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No 177.

Saturday, September 22.

-Quis enim bonus, aut face dignus

Arcana, qualem Cereris vult effe facerdos,

Ulla aliena fibi credat mala? -Juv. fat. 15. v. 140.

Who can all fenfe of others ills efcape,

Is but a brute, at beft, in human shape..

TATE.

IN one of ny laft week's papers I treated of good nature, as it is the effect of constitution: I fhall now fpeak of it, as it is a moral virtue. The firft may make a man eafy in himself and agreeable to others, but implies no merit in him that is poffeffed of it. A man is no more to be praifed upon this account, than because he has a regular pulfe or a good digeftion. This good nature however in the conftitution, which Mr Dryden fomewhere calls a milkiness+ of blood, is an admirable ground-work for the other. In order therefore to try our good nature, whether it arifes from the body or the mind, whether it be founded in theanimal or rational part of our nature; in a word, whether: it be fuch as is intitled to any other reward, befides that fecret fatisfaction and contentment of mind which is effen->› tial to it, and the kind reception it procures to us in theworld, we muft examine it by the following rules.

FIRST, Whether it acts with steadiness and uniformity in fickness and in health, in profperity and in adversity; if otherways, it is to be looked upon as nothing elle but an irradiation of the mind from fome new fupply of fpirits, or a more kindly circulation of blood. Sir Francis Bacon mentions a cunning folicitor, who would never ask a favour of a great min before dinner; but took care to prefer his petition at a time when the party petitioned had his mind free from care and his appetites in good humour. Such a tranfient temporary good-nature as this, is not that philanthropy, that love of mankind, which deferves the title of

a moral virtue.

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THE next way of a man's bringing his good-nature to the teft, is, to confider whether it operates according to the rules of reafon and duty: for if, notwithstanding its

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general benevolence to mankind, it makes no diftinction between its objects, if it exerts itself promiscuously towards the deferving and undeferving, if it relieves alike the idle. and the indigent, if it gives itfelf up to the firft petitioner and lights upon any one rather by accident than choice, it may pals for an amiable inftinct, and must not affume the name of a moral virtue.

THE third trial of good-nature will be the examining ourfelves, whether or no we are able to exert it to our own difadvantage, and employ it on proper objects, notwithstanding any little pain, want or inconvenience which may arife to ourfelves from it; in a word, whether we are willing to risk any part of our fortune, our reputation or health, or eafe, for the benefit of mankind. Among all thefe expreffions of good-nature, I fhall fingle out that which goes under the general name of charity, as it confifts in relieving the indigent; that being a trial of this kind which offers itself to us almost at all times, and in every place.

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I SHOULD propofe it as a rule to every one who is vided with any competency of fortune more than fufficient for the neceffaries of life, to lay afide a certain proportion of his income for the ufe of the poor. This I would look upon as an offering to Him who has a right to the whole, for the ufe of thofe whom, in the paffage hereafter mentioned, he has defcribed as his own reprefentatives earth. At the fame time we fhould manage our charity with fuch prudence and caution, that we may not hurt our own friends and relations, whilft we are doing good to thofe who are ftrangers to us.

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THIS may poffibly be explained better by an example than by a rule.

EUGENIUS is a man of an univerfal good-nature, and generous beyond the extent of his fortune; but withal fo prudent in the economy of his affairs, that what goes out in charity is made up by good-management. Eugenius has what the world calls two hundred pounds a year; but never values himself above ninefcore, as not thinking he has a right to the tenth part, which he always appropriates to charitable ufes. To this fum he frequently makes other voluntary additions, infomuch that in a good year,

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for fuch he accounts thofe in which he has been able to make greater bounties than ordinary, he has given above twice that fum to the fickly and indigent. Eugenius prefcribes to himself many particular days of fafting and abftinence, in order to increase his private bank of charity, and fets afide what would be the current expences of those times for the use of the poor. He often goes afoot where his business call him, and at the end of his walk has given a fhilling, which in his ordinary method of expence would have gone for coach hire, to the firft neceffitous perfon that has fallen in his way. I have known him, when he has been going to a play or an opera, divert the money which was defigned for that purpofe, upon an object of charity whom he has met with in the street; and afterwards pafs his evening in the coffee-houfe, or at a friend's fire fide, with much greater fatisfaction to himself than he could have received from the most exquifite entertainments of the theatre. By thefe means he is generous, without impoverishing himself, and enjoys his eftate by making it the property of others.

THERE are few men fo cramped in their private affairs, who may not be charitable after this manner, without any disadvantage to themselves, or prejudice to their families. It is but fometimes facrificing a diverfion or convenience to the poor, and turning the ufual courfe of our expences into a better channel. This is, I think, not only the most prudent and convenient, but the moft meritorious piece of charity, which we can put in practice. By this method we in fome measure fhare the neceffities of the poor at the fame time that we relieve them, and make ourselves not only their patrons, but their fellow-fufferers.

SIR Thomas Brown, in the last part of his Religio Medici, in which he defcribes his charity in feveral heroic inftances, and with a noble heat of fentiments, mentions that verfe in the Proverbs of Solomon, He that giveth to the poor, lendeth to the Lord: "There is more rhetoric ' in that one sentence, fays he, than in a library of fermons; and indeed if thofe fentences were understood by the reader, with the fame emphafis as they are delivered by the author, we needed not thofe volumes of instructions, but might be honest by an epitome.

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THIS paffage in fcripture is indeed wonderfully perfuafive: but I think the fame thought is carried much farther in the New Teftament, where our Saviour tells us in a moft pathetic manner, that he fhall hereafier regard the clothing of the naked, the feeding of the hungry, and the vifiting of the imprifoned, as offices done to himself, and reward them accordingly. Parfuant to thofe paffages in holy fcripture, I have fomewhere met with the epitaph of charitable man, which has very much pleafed me. not recollect the words, but the fenfe of it is to this pur pofe; What I spent I loft; what I poffeffed is left to others; what I give away remains with me.

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SINCE I am thus infenfibly engaged in facred writ, I cannot forbear making an extract of feveral paffages which I have always read with great delight in the book of Job. It is the account which that holy man gives of his behavi our in the days of his profperity, and, if confidered only as a human compofition, is a finer picture of a charitable and good-natured man than is to be met with in any other

author.

OH that I were as in months paft, as in the days when God preferved me: when his candle fhined upon my head, and when by his light I walked through darkness: when the Almighty was yet with me: when my children were a•bout me: when I washed my fieps with butter, and the rock poured out rivers of oil.

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WHEN the ear heard me, then it bleffed me: and when the eye faw me, it gave witness to me. Because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherlefs, and bina that had none to help him. The blessing of him that was ready to perifh came upon me, and I caufed the widow's heart to fing for joy. I was eyes, to the blind, and feet was I to the lame; I was a father to the poor, and the caufe which I knew not I fearched out. Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? was not my foul grieved for "the poor? Let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity. If I did defpife the cause of my man-fervant or of my maid-fervant when they contended with me: What then shall I do when God rifeth up? and when he vifiteth, what, fhall I anfwer him? Did not be that made me in the womb, make him? and did not one fashion us in the womb? If I have withheld the poor VOD. III.

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from their defire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail, or have eaten my morfel myfelf alone, and the fatherlefs hath not eaten thereof: if I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without covering: if his toins have not bleed me, and if he were not warmed with the feece of my fheep: if I have lift up my hand against the fatherless, when I saw my help in the gate; then let mine arm fall from my shoulder-blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone. If I have rejoiced at the defruction of him that hated me, or lift up myself when evil found him: (Neither have I fuffered my mouth to fin, by wishing a curfe to his foul.) The firanger did not lodge in the fireet; but I opened my doors to the traveller. If my land cry against me, or that the furrows likeways thereof compiain: if I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, or have caufed the owners thereof to lose their life; let thiftles grow infead of wheat, and cockle inflead of barley.

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1 AM but too good a judge of your paper of the 15th inftant, which is a mafter-piece; I mean that of jealoufy but I think it unworthy of you to speak of that torture in the breast of a man, and not to mention also the pangs of it in the heart of a woman. You have very judiciously, and with the greatest penetration imaginable, confidered it, as woman is the creature of whom the diffidence is raifed; but not a word of a man, who is fo unmerciful as to move jealoufy in his wife, and not care whether the is fo or not. It is poffible you may not believe there are fuch tyrants in the world; but alas, I can tell you of a man who is ever out of humour in his wife's company, and the pleasantest man in the world

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