NOTHING recommends a Man more to the female Sex than Courage; whether it be that they are pleased to fee one who is a Terror to others fall like a Slave at their Feet, or that this Quality fupplies their own principal Defect, in guarding them from Infults, and avenging their Quarrels, or that Courage is a natural Indication of a strong and fprightly Conftitution. On the other Side, nothing makes a Woman more efteemed by the oppofite Sex than Chastity; whether it be that we always prize those most who are hardest to come at, or that nothing befides Chaftity, with its collateral Attendants, Truth, Fidelity, and Conftancy, gives the Man a Property in the Perfon he loves, and confequently endears her to him above all things.

I am very much pleased with a Paffage in the Infcription on a Monument erected in Westminster Abby to the late Duke and Dutchefs of Newcastle: Her Name was Margaret Lucas, youngest Sifter to the Lord Lucas of Colchester; a noble Family, for all the Brothers were valiant, and all the Sifters virtuous.

IN Books of Chivalry, where the Point of Honour is ftrained to Madness, the whole Story runs on Chastity and Courage. The Damfel is mounted on a white Palfry, as an Emblem of her Innocence; and, to avoid Scandal, must have a Dwarf for her Page. She is not to think of a Man, till fome Misfortune has brought a Knight-Errant to her Relief. The Knight falls in Love, and did not Gratitude reftrain her from murdering her Deliverer, would die at her Feet by her Difdain. However, he muft wafte many Years in the Defart, before her Virgin Heart can think of a Surrender. The Knight goes off, attacks every thing he meets that is bigger and ftronger than himself, feeks all Opportunities of being knocked on the Head, and after feven Years Rambling returns to his Miftrefs, whofe Chastity has been attacked in the mean time by Giants and Tyrants, and undergone as many Tryals as her Lover's Valour.

IN Spain, where there are ftill great Remains of this romantick Humour, it is a tranfporting Favour for a Lady to caft an accidental Glance on her Lover from a Window, the' it be two or three Stories high; as it is VOL. II.

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ufual

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ufual for the Lover to affert his Paffion for his Mistress, in fingle Combat with a mad Bull,

THE great Violation of the Point of Honour from Man to Man, is giving the Lie. One may tell another he whores, drinks, blafphemes, and it may pafs unrefented; but to fay he lies, tho' but in jeft, is an Affront that nothing but Blood can expiate. The Reafon perhaps may be, because no other Vice implies a want of Courage fo much as the making of a Lie; and therefore telling a Man he lies, is touching him in the most sensible Part of Honour, and indirectly calling him a Coward. I cannot omit under this Head what Herodotus tells us of the ancient Perfians, That from the Age of five Years to twenty they instruct their Sons only in three things, to manage the Horfe, to make ufe of the Bow, and to fpeak Truth.

THE placing the Point of Honour in this falfe kind of Courage, has given Occafion to the very refufe of Mankind, who have neither Virtue nor common Senfe, to set up for Men of Honour. An English Peer, who has not been long dead, used to tell a pleasant Story of a French Gentleman that vifited him early one Morning at Paris, and after great Profeffions of Refpect, let him know that he had it in his Power to oblige him; which in fhort, amounted to this, that he believed he could tell his LordThip the Perfon's Name who juftled him as he came out from the Opera; but before he would proceed, he begged his Lordship that he would not deny him the Honour of making him his Second. The English Lord to avoid being drawn into a very foolish Affair, told him that he was under Engagements for his two next Duels to a Couple of particular Friends. Upon which the Gentleman immediately withdrew, hoping his Lordship would not take it ill if he medled no farther in an Affair from whence he himself was to receive no Advantage.

THE beating down this falfe Notion of Honour, in fo vain and lively a People as thofe of France, is defervedly looked upon as one of the moft glorious Parts of their prefent King's Reign. It is pity but the Punishment of these mifchievous Notions fhould have in it fome particular Circumftances of Shame and Infamy; that thofe who are Slaves to them may fee, that inftead of advancing their Reputations, they lead them to Ignominy and Difhonour. DEATH

DEATH is not fufficient to deter Men who make it their Glory to defpife it; but if every one that fought a Duel were to ftand in the Pillory, it would quickly leffen the Number of these imaginary Men of Honour, and put an End to fo abfurd a Practice.

WHEN Honour is a Support to virtuous Principles, and runs parallel with the Laws of God and our Country, it cannot be too much cherished and encouraged: But when the Dictates of Honour are contrary to thofe of Religion and Equity, they are the greatest Depravations of human Nature, by giving wrong Ambitions and falle Ideas of what is good and laudable; and should therefore be exploded by all Governments, and driven out as the Bane and Plague of human Society.

No roo.

Monday, June 25.

Nil ego contulerim jucundo fanus amico.

Hor.

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Man advanced in Years that thinks fit to look

A back upon his former Life, and calls that only

Life which was paffed with Satisfaction and Enjoyment, excluding all Parts which were not pleasant to him, will find himself very young, if not in his Infancy. Sickness, ill Humour, and Idlenefs, will have robbed him of a great Share of that Space we ordinarily call our Life. It is therefore the Duty of every Man that would be true to himself, to obtain, if poffible, a Difpofition to be pleafed, and place himself in a conftant Aptitude for the Satisfactions of his Being. Inftead of this, you hardly fee a Man who is not uneafy in Proportton to his Advancement in the Arts of Life. An affected Delicacy is the common Improvement we meet with in those who pretend to be refined above others: They do not aim at true Pleasures themselves, but turn their Thoughts upon obferving the falfe Pleafures of other Men. Such People are Valetudinarians in Society, and they fhould no more come into Company than a fick Man should come into the Air: If a Man is too weak to bear what is a Refreshment to Men in Health, he muft ftill keep his

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Cham

Chamber. When any one in Sir ROGER's Company complains he is out of Order, he immediately calls for fome Poffet-Drink for him; for which Reafon that fort of People who are ever bewailing their Constitution in other Places, are the Chearfulleft imaginable when he is prefent.

IT is a wonderful thing that fo many, and they not reckoned abfurd, fhall entertain those with whom they converfe by giving them the Hiftory of their Pains and Aches; and imagine fuch Narrations their Quota of the Converfation. This is of all other the meaneft Help to Difcourfe, and a Man must not think at all, or think himself very infignificant, when he finds an Account of his Head-ach anfwered by another's asking what News in the last Mail? Mutual good Humour is a Dress we ought to appear in where-ever we meet, and we should make no Mention of what concerns our felves, without it be of Matters wherein our Friends ought to rejoyce: But indeed there are Crowds of People who put themselves in no Method of pleafing themfelves or others; fuch are those whom we ufually call indolent Perfons. Indolence is, methinks, an intermediate State between Pleasure and Pain, and very much unbecoming any Part of our Life after we are out of the Nurfe's Arms. Such an Averfion to Labour creates a conftant Weariness, and one would think fhould make Exiftence it felf a Burthen. The indolent Man defcends from the Dignity of his Nature, and makes that Being which was Rational meerly Vegetative: His Life confifts only in the meer Encrease and Decay of a Body, which, with relation to the rest of the World, might as well have been uninformed, as the Habitation of a reasonable Mind.

OF this kind is the Life of that extraordinary Couple Harry Terfett and his Lady. Harry was in the Days of his Celibacy one of thofe pert Creatures who have much Vivacity and little Understanding; Mrs. Rebecca Quickly, whom he married, had all that the Fire of Youth and a lively Manner could do towards making an agreeable Woman. These two People of feeming Merit fell into each other's Arms; and Paffion being fated, and no Reafon or good Senfe in either to fucceed it, their Life is now at a Stand; their Meals are infipid, and their Time tedious; their Fortune has placed them above Care, and their Lofs

?

of

of Tafte reduced them below Diversion.

When we

talk of these as Inftances of Inexiftence, we do not mean, that in order to live it is neceffary we fhould always be in jovial Crews, or crowned with Chaplets of Rofes, as the merrow Fellows among the Ancients are defcribed; but it is intended by confidering these Contraries to Pleasure, Indolence, and too much Delicacy, to fhew that it is Prudence to preserve a Difpofition in our felves to receive a certain Delight in all we hear and fee.

THIS portable Quality of good Humour feafons all the Parts and Occurrences we meet with, in fuch a manner, that there are no Moments loft, but they all pass with fo much Satisfaction, that the heaviest of Loads, (when it is a Load) that of Time, is never felt by us. Varilas has this Quality to the highest Perfection, and communicates it where-ever he appears: The Sad, the Merry, the Severe, the Melancholy, fhew a new Chearfulness when he comes amongst them. At the fame time no one can repeat any thing that Varilas has ever faid that deferves Repetition; but the Man has that innate Goodness of Temper, that he is welcome to every Body, because every Man thinks he is fo to him. He does not seem to contribute any thing to the Mirth of the Company; and yet upon Reflection you find it all happened by his being there. I thought it was whimfically faid of a Gentleman, That if Varilas had Wit, it would be the beft Wit in the World. It is certain, when a well-corrected lively Imagination and good Breeding are added to a sweet Difpofition, they qualify it to be one of the greatest Bleffings, as well as Pleasures of Life.

MEN would come into Company with ten times the Pleasure they do, if they were fure of hearing nothing which would fhock them, as well as expected what would please them. When we know every Perfon that is fpoken of is reprefented by one who has no ill Will, and every thing that is mentioned defcribed by one that is apt to fet it in the beft Light, the Entertainment must be delicate, because the Cook has nothing brought to his Hand but what is the most excellent in its Kind. Beautiful Pictures are the Entertainments of pure Minds

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and