not be to turn his back in the day of battle; and having continued fighting till his strength sailed him, he ordered his attendant to lay him down at the root of a tree, that he might die, as he actually did, with his face towards the enemy.

The great folicitude of a relation of mine, previous to his last moments, was by no means so estimable. Though grievously afflicted with pain, he amused himself by regulating, with great anxiety, all the necessary forms for his interment; he earnestly entreated all the men of condition who visited him to attend his funeral; he also importuned a prince, who called in at his last gasp, that he would order his family to join in the train, alledging reasons and examples to prove that this respect was due to a man of his condition; and died content with having obtained a promise. long-lived vanity.

This is a rare instance of

Some people run into a contrary extreme, and regulate their funeral in so parsimonious a manner, that they forbid their heirs to observe accustomed forms; and I knew an instance of extreme covetousness, where all attendance was excluded except one servant with a lanthorn.

If

If advice was necessary in the present instance, I should be of opinion that all ceremonies and expences should be regulated according to the fortune of the person deceased; and that they should neither be too superfluous nor too mean.

If I were disposed to reflet any further upon this subject, I should think it most expedient to imitate those who, breathing and living, are pleased with viewing their monument, and contemplating their own dead countenance in marble. Happy creatures, who can gratify their senses by insensibility, and live at their death!

But to be serious—it has been observed, the care of funerals, the place of sepulchre, and the pomp of exequies, are rather consolations to the living than any benefit for the dead; which made Socrates reply to Crito, who, at the hour of his death, asked him how he would be buried? How you chuse."

ESSAY 5.

The soul vents its passions upon false objects when true ones fail.

A Gentleman who was much troubled with the gout, being advised by his physicians to forbear eating salt meat, answered pleasantly, that when he was subject to the violent paroxisms he liked to throw the blame upon something; and finding fault with a ham, or cursing a tongue, was some alleviation to the evil. But seriously, when the arm is raised to strike we shrink from the blow, and it spends itself in the air; so to render our prospect more pleasant, we must not let our eye be lost, or wander vainly in the air, but rather let it have an object whereon it may fix at a reasonable distance.

As the wind loses its strength by spreading in an empty space, unless the tufted forests oppose its passage, so it seems to me that the soul, trembling and active, wanders and is lost, un

lefs

efs it can form to itself an adequate object where it means to rest.

Plutarch says very properly of those who attach themselves to dogs and monkeys, that our affections have need of something rations!, rather than to continue vainly forging one that is false and frivolous; and we must perceive that the soul, in its passions, deceives itself, fantastically dressing a subject, even against its own belief, rather than not catch at something. In the same manner that wild beasts, bursting with rage, attack the iron or stone which has wounded them, and even revenge themselves for the pain they feel by tearing their own bodies. Thus the wolf, more ferocious after the stroke that he has received, rolls himself upon the wound, and throws himself upon the very dart that pierced him.

To many causes we ascribe our misfor tunes, seeking on all' sides for the origin of the evil. It is not those fair tresses that you tear, neither that white breast that you so spitefully and cruelly beat,, which have occasioned the death of that well-beloved brother; ascribe it elsewhere.

Lucius, fpeaking of the death of two brothers, his valiant captains of the Roman army in Spain, says, every one began to weep and beat his head; and the philosopher Bion said to his king, who tore his hair with grief, "Dost thou think this falling hair lessens thy diftress ?"

How many gamesters have we seen chew and swallow the cards, or glut themselves with balls or dice in revenge for the loss of their money. Xerxes flogged the sea, and wrote a challenge of defiance to Mount Athos.

Augustus Cæsar, having been beat about by a tempest at sea, defied Neptune; and, in the pomp of the Circus games, removed his image from the rank it held. This defiance reminds me of the example of the Thracians, who, when it thunders and lightens, presume to fire against Heaven, and pretend to reduce God to reason by cannon balls. Such impiety as this surpasses all; but innumerable are the follies which arise from the want of duly regulating our understandings.