LIFE not VAIN. i 37 
eternity. Virtue has charms to infpire us with fuch refignation ; 
it is the means, the only means of doing it : whilft we are 
virtuous we fhall never grow dissatisfied with life, for difla- 
tisfadion arifes chiefly from a wretched fatiety which virtue 
never knows. The virtuous mind can hardly be at variance 
with itself, nor yet with the world ; resignation, hope, 
comfort, pleasure, joy, are always its attendants. Under 
thefe circumftances we fhall deflre to live as long as nature ap- 
points, and then be contented to die. 
Let us try to find out where this great misfortune lies, which 
has made fo many, even wife men, complain in very pathetic 
terms, of the vanity of life : let us freely enquire, if we had the 
fame adive belief, not merely a paflive aflent, but I fay the 
fame active belief in our hearts, which we are fo liberal in 
declaring with our tongues, that there is a god ! — that the foul 
is immortal! — that there is a fiate of rewards for good, 
as well as punishments for evil, would it ftill be a fubjed 
of complaint that life is a feene of vanity ? or would it be 
delightfully employed in the service and adoration of that 
god ? And if his infinite wifdom and goodnefs has appointed to 
every thing its proper end, how can the life of man be vanity ? 
Farewell. I am yours, &c. 
LETTER XLVI. 
To the fame. 
Madam, 
I T A K E it for granted, that neither you, to whom I am 
writing, nor any body whom I fhall venture to encounter, 
hefitates a moment to acknowledge the belief of a god, Whence 
T could 
