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with eafe, but with depreflion of fpirits, a taftelefsnefs in all our ideas, imagi ary ai xieties, and the whole train of hypechondriacal affections.

For which reafon, it feldom aufwers the expectations of thofe, who retire from their fhops and counting-houfes, to erjoy the remainder of their days in leifure and tranquility; much lefs of fuch, as in a fit of chagrin, fhut themselves up in cloyfters and hermitages, or quit the world and their ftations in it, for folitude and repole.

Where there exits a known external caufe of uneafinefs, the caufe may be removed, and the uneafineis will cafe. But thote imaginary diftrelles which men feel for want of real ones, (and which are equally tormenting, and fo far equally real) as they depend upon no fingle or alignable fubject of uneafinefs, admit oft-times of no application or relief.

Hence a moderate pain, upon which the attention may farten and tpend itif, is to many a refrethment; as a fit of the gout will fometimes cure the ipleen. And the fame of any lefs violent agitation of the mi. d, as a literary controverfy, a law-fuit, a contefted election, a d, above all, gaming; the pation for which, in men of fortune, and liberal munds, is only to be accounted for on this priaciple.

THI PLY, Neither doe happiness confift in greatLefs, ra k, or elevated flation.

Were it true that all fuperiority afforded pleasure, it would follow, that, ty Low much we were the greater, that is, the more perfons we were fuperior to, in the fame poportion, to far as depended upon this caufe, we flourd be the happier; but to it 18, that ro fuperiority yields any fatisfaction, fave that which we pollets or obtain over thote with whom we immediately compare ourlives. The thepherd perceives Lo picature in his tuperiority over his dog, the farmer in his fuperiority over the fhepherd, the lord in his fuperiority over the farmer; nor the king,

laftly,

laftly, in his fuperiority over the lord. Superiority, where there is no competition, is feldom contem plated; what most men indeed are quite unconfcious of.

But if the fame fhepherd can run, fight, or wrestle better than the peasants of his village; if the farmer can show better cattle, if he keep a better horfe, or be fuppofed to have a longer purfe than any farmer in the hundred; if the lord have more intereft in an election, greater favour at court, a better house, or larger eftate, than any nobleman in the county; if the king poffefs a more extenfive territory, a more powerful fleet or army, a more fplendid establishment, more loyal fubjects, or more weight and authority in adjufting the affairs of nations, than any prince in Europe: in all thefe cafes the parties feel an actual fatisfaction in their fuperiority.

Now the conclufion that follows from hence is this -that the pleasures of ambition, which are fuppofed to be peculiar to high stations, are in reality common to all conditions. The farrier who fhoes a horse better, and who is in greater request for fkill than any man within ten miles of him, poffeffes, for all that I can fee, the delight of diftinction and of excelling, as truly and fubftantially as the ftateiman, the foldier, and the scholar, who have filled Europe with the reputation of their wisdom, their valour, or their knowledge.

No fuperiority appears to be of any account, but fuperiority over a rival. This, it is manifeft, may exift wherever rivalships do; and rivalfhips fall our among men of all ranks and degrees. The object of emulation, the dignity or magnitude of this object, makes no difference, as it is not what either poffeffes that conftitutes the pleasure, but what one poffeffes more than the other.

Philofophy fimiles at the contempt with which the rich and the great fpeak of the petty ftrifes and com. petitions of the poor; not reflecting that thefe ftrifes

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and

and competitions are just as reasonable as their own, and the pleasure, which fuccefs affords, the fame.

Our pofition is, that happiness does not confift in greatness. And this pofition we make out by fhewing, that even what are supposed to be the peculiar advantages of greatnefs, the pleafures of ambition and fuperiority, are in reality common to all conditions. But whether the purfuits of ambition be ever wife, whether they contribute more to the happiness or mifery of the purfuers, is a different queftion; and a queftion concerning which we may be allowed to entertain great doubt. The pleasure of fuccefs is exquifite; fo alfo is the anxiety of the purfuit, and the pain of disappointment-and what is the worst part of the account, the pleasure is fhort lived. We foon cease to look back upon those whom we have left behind; new contefts are engaged in, new prof pects unfold themselves; a fucceffion of ftruggles is kept up, whilft there is a rival left within the compafs of our views and poffeffion; and when there is none, the pleasure with the pursuit is at an end.

II We have feen what happiness does not confift in. We are next to confider in what it does confift.

In the conduct of life, the great matter is, to know beforehand, what will pleafe us, and what pleafures will hold out. So far as we know this, our choice will be juflified by the event. And this knowledge is more fcarce and difficult than at firft fight it may feem to be; for fometimes, pleasures, which are wonderfully alluring and flattering in the profpect, turn out in the poffeffion extremely infipid; or do not hold out as we expected: at other times pleasures start up, which never entered into our calculation; and which we might have miffed by not foreseeing: from whence we have reafon to believe, that we actually do mifs of many pleafures from the fame caufe. I jay, to know "beforehand," for after the experiment is tried, it is commonly impracticable to retreat or change; befide that thifting and changing is apt to generate a habit of reftleffnefs, which is deft.uctive of the happinefs of every condition.

By

By reafon of the original diverfity of tafte, ca. pacity, and conftitution, obfervable in the human fpecies, and the ftill greater variety, which habit and fashion have introduced in thefe particulars, it is impoffible to propofe any plan of happiness, which will fucceed to all, or any method of life which is univerfally eligible or practicable.

All that can be faid is, that there remains a prefumption in favour of thofe conditions of life, in which men generally appear most cheerful and contented. For though the apparent happiness of mankind be not always a true measure of their real happinefs, it is the best measure we have.

Taking this for my guide, I am inclined to believe that happine fs confifts,

I. In the exercife of the focial affections.

Those perfons commonly poffefs good spirits, who have about them many objects of affection and endearment, as wife, children, kindred, friends. And to the want of thefe may be imputed the peevithness of monks, and of fuch as lead a monaftic life.

Of the fame nature with the indulgence of our domeftic affections, and equally refreshing to the fpirits, is the pleafure which refults from acts of bounty and beneficence, exercised either in giving money, or in imparting to thofe who want it the af fiftance of our skill and profeffion.

Another main article of human happiness is,

II. The exercise of our faculties, either of body or mind, in the purfuit of fome engaging end.

It feems to be true, that no plenitude of present gratifications can make the poffeffor happy for a continuance, unless he have fomething in refervefomething to hope for, and look forward to. This I conclude to be the cafe, from comparing the alacrity and fpirits of men, who are engaged in any purfuit which interefts them, with the dejection and ennui of almoft all, who are either born to fo much that they want nothing more, or who have used up

their fatisfactions too foon, and drained the fources of them.

It is this intolerable vacuity of mind, which carries the rich and great to the horfe courfe and the gaming-table; and often engages them in contests and purfuits, of which the fuccefs bears no proportion to the folicitude and expence, with which it is fought. Au election for a difputed borough fhall coft the parties twenty or thirty thousand pounds a piece, to fay nothing of the anxiety, humiliation, and fatigue of the canvass, when a feat in the Houfe of Commons, of exactly the fame value, may be had for a tenth part of the money, and with no trouble. I do not mention this to blame the rich and great (perhaps they cannot do better), but in confirmation of what I have advanced.

Hope, which thus appears to be of fo much importance to our happiness, is of two kinds, where there is fomething to be done towards attaining the object of our hope, and where there is nothing to be done. The firft alone is of any value; the latter being apt to corrupt into impatience, having nothing in its power but to fit ftill and wait, which foon grows tirefome.

The doctrine delivered under this head may be readily admitted, but how to provide ourselves with a fucceffion of pleafurable engagements, is the difficulty. This requires two things, judgment in the choice of ends adapted to our opportunities; and a command of imagination, fo as to be able, when the judgment has made choice of an end, to transfer a pleafure to the means: after which the end may be forgotten as we will.

Hence thofe pleafures are moft valuable, not which are moft exquifite in the fruition, but which are most productive of engagement and activity in the pur

fuic.

A man who is in earneft in his endeavours after the happiness of a future ftate, has, in this refpect, an advantage over all the world. For he has con

ftantly

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