oftener than comfort, were the tongue on fuch occa fions faithfully to reprefent the fentiments of the heart; and I think the ftri&teft moralifts allow forms of address to be used without much regard to their literal acceptation, when either refpect or tendernefs requires them, because they are univerfally known to denote not the degree but the fpecies of our fentiments.

But the fame indulgence cannot be allowed to him who aggravates dangers incurred or forrow endured by himself, because he darkens the profpect of futurity, and multiplies the pains of our condition by useless terror. Those who magnify their delights are less criminal deceivers, yet they raise hopes which are fure to be disappointed. It would be undoubtedly beft, if we could fee and hear every thing as it is, that nothing might be too anxiously dreaded, or too ardently pursued,

NUMB. 51. SATURDAY, April 7, 1759.

has been commonly remarked, that eminent men are leaft eminent at home, that bright characters lofe much of their fplendor at a nearer view, and many who fill the world with their fame, excite very little reverence among thofe that furround them in their domeftick privacies.

To blame or to fufpect is eafy and natural. When the fact is evident, and the cause doubtful, fome accufation is always engendered between idleness and malignity. This difparity of general and familiar efteem is therefore imputed to hidden vices, and to practices indulged in fecret, but carefully covered from the publick eye.

The

Vice will indeed always produce contempt. dignity of Alexander, though nations fell proftrate before him, was certainly held in little veneration by the partakers of his midnight revels, who had feen him, in the madness of wine, murder his friend, or fet fire to the Perfian palace at the inftigation of a harlot; and it is well remembered among us, that the avarice of Marlborough kept him in subjection to his wife, while he was dreaded by France as her conqueror, and honoured by the emperor as his deliverer.

But though, where there is vice there must be want of reverence, it is not reciprocally true, that when there is want of reverence there is always

vice. That awe which great actions or abilities imprefs will be inevitably diminished by acquaintance, though nothing either mean or criminal fhould be found.

Of men, as of every thing elfe, we must judge according to our knowledge. When we fee of a hero only his battles, or of a writer only his books, we have nothing to allay our ideas of their greatnefs. We confider the one only as the guardian of his country, and the other only as the inftructor of mankind. We have neither opportunity nor motive to examine the minuter parts of their lives, or the lefs apparent peculiarities of their characters; we name them with habitual refpect, and forget, what we still continue to know, that they are men like other mortals.

But fuch is the conftitution of the world, that much of life must be spent in the fame manner by the wife and the ignorant, the exalted and the low. Men, however diftinguished by external accidents or intrinsick qualities, have all the fame wants, the fame pains, and, as far as the fenfes are confulted, the fame pleasures. The petty cares and petty duties are the fame in every ftation to every understanding, and every hour brings fome occafion on which we all fink to the common level. We are all naked till we are dreffed, and hungry till we are fed; and the general's triumph, and fage's difputation, end, like the humble labours of the fmith or plowman, in a dinner or in fleep.

Thofe notions which are to be collected by reafon, in oppofition to the fenfes, will feldom ftand

forward

forward in the mind, but lie treasured in the remoter repofitories of memory, to be found only when they are fought. Whatever any man may have written or done, his precepts or his valour will fcarcely overbalance the unimportant uniformity which runs through his time. We do not eafily confider him as great, whom our own eyes fhew us to be little; nor labour to keep present to our thoughts the latent excellences of him who shares with us all our weakneffes and many of our follies; who like us is delighted with flight amusements, bufied with trifling employments, and disturbed by little vexations.

Great powers cannot be exerted, but when great exigences make them neceffary. Great exigences can happen but seldom, and therefore those qualities which have a claim to the veneration of mankind, lie hid, for the most part, like fubterranean treasures, over which the foot paffes as on common ground, till neceffity breaks open the golden

cavern.

In the ancient celebrations of victory, a flave was placed on the triumphal car, by the fide of the general, who reminded him by a fhort fentence, that he was a man. Whatever danger there might be left a leader, in his paffage to the capitol, fhould forget the frailties of his nature, there was furely no need of fuch an admonition; the intoxication could not have continued long; he would have been at home but a few hours before fome of his dependants would have forgot his greatnefs, and fhewn him, that notwithstanding his laurels he was yet a

man.

There

There are fome who try to escape this domeftick degradation, by labouring to appear always wife or always great; but he that strives against nature, will for ever ftrive in vain. To be grave of mien and flow of utterance; to look with folicitude and speak with hesitation, is attainable at will; but the fhew of wifdom is ridiculous when there is nothing to cause doubt, as that of valour where there is nothing to be feared.

A man who has duly confidered the condition of his being, will contentedly yield to the course of things he will not pant for diftinction where diftinction would imply no merit; but though on great occafions he may wish to be greater than others, he will be fatisfied in common occurrences not to be lefs.

2