warned posterity against a mistake into which he had fallen. So much, says Celsus, does the open and artless confession of an error become a man conscious that he has enough remaining to support his character.
As all error is meanness, it is incumbent on every man who consults his own dignity, to retract it as soon as he discovers it, without fearing any censure so much as that of his own mind. As justice requires that all injuries should be repaired, it is the duty of him who has seduced others by bad practices, or false notions, to endeavour that such as have adopted his errors should know his retraction, and that those who have learned vice by his example, should by his example be taught amendment.
Numb. 32. Saturday, July 7, 1750.
Ὄσσά τε δαιμονίῃσι τύχαις βροτοὶ ἄλγἐ ἔχουσιν,
Ὤν ἄν μοῖραν ἔχης, πρᾴως φέρε, μηδ' ἀγανάκτει·
Ἰᾶσθαι δὲ πρἐπει κάθοσον δυνὶῃ. Pythag.
Of all the woes that load the mortal state,
Whate'er thy portion, mildly meet thy fate;
But ease it as thou can'st ——— Elphinston.
So large a part of human life passes in a state contrary to our natural desires, that one of the principal topicks of moral instruction is the art of bearing calamities. And such is the certainty of evil, that it is the duty of every man to furnish his mind with those principles that may enable him to act under it with decency and propriety.
