without speaking. Icarius, perceiving that she was desirous of accompanying her husband, and being charmed with her manner, gratified her wish, and erected on that spot a statue of Modesty.

Blushing arises from agitation; consequently, an anxious endeavour to prevent or check it increases its influence. Indifference, and a boldness produced by habit, counteract it; and thus persons who mix much with society are less subject to it, and so are those who are naturally destitute of sensibility, and others who have destroyed their finer feelings by the practice of immorality.

There are some persons who are almost unsusceptible and invariable. This will sometimes arise from an uniform attention to justice and the dictates of reason, regardless of other considerations. It may be appropriate for those who fill judicial situations, and indeed it is almost necessary, otherwise the gay blandishments of beauty, or the tears and sorrows of a fascinating woman, or the arts which a designing female might easily practise, would act as a spell on the judge; and thus vice would triumph, while innocence would suffer. John Knox appeared to have been regulated only by the stern principles of duty in his conferences with the beautiful but unfortunate Mary of Scotland: neither her youth nor her winning manners affected him; he disputed and reasoned with her as if she were destitute of charms; and whether she wept or spoke angrily, it made little difference. But Mary afterwards exhibited a little revenge. the trial of Knox (as Dr. M'Cree relates), she

On

made me weep, and never shed a tear himself; and now I will try if I can make him weep." Sometimes indifference arises from stupidity. Some men are reckoned good-tempered, because they can listen to reproach without feeling, and without possessing any desire of improving their conduct; but there is a great difference between unconsciousness and firmness.

There is a natural vulgarity in some persons. They do and say every thing coarsely and rudely. If they speak, they halloo; if they have a communication for one or two, they lift up their voice as if all the world must hear, not considering that what may be appropriate for the person for whom it is intended may appear ludicrous to others. In love, in science, and in religion, they act in the same manner. Their business becomes the business of every one, to the no small mortification of the persons with whom they are more immediately connected. Their opinion, however inappropriate and vulgar, must be introduced at any time and on any occasion.

A boasting disposition is usually the result of boldness, conceit, and indelicacy. It generally implies an absence or a scantiness of the very excellencies in which it glories. It is, in fact, a species of hypocrisy. A boasting man in the way of knowledge is seldom learned; in the way of wealth, is seldom prosperous; in virtue, is seldom a man of integrity; and in religion, is usually a deceiver.

CHAP. XV.

ON RETIREMENT AND A PUBLIC LIFE.

Ir will be necessary to remember, in the investigation of this subject, that no two conditions of human life are exactly alike, and equally productive of happiness; the degrees of enjoyment may vary from one to one million, and although two cases may appear to agree, yet they are only somewhat similar: consequently, retirement or a public life must be more productive of happiness; or the one may be adapted for one person, and the other for another. It must be remembered also, that we cannot form a just estimate of the enjoyments of either by the prejudices of those who have not experienced its influence. A person who is engaged in the bustle of life has read of the pleasures of retirement of rural scenery, and of country innocence; but, when he endeavours to prove these charms, he finds that he has no taste for them. His imagination had painted the delights of solitude too brilliantly, and now he is disappointed. Like Cowley, perhaps, he may have dreamt of felicity in a farm; but his agricultural pursuits give him a cold, and terminate his days. It is the same with the native of the country, when he represents in his wandering fancy the pleasures

the riches, the honours, of worldly men; these enchanting objects dance before him, and perplex his mental vision: he leaves his rural home, he mixes with the giddy dissipation of the city, and sinks into the whirlpool of misery. These disappointments arise from an erroneous notion, that happiness, pure and unalloyed, may be found somewhere, and that it depends principally on rank or condition.

If a man forsakes society because he hates it, because he is gloomy and misanthropical, he will not be happy any where. A disposition of this kind is a bad one. If he has begun to hate others, he will soon begin to hate himself; and this is reasonable; for if he dislikes the world for being imperfect, he should dislike himself for partaking of the same character. But if duty and engagement call him from the busy world, if the beauties of nature attract him, let him moderately cherish the inclination, for it will not diminish his enjoyment. As a general rule, we are called into the active enjoyments of the world. Man is a social being; his faculties are adapted for society. Love, gratitude, kindness, benevolence, and all the most amiable virtues, are struck off like brilliant sparks by contact. Friendship cannot bloom in a desert, but only in a garden.

"Man, like the generous vine, supported lives;

The strength he gains is from the embrace he gives."

Society produces civilisation, the cultivation and practice of virtue, the culture of the arts and the sciences. Solitariness, if it were general, would

chain down the human species to ignorance and brutality. As metals become smooth by friction, so men become polished by an intercourse with each other. Much retirement unfits a man for society, and, consequently, the gaiety or the activity of the world will not prove a pleasing relaxation; but if his principal engagements be in society, and his mind be properly cultivated, retirement will always prove a grateful source of recreation. The natural course is, therefore, pointed out. Society is the proper sphere for a person's usual engagements; retirement is an occasional retreat for repose and relaxation.

The greater apparent good should invariably regulate our conduct. There are some engagements which require so much attention, that a man has need to leave society that he may give them his undivided time. These may arise from the pursuit of learning and the arts, or the attainment of piety. The lawfulness of the latter has been deemed questionable. Some have imagined that the welfare of one man, in a religious sense, is dependent on his fellow men; but this is degrading to the character of the Deity: others have supposed that one person is not at all dependent on another; but this harmonises not with the system of human affairs. In all that relates to our everlasting welfare, we are certainly dependent on the Almighty and ourselves; but in many things that regard temporal enjoyment we are dependent on each other. Man has, therefore, a duty to perform, which, in most cases, would keep him in society.