these only I converse; and of these you may perhaps hereafter receive fome account from

T

Your humble fervant,

MISARGYRUS.

No. XLII. Saturday, March 31. 1753.

I

Sua cuique Deus fit dira Cupido.

VIRG.

Our lufts are Gods, and what they will is fate.

HAD the misfortune, fome time ago. to be in company where a gentleman, who has the honour to be a Principal speaker at a difputing fociety of the first class, was expected. Till this perfon came in, and converfation was carried on with the cheerful eafy negligence of fenfible good-humour: but we foon difcovered, that his discourse was a perpetual effort to betray the company into attempts to prove felf-evident, propofitions; a practice in which he feems to have followed the example of that deep philofopher, who denied motion, "because," as he said, a body must move either where it is, or where it is not; and both fuppofi"tions are equally abfurd."

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His attempt, however, was totally unfuccefsful; till at last he affirmed, that a man had no more power over

his

EK.

his own actions, than a clock; and that the motions of the human machine were determined by irresistable propenfities, as a clock is kept going by a weight. This propofition was answered with a loud laugh; every one treated it as an abfurdity which it was impoffible to believe; and to expofe him to the ridicule of the company, he was defired to prove what he had advanced, as a fit punishment of his defign to engage others to prove the contrary, which, though for a dif ferent reafon, was yet equally ridiculous. After a long harangue, in which he retailed all the fophiftry that he remembered, and much more than he underftood, he had the mortification to find, that he had made no profelyte, nor was yet become of fufficient confequence to provoke an antagonist.

I fate filent; and as I was indulging my fpeculations on the scene which chance had exhibited before me, I recollected feveral incidents which convinced me, that most of the perfons who were prefent had lately profeffed the opinion which they now opposed; and acted upon that very principle which they derided as abfurd, and appeared to deteft as impious.

The company confifted of Mr. Traffic, a wealthy merchant; Mr. Courtly, a commiffioner of a public office; Mr. Gay, a gentleman in whofe converfation there is a higher ftrain of pleasantry and humour, than in any other perfon of my acquaintance; and Myrtilla, the wife of our friend, at whofe house we were affembled to dine, and who, during this interval, was engaged by fome unexpected business in another room.

Thofe incidents which I then recollected, I will now relate no can any of the perfons whom I have thus ventured to name, be juftly offended; because that

which is declared not to be the effect of choice, cannot be confidered as the object of cenfure.

With Mr. Traffic I had contracted an intimacy in our younger days, which, notwithstanding the difparity of our fortune, has continued till now. We had both been long acquainted with a gentleman, who, though his extenfive trade had contributed to enrich his country, was himself by fudden and inevitable loffes become poor: his credit, however, was fliil good; and by the risk of a certain fum, it was ftill poffible to retrieve his fortune. With this gentleman we had spent many a focial hour; we had habitually drank his health when he was abfent, and always expreffed our fentiments of his merit in the highest terms. In this exigency, therefore, he applied to me, and communicated the fecret of his distress; a fecret, which is always concealed by a generous mind till it is extorted by torture that can no longer be borne: he knew my circumstances too well, to expect the fum that he wanted from my purse; but he requested that I would, to fave him from the pain and confufion of fuch a converfation, communicate his request, and a true state of his affairs, to Mr. Traffic: "for," fays he, " though I could raise double the "fum upon my own perfonal fecurity; yet I would 66 no more borrow of a man without acquainting him "at what risk he lends, than I would folicit the infu66 rance of a ship at a common premium, when I knew, "by private intelligence, that she could fwim no longer "than every pump was at work."

I undertook this business with the utmost confidence of fuccefs. Mr. Traffic heard the account of our friend's misfortunes with great appearance of concern ;

he warmly commended his integrity, and lamented

"the precarious fituation of a trader, whom economy "and diligence cannot fecure from calamities, which "are brought upon others only by profufion and riot : "but as to the monéy, he faid, that I could not expect "him to venture it without fecurity: that my friend "himself could not wonder that his request was re

fufed, a requeft with which, indeed, faid he, I

cannot poffibly comply." Whatever may be thought of the free agency of myself and my friend, which Mr. Traffic had made no fcruple to deny in a very interesting particular; I believe every one will readily admit, that Mr. Traffic was neither free in fpeculation nor fact: for he can be little better than a machine actuated by avarice, who had not power to fave one thousand pounds from two hundred times the fum, to prevent the immediate ruin of a man, in whose behalf he had been so often liberal of praife, with whom his focial enjoyments had been fo long connected, and for whofe misfortunes he was fenfibly touched.

Soon after this disappointment, my unhappy friend became a bankrupt, and applied to me once more, to folicit Mr. Courtly for a place in his office. By Mr. Courtly I was received with great friendship; he was much affected with the diftreffes of my friend; he generously gave me a bank note, which he requested me to apply to his immediate relief in fuch a manner as would leaft wound his delicacy; and promifed that the first vacancy he should be provided for: but when the vacancy happened, of which I had the earliest intelligence, he told me with evident compunction and distress, "that he could not poffibly fulfil his promise, for that a very great man had recommended one of his domef"tics, whofe folicitation for that reafon it was not in

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"his power to refufe." This gentleman, therefore, had also profeffed himself a machine; and indeed he appears to have been no less the inftrument of ambition, than Mr. Traffic of avarice.

Mr. Gay, the wit, befides that he has very much the air of a free agent, is a man of deep penetration, great delicacy, and strong compaffion: but in direct oppofition to all these great and good qualities, he is continually entangled in difficulties, and precipitated not only into indecency and unkindness, but impiety, by his love of ridicule. I remembered, that I had lately expoftulated with him about this ftrange perverfion of his abilities, in these terms, "Dear Charles, it amazes me that you "should rather affect the character of a merry fellow, "than a wife man; that you should mortify a friend, "whom you not only love but efteem; wantonly "mangle a character which yon reverence, betray a “secret, violate truth, and sport with the doctrines and "the practice of a religion, which you believe, mere"ly for the pleasure of being laughed at." I remember too, that when he had heard me out, he fhrugged up his shoulders, and, greatly extending the longitudinal dimenfions of his countenance, "All this," said he, " is very true; but if I was to be hanged I could not help it." Here was another declaration in favour of fatality. Poor Gay profeffes himself a flave rather to vanity than to vice, and patiently fubmits himself to the most ridiculous drudgery without one struggle for freedom.

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Of the lady I am unwilling to fpeak with equal plainnefs; but I hope Myrtilla will allow me to plead an irresistible impulfe, when fhe reflects, that I have heard her lament that she is herself urged by an irrefifVOL. II.

C

tible