It must be confeffed that few things make a man appear more defpicable, or more prejudice his hearers against what he is going to offer, than an aukward or pitiful drefs; infomuch that I fancy, had Tully himself pronounced one of his orations with a blanket about his houlders, more people would have laughed at his drefs than have admired his eloquence. This last reflection made ine wonder at a fet of men, who, without being fubjected to it by the unkindnefs of their fortunes, are contented to draw upon themfelves the ridicule of the world in this particular; I mean such as take it into their heads, that the first regular step to be a wit is to commence a floven. It is certain nothing has fo much debased that, which must have been otherwife fo great a character; and I know not how to account for it, unJefs it may poffibly be in complaifance to those narrow minds who can have no notion of the fame perfon's poffeffing different accomplishments; or that it is a fort of facrifice which fome men are contented to make to calumny, by allowing it to falten on one part of their character, while they are endeavouring to establish another. Yet, however unaccountable this foolish custom is, I am afraid it could plead a long prescription; and probably gave too much occafion for the vulgar definition still remaining among us of an Heathen Philofopher. I have feen the fpeech of a Terræfilius, fpoken in King Charles the Second's reign; in which he defcribes two very eminent men, who were perhaps the greatest scholars of their age; and after having mentioned the entire friendfhip between them, concludes, that they had but one mind, one purfe, one chamber, and one hat. The men of bufinefs were alfo infected with a fort of fingularity little better than this. I have heard my father say, that a broad-brimmed hat, hort hair, and unfolded hand. kerchief, were in his time abfolutely neceffary to denote a notable man; and that he had known two or three, who afpired to the character of very notable, wear fhoe-ftrings with great fuccefs. To the honour of our prefent age it must be allowed, that fome of our greatest geniules for wit and business have almost entirely broke the neck of thefe abfurdities. Victor, after having difpatched the molt important affairs of the common wealth, has appeared at an affembly, where all the ladies have declared him the genteeleft man in the company; and in Atticus, though every way one of the greateft geniuses the age has produced, one fees nothing particular in his dress or carriage to denote his pretenfions to wit and learning: fo that at prefent a man may venture to cock up his hat, and wear a fashionable wig, without being taken for a rake or a fool. The medium between a fop and a floven is what a man of fenfe would endeavour to keep; yet I remember Mr. Osborn advises his fon to appear in his habit rather above than below his fortune; and tells him, that he will find an handsome suit of cloaths always procures fome additional refpect. I have indeed myself obferved that my banker ever bows lowest to me when I wear my full-bottomed wig; and writes me Mr. or Efq. accordingly as he fees me dreffed. I fhall conclude this paper with an adventure which I was myfelf an eyewitnefs of very lately. I happened the other day to call in at a celebrated coffee-houfe near the Temple. I had not been there long when there came in an elderly man very meanly dreffed, and fat down by me; he had a thread-bare loofe coat on, which it was plain he wore to keep himself warm, and not to favour his under- fuit, which feemed to have been at least it's cotemporary: his short wig and hat were both anfwerable to the rest of his apparel. He was no fooner feated than he called for a dish of tea; but as several gentiemen in the room wanted other things, the boys of the houfe did not think themselves at leifure to mind him. I could obferve the old fellow was very uneafy at the affront, and at his being obliged to repeat his commands feveral times to no purpose; until at last one of the lads prefented him with some stale tea in a broken dish, accompanied with a plate of brown fugar; which fo raised his indignation, that after feveral oblig ing appellations of Dog and Rafcal, he afked him aloud before the whole company, why he must be used with lefs refpect than that fop there? pointing to a well-dreffed young gentleman who was drinking tea at the oppofite table. The boy of the house replied with a great deal of pertness, that his master had two forts of cuftomers, and that the gentleman at the other table had given him many a fix a fixpence for wiping his fhoes. By this time the young Templar, who found his honour concerned in the difpute, and that the eyes of the whole coffee-houfe were upon him, had thrown afide a paper he had in his hand, and was coming towards us, while we at the table made what hafte we could to get away from the impending quarrel, but were all of us furprised to fee him as he approached nearer put on an air of deference and refpect. To whom the old man faid- Hark you, firrah, I will N° CLI. THURSDAY, AUGUST 23. MAXIMAS VIRTUTES JACERE OMNES NECESSE EST VOLUPTATE DOMINANTE. X TULL. DE FIN. IN THE PURSUIT OF PLEASURE, THE GREATEST VIRTUES LIE NEGLECTED. time that it presents a good ridiculous image to the imagination, than that of a man of wit and pleasure about the town. This description of a man of fashion spoken by fome with a mixture of fcorn and ridicule, by others with great gravity as a laudable diftinction, is in every body's mouth that fpends any time in converfation. My friend Will Honeycomb has this expreffion very frequently; and I never could underftand by the ftory which follows, upon his mention of fuch a one, but that his man of wit and pleasure was either a drunkard too old for wenching, or a young lewd fellow with fome livelinefs, who would converfe with you, receive kind offices of you, and at the fame time debauch your fifter, or lie with your wife. According to his defcription, a man of wit, when he could have wenches for crowns a-piece which he liked quite as well, would be so extravagant as to bribe fervants, make falfe friendships, fight relations: I fay, according to him, plain and fimple vice was too little for a man of wit and pleafore; but he would leave an eafy and acceffible wickedness, to come at the fame thing with only the addition of certain falfhood and poffible murder. Will thinks the town grown very dull, in that we do not hear fo much as we used to do of these coxcombs, whom, without obferving it, he defcribes as the most infamous rogues in nature, with relation to friendship, love, or converfation. When pleafure is made the chief purfuit of life, it will neceffarily follow that fuch monfters as these will arife from a constant application to fuch blandifhments as naturally root out the force of reafon and reflection, and substitute in their place a general impatience of thought, and a conftant pruriency of inordinate defire. Pleasure, when it is a man's chief purpose, difappoints itself; and the conftant application to it palls the faculty of enjoying it, though it leaves the fenfe of our inability for that we wish, with a difrelish of every thing else. Thus the intermediate feafons of the man of pleasure are more heavy than one would impofe upon the vileft criminal. Take him when he is awaked too foon after a debauch, or difappointed in following a worthless woman without truth, and there is no man living, whofe being is fuch a weight or vexation as his is. He is an utter ftranger to the pleasing reflections in the evening of a well-spent day, or the gladness of heart or quicknefs of fpirit in the morning after profound fleep or indolent flumbers. He is not to be at eafe any longer than he can keep reafon and good fenfe without his curtains; otherwife he will be haunted with the reflection, that he could not believe fuch a one the woman that upon trial he found her. What has he got by his conqueft, but to think meanly of her for whom a day or two before he 202 had had the highest honour? and of himself for, perhaps, wronging the man whom of all men living he himself would leaft willingly have injured? Pleafure feizes the whole man who addicts himself to it, and will not give him leifure for any good office in life which contradicts the gaiety of the prefent hour. You may indeed obferve in people of pleasure a certain complacency and abfence of all feverity, which the habit of a loose unconcerned life gives them; but tell the man of pleasure your fecret wants, cares, or forrows, and you will find he has given up the delicacy of his paffions to the cravings of his appetites. He little knows the perfect joy he lofes, for the difappointing gratifications which he purfues. He Tooks at Pleasure as the approaches, and comes to him with the recommendation of warm wishes, gay looks, and graceful motion; but he does not obferve how the leaves his prefence with diforder, impotence, down-caft fhame, and confcious imperfection. She makes our youth inglorious, our age fhameful. Will Honeycomb gives us twenty intimations in an evening of feveral hags whole bloom was given up to his arms; and would raise a value to himself for having had, as the phrafe is, very good women. Will's good women are the comfort of his heart, and fupport him, I warrant, by the memory of past interviews with perfons of their condition. No, there is not in the world an occafion wherein vice makes fo fantaftical a figure, as at the meeting of two old people who have been partners in unwarrantable pleasure. To tell a toothhefs old lady that the once had a good ft, or a defun& wencher that he once was the admired thing of the town, are fatires inftead of applauses; but on the other fide, confider the old age of thofe who have paffed their days in labour, industry, and virtue, their decays make them but appear the more venerable, and the imperfections of their bodies are beheld as a misfortune to human fociety that their make is fo little durable. But to return more directly to my man of wit and pleafure. In all orders of men, wherever this is the chief character, the perfon who wears it is a negligent friend, father, and husband, and entails poverty on his unhappy defcendents. Mortgages, difeafes, and fettlements, are the legacies a man of wit and pleasure leaves to his family. All the poor rogues that make fuch la mentable speeches after every feffions at Tyburn, were, in their way, men of wit and pleafare, before they fell into the adventures which brought them thither. Irrefolution and procraftination in all a man's affairs, are the natural effects of being addicted to pleasure: dishonour to the gentleman and bankruptcy to the trader, are the portion of either whofe chief purpose of life is delight. The chief caufe that this purfuit has been in all ages received with fo much quarter from the foberer part of mankind, has been that fome men of great talents have facrificed themselves to it: the shining qualities of such people have given a beauty to whatever they were engaged in, and a mixture of wit has recommended madness. For let any man who knows what it is to have paffed much time in a series of jollity, mirth, wit, or humorous entertainments, look back at what he was all that while a doing, and he will find that he has been at one inftant fharp to fome man he is forry to have offended, impertinent to fome one it was cruelty to treat with fuch freedom, ungracefully noify at fuch a time, unfkilfully open at fuch a time, unmercifully calumnious at such a time; and from the whole courfe of his applauded fatisfactions, unable in the end to recollect any circumftance which can add to the enjoyment of his own mind alone, or which he would put his cha racter upon with other men. Thus it is with thofe who are beft made for becoming pleasures; but how monstrous is it in the generality of mankind who pretend this way, without genius or inclination towards it! The feene then is wild to an extravagance: this is as if fools fhould mimic madmen. Pleasure of this kind is the intemperate meals and loud jollities of the common rate of the country gentlemen, whofe practice and way of enjoyment is to put an end as faft as they can to that little particle of reafon they have when they are fober thefe men of wit and pleasure dispatch their fenfes as fast as poffible by drinking until they cannot tafte, fmoaking until they cannot fee, and roaring until they cannot hear, T N CLII TH No CLII. FRIDAY, AUGUг 24. Οἴη περ φύλλων γενεή, τοιήδε καὶ ἀνδρῶν. HOM. IL. VI. v46. LIKE LEAVES ON TREES THE RACE OF MAN FOUND. HERE is no fort of people whofe POPE. fresh quartr new scenes, and un< common antures. Such are the of military men who derive their cou-thoughts obe executive part of an rage and magnanimity from thought 'army, and ised of the grofs of manand reflection. The many adventures 'kind in geal; but none of these which attend their way of life makes their converfation fo full of incidents, and gives them fo frank an air in speaking of what they have been witneffes of, that no company can be more amiable than that of men of fenfe who are foldiers. There is a certain irregular way in their narrations or difcourfe, which. has fomething more warm and pleasing than we meet with among men, who are used to adjuft and methodize their thoughts. I was this evening walking in the fields with my friend Captain Sentry, and I could not, from the many relations which I drew him into of what paffed when he was in the fervice, for bear expreffing my wonder, that the fear of death, which we, the reft of mankind, arm ourselves against with so much contemplation, reafon, and philofophy, fhould appear fo little in camps, that common men march into open breaches, meet oppofite battalions, not only without reluctance, but with alacrity. My friend answered what I faid in the following manner: What you wonder at may very naturally be the fubject of admiration to all who are not conver fant in camps; but when a man has fpent fome time in that way of life, he ⚫ obferves a certain mechanic courage which the ordinary race of men become mafters of from acting always in a crowd: they fee indeed many drop, but then they see many more alive; they obferve themselves efcape very narrowly, and they do not know why they fhould not again. Befides which general way of loofe thinking, they ufually spend the other part of their time in pleasures upon which their minds are fo intirely bent, that short labours or dangers are but a cheap purchase of jollity, triumph, victory, men of mecaical courage have ever 'made any gt figure in the profef fion of arms Thofe who are formed for comman are fuch as have reafoned themies, out of a confideration of grer good than length of days, into fi a negligence of their being, as taake it their firft poftion, that it one day to be refigned; and fince it, in the profecution of worthy actis and fervice of mankind they caput it to habitual hazard. The event our defigns, they fay, as it relate:o others, is uncertain; but as it rees to ourselves it muft be profpers, while we are in the puriuit of ir duty, and within the terms upon hich Providence has enfured our Ippinefs, whether we die or live. Alhat nature has prescribed muit be goi; and as death is natural to us, it is furdity to fear it. Fear. lofes it's ppofe when we are fure it cannot pferve us, and we fhould draw refoluon to meet it from the impoffibilit to escape it. Without a refignationto the neceflity of dying, there can t no capacity in man to attempt any ing that is glorious; but when they ave once attained to that perfection, he pleafures of a life spent · in martial adventures, are as great as any of which the human mind is capable. The force of reafon gives a 'certain beaty, mixed with the confcience of well-doing and thirst of 'glory, to which before was terrible and graftly to the imagination. Add to his, that the fellowship of danger, the common good of mankind, the general caufe, and the ma. nifeft virtie you may obferve in so many mer, who made no figure until that day, are fo many incentives to deftroy the little confideration of their Own own perfons. Such the heroic part of foldiers who are clified for leaders: as to the refthom I before fpoke of, I know nhow it is, but they arrive at a certahabit of being void of thought, infach that on occafion of the most ininent danger they are still in the fe indifference. Nay I remember an raice of a gay Frenchman, who was don in battle by a fuperior officer, bfe conduct it was his cuftom to fix of always with contempt and rail, and in the beginning of the act received a wound he was fenfiblvas mortal; his reflection on this afion was"I wish I could live aner hour, to "fee how this blundeg coxcomb "will get clear of this linefs." I remember two yourfellows who rid in the fame fquadroof a troop of horfe, who were ever gether; they eat, they drank, they rigued; in a word, all their paffionsad affections feemed to tend the fe way, and they appeared ferviceabto each other in them. We were in dufk of the evening to march over aver, and the troop thefe gentlemen belonged to * were to be tranfported in ferry-boat, as faft as they could. One of the friends was now in the boat, while the other was drawn up th others by the water-fide waiting e return of the boat. A diforder hipened in the < paffage by an unruly prfe; and a gentleman who had threin of his horfe negligently under is arm, was forced into the water b his horse's jumping over. The fend on the fhore cried out-" WH is that is drowned trow?" He waimmediately answered "Your fend, Harry "Thompfon." He verygravely replied Ay, he had a had horfe." This fhort epitaph from uch a familiar, without more wors, gave me, at that time under twenty a very moderate opinion of the fiendship of 2 companions. Thus is affection and every other motive of life in the generality rooted out by the prefent busy fcene about them: they lament no man whofe capacity can be fupplied by another; and where men converfe with6 out delicacy, the next man you meet with will ferve as well as he whom you have lived with half your life. To fuch the devastation of countries, the mifery of inhabitants, the cries of the pillaged, and the filent forrow of the great unfortunate, are ordinary objects; their minds are bent upon the little gratifications of their own fenfes and appetites, forgetful of compaffion, infenfible of glory, avoiding only 'fhame; their whole heart is taken up ' with the trivial hope of meeting and being merry. Thefe are the people who make up the grofs of the foldiery: but the fine gentleman in that band ' of men, is fuch a one as I have now in my eye, who is foremost in all danger to which he is ordered. His officers are his friends and companions, as they are men of honour and gentlemen; the private men his brethren, as they are of his fpecies. He is beloved of all that behold him: they ' with him in danger as he views their ranks, that they may have occafions to fave him at their own hazard. Mutual love is the order of the files where ⚫he commands; every man afraid for himself and his neighbour, not left their commander fhould punish them, but left he fhould be offended. Such is his regiment who knows mankind, and feels their diftreffes fo far as to prevent them. Juft in diftributing what is their due, he would think himself below their taylor to wear a fnip of their clothes in lace upon his own; and below the most rapacious agent, fhould he enjoy a farthing above his own pay. Go on, brave man, immortal glory is thy fortune, and immortal happiness thy reward." T N° CLIII. |