immediately whispered, as a fecret, that Hilario, who had long fufpected me of a criminal correspondence, had at length traced me from the masquerade to a bagnio, and furprized me with a fellow. It was in vain for me to attempt the recovery of my character by giving another turn to this report, for the principal facts I could not deny; and thofe who appeared to be moft my friends, after they had attended to what they call nice diftinctions and minute circumftances, could only fay, that it was a dark affair, and they hoped I was not fo guilty as was generally believed. I was avoided by my female acquaintance as infamous: if I went abroad, I was pointed out with a whisper, and a nod; and if I ftaid at home, I faw no face but my fervant's. Those whofe levity I had filently cenfured by declining to practise it, now revenged themselves of the virtue by which they were condemned, and thanked GOD they had never yet picked up fellows, though they were not fo fqueamish as to refufe going to a ball. But this was not the worst; every libertine, whofe fortune authorized the infolence, was now making me offers of protection in nameless fcrawls, and feared not to folicit me to adultery; they dared to hope I fhould accept their propofal by directing to A B, who declares, like Caprinus, that he is a man of boBour, and will not fcruple to run my husband through the body, who now, indeed, thought himself authorized to treat me with every fpecies of cruelty but blows, at the fame time that his houfe was a perpetual scene of lewdness and debauchery.

Reiterated provocation and infult foon became intolerable: I therefore applied to a diftant relation, who fo far interested himself in my behalf as to ob

tain me a feparate maintenance, with which I retired into the country, and in this world have no hope but to perpetuate my obfcurity.

In this obfcurity, however, your paper is known; and I have communicated an adventure to the Adventurer, not merely to indulge complaint, or gratify cu riofity, but becaufe I think it confirms fome principles which you have before illuftrated.

Thofe who doubt of a future retribution, may reflect, that I have been involved in all the miseries of guilt, except the reproach of confcience and the fear of hell, by an attempt which was intended to reclaim another from vice, and obtain the reward of my own vir

tue.

My example may deter others from venturing to the verge of rectitude, and affuming the appearance of evil. On the other hand, thofe who judge of mere appearances without charity, may remark, that no conduct was ever condemned with lefs fhew of injurious fcverity, nor yet with lefs justice than mine. Whether my narrative will be believed indeed I cannot determine; but where innocence is poffible, it is dangerous to impute guilt, because with

what foever judgment men judge they 'fhall be judged; a truth which, if it was remembered and believed by all who profeís to receive it upon Divine Authority, would impofe filence upon the cenforious, and extort candour from the felfish. And I hope that the ladies who read my story, will never hear, but with indignation, that the understanding, of a Libertine is a pledge of reforration; for his life cannot be known with out abhorrence, nor fhared without ruin I am, Sir, your humble fervant,

DESDEMONA,

N° CXIX,

WHEN Socrates was asked, which

of mortal men was to be accounted nearest to the Gops in happinefs, he answered, that man who is in want of the fewest things."

In this anfwer, Socrates left it to be guessed by his auditors, whether, by the exemption from want which was to conftitute happiness, he meant amplitude of poffeffions or contraction of defire. And, indeed, there is fo little difference between them, that Alexander the Great confeffed the inhabitant of a tub the next man to the master of the world; and left a declaration to future ages, that if he was not Alexander he should with to be Diogenes.

These two states, however, though they refemble cach other in their confequence, differ widely with refpect to the facility with which they may be attained. To make great acquifitions can happen to very few; and in the uncertainty of human affairs, to many it will be incident to labour without reward, and to lofe what they already poffefs by endeavours to make it more; fome will always want abilities, and others opportunities to accumulate wealth. It is therefore happy, that nature has allowed us a more certain and eafy road to plenty; every man may grow rich by contracting his wishes, and by quiet acquiefcence in what has been given him fupply the abfence of more.

Yet fo far is almost every man from emulating the happinefs of the gods, by any other means than grafping at their power, that it seems to be the great bufinefs of life to create wants as fast as they are fatisfied. It has been long obferved by moralifts, that every man fquanders or lofes a great part of that

HOR.

FRANCIS.

life, of which every man knows and deplores the fhortnefs and it may be remarked with equal juftnefs, that though every man laments his own infufficiency to his happiness, and knows himself a neceffitous and precarious being, inceffantly foliciting the affiftance of others, and feeling wants which his own art or Atrength cannot fupply; yet there is no man, who does not, by the fuperaddition of unnatural cares, render himself fill more dependent; who does not create an artificial poverty, and fuffer himfelf to feel pain for the want of that of which, when it is gained, he can have no enjoyment.

It mutt, indeed, be allowed, that as we lofe part of our time because it steals away filent and invifible, and many an hour is paffed before we recollect that it is paffing; fo unnatural defires infinuate themfelves unobferved into the mind, and we do not perceive that they are gaining upon us, till the pain which they give us awakens us to notice. No man is fufficiently vigilant to take account of every minute of his life, or to watch every motion of his heart. Much of our time likewife is facrificed to cuftom; we trifle, because we fee others trifle: in the fame manner we catch from example the contagion of defire; we fee all about us bufied in purfuit of imaginary good, and begin to bustle in the fame chace, left greater activity hould triumph over us.

It is true, that to man, as a member of fociety, many things become neceffary, which, perhaps, in a ftate of nature are fuperfluous; and that many things, not abfolutely neceffary, are yet fo uteful and convenient, that they cannot easily be spared. I will make yet

a more

a more ample and liberal conceffion. In opulent ftates and regular governments, the temptations to wealth and rank, and to the diftinctions that follow them, are fuch as no force of understanding finds it easy to refift.

If, therefore, I faw the quiet of life difturbed only by endeavours after wealth and honour, by folicitude, which the world, whether juftly or not, confidered as important; I fhould fcarcely have had courage to inculcate any precepts of moderation and forbearance. He that is engaged in a pursuit, in which all mankind profefs to be his rivals, is fupported by the authority of all mankind in the profecution of his defign, and will therefore fcarcely ftop to hear the lectures of a folitary philofopher. Nor am I certain, that the accumulation of honeft gain ought to be hindered, or the ambition of just honours always to be repreffed. Whatever can enable the poffeffor to confer any benefit upon others, may be defired upon virtuous principles; and we ought not too rafhly to accufe any man of intending to confine the influence of his acquifitions to himfelf.

But if we look round upon mankind, whom fhall we find among thofe that fortune permits to form their own manners, that is not tormenting himself with a wish for fomething, of which all the pleasure and all the benefit will ceafe at the moment of attainment? One man is beggaring his pofterity to build a houfe, which, when finished he never will inhabit; another is levelling mountains, to open a profpect, which, when he has once enjoyed it, he can enjoy no more; another is painting cielings, carving wainscot, and filling his apartments with coftly furniture, only that fome neighbouring house may not be richer or finer than his own.

That fplendor and elegance are not defirable, I am not fo abftracted from life as to inculcate; but if we inquire clofely into the reafon for which they are efteemed, we shall find them valued principally as evidences of wealth. Nothing therefore can fhew greater depravity of understanding, than to delight in the fhew when the reality is wanting; or voluntarily to become poor, that frangers may for a time imagine us to

be rich.

But there are yet minuter objects and

more trifling anxieties. Men may be found, who are kept from fleep by the want of a shell particularly variegated! who are wafting their lives in stratagems to obtain a book in a language which they do not understand; who pine with envy at the flowers of another man's parterre; who hover like vultures round the owner of a foffil, in hopes to plunder his cabinet at his death; and who would not much regret to fee a street in flames, if a box of medals might be fcattered in the tumult.

He that imagines me to speak of these fages in terms exaggerated and hyperbolical, has converfed but little with the race of virtuofos. A flight acquaintance with their ftudies, and a few vifits to their affemblies, would inform him, that nothing is fo worthless, but that prejudice and caprice can give it value; nor any thing of fo little ufe, but that, by indulging an idle competition or unreafonable pride, a man may make it to himfelf one of the neceffaries of life.

Defires like thefe, I may surely, with, out incurring the cenfure of morofeness, advife every man to repel when they invade his mind; or if he admits them, never to allow them any greater influence than is neceffary to give petty employments the power of pleafing, and diverfify the day with flight amusements.

An ardent wish, whatever be it's object, will always be able to interrupt tranquillity. What we believe ourselves to want, torments us not in proportion to it's real value, but according to the eftimation by which we have rated it in our own minds: in fome difeafes, the patient has been obferved to long for food, which fcarce any extremity of hunger would in health have compelled him to fwallow; but while his organs were thus depraved, the craving was irresistible, nor could any rest be obtained till it was appeafed by compliance. Of the fame nature are the irregular appetites of the mind; though they are often excited by trifles, they are equally dif quieting with real wants: the Roman, who wept at the death of his lamprey, felt the fame degree of forrow that extorts tears on other occafions.

Inordinate defires, of whatever kind, ought to be repreffed upon yet a higher confideration; they must be confidered as enemies not only to Happiness but to Virtue. There are men among thote ૨૧ commonly

commonly reckoned the learned and the wife, who fpare no ftratagems to remove a competitor at an auction, who will fink the price of a rarity at the expence of truth, and whom it is not fafe to truft alone in a library or cabinet, Thefe are faults which the fraternity fecin to look upon as jocular mifchiefs, or to think excufed by the violence of the temptation; but I fhall always fear that he who accustoms himself to fraud in little things, wants only opportunity to practie it in greater; He that has hardened himfelf by killing a fheep,' fays Py.

thagoras, will with lefs reluctance the the blood of a man.'

To prize every thing according to it real ufe, ought to be the aim of a rationa being. There are few things which cat much conduce to Happiness, and there fore few things to be ardently defired, He that looks upon the bufinels and buttle of the world, with the philofophy with which Socrates furveyed the fair at Athens, will turn away at last with his exclamation- How many things are here which I do not want!' T

HE numerous miferies of human

verfal complaint. The wifeft of men terminated all his experiments in fearch of happiness, by the mournful confcf fion, that all is vanity,' and the ancient patriarchs lamented, that the. days of their pilgrimage were few and f evil.'

There is, indeed, no topic on which it is more fuperfluous to accumulate authorities, nor any affertion of which our own eyes will more easily difcover, or our fenfations more frequently imprefs the truth, than that mitory is the lot of man, and that our prefent ftate is a ftate of danger and infelicity.

When we take the most diftant profpect of life, what does it prefent us but a chaos of unhappinefs, a confufed and tumultuous fcene of labour and conteft, difappointment and defeat? If we view paft ages in the reflection of hiftory, what do they offer to our meditation but crimes and calamities? One year is diftinguished by a fanine, another by an earthquake; kingdoms are made defolate, fometimes by wars, and fometimes by peftilence; peace of the world is interrupted at one time by the caprices of a tyrant, at another by the rage of a conqueror. The memory is ftored only with viciffitudes of evil, and the happinefs, fuch as it is, of one part of mankind, is found to arife commonly from fanguinary fuccefs, from

the

Ovid.

ADDISON.

victories which confer upon them the

any new enjoyment, as of inflicting mifery on others, and gratifying their own pride by comparative greatnefs.

But by him that examines life with a more close attention, the happiness of the world will be found still less than it appears. In fome intervals of public prefperity, or, to ufe terms more proper, in fome intermiflions of calamity, a general diffufion, of happinefs may feem to overfpread a people; all is triumph and exultation, jollity and plenty; there are no public fears and dangers, and no complainings in the ftreets." But the condition of individuals is very little mended by this general calm: pain and malice and difcontent ftill continue their havock; the filent depredation goes inceffantly forward; and the grave continues to be filled by the victims of forrow.

He that enters a gay affembly, be holds the cheerfulness difplayed in every countenance, and finds all fitting vacant and difengaged, with no other attention than to give or to receive pleasure; would naturally imagine that he had reached at laft the metropolis of felicity, the place facred to gladnefs of heart, from whence all fear and anxiety were irreversibly excluded. Such, indeed, we may often find to be the opinion of those who from a lower station look up to the

pomp

and

iety which they cannot reach: but who there of thofe who frequent thefe luxuous affemblies, that will not confefs s own uneafinefs, or cannot recount he vexations and diftrefles that prey pon the lives of his gay companions? The world, in it's beft ftate, is nothing more than a larger affembly of beings, combining to counterfeit haprels which they do not feel, employng every art and contrivance to embellife, and to hide their real condition from the eyes of one another.

The fpecies of happiness moft obvious to the obfervation of others is that which depends upon the goods of fortune; yet even this is often fictitious. There is in the world more poverty than is generally imagined; not only because many whofe poffeffions are large have defires fl larger, and many measure their wants by the gratifications which others enjoy; but great numbers are preffed by real neceffities which it is their chief ambition to conceal, and are forced to purshafe the appearance of competence and cheerfulness at the expence of many comforts and conveniencies of life. Many, however, are confeffedly rich, many more are fufficiently removed from all danger of real poverty: but it has been long ago remarked, that money cannot purchase quiet; the highett of mankind can promife themselves no exemption from that difcord or fufpicion, by which the sweetness of domestic retirement is deftroyed; and must always be even more expofed, in the fame degree as they are elevated above others, to the treachery of dependents, the calumny of defamers, and the violence of opponents.

and

Affliction is infeparable from our prefent ftate; it adheres to all the inhabitants of this world, in different proportions indeed, but with an allotment which feems very little regulated by our own conduct. It has been the boaft of fome fwelling moralifts, that every man's fortune was in his own power, that Prudence fupplied the place of all other divinities, and that happiness is the unfailing confequence of virtue. But fure ly the quiver of Omnipotence is ftored with arrows, against which the fhield of human virtue, however adamantine it has been boafted, is held up in vain: we do not always fuffer by our crimes; we are not always protected by our inno

sence,

A good man is by no means exempt from the danger of fuffering by the crimes. of others; even his goodness may raise him enemies of implacable malice and reftlefs perfeverance: the Good Man has never been warranted by Heaven from the treachery of friends, the difobedience of children, or the difhonefty of a wife; he may fee his cares made ufelefs by profufion, his inftructions defeated by perverfenefs, and his kindness rejected by ingratitude; he may languish under the infamy of falfe accufations, or perifh reproachfully by an unjust fentence.

A Good Man is fubject, like other mortals, to all the influences of natural evil; his harvest is not fpared by the tempeft, nor his cattle by the murrain; his houfe flames like others in a confiagration; nor have his fhips any peculiar power of refifting hurricanes: his mind, however elevated, inhabits a body fubject to innumerable cafualties, of which he muft always fhare the dangers and the pains; he bears about him the feeds of difeafe, and may linger away a great part of his life under the tortures of the gout or ftone; at one time groaning with infufferable anguifh, at another diffolved in littleffhefs and languor.

From this general and indifcriminate distribution of mifery, the moralifts have always derived one of their ftrongest moral arguments for a Future State; for fince the common events of the prefent fife happen alike to the good and bad, it follows from the Juftice of the SuPREME BEING, that there must be another itate of existence, in which a juft retribution fhall be made, and every man fhall be happy and miferable according to his works.

The miferies of life may, perhaps, afford fome proof of a future ftate, compared as well with the Mercy as the Juftice of Gon. It is fcarcely to be imagined, that Infinite Benevolence would create a being capable of enjoying fo much more than is here to be enjoyed, and qualified by nature to prolong pain by remembrance, and antici pate it by terror, if he was not defigned for fomething nobler and better than a ftate, in which many of his faculties can ferve only for his torment; in which: he is to be importuned by defires that never can be fatisfied, to feel many evils which he had no power to avoid, and to fear many which he fhall never feel: there will furely come a time, when every ca Q ૧

pacity