STUDY VIII. 183 



thofe attendants, thofe riches, that fubmiffion 

 which men To eagerly hunt after, are defired un- 

 juftly. A man cannot obtain them but by plun- 

 dering and enflaving his fellow-citizens. The ac- 

 quifition of them expofes to incredible labour and 

 anxiety, the pofleffion is difturbed by inceflant 

 care, and privation tears the heart with regret. By 

 pretended bleffings fuch as thefe, health, reafon, 

 confcience, all is depraved and loft. They are as 

 fatal to Empires as to families ; it was neither by 

 labour, nor indigence ; no, nor even by wars, that 

 the Roman Empire fell into ruin j but by the ac- 

 cumulated pleafures, knowledge, and luxury of 

 the whole Earth. 



Virtuous perfons, in truth, are fometimes defti- 

 tute not only of the bleffings of Society, but of 

 thofe of Nature. To this 1 anfwer, that their ca- 

 lamities frequently arc produdive of unfpeakable 

 benefit to them. When perfecuted by the world, 

 they are frequently, they are ufually, incited to en- 

 gage in fome illuftrious career. Afflidiion is the 

 path of great talents, or, at leaft, that of great vir- 

 tues, which are infinitely preferable. " It is not 

 ** in your power," faid Marcus Aurelius, " to be a 

 *' Naturalift, a Poet, an Orator, a Mathematician; 

 *' hut it is in your power to be a virtuous man, 

 *' which is the beft of all." 



N 4 I have 



