Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Hope.
Happy or unhappy , HOPE supports and animates us ; and such is . the instability of human affairs , that even HOPE itself justifies , projects the most adventurous , since , by continual vicissitudes of good arid bad fortune , we have no more reason to fear what we hate , than to hope for what we desire . ¦ - May not we say truly , that HOPE is to us like a second life , \ yhich sweetens the bitterness of that which we enjoy from the
hands of our Creator ? But farther it is the soul of the universe , aad a spring the most powerful to maintain the harmony thereof . It is by HOPE that the whole world governs ' -itself . Would laws be enacted , if mankind did not hope a wise policy from them ? Should we see obedient subjects , if each individual did not by his submission flatter himself to contribute to the happiness of his
country ? What should become of the arts , and how useless would they be reckoned , without the hopes of the good effects the world must reap from them ? Would not the sciences'be neglected ? Would not talents be uncultivated , and the - most happy genius ' s sink to a brutal rudeness , without the flattering hopes of a surec and a more refined taste in every thing that it concerns us to
know ? ¦ If you ask the soldier , what makes him expose himself so often to the hazards of days > which he might render less perilous , or more easy ? lie will tell you , that it is , the hope of glory , which he prefers to the melancholy softness of a life spent in an obscure languor . The merchant traverses the seasbut he hopes to
in-, demnify himself by his riches for the fears which he has undergone amidst the storms and the rocks . The husbandman , bent down upon his plough , waters the ground with his sweat ; but this very ground is to feed him ; and he , would give himself no trouble to cultivate it , if he did not certainly expect the reward of his labours .
Whatever be our undertaking , HOPE is the motive to them ; it is the fore-taste of our success , and is , at least , for some time , a real blessing in default of that which escapes us . It is an anticipated joy , which is sometimes delusive ; but which , while it lasts , affords a pleasure that is-no ways inferior to the enjoyment of that which we promise ourselves , and which often effaces the memory of all the sweets we have alreadtasted in the most happy
situay tion . . , ' And how could we quietly enjoy life , if we did not live from one day to another in hopes of prolonging it ? There are none , down to sick persons , even in the most desperate cases , that are not shocked at the approach of death , and who have not hopes of recovery almost in the very moment they are iring . We even
exp carry our hopes beyond the grave ; and at the time when we are endeavouring to render ourselves immortal among mankind , full of this flattering idea , we are the more disposed to lose ourselyes irrecoverabl y in the abyss of eternity .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Hope.
Happy or unhappy , HOPE supports and animates us ; and such is . the instability of human affairs , that even HOPE itself justifies , projects the most adventurous , since , by continual vicissitudes of good arid bad fortune , we have no more reason to fear what we hate , than to hope for what we desire . ¦ - May not we say truly , that HOPE is to us like a second life , \ yhich sweetens the bitterness of that which we enjoy from the
hands of our Creator ? But farther it is the soul of the universe , aad a spring the most powerful to maintain the harmony thereof . It is by HOPE that the whole world governs ' -itself . Would laws be enacted , if mankind did not hope a wise policy from them ? Should we see obedient subjects , if each individual did not by his submission flatter himself to contribute to the happiness of his
country ? What should become of the arts , and how useless would they be reckoned , without the hopes of the good effects the world must reap from them ? Would not the sciences'be neglected ? Would not talents be uncultivated , and the - most happy genius ' s sink to a brutal rudeness , without the flattering hopes of a surec and a more refined taste in every thing that it concerns us to
know ? ¦ If you ask the soldier , what makes him expose himself so often to the hazards of days > which he might render less perilous , or more easy ? lie will tell you , that it is , the hope of glory , which he prefers to the melancholy softness of a life spent in an obscure languor . The merchant traverses the seasbut he hopes to
in-, demnify himself by his riches for the fears which he has undergone amidst the storms and the rocks . The husbandman , bent down upon his plough , waters the ground with his sweat ; but this very ground is to feed him ; and he , would give himself no trouble to cultivate it , if he did not certainly expect the reward of his labours .
Whatever be our undertaking , HOPE is the motive to them ; it is the fore-taste of our success , and is , at least , for some time , a real blessing in default of that which escapes us . It is an anticipated joy , which is sometimes delusive ; but which , while it lasts , affords a pleasure that is-no ways inferior to the enjoyment of that which we promise ourselves , and which often effaces the memory of all the sweets we have alreadtasted in the most happy
situay tion . . , ' And how could we quietly enjoy life , if we did not live from one day to another in hopes of prolonging it ? There are none , down to sick persons , even in the most desperate cases , that are not shocked at the approach of death , and who have not hopes of recovery almost in the very moment they are iring . We even
exp carry our hopes beyond the grave ; and at the time when we are endeavouring to render ourselves immortal among mankind , full of this flattering idea , we are the more disposed to lose ourselyes irrecoverabl y in the abyss of eternity .