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difcreet, ingenious, pleasant, pious Woman; I wish she ⚫ had the handling of you and Mrs. Modifh; you would find, if you were too free with her, fhe would foon 'make you as charming as ever you were, fhe would ⚫ make you blush as much as if you never had been fine Ladies. The Vicar, Madam, is fo kind as to vifit my • Husband, and his agreeable Converfation has brought • him to enjoy many fober happy Hours when even I am 'fhut out, and my dear Mafter is entertained only with his own Thoughts. Thefe Things, dear Madam, will be lafting Satisfactions, when the fine Ladies and the • Coxcombs by whom they form themselves, are irrepa rably ridiculous, ridiculous in old Age. I am,

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Madam, your most humble Servant,

Mary Home,

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Dear Mr. SPECTATOR,

You

OU have no Goodness in the World, and are not in Earneft in any thing you fay that is ferious, if you do not fend me a plainAnswer to this: I happened fome Days paft to be at the Play, where during the • Time of Performance, I could not keep my Eyes off ⚫ from a beautiful youngCreature who fat juft before me, and who I have been fince informed has no Fortune. ⚫ It would utterly ruin my Reputation for Difcretion to marry fuch a one, and by what I can learn fhe has a • Character of great Modefty, fo that there is nothing to ⚫ be thought on any other Way. My Mind has ever fince been fo wholly bent on her, that I am much in Danger of doing fomething very Extravagant without your ⚫ speedy Advice to,

SIR, Your most humble Servant.

I am forry I cannot answer this impatient Gentle man, but by another Question.

Dear Correfpondent,

WOULD you marry to please other People,

or your self?

T

Saturday,

N° 255. Saturday, December 22.

Laudis amore tumes ? funt certa piacula, quæ te
Ter purè lecto poterunt recreare libello.

T

Hor

HE Soul confidered abstractedly from its Paffions, is of a remifs and fedentary Nature, flow in its Refolves, and languishing in its Executions. The Ufe therefore of the Paffions is to ftir it up, and to put it upon Action, to awaken the Understanding, to enforce the Will, and to make the whole Man more vigorous and attentive in the Profecution of his Defigns. As this is the End of the Paffions in general, fo it is particularly of Ambition, which pushes the Soul to fuch Actions as are apt to procure Honour and Reputation to the Actor. But if we carry our Reflexions higher, we may difcover farther Ends of Providence in implanting this Paffion in Mankind.

IT was neceffary for the World, that Arts fhould be invented and improved, Bocks written and tranfinitted to Pofterity, Nations conquered and civilized: Now fince the proper and genuine Motives to thefe and the like great Actions, would only influence virtuous Minds; there would be but fmall Improvements in the World, were there not fome common Principle of Action working equally with all Men. And fuch a Principle is Ambition or a Defire of Fame, by which great Endowments are not fuffered to lie idle and useless to the Publick, and many vicious Men, over-reached, as it were, and engaged contrary to their natural Inclinations in a glorious and laudable Course of Action. For we may farther obferve, that Men of the greatest Abilities are most fired with Ambition: And that on the contrary, mean and narrow Minds are the leaft actuated by it; whether it be that a Man's Senfe of his own Incapacities makes him despair of coming at Fame, or that he has not enough Range of Thought to look out for any Good which does not more immediately relate to his Intereft or Convenience, or that

Providence in the very Frame of his Soul, would not fabject him to fuch a Paffion as would be useless to the World, and a 'Torment to himself.

WERE not this Defire of Fame very ftrong, the Difficulty of obtaining it, and the Danger of lofing it when obtained, would be fufficient to deter a Man from fo vain a Purfuit.

HOW few are there who are furnished with Abilities fufficient to recommend their Actions to the Admiration of the World, and to distinguish themselves from the rest of Mankind? Providence for the moft part fets us upon a Level, and obferves a kind of Proportion in its Difpenfations towards us. If it renders us perfect in one Accomplishment, it generally leaves us defective in another, and feems careful rather of preferving every Perfon from being mean and deficient in his Qualifications, than of making any fingle one eminent or extraordinary.

AND among thofe, who are the most richly endowed by Nature, and accomplished by their own Industry, how few are there whofe Virtues are not obfcured by the Ignorance, Prejudice or Envy of their Beholders? Some Men cannot difcern between a noble and a mean Action. Others are apt to attribute them to fome falfe End or Intention; and others purposely misrepresent or put a wrong Interpretation on them.

BUT the more to enforce this Confideration, we may obferve that thofe are generally moft unfuccefsful in their Purfuit after Fame, who are most defirous of obtaining it. It is Saluft's remark upon Cato, that the lefs he coveted Glory, the more he acquir'd it.

MEN take an ill-natur'd Pleasure in croffing our Inclinations, and disappointing us in what our Hearts are most fet upon. When therefore they have discovered the pasfionate Defire of Fame in the Ambitious Man (as no Temper of Mind is more apt to fhew it felf) they become fparing and referved in their Commendations, they envy him the Satisfaction of an Applaufe, and look on their Praises rather as a Kindnefs done to his Perfon, than as a Tribute paid to his Merit. Others who are free from this natural Perverfeness of Temper grow wary in their Praifes of one, who fets too great a Value on them, left they should raise him too high in his own Imagination,

and

and by confequence remove him to a greater Distance from themselves.

BUT farther, this Defire of Fame naturally betrays the ambitious Man into fuch Indecencies as are a leffening to his Reputation. He is ftill afraid left any of his Actions should be thrown away in private, left his Deferts should be concealed from the Notice of the World, or receive any Difadvantage from the Reports which others make of them. This often fets him on empty Boasts and Oftentations of himself, and betrays him into vain fantaftick Recitals of his own Performances: His Difcourfe generally leans one Way, and whatever is the fubject of it, tends obliquely either to the detracting from others, or to the extolling of himself. Vanity is the natural Weakness of an ambitious Man, which expofes him to the fecret Scorn and Derifion of thofe he converfes with, and ruins the Character he is fo induftrious to advance by it. For tho' his Actions are never fo glorious, they lofe their Luftre when they are drawn at large, and fet to fhow by his own Hand; and as the World is more apt to find Fault than to commend, the Boaft will probably be cenfured when the great Action that occafioned it is forgotten.

BESIDES, this very Defire of Fame is looked on as a Meannefs and Imperfection in the greatest Character. A folid and fubftantial Greatnefs of Soul looks down with a generous Neglect on the Cenfures and Applaufes of the Multitude, and places a Man beyond the little Noife and Strife of Tongues. Accordingly we find in our felves a fecret Awe and Veneration for the Character of one who moves above us in a regular and illuftrious Course of Virtue, without any Regard to our good or ill Opinions of him, to our Reproaches or Commendations. As on the contrary it is usual for us, when we would take off from the Fame and Reputation of an Action, to afcribe it to Vain-Glory, and a Defire of Fame in the Actor. Nor is this common Judgment and Opinion of Mankind ill founded: for certainly it denotes no great Bravery of Mind to be worked up to any noble Action by fo felfish a Motive, and to do that out of a Defire of Fame, which we could not be prompted to by a difinterested Love to Mankind, or by a generous Paffion for the Glory of him that made us.

THUS

THUS is Fame a thing difficult to be obtained by all, but particularly by those who thirft after it, fince moft Men have fo much either of Ill-nature, or of Warinefs, as not to gratify or footh the Vanity of the Ambitious Man, and fince this very Thirst after Fame naturally betrays him into fuch Indecencies as are a leffening to his Reputation, and is it felf looked upon as a Weakness in the greateft Characters.

IN the next Place, Fame is eafily loft, and as difficult to be preserved as it was at firft to be acquired. But this I fhall make the Subject of a following Paper.

No 256. Monday, December 24.

T

Φήμη γάρ τε κακὰ πέλεθ· κέρη με αεραι
Ῥέα μάλ, ἀργαλέη ἢ φέρειν

Hef.

C

HERE are many Paffions and Tempers of Mind which naturally difpofe us to deprefs and vilify the Merit of one rifing in the Efteem of Mankind. All those who made their Entrance into the World with the fame Advantages, and were once looked on as his Equals, are apt to think the Fame of his Merits a Reflexion on their own Indeferts; and will therefore take care to reproach him with the Scandal of fome paft Action, or derogate from the Worth of the prefent, that they may ftill keep him on the fame Level with themselves. The like Kind of Confideration often ftirs up the Envy of fuch as were once his Superiors, who think it a Detraction from their Merit to see another get ground upon them and overtake them in the Purfuits of Glory; and will therefore endeavour to fink his Reputation, that they may the better preferve their own. Those who were once his Equals envy and defame him, because they now fee him their Superior; and thofe who were once his Superiors, because they look upon him as their Equal.

BUT farther, a Man whofe extraordinary Reputation thus lifts him up to the Notice and Obfervation of Mankind draws a Multitude of Eyes upon him that will nar

rowly

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