ESSAY I. 401 Or, if they pursue their desires in a lawful manner, how unhappy are the bulk of the extreme poor ? And yet how many thousands are there that are butjust capable of providing food and raiment for themselves in the world, who, after some conflict with these restless inclinations, rush into the connubial state and misery at once ? Mow unable are they to provide the same necessaries for a young nursery of mortals, a new increasing 'séneration ? What endless solicitudes, night and day, afflict them in their contrivances to support themselves and their infant brood ?. And what st length of years is it before these young helpless creatures can possibly 'release their parents from this care and anxiety, and are capable of providing food and raiment for themselves ? 'Would the affairs of human life in infancy, child- hood, and youth, have ever been constituted in such a sore and 'painful situation, if man had been such a being as God at first made him ; and ifhe had always stood obedient to his Maker, and continutd in his favour ? Could divine 'wisdom and good- ness admit of these scenes, if there had not been some great and universal degeneracy spreadover all the race, which, by the wise and righteous permission of God, exerts itself some way or other in every stage of life ? If we follow this track which mankind treads to the perfec- tion of manhood, the age of public appearance and activity upon the stage of the world, what shall we find there but infinite cares, labours and roil, attended' with fond hopes almost always frustra- ted, warm wishes scarce ever fulfilled, endless crosses and dis- appointments, through ten thousand accidents that are every moment flying across this mortal stage ; and whatever their pur- suits be, whether honour or wealth, ease or pleasure, some inter- vening incidents or oppositionsblast all their designs, and plunge them into -long vexation. As for the poor, who have no such pursuits, but seek their bread from day to day, how does the sultry toil exhaust their lives in summer, and what pinching starving wretchedness do they feel among wintry snows and storms ? How is a miserable and distressed life sustained among all the fatigues and pains of nature, the oppression, cruelty and scorn of the rich, and their own inbred maladies both of body andmind, as I said before ? Let us follow on thetrack of this sorry life, and enter into the scenes of old and decrepid age; how innumerable and how inexpressible are the disasters and sorrows, the groans and aches, the pains and wretchednesses that spring up every where to meet this poor long -lived animal on the borders of the grave, before they plunge him into it ? . And indeed is there any person upon earth, high or low, without such distressing difficulties, such crossing accidents andperplexing cares, such troubles, such pain- ful infirmities such disquieting fears, anxieties and sorrows, in VoL. rv. C c
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