the good of the kingdom. On the contrary, they leave every arrogance of this nature to their fuperiors, who act upon principles diametrically oppofite; from which we may naturally infer, that thofe are always the trueft patriots who make the leaft demands upon our gratitude for praife; and who pursue the indeviable path of national welfare, without looking upon themselves as entitled to any extraordinary merit from the fteadiness of their course. It is also worthy of observation, that the lower the fituation of the British plebeian, the more inflexibly rivetted we find him to the good of his country; the more we fee him wedded to his gin and tobacco: while, on the contrary, the higher we go among confequence and coronets, the higher encouragement we fhall find given to every thing of a foreign manu facture, and the higher we shall find the noftril of contempt turned up at the produce of poor Old England.

It may poffibly be obferved on this occafion, that notwithstanding this great fuperiority which I give the loweft ranks over the very first, yet, if an enquiry was made into the principles of each, both might appear to bear a nearer fimilitude at bottom than at present I feem inclinable to allow. It may poffibly be urged, that if the poorest orders of the people were able to furnish them felves with the luxuries of life, they would run into just the fame exceffes for which they are continually railing at their betters; and manifest as little regard for the welfare of their country as the most fashionable man of quality in the kingdom. Why, in fact, I believe they would; but this proves nothing more than that, with all our patriotic boafting, we have not a fingle fpark of public fpirit exifting amongst us as a nation; and that, with all our ridiculous parade of free-born English men, we are the veriest flaves in the univerfe to the worst of tyrants-vice and affectation.

The only way to recover our liberty from the oppreffive fangs of fuch arbitrary rulers, is to make a proper ufe of our understanding. We do not want either fpirit or good fenfe; yet, through fome unaccountable impulie, we act as if utterly deftitute of both. We can ridicule our follies, and be ashamed of

our vices, yet never make the least effort to get the better of either; and there is fcarcely a road to virtue but what we have the juftice to admire, at the very inftant we are giving the most unbounded loose to licentioufnefs and immorality. With regard, however, to actions of a public kind, there is a patriotism of the moft exalted nature, with which we have hitherto appeared totally unac quainted, notwithstanding it is of infinitely greater importance than the encouragement of commerce or manufactures. This patriotifm is the practice of moral rectitude, and the defire of setting a good example to our neighbours. Now-a-days, if a legiflator delivers a popular harangue in either house of parliament, we fet him down as the delicia humani generis; and, upon the mere ftrength of this fingle qualification, give him an indubitable privilege to trample upon every law both of reason and morality. If he exerts himself in a ftrenuous oppofition to government, we are fegardless how many worthy tradefmen he breaks by his difhonefty; and laugh at a violation of our wife and our daughters, where the ruffian happens to profefs a real regard for the intereft of his country. By this means we reconcile the whiteft virtue with the most oppofite vice; and imagine it poffible that a man can have the highest venera tion imaginable for our rights and liberties, when he is burfting through the most facred of them all.

Let us, however, be affured, that a bad man never made a real patriot. He that is infenfible of what he owes to his Deity, and to himfelf, can never be confcious of what is due to his country. The foundation of all public excellence is in private virtue; and where we find that wanting, though a combination of fome peculiar circumstances may engage a great perfonage to fupport the intereft of his country, we may rest assured that he is actuated by motives very different to the principles of patriotifm; and that he only makes ufe of the fafcinating found to cloak the purpofes of difappointed pride, and fecret refentment. Where a man truly loves his country, he is tender of it's minuteft laws; and pays an equal regard to the morals, as he does to the temporal interests, of the public...

THOUGH I have more once

condemned the practice of toate ing, as a custom diametrically opposite to every principle both of reafon and politenefs, there is, however, one fpecies of it which has yet efcaped my animadverfion, though, perhaps, none of the leaft culpable: I intend, therefore, to make it the fubject of my prefent difcuffion, and flatter myfelf that it will prove no way difagreeable to my readers. When the fashion of toafting was first of all inftituted, is by no means a neceffary object of enquiry; but had it been judiciously confined to the limits of a tavern, and kept facred for the purposes of midnight riot, it would be infinitely less entitled to our cenfure and contempt. The wild and giddy-headed hour of extravagance might probably palliate a cafual guft of folly and licentioufnefs; but when, in open violation of all the dictates of decency, it is carried into private families, the leaft extenuation becomes utterly impoffible, and indignation is at a lofs whether moft to condemn the ignorance or the brutality of the proceeding.

It is a juft obfervation of a very celebrated author, that in proportion as every country is barbarous, it is addicted to inebriety. Were the people of England to be judged of by this ftandard, it is much to be feared, that our national character would be none of the most amiable. Notwithstanding few people can lay down better rules for behaviour than ourselves, there are none more unaccountably prepofterous in their conduct when we vifit at one anothers houfes, and propofe to pafs a few hours in an agreeable manner, how abfurdly do we set out! instead of endeavouring to enjoy what Mr. Pope finely calls

The feast of reafon, and the flow of foul, we think every entertainment infipid till reafon is totally banished out of company; and imagine, through fome monitrous depravity of incelina tion, that a social emanation of foul is never to be obtained, but where politenefs and propriety are apparently facrificed, and the roar of underbred excefs

circulated round the room at the ex

pence both of fenfe and morality.

To the indelible difgrace of this country, there is fcarcely a vice or a folly of our neighbours but what we fedulously copy, at the very moment we affect to mention the people whofe manners we thus ridiculously imbibe, with the most infuperable difregard. Their good qualities are, in fact, the only things which we fcorn to adopt, as if it was a derogatior either from our fpirit or our underftanding to owe a fingle instance of prudence or virtue to the force of example. France, in particular, has kindly fupplied us with an abundance of follies; but there is not, to my recollection, any one circumstance wherein fhe has given the smalleft improvement to our understandings: not that France is deftitute in fenfe, or deficient in virtue; it is we who want the wisdom of imitating her where the is really praiseworthy, and are infatuated to the lamentable degree of neglecting those actions which we ought to pursue with our highest adiniration, to follow those which ought to be the objects of our highest averfion and contempt.

In the prefent cafe, I mean their convivial entertainments, the French are particularly fenfible and well-bred, they are all vivacity, without running into the leaft indelicacy; and can keep up the neceffary life of a focial meeting, with out borrowing the fmallest affiftance from immorality. In the most elevated flow of fpirits, they never think of fending the women out of company, merely to give an unbounded loose to ribaldry and licentioufnefs. On the contrary, they eftimate the pleafure of the entertainment by the number of the ladies; and look upon an evening to be moft wretchedly trifled away, where a party of men Thus their politeness prevents them from make an appointment for a tavern. deviating either into folly or vice; and in the most intiinate intercourse of fa milies, nothing fcarcely ever passes but a round of fenfible freedom and uncon ftrained civility.

With us, however, the cafe is widely different; if half a dozen friends meet at the house of a valuable acquaintance, in

ftead

this nature, from a converfation which I had laft in a polite company, about the celebrated fable of Sigifmonda and Guifcard, as tranflated from Boccace, by Mr. Dryden. This performance every body mentioned with an air of rapture; it was exquifitely tender in the fentiment, aftonishingly nervous in the argument; and for verfification, was fuperior to any thing in the English language. For my own part, Mr. Babler, I could by no means fee in what the amazing merit of this poem confifted: as to the tendency, I am fure it is to the laft degree dangerous; as to the condut, it is both against reafon and nature; and as to the literary merit, though there is here and there an emanation of genius, yet where there is one tolerable line, there are fifty infinitely too flat and infipid to be admitted into the last page of a common news-paper.

That I may not feem on this occafion to reckon without my hoft, I fhall take the liberty of recapitulating the principal circumftances of the ftory; thefe, therefore, are as follow: Tancred, King of Salerno, had a most beautiful woman for a daughter, whom he married to a neighbouring monarch; but that prince dying, Sigifimonda, which was the name of the lady, returned to her father's court, and was received with a degree of uncommon rapture by her father, who had always loved her with an incredible affection.

Unhappily, however, Sigifmonda was of a molt amorous conftitution; the poet himself tells us

Youth, health, and ease, and a moft
amorous mind,

To fecond nuptials had her thoughts
inclin'd,

And former joys had left a secret fing

behind.

Had I a defign to criticise feverely on the last line, I fhould naturally conclude that her deceased husband had bequeathed her fome marks of his affection that required an immediate application to the furgeon: but little errors are below a serious obfervation. The fing here mentioned, I fuppofe, means nothing more than an encreafed defire for a bed fellow; and therefore I fhall wave a comment upon the expreffion, and go on contentedly with my narrative.

The warmth of Sigifmonda's conftitution, however, would not permit her to do without a lover. In order, therefore, to gratify her wishes, and yet offer no violence to the laws of virtue, the caft her eyes round her father's court, and made choice of Guifcard, who had formerly been a page in the palace, and was not a little celebrated both for his mental and perfonal accomplishments. Having determined in relation to the man, her next care was to make an appointment with him, which the effected in a very artful man-, ner, and went to the place of rendezvous herself, attended by a priest, that matters might be fettled out of hand.

Sigifmonda having now obtained her great wifh, a husband, contrived by every mens in her power to keep the matter ftill a fecret from her father: but unluckily, one day, as she was giv ing a loose to the warmneft tranfports with her beloved Guifcard, the old king accidentally became a witnefs of their intercourfe and believing very naturally that his daughter was a ftrumpet, deter mined, and, in my opinion, not unjustly, to take an ample revenge on the man who had, as he conceived, so audaciously violated the honour of his fa mily. With this view he retired for that time unperceived, and ordered a couple of sturdy fellows to way-lay Guifcard, and take him into cuftody the next time he paid a fecret vifit to the princefs. This order was executed ac cordingly, and Sigifmonda was stretched upon the lover's hell a whole night, impatiently waiting for the appearance of her husband, and burning at once with all the vehemence of the most ardent expectation, and all the fury of the most inordinate love.

Next morning, when the appeared be. fore her father, the good old king, to preferve the dignity of both their characters, treated her with his accustomed tenderness till all their attendants retired: he then, in the most affecting terms, declaimed upon her guilt, mentioned his own exceffive fondness for her, and begged the would say something in extenuation of her crime, fince it was impoffible to varnish it over with any feasible excuse. He concluded, however, with the strongest menaces againft Guiferd, ftill imagining that he was nothing more than the paramour of his dau

•per

Hitherte

Hitherto Tancred's behaviour was nothing but what might be reafonably expected both from a monarch and a man. But the delicate Sigifmonda, to establish the character of a heroine, was to act in immediate oppofition to the fentiments of nature. Inftead, therefore, of falling at her father's feet, and endeavouring to excite his pity and forgiveness, he put on the unbluthing front of a Covent Garden (trumpet, called him a tyrant repeatedly, and told him, that he had married Guifcard from an impoffibility to live without an intercourse of fex with fome body, fince he (Tancred) took fo little pains to get her another husband. That I may not feem to exaggerate, I shall here give part of Tancred's fpeech, and part of her reply

As I have lov'd, and yet I love thee more,
Than ever father lov'd a child before;
So that indulgence draws me to forgive;
Nature that gives thee life would have thee
live.

But as a public parent of the fate,
My juftice, and thy crime, requires thy
fate.

• Fain would I chufe a middle course to fteer; Nature's too kind, and juftice too fevere: Speak for us both, and to the balance bring On either fide the father and the king. Heav'n knows my heart is bent to favour thee;

Make it but fcanty weight, and leave the reit to me."

Here topping with a figh, he pour'd a flood Of tears, to make the last expreffion good. From this behaviour of Tancred's, and from the prodigious fondnefs which he had always manifefted for her, Sigifmonda had the ftrongest reafon in the world to expect a pardon from her fa

ther; but no-fhe was to treat the vcnerable prince with the utmost indig nity; to fet an example of ignorant die obedience to all pofterity, and to facrifice the life of a man whom the paffionately loved, merely because the poet wanted to make her an heroine.-Rifum teneatis amici.Here begins her anfwer-

.1

Tancred, I neither am difpos'd to make
Request for life, nor offer'd life to take;
Much lefs deny the deed, but leaft of all
Beneath pretended juftice weakly fall;
My words to facred truth fhall be con-
• fin'd,

My deeds fhall fhew the greatness of my

mind.

That I have lov'd, I own; that still I love, I call to witness all the pow'rs above; Yet more I own; to Guifcard's love I give The small remaining time I have to five; And if beyond this life defire can be, "Not Fate itself fhall fet my paffion free.

This firft avow'd; nor folly warp'd my

mind,

Nor the frail texure of the female kind Betray'd my virtue; for too well I knew What honour was, and honour had his due.

Before the holy prieft my vows were tyd, So came I not a ftrumpet, but a bride; This for my fame, and for the public voice: Yet more, his merits juftify'd my choice; Which had they not, the first election thine, That bond diffolv'd, the next is freely mine; 'Or grant I err'd, (which yet I muft deny) Had paren s pow'reven fecond vows to tie; Thy little care to mend my widow'd nights, Hasfarc'd motor course of marri gerites, To fill an empty fide, and follow knewn delights.

What have I done in this deferving blame? State laws may alter, nature's are the fame: Thefe are ufurp'd on helpless women.kind, Made without our confent, and wanting pow'r to bind.'

Sigifmonda's harangue, you know, Mr. Babler, is a very long one, and in feveral paffages contains fentiments infinitely too grofs for the ear of a delicate reader. The public, however, from thefe curfory obfervations, will immediately fee that the conduct of Tancred, if not totally excufable, has at

leaft not a little to be faid in it's defence; and they will alfo fee, that highly as Sigifmonda has been admired for her fpirit and her virtue by a number of writers, that admiration has been much more the effect of their complai fance than the refult of her defervings. I am, Sir, &c.

CRITO.

Ne