Obrazy na stronie
PDF
ePub

when this is the cafe, we are at a lofs to say whether he is happier or nobler, who, having wealth, has also worth and understanding, to improve it for the purposes of public beneficence and private Friendship, without regard to any other confiderations than thofe of propriety and merit meeting with the amiable impulfes of his own bofom. To fuch a man-and fome, more than fome fuch men there are, even in thefe times to fuch a man Reafon looks up with reverence and love Religion fmiles upon him as one of her most deserving fons; and Human Nature is tempted to be proud of her relation to a character fo honourable. Need I fubjoin, that if you know such a man, and find him difpofed to embrace you with amity, you have in more fenfes than one found a treasure ?

To him you may apply, on him you may lean, with fafety and freedom. He is equally above the bafenefs of betraying

you, and the meannefs of turning his fa vours into a traffic. He, my dear hearers, is none of those wealthy barbarians, or purfe-proud tyrants, who imagine they may infult or abuse, upbraid or overbear,. because they have obliged. His liberal foul will difpofe him to treat you the better afterwards, for having formerly ferved you; and his feelings of delicacy, to reckon your confidence and attachment a rich reward for the greatest kindness he can. confer; as, in conferring it, they will teach him to fhun every appearance of confcious fuperiority, on account of his. fituation. Next to the joy of " honouring “God with his fubftance," by works of piety and charity, he will deem it defireable, because it renders him more useful to the particular objects of his esteem and tendernefs.

It may be observed, that many who are not rich themfelves affect to despise those who are, and to talk of large poffeffions

with a difdain which they do not feel.. Without adopting their language, we cannot but think it one of the infelicities attendant on men of opulence, as well as on men of rank, that while they areperpetually encompaffed by a cloud of flatterers, they can feldom be fure of having a fingle Friend; how much foever their vanity may wish to mistake the fimper of obfequioufnefs for the smile of complacence, or their ignorance to suppofe that the badges of fervility can beconverted into what the Scripture calls "the cords of love, and the bands of a "man." Nothing but the consciousness. of rectitude, and benevolence, can thoroughly convince perfons who unite fenfeto quality and fortune, that the profes fions, praifes, and fervices, of thofe about: them, may be fincere. In proportion as men value themselves on external diftinctions, their demands on the refpect of others will generally rife; and often from a ftrange caufe, namely, a fecret appre

[ocr errors]

henfion of the weakness of their claim on the score of defert; like jealous ufurpers, and defpotic fovereigns, who are ever labouring to enforce by power what they cannot challenge by right. It is thy prerogative, O Virtue, to reign over" a "willing people," and to know that the love of thy fubjects is" without dis"fimulation.”

But does not Solomon fay, that "the "rich have many Friends?" He does. By thefe, however, he could only mean the tribes of dependents, mercenaries, and fycophants, that swarm about Affluence, profeffing the highest regard without entertaining the leaft, any farther than it may concern their own intereft. The wife king was too well acquainted with mankind, and had too juft a notion of the friendly character, to fancy it could belong to the selfish and the fordid. Riches may purchase adulation and obfervance, the fhouts of unmeaning ap

plaufe, the careffes of proftitute beauty, and all the forms of a fpurious Friendfhip but genuine refpect and affection cannot be fold. Hearts, like Wisdom, "are more precious than rubies, and all "the things thou canst defire are not to "be compared with them." Like the atteftations of Truth, they can only be obtained by being merited; and if they are enjoyed, it must be like the bleffings of Religion, without money and without "price." Nor can rich men with reafon take it ill, if they are eftimated by others, on the fame principle on which. they estimate themselves: if, when they feek to surprise you with the pageantry of fortune, and perhaps to over-awe you with its pride, you pay them just so much regard, as they can fairly challenge, for advantages which may be equally, or in a yet greater degree, poffeffed by the vericft. fool, or the rankest knave.

Are you, Sir, defirous that I fhould prize you for better things than filver and

« PoprzedniaDalej »