then
remember, that we are cheating ourselves by voluntary delusions; and
giving up to the unreal mockeries of fancy, those hours in which solid
advantages might be attained by sober thought and rational assiduity.

There is, indeed, so little certainty in human affairs, that the most
cautious and severe examiner may be allowed to indulge some hopes which
he cannot prove to be much favoured by probability; since, after his
utmost endeavours to ascertain events, he must often leave the issue in
the hands of chance. And so scanty is our present allowance of
happiness, that in many situations life could scarcely be supported, if
hope were not allowed to relieve the present hour by pleasures borrowed
from futurity; and reanimate the languor of dejection to new efforts, by
pointing to distant regions of felicity, which yet no resolution or
perseverance shall ever reach.

But these, like all other cordials, though they may invigorate in a
small quantity, intoxicate in a greater; these pleasures, like the rest,
are lawful only in certain circumstances, and to certain degrees; they
may be useful in a due subserviency to nobler purposes, but become
dangerous and destructive when once they gain the ascendant in the
heart: to soothe the mind to tranquillity by hope, even when that hope
is likely to deceive us, may be sometimes useful; but to lull our
faculties in a lethargy is poor and despicable.

Vices and errours are differently modified, according to the state of
the minds to which they are incident; to indulge hope beyond the warrant
of reason, is the failure alike of mean and elevated understandings; but
its foundation and its effects are totally different: the man of high
courage and great abilities is apt to place too much confidence in
himself, and to expect, from a vigorous exertion of his powers, more
than spirit or diligence can attain: between him and his wish he sees
obstacles indeed, but he expects to overleap or break them; his mistaken
ardour hurries him forward; and though, perhaps, he misses his end, he
nevertheless obtains some collateral good, and performs something useful
to mankind, and honourable to himself.

The drone of timidity presumes likewise to hope, but without ground and
without consequence; the bliss with which he solaces his hours he always
expects from others, though very often he knows not from whom: he folds
his arms about him, and sits in expectation of some revolution in the
state that