-Was fit for treafons, ftratagems and spoils:
The MOTIONS of his spirits are dull as night;
And his affections dark as EREBUS:

-Let no fuch man be trusted:

SERMON V. P. 102

ΤΗ

HAPPINESS.

HE great purfuit of man is after happiness: it is the first and strongest de fire of his nature ;-in every stage of his life, he searches for it as for hid treasure ;-courts it under a thoufand different fhapes,-and though perpetually disappointed,-ftill perfifts,-runs after and enquires for it afresh-alks every passenger who comes in his way, Who will shew him any good? who will affift him in the attainment of it or direct him to the difcovery of this great end of all his wishes?

He is told by one to fearch for it among the more gay and youthful pleasures of life, in fcenes of mirth and fprightlinefs, where happiness ever prefides, and is ever to be known by the joy and laughter which he will fee at once painted in her looks. A fecond, with a graver afpect, points`

out to the coftly dwellings which pride and extravagance have erected:-tells the enquirer that the object he is in fearch of inhabits there,—that happiness lives only in company with the great, in the midst of much pomp and outward state. That he will eafily find her out by the coat of many colours fhe has on, and the great luxury and expense of equipage an furniture with which he always fits furrounded.

The Mifer bleffes God!-wonders how any one would mislead and wilfully put him upon fo wrong a fcent-convinces him that happinefs and extravagance never inhabited under the fame roof;-that if he would not be disappointed in his fearch, he muft look into the plain and thrifty dwelling of the prudent man, who knows and understands the worth of money, and cautiously lays it up against an evil hour: that it is not the prostitution of wealth upon the paffions, or the parting with it at all that constitutes happiness-but that it is the keeping it together, and the having and Holding it faft to him and his heirs for ever, which are the chief attributes that form this great idol of human worfhip, to which so much incenfe is offered up every day.

The

The Epicure, though he easily rectifies fo grofs a mistake, yet at the fame time he plunges him, if poffible, into a greater; for hearing the object of his purfuit to be happiness, and knowing of no other happiness than what is feated immediately in his fenfes-he fends the enquirer there;-tells him 'tis in vain to fearch elsewhere for it, than where nature herself has placed it— in the indulgence and gratification of the appetites, which are given us for that end: and in a word-if he will not take his opinion in the matter he may truft the word of a much wifer man, who has affured us that there is nothing better in this world, than that a man fhould eat and drink and rejoice in his works, and make his foul enjoy good in his labour-for that is his portion.

To refcue him from this brutal experiment -ambition takes him by the hand and carries him into the world,-fhews him all the kingdoms of the earth and the glory of them,--points out the many ways of advancing his fortune and raising himself to honour,—lays before his eyes all the charms and bewitching temptations of power, and asks if there can be any happiness in this world like that of being careffed, courted, flattered, and followed?

To close all, the philofopher meets him bustling in the full career of this purfuit-ftops himtells him, if he is in search of happiness, he is far gone out of his way. That this deity has long been banished from noife and tumults, where there was no reft found for her, and was fled into folitude far from all commerce of the world; and, in a word, if he would find her, he muft leave this bufy and intriguing scene, and go back to that peaceful fcene of retirement and books, from which he first set out.

In this circle too often does a man run, tries all experiments, and generally fits down wearied and diffatisfied with them all at laft-in utter despair of ever accomplishing what he wants -nor knowing what to trunt to after so many disappointments; or where to lay the fault, whether in the incapacity of his own nature, or in the infufficiency of the enjoyments themfelves.

SERMON I. P. I

TRIBUTE

Y

TRIBUTE OF AFFECTION.

My heart stops me to pay to thee, my dear

MY

uncle Toby, once for all, the tribute I owe thy goodness;-here let me thruft my chair afide, and kneel down upon the ground, whilft I am pouring forth the warmest fentiments of love for thee, and veneration for the excellency of thy character, that ever virtue and nature kindled in a nephew's bofom.Peace and comfort reft for evermore upon thy head! Thou enviedft no man's comforts,-infultedft no man's opinions.-Thou blackenedst no man's character,-devouredst no man's bread: gently, with faithful Trim behind thee, didft thou amble round the little circle of thy pleasures, joftling no creature in thy way:-for each one's fervice thou hadst a tear,—for each man's need, thou hadst a fhilling. Whilft I am worth one, to pay a weeder,-thy path from thy door to thy bowling green fhall never be grown up.. Whilft there is a rood and a half of land in the Shandy family, thy fortifications, my dear uncle Toby, fhall never be demolish'd.

T. SHANDY, VOL. II. CHAP. 27.
POWER