not so abstracted from life as to inculcate; but if we inquire closely into the reason for which they are esteemed, we shall find them valued principally as evidences of wealth. Nothing, therefore, can show greater depravity of understanding, than to delight in the show when the reality is wanting; or voluntarily to become poor, that strangers may for a time imagine us to be rich. To prize every thing according to its real use, ought to be the aim of a rational being. There are few things which can much conduce to happiness, and, therefore, few things to be ardently desired. He that looks upon the business and bustle of the world, with the philosophy with which Socrates surveyed the fair at Athens, will turn away at last with his exclamation, "How many things are here which I do not want!" It was said by him who exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches and for wisdom, He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase. "It almost always happens, that the man who grows rich changes his notions of poverty, states his wants by some new measure, and from flying the enemy that pursued him, bends his endeavours to overtake those whom he sees before him. The power of gratifying his appetites increases their demands; a thousand wishes crowd in upon him, importunate to be satisfied; and vanity and ambition open prospects of desire, which still grow wider, as they are more contemplated. "Thus in time want is enlarged without bounds; eagerness for increase of possessions deluges the soul; and we sink into the gulfs of insatiability, only because we do not sufficiently consider, that all real need is very soon supplied, and all real danger of its invasion easily precluded; that the claims of vanity, being without limits, must be denied at last; and that the pain of repressing them is less pungent before they have been long accustomed to compliance." The truth of these excellent remarks will be readily allowed on all hands; and yet, how anxious are the generality of men to add house to house, and field to field; to amass riches which they never can enjoy! riches that perish in the using, that are of no further benefit, and intended for no other purpose, than to purchase some temporary relief, some seasonable supply for those wants of human nature that are sure to attend us through every stage and situation of life. It is true that to wealth we are indebted for many of the comforts, and for almost all the superfluities of life; and hence it is that we sometimes think, nay, most commonly think, that happiness is annexed to the possession of it. Men, therefore, toil and labour for abundance, and when abundance is obtained, they perhaps find as many wants, as many cares, and as many sorrows, as when humble poverty was their only burden, when industry procured the necessaries of life, or when mediocrity of circumstances placed them beyond the reach of want. "He who has seen only the superficies of life, believes every thing to be what it appears, and rarely suspects that external splendour conceals any latent sorrow or vexation. He never imagines that there may be greatness without safety, affluence without content, jollity without friendship, and solitude without peace." The truth is, no terrestrial good can yield that substantial happiness which is suited to the nature and desires of the human mind; and he who thinks to find it in any thing beneath the sun, is pursuing a phantom that will elude his chase: and if it seem to loiter for his approach, it will only be to convince him of his folly; to show him a mistake that he never saw, and of which thousands never thought, till their race terminated in that country from whence none ever yet returned to acknowledge their error or to confess their shame. I am, &c. LETTER V. Content, rejecting toys, minds things to come, FROM what has been said in the preceding letter, I flatter myself you will not conclude, Philetus, that I think it necessary a man of affluence should make a point of marrying a woman without money, or that a man in low circumstances should expect to marry a woman with an immense fortune. Sentiments of this nature, if reduced to practice, would be productive of nothing but discord and confusion in society. "A wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgment."-But I will illustrate what I mean. Men of different ranks and degrees in life move in different spheres: the rich and noble in one very different from the tradesman, and the tradesman in one different from that which is general to the lower classes of mankind. Each treads the circle that providence hath allotted, and each ought to rest contented with his station. A man in business, who extends his views to a woman of the first rank and fortune, does not consult his happiness: their education and mode of life, their manners and their pursuits, are in many respects |