above them. But, alas! when we defcend into the regions of private life, we find difappointment and blafted hope equally prevalent there. Neither the moderation of our views, nor the juftice of our pretenfions, can enfure fuccefs. But time and chance happen to all. Against the stream of events both the worthy and the undeferving are obliged to struggle; and both are frequently overborne alike by the current.

"Befides difappointment in purfuit, diffatisfaction in enjoy. ment is a farther vanity to which the human state is fubject. This is the feverest of all mortifications, after having been fuccefsful in the purfuit, to be baffled in the enjoyment itself. Yet this is found to be an evil still more general than the former. Some may be fo fortunate as to attain what they have pursued; but none are rendered completely happy by what they have attained. Difappointed hope is mifery; and yet fuccefstul hope is only imperfect blifs. Look through all the ranks of mankind. Examine the condition of those who appear moft profperous; and you will find that they are never just what they defire to be. If retired, they languish for action; if bufy, they complain of fatigue. If in middle life, they are impatient for distinction; if in high stations, they figh after freedom and eafe. Something is ftill wanting to that plenitude of fatisfaction which they expected to acquire. Together with every wish that is gratified, a new demand arises. One void opens in the heart, as another is filled. On wishes, wishes grow; and to the end, it is rather the expectation of what they have not, than the enjoyment of what they have, which occupies and interests the mott fuccessful.

"This diffatisfaction in the midst of human pleasure springs partly from the nature of our enjoyments themfelves, and partly from circumstances which corrupt them. No worldly enjoyments are adequate to the high defires and powers of an immortal fpirit. Fancy paints them at a distance with fplendid colours; but poffeffion unveils the fallacy. The eagernefs of paffion beftows upon them at first a brifk and lively relifh. But it is their fate always to pall by familiarity, and fometimes to pafs from fatiety into difguft. Happy would the poor man think himself if he could enter on all the treasures of the rich; and happy for a fhort while he might be. But before he had long contemplated and admired his ftate, his poffeffions would feem to leffen, and his cares would grow.

"Add to the unfatisfying nature of our pleasures the attending circumftances which never fail to corrupt them. For, fuch as they are, they are at no time poffeffed unmixed. To human lips it is not given to taste the cup of pure joy. When external circumstances show faireft to the world, the envied man groans in private under his own burden. Some vexation difquiets, fome, paffion corrodes him; fome diftrefs, either felt or feared, gnaws, like a worm, the root of his felicity. When there is nothing from without to disturb the profperous, a fecret poison operates

Ppz

within.

1

within. For worldly happiness ever tends to deftroy itself, by corrupting the heart. It fofters the loofe and the violent paffions. It engenders noxious habits; and taints the mind with a falfe delicacy, which makes it feel a thousand unreal evils.

"But put the cafe in the moft favourable light. Lay afide from human pleasures both disappointment in purfuit, and deceit fulness in enjoyment; fuppofe them to be fully attainable, and completely fatisfactory; ftill there remains to be confidered the vanity of uncertain poffeffion and fhort duration. Were there in worldly things any fixed point of fecurity which we could gain, the mind would then have fome bafis on which to reft. But our condition is fuch, that every thing wavers and totters around us. Boaft not thyself of to-morrow; for thou knoweft not what a day may bring forth. It is much if, during its course, thou hearest not of fomewhat to difquiet or alarm thee. For life never proceeds long in an uniform train. It is continually varied by unexpected events. The feeds of alteration are every where fown; and the funshine of profperity commonly accelerates their growth. If your enjoyments be numerous, you lie more open on different fides to be wounded. If you have poffeffed them long, you have greater caufe to dread an approaching change. By flow degrees profperity rifes; but rapid is the progrefs of evil. It requires no preparation to bring it forward. The edifice which it coft much time and labour to erect, one inaufpicious event, one fudden blow, can level with the duft. Even fuppofing the accidents of life to leave us untouched, human blifs muft ftill be transitory; for man changes of himfelf. No courfe of enjoyment can delight us long. What amufed our youth lofes its charm in maturer age. As years advance, our powers are blunted, and our pleasur、 able feelings decline. The filent lapfe of time is ever carrying fomewhat from us, till at length the period comes when all muft be fwept away. The profpect of this termination of our labours and purfuits is fufficient to mark our state with vanity. Qur days are as a hand-breadth, and our age is as nothing. Within that little fpace is all our enterprise bounded. We crowd it with toils and cares, with contention and ftrife. We project great defigns, entertain high hopes, and then leave our plans unfinished, and fink into oblivion.

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"This much let it fuffice to have faid concerning the vanity of the world. That too much has not been faid, muft appear to every one who confiders how generally mankind lean to the oppofite fide; and how often by undue attachment to the present ftate, they both feed the most finful paffions, and pierce themselves through with many forrows. Let us proceed to enquire,

"II. How this vanity of the world can be reconciled with the perfections of its divine Author. This enquiry involves that great difficulty which has perplexed the thoughtful and ferious in every age; if God be good, whence the evil that fills the earth? In anfwer to this interesting question, let us obferve,

"In the first place, that the prefent condition of man was not his original or primary state. We are informed by divine revelation, that it is the confequence of his voluntary apoftacy from God and a state of innocence. By this, his nature was corrupted; his powers were enfeebled; and vanity and vexation introduced into his life. All nature became involved in the condemnation of man. The earth was curfed upon his account, and the whole creation made to groan and travail in pain.

"How myfterious foever the account of this fall may appear to us, many circumstances concur to authenticate the fact, and to fhow that human nature and the human ftate have undergone an unhappy change. The belief of this has obtained in almost all nations and religions. It can be traced through all the fables of antiquity. An obfcure tradition appears to have pervaded the whole earth, that man is not now what he was at first; but that, in confequence of fome tranfgreffion against his great Lord, a state of degradation and exile fucceeded to a condition that was more flourishing and happy. As our nature carries plain marks of perverfion and diforder, fo the world which we inhabit bears the fymptoms of having been convulfed in all its frame. Naturalists point out to us every where the traces of fome violent change which it has fuffered. Iflands torn from the continent, burning mountains, shattered precipices, uninhabitable waftes, give it all the appearance of a mighty ruin. The phyfical and moral state of man in this world mutually fympathize and correfpond. They indicate not a regular and orderly structure either of matter or of mind, but the remains of fomewhat that once was more fair and magnificent. Let us observe,

"In the fecond place, that as this was not the original, so it is not intended to be the final ftate of man. Though in confequence of the abufe of the human powers, fin and vanity were introduced into this region of the univerfe, it was not the purpofe of the Creator that they fhould be permitted to reign for ever. He hath made ample provifion for the recovery of the penitent and faithful part of his fubjects, by the merciful undertaking of that great reftorer of the world, our Lord Jesus Christ. By him life and immortality were both purchafed and brought to light. The new heavens and the new earth are difcovered, wherein dwelleth righteousness; where, through the divine grace, human nature shall regain its original honours, and man fhall return to be what once he was in Paradife. Through those high difcoveries of the Gofpel, this life appears to good men only in the light of an intermediate and preparatory state. Its vanity and mifery, in a manner, difappear. They have every reason to sub. rnit without complaint to its laws, and to wait in patience till the appointed time come for the reftitution of all things. Let us take notice.

"In the third place, that, a future ftate being made known, we can account in a fatisfying manner for the prefent distress of

human

human life, without the smallest impeachment of divine goodness. The fufferings we here undergo are converted into discipline and improvement. Through the bleffing of Heaven, good is extracted from apparent evil; and the very mifery which originated from fin is rendered the means of correcting finful paffions, and preparing us for felicity. There is much reafon to believe that creatures as imperfect as we are, require fome fuch preliminary state of experience before they can recover the perfection of their nature. It is in the midst of disappointments and trials that we learn the infufficiency of temporal things to happinefs, and are taught to feek it from God and Virtue. By these the violence of our paffions is tamed, and our minds are formed to fobriety and reflection. In the varieties of life, occafioned by the viciffitude of worldly fortune, we are inured to habits both of the, active and the fuffering virtues. How much foever we complain of the vanity of the world, facts plainly fhow that if its vanity were lefs, it could not answer the purpofe of falutary difcipline. Unfatisfactory as it is, its pleafures are still too apt to corrupt our hearts. How fatal then muft the confequences have been, had it yielded us more complete enjoyment? If, with all its troubles, we are in danger of being too much attached to it, how entirely would it have feduced our affections, if no troubles had been mingled with its pleasures?

"These obfervations ferve in a great meafure to obviate the difficulties which arife from the apparent vanity of the human ftate, by fhowing how, upon the Chriftian fyftem, that vanity may be reconciled with the infinite goodness of the Sovereign of the Universe. The prefent condition of man is not that for which he was originally defigned; it is not to be his final state; and du ring his paffage through the world, the diftreffes which he undergoes are rendered medicinal and improving. After having taken this view of things, the cloud which, in the preceding part of the difcourfe, appeared to fit fo thick upon human life begins to be diffipated. We now perceive that man is not abandoned by his Creator. We difcern great and good defigns going on in his be half, and, we are allowed to entertain better hopes.'

[To be concluded in cur next.]

Remarks on Dr. Samuel Johnson's Journey to the Hebrides; in which are contained, Obfervations on the Antiquities, Language, Genius, and Manners of the Highlanders of Scotland. By the Reverend Donald M'Nicol, A. M. Minifter of Lifmore in Argylfhire. 8vo. 4s. Boards. Cadell.

The Journey, on which our author animadverts with fo much fpleen and freedom, was noticed in the first volume of

our

our Review. There we gave our opinion, on the whole, that the lovers of Travels, Journies, and Voyages, would find but little amusement in the Doctor's performance; and that he had modeftly owned the truth, in the conclufion of his work, by saying, that he was confcious his thoughts on national manners were the thoughts of one who had seen but little.'

With regard to the late appearance of these Remarks, Mr. M'Nicol, in an Advertisement prefixed to the work, gives us the following reafons:

"The following fheets," fays he, "were written foon after Doctor Johnson's Journey to the Hebrides' was printed. But as the writer had never made his appearance at the bar of the public, he was unwilling to enter the lifts with fuch a powerful antagonist, without previously confulting a few friends. The distance of thofe friends made it difficult to procure their opinion, without fome trouble and a great lofs of time: befides, the author was not fo fond of his work as to be very anxious about its publication.

He is, however, fenfible that the publication, if it was at all to happen, has been too long delayed. Anfwers to eminent writers are generally indebted, for their fale and circulation, to the works which they endeavour to refute. Unfortunately Doctor Johnfon's Journey' has lain dead in the library for fome time paft. This confideration is fo difcouraging, that the writer of the Remarks expects little literary reputation, and lefs profit, from his labours. But as he had gone fo far, he was induced to go further ftill, were it for nothing more than the ambition of fending his work to fleep, on the fame shelf, with that of the learned Doctor Johnfon."

As Dr. Johnson's Journey,' according to our author's own teftimony, has lain dead in the library for fome time paft, he ought not to have difturbed its repofe, nor treated the afhes of the dead with fo much difrefpect and inhumanity. In this cafe, nil de mortuis nifi bonum, ought to have tempered his malice, or reftrained his asperity.

The epithets introduced by Mr. M'Nicol in his Remarks, are, for the most part, harsh and illiberal. This he virulently condemns in the Doctor, but feems not to be aware that he lies under the fame condemnation. He talks loudly of the Doctor's fcurrilities, but, we think, his own are by no means inferior. To fay the truth, an abundance of filth and dirt is thrown on both fides.

Mr. M-Nicol afferts that the Doctor embraced every opportunity to inculcate the poverty of the Scotch. "This" fays he, "feems to be a rich topic to him." Here, in vindication of the Doctor, we fhall inform Mr. M'Nicol, that

a character