such a train of thinking, as shall prepare us, when the giddy whirl of life is finished for the society of more exalted spirits. Oh! would mankind but make fair truth their guide, And force the helm from prejudice and pride, Were once these maxims fix’d, that God’s our friend, Virtue our good, and happiness our end, How soon must reason o’er the world prevail, And error, fraud and superstition fail! None would hereafter, then, with groundless fear, Describe th’ Almighty cruel and severe; Predestinating some, without pretence, To heaven; and some to hell, for no offence; Inflicting endless pains for transient crimes, And favoring sects or nations, men or times. To please him, none would foolishly forbear, Or food, or rest, or itch in shirts of hair: Or deem it merit to believe, or teach, What reason contradicts or cannot reach. None would fierce zeal for piety mistake, Or malice, for whatever tenet’s sake; Or think salvation to one sect confin’d, And heaven too narrow to contain mankind. No more would brutal rage disturb our peace, But envy, hatred, war, and discord cease; Our own and others’ good each hour employ, And all things smile with universal joy; Fair virtue then, with pure religion join’d, Would regulate and bless the human mind, And man be what his Maker first design’d. CHAPTER VII. _Of the danger of idleness in solitude._ Idleness is truly said to be the root of all evil; and solitude certainly encourages in the generality of its votaries this baneful disposition. Nature has so framed the character of man, that his happiness essentially depends on his passions being properly interested, his imagination busied, and his faculties employed; but these engagements are seldom found in the vacant scenes and tedious hours of retirement from the world, except by those who have acquired the great and happy art of furnishing their own amusements; an art which, as we have already shown, can never be learnt in the irrational solitude of caves and cells.