Dear Correfpondent, W OULD you marry to please other People or yourfelt? T ********** No. 255. Saturday, December 22. Laudis amore tumes? funt certa piacula, quæ te [IMITATED.] Hor. Ep. 1. 1. 1. v. 36.. Know, there are Rhymes, which (fresh and fresh apply'd) Will cure the arrant'ft Puppy of his Pride. T POPE. 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 Patlions is to ftir it up, and to put it upon Ac-tion, to awaken the Understanding, to enforce the Will,. and to make the whole Man more vigorous and attentive in the Profecution of his Designs. As this is the End of the Paffions in general, fo it is particularly of Ambition, which puthes the Soul to fuch Actions as are apt to procure Honour and Reputation to the Actor. But if we carry our Reflections higher, we may discover farther Ends of Providence in implanting this Paffion in Mankind.. IT was neceflary for the World, that Arts fhould be invented and improved,. Books written and tranfmitted to Potterity, 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 small Improvements in the World, were there not fome common Principle of Action work ing 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. 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 subject him to fuch a Paffion as would be useless to the World, and a Torment to himself. WERE not this Defire of Fame very strong, 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 diftinguish themselves from the reft 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 seems 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 those 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 if 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 those are generally most unsuccessful in their Purfuit after Fame, who are most defirous of obtaining it. It is Salluff's Remark upon Cato, that the less he coveted Glory the more he acquired 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 difcovered the Paffionate Defire of Fame in the Ambitious Man (as no Temper of Mind is more apt to fhew itself) they become fparing fparing and referved in their Commendations, they envy him the Satisfaction of an Applause, 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 Perverseness of Temper grow wary in their Praises of one, who fets too great a Value on them, left they should rife him too high in his own Imagination, 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 still afraid left any of his Actions fhould be thrown away in private, left his Deferts should be concealed from the Notice of the World, or receive any Disadvantage from the Reports which others make of them. This often fets him on empty Boafts and Oftentations of himself, and betrays him into vain fantastical Recitals of his own Performances: His Difcourse generally leans one Way, and, whatever is the Subject 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 converses with, and ruins the Character he is fo induftrious to advance by it. For tho' his Actions are never fo glorious, they lose their Luftre when they are drawn at large, and fet to show 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 substantial Greatness of Soul looks down with a generous Neglect on the Cenfures and Applauses of the Multitude, and places a Man beyond the little Noise and Strife of Tongues. Accordingly we find in ourselves a fecret Awe and Veneration for the Character of one who moves above us in a regular and illuftrious Courfe of Virtue, without any regard to our good or ill Opinions of him, to our Reproaches or Commendations. As on the contrary it is ufual for us, when we would take off from the Fame and Reputation of an Action, to ascribe 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 greatBravery of Mind to be worked up to any nobleAction by so selfish 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 is Fame a thing difficult to be obtained by all, but particularly by those who thirst after it, fince most Men have fo much either of Ill-nature, or of Wariness, 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 itfelf looked upon as a Weakness in the greatest Characters. IN the next place, Fame is eafily loft, and as difficult to be preferved as it was at firft to be acquired. But this I fhall make the Subject of a following Paper. с No. 256. Monday, December 24. Φήμη γάρ τε κακὴ πέλεται κέφη μὴν ἀεῖραι Defire of Fame by various Ways is croft, Hef. THERE are many Pafions 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 Reflection on their own Indeserts; and will therefore take care to reproach him with the Scandal of fome past 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 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 preserve their own. Thofe who were once his Equals envy and defame him, because they now fee him their Superior; and those 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 Observation of Mankind draws a Multitude of Eyes upon him that will narrowly infpect every part of him, confider him nicely in all Views, and not be a little pleased when they have taken him in the worst and most disadvantageous Light. There are many who find a Pleasure in contradicting the common Reports of Fame, and in fpreading abroad the Weakneffes of an exalted Character. They publish their ill-natur'd Discoveries with a fecret Pride, and applaud themselves for the Singularity of their Judgment which has searched deeper than others, detected what the rest of the World have overlooked, and found a Flaw in what the Generality of Mankind admires. Others there are who proclaim the Errors and Infirmities of a great Man with an inward Satisfaction and Complacency, if they discover none of the like Errors and Infirmities in themfelves; for while they are expofing another's Weaknesses, they are tacitly aiming at their own Commendations, who are not fubject to the like Infirmities, and are apt to be tranfported with a fecret kind of Vanity to fee themfelves fuperior in fome refpects to one of a fublime and celebrated Reputation. Nay, it very often happens, that none are more industrious in publishing the Blemishes of an extraordinary Reputation, than fuch as lie open to the fame Cenfures in their own Characters, as either hoping to excuse their own Defects by the Authority of fo high an Example, or raifing an imaginary Applaufe to themfelves for refembling a Perfon of an exalted Reputation, though in the blameable Parts of his Character. If all thefe fecret Springs of Detraction fail, yet very often a vain Oftentation of Wit fets a Man on attacking an established Name, and facrificing it to the Mirth and Laughter of those about him. A Satire or a Libel on one of the common |