Obrázky na stránke
PDF
ePub
[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
[merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors]

THE

CITIZEN OF THE WORLD.

VOLUME THE SECOND.

LETTER LXVI.

PROM LIEN CHI ALTANGI, TO HINGPO, BY THE WAY OF MOSCOW.

GE

ENEROSITY, properly applied, will fupply every other external advantage in life, but the love of those we converfe with; it will procure efteem and a conduct refembling real affection; but actual love is the fpontaneous pro duction of the mind, no generofity can purchase; no rewards encrease, nor no liberality continue it; the very perfon who is obliged, has it not in his power to force his lingering affections upon the object he thould love, and voluntarily mix paffion with gratitude.

Imparted fortune, and well-placed liberality, may procure the benefactor good-will, may load the perfon obliged with the fenfe of the duty he lies under to retaliate: this is gratitude; and fimple gratitude, untinctured with love, is all the return an ingenuous mind can be itow for former benefits.

But gratitude and love are almost op. polite affections; love is often an involuntary paffion, placed upon our companions without our confent, and frequently conferred without our previous esteem. We love fome men, we know not why; our tenderness is naturally ex cited in all their concerns; we excufe their faults with the fame indulgence, and approve their virtues with the fame applaufe with which we confider our own. While we entertain the paffion it pleases us, we cherish it with delight, and give it up with reluctance; and love for love is all the reward we expect or defire.

Gratitude, on the contrary, is never conferred, but where there have been

previous endeavours to excite it; we confider it as a debt, and our spirits wear a load till we have discharged the obligation. Every acknowledgment of gratitude is a circumftance of humiliation; and fome are found to fubmit to frequent mortifications of this kind, proclaiming what obligations they owe, merely because they think it in some meafure cancels the debt.

Thus love is the most easy and agreeable, and gratitude the most humiliating affection of the mind; we never reflect on the man we love, without exulting in our choice, while he who has bound us to him by benefits alone, rises to our idea as a perfon to whom we have, in fome measure, forfeited our freedom. Love and gratitude are feldom therefore found in the fame breaft without impair ing each other; we may tender the one or the other fingly to thofe we converse with, but cannot command both together. By attempting to encreafe, we diminish them; the mind becomes bankrupt under too large obligations; all additional benefits lessen every hope of future re turn, and bar up every avenue that leads to tenderness.

In all our connections with fociety, therefore, it is not only generous, but prudent, to appear infenfible of the va lue of thofe favours we bestow, and endeavour to make the obligation feem as flight as poffible. Love must be taken by ftratagem, and not by open forces we should feem ignorant that we oblige, and leave the mind at full liberty to give or refufe it's affections; for constraint

P 2

may

may indeed leave the receiver ftill grate ful, but it will certainly produce difguft...

that they had received it?' ftill: adds the philofopher. A thoufand times," cries the hermit; they every day load. ed me with profeffions of gratitude, for obligations received, and folici

If to procure gratitude be our only aim, there is no great art in making the acquifition, a benefit conferred demandstations for future favours.'- If,

a juft acknowledgment, and we have a right to infilt upon our due.

But it were much more prudent to forego our right on fuch an occasion, and exchange it, if we can, for love. We receive but little advantage from repeated protestations of gratitude, but they coft him very much from whom we exact them in return; exacting a grateful acknowledgment is demanding a debt by which the creditor is not advantaged, and the debtor pays with reluctance.

As Mencius the philofopher was travelling in pursuit of wildom, night overtook him at the foot of a gloomy mountain, remote from the habitations. of men. Here as he was ftraying, while rain and thunder confpired to make folitude ftill more hideous, he perceived a hermit's cell, and approaching, afked for fhelter. Enter, cries the hermit, in a fevere tone; men deferve not to be obliged, but it would be imitating their ingratitude to treat them as they deferve. Come in: examples of vice may fometimes strengthen us in the ways of virtue.'

[ocr errors]

After a frugal meal, which confifted of roots and tea, Mencius could not reprefs his curiofity to know why the her

it had retired from mankind, the actions of whom taught the trueft leffons of wisdom.. Mention not the name of man, cries the hermit, with indignation; here let me live retired from ⚫a bafe, ungrateful world; here, among the beasts of the foreft, I shall find no flatterers; the lion is a generous enemy, and the dog a faithful friend; but man, bafe man, can poifon the bowl, and fmile while he prefents it!'

You have been ufed ill by mankind,' interrupted the philofopher, Threwdly. Yes, returned the hermit, on mankind I have exhaufted my whole fortune; and this ftaff, and that cup, and those roots, are all that I have in return. Did you beltow your fortune, or did you only lend it? returned Mencius. I beftowed it, undoubtedly, replied the other; for where were the merit of being a money-lender? Did they ever own

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

then,' fays Mencius, fmiling, you did not lend your fortune, in order to have it returned, it is unjust to accufe them of ingratitude they owned themselves obliged, you expected no more; and they certainly earned each favour by frequently acknowledging the obligation. The hermit was ftruck with the reply, and furveying his guest with emotion I have heard of the great Mencius, and you certainly are the man: I am now fourscore 6 years old, but ftill a child in wildom; take me back to the fchool of man, and educate me as one of the most ig norant and the youngest of your dif ciples !'

Indeed, my fon, it is better to have friends in our paffage through life than grateful dependants; and as love isla more willing, fo it is a more lafting tribute than extorted obligation. As we are uneasy when greatly obliged, gratitude once refused, can never after be recovered; the mind that is bafe enough to difallow the just return, instead of feeling any uneafiness upon recollection, triumphs in it's new-acquired freedom, and in fome measure is pleased with confcious bafeness.

Very different is the situation of difagreeing friends, their feparation produces mutual uneasiness: like that divided being in fabulous creation, their fympathetic fouls once more defire their former union, the joys of both are im perfect, their gayeft moments tinctured with uneafinefs; each feeks for the smallest conceffions to clear the way to a wifhed-for explanation; the moft trifling acknowledgment, the flightest ac 'cident, ferves to effect a mutual reconciliation.

But inftead of pursuing the thought, permit me to foften the feverity of advice by an European story, which will fully illuftrate my meaning.

A fiddler and his wife, who had rub. bed through life, as moft couples ufually do, fometimes good friends, at others not quite fo well; one day happened to have a difpute, which was conducted with becoming spirit on bett fides. The wife was fure the was right, and

and the husband was refolved to have his own way. What was to be done in fuch a cafe? The quarrel grew worfe by explanations; and at laft the fury of both role to fuch a pitch, that they made a vow never to fleep together in the farne bed for the future. This was the moft rafh vow that could be imagined, for they fill were friends at bottom, and befides they had but one bed in the houfe; however, refolved they were to go through with it, and at night the fiddle-cafe was laid in bed between them, in order to make a feparation. In this manner they continued for three weeks; every night the fiddle-cafe being placed as a barrier to divide them.

By this time, however, each heartily repented of their vow, their relentment was at an end, and their love began to return; they wished the fiddle cafe away, but both had too much spirit to begin. One night, however, as they were both lying awake with the detefted fiddlecafe between them, the husband happened to freeze; to which the wife, as is ufual in fuch cafes, bid God blefs him: Ay, but,' returns the husband, woman, do you fay that from your heart?' Indeed, I do, my poor Nicholas, cries his wife, I with all my heart. If fo, then,' fays fay it the husband, we had as good remove the fiddle-cafe.

LETTER LXVII.

FROM THE SAME.

OOKS, my fon, while they teach

often make us unmindful of our own; while they inftru&t the youthful reader to grasp at focial happiness, he grows miferable in detail, and attentive to univerfal harmony, often forgets that he himself has a part to fuftain in the concert. I diflike, therefore, the philofopher who defcribes the inconveniencies of life in fuch pleasing colours, that the pupil grows enamoured of diArefs, longs to try the charms of poverty, meets it without dread, nor fears it's inconveniencies till he feverely feels shem.

A youth, who has thus fpent his life among books, new to the world, and unacquainted with man, but by philofophic information, may be confidered as a being whofe mind is filled with the vulgar errors of the wife; utterly unqualified for a journey through life, yet confident of his own skill in the direction, he fets out with confidence, blunders on with vanity, and finds himfelf at laft undone.

He firit has learned from books, and then lays it down as a maxim, that all mankind are virtuous or vicious in excefs; and he has been long taught to deteit vice, and love virtue: warm, therefore, in attachments, and ftedfaft in enmity, he treats every creature as a friend or foe; expects from thofe he Joves unerring integrity, and configns

his enemies to the reproach of wanting

ceeds; and here begin his difappoint ments: upon a clofer infpection of human nature, he perceives, that he fhould have moderated his friendfhip, and foftened his feverity; for he often finds the excellencies of one part of mankind clouded with vice, and the faults of the other brightened with virtue; he finds no character fo fanctified that has not it's failings; none fo infamous, but has fomewhat to attract our esteem; he beholds impiety in lawn, and fidelity in fetters.

He now therefore, but too late, perceives that his regards fhould have been more cook, and his hatred lefs violent; that the truly wife feldom court romantic friendships with the good, and avoid, if poffible, the refentment even of the wicked: every moment gives him fresh inftances that the bonds of friendship are broken if drawn too closely, and that thofe whom he has treated with difrefpect more than retaliate the injury: at length, therefore, he is obliged to confefs, that he has declared war upon the vicious half of mankind, without being able to form an alliance among the vir tuous to espouse his quarrel.

Our book-taught philofopher, however, is now too far advanced to recede; and though poverty be the just confequence of the many enemies his conduct has created, yet he is refolved to meet it

without

« PredošláPokračovať »