willing is every man to flatter himfelf, that the difference between approving laws, and obeying them, is frequently forgotten; he that acknowledges the obligations of morality, and pleafes his vanity with enforcing them to others, concludes himself zealous in the caufe of virtue, though he has no longer any regard to her precepts, than they conform to his own defires; and counts himfelf among her warmest lovers, because he praifes her beauty, though every rival fteals away his heart. There are, however, great numbers who have little recourfe to the refinements of fpeculation, but who yet live at peace with themfelves, by means which require less understanding, or less attention. When their hearts are burthened with the confcioufnefs of a crime, instead of feeking for fome remedy within themfelves, they look round upon the rest of mankind, to find others tainted with the fame guilt: they please themselves with obferving, that they have numbers on their fide; and that though they are hunted out from the fociety of good men, they are not likely to be condemned to folitude. It may be observed, perhaps without exception, that none are so industrious to detect wickedness, or fo ready to impute it, as they whofe crimes are apparent and confeffed. They envy an unblemished reputation, and what they envy they are busy to deftroy they are unwilling to fuppofe themfelves meaner and more corrupt than others, and therefore willingly pull down from their elevations thofe with whom they cannot rife to an equality. No man yet was ever wicked without fecret difcontent, and according to the different degrees of remaining virtue, ог or unextinguished reafon, he either endeavours to reform himself, or corrupt others; either to regain the station which he has quitted, or prevail on others to imitate his defection. It has always been confidered as an alleviation of mifery not to suffer alone, even when union and fociety can contribute nothing to refiftance or escape; fome comfort of the fame kind feems to incite wickedness to seek affociates, though indeed another reafon may be given, for as guilt is propagated the power of reproach is diminished, and among numbers equally deteftable every individual may be fheltered from shame, though not from confcience. Another lenitive by which the throbs of the breas are affuaged, is, the contemplation, not of the fame, but of different crimes. He that cannot justify himfelf by his resemblance to others, is ready to try fome other expedient, and to enquire what will rife to his advantage from oppofition and diffimilitude. He eafily finds fome faults in every human being, which he weighs against his own, and eafily makes them preponderate while he keeps the balance in his own hand, and throws in or takes out at his pleasure circumftances that make them heavier or lighter. He then triumphs in his comparative purity, and sets himfelf at eafe, not because he can refute the charges advanced against him, but because he can cenfure his accufers with equal juftice, and no longer fears the arrows of reproach, when he has ftored his magazine of malice with weapons equally fharp and equally envenomed. This practice, though never juft, is yet fpecious and artful, when the cenfure is directed against deVOL. VI. viations D viations to the contrary extreme. The man who is branded with cowardice, may, with fome appearance of propriety, turn all his force of argument against a ftupid contempt of life, and rafh precipitation into unneceffary danger. Every receffion from temerity is an approach towards cowardice, and though it be confeffed that bravery, like other virtues, ftands between faults on either hand, yet the place of the middle point may always be difputed; he may therefore often impose upon careless understandings, by turning the attention wholly from himself, and keeping it fixed invariably on the oppofite fault; and by fhewing how many evils are avoided by his behaviour, he may conceal for a time thofe which are incurred. But vice has not always opportunities or addrefs for fuch artful fubterfuges; men often extenuate their own guilt, only by vague and general charges upon others, or endeavour to gain reft to themfelves, by pointing fome other prey to the purfuit of cenfure. Every whisper of infamy is industriously circufated, every hint of fufpicion eagerly improved, and every failure of conduct joyfully published, by those whose interest it is, that the eye and voice of the publick fhould be employed on any rather than on themfelves. All these artifices, and a thoufand others equally vain and equally defpicable, are incited by that conviction of the deformity of wickednefs, from which none can fet himfelf free, and by an abfurd defire to feparate the caufe from the effects, and to enjoy the profit of crimes without fuffering the fhame. Men are willing to try all methods of reconciling guilt and quiet, and when their understandings are stubborn and uncomplying, raise their paffions against them, and hope to overpower their own knowledge. It is generally not so much the desire of men, funk into depravity, to deceive the world as themselves, for when no particular circumstances make them dependant on others, infamy disturbs them little, but as it revives their remorfe, and is echoed to them from their own hearts. The fentence most dreaded is that of reason and confcience, which they would engage on their fide at any price but the labours of duty, and the forrows of repentance. For this purpofe every feducement and fallacy is fought, the hopes still rest upon fome new experiment till life is at an end; and the laft hour steals on unperceived, while the faculties are engaged in refifting reason, and repreffing the sense of the divine disapprobation. NUMB. 77. TUESDAY, December 11, 1750. Os dignum æterno nitidum quod fulgeat auró, A PRUDENT. F. LEWIS. MONG thofe, whofe hopes of diftinction, or riches, arife from an opinion of their intellectual attainments, it has been, from age to age, an established custom to complain of the ingratitude of mankind to their inftructors, and the difcouragement which men of genius and ftudy fuffer from avarice and ignorance, from the prevalence of falfe tafte, and the encroachment of barbarity. Men are most powerfully affected by those evils which themfelves feel, or which appear before their own eyes; and as there has never been a time of fuch general felicity, but that many have failed to obtain the rewards to which they had, in their own. judgment, a juft claim, fome offended writer has always declaimed, in the rage of disappointment, against his age or nation; nor is there one who has not fallen upon times more unfavourable to learning than any former century, or who does not wish, that he had been referved in the infenfibility of non-exiftence to fome happier hour, when literary merit fhall no longer be defpifed, and the gifts and careffes of mankind |