8. The indolent man descends from the dignity of his nature, and makes
that being which was rational, merely vegetative; his life consists only
in the mere increase and decay of a body, which, with relation to the
rest of the world, might as well have been uninformed, as the habitation
of a reasonable mind.

9. Of this kind is the life of that extraordinary couple, _Harry
Tersett_ and his lady. _Harry_ was, in the days of his celibacy, one of
those pert creatures who have much vivacity and little understanding;
Mrs. _Rebecca Quickly_, whom he married, had all that the fire of youth
and a lively manner could do towards making an agreeable woman.

10. These two people of seeming merit fell into each other's arms; and
passion being sated, and no reason or good sense in either to succeed
it, their life is now at a stand; their meals are insipid, and time
tedious; their fortune has placed them above care, and their loss of
taste reduced them below diversion.

11. When we talk of these as instances of inexistence, we do not mean,
that in order to live it is necessary we should always be in jovial
crews, or crowned with chaplets of roses, as the merry fellows among the
ancients are described; but it is intended by considering these
contraries to pleasure, indolence and too much delicacy, to shew that it
is prudent to preserve a disposition in ourselves, to receive a certain
delight in all we hear and see.

12. This portable quality of good-humour seasons all the parts and
occurrences we meet with; in such a manner, that there are no moments
lost; but they all pass with so much satisfaction, that the heaviest of
loads (when it is a load) that of time, is never felt by us.