328 On the Nature and Utility of Eloquence. 



brought to believe that they are unprofitably em- 

 ployed, who are conftantly incrcafing the daily 

 pleafures of their fellow creatures j who can con- 

 trive, without corrupting men's minds, to divert 

 and entertain them. Shall thofe be called un- 

 profitable labours, which deliver a private man 

 from the influence of his domeftic anxieties i an 

 artizan from the effefls of his labour j a foldier 

 from his fufi^erings ; a ftatefman from his cares : 

 which enable one man to forget his poverty,' 

 another his difeafe, a thir^i his captivity, and all, 

 their misfortunes ? 



Who are thefe fevere judges that are ever in- 

 fifting upon- the exclufive excellence of the me- 

 chanical, commercial, or even philofophical em- 

 ployments ? as if thofe employments were good 

 for any thing, confidered feparately from the 

 end which they aim at in common with works 

 of imagination, the promotion of happiness. 

 Are there any of them that tend more im- 

 mediately to this great purpofe ? Which of 

 them has more power to refine the manners, 

 to foften the temper, to diffufe tranquility 

 ^nd cheerfulnefs ; to correct and enlarge 

 the mind ? Away then with fuch fhort- 

 fighted objeftions, and let thofe that chufe it 

 prefer the man who makes a blade of grafs 

 grow where it grew not before, to the poet and 

 the moralift, "vyho water the fickly feeds of virtue, 



iin4 



