fity, Honour, and Humanity, in a civilized Nation, as to permit Men, capable of doing God and the Public fo much Service, to be buried in Obfcurity; as not to diftinguish fuch extraordinary Inftances of perfonal Merit; as not to compaffionate a fublime Genius, an inlarged Soul, affociated with low and little Minds, while fome others are advanced to more confpicuous Pofts; who, to speak decently, would not be miffed, if they were to change Places with my Country Coufin. I fpeak my Thoughts the more freely of this deferving neglected Gentleman, because I cannot be fufpecied to speak with Partiality or finifter Views. Though he does me the Honour to claim Kindred with me, I never had the Pleafure of being perfonally known to him. The Efteem and Concern which I have for him, proceed folely from a generous Regard to his great Merit, and an affecting Sense of his hard Fate. But fo, this Writer has told us, it must be in the latter Days. The Worldly Spirit, which reigns fo generally in the Hearts of the prefent Age, was to precede the Coming of the Prince of this World to make his laft Effort, in the Perfon of Anti-Chrift, and is too plain a Symptom that he will probably appear in a fhort Time. I have nothing farther to add, by way of Preface, but an Apology to my Relation for writing thefe fport Memoirs of his Life (the beft that I could procure from his Friends and Acquaintance); but, as he has been buried almoft forty Years, he may very fairly be confidered as a dead Man.

R. HOOKER.

N a late Letter I took notice of a dangerous Evil, arifing from a Misapplica→ tion of Names and Confufion of Characters, and particularly with regard to

thofe wrong-headed Gentlemen are who the great Pretenders to Free-thinking. I fhall now confider another Species of Ambiguities, commonly called Men of Honour; to which all Men make Pretenfions, and to which not one in a thousand has a real Title. I fhall endeavour to explain the true Meaning of the Words, and rescue them from the Abuses of common Speech, from whence it will evidently appear who are really and truly Men of Honour, and who they are that vainly affume the Title, without any real Foundation of Claim to fuppport it. Mr. Addison F 2

has

rage

has long ago obferved in one of his Tatlers, that in modern Eftimation, the fingle Point of Honour was Couin Men and Chastity in Women. Whence it contes to pass, that every Man who dares to fend, or accept a Challenge, and every pretty Female that dares to refuse one, have an indifputable Title to Honour: And he that has Religion and good Senfe enough to refuse a "Challenge, is in Danger of being kicked out of the fashionable World for a Scoundrel and a Coward; and every Woman who has once been fo unhappy as to offend in Point of Chaftity, cannot, by the moft fincere Repentance, by all the merciful Abatements that ought to be made for human Frailty, and a thousand amiable Quálities befides, thrown into the Balance, be ever able to wipe off an indelible Mark of Infamy fixed upon her by all the ill-natured Prudes and Coquets about

Town.

I have often thought that from thefe falfe Notions one might account for numberless Abfurdities in common Life, of which I fhall only mention two or three. There is many a Man, who, if you were to charge him with Blafphemy, Adultery, Fornication, or Drunkenness, would hear it with Patience at least, if not with Pleasure, and might perhaps have the prepofterous Vanity of affecting to be thought more wicked than he really was; but if you were to give that Man the Lye, he would take fire at once, and nothing but Blood should give him Satisfaction. Now whence can this proceed, but from an Opinion that a Lye is a certain Mark of Cowardice, that none but an abject Scoundrel could be guilty of a Thing that he would be afhamed to own, and that Lying was

the

the most infamous fneaking Vice that could infect the Heart or Tongue of Man.

Hence alfo proceeds the common mistaken Notions of Pofts of Honour, by which is commonly: understood no more than certain Pofts or Offices to which Precedence with Titles and Badges of Honour, are ufually affixed, without any Confideration. of the Merit of the Perfons, the Nature of the Service, the Means by which they were obtained, and the Ufes that are made of them. When the Honour and Service of their Prince and Country are the only Views aimed at in erecting and filling these Pofts, when they are freely beftowed as the Rewards of fuperior Merit, and are executed with Fidelity and Courage, they are then really and trulyPofts of Honour; but if they be only erected upon private, perfonal, and corrupt Views, purchased by the beft Bidder, or bestowed as the inglorious Rewards of Venality and Proftitution, and executed with all the low Cunning of a Stockjobber, or a Jockey.-In all fuch Cafes,. as Mr. Addifon finely expreffes it, The Post of Honour is the private Station.

But the moft abfurd Abufe of the Word, is, Debts of Honour, by which are usually understood only fuch Debts as are contracted by Play, or Wagers, whether at the Quadrille Table, or New-market. Lady TOWNLY is fcrupulously punctual in discharging her Play Debts, but has no Patience to pay her Money to a Pack of flovenly dirty Tradefmen, who, for several Years, have had the Honour to provide Food and Raiment for her Ladyship and her Family; which, if the Rafcals had either Manners, or Confcience, they would think a fufficient Reward for all the Time and

Expence they could poffibly employ in fuch an honourable Service.

To rectify thefe, and many other prevailing Miftakes upon this Head, I fhall endeavour to throw together a few occafional Thoughts concerning the true Notion of Honour, in Oppofition to the popular Prejudices and Mistakes about it, with the true Ufes and Abuses of both.

True Honour is feated in the Soul. It is a Kind of Fons Perennis, rifing from a generous Heart, and flowing with a natural and eafy Defcent into all the different Traces of Life and Channels of Duty, refreshing, invigorating, and adorning all the Faculties of the Soul, the Language of the Tongue, the very Air of the Face, and Motions of the Body, It displays itself in a natural unaffected Greatness and Firmness of Mind, improved by a Train of wife and religious Reflections, and generous Actions, in which perfonal Virtue and real Merit truly confift. The Jewish Cabbalifts had a pretty Allegory to express this Truth as founded in the original Make and Frame of Nature. They tell us, That when Mofes defcribes the great River of Eden, branching out into four Streams, and watering the whole Garden of God, Gen. ii. 10. we are to understand by Paradise the Soul of Man. The River was this Connata Virtus, this original Fountain of Truth and Virtue, arifing from the very Root and Effence of the Soul, and branching out into the four Cardinal Virtues, and all the other lower Degrees and Kinds of Virtue, even the inferior Morals of Affability, Politeness, Good-nature, and Good-manners; that in fhort there lies hid in the Root of every human Soul,

however