5

I have heard a very experienced vintner say that he had observed great difference between the tempers of his claret and port customers. The old age of the claretdrinker is generally peevish and fretful; that of him who uses port calm, and, at the worst, dull. The blood of a claret-drinker grows vinegar, that of your port man mum. The effect of claret is to make men restless, of port to make them sleepy. But port, moderately used, had all the good effects which can come from the best claret, and none of the ill effects which flow from the immoderate 10 use of itself.

[From A Letter to a Member of Parliament concerning the Bill for Preventing the Growth of Schism.]

Sir,

LONDON, May, 28, 1714. 15

Though I have had the misfortune to appear an unworthy member of your house, and am expelled, accordingly, from my seat in Parliament, I am not by that vote (which was more important to the people of England 20 than I shall at this time explain) deprived of the common benefits of life, liberty, or any other enjoyment of a rational being. And I do not think I can better bestow my time, or employ these advantages, than in doing all in my power to preserve them to others as well as myself, 25 and in asserting the right of my fellow-subjects against anything which I apprehend to be an encroachment upon what they ought to enjoy as men and what they are legally possessed of as Englishmen, or, if you will, as Britons.

330

This, sir, is all the apology I shall make to you for addressing to you in this public manner my thoughts concerning the bill now making its way with all convenient expedition through your house and the whole 5 legislature. . .

But to use force is not the way to subdue them; it is against nature and common sense to think they are to be gained by such methods. Good-will opens the way to men's hearts, and the Toleration has thinned PresbyIo terian assemblies more than any rigid means could ever have done. No man is persuaded by him who hates him, but all are easily prevailed upon by those who love 'em. The Dissenters are quite another kind of people than they were before the Toleration. By this indulgence to 15 them, it is a known observation that they are brought into the methods of life in common with the best and most polite people, and crowds of the generations which have grown up under the Toleration have conformed to the Church, from the humanity of that law. The fathers 20 of families have, perhaps, found some pain in retracting their errors and in going into new communities and conversations, but we see thousands connive at the conformity of their children: the parents have been secretly pleased at their sliding into that economy for 25 which the fear of the imputation of self-interest or apostasy prevented them in their persons to declare.

And yet all of a sudden, without any manner of provocation, a million of her Majesty's subjects are to have the law by which they enjoy the dearest blessings of life 30 taken from them an act that will certainly gain to us all that are not worth having, and make those who are animated by virtue and piety more averse to us. They will have a juster exception against us from this very act than they had before. Kind treatment every day

brought new proselytes amongst us, and they were insensibly wrought into our sentiments, but either as men or as Christians they must abhor the thought of adhering to us out of fear. This motive is in itself a faulty one for resigning not only any tenet of religion but 5 of common obligation. Passive obedience is said to be a doctrine of the Church of England, but it is a terrible article to be made the first in the catechism, as it would be to those who are to come in upon compulsion.

When we consider the putting this law in execution, 10 there cannot be a more pleasant image presented to the imagination than a poor schismatic schoolmistress brought before a zealous, angry squire for transgressing this act, and teaching one Presbyterian, yet little more than an animal, in what the letter D differed from the letter B; 15 maliciously insinuating to another schismatic aged five years old, without license from the ordinary, that O is round; and not contenting herself with merely showing to the said schismatics the letters of a certain book covered with horn but instructing the said heretics to put them 20 together and make words of them, as appears by the affidavit of one who heard one infant schismatic say o-ƒ, of, another, ob, ob. Prodigious, that a church adorned with so many excellent and learned members, supplied by two famous universities, both endowed with ample reve- 25 nues, immunities, and jurisdictions, should be affronted with the offer of being reinforced with penal laws against the combination of women and children! You might with the same propriety provide against schismatic nurses.

XXI.

[The Dedication, to Mrs. Steele, of the third volume of the Ladies' Library.]

Madam,

July 21, 1714.

If great obligations received are just motives for addresses of this kind, you have an unquestionable 5 pretension to my acknowledgments, who have condescended to give me your very self. I can make no return for so inestimable a favour but in acknowledging the generosity of the giver. To have either wealth, wit, or beauty, is generally a temptation to a woman to put an 10 unreasonable value upon herself; but with all these, in a degree which drew upon you the addresses of men of the amplest fortunes, you bestowed your person where you could have no expectations but from the gratitude of the receiver, though you knew he could exert that 15 gratitude in no other returns but esteem and love. For which must I first thank you? for what you have denied yourself, or for what you have bestowed on me?

I owe to you that for my sake you have overlooked the prospect of living in pomp and plenty, and I have 20 not been circumspect enough to preserve you from care and sorrow. I will not dwell upon this particular; you are so good a wife that I know you think I rob you of more than I can give, when I say anything in your favour to my own disadvantage.

25

Whoever should see or hear you, would think it were worth leaving all the world for you; while I, habitually possessed of that happiness, have been throwing away impotent endeavours for the rest of mankind, to the neglect of her for whom any other man, in his senses, 30 would be apt to sacrifice everything else.

I know not by what unreasonable prepossession it is, but methinks there must be something austere to give authority to wisdom; and I cannot account for having only rallied many seasonable sentiments of yours but that you are too beautiful to appear judicious.

One may grow fond, but not wise, from what is said by so lovely a counsellor. Hard fate, that you have been lessened by your perfections, and lost power by your charms !

5

That ingenuous spirit in all your behaviour, that 10 familiar grace in your words and actions, has for this seven years only inspired admiration and love; but experience has taught me, the best counsel I ever have received has been pronounced by the fairest and softest lips; and convinced me that I am in you blest with a 15 wise friend as well as a charming mistress.

Your mind shall no longer suffer by your person; nor shall your eyes, for the future, dazzle me into a blindness towards your understanding. I rejoice in this public occasion to shew my esteem for you; and must do you 20 the justice to say, that there can be no virtue represented in all this collection for the female world, which I have not known you exert, as far as the opportunities of your fortune have given you leave. Forgive me, that my heart overflows with love and gratitude for daily instances of 25 your prudent economy, the just disposition you make of your little affairs, your cheerfulness in dispatch of them, your prudent forbearance of any reflections that they might have needed less vigilance had you disposed of your fortune suitably; in short, for all the arguments 30 you every day give me of a generous and sincere affection.

It is impossible for me to look back on many evils and pains which I have suffered since we came together, without a pleasure which is not to be expressed, from the