3.

"When I confider this CHEERFUL STATE OF

MIND in its third relation, I cannot but look upon it "as a conftant habitual gratitude to the great AUTHOR of

NATURE. An inward cheerfulness is an implicit praife "and thanksgiving to PROVIDENCE under all its difpen"fations. It is a kind of acquiefcence in the state "wherein we are placed, and a fecret approbation of "the Divine Will in his conduct towards man." I'

Such confiderations as these we fhould perpetually cherish in our thoughts, they will banish from us all that fecret heaviness of heart which unthinking men are fubject to when they lie under no real affliction, all that anguish which we may feel from any evil that actually oppreffes us, to which I may likewife add, thofe little cracklings of mirth and folly, that are apter to betray virtue than fupport it; and establish in us fuch an EVEN and CHEERFUL TEMPER, as makes us pleafing to ourfelves-to thofe with whom we converse, and-to him whom we are made to please.

CHEERFULNESS is in the next place the beft promoter of health. Repinings and fecret murmurs of heart give imperceptible ftrokes to those delicate fibres of which we are compofed, and wear out the machine infenfibly; not

to

to mention the injury they do the blood, and those irregular disturbed motions which they raife in the vital functions. I fcarce remember in my own obfervation, to have met with many old men, or with fuch, who (to use our English phrafe) wear well, that had not at least a certain calmnefs in their humour, if not a more than ordinary gaiety and cheerfulness of heart.:

CHEERFULNESS bears the fame friendly regard to the mind as to the body; it banishes all anxious care and difcontent, foothes and composes the paffions, and keeps the foul in a perpetual calm.

There are writers of great diftinction who have made it an argument for PROVIDENCE, that the whole earth is covered with green rather than with any other colour, as being fuch a right mixture of light and fhade, that it comforts and itrengthens the eye instead of weakening or grieving it. For this reafon feveral painters havena green cloth hanging near them to eafe the eye upon, after too great an application to their colouring. A fa

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mous modern philofopher accounts for it in the following manner: "All colours that are more luminous, overpower and diffipate the animal fpirits which are employed in fight. :-on the contrary, thofe that are more obfcure do "not give the animal fpirits a fufficient exercise ; whereas,

the

"the rays that produce in us the idea of green, fall upon the

66

eye in fuch a due proportion, that they give the animal

fpirits their proper play, and, by keeping up the ftruggle "in a just balance, excite a very pleafing and agreeable fen"fation." Let the cause be what it will the effect is certain, for which reafon the poets afcribe to this particular colour the epithet of cheerful.

To confider further this double end in the works of NATURE, and how they are, at the fame time, both useful and entertaining, we find that the most important parts in the vegetable world are those which are the most beautiful. These are the feeds by which the feveral races of plants are propagated and continued, and which are always lodged in flowers or bloffoins. NATURE seems to hide her principal defign, and to be induftrious in making the earth gay and delightful, while she is carrying on her great work, and intent upon her own prefervation. The husbandman, after the fame manner, is employed in laying out the whole country into a kind of garden or landskip, and making every thing fmile about him, whilst in reality he thinks of nothing but of the harvest, and increase which is to arise from it.

We may further obferve how PROVIDENCE has taken care to keep up this cheerfulness in the mind of man, by

having formed it after fuch a manner as to make it capable of conceiving delight from several objects which seem to have very little ufe in them, as from the wildnefs of rocks and deferts, and the like grotesque parts of nature. In fhort, the whole univerfe is a kind of theatre filled with objects that either raise in us pleasure, amufement, or admiration.

The reader's own thoughts will fuggett to him the viciffitude of day and night, the change of seasons, with all that variety of scenes which diverfify the face of nature, and fill the mind with a perpetual fucceffion of beautiful and pleafing images. I fhall omit to mention the feveral entertainments of art, with the pleasures of friendship, books, converfation, and other accidental diverfions of life, because I would only take notice of such incitements to a cheerful temper, as offer themselves to perfons of all ranks and conditions, and which may fufficiently fhew us, that PROVIDENCE did not defign this world fhould be filled with murmurs and repinings, and that the heart of man fhould be involved in perpetual gloom and melancholy.

SECT.

SECT. LXXV.

AN ADDRESS TO THE SUPREME BEING.

O THOU! whofe balance does the mountains weigh,
whofe will the wild tumultuous feas obey,

e;

whofe breath can turn those watʼry worlds to flame,
that flame to tempeft, and that tempeft tame
Earth's meaneft fon, all trembling, proftrate falls,
and on the bounty of thy goodnefs calls.

YOUNG.

As many families make one village, many villages one province, many provinces one empire; fo many empires, oceans, waftes, and wilds, combined, compofe that earth on which we live. Other combinations make a planet or a moon; and thefe again, united, make one planetary fyftem. What higher combination fubfift, we know not. Their gradation and afcent it is impoffible we fhould difcover. Yet the generous mind, not deterred by this immensity, intrepidly paffes on, through regions unknown, from greater fyftem to greater, till it arrive at that greatest, where imagination ftops, and can advance no further. In this laft, this ftupendous idea, it beholds the UNIVERSE itself, of which every

4

thing