The Virginia Gazette

On the Importance of a proper CONDUCT in LIFE.

A proud Man's Step, and with Caution treads,
And is the Choice and Favorite of his God
And if he steps (on sure he best may act)
His's still supported by Almighty Care.

To show what is truly great, ornamental, or useful in Life, to call the Attention of Mankind to Objects worthy of their Regard as rational and immortal Beings, to lay down certain and established Means for attaining the true End of our Existence, must be a noble Work; even the Attempt would be laudable. The Business of Life is serious, not ludicrous. No Order of Beings, especially the rational, was brought into Existence wholly for Pleasure and Amusement; but to fill some useful Place, and answer some important End in the extensive Scheme of the Benevolent Creator. It is therefore evidently the Interest, the Wisdom, and the Perfection, of every rational Creature, to be careful in properly Performing the Duty of his appointed Station, as in it he will, in the End, find his Glory and his Happiness.

As young People have a Prospect, though a precarious One, of living to old Age, it is of Consequence that they be early put upon such Courses will be likely to render their Passage through Life, whether longer or shorter, easy and comfortable. A Person's setting out with proper Dignity is of great Importance towards his future Prosperity; as, on the contrary, one false Step, at the first Entrance into Life, may prove irretrievable. Mankind fix their Attention upon the Behaviour of a Person just setting out, and according to the Prudence, or Want of Judgment, they observe in the first Steps he takes, pronounce upon the Whole of his future Con- duct. Men in active Stations, especially, ought to consider that at their first Entrance into Life they will have the ill Will and Envy of many Rivals and Competitors to encounter, and ought to remember that it will require no ordinary Degree of Sagacity to defeat the Designs of those who think themselves interested to make a bad Use of every Miscarriage.

To this End there is Nothing so indispensably necessary as a certain Turn of Mind which puts a Person upon looking forward, and enables him to judge rightly of the Consequences of his Behaviour, so as to avoid the Misfortunes into which Rashness precipitates many, and to gain the Ends which a wise and virtuous Man ought to pursue.

It is evident, to the meanest Understanding, that there is a Fitness or Unfitness, a Suitableness or Unsuitableness, of Things to one another, which is not to be changed without some Change presupposed in the Things, or their Circumstances. A prudential Forecast is the Knowledge and Observance of this Propriety of Behaviour to Times and Circumstances, and probable Consequences, according to their several Varieties; and, like all other Endowments of the Mind, it is also a natural Gift bestowed more or less liberally upon different Persons. Some give Promises of Sagacity and Coolness almost from their Infancy, and others never arrive at the mature Exercise of Foresight or Reflection; but, in Spite of the Experience of many Years, seem Children to the last. Yet this Faculty, at the same Time, is capable of great Improvements in the weakest Heads, could they but be brought to bestow a little Thought and Attention, or to listen to Reason more than to Passion.

If we consider the Life we lead in this World as a State of Discipline, all is ordered as it should be. We enter into this Life with Minds wholly unfurnished with Ideas, Attachments, or Biases of any Kind. After a little Time we find certain Propensities begin to act pretty strongly within us, which, in the main, are necessary to move us to avoid what might be hurtful, and pursue what might be useful to the Support of the animal Frame; and those Propensities are appointed to anticipate Reason, which does not at first exert itself. As we advance in Life we become capable of reasoning upon Actions, and their Consequences; and, accordingly, do, in general, reason justly enough about Matters of Right and Wrong, where Passion does not blind or mislead us. When we come into the vigorous and flourishing Time of Life, excited by our Passions and Appe- tites, we enter upon various Scenes of Action; yet here is the proper Season for exercising our Virtue, for habituating ourselves to keep constantly on our Guard against innumerable Assaults, for watching over ourselves that we may not be surprised and fall before Temptation, or, if we fall, that, by rising from our Errors, we may be moved to greater Diligence and Attention to our Duty, to a stronger Attachment to Virtue, and a more fixed Hatred to the Crimes which have brought such Sufferings upon us.

Pleasure and Pain, Health and Disease, Success and Misfortune, Reward and Punishment, often, at a very great Distance of Time after the Action, are made the natural, or at least frequent, Consequences of our general Behaviour here; to suggest to us the Reasonableness of concluding that an extensive Uniformity prevails through the Whole of the divine moral Go- vernment, and that what we see here in Shadow will, in the future State, appear in Substance and Perfection, and that it not only will, but ought to be so, and cannot be otherwise.

If we consider the opposite natural Tendencies and Effects of Virtue and Vice, in the present State, we shall from thence see Reason to conclude that the former is pleasing to the gracious Author of our Being, and the latter the contrary. The natural Effects of Temperance are Health, Length of Days, and a more delicate Enjoyment of the innocent Pleasures of Life. The natural Effects of Gluttony, Drunkenness, and Lewdness, are Disease and Pain, Disgust and Disappointment, and untimely Death. The natural Effects of universal Benevolence, Justice, and Charity, are the Love of Mankind, Success in Life, and Peace in One's own Mind. The Consequences to be expected from ill Will, Injustice, and Selfishness, are the Contempt and Hatred of Mankind, and Punishment by the Laws of Nations. When we say such an Effect follows naturally from such a Cause, we mean that it does so by the divine Appointment; for what is natural is only so, because Rectitude requires it to be so.

Now if our bodily Frame is so formed that its Well-being consists in Tem- perance, and that an immoderate Indulgence of Appetite tends to disorder and unhinge it; if the Make of the human Mind, and our social State in Life, are such that the social Virtues tend to produce universal Happiness, and all this by the Constitution and Course of Nature; if these Things be so, who is so blind as not to see in all this a moral Government already established, under God, even in this World, and going on to Perfection? And yet, that we may not, by a continued Course of Ease and Happiness, be led either to such Arrogance and Pride as to conclude ourselves the Lords of Nature, or to fix our Affections upon the present State, we are placed in the School of Affliction, to be broke and tamed to Obedience. That Happiness too easily come at, and a constant Series of Success and Prosperity, are by no Means proper for us, is too evident from the Effects of Ease and Affluence, which very few can bear without almost obliterating their Reason. The Scenes of Madness run into by ambitious Princes, the Ex- cesses our Nobility and wealthy Commoners are from Time to Time guilty of, and the fatal Catastrophe of whole Nations whenever they arrive at the Pinnacle of Greatness and Riches, show the absolute Necessity of Affliction to force us upon Consideration, to put us in Mind of the Frailty of our Nature and State, and to make us remember that we are under the Go- vernment of one who can raise or humble, afflict or relieve, reward or punish, as to him seems good.

That we may never lose Sight of our Duty, nor have it in our Power to pretend Ignorance, and even to fill up the poor Excuse of Thoughtlessness, Conscience, that ever watchful and faithful Monitor, is placed within the Mind itself, to be always at hand to judge of our Characters and Actions, and to alarm us with its Stings and Reproaches, whenever we do amiss. There is no Mind so gross and stupid as not to feel, at Times, some Pangs of Remorse; and not only Conscience within, but every Object in Nature, presents us some moral Lesson. Tempests, Thunders, and Light- ning, from above; Inundations and Earthquakes, from below breaching the