• fuch, that our Anger is more easily transferred to our • Children than our Love. Love always gives fomething to the Object it delights in, and Anger spoils the Perfon against whom it is moved of fomething laudable in him: From this Degeneracy therefore, and a fort of Self-Love, we are more prone to take up the Ill-will of our Parents, than to follow them in their Friendships.

ONE would think there fhould need no more to make Men keep up this fort of Relation with the utmoft Sanctity, than to examine their own Hearts. If every Father remembred his own Thoughts and In⚫clinations when he was a Son, and every Son remembred what he expected from his Father, when he him⚫ felf was in a State of Dependance, this one Reflection would preferve Men from being diffolute or rigid in thefe feveral Capacities. The Power and Subjection between them when broken, make them more emphatically Tyrants and Rebels against each other, with greater Cruelty of Heart, than the Disruption of States and Empires can poffibly produce. I fhall end this Application to you with two Letters which paffed between a Mother and a Son very lately,and are as follows.

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Dear FRANK,

I

you

F the Pleasures, which I have the Grief to hear purfue in Town, do not take up all your Time, do not deny your Mother fo much of it, as to read ferioufly this Letter. You faid before Mr. Letacre, that an old Woman might live very well in the Country " upon half my Jointure, and that your Father was a fond Fool to give me a Rent-Charge of Eight hundred < a. Year to the Prejudice of his Son. What Letacre faid to you upon that Occafion, you ought to have born ⚫ with more Decency, as he was your Father's well-beloved Servant, than to have call'd him Country-putt. In the firft Place, Frank, I must tell you I will have my Rent duly paid, for I will make up to your Sifters for the Partiality I was guilty of, in making your Father do fo much as he has done for you. I may, it seems, live upon half my Jointure! I lived upon much less, Frank, when I carried you from Place to Place in these Arms, and could neither eat, drefs, or mind any Thing

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• Thing for Feeding and Tending you a weakly Child, and hedding Tears when the Convulfions you were ⚫ then troubled with returned upon you. By my Care you outgrew them, to throw away the Vigour of your Youth in the Arms of Harlots, and deny your Mother what is not yours to detain. Both your Sifters are crying to fee the Paffion which I fmother; but if you pleafe to go on thus like a Gentleman of the Town, and forget all Regards to your felf and Family, I fhall immediately enter upon your Eftate for the Arrear due to me, and without one Tear more contemn you for forgetting the Fondnefs of your Mother, as much as you have the Example of your Father. O Frank, do I live to omit Writing my felf,

6.

MADAM,

I

Your Affectionate Mother,

A. T.

Will come down to-morrow and pay the Money on my Knees. Pray write fo no more. I will take ⚫ Care you never fhall, for I will be for ever hereafter

Your moft dutiful Son,

F. T.

I will bring down new Heads for my Sifters. Pray let all be forgotten.

T

ATATATATATATATATATAS

No. 264. Wednesday, January 2.

Secretum iter & fallentis Semita vita.

Hor.

T has been from Age to Age an Affectation to love the Pleasure of Solitude, among those who cannot poffibly be fuppofed qualified for paffing Life in that Manner. This People have taken up from reading the many. agreeable Things which have been writ on that Subject, for which we are beholden to excellent Perfons who delighted in being retired and abftracted from the Pleasures that enchant the generality of the World. This way of

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Life

Life is recommended indeed with great Beauty, and in fuch a Manner as difpofes the Reader for the Time to a pleafing Forgetfulness, or Negligence of the particular Hurry of Life in which he is engaged, together with a longing for that State which he is charmed with in Defcription. But when we confider the World itself, and how few there are capable of a religious, learned, or philofophick Solitude, we fhall be apt to change a Regard to that fort of Solitude, for being a little fingular in enjoying Time after the Way a Man himself likes best in the World, without going fo far as wholly to withdraw from it. I have often obferved, there is not a Man breathing who does not differ from all other Men, as much in the Sentiments of his Mind, as the Features of his Face. The Felicity is, when any one is fo happy as to find out and follow what is the proper Bent of his Genius, and turn all his Endeavours to exert himself according as that prompts him. Inftead of this, which is an innocent Method of enjoying a Man's felf, and turning out of the general Tracts wherein you have Crowds of Rivals, there are those who pursue their own Way out ofa Sourness and Spirit of Contradiction: Thefe Men do every Thing which they are able to fupport, as if Guilt and Impunity could not go together. They chufe a Thing only becaufe another diilikes it ; and affect forfooth an inviolable Conftancy in Matters of no manner of Moment. Thus fometimes an old Fellow fhall wear this or that Sort of Cut in his Cloaths with great Integrity, while all the reft of the World are degenerated into Buttons, Pockets and Loops unknown to their Ancestors. As infignificant as even this is, if it were fearched to the Bottom, you perhaps would find it not fincere, but that he is in the Fashion in his Heart, and holds out from meer Obftinacy. But I am running from my intended Purpose, which was to celebrate a certain particular Manner of paffing away Life, and is a Contradiction to no Man, but a Resolution to contract none of the exorbitant Defires by which others are enflaved. The best way of feparating a Man's felf from the World, is to give up the Defire of being known to it. After a Man has preferved his Innocence, and performed all Duties incumbent upon him, his Time spent his own Way is what makes his Life differ from that of a Slave.

If they who affect Show and Pomp knew how many of their Spectators derided their trivial Tafte; they would be very much less elated, and have an Inclination to examine the Merit of all they have to do with: They would foon find out that there are many who make a Figure below what their Fortune or Merit entitles them to, out of mere Choice, and an elegant Defire of Eafe and Difincumbrance. It would look like Romance to tell you in this Age of an old Man who is contented to pass for an Humourist, and one who does not understand the Figure he ought to make in the World, while he lives in a Lodging of Ten Shillings a Week with only one Servant: While he dreffes himself according to the Seafon in Cloth or in Stuff, and has no one neceffary Attention to any Thing but the Bell which calls to Prayers twice a Day. I fay it would look like a Fable to report that this Gentleman gives away all which is the Overplus of a great Fortune, by fecret Methods, to other Men. If he has not the Pomp of a numerous Train, and of Profesfors of Service to him, he has every Day he lives the Confcience that the Widow, the Fatherlefs, the Mourner, and the Stranger blefs his unfeen Hand in their Prayers. This Humourift gives up all the Compliments which People of his own Condition could make to him, for the Pleafures of helping the Afflicted, fupplying the Needy, and befriending the Neglected. This Humourift keeps to himself, much more than he wants, and gives a vast Refuse of his Superfluities to purchase Heaven, and by freeing others from the Temptation of Worldly Want, to carry a Retinue with him thither.

Or all Men who affect living in a particular Way, next to this admirable Character, I am the most enamoured of Irus, whofe Condition will not admit of fuch Largeffes, and perhaps would not be capable of making them, if it were. Irus, tho' he is now turn'd of Fifty, has not appeared in the World, in his real Character, fince five and twenty, at which. Age he ran out a small Patrimony, and spent fome Time after with Rakes who had lived upon him: A Course often Years Time paffed in all the little Alleys, by-Paths, and fometimes open Taverns and Streets of this Town, gave Irus a perfect Skill in judging of the Inclinations of Mankind, and ac

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ting accordingly. He feriously confidered he was poor, and the general Horror which most Men have of all who are in that Condition. Irus judg'd very rightly, that while he could keep his Poverty a Secret, he should not feel the Weight of it; he improved this Thought into an Affectation of Clofenefs and Covetoufnefs. Upon this one Principle he refolved to govern his future Life; and in the thirty fixth Year of his Age he repaired to LongLane,and looked upon several Dreffes which hung there deferted by their firft Mafters, and expofed to the Purchafe of the best Bidder. At thisPlace he exchanged his gay Shabbynefs of Cloaths fit for a much younger Man, to warm ones that would be decent for a much older one. Irus came out thoroughly equipped from Head to Foot, with a little oaken Cane in the Form of a fubftantial Man that did not mind his Dress, turned of fifty. He had at this Time fifty Pounds in ready Money; and in this Habit, with this Fortune, he took his prefent Lodging in St. John Street, at the Manfion-Houfe of a Taylor's Widow, who washes and can clear-ftarch his Bands. From that Time to this, he has kept the main Stock, with out Alteration under or over, to the Value of five Pounds. He left off all his old Acquaintance to a Man, and all his Arts of Life, except the Play of Back-gammon, upon which he has more than bore his Charges. Irus has, ever fince he came into this Neighbourhood; given all the Intimations, he skilfully could, of being a clofe Hunks worth Money: No Body comes to vifit him, he receives no Letters, and tells his Money Morning and Evening. He has, from the publick Papers, a Knowledge of what generally paffes, fhuns all Difcourfes of Money,. but fhrugs his Shoulder when you talk of Securities; he denies his being rich with the Air, which all do who are vain of being fo: He is the Oracle of a neighbouring Juftice of Peace who meets him at the Coffee-houfe; the Hopes that what he has muft come to Somebody, and that he has no Heirs, have that Effect where ever he is known, that he every Day has three or four Invitations to dine at different Places, which he generally takes care to chufe in fucha Manner, as not to feem inclined to the richer Man. All the young Men respect him, and say he is juft the fame Man he was when they were Boys. He

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