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WILL. HONEYCOMB gives us twenty Intimations in an Evening of several Hags whofe Bloom was given up to his Arms; and would raife a Value to himself for having had, as the Phrafe is, very good Women. WILL's good Women are the Comfort of his Heart, and fupport him, I warant, by the Memory of paft Interviews with Perfons of their Gondition. No, there is not in the World an Oc cafion wherein Vice makes fo phantaftical a Figure, as at the Meeting of two old People who have been Partners in unwarrantable Pleafure. To tell a toothlefs old Lady that fhe once had a good Set, or a defunct Wencher that he once was the admired Thing of the Town, are Satyrs inftead of Applauses; but on the other Side, confider the old Age of thofe who have paffed their Days in Labour, Industry, and Virtue, their Decays make them but appear the more venerable, and the Imperfection of their Bodies are beheld as a Misfortune to humane Society that their Make is fo little durable.

BUT to return more directly to my Man of Wit and Pleasure. In all Orders of Men where-ever this is the chief Character, the Perfon who wears it is a negligent -Friend, Father, and Husband, and intails Poverty on his unhappy Defcendants. Mortgages, Difeafes, and Settlements are the Legacies a Man of Wit and Pleafure leaves to his Family. All the poor Rogues that make fuch lamentable Speeches after every Seffions at Tyburn, were, in their Way, Men of Wit and Pleasure, before they fell into the Adventures which brought them thither.

IRRESOLUTION and Procrastination in all a Man's Affairs, are the Natural Effects of being addicted to Pleafure: Difhonour to the Gentleman and Bankruptcy to the Trader, are the Portion of either whofe chief Purpofe of Life is Delight. The chief Caufe that this Purfuit has been in all Ages received with fo much Quarter from the foberer Part of Mankind, has been that fome Men of great Talents have facrificed themselves to it: The fhining Qualities of fuch People have given a Beauty to whatever they were engaged in, and a Mixture of Wit has recommended Madness. For let any Man who knows what it is to have paffed much Time in a Series of Tollity, Mirth, Wit, or humorous Entertainments, look back at what he was all that while a doing, and he will find that be

has

has been at one Inftant fharp to fome Man he is forry to have offended, impertinent to fome one it was Cruelty to treat with fuch Freedom, ungracefully noifie at fuch a Time, unskilfully open at fuch a Time, unmercifully calumnious at fuch a Time; and from the whole Courfe of his applauded Satisfactions, unable in the End to recollect any Circumftance which can add to the Enjoy ment of his own Mind alone, or which he would put his Character upon with other Men. Thus it is with thofe who are best made for becoming Pleasures, but how monstrous is it in the Generality of Mankind who pretend this Way, without Genius or Inclination towards it? The Scene then is wild to an Extravagance: this is as if Fools fhould mimick Madmen. Pleasure of this Kind is the intemperate Meals and loud Jollities of the common Rate of Country Gentlemen, whofe Pratice and Way of Enjoyment is to put an End as fast as they can to that little Particle of Reason they have when they are fober: Thefe Men of Wit and Pleasure difpatch their Senfes as fast as poffible by drinking till they cannot taste, fmoaking till they cannot fee, and roaring till they cannot hear.

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N° 152.

Friday, Auguft 24.

Hom.

Οιδη φύλλων γυεὴ τοιήδε καὶ ἄνδρων.

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HERE is no fort of People whofe Converfation is fo pleasant as that of military Men, who derive their Courage and Magnanimity from Thought and Reflection. The many Adventures which attend their Way of Life makes their Conversation fo full of Incidents, and gives them fo frank an Air in speaking of what they have been Witneffes of, that no Company can be more amiable than that of Men of Senfe who are Soldiers. There is a certain irregular Way in their Narrations or Difcourfe, which has fomething more warm

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and pleafing than we meet with among Men, who are ufed to adjuft and methodize their Thoughts.

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I was this Evening walking in the Fields with my Friend Captain SENTRY, and I could not, from the many Relations which I drew him into of what paffed when he was in the Service, forbear expreffing my Wonder, that the Fear of Death, which we, the reft of Mankind; arm our felves against with fo much Contemplation, Reason and Philofophy, fhould appear fo little in Camps, that common Men march into open Breaches; meet oppo fite Battalions, not only without Reluctance but with Alacrity. My Friend answered what I faid in the following Manner What you wonder at may very natu rally be the Subject of Admiration to all who are not converfant in Camps; but when a Man has spent some time in that way of Life, he obferves a certain Mechanick Courage which the ordinary Race of Men become "Mafters of from acting always in a Crowd: They fee indeed many drop, but then they fee many more alive; they obferve themfelves efcape very narrowly, and they do not know why they fhould not again. Befides which general way of loofe thinking, they ufually fpend the other Part of their Time in Pleafures upon which their Minds are fo entirely bent, that fhort Labours or Dingers are but a cheap Purchase of Jollity, Triumph, Victory, fresh Quarters, new Scenes, and uncommon Adventures. Such are the Thoughts of the Executive Part of an Army, and indeed of the Grofs of Mankind in general, but none of thefe Men of Mechanical Cous rage have ever made any great Figure in the Profeffion of Arms. Those who are formed for Command, are fuch as have reafoned themselves, out of a Confiration of greater Good than Length of Days, into fuch a Negligence of their Being, as to make it their first Pofition, That it is one Day to be refigned; and fince it is, in the Profecution of worthy Actions and Service of Mankind they can put it to habitual Hazard. The Event of our Designs, fay they, as it relates to others, is uncertain; but as it relates to our felves it must be profperous, while we are in the Purfuit of our Duty, and within the Terms upon which Providence has enfured our Happiness, whether we die or live. All that

Nature

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1 Nature has prescribed muft be good; and as Death is natural to us, it is Abfurdity to fear it. Fear lofes its Purpose when we are fure it cannot preferve us, and we fhould draw Refolution to meet it from the Impoffibilty to escape it. Without a Refignation to the Neceffity of dying, there can be no Capacity in Man to attempt any thing that is glorious; but when they have once attained to that Perfection, the Pleafures of a Life spent in Martial Adventures, are as great as any of which the human Mind is capable. The Force of Reafon gives a certain Beauty, mixed with the Con ⚫ fcience of well-doing and Thirft of Glory, to all which before was terrible and ghaftly to the Imagination. Add to this, that the Fellowship of Danger, the com mon good of Mankind, the general Caufe, and the manifeft Virtue you may obferve in fo many Men, who made no Figure 'till that Day, are fo many Incentives to deftroy the little Confideration, of their own • Perfons. Such are the Heroick Part of Soldiers 'who are qualified for Leaders: As to the reft whom • I before fpoke of, I know not how it is, but they ar rive at a certain Habit of being void of Thought, info. much that on Occafion of the most imminent Danger they are ftill in the fame Indifference. Nay I remember an Inftance of a gay French-man, who was led on in Battle by a fuperior Officer, (whofe Conduct it was his Cuftom to fpeak of always with Contempt and Raillery) and in the Beginning of the Action received a Wound he was fenfible was mortal; his Reflection on this Occafion was, I wish I could live another Hour, to fee how this blundering Coxcomb will get clear of this Business,

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I remember two young Fellows who rid in the fame Squadron of a Troop of Horfe, who were ever together, they eat, they drank, they intreagued; in a Word, all their Paffions and Affections feemed to tend the fame Way, and they appeared fervicable to each other in them. We were in the Dusk of the Evening to march ⚫ over a River, and the Troop these Gentlemen belong. ⚫ed to were to be tranfported in a Ferry-boat as fast as they could. One of the Friends was now in the Boat, while the other was drawn up with others by the Water-fide

⚫ waiting

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waiting the Return of the Boat. A Disorder happened in the Paffage by an unruly Horfe; and a Gentleman who had the Rein of his Horfe negligently under his Arm, ! was forced into the Water by his Horfe's jumping over. The Friend on the Shore cry'd out, Who's that is drowned trow? He was immediately anfwered, Your • Friend Harry Thompson. He gravely reply'd, Ay he had a mad Horse. This fhort Epitaph from fuch a Fa. miliar without more Words, gave me, at that Time under Twenty, a very moderate Opinion of the Friend, fhip of Companions. Thus is Affection and every other Motive of Life in the Generality rooted out by the prefent bufie Scene about them: they lament no Man whofe Capacity can be fupplied by another; and ⚫ where Men converfe without Delicacy, the next Man you meet will ferve as well as he whom you have lived with half your Life. To fuch the Devaftation of Countries, the Mifery of Inhabitants, the Cries of the Pillaged, and the filent Sorrow of the great Unfortu nate, are ordinary Objects; their Minds are bent upon the little Gratifications of their own Senfes and Appe tites, forgetful of Compaffion, infenfible of Glory, avoiding only Shame; their whole Heart's taken up with the trivial Hope of meeting and being merry. Thefe are the People who make up the Grofs of the Soldiery: But the fine Gentleman in that Band of Men, is such a One as I have now in my Eye, who is foremoft in all Danger to which he is ordered. His Officers are his Friends and Companions, as they are Men of Honour and Gentlemen; the private Men his Brethren, as they are of his Species. He is beloved of all that behold him They wish him in Danger as he views their Ranks, that they may have Occafions to fave him at ⚫ their own Hazard. Mutual Love is the Order of the Files where he commands; every Man afraid for himfelf and his Neighbour, not left their Commander fhould punish them, but left he fhould be offended. Such is his Regiment who knows Mankind, and feels their Diftreffes fo far as to prevent them. Juft in diftributing what is their Due, he would think himself below their Taylor to wear a Snip of their Cloaths in • Lace upon his own; and below the moft rapacious

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Agent,

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