The Young Gentleman and Ladys Monitor, and English Teachers Assistant | Page 6

doing justice to the character of a deserving man; of softening
the envious, quieting the angry, and rectifying the prejudiced; which,
are all of them employments suited to a reasonable nature, and bring
great satisfaction to the person who can busy himself in them with
discretion.
8. There is another kind of virtue that may find employment for those
retired hours in which we are altogether left to ourselves, and destitute
of company and conversation: I mean that intercourse and
communication which every reasonable creature ought to maintain with
the great Author of his being.
9. The man who lives under an habitual sense of the divine presence,
keeps up a perpetual cheerfulness of temper, and enjoys every moment
the satisfaction of thinking himself in company with the dearest and
best of friends. The time never lies heavy upon him; it is impossible for
him to be alone.
10. His thoughts and passions are the most busied at such hours when
those of other men are the most inactive; he no sooner steps out of the
world, but his heart burns with devotion, swells with hope, and
triumphs in the consciousness of that presence which every where
surrounds him; or, on the contrary, pours out its fears, its sorrows, its
apprehensions, to the great supporter of its existence.
11. I have here only considered the necessity of a man's being virtuous
that he may have something to do; but if we consider further, that the
exercise of virtue is not only an amusement for the time it lasts, but that
its influence extends to those parts of our existence which lie beyond
the grave, and that our whole eternity is to take its colour from those
hours which we here employ in virtue or in vice, the argument
redoubles upon us, for putting in practice this method of passing away
our time.

12. When a man has but a little stock to improve, and has opportunities
of turning it all to a good account, what shall we think of him if he
suffers nineteen parts of it to lie dead, and perhaps employs even the
twentieth to his ruin or disadvantage? But because the mind cannot be
always in its fervour nor strained up to a pitch of virtue, it is necessary
to find out proper employments for it in its relaxations.
13. The next method therefore that I would propose to fill up our time,
should be useful and innocent diversion. I must confess I think it is
below reasonable creatures to be altogether conversant in such
diversions as are merely innocent, and having nothing else to
recommend them but that there is no hurt in them.
14. Whether any kind of gaming has even thus much to say for itself, I
shall not determine; but I think it is very wonderful to see persons of
the best sense, passing away a dozen hours together in shuffling and
dividing a pack of cards, with no other conversation but what is made
up of a few game phrases, and no other ideas but those of black or red
spots ranged together in different figures. Would not a man laugh to
hear any one of his species complaining that life is short.
15. The stage might be made a perpetual source of the most noble and
useful entertainments, were it under proper regulations.
But the mind never unbends itself so agreeably as in the conversation
of a well-chosen friend. There is indeed no blessing of life that is any
way comparable to the enjoyment of a discreet and virtuous friend. It
eases and unloads the mind, clears and improves the understanding,
engenders thoughts and knowledge, animates virtue and good
resolution, sooths and allays the passions, and finds employment for
most of the vacant hours of life.
16. Next to such an intimacy with a particular person, one would
endeavour after a more general conversation with such as are able to
entertain and improve those with whom they converse, which are
qualifications that seldom go asunder.
There are many other useful amusements of life, which one would
endeavour to multiply, that one might on all occasions have recourse to
something rather than suffer the mind to lie idle, or ran adrift with any
passion that chances to rise in it.
17. A man that has a taste in music, painting, or architecture, is like one
that has another sense when compared with such as have no relish for

those arts. The florist, the planter, the gardener, the husbandman, when
they are only as accomplishments to the man of fortune; are great
reliefs to a country life, and many ways useful to those who are
possessed of them.
SPECTATOR, No. 93.
18. I was yesterday busy in comparing together the industry of man
with that