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Man of Senfe. The Beggar has no Relish above Senfations; he finds Reft more agreeable than Motion; and while he has a warm Fire and his Doxy, never reflects that he deferves to be whipped. Every Man who terminates his Satisfactions and Enjoyments within the Supply of his own Neceffities and Paffions, is, fays Sir ROGER, in my Eye as poor a Rogue as Scarecrow. But, continued he, for the Lofs of publick and private Virtue, we are beholden to your Men of Parts forfooth; it is with them no matter what is done, fo it be done with an Air. But to me, who am fo whimsical in a corrupt Age as to act according to Nature and Reason, a selfisk Man, in the most fhining Circumftance and Equipage, appears in the fame Condition with the Fellow abovementioned, but more contemptible, in Proportion to what more he robs the Publick of and enjoys above him. I lay it down therefore for a Rule, That the whole Man is to move together; that every Action of any Importance, is to have a Profpect of publick Good; and that the general Tendency of our indifferent Actions, ought to be agreeable to the Dictates of Reason, of Religion, of good Breeding; without this, a Man, as I before have hinted, is hopping inftead of walking, he is not in his entire and proper Motion.

WHILE the honeft Knight was thus bewildering himself in good Starts, I looked intentively upon him, which made him, I thought, collect his Mind a little. What I am at, fays he, is to represent, That I am of Opinion, to polifh our Understandings and neglect our Manners, is of all things the most inexcufable. Reafon fhould govern Paffion, but instead of that, you fee, it is often fubfervient to it; and as unaccountable as one would think it, a wife Man is not always a good Man. This Degeneracy is not only the Guilt of particular Perfons, but at fome times of a whole People; and per haps it may appear upon Examination, that the most polite Ages are the leaft virtuous. This may be attributed to the Folly of admitting Wit and Learning as Merit in themselves, without confidering the Application of them. By this Means it becomes a Rule, not fo much to regard what we do, as how we do it. But this falfe Beauty will not pass upon Men of honeft Minds and true Tafte. Sir

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Richard

Richard Blackmore fays, with as much good Senfe as Virtue, It is a mighty Dishonour and Shame to employ excellent Faculties and abundance of Wit to humour and pleafe Men in their Vices and Follies. The great Enemy of Mankind, notwithstanding his Wit and Angelick Faculties, is the most odious Being in the whole Creation. He goes on foon after to fay very generously, That he undertook the writing of his Poem to rescue the Muses out of the Hands of Ravishers, to reßore them to their sweet and chafte Manfions, and to engage them in an Employment fuitable to their Dignity. This certainly ought to be the Purpofe of every Man who appears in Publick, and whoever does not proceed upon that Foundation, injures his Country as faft as he fucceeds in his Studies. When Modefty ceases to be the chief Ornament of one Sex, and Integrity of the other, Society is upon a wrong Bafis, and we fhall be ever after without Rules to guide our Judgment in what is really becoming and ornamental. Nature and Reafon direct one thing, Paffion and Humour another: To follow the Dictates of the two latter, is going into a Road that is both endless, and intricate, when we purfue the other, our Paffage is delightful, and what we aim at eafily attainable.

I do not doubt but England is at prefent as polite a Nation as any in the World; but any Man who thinks can easily fee, that the Affectation of being Gay and in Fashion, has very near eaten up our good Senfe and our Religion. Is there any thing fo juft, as that Mode and Gallantry fhould be built upon exerting our felves in what is proper and agreeable to the Inftitutions of Juftice and Piety among us? And yet is there any thing more common than that we run in perfect Contradiction to them? All which is fupported by no other Pretenfion, than that it is done with what we call a good Grace.

NOTHING ought to be held laudable or becoming, but what Nature it felf fhould prompt us to think fo. Refpect to all kind of Superiors is founded, methinks, upon Inftinet; and yet what is fo ridiculous as Age? I make this abrupt Transition to the Mention of this Vice more than any other, in order to introduce a little Story, which I think a pretty Inftance that the most polite Age is in danger of being the most vicious.

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IT happened at Athens, during a publick Reprefen⚫tation of fome Play exhibited Honour of the Common-wealth, that an old Gentleman came too late for a Place fuitable to his Age and Quality. Many of the young Gentlemen who obferved the Difficulty and Confufion he was in, made Signs to him that they would accommodate him if he came where they fate: The good Man bustled through the Crowd accordingly; but when he came to the Seats to which he was invited, the Jeft was to fit clofe, and expofe him, as he stood out of Countenance, to the whole Audience. The Frolick went round all the Athenian Benches. But on those Occafions there were also particular Places affigned for Foreigners: When the good Man skulked towards the Boxes appointed for the Lacedemonians, that ‹ honest People, more virtuous than polite, rose up all to a Man, and with the greatest Refpect received him among them. The Athenians being fuddenly touched with a Senfe of the Spartan Virtue and their own Degeneracy, gave a Thunder of Applaufe; and the old Man cry'd out, The Athenians understand what is good, but the Lacedemonians practife it.

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Somnia, terrores magicos, miracula, Sagas,
Nocturnos lemures, portentaque Theffala Rides?

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Hor.

OING Yefterday to dine with an old Acquaintance, I had the Misfortune to find his whole Family very much dejected. Upon asking him the Occafion of it, he told me that his Wife had dreamt a ftrange Dream the Night before, which they were afraid portended fome Misfortune to themselves or to their Children. At her coming into the Room I obferved a fettled Melancholy in her Countenance, which I fhould have been troubled for, had I not heard from whence it proceeded.. We were no fooner far down

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but

N° 7 but, after having looked upon me a little while, My Dear, (fays he, turning to her Husband) you may now see the Stranger that was in the Candle laft Night. Soon after this, as they began to talk of Family Affairs, a little Boy at the lower end of the Table told her, that he was to go into Join-hand on Thursday. Thursday? (fays fhe) no Child if it please God, you shall not begin upon Childermas-day; tell your Writing-Mafer that Friday will be foon enough. I was reflecting with my felf on the Oddness of her Fancy, and wondering that any Body would eftablish it as a Rule to lofe a Day in every Week. In the midst of these my Mufings, fhe defired me to reach her a little Salt upon the Point of my Knife, which I did in fuch a Trepidation and Hurry of Obedience, that I let it drop by the Way; at which fhe immediately ftartled, and faid it fell towards her. Upon this I looked very blank; and, obferving the Concern of the whole Table, began to confider my felf, with fome Confusion, as a Perfon that had brought a Difafter upon the Family. The Lady however recovering her felf, after a little Space, faid to her Husband, with a Sigh, My Dear, Misfortunes never come fingle. My Friend, I found, acted but an Under-Part at his Table, and being a Man of more Good-nature than Understanding, thinks himself obliged to fall in with all the Paffions and Humours of his Yoke-Fellow: Do not you remember, Child, (fays she) that the Pidgeon-house fell the very Afternoon that our carelefs Wench fpilt the Salt upon the Table? Yes, (fays he) My Dear, and the next Poft brought us an Account of the Battel of Almanza. The Reader may guefs at the Figure I made, after having done all this Mischief. I difpatched my Dinner as foon as I could, with my ufual Taciturnity; when, to my utter Confufion, the Lady feeing me quitting my Knife and Fork, and laying them acrofs one another upon my Plate, defired me that I would humour her fo far as to take them out of that Figure, and place them Side by Side. What the Abfurdity was which I had committed I did not know, but I fuppofe there was fome traditionary Superftition in it; and therefore, in Obedience to the Lady of the Houfe, I difpofed of my Knife and Fork in two parallel Lines, which is the Figure I fhall always lay

them

them in for the future, tho' I do not know any Reason for it.

IT is not difficult for a Man to fee that a Perfon has conceived an Averfion to him. For my own Part, I quickly found, by the Lady's Looks, that the regarded me as a very odd kind of Fellow, with an unfortunate Afpect. For which Reason I took my Leave immediately after Dinner, and withdrew to my own Lodgings. Upon my Return Home, I fell into a profound Contemplation on the Evils that attend these fuperftitious Follies of Mankind; how they fubject us to imaginary Afflictions, and additional Sorrows, that do not properly come within our Lot. As if the natural Calamities of Life were not fufficient for it, we turn the most indifferent Circumstances into Misfortunes, and suffer as much from trifling Accidents, as from real Evils. I have known the fhooting of a Star spoil a Night's Reft; and have seen a Man in Love grow pale and tofe his Appetite, upon the plucking of a Merry-thought. A ScreechOwl at Midnight has alarmed a Family more than a Band of Robbers; nay, the Voice of a Cricket hath ftruck more Terror than the Roaring of a Lion. There is nothing fo inconfiderable, which may not appear dreadful to an Imagination that is filled with Omens and Prognofticks. A rufty Nail, or a crooked Pin, fhoot up into Prodigies.

I remember I was once in a mixt Affembly, that was full of Noise and Mirth, when on a sudden an old Woman unluckily obferved there were thirteen of us in Company. This Remark ftruck a pannick Terror into feveral who were present, infomuch that one or two of the Ladies were going to leave the Room; but a Friend of mine taking notice that one of our female Companions was big with Child, affirmed there were fourteen in the Room, and that, instead of portending one of the Company should die, it plainly foretold one of them fhould be born. Had not my Friend found this Expedient to break the Omen, I question not but half the Women in the Company would have fallen fick that very Night.

AN Old Maid, that is troubled with the Vapours, produces infinite Disturbances of this kind among her

-Friends

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