LETTER LIII.
HARRINGTON to WORTHY.
Ingratitude is a predominant
principle in the conduct of man.
The perfidious —, who owes to me his
reputation and fortune, and with whom I
intrusted a great part of my property, has
deceived me. This affair will materially
retard my business.
TO be unfortunate in trade is not worth a
figh—to receive inattention and incivility
does not merit a frown; but Ingratitude—it
is this that cuts to the quick. Yet I freely
give him my pity; for what man, who considered
for a moment the inconfistency of the
human heart, would hurl the thunderbolt of
indignation at the head of an ingrate? What
an important little thing is man! he contrives
to overreach his neighbour, and mount
to the enjoyment of riches, ambition and
splendour; but remembers not the period of
enjoyment—that his life is a day, and his
space a point!
NATURALISTS inform us of infects whose
term of existence is confined to a few hours
—What is the business and importance of
such a life?
WOULD not a being, whose circle of living
is immensity of ages, inquire with equal propriety,
“What is the importance of man—
What actions can he perform—What happiness
can he enjoy, whose insignificant
life is circumscribed to seventy years?”—
In this point of view I behold the tinfel, the
vanity and noise of the world, and the little
plots and cunning artifices of mankind to
cheat and ruin one another.
INGRATITUDE, then, is constitutional,
and inseparable from human nature, but it
ought not to fill us with surprize, because it
is no new discovery—It has ever been invariably
the characteristick of man. Is not
the page of antiquity distained with the
blood of those who ought to have received
honour and adoration? Behold the brilliant
race of the world's benefactors: Consider
their benevolent actions, and regard their ungrateful
return—these benefactors, who have
been sent from heaven to inform and entertain
mankind, to defend the world from the
arm of tyranny, and to open the gates of salvation,
have been despised, and banished, and
poisoned and crucified.
BEHOLD the support of the Roman power,
the invincible Belifarius! who protected
his country from the ravage of the Huns,
and displayed the Roman eagle in every quarter
of the globe! Behold him fall a sacrifice
to malice, to faction and ingratitude! Behold
him cast out by the country he had defended,
and for which he had wasted his
life to protect and honour, and left alone to
deplore his unfortunate condition, when he
was old, and blind, and naked and miserable!
UNFORTUNATE is the man who trusts his
happiness to the precarious friendship of the
world—I every day become more of a misanthrope,
and see nothing to increase my desire
of living, but your esteem and affection.
I want advice, but am too proud to let the
world know I am weak enough to be under
obligation to any one else.
THAT you may never want friends or advice,
is the sincere prayer of
