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either;) in consideration of which I avoid giving her the least provocation; and, indeed, we live better together than usually folks do who hated one another when they were first joined. To evade the sin against parents, or at least to extenuate it, my dear rails at my father and mother, and I curse hers for making the match.'

'August 8, 1712.

'MR. SPECTATOR,-I like the theme you lately gave out extremely, and should be as glad to handle it as any man living: but I find myself no better qualified to write about money than about my wife; for, to tell you a secret, which I desire may go no farther, I am master of neither of those subjects. Yours, PILL GARLICK.'

By the coarse hands of filthy dungeon villains, And thrown amongst the common lumber.' Nothing indeed can be more unhappy than the condition of bankruptcy. The calamity which happens to us by ill-fortune, or by the injury of others, has in it some consolation; but what arises from our own misbehaviour, or error, is the state of the most exquisite sorrow. When a man considers not only an ample fortune, but even the very necessaries of life, his pretence to food itself, at the mercy of his creditors, he cannot but look upon himself in the state of the dead, with his case thus much his adversaries instead of his friends. From worse, that the last office is performed by this hour the cruel world does not only take possession of his whole fortune, but MR. SPECTATOR,-I desire you will even of every thing else which had no reprint this in italic, so as it may be gene-lation to it. All his indifferent actions have rally taken notice of. It is designed only to new interpretations put upon them; and admonish all persons, who speak either at those whom he has favoured in his former the bar, pulpit, or any public assembly life, discharge themselves of their obligawhatsoever, how they discover their igno- tions to him, by joining in the reproaches rance in the use of similies. There are, in of his enemies. It is almost incredible that the pulpit itself, as well as in other places, it should be so; but it is too often seen that such gross abuses in this kind, that I give there is a pride mixed with the impatience this warning to all I know. I shall bring of the creditor; and there are who would them for the future before your spectatorial rather recover their own by the downfal authority. On Sunday last, one, who shall of a prosperous man, than be discharged be nameless, reproving several of his con- to the common satisfaction of themselves gregation for standing at prayers, was and their creditors. The wretched man, pleased to say, "One would think, like the who was lately master of abundance, is elephant, you had no knees." Now I my-now under the direction of others; and the self saw an elephant, in Bartholomew fair, kneel down to take on his back the ingenious Mr. William Penkethman. Your most humble servant.' T.

No. 456.] Wednesday, August 13, 1712. De quo libelli in celeberrimis locis proponuntur, huic ne perire quidem tacite conceditur.-Tull.

The man whose conduct is publicly arraigned, is not suffered even to be undone quietly.

wisdom, economy, good sense, and skill in human life before, by reason of his present misfortune, are of no use to him in the disposition of any thing. The incapacity of an infant or a lunatic is designed for his provision and accommodation; but that of a bankrupt, without any mitigation in respect of the accidents by which it arrived, is calculated for his utter ruin, except there be a remainder ample enough, after the discharge of his creditors, to bear also OTWAY, in his tragedy of Venice Pre-means the effect of all this labour was the expense of rewarding those by whose served, has described the misery of a man transferred from him. This man is to look whose effects are in the hands of the law, on and see others giving directions upon with great spirit. The bitterness of being what terms and conditions his goods are to the scorn and laughter of base minds, the be purchased; and all this usually done, anguish of being insulted by men hardened not with an air of trustees to dispose of his beyond the sense of shame or pity, and the effects, but destroyers to divide and tear injury of a man's fortune being wasted, un- them to pieces. der pretence of justice, are excellently aggravated in the following speech of Pierre

to Jaffier:

'I pass'd this very moment by thy doors,

And found them guarded by a troop of villains:
The sons of public rapine were destroying.
They told me by the sentence of the law,
They had commission to seize all thy fortune;
Nay, more, Priuli's cruel hand had sign'd it.
Here stood a ruffian with a horrid face,
Lording it o'er a pile of massy plate,
Tumbled into a heap for public sale.
There was another making villanous jests
At thy undoing. He had ta'en possession

Of all thy ancient most domestic ornaments,
Rich hangings intermix'd and wrought with gold;
The very bed, which on thy wedding-night
Receiv'd thee to the arms of Belvidera.
The scene of all thy joys, was violated

There is something sacred in misery to great and good minds; for this reason all wise lawgivers have been extremely tender how they let loose even the man who has right on his side, to act with any mixture of resentment against the defendant. Virtuous and modest men, though they be used with some artifice, and have it in their power to avenge themselves, are slow in the application of that power, and are ever constrained to go into rigorous measures. They are careful to demonstrate themselves not only persons injured, but also that to bear it longer would be a means to make the offender injure others,

rest of the world will regard me for yours. There is a happy contagion in riches, as well as a destructive one in poverty: the rich can make rich without parting with any of their store; and the conversation of the poor makes men poor, though they borrow nothing of them. How this is to be accounted for I know not; but men's estimation follows us according to the company we keep. If you are what you were to me, you can go a great way towards my recovery; if you are not, my good fortune, if ever it returns, will return by slower approaches. I am, sir, your affectionate friend, and humble servant:'

This was answered by a condescension that did not, by long impertinent professions of kindness, insult his distress, but was as follows:

before they proceed. Such men clap their hands upon their hearts, and consider what it is to have at their mercy the life of a citizen. Such would have it to say to their own souls, if possible, that they were merciful when they could have destroyed, rather than when it was in their power to have spared a man, they destroyed. This is a due to the common calamity of human life, due in some measure to our very enemies. They who scruple in doing the least injury are cautious of exacting the utmost justice. Let any one who is conversant in the variety of human life reflect upon it, and he will find the man who wants mercy has a taste of no enjoyment of any kind. There is a natural disrelish of every thing which is good in his very nature, and he is born an enemy to the world. He is ever extremely partial to himself in all his actions, and has no sense of iniquity but from the punishment which shall attend it. The law of the land is his gospel, and all his cases of conscience are determined by his attorney. Such men know not what it is to gladden the heart of a miserable man; I have ever so much admired them,) by that riches are the instruments of serving the purposes of heaven or hell, according to the disposition of the possessor. The wealthy can torment or gratify all who are in their power, and choose to do one or other, as they are affected with love or hatred to mankind. As for such who are insensible of the concerns of others, but merely as they affect themselves, these men are to be valued only for their mortality, and as we hope better things from their heirs. I could not but read with great delight, a letter from an eminent citizen, who has failed, to one who was intimate with him in his better fortune, and able by his No. 457.] Thursday, August 14, 1712. countenance to retrieve his lost condition.

'SIR,It is in vain to multiply words and make apologies for what is never to be defended by the best advocate in the world, the guilt of being unfortunate. All that a man in my condition can do or say, will be received with prejudice by the generality of mankind, but I hope not with you: you have been a great instrument in helping me to get what I have lost; and I know (for that reason, as well as kindness to me) you cannot but be in pain to see me undone. To show you I am not a man incapable of bearing calamity, I will, though a poor man, lay aside the distinction between us, and talk with the frankness we did when we were nearer to an equality: as all I do will be received with prejudice, all you do will be looked upon with partiality. What I desire of you is, that you, who are courted by all, would smile upon me, who am shunned by all. Let that grace and favour which your fortune throws upon you, be turned to make up the coldness and indifference that is used towards me. good and generous men will have an eye of kindness for me for my own sake, and the

All

'DEAR TOM,-I am very glad to hear that you have heart enough to begin_the world a second time. I assure you, I do not think your numerous family at all diminished (in the gifts of nature, for which

what has so lately happened to you. I shall not only countenance your affairs with my appearance for you, but shall accommodate you with a considerable sum at common interest for three years. You know I could make more of it; but I have so great a love for you, that I can waive opportunities of gain to help you; for I do not care whether they say of me after I am dead, that I had a hundred or fifty thousand pounds more than I wanted when I was living. Your obliged humble servant.'

T.

-Multa et præclara minantis.

Hor. Sat. iii. Lib. 2. 9. Seeming to promise something wondrous great.

I SHALL this day lay before my readers a letter, written by the same hand with that of last Friday, which contained proposals for a printed newspaper that should take in the whole circle of the penny-post.

'SIR,-The kind reception you gave my last Friday's letter, in which I broached my project of a newspaper, encourages me to lay before you two or three more; for, you must know, sir, that we look upon you to be the Lowndes* of the learned world, and cannot think any scheme practicable or rational before you have approved of it, though all the money we raise by it is in

our own funds, and for our private use.

'I have often thought that a news-letter of whispers, written every post, and sent about the kingdom, after the same manner as that of Mr. Dyer, Mr. Dawkes, or any other epistolary historian, might be highly gratifying to the public, as well as bene

*Secretary at this time of the treasury, and director of the mint.

ficial to the author. By whispers I mean innocent young woman big with child, those pieces of news which are communi- or fill a healthy young fellow with distemcated as secrets, and which bring a double pers that are not to be named. She can pleasure to the hearer: first, as they are turn a visit into an intrigue, and a distant private history; and, in the next place, as salute into an assignation. She can beggar they have always in them a dash of scan- the wealthy, and degrade the noble. In dal. These are the two chief qualifications short, she can whisper men base or foolish, in an article of news, which recommend it jealous or ill-natured: or, if occasion rein a more than ordinary manner, to the quires, can tell you the slips of their great ears of the curious. Sickness of persons in grandmothers, and traduce the memory of high posts, twilight visits paid and receiv- honest coachmen, that have been in their ed by ministers of state, clandestine court- graves above these hundred years. By ships and marriages, secret amours, losses these and the like helps, I question not but at play, applications for places, with their I shall furnish cut a very handsome newsrespective successes and repulses, are the letter. If you approve my project, I shall materials in which I chiefly intend to deal. begin to whisper by the very next post, I have two persons, that are each of them and question not but every one of my custhe representative of a species, who are to tomers will be very well pleased with me, furnish me with those whispers which I when he considers that every piece of news intend to convey to my correspondents. I send him is a word in his ear, and lets The first of these is Peter Hush, descend-him into a secret.

ed from the ancient family of the Hushes. Having given you a sketch of this proThe other is the old lady Blast, who has a ject, I shall, in the next place, suggest to very numerous tribe of daughters in the you another for a monthly pamphlet, which two great cities of London and Westmin- I shall likewise submit to your spectatorial ster. Peter Hush has a whispering-hole | wisdom. I need not tell you, sir, that there in most of the great coffee-houses about are several authors in France, Germany, town. If you are alone with him in a wide and Holland, as well as in cur own counroom, he carries you up into a corner of it, try,* who publish every month what they and speaks in your ear. I have seen Peter call An Account of the Works of the seat himself in a company of seven or eight | Learned, in which they give us an abstract persons whom he never saw before in his life; and, after having looked about to see there was no one that overheard him, has communicated to them in a low voice, and under the seal of secresy, the death of a great man in the country, who was, perhaps, a fox-hunting the very moment this account was given of him. If upon your entering into a coffee-house you see a circle of heads bending over the table, and lying close to one another, it is ten to one but my friend Peter is among them. I have known Peter publishing the whisper of the day by eight o'clock in the morning at Garraway's, by twelve at Will's, and before two at the Smyrna. When Peter has thus effectually launched a secret, I have been very well pleased to hear people whispering it to one another at second-hand, and spreading it about as their own; for you must know, sir, the great incentive to whispering is the ambition which every one has of being thought in the secret, and being looked upon as a man who has access to greater people than one would imagine. After having given you this account of Peter Hush, I proceed to that virtuous lady, the old lady Blast, who is to communicate to me the private transactions of the crimp-table, with all the arcana of the No. 458.] Friday, August 15, 1712.

fair-sex. The lady Blast, you must understand, has such a particular malignity in her whisper, that it blights like an easterly wind, and withers every reputation that it

of all such books as are printed in any part of Europe. Now, sir, it is my design to publish every month, An Account of the Works of the Unlearned. Several late productions of my own countrymen, who, many of them make a very eminent figure in the illiterate world, encourage me in this undertaking. I may, in this work, possibly make a review of several pieces which have appeared in the foreign accounts above mentioned, though they ought not to have been taken notice of in works which bear such a title. I may likewise take into consideration such pieces as appear, from time to time, under the names of those gentlemen who compliment one another in public assemblies, by the title of "The Learned Gentlemen." Our party-authors will also afford me a great variety of subjects, not to mention the editors, commentators, and others, who are often men of no learning, or, what is as bad, of no knowledge. I shall not enlarge upon this hint; but if you think any thing can be made of it, I shall set about it with all the pains and application that so useful a work deserves. I am ever, most worthy sir, &c.'

Αιδώς εκ αγαθό

-Pudor malus

False modesty.

C.

Hes. Hor.

I COULD not but smile at the account that

breathes upon. She has a particular knack was yesterday given me of a modest young

at making private weddings, and last win

ter married above five women of quality to

Mr. Michael de la Roche, 38 vols. 8vo. in Engl. un

their footmen. Her whisper can make an der different tities; and in Fr. 8 tomes, 24mo.

VOL. II.

26

speaking or acting in a dissolute or irrational manner, but that one who is in their company should be ashamed of governing himself by the principles of reason and virtue.

gentleman, who, being invited to an enter- | nature, that men should not be ashamed of tainment, though he was not used to drink, had not the confidence to refuse his glass in his turn, when on a sudden he grew so flustered, that he took all the talk of the table into his own hands, abused every one of the company, and flung a bottle at the gentle- In the second place, we are to consider man's head who treated him. This has false modesty as it restrains a man from given me occasion to reflect upon the ill doing what is good and laudable. My reaeffects of a vicious modesty, and to remem- der's own thoughts will suggest to him ber the saying of Brutus, as it is quoted by many instances and examples under this Plutarch, that 'the person has had but an head. I shall only dwell upon one reflecill education, who has not been taught to tion, which I cannot make without a secret deny any thing.' This false kind of mo- concern. We have in England a particu desty has, perhaps, betrayed both sexes lar bashfulness in every thing that regards into as many vices as the most abandoned religion. A well-bred man is obliged to impudence; and is the more inexcusable conceal any serious sentiment of this nato reason, because it acts to gratify others ture, and very often to appear a greater rather than itself, and is punished with a libertine than he is, that he may keep himkind of remorse, not only like other vicious self in countenance among the men of mode. habits when the crime is over, but even at Our excess of modesty makes us shamethe very time that it is committed. faced in all the exercises of piety and devoNothing is more amiable than true mo- tion. This humour prevails upon us daily; desty, and nothing is more contemptible insomuch that, at many well-bred tables, than the false. The one guards virtue, the the master of the house is so very modest a other betrays it. True modesty is ashamed man, that he has not the confidence to say to do any thing that is repugnant to the rules grace at his own table: a custom which is of right reason; false modesty is ashamed not only practised by all the nations about to do any thing that is opposite to the hu- us, but was never omitted by the heathens mour of the company. True modesty avoids themselves. English gentlemen, who travel every thing that is criminal, false modesty into Roman-catholic countries, are not a litevery thing that is unfashionable. The latter tle surprised to meet with people of the best is only a general undetermined instinct; the quality kneeling in their churches, and enformer is that instinct, limited and circum-gaged in their private devotions, though it scribed by the rules of prudence and re-be not at the hours of public worship. An ligion.

We may conclude that modesty to be false and vicious which engages a man to do any thing that is ill or indiscreet, or which restrains him from doing any thing that is of a contrary nature. How many men, in the common concerns of life, lend sums of money which they are not able to spare, are bound for persons whom they have but little friendship for, give recommendatory characters of men whom they are not acquainted with, bestow places on those whom they do not esteem, live in such a manner as they themselves do not approve, and all this merely because they have not the confidence to resist solicitation, importunity, or example!

Nor does this false modesty expose us only to such actions as are indiscreet, but very often to such as are highly criminal. When Xenophanes was called timorous, because he would not venture his money in a game of dice: 'I confess,' said he, that I am exceeding timorous, for I dare not do an ill thing. On the contrary, a man of vicious modesty complies with every thing, and is only fearful of doing what may look singular in the company where he is engaged. He falls in with the torrent, and lets himself go to every action or discourse, however unjustifiable in itself, so it be in vogue among the present party. This, though one of the most common, is one of the most ridiculous dispositions in human

officer of the army, or a man of wit and pleasure, in those countries, would be afraid of passing not only for an irreligious, but an ill-bred man, should he be seen to go to bed, or sit down at table, without offering up his devotions on such occasions. The same show of religion appears in all the foreign reformed churches, and enters so much in their ordinary conversation, that an Englishman is apt to term them hypocritical and precise.

This little appearance of a religious deportment in our nation, may proceed in some measure from that modesty which is natural to us; but the great occasion of it is certainly this. Those swarms of sectaries that overran the nation in the time of the great rebellion, carried their hypocrisy so high, that they had converted our whole language into a jargon of enthusiasm: insomuch, that upon the restoration, men thought they could not recede too far from the behaviour and practice of those persons who had made religion a cloak to so many villanies. This led them into the other extreme; every appearance of devotion was looked upon as puritanical, and falling into the hands of the ridiculers' who flourished in that reign, and attacked every thing that was serious, it has ever since been out of countenance among us. By this means we are gradually fallen into that vicious modesty, which has in some measure worn out from among us the ap

pearance of Christianity in ordinary life and conversation, and which distinguishes us from all our neighbours.

Hypocrisy cannot indeed be too much detested, but at the same time it is to be preferred to open impiety. They are both equally destructive to the person who is possessed with them; but, in regard to others, hypocrisy is not so pernicious as bare-faced irreligion. The due mean to be observed is, to be sincerely virtuous, and at the same time to let the world see we are so.' I do not know a more dreadful menace in the holy writings, than that which is pronounced against those who have this perverted modesty to be ashamed before men in a particular of such unspeakable importance.

No. 459.] Saturday, August 16, 1712.

Quicquid dignum sapiente bonoque est.
Hor. Ep. iv. Lib. 1.5.

-Whate'er befits the wise and good.--Creech. RELIGION may be considered under two general heads. The first comprehends what we are to believe, the other what we are to practise. By those things which we are to believe, I mean whatever is revealed to us in the holy writings, and which we could not have obtained the knowledge of by the light of nature; by the things which we are to practise, I mean all those duties to which we are directed by reason or natural religion. The first of these I shall distinguish by the name of faith, the second by that of morality.

If we look into the more serious part of mankind, we find many who lay so great a stress upon faith, that they neglect morality; and many who build so much upon morality, that they do not pay a due regard to faith. The perfect man should be defective in neither of these particulars, as will be very evident to those who consider the benefits which arise from each of them, and which I shall make the subject of this day's paper.

Fourthly, Because the rule of morality is much more certain than that of faith, all the civilized nations of the world agreeing in the great points of morality, as much as they differ in those of faith.

Fifthly, Because infidelity is not of so malignant a nature as immorality; or, to put the same reason in another light, because it is generally owned, there may be salvation for a virtuous infidel, (particularly in the case of invincible ignorance,) but none for a vicious believer.

Sixthly, Because faith seems to draw its principal, if not all its excellency, from the influence it has upon morality; as we shall see more at large, if we consider wherein consists the excellency of faith, or the belief of revealed religion; and this I think is,

First, In explaining, and carrying to greater height, several points of morality. Secondly, In furnishing new and stronger motives to enforce the practice of morality.

Thirdly, In giving us more amiable ideas of the Supreme Being, more endearing notions of one another, and a truer state of ourselves, both in regard to the grandeur and vileness of our natures.

Fourthly, By showing us the blackness and deformity of vice, which in the Christian system is so very great, that he who is possessed of all perfection, and the sovereign judge of it, is represented by several of our divines as hating sin to the same degree that he loves the sacred person who was made the propitiation of it.

Fifthly, In being the ordinary and prescribed method of making morality effectual to salvation.

I have only touched on these several heads, which every one who is conversant in discourses of this nature will easily enlarge upon in his own thoughts, and draw conclusions from them which may be useful to him in the conduct of his life. One I am sure is so obvious that he cannot miss it, namely, that a man cannot be perfect in his scheme of morality, who does not strengthen and support it with that of the Christian faith.

Notwithstanding this general division of Besides this, I shall lay down two or three Christian duty into morality and faith, and other maxims, which I think we may dethat they have both their peculiar excel-duce from what has been said. lencies, the first has the pre-eminence in several respects.

First, Because the greatest part of morality (as I have stated the notion of it,) is of a fixed eternal nature, and will endure when faith shall fail, and be lost in conviction.

First, That we should be particularly cautious of making any thing an article of faith, which does not contribute to the confirmation or improvement of morality.

Secondly, That no article of faith can be true and authentic, which weakens or subverts the practical part of religion, or what I have hitherto called morality.

Secondly, Because a person may be qualified to do greater good to mankind, and Thirdly, That the greatest friend of mo become more beneficial to the world, by rality and natural religion cannot possibly morality without faith, than by faith with-apprehend any danger from embracing out morality. Christianity, as it is preserved pure and uncorrupt in the doctrines of our national church.*

Thirdly, Because morality gives a greater perfection to human nature, by quieting the mind, moderating the passions, and advancing the happiness of every man in his private capacity.

There is likewise another maxim which

* The Gospel.

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