The delicacy and decorum obferved conftantly by Menander, rendered him the darling writer of the Athenians, at a time when the Athenians were arrived at the height of profperity and politenefs, and could no longer relifh the coarse railleries, the brutal mirth, and illiberal wit, of an indecent Aristophanes. • Menander,' fays Plutarch, abounds in a precious Attic falt, which feems to have been taken from the fame fea whence Venus herself arofe. But the falt of Aristophanes is bitter, difgufting, and corrofive.' There are two circumstances that may justly give us a mean opinion of the taste of the Romans for comic entertainments: that in the Augustan age itself, notwith standing the cenfure of Horace, they preferred the low buffoonery and drollery of Plautus to the delicacy and civility of Terence, the faithful copier of Menander; and that Terence, to gratify an andience unacquainted with the real excellencies of the drama, found himself obliged to violate the fimplicity of Menander's plots, and work up two ftories into one in each of his comedies, except the excellent and exact Hecyra. But this duplicity of fable abounding in various turns of fortune, neceffarily draws off the attention from what ought to be it's chief object in a legitimate comedy, Character and Humour. Iam, Sir, your hum ble fervant, END OF THE THIRD VOLUME. THE THE ADVENTURE R. VOLUME THE FOURTH. N° CVI. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1753. WHY WILT THOU RUSH TO DEATH? DRYDEN. Have before remarked, that human wit has never been able to render courage contemptible by ridicule: though courage, as it is fometimes a proof of exalted virtue, is alfo frequently an indication of enormous vice; for if he who effects a good purpose at the rifque of life, is allowed to have the ftrongest propenfity to good, it must be granted, that he who at the rifque of life effects an evil purpose, has an equal propenfity to evil. But as ridicule has not diftinguished courage into virtue and vice, neither has it yet distinguished insenfi. bility from courage. Every paffion becomes weak in proportion as it is familiar with it's object. Evil muft be confidered as the object of fear; but the paffion is excited only when the evil becomes probable, or, in other words, when we are in danger. As the fame evil may become probable many ways, there are feveral species of danger: that danger to which men are continually expofed, foon becomes familiar, and fear is no longer excited. This, however, must not be confidered as an example of courage; for equal danger of any other kind will still produce the fame degree of fear in the fame mind. Mechanical caufes therefore may pro. duce infenfibility of danger; but it is abfurd to fuppofe they can produce courage, for courage is an effort of the mind, by which a fenfe of danger is furmounted; and it cannot be faid, without the utmoft perversion of language, that a man is courageous, merely because he discovers no fear when he is fenfible of no danger. It is, indeed, true, that infenfibility and courage produce the fame effect; and when we fee another unconcerned and chearful in a fituation which would make us tremble, it is not ftrange that we should impute his tranquillity to the ftrength of his mind, and honour his want of fear with the name of courage. And yet when a mason whiftles at his work on a plank of a foot broad and an inch thick, which is fufpended by a rafter and a cord over a precipice, from which if he should fall he would inevi tably perifh, he is only reconciled by habit to a fituation, in which more danger is generally apprehended than exifts; he has acquired no ftrength of mind, by which a sense of danger is surmounted; nor has he with refpect to courage any advantage over him who, though he would tremble on the scaffold, would yet ftand under it without apprehenfion; for the danger in both fituations is nearly equal, and depends upon the fame incidents. But the fame infenfibility is often fubftituted for courage by habit, even when the danger is real, and in thofe minds which every other occafion would fhew to be deftitute of fortitude. The inhabitants of Sicily live without terror upon the declivity of a volcano, which the ftranger afcends with an interrupted pace, looking round at every step, doubting whether to go forward or retire, and dreading dreading the caprice of the flames which he hears roar beneath him, and fees illue at the fummit: but let a woman, who is thus become infenfible to the terrors of an earthquake, be carried to the mouth of the mines in Sweden, she will look down into the abyfs with terror, fhe will fhudder at the thought of defcending it, and tremble left the brink fhould give way. out a miracle efcape. Tom, with a fovereign contempt of his pufillanimity, derided his diftrefs; and Jack, on the contrary, admired the bravery of Tom and his crew, from whofe countenances and behaviour he at length derived some hope; he believed he had deferved the reproach which he fuffered, and defpised himfelf for the fear which he could not shake off. In the mean time the gale increafed, and in lefs than an hour it blew a ftorm. Jack, who watched every countenance with the utmost attention and folicitude, thought that his fears were now juftified by the looks of the failors: he therefore renewed his complaint, and perceiving his brother still unconcerned, again intreated him to take every poffible precaution, and not increate their danger by preiumption. In answer to these remonstrances he received fuch confolation as one lord of the creation frequently adminifters to another in the depth of diftrefs; Pfhaw,damme, you Against infenfibility of real danger we fhould not be lefs watchful than against unreasonable fear. Fear, when it is juftly proportioned to it's objec, and not too trong to be governed by reafon, is not, only blameleis but honourable; it is effential to the perfection of human nature, and the mind would be as defective without it as the body without a limb. Man is a being expofed to perpetual evil; every moment liable to deftruction by innumerable accidents, which yet, if he forefees, he cannot frequently prevent: fear, therefore, was implanted in his breaft for his preferva-fool, fays Tom, 'don't be dead hearttion; to warn him when danger approaches, and to prevent his being precipitated upon it either by wantonne's or inattention. But thofe evils which, without fear, we should not have forefeen, when fear becomes exceffive we are unable to fun; for cowardice and prefumption are equally fatal, and are frequently found in the fame mind. A peafant in the north of England had two fons, Thomas and John. Tom was taken to fea when he was very young, by the mafter of a small veffel who lived at Hull; and Jack continued to work with his father till he was near thirty. Tom, who was now become matter of a fmack himfelf, took his brother on board for London, and promised to procure him fome employment among the shipping on the water-fide. After they had been fome hours under fail, the wind became contrary, and blew very fresh; the waves began immediately to fwell, dalhing with violence against the prow, whitened into foam. The veffel, which now plied to windward, lay fo much on one fide, that the edge was frequently under water; and Jack, who expected it to overfet every moment, was feized with terror which he could not conceal. He earnestly requefted of Tom, that the fails might be taken in; and lamented the folly that had expofed him to the violence of a tempeft, from which he could not with ed: the more fail we carry, the fooner we fhall be out of the weather.' Jack's fear had indeed been alarmed before he was in danger; but Tom was infenfible of the danger when it arrived: he, therefore, continued his course, exulting in the fuperiority of his courage, and anticipating the triumph of his vanity when they fhould come on fhore. But the fails being ftill fpread, a fudden guft bore away the maft, which in it's fall so much injured the helm, that it became impoffible to fteer, and in a very short time afterwards the veffel ftruck. The first moment in which Tom became fenfible of danger, he was feen to be totally def titute of courage. When the vessel truck, Jack, who had been ordered under hatches, came up, and found the hero, whom he had fo lately regarded with humility and admiration, fitting on the quarter deck, wringing his hands, and uttering incoherent and clamorous exclamations. Jack now appeared more calm than before, and afked, if any thing could yet be done to fave their lives. Tom replied in a frantic tone, that they might poffibly float to land on fome parts of the wreck; and catching up an axe, inftead of attempting to difengage the mait, he began to ftave the boat. Jack, whofe reason was ftill predominant, though he had been afraid too foon, faw that Tom in his frenzy was about to cut off their last hope; he therefore caught caught hold of his arm, took away the axe by force, affifted the failors in getting the boat into the water, perfuaded his brother to quit the veffel, and in about four hours they got fafe on fhore. If the veffel had weathered the ftorm, Tom would have been deemed a hero, and Jack a coward: but I hope that none, whom I have led into this train of thought, will, for the future, regard infenfibility of danger as an indication of courage; or impute cowardice to thofe whofe fear is not inadequate to it's object, or too violent to answer it's purpole. There is one evil, of which multitudes are in perpetual danger; an evil, to which every other is as the drop of the bucket, and the duit of the balance; and yet of this danger the greater part appear to be totally infenfible. Every man who waftes in negligence the day of falvation, stands on the brink not only of the grave but of hell. That the danger of all is imminent, appears by the terms that Infinite Wisdom has chofen to exprefs the conduct by which alone it can be escaped; it is called a race, a watch, a work to be wrought with fear and trembling, a ftrife unto blood, and a combat with whatever can feduce or terrify, with the pleafures of fenfe and the power of angels. The moment in which we fhall be fnatched from the brink of this gulph, or plunged to the bottom, no power can either avert or retard; it approaches filent, indeed, as the flight of time, but rapid and irresistible as the course of a comet. That dreadful evil, which, with equal force and propriety, is called the Second Death, fhould not, furely, be difregarded, merely because it has been long impending; and as there is no equivalent for which a man can reasonably determine to fuffer, it cannot be confidered as the object of courage. How it may be borne, should not be the enquiry, but how it may be hunned. And if in this daring age it is impoffible to prepare for eternity, without giving up the character of a hero, no reasonable being, furely, will be deterred by this confideration from the attempt; for who but an infant, or an ideot, would give up his paternal in heritance for a feather, or renounce the acclamations of a triumph for the tink ling of a rattle? N° CVII. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1753. It has been fometimes ack of by thofe more eafily attained by queftions than folutions, how it comes to pafs that the world is divided by fuch difference of opinion; and why men, equally reafonable, and equally lovers of truth, do not always think in the fame manner? With regard to fimple propofitions, where the terms are understood, and the whole fubject is comprehended at once, there is fuch an uniformity of fentiment among all human beings, that, for many ages, a very numerous fet of notions were fuppofed to be innate, or neceffarily co-exiftent with the faculty of reafon: it being imagined, that univerfal agreement could proceed only from the invariable dictates of the univerfal pare.t. In queftions diffufe and compounded, this fimilarity of determination is no T has been fometimes afked by thofe FRANCIS. longer to be expected. At our firft fally into the intellectual world, we all march together along one straight and open road; but as we proceed, further and wider profpects open to our view, every eye fixes upon a different fcene; we divide into various paths, and, as we move forward, are ftill at a greater distance from each other. As a question becomes more complicated and involved, and extends to a greater number of relations, difagreement of opinion will always be multiplied; not because we are irrational, but because we are finite beings, furnished with different kinds of knowledge, exerting different degrees of attention, one difcovering confequences which efcape another, none taking in the whole concatenation of caufes and effects, and most compre hending but a very finall part, each M m comparing comparing what he obferves with a different criterion, and each referring it to a different purpose. Where then is the wonder, that they who fee only a fmall part, fhould judge erroneously of the whole? or that they who fee different and diffimilar parts, fhould judge differently from each other? Whatever has various refpects, must have various appearances of good and evil, beauty or deformity; thus the gar. dener tears up as a weed the plant which the phyfician gathers as a medicine; and a general,' fays Sir Kenelm Digby, will look with pleature over a plain, as a fit place on which the fate of empires might be decided in battle, which the farmer will defpife as bleak and barren, neither fruitful of pafturage, nor fit for tillage.' Two men examining the fame queftion, proceed commonly like the phyfician and gardener in felecting herbs, or the farmer and hero locking on the plain; they bring minds impreffed with different notions, and direct their inquiries to different ends; they form, therefore, contrary conclufions, and each wonders at the other's abfurdity. We have lefs reafon to be furprized or offended when we find others differ from us in opinion, because we very often-differ from ourselves. How often we alter our minds, we do not always remark; because the change is fometimes made imperceptibly and gradually, and the laft conviction effaces all memory of the former: yet every man, accustomed from time to time to take a furvey of his own notions, will, by a flight retrofpection, be able to difcover that his mind has fuffered many revolutions; that the fame things have in the feveral parts of his life been condemned and approved, purfued and fhunned; and that on many occafions, even when his practice has been steady, his mind has cen wavering, and he has perfifted in a fcheme of action, rather because he feared the cenfure of inconftancy, than because he was always pleated with his own choice. Of the different faces fhewn by the fame objects as they are viewed on oppofite fides, and of the different inclinations which they must conftantly raife in him that contemplates them, a more ftriking example cannot eafily be found than two Greek epigrammatifts will af ford us in their accounts of human life, which I fhall lay before the reader in English profe. < Pofidippus, a comic poet, utters this complaint: Through which of the paths of life is it eligible to pafs? In public affemblies are debates and troublefome affairs; domeftic privacies are haunted with anxieties; in the country is labour; on the fea is terror: in a foreign land, he that has money muft live in fear, he that wants it must pine in diftrefs. Are you married? you are troubled with fufpicions. Are you fingle? you languifh in folitude. Chil'dren occafion toil, and a childless life, is a ftate of deftitution; the time of youth is a time of folly, and grey hairs are loaded with infirmity. This choice only, therefore, can be made, either never to receive being, or immediately to lofe it.' Such and fo gloomy is the profpect which Pofidippus has laid before us. But we are not to acquiefce too hastily in his determination against the value of exiftence: for Metrodorus, a philofopher of Athens, has shewn, that life has pleafures as well as pains; and having exhibited the prefent ftate of man in brighter colours, draws, with equal appearance of reafon, a contrary conclufion. You may pass well through any of the paths of life. In public affemblies · are honours and tranfactions of wifdom; in domeftic privacy is ftillness and quiet; in the country are the beauties of nature; on the fea is the hope of gain; in a foreign land, he that is rich is honoured, he that is poor may keep his poverty fecret. Are you married? you have a cheerful houfe. Are you fingle? you are unincumbered: children are objects of affection; to be without children is to be without case; the time of youth is the time of vigour, and grey hairs are made venerable by piety. It will, therefore, ¿ never be a wife man's choice, either not to obtain existence, or to lose it; 'for every itate of life has it's felicity.' In thefe epigrams are included moft of the queftions which have engaged the fpeculations of the enquirers after happinefs; and though they will not much affift our determinations, they may, perhaps, equally promote our quiet, by fhewing that no abfolute determination ever can be. formed. Whether a public station, or private life, be defirable, has always been de bated, |