the

from its greatest concerns. In like manner, honours and riches of the world will suffer a repulse upon a fair encounter with this principle, and be found unworthy either to be sought or entertained, except as they may be converted into instruments of usefulness.

If, then, the knowledge of which we have been speaking be such as we have stated, if it consist chiefly in a just view of the relation which this world bears to another, how few are there whose pretensions to it are solidly founded! Does he thus know the world, who thinks he has no other business in it than to eat and drink and rise up to play? Or he whose entire occupation is to join house to house, and field to field, till he is placed alone in the midst of the earth!* Does that politician thus know the world, who imagines that nothing is wanting to complete its felicity but liberty and equality, peace and plenty? Or that philosopher who knows every thing under the sun as well as Solomon himself, except that the whole is vanity? No: these are merely novices in the science in which they fancy themselves proficients, and may go for lessons to the simplest hermit, who is piously studious of the Bible, and of his own heart.

And though we were to consider the world in a manner less serious or theological, and should view Isaiah, v. 8.

it even in the most favourable light in which it can be placed by its fondest admirer, what is it but a great fair, in which a prodigious diversity of articles is exposed to sale, some for amusement, some for ostentation, and some for use? Now suppose a wise man to go round the fair, and to note carefully its various commodities; what would be the result of. his survey? Among the first class of objects above specified should he pick up a rattle, it will be one cheap and innocent, and such as may recreate his spirits when exhausted with more serious affairs. The second class he would leave to the vain and prodigal. From the third he would collect such articles as might suit his wants or his reasonable convenience, at the same time taking heed that he paid down for them no more than their just value. This is the man who knows the world, and how to draw from it all the real advantage it is capable of yielding.

RURAL PHILOSOPHY.

PART II.

REFLECTIONS ON VIRTUE.

SECTION I.

In which it is considered how far Retirement is favourable to Virtue, from its Tendency to weaken the Impression of the World.

IT is a law which obtains through every rank of existence, from the meanest plant up to man the head of this sublunary system, for like to produce its like. This, so far as it relates to the vegetable and animal kingdoms, is obvious and known to all; and how much the same law prevails in our intellectual and moral system, may appear from a few reflections on the contagious nature of human opinions and pas. sions; from whose combined influence' arises that impression which is meant in the title of this section, and to which those who are thrown amidst the bustle and pleasures of the world are more particularly exposed.

There are few men who are able entirely to repel an opinion, or to admit it only according to its proper evidence, when it appears strongly impressed on the belief of others. It is in this general weakness of our nature that many dogmatical writers find their advantage, being aware that they have need only to express themselves with an undoubted confidence, in order to carry along with them the majority of their readers. But it is in aliving intercourse with the world, that this mental imbecility is most discovered. Men of the strongest reason have frequent cause to lament this feebleness. When they call themselves to account, after conversing upon an interesting topic, especially if with a friend or a patron, or some person of a rank or character superior to their own, they too often find that their judgment has been either surprised by the partiality of affection, or awed by an undue reverence of authority, or disabled by the servility of dependence. And if such is the effect from a single mind, what must be that from many in conjunction, when their united influence is exerted in some popular assembly, or in a nation at large?

It is not easy to account for the spread of many speculative notions and philosophical theories, upon any other ground than that which is here stated. Some bold innovator advances a doctrine, or a system, with very little reason to support it; by a kind of sympathetic influence he communicates his persuasion to others, these to many more, till by degrees the stream swells into a torrent which no ordinary

mind is able to withstand. Hence the prevailing philosophy of one age has been different from that of another; at one period, for instance, it has been usual to explain all the phenomena of nature by occult qualities; while at another they have been considered as nothing more than mechanical effects, or the mere results of matter and motion. There is a fashion in what is called learning, as in other things, and which often displays itself in a manner no less exclusive and tyrannical.

By a like sympathetic power it is that opinions of a moral and practical nature are commonly propagated. The ideas which are usually formed of the amusements and pleasures of the world, are sure to find an easy entrance into the minds of unexperienced youth, and to induce a violent persuasion, that without balls, and assemblies, and theatres, and other nocturnal revels and fashionable dissipations, they must be deprived of all that is joyous and comforta ble in life, and left to drag out a dull and wearisome existence. In like manner, the sentiments which are generally entertained of rank, of breeding, of family, of riches, and whatever else may confer distinction and consequence, are no less impressive upon vulgar minds; and how few minds can be found which are not vulgar in one or other of these respects, or which can preserve just ideas of these objects in opposition to prevailing opinion, and fairly rate them by their use, and not by that delusive splendour which is cast upon them by the imagination of the multitude!