feen; to wit, That when a filly rogue has thrown away one part in three of his life in unprofitable attendance, it is taken wonderfully ill that he withdraws, and is refolved to employ the reft for himfelf. When we confider thefe things, and reflect upon fo many honeft natures (which one, who makes obfervation of what paffes, may have feen) that have mifcarried by fuch fort of applications, it is too melancholly a fcene to dwell upon; therefore I shall take another opportunity to difcourfe of good patrons, and diftinguifh fuch as have done their duty to thofe who have depended upon them, and were not able to act without their favour. Worthy patrons are like Plato's guardian angels, who are always doing good to their wards; but negligent patrons are like Epicurus's gods, that lie lolling on the clouds, and, inftead of bleffings, pour down ftorms and tempefts on the heads of thofe that are offering incenfe to them. XXXXXXXX No 215. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 6. I -Ingenuas didiciffe fideliter artes Emollit mores, nec finit effe feros. T OVID. Ep. ix. lib. 2. de Ponto. ver. 47. Ingenuous arts, where they an entrance find, CONSIDER an human foul without education like marble in the quarry, which thews none of its inherent beauties, until the kill of the polisher fetches out the colours, makes the furface thine, and difcovers every ornamental cloud, spot, and vein that runs through the body of it. Education, after the fame manner, when it works upon a no-ble mind, draws out to view every latent virtue and perfection, perfection, which without fuch helps are never able to make their appearance. If my reader will give me leave to change the allufion fo foon upon him, I fhall make use of the fame inftance to illuftrate the force of education, which Ariftotle has brought to explain his doctrine of fubftantial forms, when he tells us that a ftatue lies hid in a block of marble; and that the art of the statuary only clears away the fuperfluous matter, and removes the rubbish. The figure is in the stone, the sculpture only finds it. What fculpture is to a block of marble, education is to an human foul. The philofopher, the faint, or the hero, the wife, the good, or the great man, very often lie hid and concealed in a plebeian, which a proper education might have difinterred, and have brought to light. I am therefore much delighted with reading the accounts of favage nations, and with contemplating thofe virtues which are wild and uncultivated; to fee courage exerting tfelf in fierceness, refolution in obftinacy, wifdom in cunning, patience in fullennefs and defpair. Mens paffions operate varioufly, and appear in different kinds of actions, according as they are more or less rectified and swayed by reason. When one hears of negroes, who upon the death of their mafters, or upon changing their fervice, hang themfelves upon the next tree, as it frequently happens in our American plantations, who can forbear admiring their fidelity, though it expreffes itself in fo dreadful a manner? What might not that favage greatnefs of foul which appears in thefe poor wretches on many occafions, be raised to, were it rightly cultivated? And what colour of excufe can there be for the contempt with which we treat this part of our fpecies? that we should not put them upon the common foot of humanity, that we should only fet an infignificant fine upon the man who murders them; nay, that we fhould, as much as in us lies, cut them off from the prospects of happinefs in another world as well as in this, and deny them that which we look upon as the proper means for attaining it? Since I am engaged on this fubject, I cannot forbear mentioning a story which I have lately heard, and which is fo well attefted, that I have no manner of reason to fufpect the truth of it. I may call it a kind of wild tragedy that paffed about twelve years ago at St. Chriftopher's, one of our British leeward iflands. The negroes who were the perfons concerned in it, were all of them the flaves of a Gentleman who is now in England. This Gentleman among his negroes had a young woman, who was looked upon as a moft extraordinary beauty by thofe of her own complexion. He had at the fame time two young fellows who were, likewife negroes and flaves, remarkable for the comeliness of their perfons, and for the friendship which they bore to one another. It unfortunately happened that both of them fell in love with the female negroe above-mentioned, who would have been very glad to have taken either of them for her husband, provided they could agree between themfelves which fhould be the man. But they were both fo paffionately in love with her, that neither of them could think of giving her up to his rival; and at the fame time were fo true to one another, that neither of them would think of gaining her without his friend's confent. The torments of these two lovers were the discourse of the family to which they belonged, who could not forbear obferving the ftrange complication of paffions which perplexed the hearts of the poor negroes, that often dropped expreffions of the uneafinefs they underwent, and how impoffible it was for either of them ever to be happy. After a long struggle between love and friendship, truth and jealoufy, they one day took a walk together together into a wood, carrying their miftrefs along with them: Where after abundance of lamentations, they ftabbed her to the heart, of which the immediately died. A flave who was at his work not far from the place where this aftonishing piece of cruelty was committed, hearing the fhrieks of the dying perfon, ran to fee what was the occafion of them. He there difcovered the woman lying dead upon the ground, with the two negroes on each fide of her, kiffing the dead corpfe, weeping over it, and beating their breafts in the utmost agonies of grief and defpair. He immediately ran to the English family with the news of what he had feen; who upon coming to the place faw the woman dead, and the two negroes expiring by her with wounds they had given themselves. We fee in this amazing inftance of barbarity, what ftrange diforders are bred in the minds of thofe men whofe paffions are not regulated by virtue, and disciplined by reafon. Though the action which I have recited is in itself full of guilt and horror, it proceeded from a temper of mind which might have produced very noble fruits, had it been informed and guided by a fuitable education. It is therefore an unfpeakable bleffing to be born in those parts of the world where wifdom and knowledge flourish; though it must be confeffed, there are, even in these parts, feveral poor uninftructed perfons, who are but little above the inhabitants of those nations of which I have been here fpeaking; as those who have had the advantages of a more liberal education, rife above one another by feveral different degrees of perfection. For to return to our ftatue in the block of marble, we fee it fometimes only begun to be chipped, fometimes rough-hewn, and but juft fketched into an human figure; fometimes we fee the man appearing diftinctly in all his limbs and features, fometimes we find the figure wrought up to a great elegancy, but VOL. IIII. S feldom feldom meet with any to which the hand of a Phidias or Praxitelės could not give several nice touches and finishings. Difcourfes of morality, and reflections upon human nature, are the beaft means we can make ufe of to improve our minds, and gain a true knowledge of ourselves, and confequently to recover our fouls out of the vice, ignorance, and prejudice, which naturally cleave to them. I have all along profeft myself in this paper a promoter of these great ends; and I flatter myfelf that I do from day to day contribute fomething to the polishing of mens minds: At least my design is laudable, whatever the execution may be. I must confefs I am not a little encouraged in it by many letters which I receive from unknown hands, in approbation of my endeavours; and muft take this opportunity of returning my thanks to those who write them, and excufing myself for not inferting several of them in my papers, which I am fenfible would be a very great ornament to them. Should I publifh the praises which are fo well penned, they would do honour to the perfons who write them, but my publishing of them would I fear be a fufficient initance to the world that I did not deferve them. C WEDNESDAY, |