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tomed to resistance, was disconcerted, and soon sound means of convincing me that his purpofe was not to encourage a rival, but to foster a parasite.

I was then taken into the samiliarity of Argutio, a nobleman eminent for judgment and criticism. He had contributed to my reputation by the praises which he had often bestowed upon my writings, in which he owned that there were proofs of a genius that might rise to high degrees of excellence, when time, or insormation, had reduced its exuberance. Hd therefore required me to consult him before the publication of any new performance, and commonly* propofed innumerable alterations, without sufficient attention to the general design, or regard to my* form of style, and mode of imagination. But theft corrections he never sailed to press as indispensably necessary, and thought the least delay of compliance^ an act of rebellion. The pride of an author made this treatment insufferable, and I thought any tyranny easier to be borne than that which took from me the use of my understanding.

My next patron was Eutyches the statesman, who was wholly engaged in publick affairs, and seemed to have no ambition but to be powersul and rich. I found his savour more permanent than that of the others, for there was a certain price at which it might be bought; he allowed nothing to humour, or to affection, but was always ready to pay liberally for the service that he required. His demands were, indeed, very often such as virtue could not easily consent to gratisy; but virtue is not to be consulted when men are to raise their fortunes by the savour of the great. His measures were censured; I wrote in

N 2 his

his desence, and was recompensed with a place, of which the profits were never received by me without the pangs of remembering that they were the reward of wickedness, a reward which nothing but that necessity, which the consumption of my little estate in these wild pursuits had brought upon me, hindered me from throwing back in the sace of my corruptor.

At this time my uncle died without a will, and I became heir to a small fortune. I had resolution to throw off the splendor which reproached me to myself, and retire to an humbler state, in which I am now endeavouring to recover the dignity of virtue, and hope to make some reparation for my crime and follies, by insorming others, who may be led aster the same pageants, that they are about to engage in a course of lise, in which they are to purchase, by a thousand miseries, the privilege of repentance.

I am, &c.

Eubulus.

i

Numb. 28. Saturday, June 23, 1750.

////' mors gravis incubat,

Qui, notui nimis omnibus,

lgnctus moriturJlin. SENECA.

To him, alas, to him, I sear,
The face of death will terrible appear,
Who in his lise, flatt'ring his senseless pride,
By being known to all the world beside,
Does not himself, when he is dying, know,
Nor what he is, nor whither he's to go. Cowle v.

I HAVE shewn, in a late essay, to what errors men are hourly betrayed by a mistaken opinion of their own powers, and a negligent inspection of their own character. But as I then confined my observations to common occurrences, and familiar scenes, I think it proper to inquire, how far a nearer acquaintance with ourselves is necessary to our preservation from crimes as well as follies, and how much the attentive study of our own minds may contribute to secure to us the approbation of that being, to whom we are accountable for our thoughts and our actions, and whofe favour must finally constitute our total happiness.

If it be reasonable to estimate the difficulty of any enterprise by frequent miscarriages, it may justly be concluded that it is not easy for a man to know himself; for wheresoever we turn our view, we shall find almost all with whom we converse so nearly as to

N 3 judge judge of their sentiments, indulging more favourable conceptions of their own virtue than they have been able to impress upon others, and congratulating themselves upon degrees of excellence, which their fondest admirers cannot allow them to have attained.

Thofe representations of imaginary virtue arc generally considered as arts of hypocrisy, and as snares laid for confidence and praise. But I believe the suspicion often unjust; thofe who thus propagate their own reputation, only extend the fraud by which they have been themselves deceived; for this failing is incident to numbers, who seem to live without designs, competitions, or pursuits; it appears on occasions which promise no accession of honour or of prosit, and to persons from whom very little is to be hoped or seared. It is, indeed, not easy to tell how far we may be blinded by the love of ourselves, when we reflect how much a secondary passion can cloud our judgment, and how sew faults a man> in the first raptures of love, can discover in the person or conduct of his mistress.

To lay open all the sources from which error flows in upon him who contemplates his own character, would require more exact knowledge of the human heart, than, perhaps, the most acute and laborious observers have acquired. And since falsehood may be diversified without end, it is not unlikely that every man admits an imposture in some respect peculiar to himself, as his views have been accidentally directed, or his ideas particularly combined.

Some fallacies, however, there are, more frequently insidious, which it may, perhaps, not be useless to detect, tect, because though they are grofs, they may be fatal, and because nothing but attention is necessary to deseat them.

One sophism by which men persuade themselves that diey.have those virtues which they really want, is formed by the substitution of single acts for habits. A miser who once relieved a friend .from the danger of a prison, suffers his imagination to dwell for ever upon his own heroick generosity; he yields his heart up to indignation at thofe who are blind to merit, or insensible to misery, and who can please themselves with the enjoyment of that wealth, which they never permit others to partake. From any censures of the world, or reproaches of his conscience, he has an appeal to action and to knowledge: and though his whole lise is .a course of rapacity and avarice, he concludes himself to be tender and liberal, because he has once persormed an act of liberality and tenderness.

As a glass which magnifies objects by the approach of one end to the eye, lessens them by the application of the other, so vices are extenuated by the inversion of that fallacy, by which virtues are augmented. Thofe faults which we cannot conceal from our own notice, are considered, however frequent, not as habitual corruptions, or settled practices, but as casual failures, and single lapses. A man who has, from year to year, set his country to fale, cither for the gratification of his ambition or resentment, consesses that the heat of party now and then betrays the severest virtue to measures that cannot be serioufly desended. He that spends his days and nights in riot and debauchery, owns that his passions

N 4. often

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