The Balance of Happiness equal. AN N extenfive contemplation of human affairs will lead us to this conclufion, that among the different conditions and ranks of men, the balance of happiness is preserved in a great measure equal; and that the high and the low, the rich and the poor, approach, in point of real enjoyment, much nearer to each other, than is commonly imagined. In the lot of man, mutual compenfations, both of pleasure and of pain, univerfally take place. Providence never intended that any ftate here fhould be either completely happy, or entirely miserable. If the feelings of pleasure are more numerous, and more lively, in the higher departments of life, fuch alfo are thofe of pain. If opulence increases our gratifications, it increases, in the fame proportion, our defires and demands. If the poor are confined to a more narrow circle, yet within that circle lie most of those natural fatisfactions which, after all the refinements of art, are found to be the most genuine and true. In a state, therefore, where there is neither fo much to be coveted on the one hand, nor to be dreaded on the other, as at first appears, how submisfive ought we to be to the difpofal of Providence! How temperate in our defires and purfuits! How much more attentive to preserve our virtue, and to improve our minds, than to gain the doubtful and equivocal advantages of worldly prosperity! When we read the hiftory of nations, what do we read but the history of the follies and crimes of men? We may dignify those recorded transactions, by calling them the intrigues of statesmen, and the exploits of conquerors; but they are, in truth, no other than the efforts of discontent to escape from its misery, and the ftruggles of contending paffions among unhappy men. The history of mankind has ever been a continued tragedy; the world, a great theatre, exhibiting the same repeated repeated scene, of the follies of men fhooting forth into guilt, and of their paffions fermenting, by a quick process, into mifery. But can we believe, that the nature of man came forth in this ftate from the hands of its gracious Creator? Did he frame this world, and store it with inhabitants, folely that it might be replenished with crimes and misfortunes? In the moral, as well as in the natural world, we may plainly difcern the figns of some violent contufion, which has fhattered the original workmanship of the Almighty. Amidft this wreck of human nature, traces ftill remain which findicate its Author. Those high powers of confcience and reason, that capacity for happiness, that ardour of enterprize, that glow of affection, which often break through the gloom of human vanity and guilt, are like the scattered columns, the broken arches, and defaced fculptures of fome fallen temple, whose ancient fplendour appears amidst its ruins. So confpicuous in human nature are those characters, both of a high origin and of a degraded state, that, by many religious fects throughout the earth, they have been seen and confeffed. A tradition feems to have pervaded almost all nations, that the human race had either, through fome offence, forfeited, or, through fome misfortune, loft, that station of primæval honour which they once poffeffed. But while, from this doctrine, ill-understood, and involved in many fabulous tales, the nations wandering in Pagan darknefs could draw no confequences that were juft; while, totally ignorant of the nature of the disease, they fought in vain for the remedy; the fame divine revelation, which has informed us in what manner our apoftacy arose, from the abuse of our rational powers, has inftructed us also how we may be restored to virtue and to happiness. THENS, long after the decline of the Roman empire, ftill continued the feat of learning, polite-nefs, and wifdom. Theodoric, the Oftrogoth, repaired the fchools which barbarity was fuffering to fall into decay, and continued thofe penfions to men of learning, which avaricious governors had monopolized. In this city, and about this period, Alcander and Septimius were fellow-ftudents together. The one, the moft fubtle reafoner of all the Lyceum; the other, the most eloquent fpeaker in the academic grove.. Their Mutual admiration foon begot a friendship. fortunes were nearly equal, and they were natives of the two moft celebrated cities in the world; for Alcander was of Athens, Septimius came from Rome. In this ftate of harmony they lived for fome time together, when Alcander, after paffing the first part of youth in the indolence of philofophy, thought at length of entering into the bufy world; and as a ftep pre vious vious to this, placed his affection on Hypatia, a lady of exquifite beauty. The day of their intended nuptials was fixed; the previous ceremonies were performed; and nothing now remained, but her being conducted in triumph to the apartment of the intended bridegroom. Alcander's exultation in his own happiness, or being unable to enjoy any fatisfaction without making his friend Septimius a partner, prevailed upon him to introduce Hypatia to his fellow ftudent; which he did, with all the gaiety of a man who found himself equally happy in friendship and in love. But this was an interview fatal to the future peace of both; for Septimius no fooner faw her, but he was fmitten with an involuntary paffion; and though he used every effort to fupprefs defires at once fo imprudent and fo unjust, the emotions of his mind in a fhort time became fo ftrong, that they brought on a fever, which the phyficians judged incurable. During this illness, Alcander watched him with all the anxiety of fondness, and brought his mistress to join in those amiable offices of friendship. The fagacity of the phyficians, by these means, foon discovered that the cause of their patient's diforder was love; and Alcander being apprised of their discovery, at length extorted a confeffion from the reluctant dying lover. In It would but delay the narrative to defcribe the conflict between love and friendship in the breast of Alcander on this occafion; it is enough to fay, that the Athenians were at that time arrived at such refinement in morals, that every virtue was carried to excess. fhort, forgetful of his own felicity, he gave up his intended bride in all her charms to the young Roman. They were married privately by his connivance, and this unlooked-for change of fortune wrought as unexpected a change in the conftitution of the now happy Septimius. In a few days he was perfectly recovered, and set out with his fair partner for Rome. Here, by an exertion of thofe talents which he was fo eminently poffeffed D 2 poffeffed of, Septimius, in a few years, arrived at the highest dignities of the ftate, and was conftituted the city judge, or prætor. In the mean time Alcander not only felt the pain of being separated from his friend and his mistress, but a profecution was also commenced against him by the relations of Hypatia, for having bafely given up his bride, as was fuggefted, for money. His innocence of the crime laid to his charge, and even his eloquence in his own defence, were not able to withstand the influence of a powerful party. He was caft, and condemned to pay an enormous fine. However, being unable to raife fo large a fum at the time appointed, his poffeffions were confifcated, he himself was ftripped of the habit of freedom, exposed as a flave in the marketplace, and fold to the higheft bidder. His A merchant of Thrace becoming his purchafer, Alcander, with fome other companions in diftrefs, was carried into that region of defolation and fterility. ftated employment was to follow the herds of an im perious mafter, and his fuccefs in hunting was all that was allowed him to fupply his precarious fubfistence. Every morning waked him to a renewal of famine or toil, and every change of season served but to aggravate his unfheltered diftrefs. After fome After fome years of bondage, however, an opportunity of escaping offered; he embraced it with ardour; fo that, travelling by night, and lodging in caverns by day, to fhorten a long ftory, he at last arrived in Rome. The fame day on which Alcander arrived, Septimius fat adminiftering juftice in the Forum, whither our wanderer came, expecting to be instantly known, and publicly acknowledged, by his former friend. Here he ftood the whole day amongst the crowd, watching the eyes of the judge, and expecting to be taken notice of; but he was fo much altered by a long fucceffion of hardships, that he continued unnoticed amongst the rest; and, in the evening, when he was going up to the prætor's chair, he was brutally repulfed by the attending lictors. The attention of the |