companion, exclaimed, 'Let thy heart rejoice at the beauty of the scene! to me it is a desert; but you are free; return to your countrymen, revisit your father, that he may again rejoice when he sees the sun rise in the morning, and the trees blossom in the spring!" False reasoners are often best confuted by giving them the full swing of their own absurdities. Some arguments may be compared to wheels, where half a turn will put every thing upside down that is attached to their peripheries; but if we complete the circle, all things will be just where we found them. Hence, it is common to say, that arguments that prove too much, prove nothing. I once heard a gentleman affirm, that all mankind were governed by a strong and overruling influence, which determined all their actions, and over which they had no control; and the inference deducible from such a position was, that there was no distinction between virtue or vice. Now, let us give this mode of reasoning full play. A murderer is brought before a judge, and sets up this strong and overruling propensity as a justification of his crime. Now, the judge, even if he admitted the plea, must, on the criminal's own showing, condemn him to death. He would thus address the prisoner: You had a strong propensity to commit a murder, and this, you say, must do away the guilt of your crime ; but I have a strong propensity to hang you for it, and this, I say, must also do away the guilt of your punishment. Men of great and shining qualities do not always succeed in life, but the fault lies more often in themselves than in others. Doctor Johnson was pronounced to be an improducible man, by a courtier; and Dr. Watson was termed an impracticable man, by a king. A ship may be well equipped, both as to sails and as to guns, but if she be destitute of ballast, and of rudder, she can neither fight with effect, nor fly with adroitness; and she must strike, to a vessel less strong, but more manageable: and so it is with men; they may have the gifts both of talent and of wit, but unless they have also prudence and judgment to dictate the when, the where, and the how, those gifts are to be exerted, the possessors of them will be doomed to conquer only where nothing is to be gained, but to be defeated where every thing is to be lost; they will be outdone by many men of less brilliant, but more convertible qualifications, and whose strength in one point, is not counterbalanced by any disproportion in another. Disappointed men, who think they have talents, and who hint that their talents have not been properly rewarded, usually finish their career by writing their own history; but in detailing their misfortunes, they only let us into the secret of their mistakes; and, in accusing their patrons of blindness, make it appear that they ought rather to have accused them of sagacity; since it would seem that they saw too much, rather than too little; namely, that secondrate performances were too often made the foundation of first-rate pretensions. Disappointed men, in attempting to make us weep at the injustice of one patron, or the ingratitude of another, only make us smile at their own denial of self-importance which they have, and at their assumption of a philosophic indifference which they have not. Love may exist without jealousy, although this is rare; but jealousy may exist without love, and this is common: for jealousy can feed on that which is bitter, no less than on that which is sweet, and is sustained by pride, as often as by affection. There are three modes of bearing the ills of life; by indifference, which is the most common; by philosophy, which is the most ostentatious; and by religion, which is the most effectual. It has been acutely said, that 'philosophy readily triumphs over past or future evils, but that present evils triumph over philosophy.' Philosophy is a goddess, whose head indeed is in heaven, but whose feet are upon earth: she attempts more than she accomplishes, and promises more than she performs; she can teach us to hear of the calamities of others with magnanimity; but it is religion only that can teach us to bear our own with resignation. There are some frauds so well conducted, that it would be stupidity not to be deceived by them. A wise man, therefore, may be duped as well as a fool; but the fool publishes the triumph of his deceiver; the wise man is silent, and denies that triumph to an enemy which he would hardly concede to a friend; a triumph that proclaims his own defeat. The true motives of our actions, like the real pipes of an organ, are usually concealed. But the gilded and the hollow pretext, is pompously placed in the front of show. An act, by which we make one friend, and one enemy, is a losing game; because revenge is a much stronger principle than gratitude. Our minds are as different as our faces; we are all travelling to one destination-happiness; but none are going by the same road. A king of England has an interest in preserving the freedom of the press, because it is his interest to know the true state of the nation, which the courtiers would fain conceal, but of which a free press alone can inform him. Bigotry murders religion, to frighten fools with her ghost. The wisest man may be wiser to-day, than hè was yesterday, and to-morrow, than he is to-day Total freedom from change, would imply total freedom from error; but this is the prerogative of Omniscience alone. The world, however, is very censorious, and will hardly give a man credit for simplicity and singleness of heart, who is not only in the habit of changing his opinions, but also of bettering his fortunes by every change. Butler, in his best manner, has ridiculed this tergiversation, by asking. 'What makes all doctrines plain and clear ? When, indeed, we disiniss our old opinions and embrace new ones, at the expense of worldly profit and advantage, there may be some who will doubt Love may exist without jealousy, although this is rare; but jealousy may exist without love, and this is common: for jealousy can feed on that which is bitter, no less than on that which is sweet, and is sustained by pride, as often as by affection. There are three modes of bearing the ills of life; by indifference, which is the most common; by philosophy, which is the most ostentatious; and by religion, which is the most effectual. It has been acutely said, that 'philosophy readily triumphs over past or future evils, but that present evils triumph over philosophy.' Philosophy is a goddess, whose head indeed is in heaven, but whose feet are upon earth: she attempts more than she accomplishes, and promises more than she performs; she can teach us to hear of the calamities of others with magnanimity; but it is religion only that can teach us to bear our own with resignation. There are some frauds so well conducted, that it would be stupidity not to be deceived by them. A wise man, therefore, may be duped as well as a fool; but the fool publishes the triumph of his deceiver ; the wise man is silent, and denies that triumph to an enemy which he would hardly concede to a friend; a triumph that proclaims his own defeat. The true motives of our actions, like the real pipes of an organ, are usually concealed. But the gilded and the hollow pretext, is pompously placed in the front of show. |
