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and the Envy of his Neighbours, fend his Ambition out to War, and gratify it with extended Fame and Victories; bring him in triumph home, with great unhappy Captives behind him, through the Acclamations of his People, to repoffefs his Realms in Peace. Well, when the Duft has been brusht from his Purple, what will he do next? Why, this envy'd Monarch (who, we will allow to have a more exalted Mind than to be delighted with the trifling Flatteries of a congratulating Circle) will chufe to retire, I prefume, to enjoy in private the Contemplation of his Glory; an Amusement, you will fay, that well becomes his Station! But there, in that pleafing Rumination, when he has made up his new Account of Happiness, how much, pray, will be added to the Balance more than as it stood before his last Expedition? From what one Article will the Improvement of it appear? Will it arife from the confcious Pride of having done his weaker Enemy an Injury? Are his Eyes fo dazzled with falfe Glory, that he thinks it a lefs Crime in him to break into the Palace of his Princely Neighbour, because he gave him time to defend it, than for a Subject feloniously to plunder the House of a private Man? Or is the Outrage of Hunger and Neceffity more enormous than the Ravage of Ambition? Let us even fuppofe the wicked Ufage of the World, as to that Point, may keep his Confcience quiet; ftill, what is he to do with the infinite Spoil that his imperial Rapine has brought home? Is he

to fit down, and vainly deck himself with the Jewels which he has plunder'd from the Crown of another, whom Self-defence had compell'd to oppose him? No, let us not debase his Glory into fo low a Weakness. What Appetite, then, are these fhining Treafures food for? Is their vaft Value in seeing his vulgar Subjects stare at them, wife Men fmile at them, or his Children play with them? Or can the new Extent of his Dominions add a Cubit to his Happiness? Was not his Empire wide enough before to do good in? And can it add to his Delight that now no Monarch has such room to do mischief in? But farther; if even the great Auguftus, to whofe Reign fuch Praises are given, cou'd not enjoy his Days of Peace, free from the Terrors of repeated Confpiracies, which loft him more Quiet to fupprefs, than his Ambition cost him to provoke them. What human Eminence is fecure? In what private Cabinet then must this wondrous Monarch lock up his Happiness, that common Eyes are never to behold it? Is it, like his Perfon, a Prifoner to its own Superiority? Or does he at laft poorly place it in the Triumph of his injurious Devaftations? One Moment's Search into himself will plainly fhew him, that real and reasonable Happiness can have no Existence without Innocence and Liberty. What a Mockery is Greatness without them? How lonesome must be the Life of that Monarch, who, while he governs only by being fear'd, is reftrain'd from letting down his Grandeur fometimes to forget himself, and

to

to humanize him into the Benevolence and Joy of Society? To throw off his cumbersome Robe of Majefty to be a Man without Difguife, to have a fenfible Tafte of Life in its Simplicity, till he confefs, from the fweet Experience, that dulce eft defipere in loco, was no Fool's Philofophy. Or if the gawdy Charms of Pre-eminence are so strong that they leave him no Senfe of a lefs pompous, tho' a more rational Enjoyment, none fure can envy him, but those who are the Dupes of an equally fantastick Ambition.

My Imagination is quite heated and fatigued, in dreffing up this Phantome of Felicity; but I hope it has not made me fo far mifunderftood, as not to have allow'd, that in all the Difpenfations of Providence, the Exercife of a great and virtuous Mind is the most elevated State of Happiness: No, Sir, I am not for fetting up Gaiety against Wisdom; nor for preferring the Man of Pleasure to the Philofopher; but for fhewing, that the Wifeft, or greatest Man, is very near an unhappy Man, if the unbending Amusements I am contending for, are not fometimes admitted to relieve him.

How far I may have over-rated thefe Amufements, let graver Cafuifts decide; whether they affirm, or reject, what I have afferted, hurts not my Purpose, which is not to give Laws to others; but to fhew by what Laws 1 govern myself: If I am mifguided, 'tis Nature's Fault, and I follow her, from this Perfuafion; That as Nature has diftinguifh'd our Species from

the mute Creation, by our Rifibility, her Defign must have been, by that Faculty, as evidently to raise our Happiness, as by our Os Sublime (our erected Faces) to lift the Dignity of our Form above them.

Notwithstanding all I have faid, I am afraid there is an abfolute Power, in what is fimply call'd our Conftitution, that will never admit of other Rules for Happiness, than her own; from which (be we never fo wife or weak) without Divine Affiftance, we only can receive it; So that all this my Parade, and Grimace of Philofophy, has been only making a mighty Merit of following my own Inclination. A very natural Vanity! Though it is some sort of Satisfaction to know it does not impofe upon me. Vanity again! However, think it what you will that has drawn me into this' copious Digreffion, 'tis now high time to drop it: I fhall therefore in my next Chapter return to my School, from whence, I fear, I have too long been Truant.

СНАР,

CHA P. II.

He that writes of himself, not easily tir'd. Boys may give Men Leffons. The Author's Preferment at School attended with Misfortunes. The Danger of Merit among Equals. Of Satyrifts and Backbiters. What effect they have had upon the Author. Stanzas published by himself against himself.

Toften makes me fmile, to think how contentedly I have fet myself down, to write my own Life; nay, and with lefs Concern for what may be faid of it, than I should feel, were I to do the fame for a deceased Acquaintance. This you will eafily account for, when you confider, that nothing gives a Coxcomb more delight, than when you fuffer him to talk of himself; which fweet Liberty I here enjoy for a whole Volume together! A Privilege which neither could be allowed me, nor would become me to take, in the Company I am generally admitted to; but here, when I have all the Talk to myfelf, and have no body to interrupt and contradict me, sure, to fay whatever I have a mind other People fhould know of me, is a Pleasure which none but Authors, as vain as myfelf, can conceive.

But to my Hiftory.

However little worth notice the Life of a School-boy may be fuppofed to contain, yet,

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