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'I need not acquaint you, that I was very well made, and reckoned a bright polite gentleman. I was the confident and darling of all the fair; and if the old and ugly spoke ill of me, all the world knew it was because I fcorned to flatter them. No ball, no affembly, was attended until I had 'been confulted. Flavia coloured her 'hair before me, Celia thewed me her 'teeth, Panthea heaved her bosom, 'Cleora brand fhed her diamond; I have feen Cloe's foot, and tied arti

ed, had the not obferved that he fiequently asked my opinion about mat'ters of the last confequence: this made 'me ftill more confiderable in her eye.

Though I was eternally careffed by the ladies, fuch was their opinion of my honour, that I was never envied by the men. A jealous lover of Nar ciffa one day thought he had caught 'her in an amorous converfation: for though he was at fuch a distance that 'he could hear nothing, he imagined ftrange things from her airs and gef tures. Sometimes with a ferene look the stepped back in a liftening posture, and brightened into an innocent fmile. Quickly after the fwelled into an air of majetty and difdain, then kept her ' eyes half shut after a languishing

It were endless to recount all my, adventures. Let me haften to that which coft me my life, and Narciffa her happiness.

She had the misfortune to have the fmall-pox, upon which I was exprefsly forbid her fight, it being apprehended that it would encreafe her diftemper, and that I fhould infallibly catch it at the first look. As foon as the was fuffered to leave her bed, the ftole out ' of her chamber, and found me all alone in an adjoining apartment. She ran with transport to er darling, and without mixture of fear, left I should diflike her. But oh me! what was her fury when the heard me fay, I was afraid and fhocked at fo loathfome a fpectacle! She stepped back, fwollen with rage, to fee if I had the infolence to repeat it. I did, with this addition, that her ill timed paffion had encreafed her uglinefs. Enraged, inflamed, diftra&ted, the snatched a bodkin, and with all her force ftabbed me to the heart. Dying, I preferved my fincerity, and expreffed the truth, though in broken words; and by reproachful grimaces to the laft I mimicked the deformity of my • murdercís.

OOKING over the letters that

LOOKING over the letters that find the following one, which I received about two years ago from an ingenious friend who was then in Denmark.

COPENHAGEN, MAY 1, 1710,

DEAR SIR,

THE

HE fpring with you has already taken poffeffion of the fields and woods: now is the feafon of folitude, and of moving complaints upon trivial fufferings: now the griefs of lovers begin to flow, and their wounds to bleed afresh. I too, at this distance from the fofter climates, am not without my dif contents at prefent. You perhaps may laugh at me for a most romantic wretch, when I have difclofed to you the occafion of my uneafinefs; and yet I cannot help thinking my unhappinefs real, in being confined to a region, which is the very reverfe of Paradife. The feafons here are all of them unpleafant, and the country quite deflitute of rural charms. I have not heard a bird fing, nor a brook murmur, nor a breeze whisper, neither have I been bleft with the fight of a flowery meadow these two years. Every wind here is a tempett, and every water a turbulent ocean. hope, when you reflect a little, you will not think the grounds of my complaint in the left frivolous and unbecoming a man of ferious thought; fince the love of woods, of fields and flowers, of rivers and fountains, feems to be a paffion implanted in our naturs the most early of any, even before the fair-fex had a being. I am, Sir, &c.

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Could I transport myfelf with a wish from one country to another, I fhould chule to pafs my winter in Spain, my fpring in Italy, my fummer in Englind, and my autumn in France. Of all these feafons there is more can vie with the foring for beauty and delightfulness. It bears the fame figure among

In the opening of the fpring, when all nature begins to recover herself, the fame animal pleature which makes the birds fing, and the whole brute creation rejo ce, rifes very fenfibly in the heart of

man.

I know none of the poets who have obferved fo well as Milton thofe fecret overflowings of gladness which diffufe themfelves through the mind of the beholder, upon furveying the gay fcenes of nature: he has touched upon it twice or thrice in his Paradife Loit, and deferibes it very beautifully under the name of vernal delight, in that pasfage where he reprefents the devil himfelf as almoft fenfible of it.

Blooms and fruits at once of golden hue Appear'd, with gay enamel'd colours mixt: On which the fun more glad imprefs'd his

of things, and lay forth thofe innocent entertainments which are to be met with among the feveral objects that encompafs us, are no lefs beneficial to men of dark and melancholy tempers. It was for this reafon that I endeavoured to recommend a chearfulness of mind in my two laft Saturday's papers, and which I would fill inculcate, not only from the confideration of ourfelves, and of that Being on whom we depend, nor from the general furvey of that universe in which we are placed at prefent, but from reflections on the particular feafon in which this paper is written. The creation is a perpetual feaft to the mind of a good man, every thing he fees chears and delights him; Providence has imprinted fo many files on nature, that it is impoffible for a mind which is not funk in more gross and fenfual delights, to take a furvey of them, withont feveral fecret fenfations of pleasure. The pfalmift has in feveral of his divine poems celebrated thofe beautiful and agreeable fcenes which make the heart glad, and produce in it that vernal delight which I have before taken notice of.

Natural philofophy quickens this tafte of the creation, and renders it not only pleading to the imagination, but to the un lericanding. It does not rest in the Jurmur of brooks and the melody of birds, in the fhade of groves and woods, or in the embroidery of fields and meidows, but confiders the feveral ends of Providence which are ferved by them, and the wonders of Divine Wildom which appear in them. It heightens the pleafures of the eye, and raifes fuch a rational admiration in the foul as is litte inferior to devotion.

It is not in the power of every one to offer up this kind of worship to the great

Author of nature, and to indulge these more refined meditations of heart, which are doubtlefs highly acceptable in his fight; I fhall therefore conclude this fhort effay on that pleafure which the mind naturally conceives from the prefent feafon of the year, by the recommending of a practice for which every one has fufficient abilities.

I would have my readers endeavour to moralize this natural pleafure of the foul, and to improve this vernal delight, as Milton calls it, into a Chriftian virtue. When we find ourselves infpired with this pleafing inftinct, this fecret fatisfaction and complacency arifing from the beauties of the creation, let us confider to whom we ftand indebted for all thefe entertainments of fenfe, and who it is that thus opens his hand, and fills the world with good. The apoftle intructs us to take advantage of our prefent temper of mind, to graft upon it fuch a religious exercife as is particularly conformable to it, by that precept which advises those who are fad to pray, and thofe who are merry to fing pfalms. The chearfulness of heart which springs up in us from the furvey of nature's works, is an admirable preparation for gratitude. The mind has gone a great way towards prife and thanksgiving, that is filled with fuch a fecret gladnefs. A grateful reflection on the Supreme Caufe who produces it, fanctifies it in the foul, and gives it it's proper value. Such an habitual difpofition of mind confecrates every field and wood, turns an ordinary walk into a morning or evening facrifice, and will improve thote tranlient gleams of joy which naturally brighten up and refresh the foul on fuch occafions, into an inviolable and perpetual state of bits and happiness.

I

N° CCCXCIV.

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Have been confidering the little and frivolous things, which give men acceffes to one another, and power with each other, not only in the common and indifferent accidents of life, but also in matters of greater importance. You fee in elections for members to fit in parliament, how far faluting rows of old women, drinking with clowns, and being upon a level with the lowest part of mankind in that wherein they themfelves are lowelt, their diverfions, will carry a candidate. A capacity for proftituting a man's felf in his behaviour, and defcending to the prefent humour of the vulgar, is perhaps as good an ingredient as any other for making a confiderable figure in the world; and if a man has nothing elfe, or better to think of, he could not make his way to wealth and diftinction by properer methods, than ftudying the particular bent or inclination of people with whom he converfes, and working from the obfervation of fuch their bias in all matters wherein he has any intercourfe with them: for his cafe and comfort he may ailure himself, he need not be at the expence of any great talent or virtue to pleafe even thofe who are poffeffed of the highest qualifications. Pride in fome particular difguife or other, often a fecret to the proud man himself, is the most ordinary spring of action among men.

You need no more than to difcover what a man values himself for; then of all things admire that quality, but be fure to be failing in it yourself in comparison of the man whon. you court. I have heard, or read, of a fecretary of state in Spain, who ferved a prince who was happy in an elegant ufe of the Latin tongue, and often writ difpatches in it with his own hand. The king fhewed his fecretary a letter he had written to a foreign prince, and under the colour of afking his advice, laid a trap for his applaufe. The ho

neft man read it as a faithful counfellor, and not only excepted against his tying himself down too much by some expreffions, but mended the phrafe in others. You may guefs the difpatches that evening did not take much longer time. Mr. Secretary, as foon as he came to his own houfe, fent for his eldeft fon, and communicated to him that the family muft retire out of Spain as foon as poffible; for,' faid he, the 'king knows I understand Latin better than he does.'

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This egregious fault in a man of the world, fhould be a leffon to all who would make their fortunes: but a re. gard must be carefully had to the perfon with whom you have to do; for it is not to be doubted but a great man of common fenfe muft look with fecret indignation or bridled laughter, on all the flaves who ftand round him with ready faces to approve and fmile at all he fays in the grofs. It is good comedy enough to obferve a fuperior talking half fentences, and playing an humble admirer's countenance from one thing to another, with fuch perplexity, that he knows not what to fneer in approbation of. But this kind of complaifance is peculily the manner of courts; in all other places you must conftantly go farther in compliance with the perfons you have to do with, than a mere conformity of looks and geftures. If you are in a country life, and would be a leading man, a good ftomach, a loud voice, and ruftic chearfulness, will go a great way, provided you are able to drink, and drink any thing. But I was just now going to draw the manner of behaviour I would advife people to practife under fome maxim, and intimated, that every one aimoft was governed by his pride. There was an old fellow about forty years ago fo peevish and fretful, though a man of bufinefs, that no one could come at him: but he fre

quented

quented a particular little coffee-houfe, where he triumphed over every body at trick-track and backgammon. The way to pafs his office well, was first to be infulted by him at one of those games in his leisure hours; for his vanity was to fhew, that he was a man of pleasure as well as bufinefs. Next to this fort of infinuation, which is called in all places, from it's taking it's birth in the houfholds of 'princes, making one's court, the most prevailing way is, by what better bred people call a prefent, the vulgar a bribe. I humbly conceive that fuch a thing is conveyed with more gallantry in a billet-doux that should be understood at the Bank, than in grofs money: but as to ftubborn people, who are fo furly as to accept of neither note nor cafh, having formerly dabbled in chymistry, I can only fay that one part of matter asks one thing, and another another to make it fluent; but there is nothing but may be diffolved by a proper mean: thus the virtue which is too obdurate for gold or paper, fhall melt away very kindly in a liquid. The inland of Barbadoes, a fhrewd people, manage all their appeals to Great Brisain, by a skilful distribution of citron

water among the whisperers about men in power. Generous wines do every day prevail, and that in great points where ten thousand times their value would have been rejected with indignation.

But to wave the enumeration of the fundry ways of applying by presents, bribes, management of people's paffions and affections, in fuch a manner as it fhall appear that the virtue of the best man is by one method or other corruptible; let us look out for fome expedient to turn thofe paffions and affections on the fide of truth and honour. When a man has laid it down for a pofition, that parting with his integrity, in the minutest circumftance, is loling fo much of his very self, self-love will become a virtue. By this means good and evil will be the only objects of diflike and approbation; and he that injures any man, has effectually wounded the man of this turn as much as if the harm had been to himself. This feems to be the only expedient to arrive at an impartiality; and a man who follows the dictates of truth and right reafon, may by artifice be led into error, but never can into guilt.

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