of which we are speaking, if not excessive, has some claim to indulgence; as it may occasionally add an agreeable variety to human life, and inspire a cheerful sentiment of ease and liberty. Such a turn of mind must, however, be accounted at the best for no more than a pleasing imperfection; like a manner in painting, which, though it may produce a striking effect, is justly chargeable as a deviation from truth and nature. A wise man will therefore endeavour to restrain it within the narrowest limits; he will consider, that every departure from reason and propriety, though in cases apparently of no consequence, is dangerous; that by every caprice he wantonly exposes himself to contradiction or opposition; and that on this, as well as on other accounts, humour by indulgence is very liable to degenerate into peevishness; and, lastly, he will recollect, that good nature and good sense supply a seasoning to human intercourse, which can never be improved by any

traverses of fancy or singularities of behaviour.

III. Another evil incidental to a retired life, is conceit; by which may be understood a vain self-complacent opinion of our own parts and attainments, whether as compared with things themselves, or with the like qualities in others. In both these senses it is here considered, though the latter is more appropriate to the subject.

Let us then first observe, how few there are who do not fondly over-rate themselves in regard to that standard which exists in the nature of things. Where is the man who does not entertain, in this respect, some over-weening opinion of his virtues? or where is he who is properly sensible of the small proportion which his knowledge, of almost every subject, bears to his ignorance? In this philosophic age, how frequently do we meet with those who pride themselves in the imagination,

that they have carried their researches far into nature, have detected her secret constitution, and her manner of operation; though they have penetrated scarce beyond the surface, have explored but few of her properties, and, so far from a discovery of causes, have attained but a very imperfect knowledge of the effects, or of the laws by which they are regulated? And if we come to points which more nearly concern our interests, such as relate to civil government and religion, almost every man is forward to imagine himself above the reach of instruction, that is, to imagine he is most knowing where he is commonly most ignorant. It is this intolerable conceit which has, of late years, produced such swarms of philosophers and legislators, and which threatens a dissolution of all the obligations of virtue, and of all the bonds of society.

After this more general stricture, which, if less applicable to the subject, is too strongly applicable to the times, let us pro

ceed to consider the evil in question, as it arises from a secret comparison of ourselves with others. And here it is that the retired man of fortune is particularly in danger. He who is in a situation where his opinions meet with no contradiction, and where he is listened to with apparent deference by all around him, will not easily preserve himself from a conceit of his own wisdom; he is not likely to carry a severe scrutiny into votes which are all in his favour, and to enquire whether they are the fruits of stupidity or discernment, of flattery or sincerity; every suffrage shall be deemed good which may exalt him into an oracle.

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As all human excellence is comparative, it is not difficult for any one, who has a little more wit and money than his neighbours, to procure a circle of humble admirers, whose applauses shall be sufficient to bear him up in his fond opinion of preeminence; and it is certain that this may happen, and that it frequently does happen,

in public as well as in private life. But it is no less certain, that, in the commerce of the world, a conceited man, by occasional encounters with his superiors, generally meets with those rebukes of his rain confidence, which serve to keep him within some bounds of moderation; whereas, in a state of retirement, for want of such checks, he is apt to exceed all the measures of reason and decency. He therefore who lives sequestered from the world, and wishes to cure or prevent this extrava gance, must endeavour to look beyond his own narrow limits, and to cultivate a correspondence with men whose superior abilities may entitle them to his reverence. Or, if he cannot obtain this living instruction, let him at least place himself ideally, whenever he begins to swell with pedantic conceit, in the presence of the wise of past ages, and by comparing himself with them, he may learn to shrink back into his proper dimensions. In like manner, to obviate any groundless pretensions to superior piety or virtue, he ought to remember,