The Young Gentleman and Ladys Monitor, and English Teachers Assistant | Page 5

neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee."
13. "And I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked, both
riches and honor, so that there shall not be any among the kings like
unto thee all thy days. And if thou wilt walk in my ways, to keep my
statutes and my commandments as thy father David did walk, then I
will lengthen thy days." And Solomon awoke and behold it was a
dream.
14. The French poet has shadowed this story in an allegory, of which
he seems to have taken the hint from the fable of the three goddesses
appearing to Paris, or rather from the vision of _Hercules_, recorded by
_Xenophon_, where Pleasure and Virtue are represented as real
persons making their court to the hero with all their several charms and
allurements.
15. _Health_, _Wealth_, Victory and Honor are introduced successively
in their proper emblems and characters, each of them spreading her
temptations, and recommending herself to the young monarch's choice.
Wisdom enters last, and so captivates him with her appearance, that he
gives himself up to her. Upon which she informs him, that those who
appeared before her were nothing but her equipage, and that since he
had placed his heart upon _Wisdom_, _Health_, _Wealth_, Victory and
Honor should always wait an her as her handmaids.

_Directions how to spend our Time._
1. We all of us complain of the shortness of time, saith _Seneca_, and

yet have much more than we know what to do with. Our lives, says he,
are spent either in doing nothing at all, or in doing nothing to the
purpose, or in doing nothing that we ought to do; we are always
complaining our days are few, and acting as though there would be no
end of them. That noble philosopher has described our inconsistency
with ourselves in this particular, by all those various turns of expression
and thought which are peculiar to his writings.
2. I often consider mankind as wholly inconsistent with itself in a point
that bears some affinity to the former. Though we seem grieved at the
shortness of life in general, we are wishing every period of it at an end.
The minor longs to be at age, then to be a man of business, then to
make up an estate, then to arrive at honors, then to retire. 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