what you hide, by faying fomething to his advantage when you speak, a merchant hurt in his credit; and him who, every day he lived, literally added to the value of his native country, undone by one who was only a burden and a blemish to it. Since every body who knows the world is fenfible of this great evil, how careful ought a man to be in his language of a merchant? It may poffibly be in the power of a very fhallow creature to lay the ruin of the best family in the moft opulent city; and the more fo, the more highly he deferves of his country; that is to fay, the farther he places his wealth out of his hands, to draw home that of another climate.

In this cafe an ill word may change plenty into want, and by a rafh fentence a free and generous fortune may in a few days be reduced to beggary. How little does a giddy prater imagine, that an idle phrafe to the disfavour of a merchant, may be as pernicious in the confequence, as the forgery of a deed to bar an inheritance would be to a gentleman Land stands where it did before a gentleman was calumniated, and the ftate of a great action is just as it was before calumny was offered to diminish it, and there is time, place, and occafion, expected to unravel all that is contrived against thefe characters; but the trader, who is ready only for probable demands upon him, can have no armour against the inquifitive, the malicious, and the envious, who are prepared to fill the cry to his difhonour. Fire and fword are flow engines of deftruction, in comparison of the babbler in the cafe of the merchant.

For this reafon I thought it an inimitable piece of humanity of a gentleman of my acquaintance, who had great variety of affairs, and ufed to talk with warmth enough against gentlemen by whom he thought himfelf ill-dealt with; but he would never let any thing be urged against a merchant VOL. III.

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(with

(with whom he had any difference) except in a court of justice. He ufed to fay, that to fpeak ill of a merchant, was to begin his fuit with judgment and execution. One cannot, I think, fay more on this occafion than to repeat, That the merit of the merchant is above that of all other fubjects; for while he is untouched in his credit, his hand-writing is a more portable coin for the fervice of his fellow-citizens, and his word the gold of Ophir to the country wherein he refides.

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No 219. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 10.

Vix ea noftra voco

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OVID. Met. lib. xiii. ver. 141.

Thefe I fearce call our own.

THERE

HERE are but few men who are not ambitious of diftinguishing themfelves in the nation or country where they live, and of growing confiderable among thofe with whom they converfe. There is a kind of grandeur and respect, which the meaneft and most infignificant part of mankind endea vour to procure in the little circle of their friends and acquaintance. The pooreft mechanick, nay the man who lives upon common alms, gets him his fet of admirers, and delights in that fuperiority which he enjoys over thofe who are in fome re1pects beneath him. This ambition, which is natural to the foul of man, might methinks receive a very happy turn; and, if it were rightly directed, contribute as much to a perfon's advantage, as it generally does to his uneafinefs and difquiet.

I thall therefore put together fome thoughts on this fubject, which I have not met with in other writers; and fhall fet them down as they have occurred to me, without being at the pains to connect or methodize them,

All

. All fuperiority and pre-eminence that one man can have over another, may. y.be reduced to the notion of Quality, which, confidered at large, is either that of fortune, body, or mind. The firft is that which confifts in birth, title, or riches; and is the most foreign to our naures, and what we can the least call our own of any of the three kinds of quality. In relation to the body, quality arifes from health, ftrength, or beauty; which are nearer to us, and more a part of ourselves than the former. Quality, as it regards the mind, has its rife from knowledge or virtue; and is that which is more ef fential to us, and more intimately united with us than either of the other two.

The quality of fortune, though a man has lefs reafon to value himfelf upon it than on that of the body or mind, is however the kind of quality which makes the moft fhining figure in the eye the world.

of

As virtue is the most reafonable and genuine fource of honour, we generally find in titles: an intimation of fome particular merit that thould recommend men to the high stations which they poffefs. Holiness is afcribed to the Pope; majefty to Kings; ferenity or mildness of temper to Princes; excellence or perfection to Ambaffadors; grace to Archbishops; honour to Peers; worship or vencrable behaviour to magiftrates; and reverence, which is of the fame import as the former, to the inferior Clergy.

In the founders of great families, fuch attributes of honour are generally correfpondent with the virtues of the perfon to whom they are applied; but in the defcendents they are too often the marks rather of grandeur than of merit. The ftamp and denomination ftill continues, but the intrinfick value is frequently loft.

The death-bed fhews the emptinefs of titles in a true light. A poor difpirited finner lies trembling

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under

under the apprehenfions of the ftate he is entering on; and is afked by a grave attendant how his ho-linefs does? Another hears himself addreffed to under the title of highnefs or excellency, who lies under fuch mean circumstances cf mortality as are the difgrace of human nature. Titles at fuch a time look rather like infults and mockery than refpect.

The truth of it is, honours are in this world under no regulation; true quality is neglected, virtue is oppreffed, and vice triumphant. The last day will rectify this diforder, and affign to every one a ftation fuitable to the dignity of his character; ranks will be then adjufted, and precedency fet aright.

Methinks we fhould have an ambition, if not to advance ourselves in another world, at least to preferve our poft in it, and outfhine our inferiors in virtue here, that they may not be put above us in a state which is to fettle the distinction for eternity.

Men in Scripture are called Strangers and Sojourners upon Earth, and life a Pilgrimage. Several heathen, as well as Chriftian authors, under the fame kind of metaphor, have reprefented the world as an inn, which was only defigned to furnish us with accommodations in this our paffage. It is therefore very abfurd to think of fetting up our -reft before we come to our journey's end, and not rather to take care of the reception we fhall there meet, than to fix our thoughts on the little conveniencies and advantages which we enjoy one above another in the way to it.

Epietus makes ufe of another kind of allufion, which is very beautiful, and wonderfully proper to incline us to be fatisfied with the poft in which Providence has placed us. We are here, fays he, as in a theatre, where every one has a part allotted to him. The great duty which lies upon a man is to

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act his part in perfection. We may indeed fay, that our part does not fuit us, and that we could act another better. But this (fays the philofopher) is not our bufinefs. All that we are concerned in is to excel in the part which is given us. If it be an improper one, the fault is not in us, but in hiur who has caft our feveral parts, and is the great difpofer of the drama.

The part that was acted by this philofopher him: felf was but a very indifferent one, for he lived and died a flaye. His motive to contentment in this particular, receives a very great inforceinent from the above-mentioned confideration, if we remember that our parts in the other world will be Now caft, and that mankind will be there ranged in different ftations of fuperiority and pre-eminence, in proportion as they have here excelled one another in virtue, and performed in their feveral pofts of life the duties which belong to them.

There are many beautiful paffages in the little apocryphal book, intitled, The Wifdem of Solomon, to fet forth the vanity of honour, and the likę temporal bleffings which are in fo great repute among men, and to comfort thofe who have not the poffeffion of them. It reprefents in very warm and noble terms this advancement of a good man in the other world, and the great furprife which it will produce among thofe who are his fuperiors in this.

Then fhall the righteous man stand in great bold⚫ nefs before the face of fuch as have afflicted him, ⚫ and made no account of his labours. When they fee it they fhall be troubled with terrible fear, and fhall be amazed at the strangenefs of his falvation, fo far beyond all that they looked for. And they repenting and groaning for anguish of spirit, fhall fay within themfelves; This was he whom we had fometime in derifion, and a proverb of reproach. We fools counted his life madness, and his end to be without honour. How is he • numbered

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