Wesley Corpus

42. I will not now shock the easiness of your temper by talking about a future state; but suffer me to ask you a question about present things: Are you now happy? I have seen a large company of reasonable creatures, called Indians, sitting in a row on the side of a river, looking some times at one another, sometimes at the sky, and sometimes at the bubbles on the water. And so they sat, (unless in the time of war,) for a great part of the year, from morning to night. These were, doubtless, much at ease. But can you think they were happy? And how little happier are you than they? 43. You eat, and drink, and sleep, and dress, and dance, and sit down to play. You are carried abroad. You are at the masquerade, the theatre, the opera-house, the park, the levee, the drawing-room. What do you do there? Why, sometimes you talk; sometimes you look at one another. And what are Ol' REASON AND RELIGION, 17 you to do to-morrow, the next day, the next week, the next year? You are to eat, and drink, and sleep, and dance, and dress, and play again. And you are to be carried abroad again, that you may again look at one another ! And is this all? Alas, how little more happiness have you in this, than the Indians in looking at the sky or water ! Ah, poor, dull round ! I do not wonder that Colonel M (or any man of reflection) should prefer death itself, even in the midst of his years, to such a life as this; and should frankly declare that he chose to go out of the world, because he found nothing in it worth living for. 44. Yet it is certain there is business to be done: And many we find in all places (not to speak of the vulgar, the drudges of the earth) who are continually employed therein. Are you of that number? Are you engaged in trade, or some other repu table employment? I suppose, profitable too; for you would not spend your time and labour and thought for nothing. You are then making your fortune; you are getting money. True; but money is not your ultimate end.