in a little time as brave and as chearful as any of his companions. And the labourer, who lives and dies in the hamlet where he was born, and never had the means of changing his condition for a better, often enjoys a degree of health and happiness, whereof the rich and the great have no experience, and could not eafily form an idea.

There is hardly any occupation, in this free country at least, that to us appears more forlorn, than that of those who, in the hyperbolical language of the poet,

Deep plung'd in mines, forget a fun was made.

And yet I have been affured, by a man of humanity and obfervation, the fuperintendant of an English colliery, that his people would rather work in their pits, three hundred feet under ground, than labour in a field of hay in the finest funthine. To us, who are educated with high notions of liberty, it may feem wonderful, that men could live at all, or with any degree of comfort, under a defpotical fovereign. And yet the fubjects of defpotifm are not always miferable. In Ruffia, as well as in more moderate governments, you may meet with merry peasants, chearful affemblies, and happy families. So great is the power of habit, and fo various the inclinations of the human mind, that honefty and humble industry, with contentment, may enjoy the means both of peace, and of pleasure, under any form of government.

What it may be answered, Are all forms of policy, and all human occupations, equally

friendly

friendly to happiness? Then, why contend for liberty? Or why complain, when by the severity of parents and guardians, or by the lowness of our fortune, we are compelled to engage for life in a disagreeable employment?

I admit not the inference. I speak of the goodness of God, in giving that verfatility to man's nature, which makes it fufceptible of comfort in every state in which it can learn to be content. And wretched indeed would our condition be, if our felicity depended more upon outward circumftances, than upon the frame of the mind; for, in that cafe, good and evil would be no more in our power, than riches and high ftation are now; and the miferable would as far exceed the happy in number, as the common people do their rulers.

But far be it from me to infinuate, that all governments are equally good; or that there is no material diftinction between competence and want, moderate and exceffive labour, a healthy and an unhealthy, or a creditable and a mean employment. The human body may live, and enjoy health, in the polar circle and torrid zone, as well as in the temperate climates; yet who, on equal terms, would not prefer the last? In adverfity, and in fickness, the mind of a good man may be happy: yet, who will fay, that health and profperity are not defirable; or that to crave protection against the oppreffor, or to refift, even unto blood, the affaffin who would maim our bodies, is not worth our while? Selfprefervation, the avoidance of pain, a defire to rife from lower to higher degrees of happiness, to gain the esteem of thofe with whom we live,

and

and to promote our worldly interest, where it can be done by innocent means, are principles of action, to which nature has given all men an unquestionable right; and which, as they are fprings of virtue and publick fpirit, must be allowed to be productive of the beft confequences.

Nothing is more friendly to the foul of man, than Liberty; which is the birthright of every rational being, and which none can without cruelty deprive us of, unlefs by our crimes we have proved ourselves unworthy of it. Defpotick governments are therefore unjuft, as far as they deprive the innocent of this prime bleffing: and it never can be for the good of mankind, that injustice fhould triumph, or that innocence fhould be borne down. Befides, activity and genius flourish in free governments, but in the abodes of tyranny difappear: and however it may fare with fome individuals, fociety will always decay or profper, as genius and industry are difcountenanced or promoted.

Freedom of choice in regard to an employment is a part of man's natural liberty, which parents and guardians ought not to violate. For though it may be poffible to be happy in any ftate, it is alfo poffible, that, by having an employment forced upon us, we may be made miferable for life. And much it is to be regretted, that in this country it should at any time be neceffary to compel feamen into the fervice of the publick; and that, from lowness of circumstances, a man of fpirit fhould ever be left to languifh in obfcurity, without any hope of emerging into that tract of business, for which his genius qualifies him, and to which he naturally af

pires. But this laft is only one of those many evils, which, in order to raise our views to a better life, Providence has annexed to the present state of imperfection; and a remedy may be faid to be in fome measure provided for it, in the natural pliableness of the human mind. And the other evil is a confequence, unavoidable as many think, of our living under a free government, in the neighbourhood of an ambitious and powerful enemy, and depending on our naval power for the preservation of our liberties.

CHAP.

CHAP. IV.

Of Tafte, and its Improvement.

SOME ideas are too complex, to admit of When this is the cafe, we must have recourfe to defcription; and give a detail of the more important, if we fhould not be able to ascertain the effential qualities. And, if we can illuftrate a fubject, I believe it is not material, whether that be done by definition and fyllogifm, or by any other method equally brief, convincing, and intelligible.

7

It was faid, that "Imagination, united with "fome other mental powers, and operating as a "percipient faculty, in conveying fuitable im

preffions of what is elegant, fublime, or beau“tiful, in art or nature, is called TASTE." This account may be right as far as it goes; but is not fufficiently comprehenfive. By pointing out its defects, we make amends for them. They may be reduced to two.

Firft; Sublimity, Beauty, and Elegance, are not the only things in art and nature, which gratify Tafte. There is alfo a tafte in imitation, in harmony, and in ridicule. He who takes de

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