this occasion; it is enough to fay, that the Athenians were at that time arrived at fuch refinement in morals, that every virtue was carried to excefs. In 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 fet out with his fair partner for Rome. Here, by an exertion of thofe talents which he was fo eminently 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 feparated from his friend and his miftrefs, but a profecution was alfo 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 raise fo large a fum at the time appointed, his poffeflions were confifcated, he himself was ftripped of the habit of freedom, expofed as a flave in the market-place, and fold to the highest bidder.

A merchant of Thrace becoming his purchafer, Alcander, with fome other companions of diftrefs, was carried into that region of desolation and sterility. His ftated employment was to follow the herds of an imperious mafter, and his fuccefs in hunting was all that was allowed him to fupply his precarious fubfiftence. Every morning awaked him to a renewal of famine or toil, and every change of feafon ferved but to aggravate his unfheltered diftrefs. After fome years of bondage, however, an opportunity of efcaping offered; he embraced it with ardour; fo that travelling by night, and lodging in caverns by day, to fhorten a long ftory, he at laft arrived in Rome. The fame day on which Alexander arrived, Septimius fat administering juftice in the forum, whither our wanderer came, ex

pecting to be inftantly known, and publicly acknowledged by his former friend. Here he flood 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 unnoted among the reft; 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 poor is generally driven from one ungrateful object to another; for, night coming on, he now found himfelf under a necellity of feeking a place to lie in, and yet knew not where to apply. All emaciated, and in rags as he was, none of the citizens would harbour fo much wretchednefs; and fleeping in the streets might be attended with interruption or danger; in fhort, he was obliged to take up his lodging in one of the tombs without the city, the ufual retreat of guilt, poverty, and despair. In this manfion of horror, laying his head upon an inverted urn, he forgot his miferies for a while in fleep; and found, on his flinty couch, more eafe than beds of down can fupply to the guilty.

As he continued here, about midnight two robbers came to make this their retreat; but happening to difagree about the divifion of their plunder, the one of them ftabbed the other to the heart, and left him weltering in blood at the entrance. In thefe circumftances he was found next morning dead at the mouth of the vault. This naturally inducing a farther enquiry, an alarm was fpread; the cave was examined; and Alcander being found, was immediately apprehended, and accused of robbery and murder. The circumftances against him were strong, and the wretchednefs of his appearance confirmed fufpicion. Misfortune and he were now fo long acquainted, that he at laft became regardless of life. He detefted a world where he had found only ingratitude, falfehood, and cruelty; he was determined to make no defence; and thus, lowering with refolution, he was dragged, bound with cords, before the tribunal of Septimius. As the proofs were pofitive against him, and he offered nothing in his own vindication, the judge was proceeding to doom

him to a most cruel and ignominious death, when the attention of the multitude was foon divided by another object. The robber, who had been really guilty, was apprehended felling his plunder, and, ftruck with a panic, had confeffed his crime. He was brought bound to the fame tribunal, and acquitted every other perfon of any partnerthip in his guilt. Alcander's innocence therefore appeared, but the fullen rafhnefs of his conduct remained a wonder to the furrounding multitude; yet their aftonishment was still farther encreased,

DEFINITION

Turs fubjitha and in HIS interefting fubject has been

a great variety of ways; but by none does it appear to have been fet in a clearer and more definite point of view than by archdeacon Paley in the fixth chapter of his Principles of Philofophy. In itrictness (fays that elegant writer) any condition may be denominated happy in which the amount or aggregate of pleafure exceeds that of pain; and 'the degree of happinefs depends upon the quantity of this excefs. And the greatest quantity of it, ordinarily attainable in human life, is what we mean by happiness, when we inquire or pronounce what human happiness confifts in.

If any pofitive fignification, diftinct from what we mean by pleasure, can be affixed to the term of happiness, it may be taken to denote a certain ftate of the nervous fyftem in that part of the human frame in which we feel joy and grief, paffions and affections, Whether this part be the heart, which the turn of moft languages would lead us to believe; or the diaphragm, as Buffon, or the upper orifice of the tomach, as Van Helmont thought; or rather be a kind of fine network, lining the whole region of the præcordia, as others have imagined; it is poffible not only that every painful fenfation may violently fake and difturb the fibres at the time, but that a series of fuch may at length fo derange the very texture of the fyftem, as to produce a perpetual irritation, which will show itfelf by fretfulness, reftleffnefs and impatience. It is poffible alfo, on the

when they faw their judge start from his tribunal to embrace the fuppofed criminal: Septimius recollected his friend and former benefactor, and hung upon his neck with tears of pity and of joy. Need the fequel be related? Alcander was acquitted: fhared the friendfhip and honours of the principal citizens of Rome; lived afterwards in happiness and eafe; and left it to be engraved on his tomb, That no circumftances are fo defperate, which Providence may not relieve.

HAPPINESS.

furable dentations fay have fuch an other hand, that a fucceffion of plea

effect upon this fubtle organization, as to caufe the fibres to relax, and return into their place and order; and thereby to recover, or if not loft to preferve, that harmonious conformation which gives to the mind its fenle of complacency and fatisfaction. This, ftate may be denominated happiness: And is fo far diftinguishable from pleafure, that it does not refer to any particular object of enjoyment, or confift like pleasure in the gratification of one or more of the fenfes; but is rather the fecondary effect which such objects and gratifications produce upon the nervous fyftem, or the ftate in which they leave it. The comparative fenfe, however, in which we have explained the term happiness, is more popular; and in profecuting the fubject, we may confider, 1. What human happiness does not confift in; and, 2. What it does confift in.

Firft, then, happiness does not confift in the pleafures of fenfe, in whatever profufion or variety they be enjoyed. By the pleasures of fenfe are meant, as well the animal gratifications of eating, drinking, and that by which the fpecies is continued, as the more refined pleafures of mufic, painting, architecture, gardening, fplendid fhows, theatric exhibitions, and the pleatures, laftly, of active fports, as of hunting, fhooting, fishing, &c. For, 1. These pleafures continue but for a little while at a time. This is true of them all, efpecially of the groller fort. Laying alide the preparation and the expectation,

and, computing ftrictly the actual fenfation, we fhall be furprised to find how inconfiderable a portion of our time they occupy, how few hours in the four and twenty they are able to fill up. 2. By repetition, they loofe their relifh. It is a property of the machine, for which we know no remedy, that the organs by which we perceive pleasure are blunted and benumbed, by being frequently exercised in the fame way. There is hardly any one who has not found the difference between a gratification when new and when familiar, and any pleasure which does not become indifferent, as it grows habitual. 3. The eagerness for high and intenfe delights takes away the relifh from all others, and as fuch delights fall rarely in our way, the greater part of our time becomes from this caufe empty and uneafy. There is hardly any delufion by which men are greater fufferers in their happiness, than by their expecting too much from what is called pleafure; that is, from those intense delights which vulgarly engrofs the name of pleasure. The very expectation fpoils them. When they do come, we are often engaged in taking pains to perfuade ourselves how much we are pleafed, rather than enjoying any pleafure which springs naturally out of the object. And, whenever we depend upon being vaftly delighted, we always

go

home fecretly grieved at mifling our aim. Likewife, when this humour of being prodigiously delighted has once taken hold of the imagination, it hinders us from providing for or acquiefcing in thofe gently focthing engagements, the due variety and fucceffion of which are the only things that fupply a continued stream of happiness.

The truth feems to be, that there is a limit at which thefe pleasures foon arrive, and from which they ever afterwards decline. They are by neneffity of fhort duration, as the organs cannot hold on their emotions beyond a certain length of time; and if you endeavour to compenfate for this imperfection in their nature by the frequency with which you repeat them, you lofe more than you gain by the fatigue of the faculties and the diminution of fenfibility. We have in this account faid nothing of the lofs of opVOL. I. No. 3.

K

portunities or the decay of faculties, which whenever they happen leave the voluptuary deftitute and desperate; teafed by defires that can never be gratified, and the memory of pleasures which muft return no more. It will alfo be allowed by those who have experienced it, and perhaps by those alone, that pleasure which is purchased by the encumbrance of our fortune, is purchafed too dear; the pleasure never compenfating for the perpetual irritatation of embarraffed circumstances.

Thefe pleasures, after all, have their value: and as the young are always too eager in their pursuit of them, the old are fometimes too remifs; that is, too ftudious of their eafe to be at the pains for them which they really deserve.

Secondly, Neither does happiness confift in an exemption from pain, la bour, care, business, suspense, moleftation, and "thofe evils which are without;" fuch a ftate being usually attended not with ease, but with depreffion of fpirits, a tastelessness in all. our ideas, imaginary anxieties, and the whole train of hypochondriacal affections. . For which reafon it feldom anfwers the expectations of those who retire from their fhops and countinghoufes to enjoy the remainder of their days in leifure and tranquillity; much lefs of fuch as in a fit of chagrin shut themfelves up in cloisters and hermitages, or quit the world and their sta tions in it for folitude and repofe.

Where there exifts a known exter nal caufe of uneafinefs, the cause may be removed, and the uneafinefs will ceafe. But thofe imaginary distresses which men feel for want of real ones and which are equally tormenting, (and fo far equally real,) as they depend upon no lingle or affignable fubject of unealinefs, fo they admit oft-times of no application or relief. Hence a moderate pain, upon which the attention may falten and fpend itself, is to many a refreshment; as a fit of the gour will fometimes cure the fpleen. And the fame of any moderate agitation of the mind, as a literary controversy, a law-fuit, a contefted election, and above all gaming; the paffion for which, in men of fortune and liberal minds, is only to be accounted for on this principle.

Thirdly,

Were it true that all fuperiority afforded pleasure, it would follow, that by how much we were the greater, that is, the more perfons we were fuperior to, in the fame proportion, so far as depended upon this caufe, we fhould be the happier; but fo it is, that no fuperiority yields any fatisfaction, fave that which we potfels or obtain over thofe with whom we immediately compare ourselves. The fhepherd perceives no pleasure in his fuperiority over his dog; the farmer in his fuperiority over the thepherd; the lord in his fuperiority over the farmer; nor the king, laftly, in his fuperiority over the lord. Superiority, where there is no competition, is feldom contemplated; what most men indeed are quite unconscious of. But if the fame fhepherd can run, fight, or wrestle, better than the peafants of his village; if the farmer can fhew better cattle, if he keeps a better horse, or be fuppofed to have a longer purfe, than any farmer in the hundred; if the lord have more interest in an election, greater favour at court, a better house, or larger eftate, than any nobleman in the county; if the king poffefs a more extensive territory, a more powerful fleet or army, a more fplendid eftablishment, more loyal fubjects, or more weight and authority in adjufting the affairs of nations, than any prince in Europe; in all thefe cafes, the parties feel an actual fatisfaction in their fuperiority. No fuperiority appears to be of any account but a fuperiority over a rival. This, it is manifeft, may exift wherever rival fhips do; and rivalfhips fall out amongst men of all ranks and degrees. The object of emulation, the dignity or magnitude of this object, makes no difference; as it is not what either poffeffes that conftitutes the pleafure, but what one poffeffes more than the other. Philofophy fmiles at the contempt with which the rich and great fpeak of the petty ftrifes and competitions of the poor; not reflecting that thefe ftrifes and competitions are just as reasonable as their own, and the pleafure which fuccefs affords, the fame.

It appears evident then, that happi

But

nefs does not confist in greatness; fince what are fuppofed to be the peculiar advantages of greatnefs, the pleafures of ambition and fuperiority, are in reali ty common to all conditions. whether the purfuits of ambition be ever wife, whether they contribute more to the happiness or misery of the purfuers, is a different question; and a queftion concerning which we may be allowed to entertain great doubt. The pleasure of fuccefs is exquifite; fo alfo is the anxiety of the purfuit, and the pain of difappointment; and what is the worst part of the account, the pleafure is fhort-lived. We foon ceafe to look back upon thofe whom we have left behind; new contefts are engaged in, new profpects unfold themselves; a fucceffion of struggles is kept up, whilst there is a rival left within the compafs of our views and profeffion; and when there is none, the pleasure with the purfuit is at an end.

We have feen what happiness does not confift in: we are now to confider in what it does confift. In the conduct

of life, the great matter is, to know beforehand what will pleafe us, and what pleasures will hold out. So far as we know this, our choice will be juftified by the event. And this knowledge is more rare and difficult than at first fight it may feem to be: for fometimes pleasures, which are wonderfully alluring and flattering in the profpect, turn out in the poffeffion extremely infipid; or do not hold out as we expected: at other times pleasures start up, which never entered into our calculation, and which we might have miffed of by not forefeeing; from whence we have reafon to believe, that we actually do mifs of many pleasures from the fame cause.

By reafon of the original diverfity of tafte, capacity, and conftitution, obfervable in the human fpecies, and the ftill greater variety which habit and fashion have introduced in these particulars; it is impoffible to propose any plan of happinefs which will fucceed to all, or any method of life which is univerfally eligible or practicable. All that can be faid is, that there remains a

prefumption in favour of those conditions of life in which men generally appear moft cheerful and contented.

For

For though the apparent happiness of mankind be not always a true measure of their real happiness, it is the best measure we have.

Upon this principle, then, happiness appears to confift in the exercife of the focial affections.-Thofe perfons commonly poffefs good fpirits, who have about them many objects of affection and endearment; as wife, children, kindred, friends and to the want of thefe may be imputed the peevifhnefs of monks, and of fuch as lead a monaftic life. Of the fame nature with the indulgence of our domeftic affections, and equally refrething to the fpirits, is the pleasure which refults from acts of bounty and beneficence, exercised either in giving money, or in imparting to thofe who want it the affiftance of our skill and profeffion.

Another main article of human happiness is, the exercife of our faculties, either of body or mind, in fome engaging end. It seems to be true that no plenitude of present gratifications can make the poffeffor happy for a continuance, unless he have fomething in referve, fomething to hope for and look forward to. This may be inferred from comparing the alacrity and fpirits of men who are engaged in any purfuit which interefts them, with the dejection and ennui of almost all who are either born to fo much that they want nothing more, or who have ufed up their fatisfactions too foon, and have drained the fources of them. It is this intolerable vacuity of mind which carries the rich and great to the horfecourfe and the gaming-table; and often engages them in contefts and purfuits of which the fuccefs bears no proportion to the folicitude and expence with which they are fought. The question now occurs, How we are to provide ourselves with a fucceffion of pleafurable engagements? This requires two things: Judgment in the choice of ends adapted to our opportunities; and a command of imagination, fo as to be able, when the judgment has made choice of an end, to transfer a pleafure to the means; after which the end may be forgotten as foon as we will. Hence thofe pleasures are most valuable, not which are moft exquifite in the fruition, but moft productive of

engagement and activity in the purfuit.

A man who is in earnest in his endeavours after the happiness of a future ftate, has in this refpect an advantage over all the world. For he has conftantly before his eyes an object of fupreme importance, productive of perpetual engagement and activity, and of which the purfuit (which can be faid of no purfuit besides) lafts him to his life's end. Yet even he muft have many ends befides the far end; but then they will conduct to that, be fubordinate, and in fome way or other capable of being referred to that, and derive their fatisfaction, or an addition' of fatisfaction, from that.

Engagement is every thing. The more fignificant, however, our engagements are, the better; fuch as the planning of laws, inftitutions, manufactures, charities, improvements, public works, and the endeavouring by our intereft, addrefs, folicitations, and activity, to carry them into effect: or, upon a fmaller fcale, the procuring of a maintenance and fortune for our families, by a courfe of industry and application to our callings, which forms and gives motion to the common occupations of life; training up a child; profecuting a fcheme for his future eftablishment; making ourselves mafters of a language or a fcience; im proving or managing an eftate; labouring after a piece of preferment: and, laftly, any engagement which is innocent is better than none : as the writing of a book, the building of a house, the laying out of a garden, the digging of a fifh-pond; even the railing of a cucumber or a tulip. Whilft the mind is taken up with the objects or business before it, we are commonly happy, whatever the object or bufinefs be: when the mind is abfent, and the thoughts are wandering to fomething elfe than what is paffing in the place in which we are, we are often miferable.

The art in which the fecret of human happiness in a great measure confifts, is to fet the habits in fuch a manner, that every change may be a change for the better. The habits themselves are much the fame; for whatever is made habitual becomes fmooth, and eafy, and indifferent. The

return