So that in short, to return to the
subject, human life, as far as I can perceive from experience or
observation, is not that state of constant wretchedness which Johnson
always insisted it was; which misrepresentation, (for such it surely
is,) his Biographer has not corrected, I suppose, because, unhappily, he
has himself a large portion of melancholy in his constitution, and
fancied the portrait a faithful copy of life.'
The learned writer then proceeds thus in his letter to me:--
'I have conversed with some sensible men on this subject, who all seem
to entertain the same sentiments respecting life with those which are
expressed or implied in the foregoing paragraph. It might be added that
as the representation here spoken of, appears not consistent with fact
and experience, so neither does it seem to be countenanced by Scripture.
There is, perhaps, no part of the sacred volume which at first sight
promises so much to lend its sanction to these dark and desponding
notions as the book of _Ecclesiastes_, which so often, and so
emphatically, proclaims the vanity of things sublunary.
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