wife when it impels us to take the mea→ fures of violence in oppofition to the general fense of our own. For may not pub→ lic happiness be estimated by the fame standard as that of private? and as every man's own opinion must determine his par→ ticular fatisfaction; fhall not the general opinion be confidered as decifive in the queftion concerning general intereft? Far am I, however, from infinuating, that the true welfare of mankind in their collective capacities depends fingly upon a prevailing fancy, any more than it does in their separate undoubtedly in both inftances they may equally embrace a falfe intereft. But whenever this is the cafe, I fhould hardly imagine that the love of our country, on the one hand, or of our neighbor, on the other, would justify any methods of bringing them to a wifer choice, than those of calm and rational perfuafion.

I CANNOT at prefent recollect which of the antient authors it is, that mentions the Cappadocians to have been fo enamored of fubjection to a defpotic power, as to refuse the enjoyment of their liberties, tho generously tendered to them by the Romans.

Scarcely

Scarcely, I fuppofe, can there be an instance produced of a more remarkable depravity of national tafte, and of a more falfe calculation of public welfare: yet even in this instance it should seem the highest injustice to have attempted by force, and at the expence, perhaps, of half the lives in the ftate, the introduction of a more improved fyftem of government.

IN this notion I am not fingular, but have the authority of Plato himself on my fide; who held it as a maxim of undoubted truth in politics, that the prevailing sentiments of a state, how much foever miftaken, ought by no means to be opposed by the measures of violence: a maxim, which if certain pretended or misguided patriots had happily embraced, much effufion of civil bloood had been lately spared to our nation, I am, &c.

LET

THE

LETTER XXXI.

To PALAMEDES.

'HE dawn is overcast, the morning lours, And heavily with clouds brings on the day. How then can I better difappoint the gloomy effects of a louring fky, than by calling my thoughts off from the dull scene before me, and placing them upon my friend? Much, certainly, are we indebted to that happy faculty, by which, with a fort of magic power, we can bring before one's mind whatever has been the fubject of its most agreable contemplation. In vain, therefore, would that lovely dame, who has fo often been the topic of our conversations, pretend to enjoy you to herself in fpite of your favorite philofophy, or even of a more powerful divinity; in fpight of Fortune herself, I can place you in my view, tho half a century of miles lies between us. But am I for ever to be indebted to imagination only for your company? and will you not fometimes let me owe that fatisfaction to yourself? Surely you might fpare me a

few

few weeks before the fummer ends, without any inconvenience to that noble plan upon which I know you are fo intent. As for my own studies, they go on but flowly: I am, like a traveller without a guide in an unknown country; obliged to inquire the way at every turning, and confequently cannot advance with all the expedition I could wish. I am, &c.

F

LETTER XXXII.

To the fame.

ORGIVE me, Palamedes, if I miftrust an art, which the greateft of philosophers has called the art of deceiving, and by which the first of orators could perfuade the people that he had conquered at the athletic games, tho they faw him fall at his adversary's feet. The voice of Eloquence fhould ever, indeed, be heard with caution: and she, whose boaft it has formerly been, to make little things appear confiderable, may diminish objects, perhaps, L

as

as well as enlarge them, and leffen even the charms of repofe. But I have too long experienced the joys of retirement, to quit her arms for a more lively mistress; and I can look upon ambition, tho adorned in all the ornaments of your oratory, with the cool indifference of the moft confirmed Stoic. To confefs the whole truth, I am too proud to endure a repulfe, and too humble to hope for fuccefs: qualities little favorable, I imagine, to the pretenfions of him who would claim the glittering prizes, which animate thofe that run the race of ambition. Let thofe honors then, you mention, be infcribed on the tombs of others; be it rather told on mine, that I lived and died

Unplac'd, unpenfion'd, no man's heir or flave.

And is not this a privilege as valuable as any of those which you have painted to my view, in all the warmeft colors of your enlivening eloquence? Bruyere, at least, has just now affured me, that " to pay one's court to no man, nor expect any to pay court to you, is the most agreable "of all fituations; it is the true golden cr age,