which the fpecies is continued, as the more refined pleasures of mufic, painting, architecture, gardening, fplendid fhows, theatric exhibitions, and the pleafures, iaftly, of active sports, as hunting, shooting, fishing, &c. For, Ift, Thefe pleafures continue but a little while at a time. This is true of all of them, efpecially of the groffer fort. Laying afide the preparation and the expectation, and computing ft &tly the actual fenfation, we fhall be furprised to find how inconfiderable a portion of our time they occupy, how few hours in the four and twenty they are able to fill up or enliven. 2dly, Thefe pleafures, by repetition, lofe their relish. It is a property of the machine, for which we know no remedy, that the organs by which we perceive pleasure, are blunted and benumbed by being frequently exercised in the fame way. There is hardly any one who has not found the difference between a gratification, when new and when familiar; or any pleafure which does not become indifferent as it grows habitual. 3dly, The eagerness for high and intenfe delights takes away the relifh from all others; and as fuch delights fall rarely in our way, the greater part of our time must be empty and uneafy. There is hardly any delufion, by which men are greater fufferers in their happiness, than by their expecting too much from what is called pleafure; that is, from thofe intenfe delights, which vulgarly engrofs the name of pleafure. The very expectation fpoils them. When they do come, we are often engaged in taking pains to perfuade ourselves how much we are pleafed, rather than enjoying any pleafure which fprings naturally out of the object. And whenever we depend upon being vaftly delighted, we always go home fecretly grieved at miffing our aim. Likewife, as hath been obferved juft now, when this humour of being prodigioufly delighted has once taken hold of the imagination, it hinders us from providing for, or acquiefcing in, thofe gentle foothing engagements, the due variety and fucceffion of which are the only things that can fupply any man with a continued ftream of happinefs. What I have been able to obferve of that part of mankind, whofe profelfed purfuit is pleafure, and who are with-held in the purfuit by no eftraints of fortune or fcruples of confcioncs, correfpend fufficiently with this account. I have commonly remarked in fuch men, a restlefs and inextinguishable paffion for variety--a great part of their time to be vacant, and fo much of it irkfome- and that, with whatever eagerness and expectation they fet out, they become by degrees faftidious in their choice of pleasure, languid in the enjoyment, yet milerable under the want of it. The truth is, there is a limit, at which thefe pleasures foon arrive, and from which they ever afterwards decline. They are in their nature of short duration, as the organs cannot hold on their emotions beyond a certain length of time; and if you endeavour to compenfate for this, by the frequency with which you repeat them, you lofe more than you gain, by the fatigue of the faculties, and the diminution of fenfibility. We have faid nothing in this account of the lofs of opportunities, or the decay of faculties, which, whenever they happen, leave the voluptuary destitute and defperate, teazed by defires that can never be gratified, and the memory of pleasures which mußt return no more. It will also be allowed by those who have experienced it, and perhaps by thofe alone, that pleafure which is purchafed by the cumbrance of our fortune, is purchafed 10 dear; the pleafure never compenfating for the perpetual irritation of embarraffed circun ftances. These pleasures, after all, have their lue: and, as the young are always too eager in their purfuit of them, the old are fome times too remifs; that is, too ftudious of their eafe to be at the pains for them which they really deserve. Secondly, Neither does happiness confift in an exemption from pain, labour, care, bufinefs, fufpence, moleftation, and that evils which are without ; fuch a ftate being attended not with eafe, but with depreffion of fpirits, a taftelefinefs in all our ideas, im ginary anxieties, the whole train of hypochondriacal affections. For which reafon, it feldom answer their expectations, to thofe who retire from their fhops and counting-houfes, to enjoy the remainder of their days in leifure and tra quillity: much lefs to fuch as, in a fit of chagrin, fhut themfelves up in cloysters a hermitages, or quit the world, and their ftations in it, for felitude and re pofe. Where there is a known external caufe d uneafinefs, the caufe may be removed, the uncafinefs will ceafe. But thofe imag nary diftreffes which men feel for want of re ones (and which are equally torment and fo far equally real) as they depend up no fingle or affignable fubject of uneasiness, admit oftimes of no application lief. or Hence a moderate pain, upon which the attention may faften and spend itfelf, is" many a refreshment; as a fit of the g will fometimes cure the fpleen. And fame of any moderate agitation of the min as a literary controverfy, a law-fuit, c tefted election, and, above all, gaming the paflion for which, in men of fert 1786. What Human Happiness does confift in. and liberal minds, is to be accounted for on this principle only. 713 Our pofition is, that happiness does not confift in greatnefs. And this position we Thirdly, Neither does happiness con- make out by fhowing, that even what are fift in greatnefs, rank, or elevated ftation. fuppofed to be the peculiar advantage of greatWere it true that all fuperiority afforded nefs, the pleasures of ambition and fuperiority, pleasure, it would follow, that, by how are in reality common to all conditions. But much we were the greater, that is, the whether the purfuits of ambition contribute more perfons we were fuperior to, in the more to the happiness or misery of the purfame proportion, fo far as depended upon fuers is a different queftion; and a question this caufe, we fhou'd be the happier, but fo concerning which I entertain great doubt. it is, that no fuperiority yields us any fatif- The pleasure of fuccefs is exquifite; fo faction, fave that which we poffefs or obtain alfo is the anxiety of the pursuit and the pain over those with whom we immediately com- of difappointment --and what is the worft pare ourselves. The fhepherd perceives no part of the ftory, the pleasure is short-lived. pleasure in his fuperiority over his dog-the We foon cease to look back upon those we farmer in his fuperiority over the fhepherd, have left behind; new contests are engaged the lord in his fuperiority over the farmer-.in, new profpects unfold themselves; a fucnor the King, laftly, in his fuperiority over ceffion of ftruggles is kept up, whilst there the lord. Superiority, where there is no is a rival left within the compafs of our views competition, is feldom contemplated---what and profeffion, and when there is none, the moft men indeed are quite unconfcious pleasure, with the purfuit, is at an end. of. But if the fame fhepherd can run, fight, or wrestle better than the peasants of his village---if the farmer can fhow better cattle, keeps a better horfe, or is fuppofed to have a longer purse than any farmer in the Parish --- if the lord has more intereft in an election, greater favour at court, a better houfe, or larger eftate, than any nobleman in the county--if the King poffeffes a more extenfive territory, a more powerful fleet or army, a more splendid eftablishment, or more loyal fubjects, than any prince in Europe--- in all thefe cafes the parties feel an actual fatisfaction in their fuperiority. Now the conclufion that follows from hence is this--that the pleasures of ambition, which are fuppofed to be peculiar to high stations, are in reality common to all conditions. The farrier who thoes a horse better, and is in greater request for his skill than any man within ten miles of him, poffeffes, for all that I can fee, the delight of distinction and of excelling, as really and truly as the statesman, the foldier, and the scholar, who have filled Europe with the reputation of their wisdom, their valour, or their knowledge. No fuperiority is of any account but fuperiority over a rival. This it is manifeft may exift wherever rivalships do; and rivalĺhips fall out amongst men of all ranks and degrees. The object of emulation, the dignity or magnitude of this object, makes no difference; as it is not what either poffeffes that conftitutes the pleasure, but what one poffeffes more than the other. Philofophy fmiles at the contempt with which the rich and great speak of the petty trifes and competitions of the poor; not reflecting that thefe ftrifes and competitions are just as reasonable as their own, and the leafure, which fuccefs affords, the fame. Appendix, 1786. We have feen what happiness does not confift in. We are next to confider in what it does confift. In the conduct of life, the greater matter is, to know beforehand what will please us, and what pleasures will hold out. So far as we know this, our choice will be juftified by the event. And this knowledge is more scarce and difficult than at first fight it may feem to be: for fometimes pleasures, which are wonderfully alluring and flattering in the profpect, turn out in the poffeffion extremely infipid; or do not hold out as we expected: at other times pleasures start up, which never entered into our calculation; and which we might have miffed of by not foreseeing. from whence we have reafon to believe, that we actually do mifs of many pleasures from the fame caufe. I fay know beforehand;' for after the experiment is tried, it is commonly impracticable to retreat or change; befides that thifting and changing is apt to generate a habit of restlessness, which is deftructive of the happiness of any condition. By reafon of the original diverfity of tafte, capacity, and conftitution, obfervable in the human fpecies, and the ftill greater variety which habit and fashion have introduced in thefe particulars, it is impoffible to propofe any plan of happiness which will fucceed to all, or any method of life which is universally eligible or practicable. All that can be faid is, that there remains a prefumption in favour of those conditions, in which men generally appear moft cheerful and contented. For though the appa rent happiness of mankind be not always a true meafure of their real happiness, it is the beft measure we have. Taking this for my guide, I am inclined to believe that happiness confifts, I. In the excrcife of the focial affecti Thofe perfons commonly poffefs good fpirits, who have about them many objects of affection and endearment, as wife, children, kindred, friends. Ard to the want of thefe may be imputed the peevishnefs of monks, and of fuch as lead the lives of monks. Of the fame nature with the indulgence of our domeftic affections, and equally refreshing to the fpirit, is the pleafure which refults from acts of bounty and beneficence, either in giving money, or imparting to thofe who want it, the affiftance of our skill and profeffion. is, Another main article of human happiness II. The exercife of our faculties, either of body or mind, in the purfuit of fome engaging end. It feems to be true, that no plenitude of prefent gratifications can make the poffeffor happy for a continuance, unless he has fomething in referve-fomething to hope for, and look forward to. This I conclude to be the cafe, from comparing the alacrity and fpirits of men who are engaged in any purfuit which intereft them, with the dejection and ennui of almost all who are either born to fo much that they want nothing more, or who have used up their fatisfactions too foon, and drained the fources of them. It is this intolerable vacuity of mind which carries the rich and great to the horfe-courfe and the gaming-table; and often engages them in contefts and purfuits, of which the fuccefs bears no proportion to the folicitude and expence with which it is fought. An election for a disputed borough fhall coft the parties twenty or thirty thousand pounds apiece, to fay nothing of the anxiety, humiliation, and fatigue, of the canvas; when a feat in the house of commons, of exactly the fame value, may be had for a tenth part of the money, and with no trouble. Í do not mention this to blame the rich and great, (perhaps they cannot do better) but in confirmation of what I have advanced. Hope, which thus appears to be of fo much importance to our happiness, is of two kinds-where there is fomething to be done towards attaining the object of our hope--and where there is nothing to be done. The firft alone is of any value; the latter being apt to corrupt into impatience, having nothing in its power but to fit ftill and wait, which foon grows tiresome. The doctrine delivered under this head may be readily admitted; but how to provide ourselves with a fucceffion of pleafurable engagements is the difficulty. This requires two things-judgment in the choice of ends adapted to our opportunities---and a command of imagination, fo as to be able, when the judgment has made choice of an end, to transfer a pleasure to the means; after which the end may be forgotten as foon as we will. Hence those pleasures are moft valuabk, not which are most exquifite in the fruition but most productive of engagement and a tivity in the purfuit. The more fignificant our engagement are, and the better; fuch as planning law inftitutions, manufactures, charities, in provements, public works, and endeavor ing, by our intereft, addrefs, folicitation and activity, to carry them into effect: or upon a smaller scale, procuring a mainte nance and fortune for our families, by course of industry and application to o callings, which forms and gives motion the common occupations of life-tran up a child---profecuting a scheme for his tture establishment---making ourselves mat of a language or a fcience---improving managing an estate---labouring after a pe of preferment: and laftly, any engag ment, which is innocent, is better than ne as writing a book---building a houfe---k ing out a garden---digging a fifh-pondeven raising a cucumber or a tulip. A man who believes the Chriftian religi and is in earnest in his endeavours after the happiness of a future ftate, has, in this refpe an advantage over all the world. For he has conftantly before his eyes an object of supreme importance, productive of perpetual enga ment and activity, and of which the pu (which can be faid of no purfuit befidesz him to his life's end. Yet even hea have many ends, befides the far end: b then they will conduct to that, be fubordinat and in fome way or other capable of be referred to that, and derive their fatisfar or an addition of fatisfaction, from that. III. Happiness depends upon the prades conflitution of the habits. The art in which the fecret of humat happiness in a great measure confifts, fet the habits in fuch a manner, that e change may be a change for the better. T habits themselves are much the fame: whatever is made habitual becomes fired and eafy, and indifferent. The retur an old habit is likewife eafy, whatever habit be---Therefore the advantage is thofe habits which allow of indulgence int deviation from them. The luxurious ceive no greater pleasure from their da than the peafant does from his bread cheese: but the peafant, whenever he abroad, finds a feaft; whereas the ep muft be well entertained to efcape d Those who spend every day at cards, thofe who go to plow every day, pas time much alike; intent upon what they about, wanting nothing, regretting noth they are both in a flate of eafe: htt whatever fufpends the occupation of the ayer diftreffes him, whereas to the labourer, So far as circumftances of fortune con ce to happines, tanis oft fette income hich any man poffeffes, but the increase f income, that affords the pleafure. I w. erfons. of whom one begins with an hnnred, and advances his income to a thou nd a-year; and the other fets of with a oufand, and dwindles down to an un dred, may, in the courfe of their time, have By health I understand as well freedom from bodily diflempers, as that tranquillity, firmnefs, and alacrity of mind, which we call good fpirits; and which may properly enough be included in our notion of health, as they commonly depend upon the fame causes, and yield to the fame management as our bodily conftitution. Health, in this fenfe, is the one-thing needful. Therefore no pains, expence, felfdenial, or restraint, which we fubmit to for the fake of it, is too much. Whether it require us to relinquish lucrative fituations abftain from favourite indulgencies-controul intemperate paffions-or undergo tedious regimens-whatever difficulties it lays us under, a man who purfues his happiness rationally and refolutely, will be content to fubmit to. When we are in perfect health and fpirits, we feel in ourselves a happiness independent of any particular outward gratification whatever, and of which we can give no account. This is an enjoyment which the Deity has annexed to life; and proba bly conftitutes, in a great measure, the happinefs of infants and brutes, efpecially of the lower and fedentary orders of animals; as oyfters, periwinkles, and the like; for which I have fometimes been at a loss to find out amusement. The above account of human happiness will juftify the two following conclufions; which, though found in most books of morality, have feldom been fupported by any fufficient reasons: Firft, That happiness is pretty equally diftributed amongst the different orders of civil fociety. Secondly, That vice has no advantage over virtue even with respect to this world's happiness. Biographical Memoirs of his late Majefty peace. The Court itself refembled the levee of a General in the field-except the foreign minifters, and a few ftrangers, every man there (for there were no women) was dreffed in a military uniform. Mr. Harris, the British minifter, attended the D- of H- the day we were prefented to the King. A fon of Prince Kaunitz's, and fome other ftrangers were prefented at the fame time. The Count Reufe, chamberlain of the Court named each perfon to his Majefty, as he approached. He converfed a confiderable time with the D-, and spoke a few words to every person who was prefented. His countenance and manner are exceedingly animated. He feemed that day in very high fpirits, and fpoke to all his officers in an eafy ftile, and with a kind of gay affability. On their part, they appear before their mafter with an erect military boldness, free from the cringing addrefs which prevails in many Courts, but would not fucceed here. The King was three days at Berlin before the reviews began, and paffed fome hours every morning in the park, where there were four or five thousand men ordered daily, not to be exercised, but fimply that the King might examine the ftate of each corps in particular: and it is incredible with what accuracy and minute attention he did examine them, the Colonel of the regiment under fcrutiny, walking along with him, to anfwer any queftion, and hear his directions and remarks. By this exactnels, he not only knows the condition of the army in general, but the appearance, degree of difcipline, and ftrength of each regiment. The whole number reviewed was about thirty-fix, or thirty-eight thousand, confifting of the garrifon of Berlin, and troops from fome of the adjacent towns and villages. This army was in the field three mornings fucceffively, and the operations were different each day. I fhall endeavour to give you an idea of the plan of the Jaft day's review, which is fresheft in my inemory. At break of day, about eight thousand men marched out of Berlin, under the command of a general officer, and took poffeffion of a village, fituate on a rifing ground, at the diftance of two or three miles. About an hour after, the King himself joined the army, which was allembled without the gates. He divided it into three columns. Two general officers took the command of two of them; he himself led the third. The whole marched by three different routes towards the village, where the former detachment had now taken poft. In the attack and defence of this village the review confifted. As the army advanced, they were a nonaded from the village, but could not b fuppofed to fuffer much, because the lead of each column advanced with caution, tad ing fuch circuits as expofed the men ver little. At length the three columns met on large plain near the village, but protei from the batteries by a rifing of the groun Here the King formed the army into tw lines. While this was doing, they wo perfectly fecure; but they could not a vance towards the village otherwise than b going over the fwell in the ground, and he ing expofed to all the cannon of the enem This was to be performed, therefore, wr as much expedition as could be confifies with good order. The right wing of the my made the attack. As foon as the fa was given all the drums and fifes struck at once. The føldiers advanced with an pid pace. A numerous train of large fel pieces, placed at proper intervals, advand with equal velocity, and kept in a line w the front rank. The rapidity with whi they were charged and discharged as they advanced was quite aftonishing. When line came within a proper diftance of the village, the foldiers began to use their firelocks. In the mean time there was a fanous cannonade, and difcharge of fmall from the village. The King was between the advancing line and the village during the attack. When they had got very re the hedges, a new battery opened from the village. The King gave a fignal, and the firft line broke, fell into an artificial cart fion, and gave back towards the fecond in.. which opened at feveral places, and cl again the moment the retreating line pierced through; the fecond line then m ed to the attack, as the former had do This alfo feemed to be repulfed-a reme was founded and the whole wing began retire. A body of cavalry then appear from the village, and were advancing charge the retreating army, but were the felves charged, and driven back, by the valry of the right wing. A body of huffars purfued alfo from the village, and harraffed the retreating ar Thele were fometimes repulfed by the in diers, who turned and fired upon them, fometimes by detached parties of cava which drove them away. Thefe various operations lafted from in the morning till noon, when the tro returned to Berlin.It is hardly poff for words of mine to convey an adeq idea of the perfect manner in which t evolutions were executed.—The charg made by the cavalry, were praifed by King himself. I had never feen fo a body together, and had no idea the |