miferies and diffembled virtue, in time overcomes that difpofition to tenderness and fympathy, which is fo powerful in our younger years, and they that happen to petition the old for compaffion or affiftance, are doomed to languish without regard, and fuffer for the crimes of men who have formerly been found undeferving or ungrateful.

Hiftorians are certainly chargeable with the depravation 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 Thattered, and the crew implore the liberty of repairing their breaches, 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, fall fuddenly upon their benefactors, detroy 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 some regard to the univerfal interest of man. Thofe may justly be pursued as enemies to the community of nature, who fuffer hoftility to vacate the unalterable laws of right, and pursue their private advantage by means which, if once established, must destroy kindness, cut off from every man all hopes of affiftance from another, and fill the world with perpetual fufpicion and implacable malevolence. Whatever is thus gained ought to be restored, and those who have conquered by fuch treachery may be justly denied the protection of their native country.

Whoever

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 ease but the existence of society. He that fuffers by impofture has too often his virtue more impaired than his fortune. But as it is. neceffary not to invite robbery by fupinenefs, fo it is our duty not to fupprefs tenderness by fufpicion; it is better to fuffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.

NUMB. 80. SATURDAY, Dec. 22, 1750.

Vides ut alta ftet nive candidum

Soracte, nec jam fuftineant onus

Silva laborantes

Behold yon mountain's hoary height,

Made higher with new mounts of fnow;

Again behold the winter's weight

AS

Opprefs the lab'ring woods below.

HOR

DRYDEN

S providence has made the human foul an active being, always impatient for novelty, and struggling for fomething yet unenjoyed with unwearied progreffion, the world feems to have been eminently adapted to this difpofition of the mind; it is formed to raife expectations by conftant viciffitudes, and to obviate fatiety by perpetual change.

Wherever we turn our eyes, we find something to revive our curiofity and engage our attention. In the dufk of the morning we watch the rifing of the fun, and fee the day diverfify the clouds, and

open new profpects in its gradual advance. After a few hours, we fee the fhades lengthen and the light decline, till the fky is refigned to a multitude of fhining orbs different from each other in magnitude and fplendour. The earth varies its appearance as we move upon it; the woods offer their fhades, and the fields their harvests; the hill flatters with an extensive view, and the valley invites with fhelter, fragrance, and flowers.

The poets have numbered among the felicities of the golden age, an exemption from the change of feafons, and a perpetuity of spring; but I am not certain that, in this ftate of imaginary happiness, they have made fufficient provifion for that infatiable demand of new gratifications, which feems particularly to characterize the nature of man. Our fense of delight is in a great measure comparative, and arises at once from the fenfations which we feel, and those which we remember: Thus eafe after torment is pleasure for a time, and we are very agreeably rccreated, when the body, chilled with the weather, is gradually recovering its natural tepidity; but the joy ceafes when we have forgot the cold, we must fall below ease again, if we defire to rise above it, and purchase new felicity by voluntary pain. It is therefore not unlikely that, however the fancy may be amufed with the defcription of regions in which no wind is heard but the gentle zephyr, and no fcenes are displayed but vallies enamelled with unfading flowers, and woods waving their perennial verdure, we should foon grow weary of uniformity, find our thoughts languish for want of other fubjects, call on heaven for our wonted round of seasons, and think ourselves liberally recompenfed for the inconveniencies

veniencies of fummer and winter, by new perceptions of the calmness and mildness of the intermediate variations.

Every feafon has its particular power of striking the mind. The nakedness and afperity of the wintry world always fills the beholder with penfive and profound aftonishment; as the variety of the scene is leffened, its grandeur is increased; and the mind is fwelled at once by the mingled ideas of the prefent and the paft, of the beauties which have vanished from the eyes, and the wafte and defolation that are now before them..

It is obferved by Milton, that he who neglects to vifit the country in fpring, and rejects the pleasures that are then in their first bloom and fragrance, is guilty of fullennefs against nature. If we allot different duties to different feafons, he may be charged with equal disobedience to the voice of nature, who looks on the bleak hills and leaflefs woods, without seriousness and awe. Spring is the feafon of gaiety, and winter of terror; in fpring the heart of tranquillity dances to the melody of the groves, and the eye of benevolence sparkles at the fight of happiness and plenty in the winter, compaffion melts at univerfal calamity, and the tear of softness starts at the wailings of hunger, and the cries of the creation in diftrefs.

Few minds have much inclination to indulge heavinefs and forrow, nor do I recommend them beyond the degree neceffarý to maintain in its full vigour that habitual fympathy and tenderness, which, in a world of fo much mifery, is neceffary to the ready discharge of our most important duties. The winter therefore is generally celebrated as the proper

H 3

proper feafon for domeftick merriment and gaiety. We are feldom invited by the votaries of pleasure to look abroad for any other purpose, than that we may fhrink back with more fatisfaction to our coverts, and when we have heard the howl of the tempeft, and felt the gripe of the froft, congratulate each other with more gladness upon a clofe room, an eafy chair, a large fire, and a fmoking dinner.

Winter brings natural inducements to jollity and converfation. Differences, we know, are never fo effectually laid asleep, as by fome common calamity: An enemy unites all to whom he threatens danger. The rigour of winter brings generally to the fame fire-fide thofe who, by the oppofition of inclinations, or difference of employment, moved in various directions through the other parts of the year; and when they have met, and find it their mutual interest to remain together, they endear each other by mutual compliances, and often wifh for the continuance of the focial feafon, with all its bleakness and all its feverities.

To the men of ftudy and imagination the winter is generally the chief, time of labour. Gloom and filence produce compofure of mind and concentration of ideas; and the privation of external pleafure naturally causes an effort to find entertainment within. This is the time in which thofe, whom literature enables to find amusements for themfelves, have more than common convictions of their own happiness. When they are condemned by the elements to retirement, and debarred from most of the diverfions which are called in to affift the flight of time, they can find new fubjects of enquiry, and preferve themselves from that

weariness