Effects ;---must always tend to them ;---and indeed never fail, but by Occafion of what we call Accidents. These indeed are out of our Reach; but being refolveable into God's wife Pleasure, can be no Rules for general Computation. So in like manner, the Abfence of Virtue, Discretion and Industry, must prevent Confequences, which can flow only from a contrary Caufe; fince God will not, in his ordinary Course, give a Force to any thing beyond its own natural Tendency: And hence it is unavoidable, but these Two Sorts of Perfons, the Rich and Poor, must meet together.

After all, there is one Thing which still deferves Attention. As the Rich may reduce themselves to Poverty by wrong Conduct, fo the Poor may raise themselves by Virtue and Industry :---May do fo, I mean, where they enjoy Liberty; which is the Cafe of every one under the happy Conftitution of this Country. Here every Subject, as being free, is capable of acquiring and holding Property. And therefore it must be no fmall Comfort to reflect, that, however low his Circumftances may be for the present, yet a Way is ftill open for improving them,---and that his Pofterity perhaps, may hereafter adorn even

the higher Stations of Life. This Confideration must abate of that Uneafinefs, which Poverty may be thought to carry with it: And if it fhould not make Men strictly contented with it, fhould at least induce them to be refigned and patient under it.

II. But this will be carried much farther in what is intended under my SECOND Head, viz. That there is no great Matter of Difference, in point of Happiness, between the Rich and the Poor.

For the more clear Explication of this Article, it fhould be remembered, that the general State of Rich and Poor, in the Comparison we are making, must be confidered; with the Advantages or Disadvantages proper to each, as flowing from their refpective Conditions. We have no Concern therefore either with extraordinary Accidents, or with those Confequences, which are owing rather to wrong Conduct, than the general State they are placed in.

Thus, if the Poor are fometimes reduced to Extremities, yet this is by no means the neceffary Confequence of their Rank. If it be owing to the Badness of the Seasons----to the accidental Scarcity of Provisions,----to

Want

Want of Employment, or the like, the Rich likewise are hereby Sufferers: And the Reliefs, which the Humanity of fuch Fellow-fufferers difposes them to afford, will render fuch Accidents fupportable.

Thus again, if the Difficulties they may be reduced to have been owing to their Sloth, or Improvidence, or Extravagancy, thefe ought not to be charged to the Account of their general Condition; For, Industry would have fupported them in a way by no means difagreeable; Carefulness in laying up what exceeded their daily Neceffities, would have guarded againft fuch coming Difficulties; but Extravagance may not only diffipate their leffer Stores (if fuch they have)--but in Time get the better of the greatest and most affluent Fortunes.

These Cafes therefore being thrown out of the prefent Question, let us now fee, whether there be any great Matter of Difference, in point of Happiness, between the Rich and

the Poor.

To the imperfect Confiderer it may feem, that the Rich have, in this Queftion, a great Advantage. Wealth opens the Way to Honour and Power, the great Aims of the Ambitious: The bare Consciousness of poffeffing Wealth,

Wealth, must administer fome Sort of Satisfaction: This renders Men independent of others;----enables them to do as they please; ---to purfue Entertainments out of the Reach of other Men; and to enjoy them likewise as often as they chuse to do so.

Allowing all this, yet no mighty Matter can arise from it. What is this Honour, unlefs rightly obtained and properly enjoyed, more than the being placed in a confpicuous View, in which they are gazed at by fome, and laughed at by others ?---What is Power, without attending to its proper Exercise, but the Opportunity of doing Mischief?-- What is the Consciousness of poffeffing Wealth, without using it, but a Consciousness of not deferving it?--What doth it import, that we are independent on others, when, in many Cafes, it is an Happiness to be dependent ?--Of what Confequence is it, that we can do as we please, when the doing fo is a Misfortune, and cannot itself please us ?--What is it to follow Pleasure, when it ends in Pain ; and the oftener it is purfued, will the oftener difappoint our Expectations? This is what the Happiness of the Rich, merely confidered as fuch, amounts to.

On the other hand, the Advantages before

men

mentioned, as they are called, may not at all enter into that Happiness which the Poor purfues. As Things of this kind are out of his Reach, he gives none Attention to them. Others he will respect in an honourable Station, without wishing for it himself. Power he fubmits to, fenfible perhaps of his own Infufficiency for the Exercife of Power. As to Wealth, he finds Nature requires but little: With that Little he is content. He enjoys what he hath. If he had more, perhaps he would not enjoy it: And then what fignifies the Poffeffion? To fatisfy the ordinary Cravings of Nature in the fimplest Manner, affords him a much higher Satisfaction, than the Man of Pleasure ever taftes of. His very Labours are none other, than what the great Man takes Refuge in, for the fake of what he calls Sports or Diversions: And if there be other Amusements lefs laborious, in which the Wealthy are apt to indulge themselves, yet the more brisk and active common People, as they have no Relish of them, are apt even to despise them.

It deferves farther to be noted, that a great Part of what the Wealthy poffeffes, is in some fort common to others; perhaps it is of fuch a Nature, that his own Enjoyment of it, will,