to words and actions; and are ever tormenting themselves with fancies of their own railing. They generally act in a difguife themselves, and therefore miftake all outward shows and appearances for hypocrify in others; fo that I believe no men fee lefs of the truth and reality of things, than these great refiners upon incidents, who are fo wonderfully fubtle and over-wife in their conceptions.

Now what these men fancy they know of women by reflection, your lewd and vicious men believe they have learned by experience. They have feen the poor husband fo milled by tricks and artifices, and in the midst of his inquiries fo loft and bewildered in a crooked intrigue, that they still fufpect an under-plot in every female action; and efpecially when they fee any refemblance in the behaviour of two perfons, are apt to fancy it proceeds from the fame defign in both. These men therefore bear hard upon the fufpected party, purfue her clofe through all her turnings and windings, and are too well acquainted with the chace, to be flung off by any falfe fteps or doubles: befides, their acquaintance and converfation has lain wholly among the vicious part of women-kind, and therefore it is no wonder they cenfure all alike, and look upon the whole fex as a fpecies of impoftors. But if, notwithstanding their private experience, they can get over thefe prejudices, and entertain a favourable opinion of fome women; yet their own loose defires will stir up new fufpicions from another fide, and make them believe all men fubject to the fame inelinations with themselves.

Whether thefe or other motives are molt predominant, we learn from the modern hiftories of America, as well as from our own experience in this part of the world, that jealousy is no northern paffion, but rages most in thofe nations that lie neareft the influence of the fun. It is a misfortune for a woman to be born between the tropicks; for there lie the hotteft regions of jealoufy, which as you come northward cools all along with the climate, until you fcarce meet with any thing like it in the polar circle. Our own nation is very temperately fituated in this respect; and if we meet with fome few difordered with the violence of this paflion, they are not the proper growth of our country, but are many degrees nearer the fun in their conftitutions than in their climate.

After this frightful account of jealoufy, and the perfons who are most subject to it, it will be but fair to fhew by what means the paffion may be beft allayed, and thofe who are poffeffed with it fet at eafe. Other faults indeed are not under the wife's jurisdiction, and fhould, if poffible, efcape her obfervation; but jealoufy calls upon her particularly for it's cure, and deferves all her art and application in the attempt: befides, fhe has this for her encouragement, that her endeavours will be always pleafing, and that he will ftill find the affection of her hufband rifing towards her in proportion as his doubts and fufpicions vanifh; for, as we have seen all along, there is fo great mixture of love in jealoufy, as is well worth the feparating. But this fhall be the fubje& of another paper.

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OVID. MET. VII. VER. 826.

discovered the nature of jealoufy, and pointed out the perfons who are moft fubject to it, I muit here apply myself to my fair correfpondents, who defire to live well with a jealous hufband, and to ease his mind of it's unjust sufpicions.

The first rule I shall propofe to be obferved is, that you never feem to diflike

felf guilty of, or to admire any thing in which he himself does not excel. A jealous man is very quick in his applications, he knows how to find a double edge in an invective, and to draw a fatire on himself out of a panegyric on another. He does not trouble himfelf to confider the perfon, but to direct the character; and is fecretly pleafed or con

founded

founded as he finds more or lefs of him felf in it. The commendation of any thing in another ftirs up his jealoufy, as it thews you have a value for others befides himself; but the commendation of that, which he himself wants, inflames him more, as it fhews that in fome refpects you prefer, others before him, Jealoufy is admirably defcribed in this view by Horace in his ode to Lydia.

Quum tu, Lydia, Telephi
"Cervicem rofeam, et cerea Telephi
Laudas brachia, ve mem
Fervens difficili bile tumet jecur a
Tunc nec mens mibi, nec color

Certa fede manet; humor et in genas
Furtim labitur, arguens

Quàm lentis penitùs macerer ignibus.

OD. XIII. LIB. I.

When Telephus his youthful charms,
His rofy neck and winding arms,
With endless rapture you recite,
And in the pleafing name delight;
My heart, inflam'd by jealous heats,
With numberlefs refentments beats;
From my pale cheek the colour flies,
And all the man within me dies:
By turns my hidden grief appears
In rifing ighs and falling tears,
That fhew too well the warm defires,
The fient, flow, confuming fires,
Which on my inmoft vitals prey,
And melt my very foul away.

The jealous man is not indeed angry if you diflike another: but if you find thofe faults which are to be found in his own character, you difcover not only your diflike of another, but of himself. In short, he is fo defirous of ingrofling all your love, that he is grieved at the want of any charm, which he believes has power to raife it; and if he finds by your cenfures on others, that he is not fo agreeable in your opinion as he might be, he naturally concludes you could love him better if he had other qualifications, and that by confequence your affection does not rife fo high as he thinks it ought. If, therefore, his temper be grave or fullen, you must not be too much pleafed with a jeft, or tranfported with any thing that is gay or diverting. If his beauty be none of the belt, you must be a profeffed admirer of prudence, or any other quality he is maiter of, or at least vain enough to think he is.

In the next place, you must be fure to be free and open in your converfation

with him, and to let in light upon your actions, to unravel all your defigns, and discover every fecret, however trifling or indifferent. A jealous husband has a particular averfion to winks and whifpers, and if he does not fee to the bottom of every thing, will be fure to go beyond it in his fears and fufpicions. He will always expect to be your chief confident, and where he finds himself kept out of a fecret, will believe there is more in it than there should be. And here it is of great concern, that you preferve the character of your fincerity uniform and of a piece: for if he once finds a falfe glofs put upon any fingle action, he quickly fufpects all the reft; his working imagination immediately takes a falfe hint, and runs off with it into fe veral remote confequences, until he has proved very ingenious in working out his own mifery.

If both these methods fail, the beft way will be to let him fee you are much caft down and afflicted for the ill opinion he entertains of you, and the disquietudes he himself fuffers for your fake. There are many who take a kind of barbarous pleasure in the jealousy of those who love them, and infult over an aking heart, and triumph in their charms which are able to excite fo much uneafinefs.

Ardeat ipfa licet, tormentis gaudet amantis.

Juv. SAT. VI. VER. 208. Though equal pains her peace of mind deftroy, A lover's torments give her fpiteful joy. But thefe often carry the humour so far, until their affected coldness and indifference quite kills all the fondness of a lover, and are then fure to meet in their turn with all the contempt and fcorn that is due to fo infolent a behaviour. On the contrary, it is very probable a melancholy, dejected carriage, the ufual effects of injured innocence, may foften the jealous husband into pity, make him fenfible of the wrong he does you, and work out of his mind all those fears and fufpicions that make you both unhappy. At least it will have this good effect, that he will keep his jealousy to himself, and repine in private, either becaufe he is fenfible it is a weakness, and will therefore hide it from your knowledge, or because he will be apt to fear fome ill effect it may produce, in cooling your love towards him, or diverting it to another..

There

There is ftill another fecret that can never fail, if you can once get it believed, and which is often practifed by women of greater cunning than virtue. This is to change fides for a while with the jealous man, and to turn his own paffion upon himfelf; to take fome occafion of growing jealous of him, and to follow the example he himself hath fet you. This counterfeited jealoufy will bring him a great deal of pleafure, if he thinks it real; for he knows experimentally how much love goes along with this paffion, and will befides feel fomething like the fatisfaction of revenge, in feeing you undergo all his own tortures. But this, indeed, is an artifice fo difficult, and at the fame time fo difingenuous, that it ought never to be put in practice but by fuch as have skill enough to cover the deceit, and innocence to render it excufable.

I fhall conclude this effay with the ftory of Herod and Mariamne, as I have collected it out of Jofephus; which may ferve almost as an example to whateyer can be faid on this fubject.

Mariamne had all the charms that beauty, birth, wit, and youth, could give a woman; and Herod all the love that fuch charms are able to raife in a warm and amorous difpofition. In the midft of this his fondness for Mariamne, he put her brother to death, as he did her father not many years after. The barbarity of the action was reprefented to Mark Antony, who immediately fummoned Herod into Egypt, to answer for the crime that was there laid to his charge. Herod attributed the fummons to Antony's defire for Mariamne, whom therefore, before his departure, he gave into the cuftody of his uncle Jofeph, with private orders to put her to death, if any fuch violence was offered to himfelf. This Jofeph was much delighted with Mariamne's converfation, and endeavoured with all his art and rhetoric, to set out the excefs of Herod's paffion for her; but when he still found her cold and incredulous, he inconfiderately told her, as a certain inftance of her lord's affection, the private orders he had left behind him, which plainly fhewed, according to Jofeph's interpretation, that he could neither live nor die without her. This barbarous inftance of a wild unreasonable paffion quite put out, for a time, thofe little remains of affection fhe still had for her lord: her thoughts

were fo wholly taken up with the cruelty of his orders, that he could not confider the kindness that produced them, and therefore reprefented him in her imagination, rather under the frightful idea of a murderer than a lover. Herod was at length acquitted and difmiffed by Mark Antony, when his foul was all in flames for his Mariamne; but before their meeting, he was not a little alarmed at the report he had heard of his uncle's converfation and familiarity with her in his abfence. This, therefore, was the firft difcourfe he entertained her with, in which the found it no eafy matter to quiet his fufpicions. But at last he appeared fo well fatisfied of her innocence, that from reproaches and wranglings he fell to tears and embraces. Both of them wept very tenderly at their reconciliation, and Herod poured out his whole foul to her in the warmest proteftations of love and conftancy; when amidit all his fighs and languifhings the afked him, whether the private orders he left with his uncle Jofeph were an inftance of fuch an inflamed affection. The jealous king was immediately roufed at fo unexpected a queftion, and concluded his uncle muft have been too familiar with her, before he would have difcovered fuch a fecret. In fhort, he put his uncle to death, and very difficultly prevailed upon himself to fpare Mariamne.

After this he was forced on a fecond journey into Egypt, when he committed his lady to the care of Sohemus, with the fame private orders he had before given his uncle, if any mischief befel him. In the mean while Mariamne fo won upon Sohemus by her prefents and obliging converfation, that the drew all the fecret from him, with which Herod had intrufted him; fo that after his return, when he flew to her with all the transports of joy and love, the received him coldly with fighs and tears, and ali the marks of indifference and averfion. This reception fo ftirred up his indignation, that he had certainly flain her with his own hands, had not he feared he himself fhould have become the greater sufferer by it. It was not long after this, when he had another violent return of love upon him; Mariamne was therefore fent for to him, whom he endeavoured to foften and reconcile with all poffible conjugal careffes and endearments; but the declined his embraces, and

anfwered

anfwered all his fondnefs with bitter invectives for the death of her father and her brother. This behaviour fo incenfed Herod, that he very hardly refrained from ftriking her; when in the heat of their quarrel there came in a witnefs, fuborned by fome of Mariamne's enemies, who accufed her to the king of a defign to poifon him. Herod was now prepared to hear any thing in her prejudice, and immediately ordered her fervant to be ftretched upon the rack: who in the extremity of his tortures confeft, that his miftrefs's averfion to the king arofe from fomething Sohemus had told her; but as for any defign of poisoning, he utterly difowned the least knowledge of it. This confeffion quickly proved fatal to Sohemus, who now lay under the fame fufpicions and fentence that Jofeph had

before him on the like occafion. Nor would Herod rest here; but accufed her with great vehemence of a defign upon his life, and by his authority with the judges had her publicly condemned and executed. Herod foon after her death grew melancholy and dejected, retiring from the public adminiftration of affairs into a folitary forelt, and there aban doning himfelf to all the black confiderations, which naturally arife from a paflion made up of love, remorfe, pity, and defpair. He used to rave for his Mariamne, and to call upon her in his diftra&ted fits; and in all probability would foon have followed her, had not his thoughts been feafonably called off from fo fad an object by public storms, which at that time very nearly threaten. ed him.

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PLATO APUD TELL.

talents among men fhould be held honourable to those who are endowed with them without any regard how they are applied. The gifts of nature and accomplishments of art are valuable but as they are exerted in the interefts of virtue, or governed by the rules of honour. We ought to abftract our minds from the obfervation of any excellence in those we converfe with, until we have taken fome notice, or received fome good in, formation of the difpofition of their mids; otherwife the beauty of their perfons, or the charms of their wit, may make us fond of thofe whom our reafon and judgment will tell us we ought to

abhor.

When we fuffer ourselves to be thus carried away by mere beauty, or mere wit, Omniamante, with all her vice, will bear away as much of our good-will as the most innocent virgin or difcreeteft matron; and there cannot be a more ab

:

demn yet this must be our condition in all the parts of life, if we fuffer ourfelves to approve any thing but what tends to the promotion of what is good and honourable. If we would take true pains with ourselves to confider all things by the light of reafon and juftice, though a man were in the height of youth and amorous inclinations, he would look upon a coquette with the fame contempt or indifference as he would upon a coxcomb: the wanton carriage in a woman would difappoint her of the admiration which the aims at; and the vain dress or difcourfe of a man would deftroy the comelinefs of his fhape, or goodness of his understanding. I fay the goodnes of his understanding, for it is no lefs common to fee men of fenfe commence coxcombs, than beautiful women become immodeft. When this happens in either, the favour we are naturally inclined to give to the good qualities they

have

have from nature fhould abate in proportion. But however juft it is to meafure the value of men by the application of their talents, and not by the eminence of thofe qualities abftracted from their use; I say, however just such a way of judging is, in all ages as well as this, the contrary has prevailed upon the generality of mankind. How many lewd devices have been preserved from one age to another, which had perished as foon as they were made, if painters and fculptors had been efteemed as much for the purpose as for the execution of their defigns? Modeft and wellgoverned imaginations have by this means loft the reprefentations of ten thousand charming portraitures, filled with images of innate truth, generous zeal, courageous faith, and tender humanity; instead of which, fatyrs, furies, and inoniters, are recommended by thofe arts to a fhameful eternity.

The unjust application of laudable talents, is tolerated in the general opinion of men, not only in fuch cafes as are here mentioned, but also in matters which concern ordinary life. If a lawyer were to be esteemed only as he uses his parts in contending for juftice, and were immediately defpicable when he appeared in a caufe which he could not but know was an unjust one, how honourable would his character be? and how honourable is it in fuch among us, who follow the profeffion no otherwife, than as labouring to protect the injured, to fubdue the oppreffor, to imprifon the carelefs debtor, and do right to the pain ful artificer; but many of this excellent character are overlooked by the greater number; who affect covering a weak place in a client's title, diverting the courfe of an inquiry, or finding a skilful refuge to palliate a falfehood; yet it is ftill called eloquence in the latter, though thus unjuffly employed: but refolution in an affaffin is according to reafon quite as laudable, as knowledge and wifdom exercifed in the defence of an ill cause,

Were the intention ftedfaftly confidered, as the meafure of approbation, all falfehood would foon be out of countenance: and an addrefs in impofing upon mankind, would be as contemptible in one state of life as another. A couple of courtiers making profeffions of esteem, would make the fame figure after breach of promise, as two knights

of the poft convicted of perjury. But converfation is fallen fo low in point of morality, that as they fay in a bargain

Let the buyer look to it; fo in friendship, he is the man in danger who is moft apt to believe: he is the more likely to fuffer in the commerce, who begins with the obligation of being the more ready to enter into it.

But thofe men only are truly great, who place their ambition rather in acquiring to themselves the confcience of worthy enterprifes, than in the profpect of glory which attends them. These exalted fpirits would rather be fecretly the authors of events which are ferviceable to mankind, than, without being fuch, to have the public fame of it. Where therefore an eminent merit is robbed by artifice or detraction, it does but increafe by fuch endeavours of it's enemies: the impotent pains which are taken to fully it, or diffuse it among a crowd to the injury of a fingle perfon, will naturally produce the contrary effect; the fire will blaze out, and burn up all that attempt to fmother what they cannot extinguish.

There is but one thing neceffary to keep the poffeffion of true glory, which is, to hear the oppofers of it with patience, and preferve the virtue by which it was acquired. When a man is thoroughly perfuaded that he ought neither to admire, with for, or purfue any thing but what is exactly his duty, it is not in the power of fealons, perions or accidents, to diminish his value. He only is a great man who can neglect the арplaufe of the multitude, and enjoy himfelf independent of it's favour. This is indeed an arduous task; but it should comfort a glorious fpirit that it is the highest step to which human nature can arrive. Triumph, applaufe, acclamation, are dear to the mind of man; but it is still a more exquifite delight to fay to yourself, you have done well, than to hear the whole human race pronounce you glorious, except you yourself can join with them in your own reflections. A mind thus equal and uniform may be deferted by little fashionable admirers and followers, but will ever be had in reverence by fouls like felf. The branches of the oak endure all the feafons of the year, though it's leaves fall off in autumn; and thefe too will be reftored with the returning fpring. T

2 U N° CLXXIII.