The moft ftriking inftance I know of this low paffion for drollery, is Toby Bumper, a young fellow of family and fortune, and not without talents, who has taken a more than ordinary pains to degrade himlelf; and is now become almoft as low a character, as any of those whom he has chofen for his companions. Toby will drink purl in a morning, fmoke his pipe in a night-cellar, dive for a dinner, or eat black puddings at Bartholomew-fair, for the humour of the thing. He ha alfo studied, an! practiles, ail the plebeian arts and exercifes, under the best masters; and has difgraced himielf with every impolite accomplishment. He has had many a fet-to with Buckhorfe; and has now and then the honour of receiving a fall from the great Broughton himfelf. Nobody is better known among the hackney coachman, as a brother-whip: at the noble game of prifon-bars, he is a match even for the natives of Effex and Chefhire; and he is frequently engaged at the Artillery-ground with Faulkner and Dingate at cricket; and is himfelf efteemed as good a bat as either of the Bennets. Another of Toby's favourite amufements is, to attend the executions at Tyburn; and it once happened, that one of his familiar intimates was unfortunately brought thither; when Toby carried his regard to his deceafed friend fo far, as to get himself knocked down in endeavouring to rescue the body from the furgeons. As Toby affects to mimic, in every particular, the art and manner of the vulgar, he never fails to enrich his converfation with their emphatic oaths and expreffive dialect, which recommends him as a man of excellent humour and high fun, among the Choice Spirits at Comus's Court, or at the meeting of the Sons of found Senje and Satisfaction. He is alfo particularly famous for finging thofe cant fongs, drawn up in the barbarous dialect of tharpers and pickpockets; the humour of which he often heightens, by fcrewing up his mouth, and rolling about a large quid of tobacco between his jaws. Thefe and other like accomplishments frequently promote him to the chair in these facetious focieties. Toby has indulged the fame notions of humour even in his amours; and is wellknown to every ftreet-walker from Cheapfide to Charing-crofs. This has given feveral fhocks to his conftitution, and often involved him in unlucky fcrapes. He has been frequently bruifed, beaten and kicked, by the bullies of Wapping and Fleet-ditch; and was once foundly drubbed by a foldier for engaging with his trull. The last time I faw him he was laid up with two black eyes, and a broken pate, which he got in a midnight fkirmish, about a miftrefs, in a night-cellar. Connoiffeur. § 109. Caufes of national Characters. The vulgar are very apt to carry all national characters to extremes; and having once established it as a principle, that any people are knavifh, or cowardly, or ignorant, they will admit of no exception, but comprehend every individual under the fame character. Men of fenfe condemn thefe undiftinguithing judgments; though at the fame time they allow, that each nation has a peculiar fet of manners, and that fome particular qualities are more frequently to be met with among one people than among their neighbours. The common people in Switzerland have furely more probity than thole of the same rank in Ireland; and every prudent man will, from that circumftance alone, make a difference in the truft which he repofes in each. We have reafon to expect greater wit and gaiety in a Frenchman than in a Spaniard, though Cervantes was born in Spain. An Englishman will naturally be thought to have more wit than a Danc, though Tycho Brahe was a native of Denmark. Different reafons are aligned for these national characters, while fome account for them from moral, and others from phyfical caufes. By moral caufes I mean all circumftances which are fitted to work on the mind, as motives or reafons, and which render a peculiar fet of manners habitual to us. Of this kind are the nature of the government, the revolutions of public affairs, the plenty or penury in which the people live, the fituation of the nation with regard to its neighbours, and fuch like circumftances. By phyfical caufes, I mean thofe qualities of the air and climate, which are fuppofed to work infenfibly on the temper, by altering the tone and habit of the body, and giving a particular complexion; which, though reflection and reafon may fometimes overcome, yet will it prevail among the generality of mankind, and have an influence on their manners. That the character of a nation will very much depend on moral caufes, must be evident to the most fuperficial obferver; fince a nation is nothing but a collection of individuals, and the manners of individuals are frequently determined by there caufes. 3 N 4 As As poverty and hard labour debase the minds of the common people, and render them unfit for any fcience and ingenious profeffion, fo where any government becomes very oppreffive to all its fubjects, it muft have a proportional effect on their temper and genius, and muft banish all the liberal arts from amongst them. The fame principle of moral caufes fixes the characters of different profeffions, and alters even the difpofition which the particular members receive from the hand of nature. A foldier and a priest are different characters in all nations and all ages, and this difference is founded on circumstances, whofe operation is external and unalterable. The uncertainty of their life makes foldiers lavish and generous, as well as brave; their idlenefs, as well as the large focieties which they form in camps or garrifons, inclines them to pleasure and gallantry; by their frequent change of company they acquire good breeding and an openness of behaviour; being employed only against a public and open enemy, they become candid, honest, and undefigning and as they ufe more the labour of the body than the mind, they are commonly thoughtless and ignorant. 'Tis a trite but not altogether a falfe maxim, that priests of all religions are the fame; and though the character of the profeffion will not in every inftance prevail over the perfonal character, yet is it fure always to predominate with the greater number. For as chemifts obferve, that Spirits when raised to a certain height are all the fame, from whatever materials they be extracted; fo thefe men being elevated above humanity, acquire an uniform character, which is entirely their own, and which is in my opinion, generally fpeak ing, not the most amiable that is to be met with in human fociety; it is in moft points oppofite to that of a foldier, as is the way of life from which it is derived. Hume's Effays. 110. Chastity an additional Ornament to Beauty. There is no charm in the female fex, that can fupply the place of virtue. Without innocence, beauty is unlovely, and quality contemptible; good-breeding degenerates into wantonnefs, and wit into impudence. It is obferved, that all the virtues are reprefented by both painters and ftatuaries But as I am now talking to the world yet untainted, I will venture to recommend chastity as the nobleft male qualification. It is, methinks, very unreasonable, that the difficulty of attaining all other good habits, is what makes them honourable; but in this cafe, the very attempt is become very ridiculous: but in spite of all the raillery of the world, truth is ftill truth, and will have beauties infeparable from it. I fhould, upon this occafion, bring examples of heroic chastity, were I not afraid of having my paper thrown away by the modifh part of the town, who go no far. ther, at beft, than the mere abfence of ill, and are contented to be rather irreproach able than praife-worthy. In this particular, a gentleman in the court of Cyrus reported to his majefty the charms and beauty of Panthea; and ended his panegyric by telling him, that fince he was at leifure, he would carry him to visit her. But that prince, who is a very great man to this day, anfwered the pimp, because he was a man of quality, without roughness, and faid, with a fmile, « If I should vifit her upon your introduction, now I have leifure, I don't know but I might go again upon her own invitation when I ought to be better employed." But when I caft about all the inftances which I have met with in all my reading, I find not one fo generous, fo honeft, and fo noble, as that of Jofeph in holy writ. When his mafter had trufted him fo unrefervedly (to speak it in the emphatical manner of the fcripture)" He knew not aught he had, fave the bread which he did eat," he was fo unhappy as to appear irrefiftibly beautiful to his mistress; but when this fhameless woman proceeds to folicit him, how gal lant is his antwer!" Behold my matter wotteth not what is with me in the house, and hath committed all that he hath to my hand, there is none greater in the house than I, neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee, because thou art is generally a perfon of great fortune and weak intellects: "Who will as tenderly be led by th' nofe, his wife." The fame argument, which a bafe mind would have made to itself for committing the evil, was to this brave man the greatest motive for forbearing it, that he could do it with impunity; the malice and falfehood of the disappointed woman naturally arofe on that occafion, He plays, not that he has any delight in and there is but a fhort ftep from the cards and dice, but because it is the practice of virtue to the hatred of it, It fashion; and if whift or hazard are prowould therefore be worth serious confider- pofed, he will no more refuse to make one ation in both sexes, and the matter is of at the table, than among a fet of hard importance enough to them, to afk them drinkers, he would object drinking his glafs felves whether they would change light- in turn, because he is not dry. nefs of heart, indolence of mind, chearful meals, untroubled flumbers, and gentle difpofitions, for a conftant pruriency which fhuts out all things that are great or indifferent, clouds the imagination with infenfibility and prejudice to all manner of delight, but that which is common to all creatures that extend their species. A loose behaviour, and an inattention to every thing that is ferious, flowing from fome degree of this petulancy, is obfervable in the generality of the youth of both fexes in this age. It is the one common face of most public meetings, and breaks in upon the fobriety, I will not fay feverity, that we ought to exercise in churches. The pert boys and flippant girls are but faint followers of thofe in the fame inclinations at more advanced years. I know not who can oblige them to mend their manners; all that I pretend to, is to enter my proteft, that they are neither fine gentlemen nor fine ladies for this behaviour. As for the portraitures which I would propofe, as the images of agreeable men and women, if they are not imitated or regarded, I can only answer, as I remember Mr. Dryden did on the like occafion, when a young fellow, just come from the play of Cleomenes, told him, in raillery against the continency of his principal character. If I had been alone with a lady, I should not have paffed my time like your Spartan: "That may be," answered the bard with a very grave face; " but give me leave to tell you, Sir, you are no hero." Guardian. $112. The Chara&ers of Gamefters. The whole tribe of gamefters may be ranked under two divifions: Every man who makes carding, dicing, and betting his daily practice, is either a dupe or a harper; two characters equally the objects of envy and admiration. The dupe There are fome few inftances of men of fenfe, as well as family and fortune, who have been dupes and bubbles. Such an unaccountable itch of play has seized them, that they have facrificed every thing to it, and have seemed wedded to feven's the main, and the odd trick. There is not a more melancholy object than a gentleman of fenfe thus infatuated. He makes him felf and family a prey to a gang of villains more infamous than highwaymen; and perhaps when his ruin is completed, he is glad to join with the very fcoundrels that deftroyed him, and live upon the spoil of others, whom he can draw into the fame follies that proved fo fatal to himself. Here we may take a furvey of the character of a fharper; and that he may have no room to complain of foul play, let us begin with his excellencies. You will perhaps be ftartled, Mr. Town, when I mention the excellencies of a fharper; but a gamefter, who makes a decent figure in the world, must be endued with many amiable qualities, which would undoubtedly appear with great luftre, where they not eclipfed by the odicus character affixed to his trade. In order to carry on the common bufinefs of his profeffion, he must be a man of quick and lively parts, attended with a ftoical calmnefs of temper, and a conftant prefence of mind. He must fmile at the lofs of thousands; and is not to be difcompofed, though ruin ftares him in the face. As he is to live among the great, he muft not want politenefs and affability; he must be fubmiffive, but not fervile; he must be master of an ingenuous liberal air, and have a feeming openness of beha viour. These must be the chief accomplishments of our hero: but left I fhould be accufed of giving too favourable a likenefs of him, now we have feen his outfide. let us take a view of his heart. There we shall find avarice the main fpring that moves the whole machine. Every gamefter is eaten up with avarice; and when this paffion is in full force, it is more ftrongly predominant than any other. It conquers even luit; and conquers it more effectully than age. At fixty we look at a fine woman with pleafure; but when cards and dice have engroffed our at tention, women and all their charms are flighted at five-and-twenty. A thorough gamefter renounces Venus and Cupid for Plutus and Ames-ace, and owns no miftrefs of his heart except the queen of trumps. His infatiable avarice can only be gratified by hypocrify; fo that all thofe fpecious virtues already mentioned, and which, if real, might be turned to the benefit of mankind, muft be directed in a gameller towards the deftruction of his fellow-creatures. His quick and lively parts ferve only to inftruct and affift him in the moit dexterous method of packing the cards and cogging the dice; his fortitude, which enables him to lofe thousands without emotion, must often be practifed against the flings and reproaches of his confcience, aud his liberal deportment and affected openness is a fpecious veil to recommend and conceal the blacket vil lainy. It is now neceffary to take a fecond furvey of his heart; and as we have feen its vices, let us confider its miferies. The covetous, man, who has not fufficient courage or inclination to encrease his fortune by bets, cids, or dice, but is contented to hoard up thoufands by thefts lefs public, or by cheats lefs liable to uncertainty, lives in a state of perpetual fufpicion and terror; but the avaricious fears of the gamefter are infinitely greater. He is conftantly to wear a mafk; and like Monfieur St. Croix, coadjuteur to that famous empoisonneufe, Madame Brinvillier, if his mafk falls off, he runs the hazard of being fuffocated by the ftench of his own poisons. I have feen fome examples of this fort not many years ago at White's. I am uncertain whether the wretches are still alive; but if they are still alive, they breathe like toads under ground, crawling amidst old walls, and paths long fince unfrequented. But fuppofing that the fharper's hypocrify remains undetected, in what a flate of mind must that man be, whose fortune depends upon the infincerity of his heart, the difingenuity of his behaviour, and the falfe bias of his dice! What fenfations muft he fupprefs, when he is obliged to fmile, although he is provoked; when he must look ferene in the height of defpair: and when he must act the floic, without the confolation of one virtuous fentiment, or one moral principle! How unhappy muit he be, even in that fituation from which he hopes to reap moft benefit; I mean amidst ftars, garters, and the various herds of nobility! Their lordships are not always in a humour to play: they choose to laugh; they choose to joke; in the mean while our hero muft patiently await the good hour, and must not only join in the laugh, and applaud the joke, but muft humour every turn and caprice to which that fet of fpoiled children, called bucks of quality, are liable. Surely his brother Thicket's employment, of fauntering on horieback in the wind and rain till the Reading coach paffes through Smallberry-green, is the more eligible, and no lefs honeft occupation. The fharper has alfo frequently the mortification of being thwarted in his defigns. Opportunities of fraud will not for ever prefent themselves, The falfe dice cannot be conftantly produced, nor the packed cards always be placed upon the table. It is then our gamefter is in the greateft danger. But even then, when he is in the power of fortune, and has nothing but mere luck and fair play on his fide, he must stand the brunt, and perhaps give away his lat guinea, as cooly as he would lend a nobleman a fhilling, Our hero is now going off the ftage, and his catastrophe is very tragical. The next news we hear of him is his death, atchieved by his own hand, and with his own pistol. An inqueft is bribed, he is buried at midnight-and forgotten before fun-rife. These two portraits of a fharper, where. in I have endeavoured to fhew different likeneffes in the fame man, put me in mind of an old print, which I remember at Oxford, of Count Guifcard. At first fight he was exhibited in a full-bottomed wig, a hat and feather, embroidered cloaths, diamond buttons, and the full court dress of thofe days; but by pulling a firing the folds of the paper were fhifted, the face only remained, a new body came forward, and Count Guifcard appeared to be a devil. Connoiffeur ed it from the reprefentation fhe gave me of his. "I have every thing in Tranquillus," fays fhe," that I can with for and enjoy in him (what indeed you told me were to be met with in a good hufband) the fondness of a lover, the tenderness of a parent, and the intimacy of a friend." It tranfported me to fee her eyes fwimming in tears of affection when the spoke. "And is there not, dear fifter," faid I, more pleasure in the poffeifion of fuch a man, than in all the little impertinences of balls, affemblies, and equipage, which it coft me fo much pains to make you contemn? She answered fmiling, "Tranquillus has made me a fincere convert in a few weeks, though I am afraid you could not have done it in your whole life. To tell you truly, I have ouly one fear hanging upon me, which is apt to give me trouble in the midst of all my fatisfactions: I am afraid, you must know, that I shall not always make the fame amiable ap pearance in his eyes, that I do at prefent. You know, brother Bickerstaff, that you have the reputation of a conjurer, and if you have any one fecret in your art to make your fifter always beautiful, I thould be happier than if I were mitrefs of all the worlds you have fhewn me in a starry night." " jenny," faid I, without having recourfe to migie, I fhill give you one plain rule, that will not fail of making you always amiable to a man who has fo great a me word the would come and dine with me, and therefore defired me to have no other company. I took care accordingly, and was not a little pleafed to fee her enter the room with a decent and matron-like beha viour, which I thought very much became her. I faw the had a great deal to fay to me, and easily discovered in her eyes, and the air of her countenance, that he had abundance of fatisfaction in her heart, which the longed to communicate. However, I was refolved to let her break into her difcourfe her own way, and reduced her to a thousand little devices and intimations to bring me to the mention of her husband. But finding I was refolved not to name him, the begun of her own accord: "My hufband," fays fhe, "gives his,humble fervice to you;" to which I only anfwered, "I hope he is well," and without waiting for a reply, fell into other fubjects. She at last was out of all patience, and faid, with a fmile and manner that I thought had more beauty and spirit than I had ever obferved before in her; "I did not think, brother, you had been fo ill-natured. You have feen ever fince I came in, that I had a mind to talk of my husband, and you will not be fo kind as to give me an occafion." "I did not know," laid I, "but it might be a difagreeable fubject to you. You do not take me for fo o'd fashioned a fellow as to think of entertaining a young lady with the difcourfe of her husband. I know nothing is more acceptable than to fpeak paflion for you, and is of fo equal and of one who is to be fo; but to fpeak of one reasonable a temper as Tranquillus;-Enwho is fo-indeed, Jenny, I am a better deavour to pleafe, and you muit pleafe. bred man than you think me." She fhew- Be always in the fame difpofition as you ed a little diflike to my raillery, and by her are when you afk for this fecret, and you bridling up, I perceived the expected to be make take my word, you will never want it; treated hereafter not as Jenny Diftaff, but an inviolable fidelity, good-humour, and Mrs. Tranquillus. I was very well pleafed complacency of temper, outlive all the with the change in her humour; and upon charms of a fine face, and make the decays talking with her upon feveral fubjects, I of it invifible." Tatler. could not but fancy that I faw a great deal of her husband's way and manner in her remarks, her phrases, the tone of her voice, and the very air of her countenance. This gave me an unfpeakable fatisfaction, not only because I had found her a husband from whom the could learn many things that were laudable, but also because I looked upon her imitation of him as an infallible fign that the entirely loved him. This is an observation that I never knew fail, though I do not remember that any other has made it. The natural flynefs of her fex hindered her from telling me the greatness of her own paffion, but I eafily collect. § 114. Curiofity. The love of variety, or curiofity of fecing new things, which is the fame or at least a fifter paflion to it,-feems wove into the frame of every fon and daughter of Adam; we ufually fpeak of it as one of nature's levities, though planted within us for the folid purposes of carrying forward the mind to freth enquiry and knowledge: trip us of it, the mind (I fear) would doze for ever over the prefent page; and we should all of us reft at eafe with fuch objects as prefented themfelves in the parish or province where we first drew breath. |