the purpose of every man who appears in publick, and whoever does not proceed upon that foundation, injures his country as faft as he fucceeds in his ftudies. When modesty ceases to be the chief ornament of one fex, and integrity of the other, fociety is upon a wrong bafis, and we fhall be ever after without rules to guide our judginent in what is really becoming and ornamental. Nature and reafon direct one thing, paffion and humour another: To follow the dictates of the two latter, is going into a road that is both endless and intricate; when we purfue the other, our paffage is delightful, and what we aim at easily attainable. I do not doubt but England is at prefent as polite a nation as any in the world; but any man who thinks can eafily fee, that the affectation of being gay and in fashion, has very near eaten up our good fenfe and our religion. Is there any thing so just, as that mode and galantry should be built upon exerting ourselves in what is proper and agreeable to the inftitutions of juftice and piety among us? And yet is there any thing more common than that we run in perfect contradiction to them? All which is fupported by no other pretenfion, than that it is done with what we call a good grace.

Nothing ought to be held laudable or becoming, but what nature itself should prompt us to think fo. Refpect to all kind of fuperiors is founded, methinks, upon inftinct; and yet what is fo ridiculous as age? I make this abrupt tranfition to the mention of this vice more than any other, in order to introduce a Little Story, which I think a pretty instance that the molt polite age is in danger of being the most vici

It happened at Athens, during a publick representation of fome play exhibited in honour of the commonwealth, that an old gentleman came too late for a place fuitable to his age and quality. Many of the young gentlemen who obferved the

difficulty

⚫ difficulty and confufion he was in, made figns to him that they would accommodate him if he came • where they fat: The good man buftled through the crowd accordingly; but when he came to the feats to which he was invited, the jeft was to fit close, and expofe him, as he stood out of countenance, to the whole audience, The frolick ' went round all the Athenian benches. But on ⚫ thofe occafions there were alfo particular places ⚫ affigned for foreigners: When the good man 'fkulked towards the boxes appointed for the Lace⚫ demonians, that honeft people, more virtuous than polite, rofe up all to a man, and with the greatest refpect received him among them. The Athe'nians, being fuddenly touched with a fenfe of the Spartan virtue and their own degeneracy, gave a ⚫ thunder of applaufe; and the old man cried out, • The Athenians understand what is good, but the La⚫cedemonians practice it. R

N° 7.

THURSDAY, MARCH 8.

Somnia, terrores magicos, miracula, fagas, Nocturnos lemures, portentaque theffala rides? HOR. Ep. ii. 1. 2. ver. 208. Vifions, and magic fpells, can you defpife, And laugh at witches, ghofts, and prodigies? Going yefterday to dine with an old acquaintance,

I had the misfortune to find his whole family. very much dejected. Upon afking him the occafion of it, he told me that his wife had dreamt a ftrange dream the night before, which they were afraid portended fome misfortune to themselves or to their children. At her coming into the room I obferved a fettled melancholy in her countenance, which I should have been troubled for, had I nors

heard from whence it proceeded. We were no fooner fat down, but after having looked upon me a little while, My dear, (fays the turning to her hufband) you may now fee the ftranger that was in the candle last night. Soon after this, as they began to talk of family-affairs, a little boy at the lower end of the table told her, that he was to go into join-hand on Thursday. Thursday? (fays fhe) No, child, if it pleafe God, you fball not begin upon Childermas-day; tell your writing-mafter that Friday will be foon enough. I was reflecting with myself on the oddnefs of her fancy, and wondering that any body would establish it as a rule to lose a day in every week. In the midst of these my mufings, fhe defired me to reach her a little falt upon the point of my knife, which I did in fuch a trepidation and hurry of obedience, that I let it drop by the way; at which the immediately ftartled, and faid it fell towards her. Upon this I looked very blank; and, obferving the concern of the whole table, began to confider myself, with fome confufion, as a perfon that had brought a disaster upon the family. The Lady however recovering herself after a little space, faid to her husband, with a figh, My dear, misfortunes never come fingle. My friend, I found, acted but an under-part at his table, and being a man of more good-nature than understanding, thinks himfelf obliged to fall in with all the paffions and humours of his yoke-fellow: Do not you remember, child, (fays the) that the pigeon-house fell the very afternoon that our careless wench spilt the falt upon the table? Yes, (fays he) My dear, and the next poft brought us an account of the battle of Almanza. The reader may guess at the figure I made, after having done all this mifchief. I difpatched my dinner as foon as I could, with my ufual taciturnity; when, to my utter confufion, the Lady feeing me qutting. my knife and fork, and laying them across one anether upon my plate, defired me that I would hu

mour

mour her fo far as to take them out of that figure, and place them fide by fide. What the abfurdity was which I had committed I did not know, but I fuppofe there was fome traditionary fuperftition in it; and therefore, in obedience to the Lady of the houfe, I difpofed of my knife and fork in two parellel lines, which is the figure I fhall always lay them in for the future, though I do not know any reason for it.

It is not difficult for a man to see that a perfon has conceived an averfion to him. For my own part, I quickly found, by the Lady's looks, that the regarded me as a very odd kind of fellow, with an unfortunate afpect. For which reafon I took my leave immediately after dinner, and withdrew to my own lodgings. Upon my return home, I fell into a profound contemplation on the evils that attend thefe fuperftitious follies of mankind; how they fubject us to imaginary afflictions, and additional forrows, that do not properly come within our lot. As if the natural calamities of life were not fufficient for it, we turn the moft indifferent circumftances into misfortunes, and fuffer as much from trifling accidents as from real evils. I have known the shooting of a star spoil a night's reft; and have feen a man in love grow pale and lofe his appetite, upon the plucking of a merry thought. A fcreechowl at midnight has alarmed a family more than a band of robbers; nay, the voice of a cricket hath ftruck more terror than the roaring of a lion. There is nothing fo inconfiderable, which may not appear dreadful to an imagination that is filled with omens and prognofticks. A rusty nail, or a crooked pin, fhoot up into prodigies.

I remember I was once in a mixed affembly, that was full of noise and mirth, when on a fudden an old woman unluckily observed there were thirteen of us in company. This remark ftruck a panick terror into several who were present, infomuch that

one

one or two of the Ladies were going to leave the room; but a friend of mine, taking notice that one of our female companions was big with child, affirmed there were fourteen in the room, and that, instead of portending one of the company thould die, it plainly foretold one of them fhould be born. Had not my friend found out this expedient to break the omen, I question not but half the women in the company would have fallen fick that very night.

An old maid, that is troubled with the vapours, produces infinite difturbances of this kind among her friends and neighbours. I know a maiden aunt, of a great family, who is one of these antiquated Sybils, that forebodes and prophefies from one end of the year to the other. She is always feeing apparitions, and hearing death-watches; and was the other day almost frighted out of her wits by the great house-dog, that howled in the ftable at a time when fhe lay ill of the toothach. Such an extravagant caft of mind engages multitudes of people, not only in impertinent terrors, but in fupernumerary duties of life; and arifes from that fear and ignorance which are natural to the foul of man. The horror with which we entertain the thoughts of death (or indeed of any future evil) and the uncertainty of its approach, fill a melancholy mind with innumerable apprehenfions and fufpicions, and confequently difpofe it to the obfervation of fuch groundless prodigies and predictions. For, as it is the chief concern of wife men to retrench the evils of life by the reafonings of philofophy, it is the employment of fools to multiply them by the fentiments of fuperftition.

For my own part, I fhould be very much troubled were I endowed with this divining quality, tho' it fhould inform me truly of every thing that can befal me. I would not anticipate the relish of any happiness, nor feel the weight of any mifery, before it actually arrives.