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worthy but heroic. The great foundation of civil virtue is felf-denial; and there is no one above the neceffities of life, but has opportunities of exercifing that noble quality, and doing as much as his circumftances will bear for the ease and convenience of other men; and he who does more than ordinary men practise upon fuch occafions as occur in his life, deferves the value of his friends as if he had done enterprizes which are usually attended with the highest glory. Men of public spirit differ rather in their circumftances than their virtue; and the man who does all he can in a low ftation, is more a hero than he who omits any worthy action he is able to accomplish in a great one. It is not many years ago fince Lapirius, in wrong of his elder brother, came to a great eftate by gift of his father, by reason of the diffolute behaviour of the first-born. Shame and contrition reformed the life of the difinherited youth, and he became as remarkable for his good qualities as formerly for his errors. Lapirius, who obferved his brother's amendment, fent him on a new-year's day in the morning the following letter:

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Honoured brother,

'I INCLOSE to you the deeds whereby my father gave me this house and land: had he lived until now, he would not have beftowed it in that manner; he 'took it from the man you were, and I restore it to the I am, Sir,

man you are.

• Your affectionate brother,
• and humble servant,

P. T.'

As great and exalted fpirits undertake the pursuit of hazardous actions for the good of others, at the fame time gratifying their paffion for glory; fo do worthy minds in the domeftic way of life deny themselves many advantages, to fatisfy a generous benevolence which they bear to their friends oppreffed with diftreffes and calamities. Such natures one may call ftores of Providence, which are actuated by a fecret celeftial influence to undervalue the ordinary gratifications of wealth, to give comfort to an heart loaded with affliction, to fave a falling family, to preferve a branch of trade in their neighbourhood, and give work to the induftrious, preferve

the portion of the helpless infant, and raise the head of the mourning father. People whofe hearts are wholly bent towards pleasure, or intent upon gain, never hear of the noble occurrences among men of industry and humanity. It would look like a city romance, to tell them of the generous merchant, who the other day fent this billet to an eminent trader under difficulties to fupport himself, in whofe fall many hundreds befides himself had perished: but because I think there is more fpirit and true gallantry in it than in any letter I ever read from Strephon to Phillis, I shall infert it even in the mercantile honest style in which it was fent.

SIR,

I HAVE heard of the cafualties which have in⚫volved you in extreme distress at this time; and know⚫ing you to be a man of great good nature, industry, and probity, have refolved to ftand by you. Be of good cheer, the bearer brings with him five thoufand pounds, and has my order to answer your drawing as much more on my account. I did this in hafte, for fear I fhould come too late for your relief; but you may value yourself with me to the fum of fifty thoufand pounds; for I can very chearfully run the hazard of being fo much lefs rich than I am now, to fave an ' honeft man whom I love.

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I think there is fomewhere in Montaigne mention made of a family book, wherein all the occurrences that happened from one generation of that houfe to another were recorded. Were there fuch a method in the families which are concerned in this generofity, it would be an hard task for the greateft in Europe to give, in their own, an instance of a benefit better placed, or conferred with a more graceful air. It has been heretofore urged how barbarous and inhuman is any unjust step made to the difadvantage of a trader; and by how much fuch an act towards him is deteftable, by fo much an act of kindnefs towards him is laudable. I remember to have heard a bencher of the temple tell a story of a tradition in their

houfe, where they had formerly a cuftom of choosing kings for fuch a feafon, and allowing him his expences at the charge of the fociety: one of our kings, faid my friend, carried his royal inclination a little too far, and there was a committee ordered to look into the management of his treafury. Among other things it appeared, that his majefty walking incog. in the cloifter, had overheard a poor man fay to another, fuch a fmall fum would make me the happiest man in the world. The king out of his royal compaffion privately inquired into his character, and finding him a proper object of charity, fent him the money. When the committee read the report, the house paffed his accounts with a plaudite without farther examination, upon the recital of this article in them, 1.. S. d. For making a man happy 10 00 00

T.

No 249.

Saturday, December 15.

Γέλως ἄκαιρος ἐν βροτοῖς δεινὸν κακὸν.

Frag. Vet. Poet.

Mirth out of feafon is a grievous ill.

WHEN I make choice of a fubject that has not

been treated on by others, I throw together my reflections on it without any order or method, fo that they may appear rather in the loofenefs and freedom of an effay, than in the regularity of a fet difcourfe. It is after this manner that I fhall confider laughter and ridicule in my prefent paper.

Man is the merrieft fpecies of the creation, all above and below him are ferious. He fees things in a different light from other beings, and finds his mirth arifing from objects that perhaps caufe fomething like pity or difpleafure in higher ratures. Laughter is indeed a very good counterpoife to the spleen; and it feems but reasonable that we should be capable of receiving joy from what is no real good to us, fince we can receive grief from what is no real evil.

I have in my forty-feventh paper raised a fpeculation on the notion of a modern philofopher, who defcribes the firft motive of laughter to be a fecret comparison which we make between ourselves, and the perfons we laugh at; or, in other words, that fatisfaction which we receive from the opinion of fome pre-eminence in ourselves, when we fee the abfurdities of another, or when we reflect on any paft abfurdities of our own. This feems to hold in most cafes, and we may obferve that the vainest part of mankind are the most addicted to this paffion.

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I have read a fermon of a conventual in the church of Rome, on thofe words of the wife man," I faid of laughter, it is mad; and of mirth, what does it?" Upon which he laid it down as a point of doctrine, that laughter was the effect of original fin, and that Adam could not laugh before the fall.

Laughter, while it lafts, flackens and unbraces the mind, weakens the faculties, and caufes a kind of remiffness and diffolution in all the powers of the foul: and thus far may it be looked upon as a weakness in the compofition of human nature. But if we confider the frequent reliefs we receive from it, and how often it breaks the gloom which is apt to deprefs the mind and damp our fpirits, with tranfient unexpected gleams of joy, one would take care not to grow too wife for fo great a pleasure of life.

The talent of turning men into ridicule, and expofing to laughter those one converses with, is the qualification of little ungenerous tempers. A young man with this caft of mind cuts himself off from all manner of improvement. Every one has his flaws and weaknesses; nay, the greateft blemishes are often found in the most fhining characters; but what an abfurd thing is it to pass over all the valuable parts of a man, and fix our attention on his infirmities to obferve his imperfections more than his virtues? and to make use of him for the sport of others, rather than for our own improvement.

We therefore very often find, that perfons the most accomplished in ridicule are thofe who are very fhrewd at hitting a blot, without exerting any thing masterly in themfelves. As there are many eminent critics who never writ a good line, there are many admirable buffoons that animadvert upon every single defect in another,

without ever discovering the least beauty of their own. By this means, these unlucky little wits often gain reputation in the esteem of vulgar minds, and raise themfelves above perfons of much more laudable characters.

If the talent of ridicule were employed to laugh men out of vice and folly, it might be of fome ufe to the world; but instead of this, we find that it is generally made use of to laugh men out of virtue and good fenfe, by attacking every thing that is folemn and ferious, decent and praife-worthy in human life.

We may obferve, that in the firft ages of the world, when the great fouls and mafter-pieces of human nature were produced, men shined by a noble fimplicity of behaviour, and were ftrangers to thofe little embellishments which are so fashionable in our present converfation. And it is very remarkable, that notwithstanding we fall fhort at prefent of the ancients in poetry, painting, oratory, hiftory, architecture, and all the noble arts and fciences which depend more upon genius than experience, we exceed them as much in doggerel, humour, burlefque, and all the trivial arts of ridicule. We meet with more raillery among the moderns, but more good sense among the ancients.

The two great branches of ridicule in writing are comedy and burlesque. The firft ridicules perfons by drawing them in their proper characters, the other by drawing them quite unlike themselves. Burlefque is therefore of two kinds; the first represents mean perfons in the accoutrements of heroes, the other defcribes great perfons acting and fpeaking like the bafeft among the people. Don Quixote is an inftance of the firft, and Lucian's gods of the fecond. It is a difpute among the critics, whether burlefque poetry runs beft in heroic verfe, like that of the Difpenfary; or, in doggerel, like that of Hudibras. I think where the low character is to be raised, the heroic is the proper measure; but when an hero is to be pulled down and degraded, it is done beft in doggerel.

If Hudibras had been fet out with as much wit and humour in heroic verfe as he is in doggerel, he would have made a much more agreeable figure than he does; though the generality of his readers are fo wonderfully pleafed with the double rhimes, that I do not expect many will be of my opinion in this particular.

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