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N° 557.

MONDAY, JUNE 21.

Quippe domum timet ambiguam, Tyriofque bilingues. VIRG. En. i. ver. 665.

He fears th' ambiguous race, and Tyrians double-tongu'd.

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HERE is nothing, fays Plato, fo delightful, as the hearing or the Speaking of truth. For this reafon there is no converfation fo agreeable as that of the man of integrity, who hears without any intention to betray, and speaks without any intention to deceive.

Among all the accounts which are given of Cato, I do not remember one that more redounds to his honour than the following paffage related by Plutarch. As an advocate was pleading the caufe of his client before one of the Prætors, he could only produce a fingle witness in a point where the law required the teftimony of two perfons; upon which the advocate infifted on the integrity of that perfon whom he had produced: But the Prætor told him, that where the law required two witneffes he would not accept of one, though it were Cato himself. Such a fpeech from a perfon who fat at the head of a court of justice, while Cato was ftill living, fhews us, more than a thousand examples, the high reputation this great man had gained among his contemporaries upon the account of his fincerity.

When fuch an inflexible integrity is a little foftened and qualified by the rules of converfation and good breeding, there is not a more fhining virtue in the whole catalogue of focial duties. A man however ought to take great care not to polish himself out of his veracity, nor to refine his behaviour to the prejudice of his virtue.

This fubject is exquifitely treated in the most elegant fermon of the great British preacher. I fhall beg leave to transcribe out of it two or three fentences, as a proper introduction to a very curious letter, which I fhall make the chief entertainment of this fpeculation.

The old English plainnefs and fincerity, that generous integrity of nature, and honefty of difpofition, which always argues true greatnefs of mind, and is ufually accompanied with undaunt⚫ed courage and refolution, is in a great measure • loft among us.

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The dialect of converfation is now-a-days fo fwelled with vanity and compliment, and fo furfeited (as I may fay) of expreflions of kindness and refpect, that if a man that lived an age. or two ago fhould return into the world again, he would really want a dictionary to help him to ⚫ understand his own language, and to know the ⚫ true intrinsic value of the phrafe in fashion; and • would hardly, at firft, believe at what a low rate the higheft ftrains and expreflions of kindness imaginable do commonly pafs in current payment; and when he fhould come to understand it, it would be a great while before he could bring: • himself with a good countenance, and a good • confcience, to converfe with men upon equal terms, and in their own way.

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I have by me a letter which I look upon as a great curiofity, and which may ferve as an exemplification to the foregoing paffage, cited out of this most excellent prelate. It is faid to have been written in King Charles II's reign by the ambaffador of Bantam, a little after his arrival in England.

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MASTER,

THE people, where I now am, have tongues

further from their hearts than from London to • Bantam, and thou knoweft the inhabitants of

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one of these places do not know what is done in the other. They call thee and thy fubjects barbarians, because we fpeak what we mean; and. account themfelves a civilized people, because. they speak one thing and mean another: Truth. they call barbarity, and falsehood politeness. Upe on my firft landing, one who was fent from the king of this place to meet me, told me, That be < was extremely forry for the ftorm I had met with just before my arrival. I was troubled to hear him grieve and afflict himself upon my account; but in lefs than a quarter of an hour he fmiled, and was as merry as if nothing had happened. Another who came with him, told me by my interpreter, He fhould be glad to do me any fervice that lay in his power. Upon which I defired him to carry one of my portmanteaus for me; but instead of serving me according to his promife, he laughed, and bid another do it. I lodged, the firstweek, at the house of one who defired me to • think myself at home, and to confider his house as my orun. Accordingly, I the next morning began to knock down one of the walls of it, in order to let in the fresh air, and had packed up fome of the household-goods, of which I intended to have made thee a prefent; but the falfe varlet no fooner faw me falling to work, but he fent word to defire me to give over, for that he would have no fuch doings in his houfe. I had not been long in this nation, before I was told by one, for • whom I had asked a certain favour from the. chief of the king's fervants, whom they here call: the lord treasurer, that I had eternally obliged him. I was fo furprifed at this gratitude, that I could not forbear faying, What service is there which one man can do for another, that can oblige him to all eternity! However, I only asked him for my reward, that he would lend me his eldest daughter during my stay in this country; but I quickly

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quickly found that he was as treacherous as the reft of his countrymen.

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At my firft going to court, one of the great men almoft put me out of countenance, by asking ten thoufand pardons of me for only trading by accident upon my toe. They call this kind of • lie a compliment; for when they are civil to a great man, they tell him untruths, for which ⚫ thou wouldeft order any of thy officers of ftate to receive a hundred blows upon his foot. I do "not know how I thall negotiate any thing with this people, fince there is fo little credit to be giv"en to them. When I go to fee the King's fcribe, I am generally told that he is not at home, tho' perhaps I faw him go into his house almost the very moment before. Thou would'ft fancy that the whole nation are phyficians, for the firft queftion they always afk me, is, how I do': I have this queftion put to me above a hundred times a-day.. Nay, they are not only thus inquifitive after my health, but wish it in a more folemn manner, with · a full glass in their hands, every time I fit with them at table, though at the fame time they would perfuade me to drink their liquors in fuch quantities as I have found by experience will make me fick. They often pretend to pray for thy C.. health alfo in the fame manner; but I have more 'reason to expect it from the goodness of thy con←stitution than the fincerity of their wifhes. May thy flave escape in fafety from this double-tongued race of men, and live to lay himself once more at thy feet in the royal city of Bantam.

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6

WEDNESDAY,

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N° 558.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23.

Qui fit, Macenas, ut nemo, quam fibi fortem
Seu ratio dederit, feu for's objecerit, illa
Contentus vivat: laudet diverfa fequentes?
O fortunati mercatores, gravis annis
Miles ait, multo jam fractus membra labore!
Contra, mercator, navim ja&tantibus auftris,
Militia eft potior. Quid enim? concurritur: hora
Momento cita mors venit, aut victoria lata.
Agricolam laudat juris legumque peritus,
Sub galli cantum confultor ubi oftia pulsat.
Ille, datis vadibus, qui rure extractus in urbem eft,
Solos felices viventes clamat in urbe.

Cætera de genere hoc (adeo funt multa) loquacem
Delaffare, vatent Fabium. Ne te morer, audi,
Quo rem deducam. Siquis Deus, en ego, dicat,
Jam faciam quod vultis; eris tu, qui modo miles,
Mercator: tu confultus modo, rufticus. Hinc vos,
Vos hinc mutatis difcedite partibus. Eja,
Quid ftatis? Nolint. Atqui licet effe beatis.

HOR. Sat. i. lib. i. ver. 1.

Whence is't, Macenas, that fo few approve
The state they're plac'd in, and incline to rove;
Whether againft their will by fate impos'd,
Or by confent and prudent choice efpous'd?
Happy the merchant! The old foldier cries,
Broke with fatigues, and warlike enterprise.
The merchant when the dreaded hurricane
Toffes his wealthy cargo on the main,
Applauds the wars and toils of a campaign :
There an engagement foon decides your doom,
Bravely to die, or come victorious home.
The lawyer vows, the farmer's life is beft,
When, at the dawn, the clients break his reft.

The

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