is confulted; he lamented the unmanly impatience that prompted him to feek fhelter in the grove; and defpifed the petty curiofity that led him on from trifle to trifle. While he was thus reflecting, the air grew blacker, and a clap of thunder broke his meditation.

He now refolved to do what yet remained in his power, to tread back the ground which he had paffed, and try to find fome iffue where the wood might open into the plain. He proftrated himself on the ground, and commended his life to the Lord of Nature. He rofe with confidence and tranquillity, and preffed on with refolution. The beafts of the defert were in motion, and on every hand were heard the mingled howls of rage and fear, and ravage and expiration. All the horrors of darkness and folitude furrounded him: the winds roared in the woods; and the torrents tumbled from the hills.

Thus forlorn and diftreffed, he wandered thro' the wild, without knowing whither he was going, or whether he was every moment drawing nearer to fafety or to destruction. At length, not fear, but labour began to overcome him; his breath grew fhort, and his knees trembled; and he was on the point of lying down in refignation to his fate, when he beheld, through the brambles, the glimmer of a taper. He advanced towards the light; and finding that it proceeded from the cottage of a hermit, he called humbly at the door, and obtained admiffion. The old man fet before him fuch provifions as he had collected for himself, on which Obidah fed with eagerness and gratitude. When the repaft was over, "Tell me," faid the

hermit, "by what chance thou haft been brought hither? I have been now twenty years an inhabitant of the wilderness, in which I never faw a man before."-Obidah then related the occurrences of his journey, without any concealment or palliation. "Son," faid the hermit, "let the errors and follies, the dangers and efcape of this day, fink deep into thy heart. Remember, my fon, that human life is the journey of a day. We rife in the morning of youth, full of vigour and full of expectation; we fet forward with fpirit and hope, with gaiety and with diligence, and travel on a while in the direct road of piety towards the manfions of reft. In a fhort time, we remit our fervour, and endeavour to find fome mitigation of our duty, and fome more eafy means of obtaining the fame end. We then relax our vigour, and refolve no longer to be terrified with crimes at a diftance; but rely upon our own conftancy, and venture to approach what we refolve never to touch. We thus enter the bowers of eafe, and repofe in the fhades of fecurity. Here the heart foftens, and vigilance fubfides; we are then willing to inquire whether another advance cannot be made, and whether we may not, at leaft, turn our eyes upon the gardens of pleasure. We approach them with fcruple and hesitation; we enter them, but enter timorous and trembling; and always hope to pafs through them without lofing the road of virtue, which, for a while, we keep in our fight, and to which we purpose to return. But temptation fucceeds temptation, and one compliance prepares us for another; we in time lofe the happinefs of innocence and folace our difquiet with fenfual gra

tifications. By degrees, we let fall the remembrance of our original intention, and quit the only adequate object of rational defire. We entangle ourfelves in bufinefs, immerge ourfelves in luxury, and rove through the labyrinths of inconftancy; till the darkness of old age begins to invade us, and difeafe and anxiety obftruct our way. We then look back upon our lives with horror, with forrow, with repentance; and wifh, but too often vainly wifh, that we had not forfaken the ways of virtue. Happy are they, my fon, who fhall learn from thy example, not to defpair; but fhall remember, that, though the day is paft, and their ftrength is wafted, there yet remains one effort to be made: that reformation is never hopeless, nor fincere endeavours ever unaflifted; that the wanderer may at length return after all his errors; and that he who implores ftrength and courage from above, fhall find danger and difficulty give way before him. now, my fon, to thy repofe; commit thyfelf to the care of Omnipotence; and when the morning calls again to toil, begin anew thy journey and thy life."

Go

DR. JOHNSON.

CHAPTER III.

DIDACTIC PIECES.

SECTION I.

The Importance of a good Education.

I CONSIDER a human foul, without education, like marble in the quarry; which fhows none of its inherent beauties, until the fkill of the polisher fetches out the colours, makes the furface thine, and discovers every ornamental cloud, fpot, and vein, that runs through the body of it. Education, after the fame manner, when it works upon a noble mind, draws out to view every latent virtue and perfection, which, without fuch helps, are never able to make their appearance.

If my reader will give me leave to change the allufion fo foon upon him, I fhall make ufe of the fame inftance to illuftrate the force of education, which Ariftotle has brought to explain his doctrine of fubftantial forms, when he tells us, that a ftatue lies hid in a block of marble; and that the art of the ftatuary only clears away the fuperfluous matter, and removes the rubbish. The figure is in the ftone, and the fculptor only finds it. What fculpture is to a block of marble, education is to a human foul. The philofopher, the faint, or the hero, the wife, the good, or the great man, very often lies hid and concealed in a plebian, which a proper education might have difinterred, and have H

brought to light. I am therefore much delighted. with reading the accounts of favage nations; and with contemplating thofe virtues which are wild and uncultivated: to fee courage exerting itself in fiercenefs, refolution in obftinacy, wifdom in cunning, patience in fullennefs and despair.

Men's paffions operate varioufly, and appear in different kinds of actions, according as they are more or lefs rectified and fwayed by reafon. When one hears of negroes, who, upon the death of their mafters, or upon changing their fervice, hang themselves upon the next tree, as it fometimes happens in our American plantations, who can forbear admiring their fidelity, though it expreffes itself in fo dreadful a manner? What might not that favage greatnefs of foul, which appears in thefe poor wretches on many occafions, be raised to, were it rightly cultivated? And what colour of excufe can there be, for the contempt with which we treat this part of our fpecies; that we fhould not put them upon the common foot of humanity; that we fhould only fet an infignificant fine upon the man who murders them; nay, that we fhould, as much as in us lies, cut them off from the profpects of happiness in another world, as well as in this; and deny them that which we look upon as the proper means for attaining it?

It is therefore an unfpeakable bleffing, to be born in thofe parts of the world where wildom anche knowledge flourish; though it must be confeffed, there are, even in thefe parts, feveral poor uninftructed perfons, who are but little above the inhabitants of those nations of which I have been here fpeaking as thofe who have had the advan