when it came to his turn to speak, that he was unable to utter a Word. The Story tells us, that the Fathers were more moved at this Inftance of Modefty and Ingenuity, than they could have been by the most pathetick Oration; and, in fhort, pardoned the guilty Father for this early

Promife of Virtue in the Son.

I take Affurance to be a Faculty of poffeffing a Man's felf, or of faying and doing indifferent things without any Uneafinefs or Emotion in the Mind. That which generally gives a Man Affurance is a moderate Knowledge of the World, but above all a Mind fixed and determined in it felf to do nothing against the Rules of Honour and Decency. An open and affured Behaviour is the natural Confequence of fuch a Refolution. A Man thus armed, if his Words or Actions are at any time mifinterpreted, retires within himself, and from a Confcioufness of his own Integrity, affumes Force enough to defpife the little Cenfures of Ignorance or Malice.

EVERY one ought to cherish and encourage in himfelf the Modesty and Affurance I have here mentioned.

A Man without Affurance is liable to be made uneafy by the Folly or Ill-nature of every one he converfes with. A Man without Modefty is loff to all Senfe of Honour and Virtue.

IT is more than probable, that the Prince abovementioned poffeffed both thefe Qualifications in a very eminent degree. Without Affurance he would never have undertaken to speak before the most auguft Affembly in the World; without Modefty he would have pleaded the Cause he had taken upon him, tho' it had appeared ever fo fcandalous.

FROM what has been faid, it is plain, that Modefty and Affurance are both amiable, and may very well meet in the fame Perfon. When they are thus mixed and blended together, they compofe what we endeavour to exprefs when we fay a modeft Affurance; by which we understand the juft Mean between Bafhfulness and Impudence.

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I fhall conclude with obferving, that as the fame Man may be both modeft and affured, fo it is alfo poffible for the fame Perfon to be both impudent and bafhful.

WE have frequent Inftances of this odd kind of Mixture in People of depraved Minds and mean. Education who tho' they are not able to meet a Man's Eyes, or pronounce a Sentence without Confufion, can voluntarily commit the greateft Villanies, or most indecent Actions.

SUCH a Perfon feems to have made a Refolution to do ill even in fpite of himself, and in defiance of all those Checks and Restraints his Temper and Complexion feem to have laid in his way.

UPON the whole, I would endeavour to establish this Maxim, That the Practice of Virtue is the most proper Method to give a Man a becoming Affurance in his Words and Actions. Guilt always feeks to fhelter it felf in one of the Extremes, and is fometimes attended with both.

X.

N 374.

Friday, May 9.

Nil atum reputans fi quid fupereffet agendum. Luc.

T

HERE is a Fault, which, tho' common, wants a Name. It is the very contrary to Procrastination: As we lose the prefent Hour by delaying from day to day to execute what we ought to do immediately; fo moft of us take occafion to fit ftill and throw away the time in our poffeffion, by Retrofpect on what is past, imagining we have already acquitted our felves, and eftaBlithed our Characters in the fight of Mankind. But when we thus put a Value upon our felves for what we have already done, any further than to explain our felves in order to affift our future Conduct, that will give us an over-weening opinion of our Merit to the prejudice of our prefent Industry. The great Rule, methinks, fhould be to manage the Inftant in which we ftand, with Fortitude, Equanimity, and Moderation, according to Mens refpective Circumftances. If our past Actions reproach us, they cannot be attoned for by our own severe Reflections fo effectually as by a contrary Beha viour. If they are praife-worthy, the Memory of them is of no ufe but to act fuitably to them. Thus a good prefent Behaviour is an implicit Repentance for any Mifcarriage in what is paft; but prefent Slackness will not make up for paft Activity. Time has fwallowed up all that we Contemporaries did yesterday, as irrevocably as it has the Actions of the Antediluvians: But we are again awake, and what fhall we to-day, to-day which paffes while we are yet speaking? Shall we remember the Folly of laft Night, or refolve upon the Exercife of Virtue to-morrow? Laft Night is certainly gone, and Tomorrow may never arrive: This Inftant make use of. Can you oblige any Man of Honour and Virtue? Do

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it immediately. Can you vifit a fick Friend? Will' ic revive him to fee you enter, and fufpend your own Eale' and Pleasure to comfort his Weaknefs, and hear the Impertinencies of a Wretch in pain? Don't ftay to take' Coach, but be gone. Your Mistress will bring Sorrow, and your Bottle Madness: Go to neither

Such' Virtues and Diverfions as thefe are mentioned because they occur to all Men. But every Man is fufficiently convinced, that to fufpend the Ufe of the prefent Moment, and refolve better for the future only, is an unpar-' donable Folly: what I attempted to confider, was the Mifchief of fetting fuch a Value upon what is past, as to think we have done enough. Let a Man have filled all the Offices of Life with the higheft Dignity till yefterday, and begin to live only to himself to-day, he must expect he will in the Effects upon his Reputation be confidered as the Man who died yesterday. The Man who distinguishes himself from the reft, ftands in a prefs of People; thofe before him intercept his Progrefs, and thofe behind him, if he does not urge on, will tread him down. Cafar, of whom it is faid, that he thought nothing done while there was any thing left for him to do, went on in performing the greatest Exploits, without affuming to himself a Privilege of taking Reft upon the Foundation of the Merit of his former Actions. It was the manner of that glorious Captain to write down what Scenes he paffed through, but it was rather to keep his Affairs in Method, and capable of a clear Review in cafe they should be examined by others, than that he built a Renown upon any thing which was past. I fhall produce two Fragments of his to demonftrate, that it was his Rule of Life to fupport himself rather by what he, fhould perform, than what he had done already. In the Tablet which he wore about him the fame Year in which he had obtained the Battel of Pharfalia, there were found thefe loofe Notes for his own Conduct: It is fuppofed, by the Circumstances they alluded to, that they might be fet down the Evening of the fame Night.

: MY

MY Part is now but begun, and my Glory must be fuftained by the Ufe I make of this Victory; otherwife my Lofs will be greater than that of Pompey. Our perfonal Reputation will rife or fall as we bear our refpective Fortunes. All my private Enemies among the Prifoners fhall be fpared. I will forget this, in • order to obtain fuch another Day. Trebutius is afhamed to fee me: I will go to his Tent, and be reconciled in private. Give all the Men of Honour, who take 6. part with me, the Terms I offered before the Battel. Let them owe this to their Friends who have been long in my Interefts. Power is weakened by the full Ufe of it, but extended by Moderation. Galbinius is:

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proud, and will be fervile in his present Fortune; let him wait. Send for Stertinius: He is modest, and his Virtue is worth gaining. I have cooled my Heart with • Reflection; and am fit to rejoice with the Army to6 morrow. He is a popular General who can expofe himfelf like a private Man during a Battel; but he is more popular who can rejoice but like a private Man after a Victory.

WHAT is particularly proper for the Example of all who pretend to Industry in the purfuit of Honour and Virtue, is, that this Hero was more than ordinarily follicitous about his Reputation, when a common Mind would have thought it felf in Security, and given it felf a loofe to Joy and Triumph. But though this is a very great Inftance of his Temper, I must confefs I am more taken with his Reflections when he retired to his Clofet in fome Disturbance upon the repeated ill Omens of Calphurnia's Dream the Night before his Death. The literal Tranflation of that Fragment fhall conclude this Paper.

BE it fo then. If I am to die to-morrow, that is < what I am to do to-morrow: It will not be then, because I am willing it fhould be then; nor fhall I efcape it, because I am unwilling. It is in the Gods when, but in my self how I fhall die. If Calphurnias Dreams are Fumes of Indigeftion, how fhall I behold

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