awakened and animated, by the lustre of it, "to glorify our Father in heaven." : DODDRIDGE. SECTION X. Schemes of Life often illufory. OMAR, the fon of Hussan, had passed seventy-five years, in honour and profperity. The favour of three fuccefsive califs had filled his house with gold and filver; and whenever he appeared, the benedictions of the people proclaimed his passage. Terrestrial happiness is of short continuance. The brightness of the flame is wafting its fuel; the fragrant flower is pafsing away in its own odours. The vigour of Omar began to fail; the curls of beauty fell from his head; ftrength departed from his hands; and agility from his feet. He gave back to the calif the keys of trust, and the feals of fecrecy; and fought no other pleasure for the remains of life, than the converse of the wife, and the gratitude of the good. The powers of his mind were yet unimpaired. His chamber was filled by vifitants, eager to catch the dictates of experience, and officious to pay the tribute of admiration. Caled, the son of the viceroy of Egypt, entered every day early, and retired late. He was beautiful and eloquent: Omar admired his wit, and loved his docility. "Tell me," said Caled, "thou to whose voice nations have listened, and whose wisdom is known to the extremities of Afia, tell me how I may resemble Omar the prudent. The arts by which thou haft gained power and preserved it, are to thee no longer necessary or useful: impart to me the fecret of thy conduct, and teach me the plan upon which thy wifdom has built thy fortune." "Young man," said Omar, " it is of little use to form plans of life. When I took my first survey of the world, in my twentieth year, having confidered the various conditions of mankind, in the hour of folitude I said thus to myself, leaning against a cedar, which fpread its branches over my head: 'Seventy years are allowed to man: I have yet fifty remaining. Ten years I will allot to the attainment of knowledge, and ten I will pass in foreign countries; I shall be learned, and therefore shall be honoured; every city will shout at my arrival, and every student will folicit my friendship. Twenty years thus passed, will store my mind with images, which I shall be bufy, through the rest of my life, in combining and comparing. I shall revel in inexhaustible accumulations of intellectual riches; I fhall find new pleasures for every moment; and shall never more be weary of myself. I will not, however, deviate too far from the beaten track of life; but will try what can be found in female delicacy. I will marry a wife beautiful as the Houries, and wife as Zobeide: with her I will live twenty years within the fuburbs of Bagdat, in every pleasure that wealth can purchafe, and fancy can invent. I will then retire to a rural dwelling; pass my days in obscurity and contemplation; and lie filently down on the bed of death. Through my life it shall be my fettled resolution, that I will never depend upon the fmile of princes; that I will never stand exposed to the artifices of courts; I will never pant for public honours, nor disturb, my quiet with the affairs of state.' Such was my scheme of life, which I impressed indelibly upon my memory." "The first part of my ensuing time was to be spent in search of knowledge, and I know not how I was diverted from my design. I had no visible impediments without, nor any ungovernable pafsions within. I regarded knowledge as the highest honour, and the most engaging pleasure; yet day stole upon day, and month glided after month, till I found that seven years of the first ten had vanished, and left nothing behind them. I now postponed my purpose of travelling; for why should I go abroad, while so much remained to be learned at home? I immured myself for four years, and studied the laws of the empire. The fame of my skill reached the judges: I was found able to fpeak upon doubtful questions; and was commanded to stand at the footstool of the calif. I was, heard with attention; I was confulted with confidence; and the love of praise fastened on my heart." "I ftill wished to fee distant countries; listened with rapture to the relations of travellers; and refolved fome time to ask my dismission, that I might feast my foul with novelty: but my prefence was always neceffary; and the stream of business hurried me along. Sometimes I was afraid lest I should be charged with ingratitude; but I still proposed to travel, and therefore would not confine myself by marriage." "In my fiftieth year, I began to suspect that the time of travelling was past; and thought it best to lay hold on the felicity yet in my power, and indulge myfelf * in domeftic pleasures. But at fifty no man eafily finds a woman beautiful as the Houries, and wife as Zobeide. I inquired and rejected, consulted and deliberated, till the fixty-second year made me ashamed of wishing to marry. I had now nothing left but retirement; and for retirement I never found a time, till disease forced me from public employment." "Such was my scheme, and such has been its confe quence. With an infatiable thirst for knowledge, I trifled away the years of improvement; with a restless defire of feeing different countries, I have always refided in the fame city; with the highest expectation of connubial felicity, I have lived unmarried; and with unalterable resolutions of contemplative retirement, I am going to die within the walls of Bagdat." DR. JOHNSON SECTION XI. The Pleasures of virtuous Senfibility. THE good effects of true sensibility on general virtue and happiness, admit of no difpute. Let us confider its effect on the happiness of him who possesses it, and the various pleasures to which it gives him access. If he is master of riches or influence, it affords him the means of increasing his own enjoyment, by relieving the wants, of increasing the comforts of others. If he commands not these advantages, yet all the comforts, which he fees in the possession of the deferving, become in fome fort his, by his rejoicing in the good. which they enjoy. Even the face of nature yields a fatisfaction to him, which the infenfible can never know. The profufion of goodness which he beholds poured forth on the universe, dilates his heart with the thought, that innumerable multitudes around him are blest and happy. When he fees the labours of men appearing to profper, and views a country flourishing in wealth and industry; when he beholds the spring coming forth in its beauty, and reviving the decayed face of nature; or in autumn beholds the fields loaded with plenty, and the year crowned with all its fruits; he lifts his affections with gratitude to the great Father of all, and rejoices in the general felicity and joy. It may indeed be objected, that the same sensibility lays open the heart to be pierced with many wounds, from the distresses which abound in the world; exposes us to frequent suffering from the participation which it communicates of the forrows, as well as of the joys, of friendship. But let it be confidered, that the tender melancholy of sympathy, is accompanied with a sensation, which, they who feel it would not exchange for the gratifications of the selfish. When the heart is strongly moved by any of the kind affections, even when it pours itself forth in virtuous forrow, a fecret attractive charm mingles with the painful emotion; there is a joy in the midst of grief. Let it be farther confidered, that the griefs which fenfibility introduces, are counterbalanced by pleasures which flow from the same source. Senfibility heightens in general the human powers, and is connected with acuteness in all our feelings. If it makes us more alive to some painful fenfations, in return, it renders the pleasing ones more vivid and animated. The selfish man languishes in his narrow circle of pleafures. They are confined to what affects his own interest. He is obliged to repeat the fame gratifi |