upon the characters of those who publicly answer for what they have produced. The Examiner and the Guardian might have disputed upon any particular they had thought fit, without having introduced any third person, or making any allusions to matters foreign to the subject before them. But since he has thought fit, in his paper of May the eighth, to defend himself by my example, I shall beg leave to say to the town (by your favour to me, Mr. Ironside) that our conduct would still be very widely different though I should allow that there were particu. In the space of twenty years they will be able to give your majesty greater sums with ease, than you can now draw from them with the greatest difficulty. You have abundant materials in your kingdom to employ your people, and they do not want capacity to be employed. Peace and trade shall carry out their labour to all the parts of Europe, and bring back yearly treasures to your subjects. There will be always fools enough to purchase the manufactures of France, though France should be prohibited to purchase those of other countries. In the mean time your majesty shall never want suffi-lar persons pointed at in the places which he cient sums to buy now and then an important fortress from one or other of your indigent neighbours. But, above all, peace shall ingratiate your majesty with the Spanish nation, during the life of their crazy king; and after his death a few seasonable presents among his courtiers shall purchase the reversion of his crowns, with all the treasures of the Indies, and then the world must be your own.' This was the substance of what was then said by monsieur Colbert. The king was not at all offended with this liberty of his minister. He knew the value of the man, and soon after made him the chief director of the trade and manufactures of his people. No. 53.] Tuesday, May 12, 1713. Desinant Maledicere, malefacta ne noscant sua. mentions in the Tatlers. When a satirist feigns a name, it must be the guilt of the person attacked, or his being notoriously understood guilty before the satire was written, that can make him liable to come under the fictitious appellation. But when the licence of printing letters of people's real names is used, things may be affixed to men's characters which are in the utmost degree remote from them. Thus it happens in the case of the earl of Nottingham, whom that gentleman asserts to have left the church; though nothing is more evident than that he deserves better of all men in holy orders, or those who have any respect for them or religion itself, than any man in England can pretend to. But as to the instances he gives against me: Old Downes is a fine piece of raillery, of which I wish I had been author. All I had to do in it, was to strike out what related to a gentlewoman about the queen, whom I thought a woman free from ambition, and I did it out of regard to innocence. Powel of the Bath is reconciled to me, and has made me free of his show. Tun, Gun, and Pistol from WapIt happens that the letter, which was in one made of them, and were observed to be more ping, laughed at the representation which was of my papers concerning a lady ill treated by regular in their conduct afterwards. The chathe Examiner, and to which he replies by tax-racter of lord Timon is no odious one; and to ing the Tatler with the like practice, was writ- tell you the truth, Mr. Ironside, when I writ it, ten by one Steele, who put his name to the col- I thought it more like me myself, than any other lection of papers called lucubrations. It was a wrong thing in the Examiner to go any farther man; and if I had in my eye any illustrious than the Guardian for what is said in the Guar- person who had the same faults with myself, it dian; but since Steele owns the letter, it is the ourselves, that what weaknesses we have, we have is no new, nor very criminal self-love to flatter same thing. I apprehend, by reading the Ex-in common with great men. For the exaltation aminer over a second time, that he insinuates, by the words close to the royal stamp, he would have the man turned out of his office. Considering he is so malicious, I cannot but think Steele has treated him very mercifully in his answer, which follows. This Steele is certainly a very good sort of a man, and it is a thousand pities he does not understand politics; but if he is turned out, my lady Lizard will invite him down to our country-house. I shall be very glad of his company, and I'll certainly leave something to one of his children. of style, and embellishing the character, I made Timon a lord, and he may be a very worthy one for all that I have said of him. I do not remember the mention of don Diego; nor do I remember that ever I thought of lord N▬▬▬▬▬m, in any character drawn in any one paper of Bickerstaff. Now as to Polypragmon, I drew it as the most odious image I could paint of ambition; and Polypragmon is to men of business what sir Fopling Flutter is to men of fashion. He's knight of the shire and represents you, all." Whosoever seeks employment for his own private interest, vanity, or pride, and not for the good of his prince and country, has his share in the picture of Polypragmon; and let this be the rule in examining that description, and I believe the Examiner will find others to whom he would rather give a part of it, than to the person on whom I believe he bestows it, because he thinks he is the most capable of having his vengeance on me. But I say not this from terrors of what any man living can do to me: I speak it only to show, that I have not, like him, fixed odious images on persons, but on vices. Alas, what occasion have I to draw people whom I think ill of, under feigned names? I have wanted and abounded, and I neither fear poverty nor desire riches; if that be true, why should I be afraid, whenever I see occasion to examine the conduct of any of my fellow-subjects? I should scorn to do it but from plain facts, and at my own peril, and from instances as clear as the day. Thus would I, and I will (whenever I think it my duty) inquire into the behaviour of any man in England, if he is so posted, as that his errors may hurt my country. This kind of zeal will expose him who is prompted by it to a great deal of ill-will; and I could carry any points I aim at for the improvement of my own little affairs, without making myself obnoxious to the resentment of any person or party. But, alas! what is there in all the gratifications of sense, the accommodations of vanity, or any thing that fortune can give to please a human soul, when they are put in competition with the interests of truth and liberty? Mr. Ironside, I confess I writ to you that letter concerning the young lady of quality, and am glad that my awkward apology (as the Examiner calls it) has produced in him so much remorse as to make any reparation to offended beauty." Though, by the way, the phrase of "offended beauty" is romantic, and has little of the compunction which should arise in a man that is begging pardon of a woman for saying of her unjustly, that she had affronted "her God and her sovereign." However, I will not bear hard upon his contrition; but am now heartily sorry I called him a miscreant, that word I think signifies an unbeliever. Mescroyant, I take it, is the old French word. I will give myself no manner of liberty to make guesses at hin, if I may say him: for though sometimes I have been told by familiar friends, that they saw me such a time talking to the Examiner; others, who have rallied me upon the sins of my youth, tell me it is credibly reported that I have formerly lain with the Examiner. I have carried my point, and rescued innocence from calumny; and it is nothing to me, whether the Examiner writes against me in the charac. ter of an estranged friend or an exasperated mistress.t 'He is welcome from henceforward to treat me as he pleases: but as you have begun to oppose him, never let innocence or merit be traduced by him. In particular, I beg of you, never let the glory of our nation, who made France tremble, and yet has that gentleness to be able to bear opposition from the meanest of his own countrymen, be calumniated in so impu. dent a manner, as in the insinuation that he affected a perpetual dictatorship. Let not a set of brave, wise, and honest men, who did all that has been done to place their queen in so great a figure, as to show mercy to the highest potentate in Europe, be treated by ungenerous men as traitors and betrayers. To prevent such evils is a care worthy a Guardian. These are Neque ita porro aut adulatus aut admiratus sum forTall tunam alterius, ut me meæ pœniteret. I never flattered, or admired, another man's fortune, so as to be dissatisfied with my own. IT has been observed very often, in authors divine and profane, that we are all equal after death, and this by way of consolation for that deplorable superiority which some among us seem to have over others; but it would be a doctrine of much more comfortable import, to establish an equality among the living; for the propagation of which paradox I shall hazard the following conceits. I must here lay it down, that I do not pretend to satisfy every barren reader, that all persons that have hitherto apprehended themselves extremely miserable shall have imme diate succour from the publication of this pa per; but shall endeavour to show that the dis cerning shall be fully convinced of the truth of this assertion, and thereby obviate all the im pertinent accusations of Providence for the unequal distribution of good and evil. If all men had reflection enough to be sensi. ble of this equality of happiness; if they were not made uneasy by appearances of superiority; there would be none of that subordination and subjection, of those that think themselves less happy, to those they think more so, which is so very necessary for the support of business and pleasure. The common turn of human application may be divided into love, ambition, and avarice, and whatever victories we gain in these our particu lar pursuits, there will always be some one or other in the paths we tread, whose superior happiness will create new uneasiness, and em. ploy us in new contrivances; and so through all degrees there will still remain the insatiable desire of some seeming unacquired good, to embitter the possession of whatever others we are accommodated with. And if we suppose a man perfectly accommodated, and trace him through all the gradations betwixt necessity and superfluity, we shall find that the slavery which occasioned his first activity, is not abated, but only diversified. Those that are distressed upon such canses as the world allows to warrant the keenest af fliction, are too apt, in the comparison of them. selves with others, to conclude, that where there is not a similitude of causes, there cannot be of affliction, and forget to relieve themselves with this consideration, that the little disappointments in a life of pleasure are as terrible as those in a life of business; and if the end of one man is to spend his time and money as agreeably as he can, that of the other to save both, an interruption in either of these pursuits is of equal consequence to the pursuers. Besides, as every trifle raiseth the mirth and gayety of the men of good circumstances, so do others as inconsiderable expose them to spleen and passion, and as Solomon says, ' according to their riches, their anger riseth.' One of the most bitter circumstances of poverty has been observed to be, that it makes men appear ridiculous; but I believe this affirmation may with more justice be appropriated to riches, since more qualifications are required to become a great fortune, than even to make one; and there are several pretty persons about town, ten times more ridiculous upon the very account of a good estate, than they possibly could have been with the want of it. I confess, having a mind to pay my court to fortune, I became an adventurer in one of the late lotteries; in which, though I got none of the great prizes, I found no occasion to envy some of those that did; comforting myself with this contemplation, that nature and education having disappointed all the favours fortune could bestow upon them, they had gained no superiority by an unenvied affluence. It is pleasant to consider, that whilst we are lamenting our particular allictions to each other, and repining at the inequality of condition, were it possible to throw off our present miserable state, we cannot name the person whose condition in every particular we would embrace and prefer; and an impartial inquiry into the pride, ill-nature, ill-health, guilt, spleen, or particularity of behaviour of others, generally ends in a reconciliation to our dear selves. This my way of thinking is warranted by Shakspeare, in a very extraordinary manner, where he makes Richard the Second, when deposed and imprisoned, debating a matter, which would soon have been discussed by a common capacity, whether his prison or palace was most eligible, and with very philosophical hesitation leaving the preference undetermined, in the following lines, -Sometimes am I a king, Then treason makes me wish myself a beggar, Prior says very prettily: Against our peace we arm our will: Look round the habitable world, how few But, when we have our wish, we wish undone! L Even the men that are distinguished by, and envied for, their superior good sense and delicacy of taste, are subject to several uneasinesses upon this account, that the men of less penetration are utter strangers to; and every little absurdity ruffles these fine judgments, which would never disturb the peaceful state of the less discerning. I shall end this essay with the following story. There is a gentleman of my acquaintance, of a fortune which may not only be called easy, but superfluous; yet this person has, by a great deal of reflection, found out a method to be as uneasy as the worst circumstances could have made him. By a free life he had swelled him. self above his natural proportion, and by a restrained life had shrunk below it, and being by nature splenetic, and by leisure more so, he began to bewail this his loss of flesh (though otherwise in perfect health) as a very melancholy diminution. He became, therefore, the reverse of Cæsar, and as a lean, hungry-looked rascal was the delight of his eyes, a fat, sleekheaded fellow was his abomination. To support himself as well as he could, he took a servant, for the very reason every one else would have refused him, for being in a deep consumption; and whilst he has compared himself to this creature, and with a face of infinite humour contemplated the decay of his body, I have seen the master's features proportionably rise into a boldness, as those of his slave sunk and grew languid. It was his interest, therefore, not to suffer the too hasty dissolution of a being, upon which his own, in some measure depended. In short, the fellow, by a little too much indulgence, began to look gay and plump upon his master, who, according to Horace, Invidus alterius macrescit rebus opimis. Lib. 1. Ep. ii. 57. Sickens thro' envy at another's good: and as he took him only for being in a con. sumption, by the same way of thinking, he found it absolutely necessary to dismiss him for not being in one; and has told me since, that he looks upon it as a very difficult matter, to furnish himself with a footman that is not altogether as happy as himself. "No. 55.1 Promia si tollas? Thursday, May 14, 1713. -quis enim virtutem amplectitur ipsam, Ir is usual with polemical writers to object ill designs to their adversaries. This turns their argument into satire, which, instead of showing an error in the understanding, tends only to expose the morals of those they write against. I shall not act after this manner with respect to the free-thinkers. Virtue and the happiness of society, are the great ends which all men ought to promote; and some of that sect would be thought to have a heart above the rest of mankind. But supposing those who make that profession, to carry on a good design in the simplicity of their hearts, and according to their best knowledge, yet it is much to be feared, those well-meaning souls, while they endeavoured to recommend virtue, have in reality been advancing the interests of vice; which, as I take to proceed from their ignorance of human nature, we may hope, when they become sensible of their mistake, they will, in consequence of that beneficent principle they pretend to act upon, reform their practice for the future. The sages whom I have in my eye, speak of virtue as the most amiable thing in the world; but at the same time that they extol her beauty, they take care to lessen her portion. Such innocent creatures are they, and so great strangers to the world, that they think this a likely method to increase the number of her admirers. Virtue has in herself the most engaging charms; and Christianity, as it places her in the strongest light, and adorned with all her native attractions, so it kindles a new fire in the soul, by adding to them the unutterable rewards which attend her votaries in an eternal state. Or, if there are men of a saturnine and heavy complexion, who are not easily lifted up by hope, there is the prospect of everlasting punishments to agitate their souls, and frighten them into the practice of virtue, and an aversion from vice. rouse and awaken our hopes and fears, like those prospects that warm and penetrate the heart of a christian, but are not regarded by a free-thinker? It is not only a clear point, that a christian breaks through stronger engagements whenever he surrenders himself to commit a criminal action, and is stung with a sharper remorse after it than a free-thinker; but it should even seern that a man who believes no future state, would act a foolish part in being thoroughly honest. For what reason is there why such a one should postpone his own private interest, or pleasure, to the doing his duty? If a christian foregoes some present advantage for the sake of his conscience, he acts accountably, because it is with the view of gaining some greater future good: but he that, having no such view, should yet conscientiously deny himself a present good in any incident where he may save appearances, is altogether as stupid as he that would trust him at such a juncture. It will, perhaps, be said, that virtue is her own reward, that a natural gratification attends good actions, which is alone sufficient to excite men to the performance of them. But although there is nothing more lovely than virtue, and the practice of it is the surest way to solid natural happiness, even in this life; yet titles, estates, and fantastical pleasures, are more ardently sought after by most men, than the natural gratifications of a reasonable mind; and it cannot be denied, that virtue and innocence are not always the readiest methods to attain that sort of happiness. Besides, the fumes of passion must be allayed, and reason must burn brighter Whereas, your sober free-thinkers tell you, that virtue indeed is beautiful, and vice deformed; the former deserves your love, and the latter your abhorrence; but then it is for their own sake, or on account of the good and evil which immediately attend them, and are inseparable from their respective natures. As for the immortality of the soul, or eternal punish-than ordinary, to enable men to see and relish ments and rewards, those are openly ridiculed, or rendered suspicious by the most sly and laboured artifice. all the native beauties and delights of a virtuous life. And though we should grant our freethinkers to be a set of refined spirits, capable I will not say these men act treacherously in only of being enamoured of virtue, yet what the cause of virtue; but will any one deny, that would become of the bulk of mankind who have they act foolishly, who pretend to advance the gross understandings, but lively senses, and interest of it by destroying or weakening the strong passions? What a deluge of lust, and strongest motives to it, which are accommodated fraud, and violence, would in a little time over to all capacities, and fitted to work on all dis-flow the whole nation, if these wise advocates positions, and enforcing those alone which can affect only a generous and exalted mind! Surely they must be destitute of passion themselves, and unacquainted with the force it hath on the minds of others, who can imagine that the mere beauty of fortitude, temperance, and justice, is sufficient to sustain the mind of man in a severe course of self-denial against all the temptations of present profit and sensuality. It is my opinion that free-thinkers should be treated as a set of poor ignorant creatures, that have not sense to discover the excellency of religion; it being evident those men are no witches, nor likely to be guilty of any deep design, who proclaim aloud to the world, that they have less motives to honesty than the rest of their fellow-subjects, who have all the inducements to the exercise of any virtue which a free-thinker can possibly have, and besides, the expectation of never-ending happiness or misery, as the consequence of their choice. Are not men actuated by their passions? and are not hope and fear the most powerful of our passions? and are there any objects which can for morality were universally hearkened to! Lastly, opportunities do sometimes offer, in which a man may wickedly make his fortune, or indulge a pleasure, without fear of temporal damage, either in reputation, health, or fortune. In such cases what restraint do they lie under who have no regards beyond the grave; the inward compunctions of a wicked, as well as the joys of an upright mind being grafted on the sense of another state? The thought, that our existence terminates with this life,' doth naturally check the soul in any generous pursuit, contract her views, and fix them on temporary and selfish ends. It dethrones the reason, extinguishes all noble and heroic sentiments, and subjects the mind to the slavery of every present passion. The wise heathens of antiquity were not ignorant of this: hence they endeavoured by fables, and conjectures, and the glimmerings of nature, to possess the minds of men with the belief of a future state, which has been since brought to light by the gospel, and is now most inconsistenly de cried by a few weak men, who would have us believe that they promote virtue, by turning after, Enmity lying in ambush for her, became religion into ridicule.. What profits us, that we from heaven derive I was considering last night, when I could not sleep, how noble a part of the creation man was designed to be, and how distinguished in all his actions above other earthly creatures. From whence I fell to take a view of the change and corruption which he has introduced into his own condition, the grovelling appetites, the mean characters of sense, and wild courses of passions, that cast him from the degree in which Providence had placed him; the debasing him. self with qualifications not his own; and his degenerating into a lower sphere of action. This inspired me with a mixture of contempt and anger; which, however, was not so violent as to hinder the return of sleep, but grew confused as that came upon me, and made me end my reflections with giving mankind the opprobrious names of inconsiderate, mad, and foolish. Here, methought, where my waking reason left the subject, my fancy pursued it in a dream; and I imagined myself in a loud soliloquy of passion, railing at my species, and walking hard to get rid of the company I despised; when two men who had overheard me, made up on either hand. These I observed had many features in common which might occasion the mistake of one for the other in those to whom they appear single; but I, who saw them together, could easily perceive, that though there was an air of severity in each, it was tempered with a natural sweetness in the one, and by turns constrained or ruffled by the designs of malice in the other. I was at a loss to know the reason of their joining me so briskly; when he, whose appear. ance displeased me most, thus addressed his companion: Pray, brother, let him alone, and we shall immediately see him transformed into a tiger. This struck me with horror, which the other perceived, and, pitying my disorder, bid me be of good courage, for though I had been savage in my treatment of mankind, (whom I should rather reform than rail against) he would, however, endeavour to rescue me from my danger. At this I looked a little more cheerful, and while I testified my resignation to him, we saw the angry brother fling away from us in a passion for his disappointment. Being now left to my friend, I went back with him at his desire, that I might know the meaning of those words which had so affrighted me. As we went along, To inform you,' says he, 'with whom you have this adventure, my name is Reproof, and his Reproach, both born of the same mother; but of different fathers. Truth is our common parent. Friendship, who saw her, fell in love with her, and she being pleased with him, he begat me upon her; but, a while the father of him whom you saw along with me. The temper of our mother inclines us to the same sort of business, the informing mankind of their faults; but the different complexions of our fathers make us differ in our designs and company. I have a natural benevolence in my mind which engages me with friends; and he a natural impetuosity in his, which casts him among enemies.' As he thus discoursed, we came to a place where there were three entrances into as many several walks, which lay aside of one another. We passed into the middlemost, a plain straight regular walk, set with trees, which added to the beauty of the place, but did not so close their boughs over head as to exclude the light from it. Herc, as we walked, I was made to observe, how the road on one hand was full of rocks and precipices, over which Reproach (who had already gotten thither) was furiously driving unhappy wretches: the other side was all laid out in gardens of gaudy tulips, amongst whose leaves the serpents wreathed, and at the end of every grassy walk the enchantress Flattery was weav ing bowers to lull souls asleep in. We conti nucd still walking on the middle way, till we arrived at a building in which it terminated. This was formerly erected by Truth for a watchtower, from whence she took a view of the earth, and, as she saw occasion, sent out Reproof, or even Reproach, for our reformation. Over the door I took notice that a face was carved with a heart upon the lips of it, and presently called to mind that this was the ancients' emblem of sincerity. In the entrance I met with Freedom of Speech and Complaisance, who had for a long time looked upon one another as enemies; but Reproof has so happily brought them together, that they now act as friends and fellow agents in the same family. Before I ascended the stairs, I had my eyes purified by a water which made me see extremely clear; and I think they said it sprung in a pit, from whence (as Democritus had reported) they formerly brought up Truth, who had hid herself in it. I was then admitted to the upper chamber of prospect, which was called the Knowledge of Mankind: here the window was no sooner opened, but I perceived the clouds to roll off and part before me, and a scene of all the variety of the world presented itself. But how different was mankind in this view from what it used to appear! Methought the very shape of most of them was lost; some had the heads of dogs, others of apes or parrots, and, in short, wherever any one took upon him the inferior and unworthy qualities of other crea tures, the change of his, soul became visible in his countenance. The strutting pride of him who is endued with brutality instead of courage, made his face shoot out into the form of a horse's; his eyes became prominent, his nostrils widened, and his wig untying, flowed down on one side of his neck in a waving mane. The talkativeness of those who love the ill-nature of conversation made them turn into assemblies of geese, their lips hardened to bills by eternal using, they gabbled for diversion, they hissed in scandal, and their ruffles falling back on their |