Some Projectors, engaged in the same undertaking, have begun by laying it down as a maxim, that a good temper may be acquired against the bent of nature, and accordingly have proposed certain rules to promote equanimity and expel peevishness. But as these rules have been chiefly recommended to the young (who are not, by the bye, the greatest delinquents in this respect,) we cannot always be certain that they have succeeded. There is, at least, an equal chance that they may have been employed on dispositions which did not require their aid, and which they rather encouraged than formed; and thus, as in the case of some medical prescriptions, the reputation of the physician has arisen, not so much from the cure, as the absence of the disease. appears to me extremely doubtful wheany instructions can be given with success for the regulation of the temper in grown gentlemen, or for abating that irritability which appears on sudden and trifling provocations, and

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puts them out of temper." This last expression, with others in colloquial use, seems to imply that temper is removeable by accident, and returnable by degrees; and it is certain that, from observing the various periods of its duration or absence, we learn to class the

various kinds of good, or very good, bad, or very bad, tempers, with their several subdivisions. It has been observed, indeed, that mankind pay so much attention to this article, as never to use the word temper without an epithet.

That a good temper forms a very popular character, we know from the efforts made to counterfeit it. Hypocrisy is a compliment which the wicked are doomed to pay to almost every virtue. MOROSUs, whose pride and bad temper are in very close union, nevertheless puts on a most engaging manner, with a splendid suit of cloaths, when he goes abroad. Common observers, therefore, set him down for a man of a sweet temper and independent fortune, while his more intimate acquaintance know that his temper is not natural, and that his cloaths are not paid for: both are provided for state and shew, and are of no use but on a formal visit or a holiday.

Since it is, then, very easy for some persons to endue themselves with a good temper, we must regret that such exhibitions are only temporary trials of skill, and that so many pleasing acts are not, by more frequent exhibition, connected into a regular habit. From this consideration, I have always recommended.

that good temper (like any other quality in which we wish to excel abroad) should be first practised at home. Home would be an excellent school for it: a wife, children, and servants, are very good judges of the article; and when they have once declared it to be perfect and durable, it may be tried out of doors with assurance of success, and require no formal preparation. Such is the advice which I have frequently given; but, confident as I am of its importance, I am sorry I cannot at present produce many well-attested cases of its having been taken.

That truly-eminent Projector, the Author of the Spectator, in one of his excellent schemes, proposes an hospital for men out of humour: but it may be questioned whether this description of patients would submit, in their cross paroxysms, to any thing short of force: and it is at the same time to be hoped, that although fits of ill-humour are very severe, they would rarely last so long as to survive the necessary preliminaries to a removal. I am doubtful likewise whether, in the present state of things, the publick could support the vast expence of building which this would require, an expence which is at least trebled since the Spectator's days, principally, I am told, by that ingenious

system of surveyorship, of which Inigo Jones and Sir Christopher Wren were deplorably ignorant. And, farther, if this expence were to be imposed by Act of Parliament, it would probably occasion that dreadful dilemma, where "the cure is worse than the disease." If we wish to bring people into good-humour, it must be a very bad step to apply first to their pockets.

Where, however, we cannot absolutely remedy a disorder, our next attempt is to render it as little hurtful as possible. I have, therefore, sometimes thought of a compromise between men of ill-humour and the rest of society; in compliance with which, the first of these high contracting parties shall be allowed to retain their spleen unmolested, provided they consent to shut themselves up in their apartments, and make no attempt to bring their complaints and their discontent into company. It is surely very fair that they who have any disorder upon them should be prevented from infecting their neighbours; and ill-humour, it has often been found, is so remarkably contagious, that one person, coming suddenly into a room during the fit, has been known to give it to ten others who had not a symptom of the disorder before he made his

approach. No species of quarantine, therefore, ought to be deemed too strict, to prevent the spreading of so malignant a disease, nor ought the infected to complain if they are prohibited from conveying a plague which men are most apt to catch when the pores of the mind are open, in the hours of convivial relaxation, and when the circulation of the blood is probably quickened by repeatedly swallowing short petitions for the good of their country.

This infection, moreover, produces evils of a very conspicuous nature, such as may be seen and felt; for, although it is primarily a disease of the mind, we often see it affect the body, by redness of countenance, swelling and blackness about the eyes, extraordinary elongation of the face, and sometimes violent bleeding at the nose, as if produced by the stroke of a fist. Some have had their teeth loosened, when the disorder was at a great height, and some their limbs broken. It was not long since, that a person of considerable character and consequence in the world, seized with this malady, and imprudently going into company when the fit was upon him, fell upon the floor of a tavern as if he had been knocked down; and another of the same company, who was observed to sit very near him, had part of his