Essays of Gilchrist [pp. 770-772]

SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER.
since, if we take a true and impartial survey of our own
condition, and those of our fellow creatures, we shall
certainly have more cause for thankfulness than murmuring. Do we see one possessed of immense wealth?perhaps heaven has denied him a soul capable of enjoyment. Look we down and behold his counterpart,
oppressed with poverty and want-to him, perhaps,
heaven has been bountiful in its gifts of resignation
and contentment. The rich are not happy in proportion to their possessions, neither are the poor wretched
in proportion to their wants. Through every inequality of life, the same conclusions may justly be drawn.
Have we from a state of affluence been reduced to
want, or from a state of power to that of dependency?are we deprived of our liberty and cut off from society
to drag out a part of our existence in dreary confinement?-have we been robbed of those whom we had
treasured up in our hearts as the better half of ourselves, and left to tread the rugged paths of life disconsolate and forlorn?-the means of happiness are still
in our power-that substantial happiness which arises
from the steady and uniform practice of virtue, the testimony of an honest conscience and thoughts of selfapprobation.
A disposition to murmur, is to accuse the Deity of
injustice; a disposition to despondency is an imputation
of disregard to that Being who has so liberally provided
for the wants of all his creatures. To anticipate miseries
which, perhaps, may never come to pass, is to wrest the
keys of futurity from the hands of the Almighty, to
plunder his decrees of what cannot possibly belong to
us till he shall think proper to bestow them, and to fly
in the face of him who has declared that he will withhold no good thing from the virtuous and deserving part
of his creatures.
Would we then wish to dry up this source of infelicity and be happy in the enjoyment of our present lot,
without which we can never, with tranquillity, look forward to the future, let us consider that in the state in
which we are placed by the hand of Providence, though
our wishes may be many, our real wants are but fewthat happiness or misery do not depend on the trifling
contingencies of sublunary affairs-that the ways of
Providence are impervious to mortal eyes, so that we can
neither foresee nor prevent whatever portion of good or
evil may be in store for us-and that a rational use of
whatever means of happiness we may have received,
is not only to prolong them, but to heighten the enjoyment and prepare us for what may further be added to
our happiness, or what pain may in future be inflicted.
To act in this manner is to deserve the rank in which we
are placed, whether as men or philosophers-by which
all unjust murmurings will be effectually removed, and
the cause of our greatest share of infelicity will be done
away.
Literary Society, December 2, 1779.
IIl.
Sunt quibus datur sapientia, sed modus sapere carent. Verba
cumr frondes sunt, ubi superabundant fructus raro invenimus.
Cicer?o in d1ppiam.
The faculty of interchanging our thoughts with one
another, or what we express by the word conversation,
has always been represented by moral writers as one
of the noblest privileges of reason, and which more
particularly sets mankind above the brute part of the
creation.
Though nothing gains so much upon the affections as
this extempore eloquence, which we have constantly occasion for, and are obliged to practice every day, we very
rarely meet with any who excel in it.
The conversation of most people is disagreeablenot so much for want of wit and learning, as of good
breeding and discretion.
If we resolve to please, we must never speak to
gratify any particular vanity or passion of our own;
but always with a design either to divert or inform the
company. He who aims only at one of these, is always easy in his discourse. He is never out of humor
at being interrupted, because he considers that those
who hear him are the best judges whether what he
was saying could either divert or inform them.
A modest person seldom fails to gain the good will of
those he converses with; because no one envys a man
who does not appear to be pleased with himself.
But should we be disposed to talk of ourselves, what
can we say? It would be as imprudent to discover our
faults, as ridiculous to enumerate our supposed virtues.
Our private and domestic affairs are no less improper
to be introduced in conversation. What does it concern
the company how many horses we keep?-how many
courses we dine of?-or whether our servant is a fool
or a knave?
One may equally affront the company he is in, either
by engrossing all the talk, or preserving a contemptuous silence.
Notwithstanding all the advantages of youth, few
young people please in conversation; the reason is that
want of experience makes them positive, and what they
say is rather with a design to please theselves than
any one else.
It is certain that age will make many things pass
well enough, which would have been laughed at in the
mouth of one much younger.
Nothing, however, is more insupportable to men of
sense, than an empty, formal use of a proverb, or a decision in all controversies, with a short unmreaning sentence. This piece of stupidity is the more insufferable, as it puts on the air of wisdom.
A prudent man will avoid talking much of any particular science for which he is remarkably famous.
There is not a handsomer thing than what was said of
the famous Mr. Cowley-" That none but his intimate
friends ever discovered by his discourse that he was a
poet." Besides the decency of this rule, it is certainly
founded on good policy. He who talks of any thing
for which he is already famous, has little to get, but a
great deal to lose. It might be added, that he who is
sometimes silent on a subject where every one is satisfied he could speak, will often be thought no less knowing in other matters, where perhaps he is wholly igno
rant.
When occasion for commendation is found, it will
not be amiss to add the reasons for it, as it is this which
distiguishes the approbation of a man of sense from the
flattery of sycophants and admiration of fools.
Though good humor, sense and discretion can seldom
fail to make a man agreeable, it may be no ill policy
sometimes to prepare ourselves for particular conversa
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