▾ fome Additions in the Daily Courant of Auguft the . Ninth. • NICHOLAS HART, who flept the last Year in St. • Bartholomew's Hospital, intends to fleep this Year at the • Cock and Bottle in Little Britain. • HAVING fince enquired into the Matter of Fact, • I find_that_the_above-mentioned Nicholas Hart is every ← Year feized with a periodical Fit of Sleeping, which be* gins upon the Fifth of August, and ends on the Eleventh of the fame Month: • On the First of that Month, he grew dull: • On the Seventh, turned himself in his Bed; On the Tenth about Midnight, awaked; • On the Eleventh in the Morning, call'd for a little : Small-Beer. THIS Account I have extracted out of the Jour⚫nal of this fleeping Worthy, as it has been faithfully s kept by a Gentleman of Lincolns-Inn who has under⚫ taken to be his Historiographer. I have fent it to you, ⚫ not only as it reprefents the Actions of Nicholas Hart, • but as it seems a very natural Picture of the Life of many an honeft English Gentleman, whofe whole History very often confifts of Yawning, Nodding, Stretching, Turning, Sleeping, Drinking, and the like extraordinary Particulars. I do not queftion, Sir, that if you pleased, you could put out an Advertisement not • unlike the above-mentioned of several Men of Figure; that Mr. John fuch a one, Gentleman, or Thomas fuch a one, Efquire, who flept in the Country laft Summer, intends to sleep in Town this Winter. The worst of it is, that the drowsy Part of our Species is chiefly made up of very honeft Gentlemen, who live ! quietly quietly among their Neighbours, without ever difturbing the publick Peace: They are Drones without Stings. I could heartily wifh, that feveral turbulent, reftless, ambitious Spirits, would for a while change Places with thefe good Men, and enter themselves into Nicholas Hart's Fraternity. Could one but lay afleep a few bufy Heads which I could name, from the first of November next to the firft of May enfuing, I queftion 6 not but it would very much redound to the Quiet of particular Perfons, as well as to the Benefit of the Publick. BUT to return to Nicholas Hart: I believe, Sir, you will think it a very extraordinary Circumftance for a • Man to gain his Livelihood by Sleeping, and that Reft 'fhould procure a Man Suftenance as well as Induftry; yet fo it is that Nicholas got laft Year enough to fupport ' himself for a Twelve-month. I am likewife informed 'that he has this Year had a very comfortable Nap. The • Poets value themfelves very much for fleeping on Par naffus, but I never heard they got a Grot by it: On the contrary our Friend Nicholas gets more by fleeping than he could by working, and may be more properly 'faid, than ever Homer was, to have had Golden Dreams! Juvenal indeed mentions a Drowfy Husband who raised an Eftate by fnoring, but then he is reprefented to have flept what the common People call Dog's Sleep; or if his Sleep was real, his Wife was ' awake, and about her Bufinefs: Your Pen, which loves to moralize upon all Subjects, may raise fomething, methinks, on this Circumftance alfo, and point out to us thofe Sets of Men, who inftead of growing rich by < an honest Indultry, recommend themfelves to the Favours of the Great, by making themfelves agreeable Companions in the Participations of Luxury and Plea fure. I muft further acquaint you, Sir, that one of the • most eminent Pens in Grub-street is now employed in Writing the Dream of this miraculous Sleeper, which I hear will be of more than ordinary Length, as it muft contain all the Particulars that are fuppofed to have passed in his Imagination during fo long a Sleep. He L He is faid to have gone already through three Days and three Nights of it, and to have comprifed in them the moft remarkable Paffages of the four firft Empires of the World. If he can keep free from Party-Strokes, his Work may be of Ufe; but this I much doubt, having been informed by one of his Friends and Confidents, that he has fpoken fome things of Nimrod with too great Freedom. I am ever, Sir, &c. No 185. T Tuesday, October 2. -Tantane Animis cœleftibus Ira? Virg. HERE is nothing in which Men more deceive themselves than in what the World calls Zeal. There are fo many Paffions which hide themselves under it, and fo many Mifchiefs arifing from it, that fome have gone fo far as to fay it would have been for the Benefit of Mankind if it had never been reckoned in the Catalogue of Virtues. It is certain, where it is once Laudable and Prudential, it is an hundred times Criminal and Erroneous; nor can it be otherwife, if we confider that it operates with equal Violence in all Religions, however oppofite they may be to one another, and in all the Subdivifions of each Religion in particular. WE are told by fome of the Jewish Rabbins, that the Arft Murder was occafioned by a religious Controversy; and if we had the whole Hiftory of Zeal from the Days of Cain to our own Times, we fhould fee it filled with fo many Scenes of Slaughter and Bloodshed, as would make a wife Man very careful how he fuffers himself to be actuated by fuch a Principle, when it only regards Matters of Opinion and Speculation. I would have every Zealous Man examine his Heart throughly, and, I believe, he will often find, that what he calls a Zeal for his Religion, is either Pride, Interest, or or Ill-nature. A Man who differs from another in Opinion, fets himself above him in his own Judgment, and in feveral Particulars pretends to be the wifer Perfon. This is a great Provocation to the proud Man, and gives a keen Edge to what he calls his Zeal. And that this is the Cafe very often, we may obferve from the Behaviour of fome of the moft zealous for Orthodoxy, who have often great Friendships and Intimacies with vicious immoral Men, provided they do but agree with them in the fame Scheme of Belief. The Reafon is, Because the vicious Believer gives the Precedency to the virtuous Man, and allows the good Chriftian to be the worthier Perfon, at the fame Time that he cannot come up to his Perfections. This we find exemplified in that trite Paffage which we fee quoted in almost every Syftem of Ethicks, tho upon another Occafion; Video meliora proboque Deteriora fequor Ov On the contrary, it is certain, if our Zeal were true and genuine, we fhould be much more angry with a Sinner than a Heretick; fince there are feveral Cafes which may excuse the latter before his great Judge, but none which can excuse the former. INTEREST is likewise a great Inflamer, and fets a Man on Perfecution under the Colour of Zeal. For this Reason we find none are fo forward to promote the true Worship by Fire and Sword, as those who find their prefent Account in it. But I fhall extend the Word Intereft to a larger Meaning than what is generally given it,' as it relates to our fpiritual Safety and Welfare, as well as to our Temporal. A Man is glad to gain Numbers on his Side, as they ferve to ftrengthen him in his private Opinions. Every Profelyte is like a new Argument for the Eftablishment of his Faith. It makes him believe that his Principles carry Conviction with them, and are the more likely to be true, when he finds they are conformable to the Reafon of others, as well as his own. And that this Temper of Mind deludes a Man very often into an Opinion of his Zeal, may appear from the com mon N° 185. mon Behaviour of the Atheift, who maintains and fpeads his Opinions with as much Heat as thofe who believe they do it only out of a Paffion for God's Glory. ILL-NATURE is another dreadful Imitator of Zeal. Many a good Man may have a natural Rancour and Malice in his Heart, which has been in some meafure quelled and fubdued by Religion; but if it finds any Pretence of breaking out, which does not feem to him inconfiftent with the Duties of a Chriftian, it throws off all Restraint, and rages in its full Fury. Zeal is therefore a great Eafe to a malicious Man, by making him believe he does God Service, whilft he is gratifying the Bent of a perverfe revengeful Temper. For this Reafon we find, that most of the Maffacres and Devaftations which have been in the World, have taken their Rife from a furious pretended Zeal. I love to fee a Man zealous in a good Matter, and efpecially when his Zeal fhews it felf for advancing Morality, and promoting the Happiness of Mankind: But when I find the Inftruments he works with are Racks and Gibbets, Gallies and Dungeons; when he Imprisons Mens Perfons, Confifcates their Eftates, Ruins their Families, and burns the Body to fave the Soul, I cannot ftick to pronounce of fuch a one, that (whatever he may think of his Faith and Religion) his Faith is vain, and his Religion unprofitable. AFTER having treated of thefe falfe Zealots in Religion, I cannot forbear mentioning a monftrous Species of Men, who one would not think had any Exiftence in Nature, were they not to be met with in ordinary Converfation, I mean the Zealots in Atheism. One would fancy that these Men, tho' they fall fhort, in every other Refpect, of those who make a Profeffion of Religion, would at least out-fhine them in this Particular, and be exempt from that fingle Fault which feems to grow out of the imprudent Fervours of Religion: But fo it is, that Infidelity is propagated with as much Fiercenefs and Contention, Wrath and Indignation, as if the Safety of Mankind depended upon it. There is fomething fo ridiculous and perverfe in this Kind of Zealots, |