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lanies, in my noctuary, which I fhall fend to enrich your paper with, on proper occafions.

Oxford, Aug. 20.

I am, &c.

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No 587. MONDAY, AUGUST 30.

·Intus, et in cute novi.

PERS. Sat. iii. ver. 30.

I know thee to thy bottom; from within "Thy thallow centre, to the utmost skin.

DRYDEN.

"T HOUGH the author of the following vision is unknown to me, I am apt to think it may be the work of that ingenious gentleman, who promifed me, in the last paper, some extracts out of his noctuary.

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SIR,

met.

WAS the other day reading the life of MahoAmong many other extravagancies, I find it recorded of that impoftor, that in the fourth year of his age the angel Gabriel caught him up while he was among his play-fellows, and carrying him afide, cut open his breaft, plucked out his heart, and wrung out of it that black • drop of blood, in which, fay the Turkish divines, is contained the Fomes Peccati, fo that he was free ⚫ from fin ever after. I immediately said to myself, though this story be a fiction, a very good moral ་ may be drawn from it, would every man but apply it to himself, and endeavour to squeeze out of his heart whatever fins or ill qualities he ⚫ finds in it.

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While my mind was wholly taken up with this contemplation, I infenfibly fell into a moft pleaf

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ing flumber, when methought two porters enter⚫ed my chamber, carrying a large cheft between them. After having fet it down in the middle of the room they departed. I immediately endeavoured to open what was fent me, when a fhape, like that in which we paint our angels, appeared before me, and forbad me. Inclofed,, faid he, 6 are the hearts of feveral of your friends and ac~ quaintance; but before you can be qualified to fee and animadvert on the failings of others, you must be purt yourfelf; whereupon he drew out his incifion knife, cut me open, took out my ← heart, and began to fqueeze it. I was in a great confufion, to fee how many things, which I had always cherished as virtues, iffued out of my heart on this occafion. In short, after it had been thoroughly fqueezed, it looked like an empty bladder, when the phantom, breathing a frei particle of divine air into it, restored it safe to its former repofitory; and having fewed me up, we began to examine the cheft.

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The hearts were all inclofed in tranfparent' phials, and preferved in liquor which looked like fpirits of wine. The firft which I caft my eyeupon I was afraid would have broke the gla which contained it. It fhot up and down, with ⚫ incredible fwiftnefs, through the liquor in which it swam, and very frequently bounced against the fide of the phial. The Femes or fpot in the mid-dle of it was not large, but of a fiery red colour, and feemed to be the cause of thefe violent agita--tions. That, fays my inftructor, is the heart of Tom Dread-nought, who behaved himself well in the late wars, but has, for thefe ten years laft past, been aiming at fome poft of honour to no purpofe. He is lately retired into the country, where, quite choked up with spleen and choler, - he rails at better men than himself, and will be for ever uneafy, because it is impoffible he fhould • think

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think his merit fufficiently rewarded. The next heart that I examined was remarkable for its • fmallness; it lay ftill at the bottom of the phial, and I could hardly perceive that it beat at all. The Fomes was quite black, and had almost diffufed itself over the whole heart. This, fays my interpreter, is the heart of Dick Gloomy, who never thirfted after any thing but money. Notwithstanding all his endeavours, he is ftill poor. This has flung him into a moft deplorable state of ⚫ melancholy and defpair. He is a compofition of envy and idleness, hates mankind, but gives them their revenge by being more uneafy to himself than to any one else.

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• The phial I looked upon next contained a large • fair heart, which beat very ftrongly. The Fomes or fpot in it was exceeding fmall; but I could not help obferving, that which way foever I turn•ed the phial it always appeared uppermost, and in the strongest point of light. The heart you are examining, fays my companion, belongs to Will Worthy. He has indeed a moft noble foul, and is poffeffed of a thousand good qualities. The speck which you difcover is Vanity.

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Here, fays the angel, is the heart of Freelove, your intimate friend. Freelove and I, faid I, are at prefent very cold to one another, and I do not care for looking on the heart of a man, which I fear is overcaft with rancour. My teacher commanded me to look upon it; I did fo, and to my unspeakable furprife, found that a fmall fwelling fpot, which I at firft took to be ill-will towards me, was only paffion, and that upon my nearer infpection it wholly difappeared; upon which the phantom told me Freelove was one of the beft-natured men alive.

This, fays my teacher, is a female heart of 'your acquaintance. I found the Fomes in it of the largest fize, and of an hundred different co

lours,

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lours, which were still varying every moment. Upon my afking to whom it belonged, I was informed that it was the heart of Coquetilla.

I fet it down and drew out another, in which "I took the Fomes at firft fight to be very fmall, 'but was amazed to find, that, as I looked ftedfaftly upon it, it grew ftill larger. It was the heart of Melissa, a noted prude, who lives the nextdoor to me.

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I fhow you this, fays the phantom, because it is indeed a rarity, and you have the happiness to "know the perfon to whom it belongs. He then 'put into my hands a large cryftal glafs, that in

clofed an heart in which, though I examined it ' with the utmost nicety, I could not perceive any 'blemish. I made no fcruple to affirm that it mult be the heart of Seraphina, and was glad, but not furprised, to find that it was fo. She is indeed, < continued my guide, the ornament, as well as the envy of her fex; at these last words he pointed to the hearts of feveral of her female acquaint'ance, which lay in different phials, and had very large fpots in them, all of a deep blue. You are not to wonder, fays he, that you fee no fpot in 'an heart, whofe innocence has been proof against ' all the corruptions of a depraved age. If it has any blemish, it is too fmall to be difcovered by human eyes.

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I laid it down, and took up the hearts of other 'females, in all of which the Fomes ran in several ' veins, which were twisted together, and made a very perplexed-figure. I afked the meaning of it, and was told it reprefented Deceit.

I fhould have been glad to have examined the ' hearts of feveral of my acquaintance, whom I knew to be particularly addicted to drinking, gaming, intriguing, &c. but my interpreter told me, I muft let that alone until another opportuM 3

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nity,

nity, and flung down the cover of the cheft with fo much violence, as immediately awoke ' me.'

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No 588. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER I.

Dicitis, omnis in imbecilitate eft et gratia, et caritas. CICERO.

You pretend that all kindness and benevolence is founded in weakness.

MAN may be confidered in two views, as a rea

fonable, and as a fociable being; capable of becoming himself either happy or miferable, and of contributing to the happiness or mifery of his fellow creatures. Suitably to this double capacity, the Contriver of human nature hath wifely furnished it with two principles of action, felf-love and benevolence; defigned one of them to render man wakeful to his own perfonal intereft the other to difpofe him for giving his utmoft affiftance to all engaged in the fame purfuit. This is fuch an account of our frame, fo agreeable to reason, fo much for the honour of our Maker, and the credit of our fpecies, that it may appear fomewhat unaccountable what should induce men to reprefent human nature as they do, under characters of difadvantage, or, having drawn it with a little and fordid afpect, what pleasure they can poffibly take in fuch a picture. Do they reflect that it is their own, and, if we would believe themfelves, is not more odious than the original? One of the firft that talked in this lofty ftrain of our nature was Epicurus. Beneficence, would his followers fay, is all founded in weakness; and, whatever be pretended, the kindness that paffeth between men and men, is by every man directed to himfelf. This, it must

be

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