both inceffantly employed in schemes to intercept the praises of each other.

I am, however, far from intending to inculcate that this confinement of the ftudious to ftudious companions, has been wholly without advantage to the public: neighbourhood, where it does not conciliate friendfhip, incites competition: and he that would contentedly reft in a lower degree of excellence, where he had no rival to dread, will be urged by his impatience of inferiority to inceffant endeavours after great attainments.

These ftimulations of honeft rivalry are, perhaps, the chief effects of academies and focieties; for whatever be the bulk of their joint labours, every fingle piece is always the production of an individual, that owes nothing to his colleagues but the contagion of diligence, a refolution to write, because the reft are writing, and the fcorn of obfcurity while the reft are illuftrious.

No.

No. XLVI. Saturday, April 14. 1753.

Μισω μνημονά Συμπο την

Far from my table be the tell-tale guest.

Prov. Gr.

Ir has been remarked, that men are generally kind in proportion as they are happy; and it is faid even of the devil, that he is good-humoured when he is pleased. Every act, therefore, by which another is injured, from whatever motive, contracts more guilt and expreffes greater malignity, if it is committed in thofe feafons which are fet apart to pleasantry and good-humour, and brightened with enjoyments peculiar to rational and focial beings.

Detraction is among those vices, which the most languid virtue has fufficient force to prevent; because by detraction, that is not gained which is taken away: "he who filches from me my good name," fays Shakespeare, "enriches not himself, but makes me

his

poor indeed :" as nothing, therefore, degrades human nature more than detraction, nothing more disgraces converfation. The detractor, as he is the lowest moral character, reflects greater dishonour upon company, than the hangman; and he, whofe difpofition is afcandal to his fpecies, fhould be more diligently avoided, than he who is fcandalous only by his office. But for this practice, however vile, fome have dared to apologize, by contending, that the report, by which

they

they injured an absent character, was true: this, however, amounts to no more, than that they have not complicated malice with falfehood, and that there is fome difference between detraction and flander. To-relate all the ill that is true of the best man in the world, would probably render him the object of suspicion and diftruft; and if this practice was univerfal, mutual confidence and esteem, the comforts of fociety, and the endearments of friendship, would be at an end.

There is fomething unspeakably more hateful in those fpecies of villainy by which the law is evaded, than in thofe by which it is violated and defied. Courage has fometimes preferved rapacity from abhorrenee, as beauty has been thought to apologize for proftitution; but the injuftice of cowardice is univerfally abhorred, and like the lewdness of deformity has no advocate. Thus hateful are the wretches who detract with caution; and while they perpetuate the wrong, are folicitous to avoid the reproach: they do not fay that Chloe forfeited her honour to Lyfander; but they fay that fuch a report has been fpread, they know not how true. Thofe who propagate thefe reports, frequently invent them; and it is no breach of charity to fuppofe this to be always the cafe; because no man who spreads detraction, would have fcrupled to produce it; and he who fhould diffuse poison in a brock, would scarce be acquitted of a malicious defign, though he should alledge, that he received it of another who is doing the fame elsewhere.

Whatever is incompatible with the highest dignity of our nature, fhould indeed be excluded from our converfation as companions, not only that which we owe to ourfelves, but to others, is required of us; and they who

can

.

can indulge any vice in the prefence of each other, are become objects in guilt and infenfible to infamy.

Reverence thyfelf is one of the fublime precepts of that amiable philofopher, whofe humanity alone was an inconteftible proof of the dignity of his mind. Pythagoras, in his idea of virtue, comprehended intellectual purity; and he fuppofed, that by him who reverenced himself, those thoughts would be fuppreffed by which a being capable of virtue is degraded: this divine precept evidently prefuppofes a reverence of others, by which men are restrained from more grofs immoralities; and with which he hoped a reverence of felf would also co-operate as an auxiliary motive.

The great duke of Marlborough, who was perhaps the most accomplished gentleman of his age, would never fuffer any approaches to obfcenity in his prefence; and it was faid by the late lord Cobham, that he did not reprove it as an immorality in the speaker, but refented it as an indignity to himself: and it is evident, that to speak evil of the abfent, to utter lewdness, blafphemy, or treafon, muft degrade not only him who fpeaks, but thofe who hear; for furely that dignity of character which a man ought always to fuftain, is in danger, when he is made the confident of treachery, detraction, impiety, or luft; for he, who in conversation displays his own vices, imputes them; as he who boafts to another of a robbery, prefuppofes that he is a thief.

It should be a general rule, never to utter any thing in converfation which would juftly difhonour us, if it should be reported to the world: if this rule could be always kept, we fhould be fecure in our own innocence

againft

against the craft of knaves and parafites, the stratagems of cunning, and the vigilance of envy.

But after all the bounty of nature, and all the labour of virtue, many imperfections will be still difcerned in human beings, even by those who do not fee with all the perfpicacity of human wisdom: and he is guilty of the most aggravated detraction, who reports the weaknefs of a good mind difcovered in an unguarded hour; fomething which is rather the effect of negligence, than defign; rather a folly, than a fault; a fally of vanity rather than an eruption of malevolence. It has, therefore, been a maxim inviolably facred among good men, never to disclose the secrets of private conversation; a maxim, which, though it seems to arise from the breach of fome other, does yet imply that general rectitude, which is produced by a consciousness of virtuous dignity, and a regard to that reverence which is due to ourselves and others: for to conceal any immoral purpose, which to disclose is to disappoint; any crime, which to hide is to countenance; or any character, which to avoid is to be fafe; as it is incompatible with virtue, and injurious to fociety, can be a law only among those who are enemies to both.

Among fuch, indeed, it is a law which there is fome degree of obligation to fulfil; and the fecrets even of their conversation are, perhaps, seldom disclosed, without an aggravation of their guilt; it is the interest of fociety, that the veil of taciturnity should be drawn over the mysteries of drunkenness and lewdnefs; and to hide even the machinations of envy, ambition, or revenge, if they happen to mingle in thefe orgies among the rites of Bacchus, feems to be the duty of the initiated, though not of the prophane.