SELF-IMPORTANCE.

EVERY man is of importance to himself, and therefore, in his own opinion, to others; and fuppofing the world already acquainted with all his pleafures and his pains, is, perhaps, the first to publish injuries or misfortunes which had never been known unless related by himself, and at which those that hear him will only laugh; for no man fympathizes with the forrows of vanity-Life of Pope.

OBSERVE one of thefe perfons, who fwells to an unnatural fize of telt confequence, from the emptiness of his head and th pride of his heart, entering a coffee-houfe or public room at a watering place. To fhew his contempt of all around him, he begins whilling, orb eating a tune with his fingers or with a stick on the table. He ftands with his back to the fire, holding up the fkirts of his coat, protruding his lips, picking his teeth, adjufting his cravat, furveying his buckles, and turning out his knees or toes; fhewing, by every fign he can think of, his high opinion of his own importance, and his fovereign contempt for the company.-Spirit of Defpotifm.

SECRETS.

TO tell our own fecrets is generally folly, but that folly is without guilt. To communicate thofe with which we are entrufted, is always treachery, and treachery for the most part combined with folly - Rambler.

THE vanity of being known to be trufted with a fecret, is generally one of the chief motives to difclofe it; for, however abfurd it may be thought, to boaft an honor by an act which heus that it was conferred without merit, yet most men feem rather inclined to confefs the want of virtue than importance, and more willingly fhew their influence, though at the expence of their probity, than glide through life with no other pleasure than the private confcieufnefs of fidelity, which, while it is preferved, mult be without praife, except from the fingle perfon who tries and knows it.-Idem.

SOCIETY.

FROM the earlieft dawnings of policy to this day, the invention of men has been fharpening and improving the mytery of murder, from the firft rude eflays of clubs and itones, to the prefent perfection of gunnery, cannoneering, bombarding, maning, and all thefe fpecies of artificial, learned, and

Seduction.-Secker.-Sufpicion.-Spies.

228

refined cruelty, in which we are now fo expert, and which make a principal part of what politicians have taught us to believe is our principal glory.

It is an inconteftable truth, that there is more havock made. in one year by men, of men, than has been made by all the lions, tygers. panthers, ounces, leopards. hyenas, rhinocerofes, lephants, bears, and wolves, upon their feveral fpecies, ace the beginning of the world; though thefe agree ill enough with each other, and have a much greater proportion of rage and fury in their compofition than we have.-Burke.

SEDUCTION.

THERE is not perhaps in all the flores of ideal anguish, a thought more painful than the consciousness of having propa gated corruption by vitiating principles; of having not only drawn others from the paths of virtue, but blocked up the way by which they fhould return; of having blinded them to every beauty but the paint of pleafure; and deafened them to every call, but the alluring voice of the fyrens of deftruction.-Rambler.

SECKER (Archbishop of Canterbury) WHILE Secker liv'd, he fhew'd how feers fhould live ; While Secker taught, heav'n open'd to our eye;

When Secker gave we knew how angels give;

When Secker died, we know e'en faints must die.

SUSPICION.

SUSPICION is no lefs an enemy to virtue, than to happi nefs. He that is already corrupt is naturally fufpicious; and he that becomes fufpicious, will quickly be corrupt.. Rambler.

HE that fuffers by impolture, has too often his virtue more impaired than his fortune. But as it is neceffary not to invite robbery by fupinenefs fo it is our dury not to fupprefs tendernefs by fufpicion. It is better to fuffer wrong than to do it ; and happier to be fometimes cheated, than not to truft.-Idem.

SPIES.

AT whatever period fpies, informers, falfe witneffes, and pretended plots are adopted by men in power, to firengthen themfelves in office, and deftroy virtuous oppofition, there is reafon to fear, in fpite of all profeffions of the contrary, that the tyrannic fpirit of the degenerate Cæfars waits but for opporBunities to display itfelf in acts of Neronian atrocity. Power

is deficient; but inclination is equally hoftile to the mass of mankind, denominated the people, whom fome politicians. fcarcely condefcend to acknowledge as poffeffed of any politi cal existence.

The employment of fpies and informers is a virtual declaration of holtilities against the people. It argues a want of confidence in them. It argues a fear and jealoufy of them. It argues a defire to deftroy them by ambufcade. It is, in civil govern. ment, what fratagems are in a state of war. It tends alfo

to excite retaliation.Spirit of Defpotifm.

A HIRED spy and informer will, by an eafy transition, become a falle witnels, even in trials where liberty and life are at flake. In trials of lefs confequence, there is no donbt but his confcience will fretch with the occafion. His object is not truth or juftice, but filthy lucre; and when he afpires at great rewards, great must be his venture. Having once broken down, as a treacherous fpy, the fences of honor and confcience, nothing but fear will retrain him, as a witness, from overleaping the bounds of truth, juftice, and mercy. He will rob and murder under the forms of law; and add to. the atrocity of blood-guiltinefs, the crime of perjury. No man is fafe, where fuch men are countenanced by officers of state. They henifelves may perish by his falfe tongue; fuffering the vengeance due to their bafe encouragement of traitors to the public, by falling unpitied victims to his difappointed treachery. The peftilential breath of spies and informers is not to be endured in the pure healthy atmofphere of a free flate It brings with it the fickly defpotifm of oriental climes.-Idem.

TYRANNY.

TYRANNY is a poor provider. It neither knows how to accumulate, nor how to extract.--Burke.

A GREA I deal of the furniture of ancient tyranny is torn to rags the reft is entirely out of fafhon.-Idem.

TYRANT.

PROUD, impatient

Of aught fuperior, ev'n of heav'n that made him :
Fond of faile glory, of the favage'pow'r
Of ruling without reafon, of confounding
Juft and unjust, by an unbounded will;
By whom elig on, honor, all the bands
That ought to hold the jarring world in pace,

Tyrany.

Were held the tricks of ftate, fnares of wife princes,
To draw their eafy neighbours to deftruction,
To walte with fword and fire their fruitful fields:
Like fome accurfed fiend, who, 'fcap'd from hell,
Poisons the balmly air thro' which he flies;

He blafts the bearded corn, and loaded branches,

225

The lab'ring hind's beft hopes, and marks his way with ruin. -Rowe.

He

THERE is hardly any prince without a favorite, by whom he is governed in as arbitrary a manner as he governs the wretches fubjected to him. Here the tyranny is doubled. There are two courts and two interefts: both very different from the interefts of the people. The favorite knows that the regard of a tyrant is as inconftant and capricious as that of a woman; and concluding his time to be fhort, he makes hafte to fill up the measure of his iniquity, in rapine, in luxury, and in revenge. Every avenue to the throne is fhut up. oppreffes, and ruins the people, whilft he perfuades the prince, that thofe murmurs raised by his own oppreffion are the effects of difaffection to the prince's government. Then is the natural violence of defpotifm inflamed, and aggravated by hatred and revenge. To deferve well of the ftate is a crime against the prince. To be popular, and to be a traitor, are confidered as fynonymous terms. Even virtue is dangerous, as an afpiring quality, that claims an efteem by itself, and independent of the countenance of the court. What has been faid of the chief, is true of the inferior officers of this fpecies of government; each in his province exercifing the fame tyranny, and grinding the people by an oppreffion, the more feverely felt, as it is near them, and exercised by bafe and fubordinate perfons. For the grofs of the people, they are confidered as mere herd of cattle; and really in little time become no better; all principle of honeft pride, all fense of the dignity of their nature is loft in their flavery. The day, fays Homer, which makes a man a flave, takes away half his worth; and in fact he lofes every impulse to action, but that low and bafe one of fear.-In this kind of government human nature is not only abfurd, and infulted, but it is actually degraded and funk into a fpecies of brutality.-Burke.

THE punishment of real tyrants is a noble and awful act of justice; and it has with truth been said to be confolatory to the human mind.-Idem.

TIME PAST.

WHETHER it be that life has more vexations than comforts, or what is in event just the fame, that evil makes deeper impreffions than good, it is certain that few can review the time paft, without heavinefs of heart. He remembers many calamities incurred by folly; many opportunities loft by negligence. The fhades of the dead rife up before him, and he laments the companions of his youth, the partners of his amufements, the affilants of his labours, whom the hand of death has fnatched away.-Idler.

TITLES.

MOST of the titles of nobility, and other civil diftinctions, were taken from war: as a marquis, a duke, a count, a baron, a landgrave, a knight, an efquire. The inventors of arts, the improvers of life, thofe who have mitigated evil, and augmented the good allotted to men in this world, were not thought worthy of any titular diftinétions. The reafon is indeed fufficiently obvious: titles were originally beftowed by " defpotic kings, who required and rewarded no other merit. but that which fupported them by violence in their arbitrary rule. In fome countries they are now given, for the fame reafons, to thofe who effect the fame purpofes, not by war only, but by corruption. --Spirit of Defpotifm.

THE death-bed fbews the emptinefs of titles in a true light. A poor difpirited finner lies trembling under the apprehenfions of the late he is entering on; and is afked by a grave attendant, how his holinefs does? Another hears himself addieffed under the tide of highness or excellency, who lies under fuch mean circumstances of mortality as are the difgrace of human nature. Titles at fuch a time look rather like infults and mockery than refpe&.-Spedator.

TRIFLES.

TRIFLES always require exuberance of ornament. The building which has no ftrength, can be valued only for the grace of its decorations. The pebble must be polifhed with

care, which hopes to be valued as a diamond; and words ought furely to be laboured, when they are intended to ftand for things-Rambler.

TAXATION.

TAXING is an eafy bufinefs. Any projector can contrive new impofitions; any bungier can add to the old. But is