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292. Ennui or the wearisomeness of Inaction.---The ennui, or the wearisomeness of inaction, is a more general and powerful spring of action than is imagined. Of all pains this is the least; but nevertheless it is one. The desire of happiness makes us always consider the absence of pleasure as an evil. We would have the necessary intervals that separate the lively pleasures always connected with the gratification of our natural wants, filled up with some of those sensations that are always agreeable when they are not painful: we therefore constantly desire new impressions, in order to put us in mind every instant of our existence; because every one of these informations affords us pleasure. Thus the Savage as soon as he has satisfied his wants runs to the banks of a river, where the rapid succession of the waves that drive each other forward make every moment new impressions upon him: for this reason, we prefer objects in motion to those at rest; and we proverbially say, that fire makes company; that is, it helps to deliver us from the wearisomeness of inaction. Men search with the greatest eagerness for every thing capable of putting them in motion; it is this desire that makes the common people run to an execution, and the people of fashion to a play; and it is the same motive in a gloomy devotion, and even in the austere exercises of penance, that frequently affords old women a remedy against the tiresomeness of inaction; for God, who by all possible means endeavours to bring sinners to himself, commonly uses with respect to them that of the wearisomeness of inaction,

A man of literature had for his neighbour one of those indolent people who are the pest of society; who being tired of himself, went one day to pay a visit to the man of letters; who received him in a very agreable manner, and with great politeness continued tired of him, till being weary of staying any longer in the same place, the idler took his leave, in order to plague somebody else. He was no sooner gone, than the man of learning returned to his studies and forgot his vexation. Some days after he was accused of not having returned the visit he had received, and taxed with want of politeness; upon which he, in his turn, went to see the idler: "Sir, (said he,) I am informed that you complain of "me: however, you know that it was being weary of yourself that "brought you to me. I, who tired nobody, received you as well as I "could; it is then you who are obliged, and I who am taxed with un"politeness. Be yourself the judge of my proceedings, and see whether "you ought not to put an end to complaints that prove nothing, but "that I have not, like you, occasion for visits; and have neither the 'inhumanity to plague my neighbour, nor the injustice to defame him "after I have tired out his patience.”---Helvetius.

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293. Digressions in a book are like foreign troops in a state, which argue the nation to want a heart and hands of its own; and often either subdue the natives, or drive them into the most unfruitful corners.

Swift.

294. Origin of the love of Fame---Our opinions of all kinds are strongly affected by society and sympathy; and it is almost impossible for us to support any principle or sentiment against the universal consent of every one with whom we have any friendship or correspondence. But of all our opinions, those, which we form in our own favour, however lofty or presuming, are at the bottom the frailest, and the most easily shaken by the contradiction and opposition of others. Our great concern, in this case, makes us soon alarmed, and keeps our passions upon the watch; our conciousness of partiality still makes us dread a mistake. And the very difficulty of judging concerning an object, which is never set at a due distance from us, nor is seen in a proper point of view, makes us hearken anxiously to the opinions of others, who are better qualified to form just opinions concerning us. Hence that strong love of fame with which all mankind are possessed. It is in order to fix and confirm their favourable opinion of themselves, not from any original passion, that they seek the applauses of others. And when a man desires to be praised, it is for the same reason that a beauty is pleased with surveying herself in a favourable looking glass, and seeing the reflection of her own charms.---Hume.

295. Libels.---Though some make light of libels, yet you may see by them which way the wind sits: as take a straw and throw it up in the air, you shall see by that which way the wind is, which you shall not do by casting up a stone, more solid things do not show the complexion of the times so well as ballads and libels.---Selden.

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296. Equality.---It is one of the most important objects of government, to prevent an extreme inequality of fortunes; not by taking away the wealth of the possessors, but in depriving them of means to accumulate them; not by building hospitals for the poor, but by preventing the citizens from becoming poor. The unequal distribution-of the inhabitants of a country; some being thinly scattered over a large tract of land, while others are assembled together in crowds in cities; the encouragement of the agreable instead of the useful arts; the sacrifice of agriculture to commerce; the mal-administration of the finances; and in short, that excess of venality which sets public esteem at a pecuniary value, and rates even virtue at a market price: These are all the most obvious causes of opulence and of poverty; of the public interest; the mutual hatred of the citizens; their indifference for the common cause; the corruption of the people; and the weakening of all the springs of government.---Rousseau.

297. Despotism is much more depraving to those who submit to it than to those who impose it. In an absolute monarchy, the king often has great virtues, but the courtiers are always vile.---De Tocqueville.

298. Faith and Reason.---If the provinces of faith and reason are not kept distinct by these boundaries, there will, in matters of religion, be no room for reason at all; and those extravagant opinions and ceremonies that are to be found in the several religions of the world, will not deserve to be blamed. For to this crying up of faith, in opposition to reason, we may, I think, in good measure, ascribe those absurdities that fill almost all the religions which possess and divide mankind. For men having been principled with an opinion, that they must not consult reason in the things of religion, however apparently contradictory to common sense, and the very principles of all their knowledge, have let loose their fancies and natural superstition; and have been led by them into so strange opinions and extravagant practices in religion, that a considerate man cannot but stand amazed at their follies, and judge them so far from being acceptable to the great and wise God, that he cannot. avoid thinking them ridiculous and offensive to a sober good man. So that in effect, religion, which should most distinguish us from beasts; and ought most peculiarly to elevate us, as rational creatures, above brutes; is that wherein men often appear most irrational and more senseless than beasts themselves. Credo, quia impossibile est, "I believe, because it is impossible," might in a good man pass for a sally of zeal; but would prove a very ill rule for men to choose their opinions or religion by.---Anon.

299. Instruction and Amusement are more blended than the world in general is apt to imagine, Uninstructive amusement may be afforded for a moment by a passing jest or a ludicrous anecdote, by which no knowledge is conveyed to the mind of the hearer or reader: but the man who would amuse others for an hour, either by his writing or his conversation, must tell his hearers or his readers something that they do not know, or suggest to them some new reflexion upon the knowledge they have previously acquired. The more the knowledge bears upon their pursuits, upon their occupations, or upon their interests, the more attractive it will be, and the more entitled to be called useful.---Ibid.

300. Advantages of the diffusion of Knowledge.---An intelligent class can scarce ever be, as a class, vicious; never, as a class, indolent. The excited mental activity operates as a counterpoise to the stimulus of sense and appetite. The new world of ideas, the new views of the relations of things; the astonishing secrets of the physical properties and mechanical powers, disclosed to the well-informed mind, present attractions, which, unless the character is deeply sunk, are sufficient to counterbalance the taste for frivolous or corrupt pleasures; and thus, in the end, a standard of character is created in the community, which, though it does not invariably save each individual, protects the virtue of the mass.---Everett.

301. A degenerate Noble is like a turnip, there is nothing good of him but that which is under-ground,--- or rhubarb, a contemptible shrub that springs from a noble root. He has no more title to the worth or virtue of his ancestors, than the worms that were engendered in their dead bodies, and yet he believes he has enough to exempt himself and his posterity from all things of that nature for ever. This makes him glory in the antiquity of his family, as if his nobility were the better the further off it is in time as well as desert from that of his predecessors. He believes the honor that was left him as well as his estate, is sufficient to support his quality, without troubling himself to purchase any more of his own; and he meddles as little with the management of the one as the other, but trusts both to the management of his servants, by whom he is equally cheated in both. He supposes the empty title of honor sufficient to serve his turn, though he has spent the substance and reality of it,---like the fellow who sold his ass, but would not part with the shadow of it,--- or like Apicius, that sold his house and kept the balcony to see and be seen in. And because he is privileged from being arrested for his debts, supposes he has the same freedom from all obligations he owes humanity and his country, because he is not punishable for his ignorance and want of honour, no more than poverty or unskilfulness is in other professions, which the law supposes to be punishment enough to itself: he is like a fanatic, that contents himself with the mere title of a saint, and makes that a privilege to act all manner of wickedness; or like the ruins of a noble structure, of which there is nothing left but the foundation, and that obscured and buried under the rubbish of the superstructure. The living honour of his ancestors is long ago departed dead and gone, and his but the ghost and shadow of it that haunts the house where it once lived with horror and disquiet. His nobility is truly descended from the glory of his fathers, and may be rightly said to fall to him, for it will never rise again by his means to the height it was in them; and he succeeds them as candles do the office of the sun. The confidence of nobility has rendered him ignoble, as the opinion of wealth makes some men poor: and as those that are born to estates neglect industry and have no business but to spend, so he, being born to honour, believes he is no further concerned than consume and waste it. He is but a copy, and so ill done, that there is no line of the original in him, but the sin only. He is like a word that by ill custom and mistake has utterly lost the sense of that from which it was derived, and now signifies quite the contrary,---for the glory of noble ancestors will not permit the good or bad of their posterity to be obscure. He values himself only upon his title, ---which being only verbal, gives him a wrong account of his natural capacity; for the same words signify more or less according as they are applied to things,---as ordinary and extraordinary do at court; and sometimes the greater sound has the less sense,‚---as in accompts though four be more than three, yet a third in proportion is more than a fourth.---Samuel Butler, 1660.

302. Books.---Let us consider how great a commodity of doctrine exists in books; how easily, how secretly, how safely they expose the nakedness of human ignorance without putting it to shame. These are

the masters who instruct us without rods and ferrules, without hard words and anger, without clothes or money. If you approach them they are not asleep; if investigating you interrogate them, they conceal nothing; if you mistake them, they never grumble; if you are ignorant, they cannot laugh at you.---Philobiblion by Richard de Bury.

303. Bias of the Mind respecting the Future.---The common bias of the mind undoubtedly is, (such is the benevolent appointment of providence,) to think favorably of the future; to overvalue the chances of possible good, and underrate the risks of possible evil; and in the case of some fortunate individuals, this disposition remains after a thousand disappointments. To what this bias of our nature is owing, it is not material for us to inquire; the fact is certain, and it is an important one to our happiness. It supports us under the real distresses of life, and cheers and animates all our labours; and although it is sometimes apt to produce, in a weak and indolent mind those deceitful suggestions of ambition and vanity, which lead us to sacrifice the duties and comforts of the present moment to romantic hopes and expectations; yet it must be acknowledged, when connected with habits of activity, and regulated by a solid judgment, to have a favourable effect on the character by inspiring that ardour and enthusiasm which both prompt to great enterprises, and are necessary to ensure their success. When such a temper is united (as it commonly is) with pleasing notions, concerning the order of the universe, and in particular concerning the condition and the prospects of man, it places our happiness, in a great measure, beyond the power of fortune. While it adds a double relish to every enjoyment, it blunts the edge of all our sufferings; and even when human life presents to us no object on which our hopes can rest, it invites the imagination beyond the dark and troubled horizon which terminates all our earthly prospects, to wander unconfined in the regions of futurity. A man of benevolence, whose mind is enlarged by philosophy, will indulge the same agreable anticipations with respect to society; will view all the different improvements in arts, in commerce, and in the sciences, as cooperating to promote the union, the happiness, and the virtue of mankind; and, amidst the political disorders resulting from the prejudices and follies of his own times, will look forward with transport to the blessings which are reserved for posterity in a more enlightened age. Dugald Stewart.

304. Perfectibility of Man.---It is evident that nature has made man susceptible of experience, and consequently more and more perfectible; it is absurd then to wish to arrest him in his course, in spite of the eternal law which impels him forward.---Du Marsais.

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