that is accepted from them, as the hopes which are given to them, are become a fort of creditors; and thefe debts, being debts of honour, ought, according to the accustomed maxim, to be first discharged. WHEN I fpeak of dependents, I would not be under ftood to mean thofe who are worthlefs in themselves, or who, without any call, will prefs into the company of their betters. Nor, when I fpeak of patrons, do I mean thofe who either have it not in their power, or have no obligation to affift their fiends; but I fpeak of fuch leagues where there is power and obligation on the one part, and merit and expectation on the other. THE divifion of patron and client, may, I believe, include a third of our nation; the want of merit and real worth in the client, will strike out about ninety nine in a hundred of thefe; and the want of ability in patrons, as many of that kind. But however, I must beg leave to say, that he who will take up another's time and fortune in his fervice, though he has no profpect of rewarding his merit towards him, is as unjuft in his dealings, as he who takes up goods of a tradefiman without intention or ability to pay him. Of the few of the clafs which I think fit to confider, there are not two in ten who fucceed, infomuch that I know a man of good fenfe, who put his fon to a blackfinith, though an offer was made him of his being received as a page to a man of quality. There are not more cripples come out of the wars than there are from thofe great fervices; fome through difcontent lose their speech, fome their memories, others their fenfes or their lives; and I feldom fee a man thoroughly difcontented, but I conclude he has had the favour of fome great man. I have known of fuch as have been for twenty years together within a month of a good employment, but never arrived at the happiness of being poffeffed of any thing. THERE is nothing more ordinary, than that a man who has got into a confiderable ftation, hall immediately alter his manner of treating all his friends, and from that moment he is to deal with you as if he were your foe. You are no longer to be confulted, even in matters which concern yourself; but your patron is of a species above you, and a free communication with you is not to be expected. This, perhaps, may be your condition all the while he VOL. III. P bears bears office, and when that is at an end, you are as intimate as ever you were, and he will take it very ill if you keep the diftance he prefcribed you towards him in his grandeur. One would think this should be a behaviour a man could fall into with the worst grace imaginable, but they who know the world have seen it more than once I have often, with fecret pity, heard the fame man, who has profeffed is abhorrence againft all kind of paffive behaviour, lofe minutes, hours, days, and years in a fruitless attendance on one who had no inclination to befriend him. It is very much to be regarded, that the great have one particular privilege above the reft of the world, of being flow in receiving impreffions of kindnefs, and quick in taking offence. The elevation above the rest of mankind, except in very great minds, makes men fo giddy, that they do not fee after the fame manner they did before: thus they defpife their old friends, and strive to extend their interest to new pretenders. By this means it often happens, that when you come to know how you loft fuch an employment, you will find the man who got it never dreamed of it; but, forfooth, he was to be furprifed into it, or perhaps folicited to receive it. Upon fuch occafions as thefe a man may perhaps grow out of humour; if you are fo, all mankind will fall in with the patron, and you are an humorist and untractable if you are capable of being four at a difappointinent: but it is the fame thing, whether you do or do not refent ill ufage, you will be used after the fame manner; as fome good mothers will be fure to whip their children till they cry, and then whip them for crying. THERE are but two ways of doing any thing with great people, and thofe are by making yourfelf either confiderable or agreeable; the former is not to be attained but by finding a way to live without them, or concealing that you want them; the latter is only by falling into their taste and pleasures: this is of all the employments in the world the moft fervile, except it happens to be of your own natural humour. For to be agreeable to another, efpecially if he be above you, is not to be poffeffed of fuch qualities and accomplishments as fhould render you agreeable in yourself, but fuch as make you agreeable in respect to him. An imitation of his faults, or a compliance, if not fubfervience to his vices, muft be the meafures of your conduct. WHEN WHEN it comes to that, the unnatural state a man lives in, when his patron pleafes, is ended; and his guilt and complaifance are objected to him, tho' the man, who rejects. him for his vices was not only his partner but feducer. Thus the client (like a young woman who has given up the innocence which made her charming) has not only loft his time, but also the virtue which could render him capable of relenting the injury which is done him. It would be endless to recount the tricks of turning you off from themselves to perfons who have lefs power to ferve you, the art of being forry for fuch an unaccountable accident in your behaviour, that fuch a one (who, perhaps, has never heard of you) opposes your advancement; and if you have any thing more than ordinary in you, you are flattered with a whisper, that it is no wonder people are fo flow in doing for a man of your talents, and the like. AFTER all this treatment, I must still add the pleasant-eft infolence of all, which I have once or twice feen; to wit, that when a filly rogue has thrown away one part in three of his life in unprofitable attendance, it is takenwonderfully ill that he withdraws, and is refolved to einploy the reft for himself. WHEN we confider these things, and reflect upon fo many honeft natures (which one, who makes obfervation of what paffes, may have feen) that have mifcarried by fuch fort of applications, it is too melancholy a fcene to dwell upon; therefore I fhall take another opportunity to difcourfe of good patrons, and diftinguifh fuch as have done their duty to those who have depended upon them, and were not able to act without their favour. Worthy patrons are like Plato's guardian angels, who are always doing good to their wards; but negligent patrons are like Epicurus's gods, that lie lolling on the clouds, and, infteads of bleffings, pour down ftorins and tempefts on the heads. of thofe that are offering incenfe to them... T N° 215. I Tuesday, November 6. Ingenuas didiciffe fideliter artes Emoliit mores, nec finit effe feros. OVID. ep. 9. 1. 2. de ponto. v. 47% Ingenuous arts, where they an entrance find, CONSIDER an human foul without education like marbel in the quarry, which fhews none of its inherent beauties, till the fkill of the polifher fetches out the colours, makes the furface (hine, and difcovers every ornamental cloud, fpot and vain that runs through the body of it.. Education, after the fame manner, when it works upon a noble mind, draws out to view every latent virtue and perfection, which without fuck helps are never able to make their appearance. 1 If my reader will give me leave to change the allufion fo foon upon him, I fhall make use of the fame instance to illuftrate the force of education, which Arifiotle has brought to explain his doctrine of fubftantial forms, when he tells us that a ftatue lies hid in a block of marble; and that the art of the ftatuary only clears away the fuperfluous matter, and removes the rubbish. The figure is in the ftone, the fculptor only finds it. What fculpture is to a block of marble, education is to an human foul. The philofopher, the faint, or the hero, the wife, the good, or the great man, very often lie hid and concealed in a plebeian, which a proper education might have dif-interred, and have brought to light. I am therefore much delighted with reading the accounts of favage nations, and with contemplating thofe virtues which are wild and uncultiva ted; to fee courage exerting itfelf in fiercenefs, refolution in obftinacy, wifdom' in cunning, patience in fullenness and defpair. MEN'S paffions operate variously, and appear in different kinds of actions, according as they are more or less rectified and fwayed by reafon. When one hears of negroes, who, upon the death of their mafters, or upon changing their fervice fervice, hang themselves upon the next tree, as it frequent-ly happens in our American plantations, who can forbear admiring their fidelity, tho' it expreffes itself in fo dreadful a manner? What might not that favage greatness of foul which appears in thefe poor wretches on many occafions, be raised to, were it rightly cultivated? And what colour of excufe can there be for the contempt with which we treat this part of our fpecies? that we should not put. them upon the common foot of humanity, that we should only fet an infignificant fme upon the man who murders them; nay, that we fhould, as much as in us lies, cut them off from the profpects of happiness in another world as well as in this, and deny them that which we look upon as the proper means for attaining it t SINCE I am engaged on this fubject, I cannot forbear mentioning a story which I have lately heard, and which is fo well attefted, that I have no manner of reafon to fufpect the truth of it. I may call it a kind of wild tragedy that paffed about twelve years ago at St Chriftophers, one of our British leeward iflands. The negroes, who were. the perfons concerned in it, were all of them the flaves of a gentleman who is now in England. THIS gentleman among his negroes had a young woman, who was looked upon as a moft extraordinary beauty by thofe of her own complexion. He had at the fame time two young fellows who were likewife negroes and laves, remarkable for the comeliness of their perfons, and for the friendship which they bore to one another. It unfortunately happened that both of them fell in love with the female negroe above-mentioned, who would have been very glad to have taken either of them for her husband, provided they could agree between themfelves which should be the man. But they were both To paffionately in love with her, that neither of them could think of giving her up to his rival; and at the fame time were fo true to one another, that neither of them would think of gaining her without his friend's confent. The torments of thefe two lovers were the difcourfe of the family to which they be longed, who could not forbear obferving the ftrange complication of paffions which perplexed the hearts of the poor negroes, that often dropped expreffions of the uneafinefs. : they |