re. Thus,
although the whole of life is allowed by every one to be short, the
several divisions of it appear to be long and tedious.

3. We are for lengthening our span in general, but would fain contract
the parts of which it is composed. The usurer would be very well
satisfied to have all the time annihilated that lies between the present
moment and next quarter day. The politician would be contented to loose
three years of his life, could he place things in the posture which he
fancies they will stand in after such a revolution of time.

4. The lover would be glad to strike out of his existence all the
moments that are to pass away before the happy meeting. Thus, as far as
our time runs, we should be very glad in most parts of our lives, that
it ran much faster than it does. Several hours of the day hang upon our
hands, nay, we wish away whole years; and travel through time as through
a country filled with many wild and empty wastes which we would fain
hurry over, that we may arrive at those several little settlements or
imaginary points of rest, which are dispersed up and down in it.

5. If we may divide the life of most men into twenty parts, we shall
find, that at least nineteen of them are mere gaps and chasms, which are
neither filled with pleasure nor business. I do not however include in
this calculation the life of those men who are in a perpetual hurry of
affairs, but of those only who are not always engaged in scenes of
action: and I hope I shall not do an unacceptable piece of service to
those persons, if I point out to them certain methods for the filling up
their empty spaces of life. The methods I shall propose to them are as
follow:

6. The first is the exercise of virtue, in the most general acceptation
of the word. That particular scheme which comprehends the social
virtues, may give employment to the most industrious temper, and find a
man in business more than the most active station of life. To advise the
ignorant, relieve the needy, comfort the afflicted, are duties that fall
in our way almost every day of our lives.

7. A man has frequent opportunities of mitigating the fierceness of a
party; of 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 an