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fears, the man of honour fcorns to do an ill action. The latter confiders vice as fomething that is beneath him, the other as fomething that is offenfive to the Divine Being. The one is what is unbecoming, the other as what is forbidden. Thus Seneca speaks in the natural and genuine language of a man of honour, when he declares, that were there no God to fee or punish vice, he would not commit it, because it is of fo mean, fo bafe, and fo vile a nature.

I SHALL Conclude this head with the defcription of honour in the parting of young Juba.

Honour's a facred tie, the law of kings,
The noble mind's diftinguishing perfection,

That aids and strengthens Virtue when it meets her,
And imitates her actions where she is not.
It ought not to be sported with:-

CATO.

IN the fecond place, we are to confider those who have mistaken notions of honour. And thefe are fuch as establish any thing to themselves for a point of honour which is contrary either to the laws of God, or of their country; who think it more honourable to revenge, than to forgive an injury; who make no fcruple of telling a lie, but would put any man to death that accuses them of it; who are more careful to guard their reputation by their courage than by their virtue. True fortitude is indeed fo becoming in human nature, that he who wants it, fcarce deferves the name of a man; but we find feveral who so much abuse this notion, that they place the whole idea of honour in a kind of brutal courage; by which means we have had many among us who

have called themfelves men of honour, that would have been a difgrace to a gibbet. In a word, the man who facrifices any duty of a reasonable creature to a prevailing mode or fashion, who looks upon any thing as honourable that is difpleafing to his Maker, or deftructive to fociety, who thinks himself obliged by this principle to the practice of fome virtues and not of others, is by no means to be reckoned among true men of honour.

TIMOGENES was a lively inftance of one actuated by falfe honour. Timogenes would smile at a man's jeft who ridiculed his Maker, and at the fame time, run a man through the body that spoke ill of his friend. Timogenes would have fcorn'd to have betrayed a fecret, that was intrufted with him, though the fate of his country depended upon the discovery of it. Timogenes took away the life of a young fellow in a duel, for having fpoke ill of Belinda, a lady whom he himself had feduced in her youth, and betrayed into want and ignominy. To clofe his character, Timogenes, after having ruined feyeral poor tradefmen's families who had trufted him, fold his estate to fatisfy his creditors; but like a man of honour, difpofed of all the money he could make of it, in the paying of his play-debts, or to speak in his own language, his debts of honour.

IN the third place, we are to confider thofe perfons who treat this principle as chimerical, and turn it into ridicule. Men who are profeffedly of no honour, are of a more profligate and abandoned nature than even those who are actuated by falfe notions of it, as there is more hope of a Heretic than of an Atheist. The fons of infamy confider honour with old Syphax, in the play before mentioned, as a fine imaginary notion that leads aftray young unexperienced men, and draws them into real mifchiefs, while they are engaged

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in the pursuits of a fhadow. These are generally perfons who, in Shakspeare's phrafe," are worn and hackneyed in "the ways of men;" whofe imaginations are grown callous, and have loft all thofe delicate fentiments which are natural to minds that are innocent and undepraved. Such old battered miscreants ridicule every thing as romantic that comes in competition with their prefent intereft, and treat those perfons as vifionaries, who dare stand up in a corrupt age for what has not its immediate reward joined to it. The talents, intereft, or experience of such men, make them very often useful in all parties, and at all times. But whatever wealth and dignities they may arrive at, they ought to confider, that every one ftands as a blot in the annals of his country, who arrives at the temple of honour by any other way than through that of virtue. GUARDIAN.

CHAP. V.

ON GOOD HUMOUR.

GOOD humour may be defined a habit of being pleased;

a constant and perennial softness of manner, eafiness of approach, and fuavity of difpofition; like that which every man perceives in himself, when the first tranfports of new felicity have fubfided, and his thoughts are only kept in motion by a flow fucceffion of foft impulfes. Good humour is a ftate between gaiety and unconcern; the act or emanation of a mind at leisure to regard the gratification of another.

It is imagined by many, that whenever they afpire to please they are required to be merry, and to fhew the gladnefs of their fouls by flights and pleasantry, and bursts of

laughter,

Jaughter. But though thefe men may be for a time heard. with applause and admiration, they feldom delight us long. We enjoy them a little, and then retire to eafiness and good -humour, as the eye gazes a while on eminences glittering with the fun, but foon turns aching away to verdure and to flowers.

GAIETY is to good humour, as animal perfumes to vegetable fragrance; the one overpowers weak spirits, and the other recreates and revives them. Gaiety feldom fails to give fome pain; the hearers either strain their faculties to accompany its towerings, or are left behind in envy and defpair. Good humour boasts no faculties which every one does not believe in his power, and pleases principally by not offending.

It is well known, that the moft certain way to give any man pleasure, is to perfuade him that you receive pleasure from him, to encourage him to freedom and confidence, and to avoid any fuch appearance of fuperiority as may overbear and deprefs him. We fee many that by this art only, spend their days in the midst of caresses, invitations, and civilities: and without any extraordinary qualities or attainments, are the univerfal favourites of both fexes, and certainly find a friend in every place. The darlings of the world will, indeed, be generally found fuch as excite neither jealousy nor fear; and are not confidered as candidates for any eminent degree of reputation, but content themselves with common accomplishments, and endeavour rather to folicit kindness than to raise esteem. Therefore in affemblies and places of refort it seldom fails to happen, that though at the entrance of fome particular perfon every face brightens with gladness, and every hand is extended in falutation, yet if you purfue him beyond the first exchange of civilities, you will find him

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of very small importance, and only welcome to the company, as one by whom all conceive themselves admired, and with whom any one is at liberty to amufe himself when he can find no other auditor or companion; as one with whom all are at eafe, who will hear a jeft without criticism, and a narrative without contradiction; who laughs with every wit, and yields to every difputer.

THERE are many whofe vanity always inclines them to affociate with those from whom they have no reason to fear mortification; and there are times in which the wife and the knowing are willing to receive praife without the labour of deferving it, in which the most elevated mind is willing to defcend, and the most active to be at reft. All therefore are at fome hour or another fond of companions whom they can entertain upon eafy terms, and who will relieve them. from folitude, without condemning them to vigilance and caution. We are most inclined to love when we have nothing to fear; and he that encourages us to please ourselves, will not be long without preference in our affection to those whofe learning holds us at the distance of pupils, or whofe wit calls all attention from us, and leaves us without importance and without regard.

Ir is remarked by Prince Henry, when he fees Falstafflying on the ground," that he could have better spared a better man." He was well acquainted with the vices and follies of him whom he lamented, but while his conviction compelled him to do juftice to fuperior qualities, his tenderness ftill broke out at the remembrance of Falstaff, of the cheerful companion, the loud buffoon, with whom he had paffed his time in all the luxury of idleness, who had gladdened him with unenvied merriment, and whom he could at once enjoy and defpife.

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