Autograph Manuscript Essay on the Ideal Life, the long eighteenth century.

English, about 1802, 96 leaves, each 6 x 8 inches; no title, pp. 3-13, 16-22; 35-208, string-bound gatherings. Partial, missing pp. 14-15, 23-34, and an unknown number of pages after p. 208. On laid paper, an 1802 watermark on the first leaf. The theme is the regulation of life and manners . As it has been the design of this compilation to collect the most impressive thoughts, which could be found, on the several subjects mentioned in the index (not present in this manuscript but listed below), there is an inter-mixture of some valuable and applicable English, French, and Italian proverbs. It begins with Prefatory Extracts , preparing the reader for a book of moral maxims , weighty sentiments , mottos , precepts , instructive sentences , pointed sayings , pointed terms , apophthegms , aphorisms , adages , admonitions , proverbs , exhortations . Then, the author shines a light on several subjects: Effect of Virtue and Vice on the Countenance , Good Men , Perfection , Time , Life , Duties , Procrastination , Anticipation , Indolence , Ennui , Love for Trifles , Employment , Industry and Diligence , Professional Duties , Men of Business , Perseverance , Regularity and Punctuality , Prudence , Honesty and Integrity , Usefulness , Recreation or Amusement , Gaiety , Dissipation , Love of the World and Society , Pleasure , Men of Pleasure , Happiness , Summum Bonum (supreme good), Bad Habits , Diseases of the Soul , Company , Visits , Fame , Prodigality , Avarice or Covetousness , Frugality or Economy . Some people quoted, paraphrased, or held up as examples: Jonas Hanway, Chaucer, Edward Young (1683-1765, a few times), Edmund Burke, Jeremy Taylor, Samuel Johnson (a few times), Sir Matthew Hale, Cardinal Wolsey, Alexander Pope, William Blackstone, Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, Mark Antony, Socrates, Montaigne, Seneca, Pythagoras, Aristotle, Montesquieu, Plato, Sallust, Cato, Milton. The author is clearly a conservative Christian, using this format to give sincere, though sometimes harsh, unappealing recommendations for practical and spiritual living, such as: This life is a life of trial, not of enjoyment under the Pleasure heading; or under Happiness : There is no such thing as real happiness in life, the justest (sic) definition ever given of it was a tranquil acquiescence under an agreeable delusion (a direct quote from Laurence Sterne, but here not credited to him or anyone else). Quite legible handwriting in ink, except when corrections or additions are added in tiny script between the lines. Two seemingly random leaves are paginated but left blank. A few clippings on the same paper with corrections or additions laid in at the appropriate place. Disbound, some loose leaves, especially the first 15 or so; most still gathered in a fraction of the original string. The binder had cut the gatherings, sometimes closely, with some loss of parts of words most can still be correctly interpreted. This is an interesting window into the latter part of the long 18th century. …