To men thus elevated above the mists of mortality, I am far from presuming myself qualified to give directions.  On him that appears to “pass through things temporal,” with no other care than not to “finally lose the things eternal,” I look with such veneration as inclines me to approve his conduct in the whole, without a minute examination of its parts; yet I could never forbear to wish, that while vice is every day multiplying seducements, and stalking forth with more hardened effrontery, virtue would not withdraw the influence of her presence, or forbear to assert her natural dignity by open and undaunted perseverance in the right.  Piety practised in solitude, like the flower that blooms in the desert, may give its fragrance to the winds of Heaven, and delight those unbodied spirits that survey the works of God and the actions of men; but it bestows no assistance upon earthly beings, and however free from taints of impurity, yet wants the sacred splendour of beneficence.

Our Maker, who, though he gave us such varieties of temper and such difference of powers, yet designed us all for happiness, undoubtedly intended that we should obtain that happiness by different means.  Some are unable to resist the temptations of importunity, or the impetuosity of their own passions incited by the force of present temptations:  of these it is undoubtedly the duty to fly from enemies which they cannot conquer, and cultivate, in the calm of solitude, that virtue which is too tender to endure the tempests of publick life.  But there are others, whose passions grow more strong and irregular in privacy; and who cannot maintain an uniform tenour of virtue, but by exposing their manners to the publick eye, and assisting the admonitions of conscience with the fear of infamy:  for such it is dangerous to exclude all witnesses of their conduct, till they have formed strong habits of virtue, and weakened their passions by frequent victories.  But there is a higher order of men so inspired with ardour, and so fortified with resolution, that the world passes before them without influence or regard:  these ought to consider themselves as appointed the guardians of mankind:  they are placed in an evil world, to exhibit publick examples of good life; and may be said, when they withdraw to solitude, to desert the station which Providence assigned them.

No. 128.  SATURDAY, JANUARY 26, 1754.

  Ille sinistrorsum, hic dextrorsum abit; unus utrique
  Error, sed variis illudit partibus.—­HOR.  Lib. ii.  Sat. iii. 50.

  When in a wood we leave the certain way,
  One error fools us, though we various stray,
  Some to the left, and some to t’other side.  FRANCIS.

It is common among all the classes of mankind, to charge each other with trifling away life:  every man looks on the occupation or amusement of his neighbour, as something below the dignity of our nature, and unworthy of the attention of a rational being.