rating spirit of the whigs feems of late to have reconciled the cabolics to that party.

THE molinifts and janfenifts in FRANCE have a thousand unintelligible difputes, which are not worthy the reflection of a man of fenfe: But what principally dif tinguishes these two fects, and alone merits attention, is the different spirit of their religion. The molinists, conducted by the jefuiles, are great friends to fuperftition, rigid obfervers of external forms and ceremonies, and devoted to the authority of the priests, and to tradition. The janfenifts are enthufiafts, and zealous promoters of the paffionate devotion, and of the inward life; little influenced by authority; and, in a word, but half catholics. The confequences are exactly conformable to the foregoing reafoning. The jefuites are the tyrants of the people, and the flaves of the court: And the janfenifts preferve alive the small sparks of the love of liberty, which are to be found in the FRENCH nation.

E

SS A

A Y

XIII.

"T

OF A VARICE.

The

IS eafy to obferve, that comic writers exaggerate every character, and draw their fop, or coward with ftronger features than are any where to be met with in nature. This moral kind of painting for the ftage has been often compared to the painting for cupolas and cielings, where the colors are overcharged, and every part is drawn exceffively large, and beyond nature. figures feem monftrous and difproportioned, when feen too nigh; but become natural and regular, when fet at a distance, and placed in that point of view, in which they are intended to be furveyed. For a like reafon, when characters are exhibited in theatrical reprefentations, the want of reality removes, in a manner, the perfonages; and rendering them more cold and unentertaining, makes it neceffary to compenfate, by the force of coloring, what they want in fubftance. Thus we find in common life, that when a man once allows himself to depart from truth in his narrations, he never can keep within the bounds of probability; but adds ftill some new circumftance to render his ftories more marvellous, and to fatisfy his imagination. Two men in buckram fuits became eleven to Sir JOHN FALSTAFF before the end of his ftory.

THERE is only one vice, which may be found in life with as ftrong features, and as high a coloring as need be employed by any fatyrift or comic poet; and that is AVARICE. Every day we meet with men of immenfe fortunes, without heirs, and on the very brink of the grave, who refuse themselves the most common neceffaries of life, and go on heaping poffeffions on poffeffions, under all the real preffures of the fevereft poverty. An old ufurer, fays the ftory, lying in his laft agonies was prefented by the priest with the crucifix to worship. He opens his eyes a moment before he expires, confiders the crucifix, and cries, Thefe jewels are not true; I can only lend ten piftoles upon fuch a pledge. This was probably the invention of fome epigrammatift; and yet every one, from his own experience,

H 2

may

may be able to recollect almost as strong inftances of perfeverance in avarice. 'Tis commonly reported of a famous mifer in this city, that finding himself near death, he fent for fome of the magiftrates, and gave them a bill of an hundred pounds, payable after his deceafe; which fum he intended fhould be difpofed of in charitable ufes; but fcarce were they gone, when he orders them to be called back, and offers them ready money, if they would abate five pounds of the fum. Another noted mifer in the north, intending to defraud his heirs, and leave his fortune to the building an hofpital, protracted the drawing of his will from day to day; and 'tis thought, that if those interested in it had not paid for the drawing it, he had died inteftate. In fhort, none of the moft furious exceffes of love and ambition are in any refpect to be compared to the extremes of

avarice.

THE beft excufe that can be made for avarice is, that it generally prevails in old men, or in men of cold tempers, where all the other affections are extinct; and the mind being incapable of remaining without fome paffion or pursuit, at laft finds out this monftrously abfurd one, which fuits the coldness and inactivity of its temper. At the fame time, it feems very extraordinary, that fo frofty, fpiritlefs a paffion fhould be able to carry us farther than all the warmth of youth and pleasure. But if we look more narrowly into the matter, we fhall find, that this very circumftance renders the explication of the cafe more easy. When the temper is warm and full of vigor, it naturally shoots out more ways than one, and produces inferior paffions to counter-balance, in fome degree, its predominant inclination. 'Tis impoffible for a person of that temper, however bent on any purfuit, to be deprived of all sense of shame, or all regard to the sentiments of mankind. His friends must have fome influence over him: And other confiderations are apt to have their weight. All this ferves to reftrain him within fome bounds. But 'tis no wonder that the avaritious man, being, from the coldness of his temper, without regard to reputation, to friendship, or to pleasure, fhould be carried fo far by his prevailing inclination, and fhould difplay his paffion in fuch furprizing inftances.

ACCORDINGLY we find no vice fo irreclaimable as avarice: And tho' there fcarcely has been a moralift or philofopher, from the beginning of the world to this day, who has not levelled a stroke at it, we hardly find a single instance of any perfon's being cured of it. For this reafon, I am more apt to approve of those, who attack it with wit and humor, than of thofe who treat it in a ferious manner. There being fo little hopes of doing good to the people infected with this vice, I would have the reft of mankind, at least, diverted by our manner of expofing it: As indeed there is no kind of diverfion, of which they feem fo willing to partake.

AMONG the fables of Monfieur de la MOTTE, there is one levelled against avarice, which feems to me more natural and easy, than most of the fables of that ingenious author. A mifer, fays he, being dead, and fairly interred, came to the banks of the STYx, defiring to be ferried over along with the other ghosts. CHARON demands his fare, and is furprized to fee the mifer, rather than pay it, throw himself into the river, and fwim over to the other fide, notwithstanding all the clamor and oppofition that could be made to him. All hell was in an uproar; and each of the judges was meditating fome punishment, fuitable to a crime of fuch dan

gerous

Shall he be chained to the rock with gerous confequence to the infernal revenues. PROMETHEUS? Or tremble below the precipice in company with the DANAIDES? Or affift SISYPHUS in rolling his stone? No, fays MINOS, none of these. We must invent fome feverer punishment. Let him be sent back to the earth, to see the use his heirs are making of his riches.

I HOPE it will not be interpreted as a defign of fetting myself in oppofition to this celebrated author, if I proceed to deliver a fable of my own, which is intended to expose the fame vice of avarice. The hint of it was taken from these lines of Mr. POPE.

Damned to the mines, an equal fate betides

The flave that digs it, and the flave that bides.

OUR old mother Earth once lodged an indictment against AVARICE before the courts of heaven, for her wicked and malicious council and advice, in tempting, inducing, perfuading, and traiteroufly feducing the children of the plaintiff to commit the deteftable crime of parricide upon her, and, mangling her body, ranfack her very bowels for hidden treafure. The indictment was very long and verbose; but we must omit a great part of the repetitions and fynonymous terms, not to tire our reader too much with our tale. AVARICE, being called before JUPITER to answer to this charge, had not much to fay in her own defence. The injury was clearly proved upon her. The fact, indeed, was notorious, and the injury had been frequently repeated. When therefore the plaintiff demanded justice, JuPITER very readily gave fentence in her favor; and his decree was to this purpose, That fince dame Avarice, the defendant, had thus grievously injured dame Earth, the plaintiff, fhe was hereby ordered to take that treafure, of which fhe had feloniously robbed the faid plaintiff, by ranfacking her bofom, and in the fame manner, as before, opening her bosom, restore it back to her, without dimunition or retention. From this fentence, it fhall follow, fays JUPITER to the by-ftanders, That, in all future ages, the retainers of Avarice fhall bury and conceal their riches, and thereby restore to the earth what they took from her.

THE

XIV.

OF HUMAN NATURE.

HERE are certain fects, which fecretly form themselves in the learned world, as well as in the political; and tho' fometimes they come not to an open rupture, yet they give a different turn to the ways of thinking of those who have taken party on either fide. The most remarkable of this kind are the fects, that are founded on the different fentiments with regard to the dignity of human nature; which is a point that seems to have divided philofophers and poets, as well as divines, from the beginning of the world to this day. Some exalt our fpecies to the skies, and reprefent man as a kind of human demi-god, who derives his origin from heaven, and retains evident marks of his lineage and defcent.

Others

Others infift upon the blind fides of human nature, and can discover nothing, except vanity, in which man furpaffes the other animals, whom he affects fo much to defpife. If an author poffefies the talent of rhetoric, and declamation, he commonly takes party with the former; If his turn lies towards irony and ridicule, he naturally throws himself into the other extreme.

I AM far from thinking, that all thofe, who have depreciated human nature have been enemies to virtue, and have expofed the frailties of their fellow-creatures with any bad intention. On the contrary, I am fenfible, that a very delicate fenfe of morals, efpecially when attended with fomewhat of the Misanthrope, is apt to give a man a disgust of the world, and to make him confider the common course of human affairs with too much spleen and indignation. I muft, however, be of opinion, that the fentiments of thofe, who are inclined to think favorably of mankind, are much more advantageous to virtue, than the contrary principles which give us a mean opinion of our nature. When a man is poffeffed of a high notion of his rank and character in the creation, he will naturally endeavor to act up to it, and will scorn to do a base or vicious action, which might fink him below that figure which he makes in his own imagination. Accordingly we find, that all our polite and fashionable moralifts infift upon this topic, and endeavor to reprefent vice as unworthy of man, as well as odious in itself.

WOMEN are generally much more flattered in their youth than men; which may proceed from this reafon, among others, that their chief point of honor is confidered as much more difficult than ours, and requires to be fupported by all that decent pride, which can be instilled into them. ́ ́

We find very few difputes which are not founded on fome ambiguity in the expreffion; and I am perfuaded, that the prefent difpute concerning the dignity of human nature, is not more exempt from it than any other. It may, therefore, be worth while to confider, what is real, and what is only verbal, in this controverfy.

THAT there is a natural difference betwixt merit and demerit, virtue and vice, wisdom and folly, no reasonable man will deny: but yet 'tis evident, that in affixing the term, which denotes either our approbation or blame, we are commonly more influenced by comparison than by any fixt unalterable standard in the nature of things. In like manner, quantity, and extenfion, and bulk, are by every one acknowleged to be real things: But when we call any animal great or little, we always form a fecret comparison between that animal and others of the fame fpecies, and 'tis that comparifon which regulates our judgment concerning its greatnefs. A dog and a horfe may be of the very fame fize, while the one is admired for the greatness of its bulk, and the other for the fmallnefs. When I am prefent, therefore, at any difpute, I always confider with myfelf, whether it be a question of comparison or not that is the fubject of the controversy; and if it be, whether the difputants compare the fame objects together, or talk of things that are widely different. As the latter is commonly the case, I have long fince learnt to neglect fuch difputes as manifest abuses of leisure, the most valuable prefent that could be made to mortals.

IN forming our notions of human nature, we are very apt to make a comparifon betwixt men and animals, which are the only creatures endowed with thought that fall under our fenfes. Certainly this comparison is very favorable to man,

kind. On the one hand we fee a creature, whofe thoughts are not limited by any narrow bounds, either of place or time; who carries his refearches into the moft diftant regions of this globe, and beyond this globe, to the planets and heavenly bodies; looks backward to confider the first origin of human race; cafts his eyes forward to fee the influence of his actions upon pofterity, and the judgments which will be formed of his character a thousand years hence; a creature, who traces caufes and effects to a great length and intricacy; extracts general principles from particular appearances; improves upon his difcoveries; corrects his mistakes; and makes his very errors profitable. On the other hand, we are prefented with a creature the very reverfe of this; limited in its obfervations and reasonings to a few fenfible objects which furround it; without curiofity, without forefight; blindly conducted by instinct, and arriving in a very short time, at its utmost perfection, beyond which it is never able to advance a single step. What a wide difference is there betwixt these creatures! And how exalted a notion muft we entertain of the former, in comparison of the latter!

THERE are two means commonly employed to deftroy this conclufion: First, By making an unfair reprefentation of the cafe, and infifting only upon the weakneffes of human nature. And fecondly, By forming a new and fecret comparison between man and beings of the most perfect wisdom. Among the other excellencies of man, this is remarkable, that he can form a notion of perfections much beyond what he has experience of in himself; and is not limited in his conception of wisdom and virtue. He can eafily exalt his notions, and conceive a degree of knowlege, which, when compared to his own, will make the latter appear very contemptible, and will caufe the difference betwixt that and the fagacity of animals, in a manner, to disappear and vanish. Now this being a point, in which all the world is agreed, that human understanding falls infinitely fhort of perfect wisdom: 'Tis proper we should know when this comparifon takes place, that we may not difpute, where there is no real difference in our fentiments. Man falls much shorter of perfect wisdom, and even of his own ideas of perfect wisdom, than animals do of man; but yet the latter difference is fo confiderable, that nothing but a comparison with the former, can make it appear of little moment.

'Tis also very ufual to compare one man with another; and finding very few whom we can call wife or virtuous, we are apt to entertain a contemptible notion of our fpecies in general. That we may be fenfible of the fallacy of this way of reafoning, we may obferve, that the honorable appellations of wife and virtuous, are not annexed to any particular degree of thofe qualities of wisdom and virtue; but arife altogether from the comparison we make betwixt one man and another. When we find a man, who arrives at fuch a pitch of wifdom as is very uncommon, we pronounce him a wife man: So that to fay, there are few wife men in the world, is really to fay nothing; fince 'tis only by their fcarcity, that they merit that appellation. Were the lowest of our fpecies as wife as TULLY, or my lord BACON, we fhould ftill have reafon to fay, that there are few wife men. For in that cafe we should exalt our notions of wisdom, and fhould not pay a fingular honor to any one, who was not fingularly diftinguifhed by his talents. In like manner, I have heard it obferved by thoughtless people, that there are few women poffeffed of beauty, in comparison of thofe who want it; not confidering, that we bestow the epithet of beautiful only on fuch as poffefs a degree of beauty,

that