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Untitled Article
and shall ere long finish my course . I must , however , endeavour to be satisfied . I have had , I believe , my full share of happiness . I have lived just half my life with my conjugal companion in a state of
uninterrupted and refined friendship ; and this softened the asperities of passing events , and rendered existence truly a blessing . And I have now the consolatory reflection , to cheer the remainder of my fleeting
days , that I have endeavoured to fill my station in life under the guidance of reason and virtue . As a pa an of business , I can make the boast ( not in ostentation ) , that I do not believe there ever lived a person who would accuse me of wronging him to the amount of a penny ; and among my acquaintances and friends , and in the bosom of my family , I feel gratefully how much their kind affections reward me foT my former and uninterrupted anxiety for their welfare and happiness . ' How the maudlin , whining sentiment of the much vaunted and drunken Addison falls into the shade before the cheerful resignation of this good-old man , whose whole life has been a practical lesson in the doctrine of utility . ' See how a Christian can die . '
Hear him further , — My intercourse with the world soon brought the conviction , that interest and prejudice were the leading principles of ordinary life . In religion , in politics , in education , in morals , in social intercourse , in diet , in medicine , in justice , in equity—in short , in every circumstance
connected with frail humanity—prejudice was the rule , and common sense the exception . Take nothing for granted , " soon became my ruling maxim ; and seeing that high classical attainment did not in the slightest degree produce unanimity of opinion , I resolutely set up for myself , and found no subject so terrific as to fear to encounter it . I have thus dared to think for myself , and my moral courage has far outstripped my , physical timidity . Nature did not form me for a public leader , but what I had the power to accomplish , I have attained by application and perseverance . A little success gave me confidence in my own capabilities . I have never failed in any attempt to which I devoted my heart and my time ; and it is perhaps a fair inference , that
the principles I formed for the regulation of my conduct were correct , inasmuch as that conduct was successful . ' Remember , reader , that these are the words of an old man of threescore years and twelve , writing from the chamber he never expects to leave in life ; yet not content with all he has done , still is the worn mind of the veteran lover of its species—still is it striving to work their further welfare . He has put forth a little work
on the economy of domestic life , knowing practicall y that most important of all social truths , and without which social happiness cannot exist , viz ., that he who has an income of one guinea per week , must contrive to live on twenty shillings , in order to provide against emergencies by accumulation . Without this firm groundwork on which to base all worldly affairs , there can be no prosperity , and though in a state of adversity a strong mind will manfully bear up , still there can exist no actual comfort ; the utara
Untitled Article
Hcueebuilding and Housekeeping . 487
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1834, page 487, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2635/page/27/
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