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till the children have declared, by the lips of their when baptism precedes instruction, as men are parents, that they desire it-that they believe-that made Christians, in the first instance, without inthey renounce the world and the devil. And as the struction, so they believe that they may remain church wishes them to preserve these dispositions Christians without being instructed; and instead throughout life, she expressly enjoins upon them of its being the case, that the primitive Christians to keep them inviolate; and by an indispensable expressed the warmest gratitude for a grace, which command, she requires the parents to instruct their the church only granted after reiterated petitionschildren in all these things; for she does not wish the Christians of these days, manifest nothing but that those whom, from their infancy, she has nou- ingratitude for this same blessing conferred uprished in her bosom, should be less enlightened, and on them, before they were in a state to ask it. If less zealous than those whom she formerly received the church, so decidedly abhorred the occasional, as her own; she cannot be satisfied with a less de- though extremely rare instances of backsliding gree of perfection in those whom she herself has among the primitive Christians, how ought she to trained, than in those whom she admits to her com- hold in abhorrence, the falling again and again of modern Christians, notwithstanding the far higher degree in which they stand indebted to the church, for having so speedily and liberally removed them from that state of curse, in which, by their natural birth, they were involved. She cannot see without bitter lamentation, this abuse of her richest bles sings; and that the course which she has adopted for her childrens' safety, becomes the almost certain occasion of their ruin; for her spirit is not changed, though the primitive custom is.*

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Yet the rule of the church is so perverted from its original intention, that it cannot be thought of without horror. Men think no more of the peculiar blessing which they have received, because they did not themselves ask it, because they do not even remember having received it. But since it is evident, that the church requires no less piety in those who have been brought up from infancy as the servants of faith, than in those who aspire to become such, it becomes such persons to set before them the example of the ancient catechumens of the early church, to consider their ardor, their devotion, their dread of the world, their noble renunciation of it; and if they were not thought worthy to receive baptism, without these dispositions, those who do not find such dispositions in themselves, should at once submit to receive that instruction which they would have had, if they were now only about

to seek an entrance into the communion of the church. It becomes them still further to humble

themselves to such a penitence, as they may wish never again to throw aside; such that they may henceforth find less disgust in the austere mortification of the senses, than of attraction in the criminal pleasures of sin.

To induce them to seek instruction, they must be

made to understand the difference of the customs which have obtained in the church at different times. In the newly formed Christian church, the catechumens, that is, those who offered for baptism, were instructed before the rite was conferred; and they were not admitted to it, till after full instruction in the mysteries of religion; till after penitence for their former life; till after a great measure of knowledge, of the grandeur and excellence of a profession of the Christian faith and obedience, on which they desire to enter for ever; till after some eminent marks of real conversion of heart, and an extreme desire for baptism. These facts being made known to the whole church, they then conferred upon them the sacrament of incorporation or initiation, by which they became members of the church. But now, since baptism has been, for many very important reasons, permitted to infants before the dawn of reason, we find, through the negligence of parents, that nominal Christians grow old without any knowledge of our religion.

When teaching preceded baptism, all were instructed; but now, that baptism precedes instruction, that teaching which was then made necessary for the sacrament, is become merely voluntary, and is consequently neglected, and almost abolished.— Reason then showed the necessity of instruction; and when instruction went before baptism, the necessity of the one, compelled men necessarily to have recourse to the other. But in these days,

*This was the case with converted heathens; but if M. Pascal conceived it to be the case with the children of baptized believers, he is in error; and the whole tenor of the history of the church will prove him to be so.

CHAPTER XXV.

ON THE CONVERSION OF A SINNER.

he has really touched, is a degree of knowledge THE first thing which God imparts to a soul that and perception altogether extraordinary, by which the soul regards both itself and other things in a totally novel manner.

soul a restlessness which thwarts the repose that This new light excites fear, and imparts to the it had formerly found in the wonted sources of indulgence.

The man can no longer relish, with tranquillity, the objects by which he had been previously charmed. A perpetual scrupulousness haunts him in his enjoyments; and this interior perception will not in those things to which he had yielded with all the allow him any longer to find the wonted sweetness melting fulness of the heart.

of piety, than in the vanities of the world. On one But he finds yet more bitterness in the exercises side, the vanity of the things that are seen, is felt

* These views of M. Pascal, evidently originate in the difficulty presented to a believing mind, by the formal and irreligious state of the Christian churches. The thought will occur to a considerate mind, lately awakened to feel the power of true religion, after a youth of nominal religion and real carelessness"Whence does this evil arise ?" And this reference to the mode of admitting converts from heathenism, in earlier days, is one way of settling the point, to which young Christians frequently have recourse.Yet this is cutting the knot, instead of untying it. It is an error which originates in an unfounded and imaginary notion of the state of the Christian church at any time. A little patience and experience-a little practical knowledge of how the Christian system works, would give a very different view of the matter. It is, however, on this summary mode of settling the difficulty, to which the inexperienced mind resortsthat the Anabaptist churches found their peculiar notions, and justify their separation; and it is in the ready application of this notion to meet the difficulty when it first arises, that they find their success. Pascal, after mature deliberation on the facts of the case, did not at all see the necessity of renouncing the custom of infant baptism. He could distinguish between an evil that casually accompanied, and an evil that originated in, that custom.

more deeply than the hope of the things that are not seen; and, on the other, the reality of invisible things affects him more than the vanity of the things which are seen. And thus the presence of the one, and the absence of the other, excite his disgust, so that there arises within him a disorder and confusion which he can scarcely correct, but which is the result of ancient impressions long experienced, and new impressions now first communicated.

other, that it must be more worthy of love than any thing else.

He see at in the love which he has cherished towards the world, he has found in it, owing to his blindness, the second quality of these two, for he had discovered nothing more worthy of his love, but now as he sees not in it the former quality also, he knows that it is not the sovereign good. He seeks it then elsewhere; and knowing, by an illumination altogether pure, that it does not exist in the things which are within him, or around him, or before him, he begins to seek for it in those things which are above.

This elevation of soul is so lofty and transcendant, that it stops not at the heavens; they have not what would satisfy him; nor at the things above the heavens, nor at the angels, nor at the most perfect of created beings. It darts through universal creation, and cannot pause till it has reached the very throne of God; there the soul begins to find repose, and grasps that real good which is such, that there is nothing more truly worthy of love, and that it cannot be taken from him but by his own consent. For though he does not yet taste those enjoyments by which God blesses the services of habitual piety, he learns, at least, that the creatures can never deserve his love more than the Creator; and his reason, aided by the light of grace, teaches him that there is nothing more worthy of love than God, and that He cannot be taken away except from those who reject him-since to desire God, is to possess him; and to refuse him, is to lose him.

He considers perishable things as perishing, and even as already perished; and, in the certain conviction of the annihilation of all that he has loved, he trembles at the thought; whilst he sees, that every moment goes to rob him of the enjoyment of happiness, and that that which is dearest to him, is perpetually gliding away; and that at length a day will come, in which he will find himself bereft of all on which he had built his hope. So that he sees clearly, that as his heart is devoted only to things in themselves fragile and vain, his soul must, at the exit from this life, find itself solitary and destitute, since he has taken no care to unite himself to a real and self-subsistent good, which could support him in, and subsequently to, this present existence. And hence he begins to consider as a nonentity, every thing which returns to nothingness-the heavens, the earth, his body, his relations, his friends, his enemies, wealth or poverty, humiliation or prosperity, honor or ignominy, esteem or contempt, authority or insignificance, health or sickness, and even life itself. In fact, whatever is shorter in duration than his soul, is incapable of satisfying the desires of that soul, which earnestly seeks to establish itself on a basis of felicity as durable as itself. He begins to regard with astonishment, the blindAnd with these novel reflections he enters upon ness in which he has been plunged; and, when he considers on the one hand, the length of time that he the view of the grandeur of his Creator, and upon has lived without any such thoughts, and the great acts of the deepest humiliation and reverence. number of persons who live with equal thought-counts himself as less than nothing in that prelessness; and, on the other, how clear it is that the Sence; and, being unable to form of himself ar soul being immortal, cannot find happiness in the idea sufficiently humiliating, or to conceive of the things that perish, and which must, at all events, be sovereign good a thought sufficiently exalted, he taken from him by death; then there comes upon the last abysses of nothingness, whilst he surveys makes repeatedly fresh efforts to lower himself to him a holy anxiety and astonishment, which gives God still in interminably multiplying immensities; he adores in silence, he looks on himself as a vile and, at last, exhausted by this mighty conception, and useless creature, and by repeated acts of veneration, adores and blesses his God, and would for

rise to salutary sorrow.

For he considers, that however great may be the number of those who grow old in the ways of the world, and whatever authority may be in the multitude of examples, of those who place their happiness in this world, it is nevertheless certain, that even if the things of this world had in them some substantial delight-an assumption which is falsified by the fatal and continual experience of an infinite number of persons-the loss of these things is certain, at the moment when death separates us from

them.

So that, if the soul has amassed a treasure of temporal good, whether of gold, of science, or of reputation, it is inevitably necessary, that it must one day find itself denuded of all the objects of its felicity; and hence it appears, that though many objects have had in them that which ministered satisfaction, they had not that which would have satisfied him permanently; and that even if they procured him a happiness that was real, they could not procure a happiness that was lasting, because it must be terminated by the limits of human life.

Then by a holy humility, which God has exalted above pride, the man begins to rise above the common habits of men in general. He condemns their conduct; he detests their maxims; he laments their blindness; he devotes himself to the search for that which is truly good; he arrives at the conviction, that it must possess these two qualities the one, that it must be as durable as himself--the

And thus he rejoices in having found a blessing which cannot be torn from him as long as he wishes to possess it, and which has nothing superior to itself.

ever bless and adore.

He

God has manifested his infinite majesty to a worthThen he sees something of the grace by which less worm-he is ashamed and confounded at having preferred so many vanities to such a Divine Master; and, in the spirit of compunction and penitence, he looks up for his compassion to arrest that anger, the effect of which, seen through these immensities, seems to hang over him so awfully.

He sends up ardent prayers to God, to obtain this mercy, that as it has pleased him to disclose himself to his soul, it would please him also to lead it to himself, and prepare for him the means of reaching him. For it is to God that he now aspires, and, at the same time, he only aspires to reach him by those means which come from God himself, for he wishes God himself to be his way, his object, and his end. Then on the result of these prayers, he learns that he ought to act conformably to the new light which he has received.

He begins to know God, and to desire to go to him; but he is ignorant of the mode of reaching him. If, then, his desire is sincere and rea), just as a person who wishes to go to a particular spot, but who has lost his way, and knows that he is in error, has recourse to those who are well acquainted with it, so he seeks advice from those who can teach

him the way that leads to the God, from whom he has so long been alienated. And in thus seeking to know this way, he resolves to regulate his conduct for the remainder of his life by the truth, as far as he knows it; and seeing that his natural weakness, together with the habitual tendency which he now has to the sin in which he has lived, have incapacitated him for reaching the happiness of which he is in search, he implores from the mercy of God those gracious aids by which he may find him, devote himself to him, and adhere to him for ever. Heartily occupied by the loveliness of the Divine excellency-old as eternity, in fact, but to him so new; he feels that all he does ought to bear him towards this adorable object; he sees now clearly that he ought henceforth only to think of adoring God, as his creature, of gratitude to him for unnumbered obligations, of penitence as guilty, and prayer as necessitous; so that his entire occupation should be to contemplate, and love, and praise him throughout eternity.

CHAPTER XXVI.

REASONS FOR SOME OPINIONS OF THE PEOPLE.

I WRITE my thoughts here without order, but probably not in mere unmeaning confusion. It is, in fact, the true order, and will mark my object, even by the disorder itself.

We shall see that all the opinions of the multitude are very sound: that the people are not so weak as they are reported; and, that consequently, the opinion which would destroy the opinion of the people, will be itself destroyed.

2. It is true in one sense, that all the world is in a state of delusion; for although the opinions of the people are sound, they are not so as held by them, because they conceive the truth to reside where it does not. There is truth in their opinions, but not where they suppose.

and I am a fool to contest the point. This arrangement keeps us in peace; which is of all blessings the greatest.

8. From the habit of seeing kings surrounded with guards, and drums, and officers, and with all these appendages which tend to create respect and terror, it happens, that the countenance of kings, even though seen sometimes without these adjuncts, still awakens in their subjects the same reverential feeling; because, even then, we do not mentally separate their person from the train with which we usually see them attended. The multitude who know not that this effect has its origin in custom, believe it to originate in native feeling; and hence arises such expressions as, The character of divinity is imprinted on his countenance, &c.

The power of kings is founded on the reason, and on the folly of the people; but most chiefly on their folly. The greatest and most important thing in the world has weakness for its basis; and this basis is wonderfully secure, for there is nothing more certain, than that the people will be weak, whilst that which has its foundation in reason only, is very insecure, as the esteem for wisdom.

9. Our magistrates have well understoood this mystery. Their crimson robes, their ermine, in which they wrap themselves, the palaces of justice, the fleur-de-lis-all this pomp and circumspection was necessary; and if physicians had not their cassock and their mule; and if theologians had not their square cap, and their flowing garments, they would never have duped the world, which could not withstand this authenticating demonstration. Soldiers are the only men who are not in some measure disguised; and that is, because their own share in the matter, is the most essential part of it. They gain their point by actual force-the others by grimace.

On this account our kings have not had recourse to such disguises. They have not masked them3. The people reverence men of high birth.-selves in extraordinary habits, in order to appear Your half-informed men despise them, affirming, impressive; but they have surrounded themselves that birth is not a personal advantage, but a mere with guards, and lancers, and whiskered faces, men accident. Your really superior men honor them, who have hands and energies only for this service. not on the ground of the popular notion, but for The drums and trumpets which go before them, loftier reasons. Certain zealots of narrow views, and the legions that surround them, make even despise them, notwithstanding those reasons which brave men tremble. They not only wear a dress, secure to them the respect of superior men, because but they are clothed with might. A man had need they judge by a new light, that their measure of have an unprejudiced mind, to consider merely as piety imparts. But more advanced Christians give another man, the Grand Signior surrounded by his them honor, according to the dictates of light yet glittering train of 40,000 Janissaries. superior; and thus opinions, for and against, obtain in succession, according to the light possessed.

4. Civil wars are the greatest of evils. They are certain, if it is wished to recompense merit, for all would affirm that they deserved reward. The evil to be feared from a fool who succeeds by inheritance, is neither so great, nor so certain.

5. Why follow the majority? Is it because they have more reason? No. But because they have more force. Why follow ancient laws, and ancient opinions? Are they wiser? No. But they stand apart from present interests: and thus take away the root of difference.

If magistrates were possessed of real justice, if physicians knew the true art of healing, there were no need of square caps. The majesty of science would be sufficiently venerable alone. But possessed, as they mostly are, with only imaginary science, they must assume these vain adornments which impress the imagination of those among whom they labor, and, by that means, they obtain respect. We cannot look at an advocate in his gown and his wig, without a favorable impression of his abilities.

The Swiss are offended at being called gentlemen, and have to establish the proof of their low origin, in order to qualify them for stations of im

10. No one chooses for a pilot, the highest born passenger on board.

6. The empire founded on opinion and imagina-portance.* tion, sometimes has the upper hand; and this dominion is mild and voluntary. The empire of force reigns always. Opinion is, as it were, the queen of the world; but force is its tyrant.

7. How wisely are men distinguished by their exterior, rather than their interior qualifications. Which of us two shall take the lead? Which shall yield precedence? The man of least talent? But I am as clever as he. Then we must fight it out for this. But he has four lacqueys, and I have but one. There is a visible difference: we have only to count them. It is my place then to give way;

All the world sees that we labor with uncertainty before us, either by sea, in battle, &c. but all the world does not see the law of the chances, which shows that we do rightly. Montaigne saw that a narrow mind is an offence, and that custom rules every thing-but he did not see the reason of this. Those who see only effects, and not their causes,

*At Basle they must renounce their nobility, in order to enter the senate.

are in relation to those who discover the causes, as those who have eyes only, compared with those who have mind. For the effects are perceptible to the senses, but the reasons only to the understanding. And though, in fact, these effects are perceived by the understanding, yet such a mind, compared with that which discovers the causes, is as the bodily senses to the intellectual powers.

11. How is it that a lame man does not anger us, but a blundering mind does? Is it, that the cripple admits that we walk straight, but a crippled mind accuses us of limping? But for this, we should feel more of pity than of anger.

gained their esteem, and we will esteem you as they do."

18. If a man stands at the window to see those

who pass, and I happen to pass by, can I say that he placed himself there to see me No: for he did not think of me particularly. But if a man loves a woman for her beauty, Does he love her? No: for the small-pox which destroys her beauty without killing her, causes his love to cease. And if any one loves me for my judgment or my memory, Does he really love me? No: for I can lose these qualities without ceasing to be. Where then is this me, if it is neither in the body nor the soul? Epictetus asks also, Why we are not annoyed if And how are we to love the body or the soul, except any one tells us that we are unwell in the head, and it be for those qualities which do not make up this yet are angry if they tell us that we reason falsely, me, because they are perishable? For can we love or choose unwisely? The reason is, that we know the soul of a person abstractedly; and some qualities certainly that nothing ails our heads, or that we are that belong to it? That cannot be; and it would not crippled in the body. But we are not so cer- be unjust. Then they never love the person, but tain that we have chosen correctly. So that having only the qualities; or, if they say that they love the only assurance, inasmuch as we perceive the mat-person, they must say also, that the combination of ter distinctly, whilst another sees it as clearly the qualities constitutes the person. contrary way, we are necessarily brought into doubt 19. Those things about which we are most anxand suspense; and still more so, when a thousandious, are very often a mere nothing; as, for inothers laugh at our decision; for we must prefer stance, the concealment of our narrow circumour own convictions to those of ever so many others, stances. This evil of poverty is a mere nothing, and yet that is a bold and difficult course. Now, we that imagination has magnified to a mountain. never feel this contradiction of our senses in a case Another turn of thought would induce us to tell it of actual lameness. without difficulty.

12. Respect for others requires you to inconvenience yourself. This seems foolish; yet it is very proper. It says, "I would willingly inconvenience myself seriously, if it would serve you, seeing that I do so when it will not." Besides, the object of this respect is to distinguish the great. Now, if respect might show itself by lolling in an elbow chair, we should respect all the world, and then we should not distinguish the great; but being put to inconvenience, we distinguish them plainly enough.

13. A superior style of dress is not altogether vain. It shows how many persons labor for us. A man shows by his hair that he has a valet and perfumer, &c.; and by his band, his linen, and lace, &c. It is not then, a mere superficial matter, a mere harness, to have many hands employed in our

service.

14. Strange indeed! they would have me not pay respect to that man dressed in embroidery, and followed by seven or eight lacqueys. Why he would horse-whip me if I did not. Now, this custom is a matter of compulsion; it does not exist between two horses, when one is better caparisoned than the

other.

It is droll in Montaigne, that he does not see the difference between admiring what we see, and asking the reason of it.

15. The people have some wise notions: for example, the having chosen amusement and hunting, in preference to poetry. Your half-learned gentry laugh at them, and delight in pointing out their folly in this; but for reasons which they cannot perceive, the people are right. It is well also to distinguish men by externals, as by birth or property. The world strives to show how unreasonable this is; but it is perfectly reasonable.

16. Rank is of great advantage, as it gives to a man of eighteen or twenty years of age, a degree of acceptance, publicity, and respect, which another can scarcely obtain by merit at fifty. There is a gain, then, of thirty years without difficulty.

17. There are men, who, to show us that we are wrong, in not esteeming them more highly, never fail to bring forward the names of those persons of quality who think well of them. I would answer them, "Show us the merit by which you have

20. Those who have the power of invention are but few. Those who have not are many, and consequently, the strongest party. And generally, we see that they refuse to the inventors the praise that they deserve, and that they seek by their inventions. If they persist in seeking it, and treat contemptuously those who have not this talent, they will gain nothing but a few hard names, and they will be treated as visionaries. A man should take care, therefore, not to plume himself upon this advantage, great as it is; and he should be content to be esteemed by the few, who really can appreciate his merits.

CHAPTER XXVII.

DETACHED MORAL THOUGHTS.

THERE are plenty of good maxims in the world; we fail only in applying them. For instance, it is without doubt that we should expose life to defend the public good; and mary do this; but scarcely any one does this for religion. It is necessary that there be inequality in the state of man; but that being granted, the door is opened, not only to the highest domination, but to the highest degree of tyranny. It is needful to allow some relaxation of mind; but this opens the door to the loosest dissipations. The limits should be marked; they are not laid down. The laws would prescribe them, but the human mind will not endure it.

2. The authority of reason is far more imperious than that of a master; for he who disobeys the one, is unhappy; but he who disobeys the other, is a fool.

3. Why would you kill me? Why? do you not live across the water? My friend, if you lived on this side, I should be an assassin; it would be unjust to kill you in this way; but since you live on the other, I am brave, and the act is just.

4. Those who live irregularly, say to those who live discreetly, that it is they who swerve from the dictates of nature, and that they themselves live according to it; as those who are in a vessel believe that the people on shore are receding_from them. Both parties use similar language. There should be a fixed point to decide the case. port settles the question for those in the vessel,

The

but where shall we find this fixed point in mo- | decides, and he an interested party. It ought to be a third and an indifferent person.

rals ?*

5. As fashion makes pleasure, so does it justice. If men really knew what justice is, they would never have admitted this commonest of all maxims throughout the world, that each should follow the custom of his own country. Real equity would have subjugated all nations, by its native brilliancy; and legislators would not have taken in the stead of this invariable rule of right, the fancies and caprices of Persians and Germans, &c. It would have been set up in all the states of the earth, and at all times.

6. Justice is that which is by law established; and hence all our established laws are to be necessarily accounted just, because they are established. 7. The only universal rules are, the laws of the land in ordinary matters. In extraordinary_matters, the majority carries it. Why is this? From the power that exists in it.

And hence, also, kings who possess an extrinsic force, do not follow even the majority of their ministers.

8. Undoubtedly an equality of rights is just; but not being able to compel men to be submissive to justice, legislators have made them obedient to force. Unable to fortify justice, they have justified force; so that justice and force uniting, there might be peace, for that is the sovereign good-summum jus, summa injuria.

The power of the plurality is the best way; because it is a visible power; and it has force to command obedience. Yet this is the counsel only of inferior men.

If they could, they should have put power into the hands of justice; but since power will not let itself be used as men please, because it is a palpable quality, while justice is an intellectual quality, of which they may dispose as they please, they have placed justice in the hands of power, and now they call that justice which power requires to be observed.

9. It is just, that whatever is just should be observed. It is necessary that whatever is the strongest should be obeyed. Justice without power is inefficient; power without justice is tyranny. Justice without power is gainsayed, because there are always wicked men. Power without justice is soon questioned. Justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just.

Justice may be disputed; but power speaks pretty plainly, and without dispute. So that it needs but to give power to justice; but seeing that it was not possible to make justice powerful, they have made tne powerful just.

10. It is dangerous to tell the people that the laws are not just; for they only obey them because they believe them to be just. They must be told therefore at the same time, that they must obey them as laws; as they obey their superiors, not because they are just, but because they are their superiors. If you make them comprehend this, you prevent all sedition. This is the true definition of justice.

11. It were well for the people to obey laws and customs, because they are laws; and that they understood that this made them just. On this ground, they would never deviate from them; whilst on the other hand, if their justice is to rest on any other basis, it may easily be brought into question, and then the people are made liable to revolt.

12. When it is made a question, whether we should make war, and kill so many men, and doom so many Spaniards to die, it is one man only who

*The answer of M. Pascal would be, In the Holy Scriptures.

13. Language such as this, is false and tyrannical: "I am well-looking; then men ought to fear me: I am strong; then men should love me." Tyranny is to seek to obtain that by one means, which should only be obtained by another. We owe different duties to different kinds of merit; a duty of love to that which is amiable; of fear, to that which is mighty; of teachableness, to the learned, &c. This duty should be done. It is unjust to withhold this. It is unjust to require more. And it savors equally of error and of tyranny to say, "He has no might, then I will not esteem him. He has no talent, therefore I will not fear him." Tyranny consists in the desire of universal dominion, unwarranted by our real merit.

14. There are vices which have no hold upon us, but in connection with others; and which, when you cut down the trunk, fall like the branches.

15. When malice has reason on its side, it looks forth bravely, and displays that reason in all its lustre. When austerity and self-denial have not realized true happiness, and the soul returns to the dictates of nature, the re-action is fearfully extravagant.

16. To find recreation in amusements, is not happiness; for this joy springs from alien and extrinsic sources, and is therefore dependent upon, and subject to interruption by a thousand accidents, which may minister inevitable affliction.

17. The highest style of mind is accused of folly, as well as the lowest. Nothing is thoroughly ap proved but mediocrity. The majority has brought this about; and it instantly fixes its fangs on whatever gets beyond it either way. I will not resist their rule. I consent to be ranked among them; and if I object to be placed at the low extreme, it is not because it is low, but because it is the extreme; for I should in the same way refuse to be placed at the highest. To get really beyond mediocrity, is to pass the limits of human nature. The dignity of the human soul, lies in knowing how to keep the middle course; and so far from there being greatness in leaving it, true greatness consists in never deviating from it.

18. No man obtains credit with the world for talent in poetry, who does not fairly hang out the sign of a poet; or for a talent in mathematics, if he has not put up the sign of a mathematician. But your truly honest men have recourse to no such expedients. They no more play themselves off for poets, than for embroiderers. They are neither called poets nor geometers; but they are at home in all these matters. Men do not make out specifically what they are. When they enter a room, they speak of the topic then in discussion. They do not discover a greater aptness for one subject than for anfor to such persons it is a matter of equal indiffer other, except as circumstances call out their talents; ence, that it should not be said, "That man talks remarkably well," when conversational powers is not the point in question, or that this should be said of them when it is. It is poor praise, therefore, when a man is pointed out, on his entering a room, to, where the merit of some verses is to be consias a great poet, or that he should only be referred dered. Man is full of wants; he only loves those who can satisfy them. "He is a good mathematician;" they say, "but then I must be bored incessantly with mathematics:" or, "That man thoroughly comprehends the art of war; but I do not wish to make war with any man." Give me, then, a polite man, with general talents, to meet and supply all my necessities.

19. When in health, we cannot at all judge how we would act in sickness; but when sickness comes,

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