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himself by his refemblance to others, is ready to try fome other expedient, and to enquire what will arife to his advantage from oppofition and diffimilitude. He easily finds fome faults in every human being, which he weighs against his own, and eafily makes them preponderate, while he keeps the balance in his own hand, and throws in or takes out at his pleasure, circumftances that make them heavier or lighter. He then triumphs in his comparative purity, and fets himself at eafe, not because he can refute the charges advanced against him, but because he can cenfure his accufers with equal justice; and no longer fears the arrows of reproach, when he has ftored his magazine of malice with weapons equally sharp and equally envenomed.

This practice, though never juft, is yet fpecious and artful, when the cenfure is directed against deviations to the contrary extreme. The man who is branded with cowardice may, with fome appearance of propriety, turn all his force of argument against a ftupid contempt of life, and rafh precipitation into unneceffary danger. Every receffion from temerity is an approach towards cowardice; and though it be confeffed that bravery, like other virtues, ftands between faults on either hand, yet the place of the middle point may always be difputed; he may, therefore, often impofe upon carelefs understandings, by turning the attention wholly from himself, and keeping it fixed invariably on the oppofite fault; and by fhewing how many evils are avoided by his behaviour, he may conceal for a time thofe which are incurred.

But vice has not always opportunities or addrefs for fuch artful fubterfuges; men often extenuate their own guilt,

only by vague and general charges upon others, or endeavour to gain reft to themfelves by pointing fome other prey to the purfuit of cenfure.

Every whisper of infamy is induftrioufly circulated, every hint of fufpicion eagerly improved, and every failure of conduct joyfully published, by thofe whofe intereft it is that the eye and voice of the publick fhould be employed on any rather than on themfelves.

All thefe artifices, and a thousand others equally vain and equally defpicable, are incited by that conviction of the deformity of wickednefs, from which none can fet himself free; and by an abfurd defire to feparate the caufe from the effects, and to enjoy the profit of crimes without fuffering the fhame. Men are willing to try all methods of reconciling guilt and quiet, and when their understandings are stubborn and uncomplying, raife their paffions against them, and hope to overpower their own knowledge.

It is generally not fo much the defire of men, funk into depravity, to deceive the world as themselves; for when no particular circumftances make them dependant on others, infamy disturbs them little, but as it revives their remorfe, and is echoed to them from their own hearts. The fentence moft dreaded is that of reafon and confcience, which they would engage on their fide at any price but the labours of duty and the sorrows of repentance. For this purpofe every seducement and fallacy is fought, the hopes ftill reft upon fome new experiment till life is at an end; and the last hour fteals on unperceived, while the faculties are engaged in refifting reafon, and repreffing the fenfe of the Divine difapprobation.

N° LXXVII. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1750.

OS DIGNUM ÆTERNO NITIDUM QUOD FULGEAT AURO,
SI MALLET LAUDARE DEUM, CUI SORDIDA MONSTRA
PRÆTULIT, ET LIQUIDAM TEMERAVIT CRIMINE VOCEM.

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difcouragement which men of genius and tudy fuffer from avarice and ignorance, from the prevalence of falfe tafte, and the encroachment of barbarity.

Men are most powerfully affected by thofe evils which themfelves feel, or which appear before their own eyes; and as there has never been a time of fuch general felicity, but that many have failed to obtain the rewards to which they had, in their own judgments, a juft claim, fome offended writer has always declaimed, in the rage of difappointment, against his age or nation; nor is there one who has not fallen upon times more unfavourable to learning than any former century, or who does not with that he had been referved in the infenfibility of non-existence to fome happier hour, when literary merit fhall no longer be defpifed, and the gifts and careffes of mankind fhall recompenfe the toils of study, and add luftre to the charms of wit.

Many of thefe clamours are undoubtedly to be confidered only as the burfts of pride never to be fatisfied, as the prattle of affectation mimicking diftreffes unfelt, or as the common-places of vanity folicitous for fplendour of fentences, and acuteness of remark. Yet it cannot be denied that frequent difcontent muft proceed from frequent hardships; and though it is evident, that not more than one age or people can deferve the cenfure of being more averfe from learning than any other, yet at all times knowledge must have encountered impediments, and wit been mortified with contempt, or haraffed with perfecution.

It is not neceffary, however, to join immediately in the outcry, or to condemn mankind as pleafed with ignorance, or always envious of fuperior abilities. The miferies of the learned have been related by themselves, and fince they have not been found exempt from that partiality with which men look upon their own actions and fufferings, we may conclude that they have not forgotten to deck their caufe with the brighteft ornaments, and ftrongest colours. The logician collected all his fubtilties when they were to be employed in his own defence; and the mafter of rhetorick exerted against his adverfary all the arts by which hatred is embittered, and indignation inflamed.

To believe no man in his own caufe, is the ftanding and perpetual rule of diftributive juftice. Since, therefore, in the

controverfy between the learned and their enemies, we have only the pleas of one party, of the party more able to delude our understandings, and engage our paf fions, we must determine our opinion by facts unconteited, and evidences on each fide allowed to be genuine.

By this procedure, I know not whether the ftudents will find their caufe promoted, or the compaffion which they expect much increafed. Let their conduct be impartially furveyed; let them be allowed no longer to direct attention at their pleasure, by expatiating on their own deferts; let neither the dignity of knowledge over-awe the judgment, nor the graces of elegance feduce it. It will then, perhaps, be found, that they were not able to produce claims to kinder treatment, but provoked the calamities which they fuffered, and feldom wanted friends but when they wanted virtue.

That few men, celebrated for theoretick wifdom, live with conformity to their precepts, must be readily confeffed; and we cannot wonder that the indignation of mankind rifes with great vehemence against those who neglect the duties which they appear to know with fo ftrong conviction the neceffity of performing. Yet, fince no man has power of acting equal to that of thinking, I know not whether the fpeculatift may not fometimes incur cenfures too fevere, and by those who form ideas of his life from their knowledge of his books, be confidered as worse than others, only becaufe he was expected to be better.

He by whofe writings the heart is rectified, the appetites counteracted, and the paffions repreffed, may be confidered as not unprofitable to the great republick of humanity, even though his be haviour should not always exemplify his rules. His inftructions may diffuse their influence to regions in which it will not be inquired, whether the author be albus an ater-good or bad; to times when all his faults and all his follies fhall be loft in forgetfulness, among things of no concern or importance to the world; and he may kindle in thoufands and ten thousands that flame which burnt dimly in himself, through the fumes of paffion, or the damps of cowardice. The vicious moralift may be confidered as a taper, by which we are lighted through the labyrinth of complicated paffions; he extends his radiance further than his heat, and guides

all

all that are within view, but burns only thole who make too near approaches.

Yet fince good or harm must be received for the most part from those to whom we are familiarly known, he whofe vices overpower his virtues, in the compafs to which his vices can extend, has no reason to complain that he meets not with affection or veneration, when those with whom he paffes his life are more corrupted by his practice than enlightened by his ideas. Admiration begins where acquaintance ceafes; and his favourers are diftant, but his enemies at hand.

Yet many have dared to boast of neglected merit, and to challer ge their age for cruelty and folly, or whom it cannot be alleged that they have endeavoured to increase the wisdom or virtue of their readers. They have been at once profligate in their lives, and licentious in their compofitions; have not only forfaken the paths of virtue, but attempted to lure others after them. They have fmoothed the road of perdition, covered with flowers the thorns of guilt, and taught temptation fweeter notes, fofter blandifhments, and ftronger allure

ments.

It has been apparently the fettled purpofe of fome writers, whofe powers and acquifitions place them high in the rank of literature, to fet fafhion on the fide of wickedness; to recommend debauchery and lewdnefs, by affociating them with qualities most likely to dazzle the difcernment and attract the affections; and to fhew innocence and goodness with fuch attendant weaknesses as necessarily expose them to contempt and derifion.

Such naturally found intimates among the corrupt, the thoughtless, and the intemperate; paffed their lives amidit the levities of fportive idlenefs, or the warm profeffions of drunken friendship; and fed their hopes with the promises of wretches, whom their precepts had taught to fcoff at truth. But when fools had laughed away their fprightlinefs, and the languors of excefs could no longer be relieved, they faw their protectors hourly drop away, and wondered and ftormed to find themselves abandoned. Whether their companions perfifted in wickedness, or returned to virtue, they were left equally without affiftance; for debauchery is felfish and negligent, and from virtue the virtuous only can expect regard,

It is faid by Florus of Catiline, who died in the midst of flaughtered enemies, that his death had been illuftrious, bad it been fuffered for his country. Of the wits who have languifhed away life under the preffures of poverty, or in the refleffnefs of fufpenfe, careffed and rejected, flattered and defpifed, as they were of more or lefs ufe to those who ftiled themselves their patrons, it might be obferved, that their miferies would enforce compaffion, had they been brought upon them by honefty and religion.

The wickedneis of a loofe or profane author is more attrocious than that of the giddy libertine, or drunken ravisher; not only becaufe it extends it's effects wider, as a peftilence that taints the air is more deftructive than poifon infused in a draught, but because it is committed with cool deliberation. By the inftantaneous violence of defire, a good man may fometimes be furprised before reflection can come to his rescue; when the appetites have strengthened their influence by habit, they are not easily refifted or fuppreffed; but for the frigid villainy of ftudious lewdnefs, for the calm malignity of laboured impiety, what apology can be invented? What punishment can be adequate to the crime of him who retires to folitudes for the refinement of debauchery; who tortures his fancy, and ranfacks his memory, only that he may leave the world lefs virtuous than he found it; that he may intercept the hopes of the rifing generation; and spread fnares for the foul with more dexterity?

What were their motives, or what their excufes, is below the dignity of reafon to examine. If having extinguifhed in themselves the distinction of right and wrong, they were infenfible of the mifchief which they promoted, they deferved to be hunted down by the ge neral compact, as no longer partaking of focial nature; if influenced by the corruption of patrons, or readers, they facrificed their own convictions to vanity or intereft, they were to be abhorred with more acrimony than he that murders for pay; fince they committed greater crimes without greater temptations.

Of him, to whom inuch is given, much all be required. Thofe whom God has favoured with fuperior faculties, and made eminent for quickness of intuition, and accuracy of diftinctions, will certainly be regarded as culpable in his eye,

for

for defects and deviations which, in fouls lefs enlightened, may be guilt lefs. But, furely, none can think without horror on that man's condition who has been more wicked in proportion as

he had more means of excelling in virtue, and used the light imparted from Heaven only to embellish folly, and shed luftre upon crimes.

N° LXXVIII. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1750.

MORS SOLA FATETUR

QUANTULA SINT HOMINUM CORPUSCULA.

Juv.

DEATH ONLY THIS MYSTERIOUS TRUTH UNFOLDS,
THE MIGHTY SOUL HOW SMALL A BODY HOLDS.

COR

ORPORAL fenfation is known to depend fo much upon novelty, that cuftom takes away from many things their power of giving pleasure or pain. Thus a new dreis becomes eafy by wearing it, and the palate is reconciled by degrees to dishes which at firit difguted it. That by long habit of carrying a barden, we lofe, in great part, our fenfibility of it's weight, any man may be convinced by putting on for an hour the armour of our ancestors; for he will fcarcely believe that men would have had much inclination to marches and battles, encumbered and oppreffed, as he will find himself, with the ancient panoply. Yet the heroes that overrun regions, and formed towns in iron accoutrements, he knows not to have been bigger, and has no reafon to imagine them ftronger than the prefent race of inen; he therefore muft conclude, that their peculiar powers were conferred only by peculiar habits, and that their familiarity with the dress of war enabled them to move in it with cafe, vigour, and agility.

Yet it feems to be the condition of our prefent ftate, that pain fhould be more fixed and permanent than pleature. Uneatinels gives way by flow degrees, and is long before it quits it's poffeffion of the fenfory; but all our gratifications are volatile, vagrant, and eafily diffipated. The fragrance of the jeffamine bower is loft after the enjoyment of a few moments, and the Indian wanders among his native fpices without any fenfe of their exhalations. It is, indeed, not neceffary to thew by many inftances what all mankind confefs, by an inceffant call for variety, and reftleis purfuit of enjoyments, which they value only becaufe wupoffefied.

DRYDEN.

Something fimilar, or analogous, may be obferved in effects produced immediately upon the mind; nothing can ftrongly trike or affect us, but what is rare or udden. The most important events, when they become familiar, are no longer confidered with wonder or folicitude, and that which at firft filled up our whole attention, and left no place for any other thought, is foon thruft afide into fome remote repofitory of the mind, and lies among other lumber of the inemory, overlooked and neglected. Thus far the mind refembles the body, but here the fimilitude is at an end.

The manner in which external force acts upon the body is very little subject to the regulation of the will; no man can at pleasure obtund or invigorate his fenies, prolong the agency of any image traced upon the eye, or any found infufed into the ear. But our ideas are more fubjected to choice; we can call them before us, and command their stay; we can facilitate and promote their recurrence, we can either reprefs their intrution, or haften their retreat. It is therefore the bufinefs of wisdom and virtue, to felect among numberless objects ftriving for our notice, fuch as may enable us to exalt our reason, extend our views, and fecure our happinefs. But this choice is to be made with very little regard to rareness or frequency; for nothing is valuable merely because it is either rare or common, but because it is adapted to fome ufeful purpofe, and enables us to fupply fome deficiency of our nature.

Milton has judiciously reprefented the father of mankind, as feized with horror and aftonishment at the fight of death, exhibited to him on the Mount

of

of Vifion. For, furely, nothing can fo much difturb the paffions, or perplex the intellects of man, as the difruption of his union with visible nature; a separation from all that has hitherto delighted or engaged him; a change not only of the place, but the manner of his being; an entrance into a state, not fimply which he knows not, but which perhaps he has not faculties to know; an immediate and perceptible communication with the Supreme Being, and, what is above all diftrefsful and alarming, the final fentence, and unalterable allot

ment.

Yet we to whom the fhortnefs of life has given frequent occafions of contemplating mortality, can, without emotion, fee generations of men pafs away, and are at leifure to establish modes of forrow, and adjust the ceremonial of death. We can look upon funeral pomp as a common spectacle in which we have no concern, and turn away from it to trifies and amufements, without dejection of look, or inquietude of heart.

It is, indeed, apparent from the conftitution of the world, that there must be a time for other thoughts; and a perpetual meditation upon the last hour, how ever it may become the folitude of a monastery, is inconfiftent with many duties of common life. But furely the remembrance of death ought to predominate in our minds, as an habitual and fettled principle, always operating, though not always perceived; and our attention fhould feldom wander fo far from our own condition, as not to be recalled and fixed by fight of an event, which muft foon, we know not how foon, happen likewife to ourselves, and of which, though we cannot appoint the time, we may fecure the confequence.

Every inftance of death may justly awaken our fears and quicken our vigilance; but it's frequency fo much weakens it's effect, that we are feldom alarmed unless fome clofe connection is broken, fome scheme fruftrated, or fome hope defeated. Many therefore feem to pais on from youth to decrepitude without any reflection on the end of life, be cause they are wholly involved within themselves, and look on others only as inhabitants of the common earth, with out any expectation of receiving good, or intention of beftowing it.

Events, of which we confefs the importance, excite little fenfibility, unlefs

they affect us more nearly than as fharers in the common interest of mankind; that defire which every man feels of being remembered and lamented, is often mortified when we remark how little concern is caufed by the eternal departure even of those who have paffed their lives with publick honours, and been distinguifhed by extraordinary performances. It is not poffible to be regarded with tenderness, except by a few. That me rit which gives greatnefs and renown, diffufes it's influence to a wide compass, but acts weakly on every single breaft; it is placed at a distance from common fpectators, and fhines like one of the re-mote itars, of which the light reaches us, but not the heat. The wit, the he ro, the philofopher, whom their tempers or their fortunes have hindered from intimate relations, die, without any other effect than that of adding a new topick to the converfation of the day. They imprefs none with any fresh conviction of the fragility of our nature, because none had any particular interest in their lives, or was united to them by a reciprocation of benefits and endearments.

Thus it often happens, that those who in their lives were applauded and admired, are laid at last in the ground without the common honour of a stone; becaufe by thofe excellencies with which many were delighted, none had been obliged; and, though they had many to celebrate, they had none to love them.

Cuftom fo far regulates the fentiments, at least of common minds, that I believe men may be generally obferved to grow lefs tender as they advance in age. He who, when life was new, melted at the lofs of every companion, can look in time, without concern, upon the grave into which his laft friend was thrown, and into which himself is ready to fall; not that he is more willing to die than formerly, but that he is more familiar to the death of others, and therefore is not alarmed fo far as to confider how much nearer he approaches to his end. But this is to fubmit tamely to the tyranny of accident, and to fuffer our reafon to lie ufelefs. Every funeral may` juftly be confidered as a fummons to prepare for that ftate into which it fhews us that we muft fome time enter; and the fummons is more loud and piercing, as the event of which it warns us is at lefs diftance. To neglect at any time preparation for death, is to fleep on our

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