tures of a middle kind, neither fo virtuous as the one, nor fo vicious as the other, but partaking of the good and bad qualities of thefe two oppofite families. Jupiter confidering that this fpecies, commonly called man, was too virtuous to be miferable, and too vicious to be happy; that he might make a diftinction between the good and the bad, ordered the two youngest of the above mentioned families, Pleasure, who was the daughter of Happiness, and Pain, who was the Jon of Mifery, to meet one another upon this part of nature which lay in the half-way between them, having promifed to fettle it upon them both, provided they could a gree upon the divifion of it, fo as to share mankind between them. PLEASURE and Pain were no fooner met in their new habitation, but they immediately agreed upon this point, that Pleafure should take poffeffion of the virtuous, and Pain of the vicious part of that fpecies which was given up to them. But upon examining to which of them any individual they met with belonged, they found each of them had a right to him; for that, contrary to what they had feen, in their old places of refidence, there was no person, fo vicious who had not fome good in him, nor any person fo virtuous who had not in him fome evil. The truth of it is, they generally found upon fearch, that in the most vicious man Pleafure might lay a claim to an hundredth part, and that in the most virtuous man Pain might come in for at leaft two thirds. This they faw would occafion endless dif putes between them, unless they could come to fome accommodation. To this end there was a marriage propofed between them, and at length concluded: by this means it is that we find Pleafure and Pain are fuch conftant yoke-fellows, and that they either make their vifits together, or are never far afunder. If Pain comes into an heart, he is quickly followed by Pleasure; and if Pleafure enters, you may be fure Pain is not far off. BUT notwithstanding this marriage was very convenient for the two parties, it did not feem to answer the intention of Jupiter in fending them among mankind. To remedy therefore this inconvenience, it was flipulated between them by article, and confirmed by the confent of each family, that notwithstanding they here poffelfed the fpecies indifferently; upon the death of every fingle perfon, if he was found No'184. found to have in him a certain proportion of evil, he should be dispatched into the infernal regions by a passport from Pain, there to dwell with Mifery, Vice, and the Furies: Or on the contrary. if he had in him a certain proportion of good, he should be difpatched into heaven by a passport from Pleafure, and there to dwell with Happiness, Virtue, and the gods. WHEN a man has difcovered a new vein of humour, it often carries him much farther than he expected from it. My correfpondents take the hint I gave them, and purfue it into fpeculations which I never thought at my first starting it. This has been the fate of my paper on the match of grinning, which has already produced a fecond paper on parallel fubjects, and brought me the following letter by the laft poft. I fhall not premife any thing to it farther, than that it is built on matter of fact, and is as follows. SIR, You OU have already obliged the world with a difcourfe upon grinning, and have fince proceeded to whiftling, from whence you at length came to yawning; from this, I think, you may make a very natural transition to fleeping. I therefore recommend to you, for the fubject of a paper, the following advertisement, which, about two months ago, was given into every body's hands, and may be feen, with fome additions, in the Daily Courant of Auguft the ninth. NICOLAS HART, who flept last year at St Bartholomew's hofpital, intends to fleep this year at the Cock and Bottle in Little-Britain. • HAVING HAVING fince inquired into the matter of fact, I <find that the above-mentioned Nicholas Hart is every year feized with a periodical fit of fleeping, which begins upon the fifth of Auguft, and ends on the 11th of the fame month: that On the first of that month he grew dull; On the fixth, was heard to fnore; On the feventh, turned himself in his bed; On the tenth, about midnight, awaked; On the eleventh in the morning, called for a little fmall-beer. THIS account I have extracted out of the journal of this fleeping worthy, as it has been faithfully kept by a gentleman of Lincoln's Inn, who has undertaken to be his hiftoriographer. I have fent it to you, not only as it reprefents the actions of Nicholas Hart, but as it feems a very natural picture of the life of many an honeft Englifh gentleman, whofe whole hiftory very often confifts of yawning, nodding, ftretching, turning, fleeping, drinking, and the like extraordinary particulars. I do not question, Sir, that, if you pleafed, you could put out an advertisement, not unlike the above-mentioned, of feveral. men of figure; that Mr John fuch-a-one, gentleman, or Thomas fuch-a-one, efquire, who flept in the country laft fummer, intends to fleep in town this winter. The worst of it is, that the drowsy part of our fpecies is chiefly made up of very honeft gentlemen, who live quietly among their neighbours, without ever disturbing the public peace: they are drones without ftings. I could heartily wish, that feveral turbulent, reftlefs, ambitious fpirits, would for a-while change places with these good men, and enter themfelves into Nicholas Hart's fraternity. Could one but lay afleep a few bufly heads < which I could name, from the first of November next to the first of May enfuing, I question not but it would VOL. III. F • very very much redound to the quiet of particular perfons, as well as to the benefit of the public. BUT to return to Nicholas Hart: I believe, Sir, you will think it a very extraordinary circumftance for a man to gain his liveliehood by fleeping, and that reft fhould procure a man fuftenance as well as induftry; yet fo it is, that Nicholas got last year enough to fupport himself for a twelvemonth. I am likeways informed, that he has this year had a very comfortable nap. The poets value themselves very much for fleeping on Par naffus, but I never heard they got a groat by it: on the contrary, our friend Nicholas gets more by fleeping than he could by working, and may be more properly faid, than ever Homer was, to have had golden dreams. Jvenal indeed mentions a drowfy hufband who raised an eftate by fnoring, but then he is reprefented to have flept what the common people call a dog's fleep; or if his fleep was real, his wife was awake, and about her bufinefs. Your pen, which loves to moralize upon all fubjects, may raife fomething, methinks, on this circumftance alfo, and point out to us thofe fets of men, who, inftead of growing rich by an honeft induftry, recommend then felves to the favours of the great, by making themselves agreeable companions in the participations of luxury and pleasure. I MUST further acquaint you, Sir, that one of the most eminent pens in Grubflreet is now employed in writing the dream of this miraculous fleeper, which I hear will be of a more than ordinary length, as it must contain all the particulars that are fuppofed to have pafled in his 'imagination during fo long a fleep. He is faid to have gone already through three days and three nights of it, and to have comprifed in them the most remarkable paffages of the four firft empires of the world. If he can keep free from party-strokes, his work may be of ufe ; but this I much doubt, having been informed by one of his friends and confidents, that he has spoken fome things of Nimrod with too great freedom. L I am ever, Sir, &c. 1 No 185. No 185. Tuesday, October 2. -Tantane animis cælefibus ir? VIRG. En. 1. v.15. And dwells fuch fury in celestial breasts? T HERE is nothing in which men more deceive themfelves than in what the world call zeal. There are fo many paffions which hide themselves under it, and fo many mifchiefs ariling from it, that fome have gone fo far as to fay it would have been for the benefit of mankind if it had never been reckoned in the catalogue of virtues. It is certain, where it is once laudable and prudential, it is an hundred times criminal and erroneous; nor can it be otherways, if we confider that it operates with equal violence in all religions, however oppofite they may be to one another, and in all the subdivifions of each religion in particular. WE are told by fome of the Jewish rabbins, that the firft murder was occafioned by a religious controverfy; and if we had the whole hiftory of zeal from the days of Caint to our own times, we fhould fee it filled with fo many fcenes of flaughter and bloodshed, as would make a wife man very careful, how he fuffers himfelf to be actuated by fuch a principle, when it only regards matters of opinion and fpeculation. I WOULD have every zealous man examine his heart thoroughly, and I believe he will often find, that what he calls a zeal for his religion, is either pride, intereft, or illnature. A man who differs from another in opinion, fets himself above him in his own judgment, and in feveral par ticulars tends to be the wifer perfon. This is a great provocation to the proud man, and gives a keen edge to what he calls his zeal. And that this is the cafe very often, we may obferve from the behaviour of fome of the most zealous for orthodoxy, who have often great friendships and intimacies with vicious immoral men, provided they do but agree with them in the fame fcheme of belief. The reafon is, because the vicious believer gives the precedency to the virtuous men, and allows the good Chriftian F2. to |