Auguftan age, and despises the system of modern hufbandry.

Many poets, however, may be found, who have condefcended to the cares of economy, and who have conducted their families with all the parfimohy and regularity of an alderman of the last century; who have not fuperciliously disdained to enter into the concerns of common life, and to subscribe to and ftudy certain neceffary dogmas of the vulgar, convinced of their utility and expediency, and well knowing that because they are vulgar, they are, therefore, both important and true.

If we look backwards on antiquity, or furvey ages nearer our own, we shall find several of the greatest genjufes fo far from being funk in indigence, that many of them enjoyed fplendor and honours, or at least were fecured against the anxieties of poverty, by a decent competence and plenty of the conveniences of life.

Indeed, to purfue riches farther, than to attain a decent competence, is too low and illiberal an occupation for a real genius to defcend to; and Horace wifely af-. cribes the manifeft inferiority of the Roman literature to the Grecian, to an immoderate love of money, which neceffarily contracts and ruts the mind, and difqualifies it for noble and generous undertakings.

Æfchylus was an officer of no fmall rank in the Athenian army at the celebrated battle of Marathon; and Sophocles was an accomplished general, who commanded his countrymen in feveral most important expeditions: Theocritus was carreffed and enriched by Ptolemy; and the gaiety of Anacreon was the refult. of eafe and plenty: Pindar was better rewarded for many of his odes, than any other bard ancient or mo

dern

dern, except perhaps Boileau for his celebrated piece of flattery on the taking Namur: Virgil at laft poffeffed a fine house at Rome, and a Villa at Naples: Ho66 race," lays Swift in one of his lectures on economy to Gay, "I am fure kept his coach:" Lucan and Silius Italicus dwelt in marble palaces, and had their gardens adorned with the most exquifite capital statues of Greece: Milton was fond of a domeftic life, and lived with exemplary frugality and order: Corneille and Racine were both admirable mafters of their families, faithful husbands, and prudent economists: Boileau, by the liberalities of Lewis, was enabled to purchace a delightful privacy at Auteuil, was eminently skilled in the management of his finances, and despised that affectation which arrogantly aims to place itself above the neceffary decorums and rules of civil life: in all which particulars they were equalled by Addison, Swift and Pope.

It ought not, therefore to be concluded from a few examples to the contrary, that poetry and prudence are incompatible; a conclufion that feems to have arifen in this kingdom, from the diffolute behaviour of the defpicable debauchees, and difgraced the mufes and the court of Charles the Second, by their lives and by their writings. Let thofe who are bleft with genius recollect, that economy is the parent of integrity, of liberty, and of ease; and the beauteous fister of temperance, of cheerfulness, and health and that profufenefs is a cruel and crafty demon, that gradually involves her followers in dependence and debts; that is, fetters them with "irons that enter into their fouls."

No. LX. Saturday, June 2. 1753.

Jus eft et ab hofte doceri.

Our foes may teach; the wife by foes are taught.

To have delayed the publication of the following let. ter would have been furely inexcufable: as it is fubfcribed by the name of a very great perfonage, who has been long celebrated for his fuperiority of genius and knowledge and whofe abilities will not appear to have been exaggerated by fervility of faction, when his genuine productions shall be better known. He has, indeed, been fufpected of fome attempts against revealed religion; but the letter which I have the honour to publish, will do juftice to his character, and fet his principles a new light

SIR,

To the Adventurer.

As your principle defign is to revive the practice of virtue, by establishing the Christian Religion; you will naturally conclude that your views and mine are directly oppofite; and my attempt to fhew, that it is

your

your intereft to admit my correspondence, will, therefore, be confidered as a proof of the contrary. You will, however, foon difcover, that by promoting your intereft, I feek my own; and when you have read my letter, you will be far from fufpecting, than under a fpecious flow of concurrence in your undertaking, I have concealed an attempt to render it ineffectual.

"Never to give up the prefent for the future," is a maxim which I have always taught both by precept and example: I confider the now, as the whole of my existence; and therefore, to improve it, is the whole of my study. And, indeed, happiness, like virtue, confifts not in reft, but in action: it is found rather in the pursuit, than the attainment of an end: for though the death of the ftag, is the purpose of the chace; yet the moment this purpofe is accomplished, the sport is at an end. Virtue and religion alone can afford me employment without them, I must inevitably be idle; and to be idle is to be wretched. I should, therefore, inftead of attempting to destroy the principles upon which I was resisted, have been content to surmount them for he who fhould hamstring the game, left any of them should efcape, would be justly diappointed of the pleasure of running them down. Such, indeed, is my prefent condition: and as it will at once answer your purpofe and mine, I fhall exhibit an account of of my conduct, and fhew how my difappointment was produced.

:

My principal business has always been to counterwork the effects of Revealed Religion: I have, therefore, had little to do, except among Jews and Chriftians. In the early ages of the world, when Revelätion was frequently repeated with fenfible and miracu

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lous circumstances, I was far from being idle; and still think it an inconteftible proof of my abilities, that even then my labour was not always unfuccefsful. I applied not fo much to the understanding as to the fenfes, till after the promulgation of Christianity; but I foon difcovered that Christianity afforded motives to virtue and piety, which were fcarce to be overpowered by temptation: I was, therefore, obliged now to exert my power, not upon the fenfes but the understanding. As I could not fufpend the force of these motives, I laboured to direct them towards other objects; and in the eighth century I had fo far fucceeded, as to produce a prevailing opinion, that "the worship of images was of more moment than moral rectitude :" It was decreed by a pope and council, that to speak of them with irreverence was a forfeit of falvation, and that the offender fhould, therefore, be excommunicated: those who oppofed this decree, were perfecuted with fire and fword; and I had the fatisfaction not only of fupplanting virtue, but of propagating mifery, by a zeal for religion. I must not, however, arrogate all the honour of an event which fo much excceded my hopes; for many arguments in favour of images were drawn from a book, intitled Patrum Spirituale: in which it is affirmed, that having long tempted a hermit to incontinence, I offered to defift if he would ceafe to worship an image of the Virgin: and that the hermit having confulted an abbot, whether to accept or refufe the condition, was told, that it was more eligible to commit incontinence, than to neglect the worship of images: and I declare upon my honour, that the facts, as far as they relate to me, did never happen, but are wholly invented by the ingenious author. That falva

tion