degree of civilization, is the procurer of all the embellishments. and delights, and of most of the conveniences and comforts of our present condition; the civilized world being raised now almost as much above the condition it stood in, when classical learning was first rising on Europe, in the fifteenth century, as it then was above that of the hordes of roaming savages. Add to this, that the pleasure of learning, like that of religion, is not confined to time or place, nor dependent upon the smiles of fortune. It may be enjoyed in solitude, in penury, and in old age; which last does sometimes, if not often, increase rather than diminish it.

In conclusion; having observed above, that learning furnishes food or materials for thought, I will venture to recommend to readers an excellent rule, taken from the practice of a very eminent man of the last age. It is this:-In reading, observe the course of your thoughts rather than of your books. Sometimes your reading will give occasion to a thought, not connected with the subject which your book treats of; and in such a case, drop the course of your reading, and follow the course of the thought that has been started.

NUMBER XC.

OF EVIL THINKING.

"HE that would seriously set upon the search of truth," says the great Locke, "ought in the first place to prepare his mind with a love of it; for he that loves it not, will not take much pains to get it, nor be much concerned when he misses it. There is nobody in the commonwealth of learning who does not profess himself a lover of truth: and there is not a rational creature that would not take it amiss to be thought otherwise of. And yet, for all this, one may truly say, there are very few lovers of truth for truth's sake, even amongst those who persuade themselves that they are so. How a man may know whether he be so in earnest, is worth inquiry, and I think there is one unerring mark of it, viz. the not entertaining any proposition with greater assurance, than the proofs it is built upon will warrant."

These weighty sentiments, so worthy to be carried with us in all our secular, and in all our moral and religious concerns,

are particularly applicable to the subject of evil-thinking. Downright, wilful slander is considered on all hands as a detestable vice; and a person, habitually guilty of it in its grossness, is marked as a foe to society. A man, a woman, or a family that is notoriously infected with this foul malady, is watched as carefully as is a pickpocket, or a common cheat. But it unhappily falls out that, although gross, wilful slander commonly meets with the reprobation it merits, yet what is nearly related to it, passes with very little censure or remorse.-I mean the taking up a reproach against one's neighbor, or believing an ill report of another upon slight grounds, or without sufficient evidence.

The commonness of this fault seems to evince a strong predisposition to it in our very nature. It is a remark of the great British moralist, Dr. Johnson, that "there are two causes of belief; Evidence and Inclination." When we are in no manner inclined to believe a thing, we naturally require full evidence of it before we yield our credence: and, on the other hand, when we are powerfully inclined to believe, we can do so, not only without evidence, but against it. Hence it would seem, that we naturally have a strong inclination to believe or think ill of others, since we so often do it on no real proof, or on what is next

to none.

How happens it that, even in well-ordered society, scandal flies as upon the wings of the wind? That it so quickly spreads over a whole neighborhood, parish or town? That it continues to widen its circle from day to day, till every body knows it save one, to wit, the very person scandalized ?-Does not this argue a general love of scandal ?-Perhaps you will say No; and will hold, that two or three tale-bearers or busy-bodies may have done

the whole mischief. But how could they have done it, if they had not found a multitude of ears to listen to their tale, and a multitude of tongues to aid them in its circulation? As there would be no thieves of one kind, if there were no receivers of stolen goods, so there would be no tale-bearers, if there were no eager listeners to their buzz; and as the receiver is as bad as the thief, so the eager listener to groundless scandal, is well-nigh as bad as its author, or at least possesses some portion of the same depravity of feeling and temper.

No one has travelled very far upon the journey of life, and been an observant traveller, who has not noticed the manner, in which, for a while, this "pestilence walketh in darkness," and then bursts forth into open day. The foul report is for some time communicated in whispers, accompanied with solemn injunctions of secrecy. Every one professes to hope it is not true, and yet every one whispers it to every one's acquaintance. At length it becomes a common report; a matter of public notoriety. It is in every body's mouth, and every body must believe it; because, according to one orthodox old saying, "What every body says, must be true;" and according to another of equally sacred authority, "Where there is much smoke, there must be some fire." It is a settled point. In the public opinion, the case is decided, and the defamed party is cast off. All are of one mind, that there must be something in it; though, here and there, one charitable body or another, expresses a faint hope that the affair may not turn out to be quite so scandalous as it is represented.

Last of all, after the lapse of months, it reaches the astonished ears of the person most immediately concerned. It is sifted, and turns out a sheer fabrication, invented and first put in circu

lation by Nobody. Search is made in vain for the author, who lies snugly concealed amidst the multitude.

nor indeed can it be.

they were forward to

Well, then the matter is cleared up, and all the slur is wiped away at last from the character of the defamed. Not exactly so, Some are no less loath to disbelieve, than believe. Some who pretend to be very glad at the result, secretly wish it had been a little otherwise. Some have their doubts still; and some, again, have no inclination to examine the disproof of the calumny, though they had swallowed it with a voracious appetite.