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harmony of the universe. In eternity a great deal may be done of this kind. I find it of use to cherish this generous ambition; for, besides the secret refreshment it diffuses through my soul, it engages me in an endeavour to improve my faculties, as well as to exercise them conformably to the rank I now hold among reasonable beings, and the hope I have of being once advanced to a more exalted station.

The other, and the ultimate end of man, is the enjoyment of God, beyond which he cannot form a wish. Dim at best are the conceptions we have of the Supreme Being, who, as it were, keeps his creatures in suspense, neither discovering, nor hiding himself; by which means, the libertine hath a handle to dispute his existence, while the most are content to speak him fair, but in their hearts prefer every trifling satisfaction to the favour of their Maker, and ridicule the good man for the singularity of his choice. Will there not a time come, when the freethinker shall see his impious schemes overturned, and be made a convert to the truths he hates; when deluded mortals shall be convinced of the folly of their pursuits; and the few wise, who followed the guidance of Heaven, and, scorning the blandishments of sense, and the sordid bribery of the world, aspired to a celestial abode, shall stand possessed of their utmost wish in the vision of the Creator? Here the mind heaves a thought now and then towards him, and hath some transient glances of his presence; when, in the instant it thinks itself to have the fastest hold, the object eludes its expectations, and it falls back tired and baffled to the ground. Doubtless there is some more perfect way of conversing with heavenly beings. Are not spirits capable of mutual intelligence, unless immersed in bodies, or by their intervention ? Must superior natures depend on inferior for the main privilege of sociable beings, that of conversing with, and knowing each other? What would they have done had matter never been created? I suppose, not have lived in eternal solitude. As incorporeal substances are of a nobler order, so, to be sure, their manner of intercourse is answerably more expedite and intimate. This method of communication we call intellectual vision, as somewhat analogous to the sense of seeing, which is the medium of our acquaintance with this visible world. And in some

such way can God make himself the object of immediate intuition to the blessed; and as he can, it is not improbable that he will, always condescending, in the circumstances of doing it, to the weakness and proportion of finite minds. His works but faintly reflect the image of his perfections; it is a second-hand knowledge; to have a just idea of him, it may be necessary that we see him as he is? But what is that? It is something that never entered into the heart of man to conceive; yet, what we can easily conceive, will be a fountain of unspeakable, of everlasting rapture. All created glories will fade and die away in his presence. Perhaps it will be my happiness to compare the world with the fair exemplar of it in the Divine Mind; perhaps, to view the original plan of those wise designs that have been executing in a long succession of ages. Thus employed in finding out his works, and contemplating their Author, how shall I fall prostrate and adoring, my body swallowed up in the immensity of matter, my mind in the infinitude of his perfections, [GROVE.]

N 2.

INDEX.

A

ACTIONS, principles of, two in man,

Adulterers, how punished by the primitive Christians,

Aglas, his story told by Cowley,

Ambition, various kinds of it,

Laudable,

Anacharsis, the Corinthian drunkard, a saying of his,

Answers to several letters at once,

Ancestry, how far honour is to be paid to,

Antipathies, a letter about them,

of them,

No.

588

579

610

570

613

569

612

581, 619

609

615

610

564

574

575

Anxieties, unnecessary, the evil of them and the vanity

Applause and censure should not mislead us,

Araspes and Panthea, their story out of Xenophon,

Aristippus, his saying of content,

Augustus, his saying of mourning for the dead,

B

BACON flitch, at Whichenovre in Staffordshire, who are

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Bantam, ambassador of, his letter to his master about

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Blank, his letter to the Spectator about his family,

had hanged himself,

Bion, his saying of a greedy search after happiness,

Bonosus, the drunken Briton, a saying of him after he

Burlesque authors the delight of ordinary readers

574

563

569

616, 625

Burlesque humour,

616

Busy world,

624

C

CACOETHES, or itch of writing, an epidemical distemper, 582

Calamities, whimsical ones,

Calumny, the great offence of it,

558

594

Rules against it by the fathers of la Trappe,

594

Cases in love answered,

614

Cato,

Cato, an instance of his probity,

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Cave of Trophonius, several people put into it to be

NO.

557

mended,

-

Censure and applause should not mislead us,

Chancery court, why erected,

Chastity, how prized by the heathens,

Cherubims, what the rabbins say they are,

Chit-chat club's letter to the Spectator,

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599

610

564

579

600

560

Christianity, the only system that can produce content,

How much above philosophy,

Cleanliness, the praise of it,

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Clergymen, the vanity of some in wearing scarves,

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Country-gentlemen, advice to them about spending their

Memoirs of the life of one,

Cowley, (Mr.) his description of heaven,

Crazy, a man thought so by reading Milton aloud,

Critics, modern ones, some errors of theirs about plays,

Cyrus, how he tried a young lord's virtue,

D.

DISCRETION absolutely necessary in a good husband,
Distempers, difficult to change them for the better,
Divine nature our narrow conceptions of it,

Its omnipresence and omniscience,

Dreams, a discourse on them,

Several extravagant ones,

Of Trophonius's cave,

Drunkard, a character of one,

583

622

590-

610

613

577

592

564

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What Seneca and Publius Cyrus said of it,

Dryden (Mr.) his translation of lapis's cure of Æneas,

out of Virgil,

-

Of Eneas's ships being turned into goddesses,
His cock's speech to dame Partlet,

Dumb's conjurer's letter to the Spectator,

E

EDGAR (king), an amour of his,

Egotism, the vanity of it condemned,
A young fellow very guilty of it,
N 3

605

562

562

Egyptians

Egyptians tormented with the plague of darkness,
Eloquence of beggars,

English, a character of them by a great preacher
By the Bantam ambassador,

Epistolary poetry, the two kinds of styles,

Erratum, a sad one committed in printing the bible,
Eternity, an essay upon it,
Part is to come,

NO:
615

613

557

557

A distemper they are very much afflicted with,

582

618

579

590

628

Speech in Cato on it, translated into Latin,

628

F

FACES, every man should be pleased with his own,

559

Fadlallah, his story out of the Persian tales,

578

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Fellow of a college, a wise saying of one about posterity,

583

Flattery, how grateful,

621

Fontenelle, his saying of the ambitious and covetous,
Freethinkers, put into Trophonius's cave,

576

599.

Fritilla's dream,

Funnel (Will), the toper, his character,

Futurity, the strong inclination man has to know it,

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God, a contemplation of his omnipresence and omniscience, 565

597

569

604

604

604

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HAMADRYADS, the fable of them to the honour of trees,

Happiness of souls in heaven treated of,

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An argument that God has assigned us for it,

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