with fuch untimely darkness; that goodhamour, which once captivated all hearts, that vivacity which sparkled in every company, thofe abilities which were fitted for adorning the highest flations, all facrificed at the thrine of low fenfuality; and one who was formed for running the fair career of life in the midst of public eleem, cut off by his vices at the beginning of his courie; or funk for the whole of it into infignificancy and contempt!Thefe, O finful Pleasure, are thy trophies! It is thus that, co-operating with the foe of God and man, thou degradeft human honour, and blaiteft the opening profpects of hu man felicity! Blair, § 38. Industry and Application. Diligence, induftry, and proper improvement of time, are material duties of the young. To no purpofe are they endowed with the beft abilities, if they want activity for exerting them. Unavailing, in this cafe, will be every direction that can be given them, either for their temFural or fpiritual welfare. In youth, the habits of industry are most easily acquired: in youth the incentives to it are ftrongeft, from ambition and from duty, from emulation and hope, from all the profpects, which the beginning of life affords. If, dead to thefe calls, you already languish in flothful inaction, what will be able to quicken the more fluggish current of advancing years? Industry is not only the inftrument of improvement, but the foundation of pleasure. Nothing is fo oppofite to the true enjoyment of life, as the relaxed and feeble ftate of an indolent mind. He who is a ftranger to industry, may poffefs, but he cannot enjoy. For it is labour only which gives the relish to pleafure. It is the appointed vehicle of every good man. It is the indifpenfable condition of our poffeffing a found mind in a found body. Sloth is fo inconfiftent with both, that it is hard to determine, whether it be a greater foe to virtue, or to health and happiness. Inactive as it is in itself, its effects are fatally powerful. Though it appear a flowly-flowing ftream, yet it undermines all that is ftable and flourishing. It not only faps the foundation of every virtue, but pours upon you a deluge of crimes and evils. It is like water which first prefies by ftagnation, and then fends up noxious vapours, and fills the atmosphere with death. Fly, therefore, from idleness, as the certain parent both of guilt and of ruin. And under idleness I include, not mere inaction only, but all that circle of trifling occupations, in which too many faunter away their youth; perpetunily en gaged in frivolous fociety, or public amufements; in the labours of drefs, or the oftentation of their perfons-Is this the foundation which you lay for future use fulness and efteem? By fuch accomplishments do you hope to recommend yourelves to the thinking part of the world, and to answer the expectations of your friends and your country-Amusements youth requires: it were vain, it were cruel, to prohibit them. But, though allowable as the relaxation, they are most culpable as the business, of the young. For they then become the gulph of time, and the poifon of the mind. They foment bad paffions. They weaken the manly powers. They fink the native vigour of youth into contemptible effeminacy. Ibid. $39. The Employment of Time. Redeeming your time from fuch dan◄ gerous wafte, feek to fill it with employments which you may review with fatisfaction. The acquifition of knowledge is one of the most honourable occupations of youth. The defire of it difcovers a liberal mind, and is connected with many accomplishments and many virtues. But though your train of life fhould not lead you to ftudy, the course of education always furnifhes proper employments to a well-difpofed mind. Whatever you purfue, be emulous to excel. Generous ambition, and fenfibility to praife, are, especially at your age, among the marks of virtue. Think not, that any affluence of fortune, or any elevation of rank, exempts you from the duties of application and induftry. Induftry is the law of our being; it is the demand of nature, of reafon, and of God. Remember always, that the years which now pafs over your heads, leave permanent memorials behind them. From your thoughtless minds they may efcape; but they remain in the remembrance of God. They form an important part of the register of your life. They will hereafter bear tef timony, either for or against you, at that day when, for all your actions, but particularly for the employments of youth, you must give an account to God. Whether your future courfe is deftined to be long or fhort, after this manner it should commence; and, if it continue to be thus con ducted, $40. The Neceffity of depending for Suc cefs on the Bleffing of Heaven. Let me finish the fubject, with recalling your attention to that dependance on the bleffing of Heaven, which, amidst all your endeavours after improvement, you ought continually to preferve. It is too common with the young, even when they refolve to tread the path of virtue and honour, to fet out with prefumptuous confidence in themfelves. Frufting to their own abilities for carrying them fuccefsfully through life, they are carelefs of applying to God, or of deriving any affiftance from what they are apt to reckon the gloomy difcipline of religion. Alas! how little do they know the dangers which await them! Neither human wifdom, nor human virtue, unfupported by religion, are equal for the trying fituations which often occur in life. By the fhock of temptation, how frequently have the most virtuous intentions been overthrown! Under the preffure of difafter, how often has the greatest conftancy funk! Deftitute of the favour of God, you are in no better fituation, with all your boafted abilities, than orphans left to wander in a tracklefs defert, without any guide to conduct them, or any shelter to cover them from the gathering ftorm. Correct, then, this ill-founded arrogance. Expect not that your happiness can be independent of him who made you. By faith and repentance, apply to the Redeemer of the world. By piety and prayer, feek the protection of the God of Heaven. Ibid. $41. The Neceffity of an early and clofe Application to Wisdom. It is neceffary to habituate our minds, in our younger years, to fome employment which may engage our thoughts, and fill the capacity of the foul at a riper age. For, however we may roam in youth from folly to folly, too volatile for reft, too foft and effeminate for industry, ever ambitious to make a fplendid figure; yet the time will come when we fhall outgrow the relifh of childish amufements; and, if we are not provided with a tafte for manly fatisfactions to fucceed in their room, we must of courfe become miferable, at an age more difficult to be pleafed. While men, however unthinking and unemployed, enjoy an inexhaustible flow of vigorous fpi rits; a conftant fucceffion of gay ideas, which flatter and sport in the brain, makes them pleafed with themfelves, and with every frolic as trifling as themselves: but, when the ferment of their blood abates, and the freshnefs of their youth, like the morning dew, paffes away, their fpirits flag for want of entertainments more fatisfactory in themselves, and more fuited to a manly age; and the foul, from a sprightly impertinence, from quick fenfations, and florid defires, fubfides into a dead calm, and finks into a flat ftupidity. The fire of a glowing imagination (the property of youth) may make folly look pleafing, and lend a beauty to objects, which have none inherent in them: just as the fun-beams may paint a cloud, and diverfify it with beautiful ftains of light, however dark, unfubftantial, and empty in itfelf. But nothing can fhine with undiminished luftre, but religion and knowledge, which are effentially and intrinfically bright. Take it therefore for granted, which you will find by experience, that nothing can be long entertaining, but what is in fome measure beneficial; because nothing else will bear a calm and fedate review. You may be fancied for a while, upon the account of good-nature, the infeparable attendant upon a flufh of fanguine health, and a fulness of youthful fpirits: but you will find, in procefs of time, that among the wife and good, ufelefs goodnature is the object of pity, ill-nature of hatred; but nature beautified and improved by an affemblage of moral and intellectual endowments, is the only object of a folid and lasting eftecm. Seed. $43. The Unhappiness confequent on the Neglect of early improving the Mind. There is not a greater inlet to mifery and vices of all kinds, than the not knowing how to pass our vacant hours. For what remains to be done, when the first part of their lives, who are not brought up to any manual employment, is flipt away without an acquired relifh for reading, or tafte for other rational fatisfactions? That they fhould purfue their pleasures ?-But, religion apart, common prudence will warn them to tie up the wheel as they begin to go down the hill of life. Shall they then apply themselves to their ftudies? Alas! the feed-time is already paft: The enterprizing and fpirited ardour of youth being over, without having been applied to thofe valuable purposes for which it was given, all ambition of excelling upon generous and laudable schemes quite ftagnates. If they have not fome poor expedient to deceive the time, or, to fpeak more properly, to deceive themselves, the length of a day will feem tedious to them, who, perhaps, have the unreasonableness to complain of the fhortness of life in general. When the former part of our life has been nothing but vanity, the latter end of it can be nothing but vexation. In fhort, we must be miferable, without some employment to fix, or fome amusement to difipate our thoughts: the latter we cannot command in all places, nor relish at all times; and therefore there is an abfolute neceffity for the former. We may purfue this or that new pleasure; we may be fond for a while of a new acquifition; but when the graces of novelty are worn off, and the brifkness of our firft defire is over, the tranfition is very quick and fudden, from an eager fondnefs to a cool indifference. Hence there is a restless agitation in our minds, fill craving fomething new, ftill unfatisfied with it, when poffeffed; till melancholy increases, as we advance in years, like fhadows lengthening towards the clofe of day. Hence it is, that men of this flamp are Continually complaining that the times are altered for the worfe: Because the sprightliness of their youth reprefented every thing in the most engaging light; and when men are in high good humour with themfelves, they are apt to be fo with all around; the face of nature brightens up, and the fun fhines with a more agreeable latre: but when old-age has cut them off from the enjoyment of falfe pleasures, and habitual vice has given them a diftafte for the only true and lafting delights; when a retrospect of their pait lives prefents nothing to view but one wide tract of uncultivated ground; a foul distempered with fpleen, remorfe, and an infenfibility of each rational fatisfaction, darkens and difcolours every object; and the change is rot in the times, but in them, who have been forfaken by those gratifications which they would not forfake. How much otherwife is it with thofe, who have laid up an inexhaustible fund of knowledge! When a man has been laying out that time in the purfuit of fome great and important truth, which others wafte in a circle of gay follies, he is confcious of having acted up to the dignity of his nature; and from that confcioufnefs there re fults that ferene complacency,which, though not fo violent, is much preferable to the pleasures of the animal life. He can travel on from ftrength to ftrength: for, in literature as in war, each new conqueft which he gains, impowers him to push his conquests ftill farther, and to enlarge the empire of reafon: thus he is ever in a progreffive ftate, ftill making new acquirements, ftill animated with hopes of future difcoveries. Seed. $43. Great Talents not requifite for the common Duties of Life. Some may alledge, in bar to what I have faid, as an excufe for their indolence, the want of proper talents to make any progrefs in learning. To which I answer, that few stations require uncommon abilities to difcharge them well; for the ordinary offices of life, that share of apprehenfion which falls to the bulk of mankind, provided we improve it, will ferve well enough. Bright and fparkling parts are like diamonds, which may adorn the proprietor, but are not neceflary for the good of the world; whereas common fenfe is like current coin; we have every day, in the ordinary occur rences of life, occafion for it; and if we would but call it into action, it would carry us much greater lengths than we feem to be aware of. Men may extol, as much as they pleafe, fine, exalted, and fuperior fenfe; yet common fenfe, if attended with humility and industry, is the best guide to beneficial truth, and the beft prefervative against any fatal errors in knowledge, and notorious mifconducts in life. For none are, in the nature of the thing, more liable to error, than those who have a diftalte for plain fober fenfe and dry reafoning; which yet is the cafe of thofe whofe warm and elevated imagination, whofe uncommon fire and vivacity, make them in love with nothing but what is ftriking, marvellous, and dazzling: for great wits, like great beauties, look upon mere efteem as a flat infipid thing; ncthing less than admiration will content them. To gain the good-will of mankind, by being ufeful to them, is, in their opinion, a poor, low, groveling aim; their ambition is, to draw the eyes of the world upon them, by dazzling and furprizing them; a temper which draws them off from the love of truth, and confequently fubjects them to grofs mistakes: for they will not love truth as fuch; they will love it only when it happens to be furprizing and uncommon, which few important truths are. The love of novelty will be the predominant paffion; that of truth will only influence them, when it does not interfere with it. Perhaps nothing fooner misleads men out of the road of truth, than to have the wild, dancing light of a bright imagination playing before them. Perhaps they have too much life and fpirit to have patience enough to go to the bottom of a fubject, and trace up every argument, through a long tedious process, to its original. Perhaps they have that delicacy of make which fits them for a fwift and speedy race, but does not enable them to carry a great weight, or to go through any long journey; whereas men of fewer ideas, who lay them in order, compare and examine them, and go on, step by step, in a gradual chain of thinking, make up by industry and caution what they want in quickness of apprehenfion. Be not difcouraged, if you do not meet with fuccefs at first. Obferve, (for it lies within the compafs of any man's obfervation) that he who has been long habituated to one kind of knowledge, is utterly at a lofs in another, to which he is unaccustomed; till, by repeated efforts, he finds a progreffive opening of his faculties; and then he wonders how he could be fo long in finding out a connection of ideas, which, to a practifed understanding, is very obvious. But by neglecting to use your faculties, you will, in time, lose the very power of using them. Seed. Others there are, who plead an exemption from study, because their fortune makes them independent of the world, and they need not be beholden to it for a maintenance—that is, because their fituation in life exempts them from the neceffity of spending their time in fervile offices and hardships, therefore they may difpofe of it just as they pleafe. It is to imagine, becaufe God has empowered them to fingle out the best means of employing their hours, viz. in reading, meditation; in the highest inftances of piety and charity; therefore they may throw them away in a round of impertinence, vanity, and folly. The apoftle's rule, that if any man will not work, neither fhould he eat,' extends to the rich as well as the poor; only fuppofing, that there are different kinds of work affigned to each. The reafon is the fame in both cafes, viz. that he who will do no good, ought not to receive or en joy any. As we are all joint traders and partners in life, he forfeits his right to any hare in the common stock of happiness, who does not endeavour to contribute his quota or allotted part to it: the public happiness being nothing but the fum total of each individual's contribution to it. An eafy fortune does not fet men free from labour and induftry in general; it only exempts them from fome particular kinds of labour: it is not a bleffing, as it gives them liberty to do nothing at all; but as it gives them liberty wifely to chufe, and fteadily to profecute, the most ennobling exercises, and the most improving employments, the purfuit of truth, the practice of virtue, the fervice of God who giveth them all things richly to enjoy, in short, the doing and being every thing that is commendable; though nothing merely in order to be commended. That time which others muft employ in tilling the ground (which often deceives their expectation) with the fweat of their brow, they may lay out in cultivating the mind, a foil always grateful to the care of the tiller.The fum of what I would fay, is this: That, though you are not confined to any particular calling, yet you have a general one; which is, to watch over your heart, and to improve your head; to make yourfelf mafter of all thofe accomplishmentsan enlarged compafs of thought, that flowing humanity and generosity, which are neceffary to become a great fortune; and of all thofe perfections, viz. moderation, humility, and temperance, which are neceffary to bear a small one patiently; but especially it is your duty to acquire a taste for thofe pleasures, which, after they are tafted, go off agreeably, and leave behind them a grateful and delightful flavour on the mind. $45. Ibid. The Pleasures refulting from a prudent Uje of our Faculties. Happy that man, who, unembarrassed by vulgar cares, mafter of himself, his time, and fortune, fpends his time in making himself wifer, and his fortune in making others (and therefore himself) happier : who, as the will and understanding are the two ennobling faculties of the foul, thinks himself not complete, till his understanding be beautified with the valuable furniture of knowledge, as well as his will en riched with every virtue: who has furathed himself with all the advantages to relish folitude, and enliven converfation; when ferious, not fullen; and when chearfal, not indifcreetly gay; his ambition, not to be admired for a falfe glare of greatnefs, but to be beloved for the gentle and fober haitre of his wisdom and goodness. The greatest minister of state has not more bufinefs to do in a public capacity, than he, and indeed every man elfe may find in the retired and ftill fcenes of life. Even in his private walks, every thing that is vifible convinceth him there is present a Being invifible. Aided by natural philofophy, he reads plain legible traces of the Divinity in every thing he meets: he fees the Deity in every tree, as well as Mofes did in the burning bush, though not in fo glaring a manner: and when he sees him, be adores him with the tribute of a grate ful heart. Seed. $46. The justly valuing and duly ufing the Advantages enjoyed in a Place of Educa One confiderable advantage is, that regular method of study, too much neglect ed in other places, which obtains here. Nothing is more common elsewhere, than for perfons to plunge, at once, into the very depth of fcience, (far beyond their own) without having learned the first rudiments: nothing more common, than for fome to pass themselves upon the world for great scholars, by the help of univerfal Dictionaries, Abridgements, and Indexes; by which means they gain an ufelefs fmat. tering in every branch of literature, juft enough to enable them to talk fluently, or rather impertinently, upon moft fubjects; but not to shink juftly and deeply upon any: like those who have a general fuperficial acquaintance with almoft every body. To cultivate an intimate and entire friendship with one or two worthy perfons, would be of more service to them. The true genuine way to make a substantial fcholar, is what takes place here,to begin with thofe general principles of reafoning, upon which all science depends, and which give a light to every part of literature; to make gradual advances, a flow but fure procefs; to travel gently, with proper guides to direct us, through the most beautiful and fruitful regions of knowledge in general, before we fix ourselves in, and confine ourfelves to any particular province of it; it being the great fecret of education, not to make a man a complete master of any branch of science, but to give his mind that freedom, openness, and extent, which fhall empower him to mafter it, or indeed any other, whenever he shall turn the bent of his ftudies that way; which is beft done, by fetting before him, in his earlier years, a general view of the whole intellectual world: whereas, an early and entire attachment to one particular calling, narrows the abilities of the mind to that degree, that he can fcarce think out of that track to which he is accustomed. The next advantage I fhall mention is, a direction in the choice of authors upon the most material fubjects. For it is perhaps a great truth, that learning might be reduced to a much narrower compass, if one were to read none but original authors, those who write chiefly from their own fund of fenfe, without treading fervilely in the steps of others. Here, too, a generous emulation quickens our endeavours, and the friend improves the fcholar. The tedioufnefs of the way to truth is infenfibly beguiled by having fellow-travellers, who keep an even pace with us: each light difpenfes a brighter flame, by mixing its focial rays with thofe of others. Here we live fequestered from noife and hurry, far from the great scene of bufinefs, vanity, and idleness; our hours are all our own. Here it is, as in the Athenian torch-race, where a series of men have fucceffively tranfmitted from one to another the torch of knowledge; and no fooner has one quitted it, but another equally able takes the lamp, to difpenfe light to all within its fphere. Ibid. § 47. Difcipline of the Place of Education not to be relaxed. May none of us complain, that the difcipline of the place is too ftrict: may we rather reflect, that there needs nothing elfe to make a man completely miserable, but to let him, in the most dangerous ftage of life, carve out an happiness for himself, without any check upon the fallies of youth! Thofe to whom you have been overindulgent, and perhaps could not have been otherwife, without proceeding to extremities, never to be ufed but in defperate cafes, thofe have been always the most liberal of their cenfures and invectives against you: they put one in mind of Adonijah's rebellion against David his father; Quafi curfores, vita lampada tradunt. Lucretius. becaufe |