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 destructive 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 fcorned to have betrayed a fecret, that was intrusted with him, though the fate of his country depended upon the dif covery of it. Timogenes took away the life of a young fellow in a duel, for having spoke 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 feveral poor tradefmen's families who had trusted him, fold his eftate 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 fpeak in his own language, his debts of honour.

IN the third place, we are to confider those 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. These 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. Thefe are generally perfons who, in Shakspeare's phrafe," are worn and hackneyed in the ways of men;" whofe imaginations are grown callous, and have lost all thofe delicate fentiments which are natural to minds that are innocent and undepraved. Such old battered mifcreants ridicule every thing as romantic that comes in competition with their prefent intereft, and treat thofe perfons as vifionaries, who dare ftand up in a corrupt age, for what has not its immediate reward joined to it. The talents, intereft, or experience of fuch 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 flands 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.

CHA P. V.

ON GOOD HUMOUR.

OOD humour may be defined a habit of being pleased;

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a conftant and perennial foftnefs of manner, eafinefs of approach, and fuavity of difpofition; like that which every man perceives in himfelf, when the firft tranfports of new felicity have fubfided, and his thoughts are only kept in motion by a flow fücceffion of foft impulfes. Good humour is a ftate between gaiety and unconcern; the act or emanation of a mind at leifure to regard the gratification of another.

Ir is imagined by many, that whenever they afpire to pleafe, they are required to be merry, and to fhew the gladnefs of their fouls by flights and pleafantry, and bursts of

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laughter. But though thefe men may be for a time heard with applaufe and admiration, they feldom delight us long. We enjoy them a little, and then retire to eafinefs and good humour, as the eye gazes awhile 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 fpirits, and the other recreates and revives them. Gaiety feldom fails to give fome pain; the hearers either ftrain 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 pleafes principally by not offending.

Ir 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 depress 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 fèxes, and certainly find a friend in every place. The darlings of the world will, indeed, be generally found fuch as excite neither jealoufy 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 assemblies 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 pursue 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 ease, 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 afsociate 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 praise 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 easy 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 whose learning holds us at the distance of pupils, or whose wit calls all attention from us, and leave us without importance and without regard.

IT is remarked by prince Henry, when he fees Falstaff lying on the ground, "that he could have better fpared 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 still broke out at the remembrance of Falstaff, of the chearful 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 despise.

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You may perhaps think this account of thofe who are diftinguifhed for their good humour, not very confiftent with the praifes which I have beftowed upon it. But furely nothing can more evidently fhew the value of this quality, than that it recommends those who are deftitute of all other excellencies, and procures regard to the trifling, friendship to the worthlefs, and affection to the dull.

Good humour is indeed generally degraded by the characters in which it is found; for being confidered as a cheap and vulgar quality, we find it often neglected by thofe that having excellencies of higher reputation and brighter fplendor, perhaps imagine that they have fome right to gratify themfelves at the expence of others, and are to demand compliance, rather than to practise it. It is by fome unfortunate miftake that almoft all thofe who have any claim to efteem or love, prefs their pretenfions with toe little confideration of others. This mistake my own intereft as well as my zeal for general happiness makes me defirous to rectify; for I have a friend, who because he knows his own fidelity and ufefulness, is never willing to fink into a companion. I have a wife whofe beauty first subdued me, and whose wit confirmed her conqueft; but whose beauty now ferves no other purpose than to entitle her to tyranny, and whofe wit is only ufed to justify perverfenefs.

SURELY nothing can be more unreasonable than to lose the will to please, when we are confcious of the power, or fhew more cruelty than to chufe any kind of influence before that of kindness. He that regards the welfare of others, should make his virtue approachable, that it may be loved and copied; and he that confiders the wants which every man feels, or will feel, of external assistance, muft rather wish to be furrounded by thofe that love him, than by those that