failed of happiness by sudden death. "How," fays he, can death be fudden to a being who always "knew that he muft die, and that the time of his "death was uncertain ?" Since bufinefs and gaiety are always drawing our attention away from a future ftate, fome admonition is frequently neceffary to recall it to our minds, and what can more properly renew the impreffion than the examples of mortality which every day fupplies? The great incentive to virtue is the reflection that we muit die; it will therefore be useful to accustom ourfelves, whenever we see a funeral, to confider how foon we may be added to the number of those whofe probation is paft, and whofe happiness or mifery fhall endure for ever. NUMB. 79. TUESDAY, December 18, 1750. Tam fepe noftrum decipi Fabullum, quid You wonder I've fo little wit, MART. F. LEWIS. SUSPICION, however neceffary it may be to our fafe paffage through ways beset on all fides by fraud and malice, has been always confidered, when it exceeds the common measures, as a token of depravity and corruption; and a Greek writer of fentences has laid down as a ftanding maxim, that he who believes not another on his oath, knows himself to be perjured. We can form our opinions of that which we know not, only by placing it in comparison with fomething that we know: whoever therefore is overrun with fufpicion,and detects artifice and ftratagem in every propofal, muft either have learned by experience or obfervation the wickedness of mankind, and been taught to avoid fraud by having often suffered or feen treachery, or he must derive his judg ment from the confcioufnefs of his own difpofition, and impute to others the fame inclinations, which he feels predominant in himself. To learn caution by turning our eyes upon life, and obferving the arts by which negligence is furprifed, timidity overborne, and credulity amused, requires either great latitude of converse and long acquaintance with bufinefs, or uncommon activity of vigilance, and acuteness of penetration. When there therefore a young man, not diftinguished by vigour of intellect, comes into the world full of fcruples and diffidence; makes a bargain with many provifional limitations; hefitates in his answer to a common question, left more fhould be intended than he can immediately difcover; has a long reach in detecting the projects of his acquaintance; confiders every carefs as an act of hypocrify, and feel neither gratitude nor affection from the tenderness of his friends, because he believes no one to have any real tenderness but for himfelf; whatever expectations this early fagacity may raise of his future eminence or riches, I can feldom forbear to confider him as a wretch incapable of generofity or benevolence, as a villain early completed beyond the need of common opportunities and gradual temptations. Upon men of this class instruction and admonition are generally thrown away, because they confider artifice and deceit as proofs of understanding; they are misled at the same time by the two great feducers of the world, vanity and intereft, and not only look upon those who act with openness and confidence, as condemned by their principles to obfcurity and want, but as contemptible for narrowness of comprehenfion, fhortnefs of views, and flowness of contrivance. The world has been long amufed with the mention of policy in publick transactions 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 either of art or policy, that required fuch ftupendous efforts of intellect, or might not have been effected by falfehood and impudence, impudence, without the affiftance of any other powers. To profess what he does not mean, to promife what he cannot perform, to flatter ambition with profpects of promotion, and misery with hopes of relief, to foothe pride with appearances of fubmiffion, and appease enmity by blandishments and bribes, can furely imply nothing more or greater than a mind devoted wholly to its own purposes, a face that cannot blufh, and a heart that cannot feel. Thefe practices are fo mean and base, that he who finds in himself no tendency to use them, cannot eafily believe that they are confidered by others with less deteftation; he therefore fuffers himself to flumber in falfe fecurity, and becomes a prey to those who applaud their own fubtilty, because they know how to fteal upon his fleep, and exult in the fuccefs which they could never have obtained, had they not attempted a man better than themselves, who has hindered, from obviating their stratagems, not by folly, but by in nocence. Sufpicion is, indeed, a temper so uneafy and restless, that it is very juftly 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 give reft to his vigilance and circumfpection, but confiders himself as furrounded by fecret foes, and fears to intruft his children, or his friend, with the fecret that throbs. in his breaft, and the anxieties that break into his face. To avoid, at this expence, thofe evils to which eafiness and friendship might have exposed him, is furely to buy fafety at too dear a rate, and in the language of the Roman fatirift, to fave life by lofing all for which a wife man would live. When in the diet of the German empire, as Ca→ merarius relates, the princes were once difplaying their felicity, and each boasting the advantages of his own dominions, one who poffeffed a country not remarkable for the grandeur of its cities, or the fertility of its foil, rofe to fpeak, and the reft liftened between pity and contempt, till he declared, in honour of his territories, that he could travel through them without a guard, and if he was weary, fleep in fafety upon the lap of the firft man whom he should meet; a commendation which would have been ill exchanged for the boaft of palaces, paftures, or ftreams. Sufpicion is not 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 us to learn the frauds by which ourselves have fuffered; men who are once perfuaded that deceit will be employed against them, fometimes think the fame arts juftified by the neceffity of defence. Even they whofe virtue is too well established to give way to example, or be fhaken by fophiftry, must yet feel their love of mankind diminished with their esteem, and grow lefs zealous for the happiness of thofe by whom they imagine their own happiness en dangered. Thus we find old age, upon which fufpicion has been ftrongly impreffed by long intercourfe with the world, inflexible and severe, not eafily foftened by fubmiffion, melted by complaint, or fubdued by fupplication. Frequent experience of counterfeited. miferies VOL. II. H |