LIFE not VAIN. *35 
And if I was a mafter of sciences, and an adept in arts, I 
might alfo fay, with the poet, 
“ How empty learnmg , and how vain is art, 
“ But as it mends the life , and guides the heart!" 
In a word, whatever we indulge ourfelves in beyond reason, 
is vain. I ought to throw away my pen with difdain, if this 
moral writing, inftead of exercifing and improving my thoughts, 
diverted them from heaven ; or if it occafioned my negle&ing 
one focial duty of greater moment : for, as furely as man is a 
thinking being, or as we are Christians, we muft difcover this 
great truth, that 
“ Virtue alone is happinefs below , 
“ And our best knowledge is ourfelves to know A 
How vain then is it to feek ways of diflipating our thoughts ! 
If we abandon thought, we abandon ourfelves ; and where are 
we to find happinefs, if we are at variance with ourfelves ? But, 
alas, what we think of leaf!:, is how to fubfift on our own flock : 
we continually fly abroad, as poor indigent wretches, begging for 
a morfel of bread, and generally take what is given us, be it ever 
fo coarfe. I do not forget how much our happinefs depends on 
focial intercourfe : but when all is right in our own breast, 
we fhall find no just caufe to complain of the vanity of life 1 
And if it is not right, we have the power to correct: our- 
felves, and this confideration ought to envigorate the mind, and 
fupport its energy. We have more at flake than the enjoy- 
ment of a dull repetition of the gratification of our fenfes. Let 
the thoughtlefs laugh, or fing, or dance ; let them triumph in 
jollity, or in pomp, they will grow tired j it cannot laft 3 it is 
2 the 
