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come fparing and referved in their commendations, they envy him the fatisfaction of an applaufe, and look on their praises rather as a kindness done to his person, than as a tribute paid to his merit. Others who are free from this natural perverfeness of temper grow wary in their praises of one, who fets too great a value on them, left they should raise him too high in his own imagination, and by confequence remove him to a greater diftance from themselves.

But farther, this defire of fame naturally betrays the ambitious man into fuch indecencies, as are a leffening to his reputation. He is ftill afraid left any of his actions fhould be thrown away in private, left his deferts fhould be concealed from the notice of the world, or receive any difadvantage from the reports which others make of them. This often fets him on empty boafts and oftentations of himself, and betrays him into vain fantastical recitals of his own performances: his difcourfe generally leans one way, and, whatever is the fubject of it, tends obliquely either to the detracting from others, or to the extolling of himself. Vanity is the natural weakness of an ambitious man, which exposes him to the fecret fcorn and derifion of thofe he converfes with, and ruins the character he is fo induftrious to advance by it. For though his actions are never fo glorious, they lofe their luftre when they are drawn at large, and fet to fhow by his own hand; and as the world is more apt to find fault than to commend, the boaft will probably be cenfured when the great action that occafioned it is forgotten.

Befides, this very defire of fame is looked on as a meannefs and imperfection in the greatest character. A folid and fubftantial greatnefs of foul looks down with a generous neglect on the cenfures and applaufes of the multitude, and places a man beyond the little noise and ftrife of tongues. Accordingly we find in ourselves a fecret awe and veneration for the character of one who moves about us in a regular and illuftrious courfe of virtue, without any regard to our good or ill opinions of him, to our reproaches or commendations. As on the contrary it is ufual for us, when we would take off from the fame and reputation of an action, to afcribe it to

vain-glory, and a defire of fame in the actor. Nor is this common judgment and opinion of mankind illfounded for certainly it denotes no great bravery of mind to be worked up to any noble action by so selfish a motive, and to do that out of a defire of fame, which we could not be prompted to by a difinterested love to mankind, or by a generous paffion for the glory of him that made us.

Thus is fame a thing difficult to be obtained by all, but particularly by those who thirst after it, fince most men have fo much either of ill-nature, or of warinefs, as not to gratify or footh the vanity of the ambitious man; and fince this very thirst after fame naturally betrays him into fuch indecencies as are a leffening to his reputation, and is itself looked upon as a weakness in the greatest characters.

In the next place, fame is easily loft, and as difficult to be preferved as it was at firft to be acquired. But this I fhall make the subject of a following paper.

Monday, December 24.

C

N° 256

Φήμη γάρ τε κακὴ πέλεται· νέφη μὲν ἀεῖραι

Ρεῖα μάλ', ἀργαλέη δὲ φέρειν.

Hef.

Defire of fame by various ways is croft,

Hard to be gain'd, and easy to be lost.

THERE are many paffions and tempers of mind which naturally difpofe us to deprefs and vilify the

merit of one rifing in the esteem of mankind. All those who made their entrance into the world with the fame advantages, and were once looked on as his equals, are apt to think the fame of his merits a reflexion on their own indeferts; and will therefore take care to reproach him with the fcandal of fome paft action, or derogate from the worth of the prefent, that they may ftill keep him on the fame level with themselves. The like kind of confideration often ftirs up the envy of fuch as were once his fuperiors, who think it a detraction

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traction from their merit to fee another get ground upon them and overtake them in the purfuits of glory; and will therefore endeavour to fink his reputation, that they may the better preserve their own. Those who were once his equals envy and defame him, because they now fee him their fuperior; and those who were once his fuperiors, because they look upon him as their equal.

But farther, a man whofe extraordinary reputation thus lifts him up to the notice and obfervation of mankind, draws a multitude of eyes upon him that will narrowly infpect every part of him, confider him nicely in all views, and not be a little pleafed when they have taken him in the worst and most disadvantageous light. There are many who find a pleasure in contradicting the common reports of fame, and in spreading abroad the weakneffes of an exalted character. They publish their ill-natured difcoveries with a fecret pride, and applaud themfelves for the fingularity of their judgment which has fearched deeper than others, detected what the rest of the world have overlooked, and found a flaw in what the generality of mankind admires. Others there are, who proclaim the errors and infirmities of a great man with an inward fatisfaction and complacency, if they difcover none of the like errors and infirmities in themfelves; for while they are expofing another's weakneffes, they are tacitly aiming at their own commendations, who are not fubject to the like infirmities, and are apt to be tranfported with a secret kind of vanity to fee themselves fuperior in fome refpects to one of a fublime and celebrated reputation. Nay, it very often happens, that none are more induftrious in publishing the blemishes of an extraordinary reputation, than fuch as lie open to the fame cenfures in their own characters, as either hoping to excuse their own defects by the authority of fo high an example, or railing an imaginary applaufe to themselves for refembling a perfon of an exalted reputation, though in the blameable parts of his character. If all thefe fecret fprings of detraction fail, yet very often a vain oftentation of wit fets a man on attacking an established name, and facrificing it to the mirth and laughter of those about him. A fatire or a libel on one of the 5

common

common stamp, never meets with that reception and approbation among its readers as what is aimed at a perfon whofe merit places him upon an eminence, and gives him a more confpicuous figure among men. Whether it be that we think it fhews greater art to expose and turn to ridicule a man whofe character feems fo improper a fubject for it, or that we are pleased by fome implicit kind of revenge to fee him taken down and humbled in his reputation, and in some measure reduced to our own rank, who had fo far raised himself above us in the reports and opinions of mankind.

Thus we fee how many dark and intricate motives there are to detraction and defamation, and how many malicious fpies are fearching into the actions of a great man, who is not, always, the best prepared for fo narrow an infpection. For we may generally obferve, that our admiration of a famous man leffens upon our nearer acquaintance with him: and that we feldom hear the defcription of a celebrated perfon, without a catalogue of fome notorious weakneffes and infirmities. The reafon may be, because any little flip is more confpicuous and obfervable in his conduct than in another's, as it is not of a piece with the reft of his character, or because it is impoffible for a man at the fame time to be attentive to the more important part of his life, and to keep a watchful eye over all the inconfiderable circumstances of his behaviour and converfation; or becaufe, as we have before observed, the fame temper of mind which inclines us to a defire of fame, naturally betrays us into fuch flips and unwarineffes as are not incident to men of a contrary difpofition.

After all it must be confeffed, that a noble and triumphant merit often breaks through and diffipates thefe little fpots and fullies in its reputation; but if by a miftaken purfuit after fame, or through human infirmity, any falfe ftep be made in the more momentous concerns of life, the whole fcheme of ambitious defigns is broken and disappointed. The fmaller flains and blemishes may die away and difappear amidst the brightness that furrounds them; but a blot of a deeper nature cafts a fhade on all the other beauties, and darkens the whole character. How difficult therefore is it

VOL. IV.

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to preferve a great name, when he that has acquired It is fo obnoxious to fuch little weakneffes and infirmities as are no fmall diminution to it when difcovered, efpecially when they are fo induftriously proclaimed, and aggravated by fuch as were once his fuperiors or equals; by fuch as would fet to fhew their judgment or their wit, and by fuch as are guilty or innocent of the fame flips or misconducts in their own behaviour?

But were there none of these difpofitions in others to cenfure a famous man, nor any fuch mifcarriages in himself, yet would he meet with no fmall trouble in keeping up his reputation in all its height and fplendor. There must be always a noble train of actions to pre ferve his fame in life and motion. For when it is once at a stand, it naturally flags and languifhes. Admiration is a very fhort-lived paffion, that immediately decays upon growing familiar with its object, unless it be fill fed with fresh difcoveries, and kept alive by a new perpetual fucceffion of miracles rifing up to its view. And even the greatest actions of a celebrated perfon labour under this difadvantage, that however furprising and extraordinary they may be, they are no more than what are expected from him; but on the contrary, if they fall any thing below the opinion that is conceived of him, though they might raife the reputation of another, they are a diminution to his.

One would think there fhould be fomething won derfully pleafing in the poffeffion of fame, that, notwithstanding all thefe mortifying confiderations, can engage a man in fo defperate a purfuit; and yet if we confider the little happiness that attends a great character, and the multitude of difquietudes to which the defire of it fabjects an ambitious mind, one would be fill the more furprised to see so many restlefs candidates for glory.

Ambition raifes a fecret tumult in the foul, it inflames the mind, and puts it into a violent hurry of thought it is fill reaching after an empty imaginary good, that has not in it the power to abate or fatisfy it. Moft other things we long for can allay the cravings of their proper fenfe, and for a while fet the appetite at reft: but fame is a good fo wholly foreign to our natures,

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