"Had e'er disturb'd my thoughtful mind,

"Or cost one serious moment's pain; "I should have faid, that all the rules, "I learn'd of moralifts and schools,

"Were very useless, very vain.”

And
yet I have never fince that time let flip
any fair opportunity of doing it. Be con-
tented, fays Ifocrates, with what you have,
and feek at the fame to make the best im-
provement of it you can. So that all I
mean is, that I have not been over folicitous
to obtain any thing that I did not poffefs;
but could at all times fay, with St. Paul,
that I have learned to be contented in all
fituations, although at times they have been
very gloomy indeed. Dryden fays,

"We to ourselves may all our wishes grant,
"For, nothing coveting, we nothing want."

DRYDEN'S Indian Emperor.

And in another place he fays,

66

They cannot want who with not to have more: "Who ever faid an anchoret was poor?"

DRYDEN'S Secret Love.

The pleasures of eating and drinking I en

tirely defpifed, and for fome time carried this

difpofition

difpofition to an extreme; and even to the prefent time I feel a very great indifference about these matters: when in company I frequently dine off one difh, when there are 'twenty on the table. The account of Epicurus living in his garden, at the expence of about a halfpenny per day, and that when he added a little cheefe to his bread on particular occafions, he confidered it as a luxury, filled me with raptures.

"He talk'd of virtue, and of human blifs,
"What elfe fo fit for man to fettle well?

"And ftill his long researches met in this,
"This truth of truths which nothing can repel.

"From virtue's fount the pureft joys outwell

"Sweet rills of thought that chear the confcious foul,

"While vice pours forth the troubled ftreams of hell,

Which, howe'er difguis'd, at laft will dole;

"Will through the tortur'd breaft their fiery torrent roll."

TOMSON.

From that moment I began to live on bread and tea, and for a confiderable time did not partake of any other viands, but in thofe I indulged myself three or four times a day. My reasons for living in this abftemious manner were in order to fave money to purchase

books,

books, to wean myself from the grofs pleäfures of eating and drinking, &c. and to purge my mind, and to make it more suscep tible of intellectual pleasures; and here I cannot help remarking, that the term Epicure, when applied to one who makes the pleasures of the table his chief good, casts an unjust reflection on Epicurus, and conveys a wrong idea of that contemplative and very abftemious philofopher: for although he afferted that pleasure was the chief or fupreme good, yet he alfo as ftrongly afferted, that it was the tranquility of the mind, and intellectual pleasure, that he fo extolled and re'commended." This pleafure (fays he) that is the very centre of our happiness, confifts in nothing else than having our mind free from difturbance, and our body free from pain; drunkenness, exceffive eating, nicenefs in our liquors, and all that feafons good cheer, have nothing in them that can make life happy; there is nothing but frugality and tranquility of mind that establish this happy ftate; it is this calm that facilitates our distinguishing betwixt thofe things that

ought

ought to be our choice, and those we ought to fhun; and it is by the means thereof, that we discard those notions that discompose this first mover of our life."

"When Epicurus to the world had taught,
"That pleasure was the chiefest good,

(And was perhaps in the right, if rightly understood)

"His life he to his doctrines brought,

"And in a garden's fhade, that fovereign pleasure fought; "Whoever a true Epicure would be,

"May there find cheap and virtuous luxury."

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COWLEY'S Garden.

St. Evremont in his vindication of Epicurus fays, Ignorant men know not his worth. Wife men have given large and honourable testimonies of his exalted virtue and fublime precepts. They have fully proved his pleafures to be as fevere as the ftoick's virtue; that to be debauched like Epicurus, a man muft be as fober as Zeno.-His temperance was fo great that his ordinary diet was nothing but bread and water. The ftoicks and all other philofophers agree with Epicurus in this; that the true felicity of life is to be free from perturbations, to understand our duty

L

towards

1

, towards God and Man, and to enjoy the prefent without any anxious dependance upon the future; not to amufe ourselves either with hopes or fears; to curb and restrain our unruly appetites, to reft fatisfied with what we have, which is abundantly fufficient, for he 'that is content wants nothing."

"Some place the blifs in action, fome in eafe;
"Those call it pleasure, and contentment thefe;
"Some funk to beafts, find pleasure end in pain;
"Some swell'd to Gods, confefs e'en virtue vain."

РОРЕ.

I continued the above felf-denying life until I left Bristol, which was on Whitsunday in 1769. I had for fome time before been pointing out to my friend John Jones fome of the pleasures and advantages of travelling, fo that I easily prevailed on him to accompany me towards the Weft of England; and in the evening we arrived at Bridgewater, where Mr. Jones got work. He was employed by Mr. Cafh, with whom he continued near twelve months, and in the end married Mr. Cafh's daughter, a very pretty and very amiable little woman, with some fortune. When my friend

was