damus is dead! Never furely was there a more agreeable, and more amiable young perfon; or one who better deferved to have enjoyed a long, I had almost faid, an immortal life! She had all the wifdom of age, and difcretion of a matron, joined with youthful fweetness and virgin modefty, With what an engaging fondnefs did fhe behave to her father! How kindly and respectfully receive his friends! How affectionately treat all those who, in their respective offices, had the care and education of her! She employed much of her time in reading, in which fhe difcovered great ftrength of judgment; fhe indulged herfelf in few diverfions, and those with much caution. With what forbearance, with what patience, with what courage did the endure her laft illness! She complied with all the directions of her phyficians; fhe encouraged her fifter, and her father; and, when all her strength of body was exhausted, supported herfelf by the fingle vigour of her mind. That, indeed, continued, even to her laft moments, unbroken by the pain of a long illness, or the terrors of approaching death; and it is a reflection which makes the lofs of her fo much the more to be lamented. A lofs infinitely fevere! and more fevere by the particular conjuncture in which it happened! She was contracted to a most worthy youth; the wedding day was fixed, and we were all invited.— How fad a change from the highest joy, to the deepest forrow! How fhall I exprefs the wound that pierced my heart, when I heard Fundamus himfelf, (as grief is ever finding out circumftances to aggravate its affliction,) ordering the money he had defigned to lay out upon clothes and jewels

for her marriage, to be employed in myrrh and fpices for her funeral? He is a man of great learning and good fenfe, who has applied himfelf from his earliest youth, to the nobleft and most elevated ftudies; but all the maxims of fortitude, which he has received from books, or advanced himfelf, he now abfolutely rejects; and every other virtue of his heart gives place to all a parent's tendernefs. We fhall excufe, we shall even approve his forrow, when we confider what he has loft.. He has loft a daughter who refembled him in his manners, as well as his person; and exactly copied out all her father. If his friend Marcellinus fhall think proper to write to him, upon the subject of fo reasonable a grief, let me remind him not to ufe the rougher arguments of confolation, and fuch as feem to carry a fort of reproof with them; but those of kind and fympathizing humanity. Time will render him more open to the dictates of reafon for as a fresh wound fhrinks back from the hand of the furgeon, but by degrees fubmits to, and even requires the means of its cure; fo a mind, under the first impreffions of a misfortune, fhuns and rejects all arguments of confolation; but at length, if applied with tenderness, calmly and willingly acquiefces in them. Farewel.

SECTION IV.

On Difcretion.

Melmoth's Pling

I HAVE often thought, if the minds of men were laid open, we fhould fee but little differ

ence between that of the wife man, and that of the fool.

There are infinite reveries, numberlefs extravagances, and a fucceffion of vanities, which pass through both. The great difference is, that the first knows how to pick and cull his thoughts for converfation, by fuppreffing some, and communicating others; whereas the other lets them all indifferently fly out in words. This fort of difcretion, however, has no place in private converfation between intimate friends. On fuch occafions, the wifeft men very often talk like the weakeft; for indeed the talking with a friend is nothing elfe but thinking aloud.

Tully has therefore very juftly expofed a precept, delivered by fome ancient writers, That a man should live with his enemy in fuch a manner, as might leave him room to become his friend; and with his friend, in fuch a manner, that, if he became his enemy, it should not be in his power to hurt him. The first part of this rule, which regards our behaviour towards an enemy, is indeed very reasonable, as well as very prudential; but the latter part of it, which regards our behaviour towards a friend, favours more of cunning than of discretion; and would cut a man off from the greatest pleasures of life, which are the freedoms of converfation with a bofom friend. Befides that, when a friend is turned into an enemy, the world is just enough to accufe the perfidiousness of the friend, rather than the indifcretion of the person who confided in him.

Difcretion does not only fhow itfelf in words, but in all the circumftances of action; and is like

U

an under-agent of Providence, to guide and direct us in the ordinary concerns of life.

There are many more fhining qualities in the mind of man, but there is none fo useful as dif cretion. It is this, indeed, which gives a value to all the reft; which fets them at work in their proper times and places; and turns them to the advantage of the perfon who is poffeffed of them. Without it, learning is pedantry, and wit impertinence; virtue itself looks like weakness; the best parts only qualify a man to be more sprightly in errors, and active to his own prejudice.

Discretion does not only make a man the master of his own parts, but of other men's. The dif .creet man finds out the talents of those he converfes with; and knows how to apply them to proper ufes. Accordingly, if we look into particular communities and divifions of men, we may obferve, that it is the discreet man, not the witty, nor the learned, nor the brave, who guides the converfation, and gives measures to the fociety. A man with great talents, but void of difcretion, is like Polyphemus in the fable, ftrong and blind; endued with an irrefiftible force, which, for want of fight, is of no use to him.

Though a man have all other perfections, and want difcretion, he will be of no great confequence in the world; but if he have this fingle talent in perfection, and but a common share of others, he may do what he pleases in his particular station of

life.

At the fame time that I think difcretion the most ufeful talent a man can be mafter of, I look upon cunning to be the accomplishment of little, mean,

ungenerous minds. Difcretion points out the noblest ends to us; and pursues the most proper and laudable methods of attaining them: cunning has only private felfifh aims; and fticks at nothing which may make them fucceed. Difcretion has large and extended views; and, like a well-formed eye, commands a whole horizon: cunning is a kind of fhort-fightedness, that discovers the minuteft objects which are near at hand, but is not able to difcern things at a distance. Difcretion, the more it is difcovered, gives a greater authority to the perfon who poffeffes it: cunning, when it is once detected, lofes its force, and makes a man incapable of bringing about even those events which he might haye done, had he paffed only for a plain man. Difcretion is the perfection of reafon; and a guide to us in all the duties of life: cunning is a kind of instinct, that only looks out after our immediate intereft and welfare. Difcretion is only found in men of ftrong fenfe and good understandings : cunning is often to be met with in brutes themfelves; and in perfons who are but the feweft removes from them. In fhort, cunning is only the mimic of difcretion; and it may pafs upon weak men, in the fame manner as vivacity is often miftaken for wit, and gravity, for wisdom.

The caft of mind which is natural to a difcreet man, makes him look forward into futurity, and confider what will be his condition millions of ages hence, as well as what it is at prefent. He knows that the mifery or happiness which is referved for him in another world, lofes nothing of its reality by being placed at fo great a distance from him. The objects do not appear little to him because