thoughts, fo that it is not impoffible to convey ourfelves to a concert of music, the converfation of diftant friends, or any other entertainment which has been before lodged in the mind.

My readers, by applying thefe hints, will find the neceflity of making a good day of it, if they heartily wifh themselves a good night.

I have often confidered Marcia's prayer, and Lucius's account of Cato, in this light.

Marc. O ye immortal powers that guard the just, Watch round his couch, and foften his repofe; Banifh his forrows, and becalm his foul

With eafy dreams; remember all his virtues,
And fhew mankind that goodness is your care.
Luc. Sweet are the flumbers of the virtuous man!
O Marcia, I have feen thy god-like father:
Some power invisible supports his foul,
And bears it up in all its wonted greatness.
A kind refreshing fleep is fallen upon him :
I saw him ftretch'd at ease, his fancy loft
In pleafing dreams; as I drew near his couch,
He fmil'd and cry'd, Cæfar, thou canst not hurt me.

Mr. Shadow acquaints me in a poftfcript, that he has no manner of title to the vifion which fucceeded his first letter; but adds, that as the gentleman who wrote it dreams very fenfibly, he fhall be glad to meet him fome night or other, under the great elm tree, by which Virgil has given us a fine metaphorical image of fleep, in order to turn over a few of the leaves together, and oblige the public with an account of the dreams that lie under them.

WEDNESDAY,

No. 594. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15.

Abfentem qui rodit amicum;

Qui non defendit alio culpente; folutos

Qui captat rifus hominum, famamque dicacis;
Fingere qui non vifa poteft; commiffa tacere

Qui nequit; hic niger eft: hunc tu, Romane, caveta.

HOR. Sat. iv. l. i. ver. 81、

He that fhall rail against his absent friends,
Or hears them fcandaliz'd, and not defends;
Sports with their fame, and speaks whate'er he can,
And only to be thought a witty man;

Tells tales, and brings his friend in disesteem:
That man's a knave; be fure beware of him.

CREECH.

WERE all the vexations of life put together, we

should find that a great part of them proceed from those calumnies and reproaches which we spread abroad concerning one another.

There is scarce a man living who is not, in fome degree, guilty of this offence; though, at the fame time, however we treat one another, it must be confeffed, that we all confent in fpeaking ill of the perfons who are notorious for this practice. It generally takes its rife, either from an ill-will to mankind, a private inclination to make ourselves esteemed, an oftentation of wit, a vanity of being thought in the fecrets of the world, or from a defire of gratifying any of thefe difpofitions of mind in thofe with whom we converse.

The publisher of fcandal is more or lefs odious to mankind, and criminal in himself, as he is influenced by any one or more of the foregoing motives.

But

But whatever may be the occafion of spreading these falfe reports, he ought to confider, that the effect of them is equally prejudicial and pernicious to the perfon at whom they are aimed. The injury is the fame, though the principle from whence it proceeds may be different.

As every one looks upon himself with too much indulgence, when he passes a judgment on his own thoughts or actions, and as very few would be thought guilty of this abominable proceeding, which is fo univerfally practifed, and, at the fame time, for univerfally blamed, I fhall lay down three rules by which I would have a man examine and fearch into his own heart, before he stands acquitted to himself of that evil difpofition of mind which I am here mentioning.

- First of all, let him confider, whether he does not take delight in hearing the faults of others.

Secondly, Whether he is not too apt to believe fuch little blackening accounts, and more inclined to be credulous on the uncharitable, than on the good-natured fide.

Thirdly, Whether he is not ready to fpread and propagate fuch reports as tend to the difreputation of another.

Thefe are the feveral fteps by which this vice proceeds, and grows up into flander and defamation.

In the first place, a man who takes delight in hearing the faults of others, fhews fufficiently that he has a true relifhr of fcandal, and confequently the feeds of this vice within him. If his mind is grati fied with hearing the reproaches which are caft on others, he will find the fame pleasure in relating them, and be the more apt to do it, as he will naturally imagine every one he converfes with is delighted in the fame manner with himself. A man fhould endeavour therefore to wear out of his mind this criminal curiofity, which is perpetually heigh

tened

tened and inflamed by liftening to fuch ftories as tend to the difreputation of others.

In the second place, a man fhould confult his own heart, whether he be not apt to believe fuch little blackening accounts, and more inclined to be credulous on the uncharitable, than on the good-natured fide.

Such a credulity is very vicious in itfelf, and generally arises from a man's consciousness of his own fecret corruptions. It is a pretty faying of Thales, Falfehood is just as far diftant from truth, as the ears are from the eye. By which he would intimate, that a wife man fhould not eafily give credit to the reports of actions which he has not feen. I fhall under this head mention two or three remarkable rules to be observed by the members of the celebrated Abbè de la Trappe, as they are published in a little French book.

The fathers are there ordered, never to give an ear to any accounts of base or criminal actions; to turn off all fuch difcourfe if poffible; but in cafe they hear any thing of this nature, fo well attested that they cannot disbelieve it, they are then to suppose, that the criminal action may have proceeded from a good intention in him who was guilty of it. This is, perhaps, carrying charity to an extravagance, but it is certainly much more laudable, than to fuppofe, as the ill-natured part of the world does, that indifferent, and even good actions, proceed from bad principles, and wrong intentions.

In the third place, a man fhould examine his heart, whether he does not find in it a fecret inclination to propagate fuch reports as tend to the dif reputation of another.

When the disease of the mind, which I have hitherto been speaking of, arifes to this degree of malignity, it difcovers itfelf in its worst symptom, and is in danger of becoming incurable. I need not therefore infift upon the guilt in this laft particular,

which every one cannot but disapprove, who is not void of humanity, or even common difcretion. I fhall only add, that whatever pleasure any man may take in fpreading whifpers of this nature, he will find an infinitely greater fatisfaction in conquering the temptation he is under, by letting the fecret die within his own breast.

No. 595. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 17.

-Non ut placidis coëant immitia, non ut Serpentes avibus geminentur, tigribus agni.

IF

HOR. Ars Poet. ver. 12.

-Nature, and the common laws of sense,

Forbid to reconcile antipathies ;

Or make a snake engender with a dove,
And hungry tigers court the tender lambs.

ROSCOMMON.

F ordinary authors would condefcend to write as they think, they would at leaft be allowed the praise of being intelligible. But they really take pains to be ridiculous; and, by the studied orna. ments of ftile, perfectly disguise the little fense they aim at. There is a grievance of this fort in the com. monwealth of letters, which I have for some time refolved to redrefs, and accordingly I have fet this day apart for juftice. What I mean is, the mixture of inconfiftent metaphors, which is a fault but too often. found in learned writers, but in all the unlearned without exception.

In order to fet this matter in a clear light to every reader, I fhall in the first place obferve, that a metaphor is a fimile in one word, which ferves to convey the thoughts of the mind under refemblances and images which affect the fenfes. There is not

any