domestic happiness in a high degree, and sound sleep. The couch of the rich is not always one of down: "Weariness Can snore upon the flint, when restive sloth Finds the down pillow hard." This drug to the poor man is precious medicine to the rich. If sleep were to be had for gold, we should find the great squandering half their fortunes to possess it. Therefore, we may observe, that one single blessing of the poor man is of great value in the eyes of others, who have to stimulate nature, and force her by artifice to give but a small share of that kindness she so bountifully bestows on the eyelids of her favourites. Then, again, if we consider that all the real enjoyment of life depends on the health, we shall find nature here has been equally lavish to the poor. To have sound sleep and sound health, many a rich luxurious man would exchange almost all those riches for which he is so much envied by others. Is, therefore, the poor man not really as rich as he? -mean 7. Poverty and riches are mere relative terms,ing by poverty not absolute want or penury, but enough to supply all the common necessaries of life,- -as we call a labouring man a poor man, a nobleman a rich man. Α poor man (in this sense) may actually be rich with little, while the rich man or nobleman may be poor with all his apparent wealth; he may have an income equal to the support of a whole town, and yet be poor indeed. No man can be better entitled to the name of a poor man than he who lives beyond his means, however magnificent may be his income. Equally true may it be said of all whose wants are greater than the power of supplying them. The cares, the wants, the anxieties of the poor man, are all centered in obtaining the means of subsistence for himself and family; whereas, with the rich, that is an object never dreamt of, so disproportioned may the income be to the purchase of the mere necessaries of life,—but other wants are generated, other gaps are to be filled up, other passions to be gratified, that may prove more expensive than can be covered by the largest fortune. It is, therefore, a law or decree of nature, that the wants of man tend to increase faster than his means of supplying them. 8. Another decree is the care or anxiety annexed to the possession of wealth. If one be fortunate in laying up treasures, he shall have many a sleepless night in guarding and watching them. "Crescentem sequitur cura pecuniam Majorumque fames. Multa petentibus All beyond what is adequate to provide the necessaries of life, becomes a source of trouble and anxiety. That which we least want engrosses all our care. Our talent must be put out to interest; to let it lie useless, would expose its intrinsic nothingness; it must reproduce itself, and be an instrument to bring more of that which we do not want; and so we increase our cares in proportion to the increase of our wealth. 'Twere enough to make Heraclitus laugh to see man's anxiety about that which is of no use to him, and his absolute carelessness about every thing of substantial value. Men who have accumulated treasures, and, like the merchants of Tyre, clothe themselves in scarlet and fine linen, and live luxuriously, while their merchandise is traversing the ocean in large ships, are not either of peaceful minds. And what can we say of others, who preposterously sigh and moan because they cannot find employment for their wealth? 9. The Pythagorean symbol, besides inculcating upon us the wise economy of laying up a provision for the future, incites also, as Plutarch interprets it, to an active and useful life. Industry is the original source of all wealth. Sloth, on the contrary, is the mother of poverty, frequently of crime, and at all times of misery. "She is a most pernicious mistress; she smiles, soothes, seduces, and caresses, but finally destroys every one who yields to her blandishments. Though thou wert Sampson, thou wilt lose thy strength, if thou layest thy head in the lap of this Delilah. Though thou wert Ulysses, thou wilt sink to a state of brutality, if thou yield to the solicitations of this Circe. Though thou wert Hercules, thou wilt become contemptible, if thou become the slave of this Omphale." Indolence and sloth are our most dangerous and insidious nemies. They attack us in a manner peculiar to themselves, not harshly, or violently, as to stimulate to defence and vigilance, but softly and tenderly, lulling our souls as an opiate lulls the nerves of the body. The slothful man sleeps away his life, and at the call of death wakes suddenly from his lethargic dream: a rapid survey of the past convinces him that he might as well have never been. Indolence so soothes and flatters us with its blandishments, that, at lucid intervals, we feel like one under a magic spell, or as if we had drank from Circe's potion, that turned men into swine; and it is only by a moral effort that we can disenchant ourselves from the fatal dream. Its power increases upon us; our bondage becomes more secure every inch of ground we yield, till at length we find both passions and virtues destroyed. "It is a mistake," says a great master of human nature, "to imagine that only the violent passions, as ambition and love, can triumph over the rest. Idleness, languid as she is, often masters them all; she, indeed, influences all our designs and actions, and insensibly consumes and destroys both passions and virtues." 10. It is not without design, that pleasure accompanies the occupation of the mind, and health the exercise of the body; in this, nature clearly points out our duty. But to an active life we have a higher call than the voice of nature. Moral duties force upon us a course of action useful to ourselves, as well as to others; while religion demands a strict and accurate account of our time here on earth. Sloth and the Christian life are deadly enemies to each other. Most of the moral laws of Moses are of a negative kind, restraining us from the commission of crimes, but not declaring specifically or imperatively what duties we should perform. Of a far higher nature are the duties inculcated upon every Christian: he must not only refrain from sin, but be active and zealous in doing good. To be idle and slothful, therefore, in a world like ours, where there is so much to exercise our thoughts, such a field for an active and useful life, so much scope for doing good, in acts of benevolence, charity, and general improvement of the species; and, lastly, in a world where Christianity is the religion, and Christ's morals the rule of action, must be highly criminal. ON TRIFLING. Symbol X.-Capillorum et unguium tuorum præsegmina conspuito. 1. In the history of the world, the cup of superstition has been often filled to the brim; and men have been found steeped up to the lips in its pernicious and poisonous waters. In the common, and, be it said, contemptible acts of paring the nails and clipping the hair, has it been mixed up : "Piaculous it was unto the Romans," observes the learned Sir Thomas Browne, "to pare their nails upon the nundinæ, observed every ninth day and was also feared by others in certain days of the week, according to that of Ausonius :-Ungues Mercurio, barbam Jove, cypride crines; -and was one part of the wickedness that filled up the measure of Manasses, when it is delivered that he observed times."* But, notwithstanding all the denunciations of God and his prophets, we still find the superstitious reverence of times and seasons practised by mankind. Nothing has so much influence over the shallow and vulgar mind, as * Vulgar Errors, vol. iii. p. 167. |