lain αυτοδίδακτος, above the need of common opportunities, and gradual temptations. Upon men of this clafs, inftruction and admonition are generally thrown away; because they confider artifice and deceit as proofs of understanding. They are misled at the fame time by the two great feducers of the world, Vanity and Intereft; and not only look upon those who act with opennefs and confidence, as condemned by their principles to obfcurity and want, but as contemptible for narrowness of comprehenfion, fhortness of views, and flowness of contrivance. Το The world has been long amused with the mention of policy in public tranfactions, and of art in private affairs; they have been confidered as the effects of great qualities, and as unattainable by men of the common level. Yet I have not found many performances of either art or policy that required uncommon efforts of the mind, or might not have been effected by falfehood and impudence, without the affiftance of any other powers. profess what he does not mean, to promife what he cannot perform, to flatter ambition with profpects of promotion, and mifery with hopes of relief; to footh pride with appearances of fubmiffion, and appeafe enmity by blandifhments and bribes, can furely imply in any man nothing more or greater than a mind devoted wholly to its own purposes, a face that cannot blush, and a heart that cannot feel. Thefe practices are fo mean and bafe, that he who finds in himself no tendency to use them, cannot easily believe that they are confidered by others A 2 with with lefs deteftation; and he therefore suffering himself to flumber in falfe fecurity, becomes a prey to those who value themselves upon knowing how to steal upon his fleep, and exult in the fuccefs which they could never have obtained, had they not attempted a man better than themselves, who was hindered from fufpicion of their purpose, not by folly, but by innocence. Sufpicion is indeed a temper fo uneafy and restlefs, that it is very justly appointed the concomitant of guilt. It is faid, that no torture is equal to the inhibition of fleep long continued; a pain, to which the state of that man bears a very exact analogy, who dares never remit his vigilance, or give reft to his circumfpećtion, but confiders himfelf as furrounded by fecret foes, and fears to entruft to his children, or his friend, the fecret that throbs in his breast, and the anxieties that break into his face. To avoid, at this expence, thofe evils to which eafinefs and fenfibility might have expofed him, is furely to buy fafety at too dear a rate, to die left he fhould be killed, and, in the language of the Roman fatyrift, to fave life by lofing all for which a wife man would live. In the diet of the German empire, as we are told by Camerarius, when the princes were displaying their riches and felicity, each boafting the particular advantages of his own dominions; one of them, who poffeffed a country not remarkable for the grandeur of its cities, or the fertility of its foil, when it came to his turn to fpeak, and the reft werc liftening, perhaps between pity and contempt, declared, in honour of his territories, that he could travel through them without a guard, and, when he he was weary, fleep in fafety upon the lap of the first man whom he should meet: a commendation which would have been ill exchanged for the boast of palaces, paftures, or streams. Nor is fufpicion lefs an enemy to virtue than to happiness. He that is already corrupt, is naturally fufpicious; and he that becomes fufpicious, will quickly be corrupt. It is too common for men to learn the frauds by which themfelves have fuffered; and when they are once perfuaded that deceit will be employed against them, they fometimes think the fame arts juftified by the neceffity of defence. Even thofe whofe virtue is too well established to give way to example, or be fhaken by fophiftry, muft yet find their love of mankind diminished with their esteem, and grow lefs zealous for the fafety and happiness of thofe by whom they fufpect their own fafety or happinefs endangered." Thus we find old age, upon which fufpicion has for the moft part been, by long intercourfe with the world, inflexible and fevere, not eafily foftened by fubmiffion, melted by complaint, or fubdued by fupplication. Frequent experience of counterfeited miferies, and diffembled virtue, have in time overcome that difpofition to tenderness and sympathy, which is fo powerful in our younger years; and thofe that happen to petition late for compaffion or affistance, are fuffered to languish without regard, and perifh for the crimes of thofe who have formerly been found undeferving or ungrateful. Hiftorians are certainly chargeable with the depravation pravation of mankind, when they relate, without cenfure, thofe ftratagems of war by which the virtues of an enemy are engaged to his destruction. A fhip comes before a port, weather-beaten and fhattered; and the crew implore the liberty of repairing their leaks, fupplying themfelves with neceffaries, or burying their dead. The humanity of the inhabitants inclines them to confent. The ftrangers enter the town with weapons concealed, and on a fudden fall upon their benefactors, deftroy those that make refiftance, and become mafters of the place. They return home rich with plunder; and their fuccefs is recorded to encourage imitation. But furely war has its laws, and ought to be conducted with fome regard to the universal interest of man. They may juftly be pursued as enemies to the general community of the world, who fuffer hoftility to vacate the eternal and unalterable laws of right; and purfue their private advantage by means, which, if once established and allowed, muft deftroy all benevolence, cut off from every man the hopes of affistance of another, and fill the world with rage that cannot be appealed. Whatever is thus gained, ought to be reftored; and those who could conquer by fuch treachery, fhould be denied the protection of their native country. Whoever commits a fraud, is guilty not only of the particular injury to him whom he deceives, but of the diminution of that confidence which conftitutes not only the eafe but the existence of fociety; and he that fuffers by impofture, has too often his virtue more impaired than his fortune. But as it is |