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rective of virtue, can only produce a transient glory, and are sure to terminate in national shame and ruin.

Still, it should always be considered, in order to strengthen the regard we owe to our rulers, that such is the dignity of public virtue, as to render every appearance of it respectable; and therefore, that a degree of honour is due to the statesman, who, in a candid construction, may be supposed to act, though upon false or defective principles, with a view to the general good. But when, from a well-meaning patriot, he degenerates into the mercenary head of a party, and it becomes evidently the great object of his ministry to decorate himself and his friends with the spoils of the commonwealth, his name and memory then deserve to be loaded with infamy. Far better had it been for such a man to have dwelt in a wilderness, or to have consumed his days amidst the gloom of a cloister with beads and relics, than to have stood forth on the public

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stage, basely to sacrifice the welfare of his country to the idol of private interest or ambition.

All this may serve to shew, that to contribute really to the public benefit is no ordinary felicity. To add indeed to the general misery is easy to any man, down from a minister of state to the meanest peasant; so susceptible is human life of evil, that, sown by whatever hand, it na turally takes root, and spreads itself without limit. On the contrary, to do good is difficult: and, without wisdom to direct as well as benevolence to intend, the effect will commonly be inconsiderable; wealth may lavish her benefactions with little relief of virtuous indigence, and power may widely extend her patronage while modest merit lies neglected; and all the political resources of a people may be called forth without any material accession to human happiness. Even after the utmost exertions of wisdom and virtue in conjunction, their end is seldom or

never perfectly attained, and oftentimes is entirely defeated, through the perverseness and obstinacy of those who set themselves in opposition to their own interest. And though the little success of his attempts to be of service, ought not to sink a good citizen in discouragement, or tempt him to desert his station, but rather should incite his more strenuous endeavours; it ought, however, to repress any vain opinion of his own usefulness, and dispose him to regard with more allowance those whose life is devoted to retirement; or who, after a number of years spent in the bustle of the world, withdraw from it under a conviction, that the good which they do is small and uncertain, and that the evil which they suffer is great and unavoidable. Besides, it by no means always follows, as a necessary consequence, that a man is rendered useless, or even less useful, by an abstraction from public life, as perhaps may appear from the remarks we have next to offer.

SECTION II.

A retired Life considered in respect to Utility.

THE Cynic Diogenes, we are told, as he one day was rolling his tub in the market-place of Athens, being questioned concerning this singularity, made answer, that, as he saw all the world busy around him, he had no mind to remain unemployed. This conduct and reply of the sagacious misanthrope, conveyed a fine reproof of the greater part of that bustle and agitation which goes under the name of business, as it implied, that in point of real use, it was nearly upon an equality with the rolling of his tub.

It is sad to consider how seldom we look through the form and circumstance of affairs into their real importance, and how much we are led to rate them by the stir and noise with which they are attended. When we see multitudes of people in un

remitting exertion, many in a perpetual hurry, as if their presence was necessary in a hundred places at once, we naturally suppose some grave matters are in agitation, and that the actors are persons of no small consequence; while those who go quietly about their business, or withdraw altogether from public observation. to act their proper part in retirement, we as naturally imagine to be of little or no use. To correct this vulgar misapprehension, it might be sufficient to reflect, that the most perfect and beneficial agency is exerted without precipitation or tumult, that all the planetary revolutions are performed in majestic order and silence, and with less impression upon the senses than the motions of a water-mill.

Let us then dismiss this popular prejudice, and proceed to point out by what methods a retired life may be made a useful one. And here we must recur to some of those instances of occupation, which have before been considered in re

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