but of a red fiery Colour, and feemed to be the Caufe of thefe violent Agitations. That, fays my Inftructor, is the Heart of Tom. Dread-Nought, who behaved himfelf well in the late Wars, but as for thefe ten Years laft paft been aiming at fome Poft of Honour to no Purpofe. He is lately retired into the Country, where, quite choaked up with Spleen and Choler, he rails at better Men than himself, and will be for ever uneafy, because it is impoffible he should think his Merit fufficiently rewarded, The next Heart, that I examined was remarkable for its Smallnefs; it lay ftill at the Bottom of the Phial, and I could harldly perceive that it beat at all. The Fomes was quite black, and had almoft diffufed it felf over the whole Heart. This, fays my Interpreter, is the Heart of Dick Gloomy, who never thirfted after any Thing but Money. Notwithftanding all his Endeavours, he is ftill poor. This has flung him into a most deplorable State of Melancholy and Defpair. He is a compofition of Envy and Idlenefs, hates Mankind, but gives them their Revenge by being more uneafy to himself, than to any one elfe.

THE Phial I looked upon next contained a large fair Heart, which beat very ftrongly. The Fomes or Spot in it was exceeding fmall; but I could not help obferving, that which way foever I turned the Phial it always appeared uppermoft, and in the strongest • Point of Light. The Heart you are examining, fays my Companion, belongs to Will. Worthy. He has, indeed, a moft noble Soul, and is poffeffed of a thoufand good Qualities. The Speck which you difcover is Vanity.

HERE, fays the Angel is the Heart of Freelove, C your intimate Friend. Freelove and I, faid I, are at prefent very cold to one another, and I do not care for looking on the Heart of a Man, which I fear is overcaft with Rancour. My Teacher commanded me to look upon it; I did fo, and, to my unfpeakable Surprize, found that a small fwelling Spot, which I at firft took to be Ill-Will towards me, was only Paffion, andthat upon my nearer Inspection it wholly

⚫ dif.

difappeared; upon which the Phantome told me Freelove was one of the beft-natured Men alive.

THIS, fays my Teacher, is a Female Heart of your Acquaintance. I found the Fomes in it of the largest Size, and of a hundred different Colours, which were ftill varying every Moment. Upon my asking to whom it belonged, I was informed that it was the Heart of Coquetilla.

I fet it down, and drew out another, in which I took the Fomes at firft Sight to be very fmall, but was amazed to find, that as I looked ftedfaftly upon it, it grew ftill larger. It was the Heart of Meliffa, a noted Prude who lives the next Door to me.

I fhow you this, fays the Phantome, because it is indeed a Rarity, and you have the Happiness to know the Perfons to whom it belongs. He then put into 6 my Hands a large Chryftal Glafs, that enclosed an Heart, in which, though I examined it with the utmoft Nicety, I could not perceive any Blemish. I ⚫ made no Scruple to affirm that it must be the Heart of Seraphina, and was glad, but not furprized, to find that it was fo. She is, indeed continued my Guide, the Ornament, as well as the Envy, of her Sex; at these last Words, he pointed to the Hearts of feveral of her Female Acquaintance which lay in different Phials, and had very large Spots in them, all of a deep Blue. You are not to wonder, fays he, that you fee no Spot in an • Heart, whofe Innocence has been Proof against all the Corruptions of a depraved Age. If it has any Blemifh, it is too fmall to be difcovered by human Eyes. • I laid it down, and took up the Hearts of other Females, in all of which the Fomes ran in feveral Veins, which were twifted together, and made a very perplexed Figure. I asked the Meaning of it, and was told it reprefented Deceit.

I fhould have been glad to have examined the Hearts of feveral of my Acquaintance, whom I knew to be particularly addicted to Drinking, Gaming, Intreaguing, &c. but my Interpreter told me I muft let that alone till another Opportunity, and flung down the Cover of the Cheft with fo much Violence, as immediately awoke me. Wednesday,

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No. 588. Wednesday, September 1.

No.588.

Dicitis, Omnis in Imbecillitate eft et Gracia, et Caritas.

AN

Cicero de Nat. Deor. L.

be confidered in two Views, as a rea

Mfonable, and as a fociable Being; capable of be

coming himself either happy or miserable, and of contributing to the Happiness or Mifery of his Fellow Creatures. Suitably to this double Capacity, the Conriver of human Nature hath wifely furnished it with awo Principles of Action, Self-love and Benevolence; defigned one of them to render Man wakeful to his own perfonal Intereft, the other to difpofe him for giving his utmoft Affiftance to all engaged in the fame Purfuit. This is fuch an Account of our Frame, fo agreeable to Reason, fo much for the Honour of our Maker, and the Credit of our Species, that it may appear fomewhat unaccountable what fhould induce Men to represent human Nature as they do under Characters of Difadvantage, or, having drawn it with a little and fordid Afpect, what Pleasure they can poffibly take in fuch a Picture. Do they reflect that it is their own, and, if we will believe themfelves, is not more odious than the Original? One of the first that talked in this lofty Strain of our Nature was Epicurus. Beneficence, would his Followers fay, is all founded in Weakness; and, whatever he pretended, the Kindness that paffeth between Men and Men is, by every Man directed to himfelf. This, it must be confeffed, is of a Piece with the reft of that hopeful Philofophy, which having patched Man up out of the four Elements, attributes his Being to Chance, and derives all his Actions from an unintelligible Declination of

Atoms.

6

Atoms. And for thefe glorious Discoveries the Poet is beyond Measure tranfported in the Praises of his Hero, as if he must needs be fomething more than Man, only for an endeavour to prove that Man is in nothing fuperior to Beafts. In this School was Mr. Hobbes inftructed to fpeak after the fame Manner, if he did not rather draw his Knowledge from an Obfervation of his own Temper; for he fomewhere unluckily lays down this as a Rule, That from the Similitudes of Thoughts and Paffions of one Man to the Thoughts and Paffions of another, whofoever looks into himfelf and confiders ⚫ what he doth when he thinks, hopes, fears, &c. and upon what Grounds, he fhall hereby read and know what are the Thoughts and Paffions of all other Men upon the like Occafion.* Now we will allow Mr. Hobbes to know beft how he was inclined; But in earnest, I should be heartily out of Conceit with myfelf, if Í thought myself of this unamiable Temper, as he affirms, and fhould have as little Kindness for myfelf as for any Body in the World. Hitherto I always imagined that kind and benevolent Propenfions were the Original Growth of the Heart of Man, and however checked and overtopped by counter Inclinations that have fince sprung up within us, have ftill fome force in the worst of Tempers, and a confiderable Influence on the best. And, methinks, it is a fair Step towards the Proof of this, that the most beneficial of all Beings is He who hath an abfolute Fulness of Perfection in Himfelf, who gave Exíftence to the Universe, and fo cannot be fuppofed to want that which He communicated, without diminishing from the Plentitude of his own Power and Happiness. The Philofophers before-mentioned have indeed done all that in them lay to invalidate this Argument; for placing the Gods in a State of the most elevated Bleffedness, they defcribe them as selfish as we poor miserable Mortals can be, and shut them out from all Concern for Mankind, upon the Score of their having no Need of us. But if He that fitteth in the Heavens wants not us, we stand in continual Need of Him; and furely, next to the Survey of the immenfe Treasures of his own Mind, the most exalted Pleasure He receives is from beholding Millions of Creatures

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Creatures, lately drawn out of the Gulph of Non-exiftence, rejoycing in the various Degrees of Being and Happiness imparted to them. And as this is the true, and glorious Character of the Deity, fo in forming a reafonable Creature he would not, if poffible, fuffer his Image to pass out of his Hands unadorned with a Refemblance of Himself in this moft lovely Part of his Nature. For what Complacency could a Mind, whofe Love is as unbounded as his Knowledge, have in a Work fo unlike Himself? a Creature that should be capable of knowing and converfing with a vaft Circle of Objects, and love none but Himfelf? What Proportion would there be between the Head and the Heart of fuch a Creature, its Affections and its Understanding? Or could a Society of fuch Creatures, with no other Bottom but Self-Love on which to maintain a Commerce, ever flourish? Reason, 'tis certain, would oblige every Man to pursue the general Happiness, as the Means to procure and establish his own; and yet if, befides this Confideration, there were not a natural Instinct, prompting Men to defire the Welfare and Satisfaction of others, Self-Love, in Defiance of the Admonitions of Reafon, would quickly run all Things into a State of War and Confufion. As nearly interested as the Soul is in the Fate of the Body; our provident Creator faw it neceffary by the conftant Returns of Hunger and Thirft, thofe importunate Appetites, to put it in Mind of its Charge; knowing, that if we fhould eat and drink no ofther than cold abftracted Speculation fhould put us upon thefe Exercifes, and then leave it to Reafon to prefcribe the Quantity, we fhould foon refine ourfelves out of this bodily Life. And indeed, 'tis obvious to remark, that we follow nothing heartily, unless carried to it by inclinations which anticipate our Reason, and like a Biafs, draw the Mind frongly towards it. In order, therefore to establish a perpetual Intercourfe of Benefits amongst Mankind, their Maker would not fail to give them this generous Prepoffeffion of Benevolence, if, as I have faid, it were poffible. And from whence can we go about to argue its Impoflibility? Is it inconsistent with Self-Love? Are their Motions contrary? No more than the diurnal Rotation of the Earth is oppofed to its

Annual;