The Extent of humane Life, is but a Point; Matter is in a perpetual Flux; the Faculties of Sence and Perception are weak and unpenetrating; the Body flenderly put together, and but a Remove from Putrefaction; the Soul a rambling fort of Thing. Fortune and Futurity, are not to be guess'd at; and Fame does not always ftand upon Defert, and Judgment. In a Word, that which belongs to the Body, Streams off like a River; and what the Soul has, is but Dream and Bubble Life, to take it rightly, is no other than a Campaign, or courfe of Travels; and Pofthumous Fame has little more in't than Silence and Obfcurity. What is it then that will Stick by a Man and prove Significant? Why, nothing but Wisdom and Philofophy; for Wisdom brings the Mind to take Things as they fall, and acquiefce in the diftributions of Providence; and above all to have an easie Profpect of Death.

Don't Manage as if you had Ten thousand years to throw away: Look you, Death ftands at your Elbow; make the most of your Minute, and be Good for fomething while 'tis in your Power.

What a great deal of Time and Eafe that Man gains who is not troubled with the Spirit of Curiosity, who lets his Neighbours Thoughts and Behaviour alone; confines his inspections to himfelf, and takes care of the point of Honesty and Confcience.

How can Death be a Misfortune to a Man, which is no difappointment to his Nature? And how can that cross upon a Man's Nature, which falls in with the very intention and defign of it.

other

'Tis part of the Business of Life, to lose it handfomly.

You may remember at a Play, or fuch refembling diverfions; coming over and over with the fame Thing, tires the Sence, and palls the Pleasure. Remove this Contemplation into Life: For here all Things come round, and bring the fame Caufes and Appearances along with them. Recollect your own Memory, you'll perceive the Sences of Life ftrangely Uniform, and nothing but the Old Plays Reviv'd, only the Actors are Different. How long then will it be before you are cloy'd with thofe Repititi

ons?

You are not angry becaufe you weigh fo light in the Scale, and don't ride Thirty Stone; Why then should you be diffatisfied becaufe your Life is not drawn out to an unufual and extraordinary Period? You ought to be no more Covetous of Time than you are of Bulk, but be contented with the common Allow

ance.

I'll tell you a way how you may live your time over again: Do but Recollect, and Revive what you have feen already, and the Work is done.

By looking back into Hiftory, and confidering the Fate and Revolutions of Government, you will be able to draw a Guefs, and almost Prophecy upon the Future. For Things Paft, Prefent and to Come, are ftrangely Uniform and of a Colour; and are commonly caft in the fame Mould; So that upon the matter, Forty years of humane Life, may ferve for a Sample of Ten thousand.

To be afraid of Death, is to be long a dying.

The Birds of the Air, the Beasts of the Field, and the Fishes of the Sea, die and suftain us, and find their common Sepulchers in in our Stomachs. Good, God! With how many Death's are our Lives patch'd up! How, full of Death is the Miferable Life of Momentary Man!

If we rife again with Bodies, fure there must be Corporal Pleasures after the Refurrection; for fince the Organs are not now in vain, much lefs will they be fo when perfect.

* The Difficulty is not fo great to Die for a Friend, as to find a Friend worth Dying for.

We are feldom Weary of the World, before the World has been Weary of us.

L

of

Of a Public' or Private Life.

HE Advantages of a Private Life, above

thofe of a Publick, are certainly very great, if the Bleffings of Innocence, Security, Meditation, good Air, Health and found Sleeps, without the Rages of Wine and Luft, and the Contagion of idle Examples, can make them fo: For every thing there is Natural and Gracious. There's the Diverfion of all Healthful Exercifes for the Body, the Entertainment of the Place and of the Rivers, without any Base Intereft to corrupt, either the Virtue or the Peace of our Lives. He that's a Slave in the Town, is a kind of a Petty Prince in the Country. He Loves his Neighbours without Pride, and Lives in Charity with the whole World. All that he fees is his own, as to the Delight of it, without Envying the Property. His Doors are not troubled either with Duns or Fools, and he has the Sages of all Times in his Cabinet for his Companions. He Lives to himself as well as to the World, without Brawls or Quarrels, of any fort whatfover. He fees no Bloody Murders; he hears no Blafphemous Execrations. He Lives free from the Plagues of Jealoufie and Envy: And this is the Life, in fine, that the Greatest, and the Wifeft Men in the World have, or would have made Choice of, if Cares and Business had not hinder'd them from fo great a Bleffiing.

'Tis against common juftice to pafs Sentence without hearing both fides: And the only way to come to a true estimate upon the Odds be

twixt a Publick and a Private Life, is to try both. Virtue is only Glorious in the Native Simplicity of it; and while it holds no Communication with Interest, Fancies, Senfe or Ornament. What fignifies the Splendor and the Luxury of Courts, confidering the Slavish Attendances, the Invidious Competitions, and the Mortal Disappointments that go along with it? The Frowns of Princes, and the Envy of those that Judge by Hearfay, or Appearance, without either Reason or Truth; to fay nothing of the innumerable Temptations, Vices and Exercises, of a Life of Pomp and Pleasure. Let a Man but fet the Pleasure of his Palate, against the Surfeits of Gluttony and Excess, the ftarving of his Mind against a Pamper'd Carcafs; The restlefs importunities of Tale-bearers and BackFriends, against fair Words and Profeffions only from the Teeth outward: Let him, I fay, but fet the one in Ballance against the other, and he fhall find himself Miferable, even in the very Glut of his Delights. To fay all, in a Word, Let him but fet the Comforts of a Life fpent in Noife, Formality and Tumult, against the Bleffings of a Retreat, with Competency and Freedom, and then caft up his Account.

afi

Liberty