Page:The Works of Samuel Johnson ... A journey to the Hebrides. The vision of Theodore, the hermit of Teneriffe. The fountains. Prayers and meditations. Sermons.v. 10-11. Parliamentary debates.pdf/466

 advice. Wisdom has likewise benefits in its power. A wise man may reclaim the vitious, and instruct the ignorant, may quiet the throbs of sorrow, or disentangle the perplexities of conscience. He may compose the resentful, encourage the timorous, and animate the hopeless. In the multifarious afflictions with which every state of human life is acquainted, there is place for a thousand offices of tenderness; so that he, whose desire it is to do good, can never be long without an opportunity; and every opportunity that providence presents, let us seize with eagerness, and improve with diligence; remembering that we have no time to lose, for "man that is born of a woman is of few days."

SERMON XVI.

"In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly." i. 22.

Such is the weakness of human nature, that every particular state, or condition, lies open to particular temptations. Different frames of constitution expose us to different passions, of equal danger to our virtue; and different methods of life, whether we engage in them by choice, or are forced upon them by necessity, have each of them their inlets to sin, and their avenues to perdition. The two opposite states of prosperity and adversity equally require our vigilance and caution; each of them is a state of conflict, in which nothing but unwearied resistance can preserve us from being overcome.

The vices of prosperity are well known, and generally observed. The haughtiness of high rank, the luxury of affluence, and the cruelty of power, every man remarks, and no man palliates. So that they are the common subjects of invective.

But though compassion hinders men from being equally severe upon the faults of the unhappy and distressed, yet,