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and murder; and that man fhould imagine they were deferving honour by the maffacre of each other, merely to flatter ambition with a new title, is, perhaps, as infcrutable a mystery as any that has perplexed reafon, and as grofs an abfurdity as any that has difgraced it. It is not, indeed, fo much to punish vice, as to prevent mifery, that I wish to fee it always branded with infamy, for even the fucceffes of vice terminate in the anguish of difappointment. To ALEXANDER, thẻ fruit of all his conquefts was tears; and whoever goesabout to gratify intemperate wifhes, will labour to as little purpose, as he who fhould attempt to fill a fieve with water.

I was accidentally led to purfue my fubject in this train, by the fight of an hiftorical chart, in which the rife, the progrefs, the declenfion, and duration of empire, are reprefented by the arrangement of different colours; and in which, not only extent but duration is rendered a fenfible object. The Grecian empire, which is distinguished by a deep red, is a long but narrow line; becaufe, though AXANDER marked the world with his colour from Macedonia to Egypt, yet the colours peculiar to the hereditary potentates whom he difpoffeffed, again took place upon his death: and indeed, the queftion, whofe name fhall be connected with a particular country as its king, is, to those who hazard life in the decifion, as trifling, as whether a fmall spot in a chart shall be stained with red or yellow. That man fhould be permitted to decide fuch questions by means fo dreadful, is a reflection under which he only can rejoice, who believes that GOD ONLY REIGNS; and can appropriate the promife, that ALL

THINGS SHALL WORK TOGETHER FOR GOOD.

I

On CHASTITY.

[Guardian, No. 45.1.

DON'T know that I have been more intimately moved with pity in my whole life, than when I was reading a letter from a young woman, not yet

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nineteen,

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nineteen, in which there are these lamentable words; "Alas, whither fhall I fly? he has deceived, ruined, "and left me.' The circumftances of her story are only thofe ordinary ones, that her lover was a man of greater fortune than fhe could expect would address to her upon honourable terms; but the faid to herself, "She had wit and beauty, and fuch charms as often captivate fo far as to make men forget thofe meaner "confidèrations, and innocent freedoms were not to "be denied: A gentleman of condition is not to be "fhunned purely for being fuch; and they who took "notice of it, did it only out of malice, because they

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were not used by him with the fame diftinction.' But I would have young women, who are orphans, or unguarded with powerful alliances, confider with horror the infolence of wealth: Fortune does in a great measure denominate what is vice and virtue; or if it does not go fo far, innocence is helpless, and oppreffion unpunished without its afliftance; for this reafon it is, that I would ftrictly recommend to my young females not to dally with men whofe circumftances can fupport them against their falfhood, and have the paffion of a bale felf-interefted world on their fide, which inftead of avenging the caufe of an abused woman, will proclaim her difhonour; while the perfon injured is fhunned like a peftilence, he who did the wrong fees no difference in the reception he meets with, nor is he the less welcome to the rest of the fex, who are fill within the pale of honour and innocence.

What makes this circumstance the more lamentable, is, that it frequently falls upon those who have greatest merit and understanding. Gentleness of difpofition and take of polite converfation, I have often known fnares toward vice in fome, whilft fullennefs and difrelifh of any thing that was agreeable have been the only defences of virtue in others. I have my unhappy correfpondent's letter before me; and the fays he is fure he is fo much a gentleman, and he has that natural softness, that if he reads any thing moving on this fubject in my paper, it will certainly make him think. Poor Girl!" Cæfar afhamed! Has not he feen Phar

falia?" Does the poor creature imagine that a scrip of paper, a collection of fentences, and an old man's talk of pleasures which he is paft, will have an effect upon him who could go on in a series of falfehood; let drop ambiguous fentences in her abfence, to give her falle hope from the repetition of them by fome friend that heard them; that could pass as much time in the purfuit of her, as would have attained some useful art or fcience; and that only to attain a fhort revel of his fenfes under a ftupor of faith, honour and conscience ? No; the deftruction of a well-educated young woman is not accomplished by the criminal, who is guilty of it, in a sudden start of defire; he is not furprised into it by frailty; but arrives at it by care, skill, and meditation. It is no small aggravation of the guilt, that it is a thousand times conquered and refifted, even while it is profecuted. He that waits for fairer occafions, for riper wishes, for the removal of a particular objection, or the conqueft of any certain fcruple, has it in his power to obey his confcience, which often calls him, during the intrigue, a villain and a deftroyer. There can be nothing faid for fuch an evil; but that the reftraints of fhame and ignominy are broken down by the prevalence of custom. I don't, indeed, expect that my precautions will have any great weight with men of mode; but I know not but they may be fome way efficacious on those who have not yet taken their party as to vice and virtue for life; but I know not how it is, but our fex has ufurped a certain authority to exclude chaftity out of the catalogue of mafculine virtues, by which means females adventure all against those who have nothing to lofe; and they have nothing but empty fighs, tears and reproaches against those who reduced them to real forrow and infamy. 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 ridiculous. But in fpite of all the raillery of the

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world,

world, truth is still truth, and will have beauties infeparable from it. I thould 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 farther, at beft, than the mere abfence of ill, and are contented to be rather irreproachable than praife-worthy: In this particular, a gentleanan in the court of Cyrus, reported to his majesty the charms and beauty of Panthea, and ended his panegyrick 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, answered the pimp, because he was a man of quality, without roughness, and faid with a fmile, "If I fhould visit 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 unreservedly, (to speak it in the emphatical manner of the Scripture)" He knew not

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ought he had fave the bread which he did eat," he was fo unhappy as to appear irresistibly beautiful to his mistress; but when this fhameless woman proceeds to folicit him, how gallant is his anfwer?" Behold my mafter wotteth not what is with me in the "houfe, 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 his wife." The fame argument, which a bafe mind would have made to its felf 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 falfhood of the dif appointed woman naturally arofe on that occafion, and there is but a short step from the practice of virtue to the hatred of it. It would therefore be worth ferious confideration in both fexes, and the matter is of importance enough to them, to ask themselves whether they would change lightnefs 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 petufancy, is obfervable in the generality of the youth of both fexes in this age. It is the one common face of moft public meetings, and breaks in upon the fobriety,, I won't say severity, that we ought to exercise in churches. The pert boys and flippant girls are buc 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 anfwer, as I remember Mr. Dryden did on the like occafion, when a young fel low, 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," anfwered the bard with a very grave face "but give me leave to tell you, Sir, you are no hero."

IT

On natural and fantastical Pleafures.

[Guardian, N° 49.]

T is of great ufe to confider the pleasures which conftitute human happiness, as they are diftinguished into natural and fantaftical. Natural pleafures I call thofe, which not depending on the fashion and caprice of any particular age or nation, are fuited to human nature in general, and were intended by providence as rewards for the ufing our faculties agree

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ably

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