LECTURE XVI.

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"To love Frugality, we must practice and enjoy it. It is not thofe, who are enervated with Pleasure, that are fond of a frugal Life; neither is it those, who envy and admire the "Luxury of the Great."

MONTESQUIEU.

FROM the confideration, that there is no Paf

fion fo fatal to young Perfons, and particularly to your Sex, as the love of Pleasure, I entered upon this fubject with an intention to examine it in every point of view, flattering myself, that my remarks might make fuch impreffions ou your minds as would be of use to you in your future conduct. I fhall proceed now to defcribe farther the ufual effects of indulging a propenfity to Pleasure. And if I fhould repeat any obfervations, which I have made before, the repetition will admit of this excufe-that you cannot be too often reminded of thofe errors and mistakes, which Youth are most liable to commit.

The first I fhall mention is this-that an extravagant fondness for gaiety and amusement is productive of a misemployment of time.

I have before remarked, that even innocent Pleasures, if immoderately pursued, become criminal; because they divert the attention from thofe ferious thoughts and useful applications, to which fome part of life fhould be devoted; and from which no one ought to plead an exemption. The highest as well as loweft orders of Society have fome knowledge to attain, and fome duties to perform: But all these must be neglected by the votaries of Pleafure; who, in confequence, contract a habit of idlenefs; the effects of which are, irrefolution, neglect of order, and the love of diffipation. The mind, that is thus influenced, will feldom apply to any thing that requires diligence or reflection; without which there can be no improvement in profeffional knowledge, in Science, or in Virtue. It can receive no useful culture, if continually agitated by the tumults of Paffion. To fuch Perfons, every ferious avocation. has a melancholy afpect. The propensity to Pleafure, which they acquired in early life, increafes in maturer age, and plunges them into fuch a circle of gaieties, as gives them a distaste to a regular life. But a continued fucceffion of amusements is more fatiguing than bufinefs; as they fatally experience, whofe fituation in life exonerates them from the latter; and who, to alleviate, in fome measure, the pangs of indolence, have recourfe to the former; which, however, foon tires and diffatisfies; though to the bufy and im

proved mind, diverfions, when rational, and moderately pursued, give that relief, for which they were intended. But when any of your Sex, in particular, have been brought up in ignorance, they are commonly at a lofs, both in the article of amufement and employment. Their incapacity will difqualify them from applying their time to ufeful purposes; and their want of taste and good fenfe, will prevent them from making a proper choice of diverfions; or even of enjoying thof which are pleafing and inftructive.

Be then affured, my young Audience, of this truth, which, I hope, you will never learn from experience that idlcnefs is not pleasure—that it is pain that it is infupportable. If this diftemper fhould feize you, where would be your remedy? You would feek for it in amufement; but here you would be disappointed. Like opiate it would lull your fenfes for a time; but when its force is spent, your uneafinefs would return.

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If Time, as a late Author + has afferted, be nothing more than a fucceffion of ideas and actions, it follows, that they, who have thought much and done much, in a fhort period, have in effect lived longer, than thofe whofe ideas and actions. have been but few, though their years have been many. To apply this maxim, therefore, to your . felves, I would obferve, that if, in the courfe of

+ Soame Jenyns.

your

your education, you have applied your minds to such objects of enquiry and improvement, as have been the means of bringing before you a variety of new ideas, and which have thereby increased your knowledge, and kept you constantly employed, you may be then faid to have lived longer than thofe, who, though fuperior to you in age, are yet inferior to you in understanding; because, having neglected to improve themfelves, during the period of education, they have had, in the course of it, but few things to engage their attention. Such Perfons, when arrived, perhaps to a middle age, are yet but infants in respect to time, if measured by a fucceffion of ideas that have paffed in their minds; whereas those, in the ftate of youth, may be faid to have attained to riper manhood, who have thought and acted to `more profitable purposes, in their small space of existence, than the former, in their more extended one. This, then, is a very useful inference, and which I would recommend particularly to your nctice that our lives, when diverfified by a mul. tiplicity of objects, and bufied in a variety of pur fuits, will certainly be longer, than when dozed away in floth, inactivity and fupineness; though, perhaps, in point of years, they are of less dura

tion.

The confideration of the fhortnefs of human life is, therefore, very improperly applied by those who use it as an incentive to Pleafure; because,

by

by diffipation, Time is contracted; whereas, by action, it is confiderably extended. They, who devote themselves to pleafure, can find no object on which to employ their attention, till the hour of diverfion is at hand. We will fuppofe, for inftance, that they are engaged for fome evening amufement. The interval between that and the morning is a space of time, which they would wish to be annihilated; because they are not capable of employing it; fo that, in fact, it is to them no additional measure of existence.-But let us imagine, that there are others, who intend with the former to partake of the fame diverfion, but whofe minds and difpofitions are totally different. In these we difcover no impatience for the arrival of the evening, nor any lethargy or inactivity during the progrefs of the day; every part of which has been profitably fpent: So that it has been to them a period of real exiftence; and they may be faid to have added to their lives, not the bare space of a natural day, but, in fact, a length of time, in proportion to the improvements they have made, or the benefits they have done to fociety. And though they have been thus engaged in the day, did they relish the diverfions of the evening, as well as the former, who waited fo anxiously for it's arrival, and who fauntered away the preceding hours? Doubtlefs they enjoyed them better; because Amufements thus used afford relief to the Powers both of Mind and Body;