would be oppofed to numbers, and unanimity to unanimity; and instead of the prefent petty competitors of individuals or fingle families, multitudes would be fupplanting multitudes, and thoufands plotting against thousands.

There is no clafs of the human fpecies, of which the union feems to have been more expected, than of the learned: the rest of the world have almost always agreed to fut fcholars up together in colleges and cloisters: furely not without hope, that they would look for that happhers in concord, which they were debarred from finding in variety; and that fuch conjunctions of intellect would recompenfe the munificence of founders and patrons, by performances above the reach of any fingle mind.

But Difcord, who found means to roll her apple into the banqueting chamber of the goddeffes, has had the address to featter her laurels in the feminaries of learning. The friendship of ftudents and of beauties is for the most part equally incere, and equally durable: as both depend for happiness on the regard of

others, on that of which the value arifes merely from comparison, they are both expofed to perpetual jealoufies, and both inceffantly employed in fchemes to intercept the praifes of each other.

I am, however, far from intending to inculcate, that this confinement of the ftudious to ftudious companions, has been wholly without advantages to the public: neighbourhood, where it does not conciliate friendship, incites competition; and he that would contentedly rest in a lower degree of excellence, where he had no rival to dread, will be urged by his impatience of inferiority to inceffant cndeavours after great attainments.

Thefe ftimulations of honeft rivalry. are, perhaps, the chief effects of academies and focieties; for whatever be the bulk of their joint labours, every fingle piece is always the production of an individual, that owes nothing to his colleagues but the contagion of diligence, a refolution to write, becaufe the rest are writing, and the fcorn of obfcurity while the reft are illustrious. T

Μισώ μνήμονα Συμπτότην.

PROV. GR.

man; and he whofe difpofition is a fcandal to his fpecies, fhould be more diligently avoided than he who is feandalous only by his office.

But for this practice, however vile, fome have dared to apologize, by contending, that the report, by which they injured an abfent character, was true: this, however, amounts to no more than that they have not complicated malice with falfhood, and that there is fome difference between detraction and flander. To relate all the ill that is true of the best man in the world, would probably render him the object of fufpicion and diftrust; and if this practice was univerfal, mutual confidence and esteem, the comforts of fociety, and the endearments of friendship, would be at an end,

There is fomething unspeakably more hateful in thofe fpecies of villainy by which the law is evaded, than in thofe by which it is violated and defied. Courage has fometimes preferved rapa

city from abhorrence, as beauty has been thought to apologize for proftitution; but the injuftice of cowardice is univerfally abhorred, and, like the lewdnefs of deformity, has no advocate. Thus hateful are the wretches who detract with caution; and while they perpetrate the wrong, are follicitous to avoid the reproach: they do not fay, that Chloe forfeited her honour to Lyfander; but they fay that fuch a report has been fpread, they know not how true. Those who propagate thefe reports frequently invent them; and it is no breach of charity to fuppofe this to be always the cafe, because no man who fpreads detraction would have fcrupled to produce it; and he who should diffufe poffon in a brook would scarce be acquitted of a malicious defign, though he should alledge that he received it of another who is doing the fame elsewhere.

Whatever is incompatible with the highest dignity of our nature, fhould indeed be excluded from our converfation: as companions, not only that which we owe to ourfelves but to others, is required of us; and they who can indulge any vice in the prefence of each other, are become obdurate in guilt and infenfible to infamy.

REVERENCE THY SELF, is one of the fublime precepts of that amiable philofopher, whofe humanity alone was an inconteftible proof of the dignity of his mind. Pythagoras, in his idea of virtue, comprehended intellectual purity; and he fuppofed, that by him who reverenced himself, those thoughts would be fuppreffed by which a being capable of virtue is degraded: this divine precept evidently prefuppofes a reverence of others, by which men are restrained from more grofs immoralities; and with which he hoped a reverence of felf would alfo co-operate as an auxiliary motive.

The great Duke of Marlborough, who was perhaps the most accomplished gentleman of his age, would never fuffer any approaches to obfcenity in his prefence; and it was faid by the late Lord Cobham, that he did not reprove it as an immorality in the fpeaker, but refented it as an indignity to himfelf: and it is evident, that to speak evil of the abfent, to utter lewdnefs, blafphemy or treafon, muft degrade not only him who fpeaks, but those who hear; for furely that dignity of character which a man ought always to fuftain, is in danger when he

is made the confident of treachery, detraction, impiety, or luft: for he who in converfation difplays his own vices, imputes them; as he who boasts to another of a robbery, presupposes that he is a thief.

It should be a general rule, never to utter any thing in converfation which would justly dishonour us if it should be reported to the world: if this rule could be always kept, we should be secure in our own innocence against the craft of knaves and parafites, the ftratagems of cunning, and the vigilance of envy.

But after all the bounty of nature, and all the labour of virtue, many imperfections will be still difcerned in human beings, even by those who do not fee with all the perfpicacity of human wisdom: and he is guilty of the most aggravated detraction who reports the weakness of a good mind difcovered in an unguarded hour; fomething which is rather the effect of negligence, than defign; rather a folly, than a fault; a fally of vanity, rather than an eruption of malevolence. It has, therefore, been a maxim inviolably facred among good men, never to difclose the secrets of private converfation; a maxim which, though it feems to arife from the breach of fome other, does yet imply that general rectitude, which is produced by a consciousness of virtuous dignity, and a regard to that reverence which is due to ourselves and others: for to conceal immoral purany pofe, which to difclofe is to disappoint; any crime, which to hide is to countenance; or any character, which to avoid is to be fafe; as it is incompatible with virtue, and injurious to fociety, can be a law only among those who are enemies to both.

Among fuch, indeed, it is a law which there is fome degree of obligation to fulfil; and the fecrets even of their converfation are perhaps feldom difclofed, without an aggravation of their guilt: it is the intereft of fociety, that the veil of taciturnity fhould be drawn over the myfteries of drunkenness and lewdness; and to hide even the machinations of envy, ambition, or revenge, if they happen to mingle in thefe orgies among the rites of Bacchus, feems to be the duty of the initiated, though not of the prophane.

Is he who has affociated with robbers, who has repofed and accepted a truft, and whofe guilt is a pledge of his fide

lity, fhould betray his affociates for hire; if he is urged to fecure himself, by the anxiety of fufpicion, or the terrors of cowardice, or to punish others by the importunity of refentment and revenge; though the public receives benefit from his conduct, and may think it expedient to reward him, yet he has only added to every other fpecies of guilt, that of treachery to his friends: he has demonftrated, that he is so deftitute of virtue, as not to poffefs even those vices which refemble it; and that he ought to be cut off as totally unfit for human fociety, but that, as poifon is an antidote to poifon, his crimes are a fecurity against the crimes of others.

It is, however, true, that if fuch an offender is ftung with remorfe, if he feels the force of higher obligations than those of an iniquitous compact, and if urged by a defire to atone for the injury which he has done to fociety, he gives in his information, and delivers up his affociates, with whatever reluctance, to the laws; by this facrifice he ratifies his repentance, he becomes again the friend of his country, and deferves not only protection but efteem: for the fame action may be either virtuous or vicious, and may deferve either honour or infamy, as it may be performed upon different principles; and indeed no action can be molly claffed or estimated, without fome knowledge of the motive by which it is produced.

But as there is feldom any other clue to the motives of particular actions, than

the general tenor of his life by whom they are performed; and as the lives of those who serve their country by bringing it's enemies to punishment are commonly flagitious in the highest degree; the ideas of this fervice and the most fordid villainy are fo connected, that they always recur together: if only this part of a character is known, we immediately infer that the whole is infamous; and it is therefore no wonder that the name by which it is expreffed, especially when it is ufed to denominate a profeffion, fhould be odious; or that a good manfhould not always have fufficient fortitude to ftrike away the mafk of diffimulation, and direct the fword of justice.

But whatever might be thought of those who discharge their obligations to the public by treachery to their companions, it cannot be pretended that he to whom an immoral defign is communicated by inadvertence or mistake, is under any private obligation to conceal it; the charge which devolves upon him he must instantly renounce; for while he hesitates, his virtue is fufpended: and he who communicates fuch defign to another, not by inadvertence or miftake, but upon prefumption of concur rence, commits an outrage upon his honour, and defies his refentment.

Let none, therefore, be encouraged to prophane the rites of converfation, much lefs of friendship, by fuppofing there is any law which ought to reftrain the indignation of virtue, or deter repentance' from reparation.

WAN, though as a rational being the lord of the creation, is yet frequently the voluntary flave of prejudice and custom; the most general opinions are often abfurd, and the prevailing principles of action ridiculous.

It may, however, be allowed, that if in these inftances reafon always appear

CREECH.

ed to be overborne by the importunity

to the prefent, and hope renounced only for poffeffion; there would not be much caufe for wonder: but that man should' draw abfurd conclufions, contrary to his immediate interest; that he should even at the rifque of life gratify thofe vices in fome, which in others he punishes

with

with a gibbet or a wheel, is in the higheft degree astonishing; and is fuch an inftance of the weaknefs of our reafon, and the fallibility of our judgment, as fhould incline us to accept with gratitude of that guidance which is from

above.

But if it is ftrange, that one man has been immortalized as a god, and another put to death as a felon, for actions which have the fame motive and the fame tendency, merely becaufe they were circumftantially different; it is yet more ftrange, that this difference has always been fuch as increases the abfurdity; and that the action which expofes a man to infamy and death, wants only greater aggravation of guilt, and more extenfive and pernicious effects, to render him the object of veneration and applaufe.

Bagshot the robber, having loft the booty of a week among his affociates at hazard, loaded his piftols, mounted his horfe, and took the Kentish road, with a refolution not to return till he had recruited his purfe. Within a few miles of London, just as he heard a village clock strike nine, he met two gentlemen in a poft-chaife, which he ftopped. One of the gentlemen immediately prefented a pistol, and at the fame time a fervant rode up armed with a blunderbufs. The robber, perceiving that he should be vigorously oppofed, turned off from the chaife, and difcharged a pistol at the fervant, who inftantly fell dead from his horfe. The gentlemen had now leaped from the chaife; but the foremost receiving a blow on his head with the ftock of the piftol that had been just fired, reeled back a few paces; the other having fired at the murderer without fuccefs, attempted to difmount him, and fucceeded: but while they were grappling with each other, the villain drew a knife, and stabbed his antagonist to the heart. He then, with the calm intrepidity of a hero who is familiar with danger, proceeded to rifle the pockets of the dead; and the furvivor having recovered from the blow, and being imperiously commanded to deliver, was now obliged to comply. When the victor had thus obtained the pecuniary reward of his prowefs, he determined to lofe no part of the glory which as conqueror was now in his power: turning, therefore, to the unhappy gentleman whom he had plundered, he conde

fcended to infult him with the applaufe of confcious fuperiority; he told him, that he had never robbed any perfons who behaved better; and as a tribute due to the merit of the dead, and as a token of his esteem for the living, he generoufly threw him back a fhilling, to prevent his being stopped at the turnpike.

He now remounted his horfe, and fet off towards London: but at the turnpike, a coach that was paying the toll obftructed his way; and by the light of the flambeau that was behind it, he difcovered that his coat was much stained with blood: this difcovery threw him into fuch confufion, that he attempted to rush by; he was however prevented; and his appearance giving great reafon to fufpect his motive, he was feized and detained.

In the coach were two ladies, and a little boy about five years old. The ladies were greatly alarmed when they heard that a perfon was taken who was fuppofed to have juft committed a robbery and a murder: they asked many questions with great eagerness; but their enquiries were little regarded, till a gentleman rode up, who feeing their diftrefs, offered his affiftance. "The elder of the two ladies acquainted him, that her husband, Sir Harry Freeman, was upon the road in his return from Gravefend, where he had been to receive an only fon upon his arrival from India, after an abfence of near fix years; that herself and her daughter-in-law were come out to meet them, but were terrified with the apprehenfion that they might have been ftopped by the man who had just been taken into cuftody. Their attention was now fuddenly called to the other fide of the coach by the child, who cried out in a tranfport of joy- There is my grandpapa! This was indeed the furvivor of the three who had been attacked by Bagfhot: he was mounted on his fervant's horfe, and rode flowly by the fide of the chaife in which he had juft placed the body of his fon, whofe countenance was disfigured with blood, and whose features were ftill impreffed with the agonies of death. Who can exprefs the grief, horror, and despair, with which a father exhibited this fpectacle to a mother and a wife, who expected a fon and a husband, with all the tenderness and ardour of conjugal and parental affection; who had long regretted his abfence, who had anticipated the joy of his

return,

return, and were impatient to put into his arms a pledge of his love which he had never feen!

I will not attempt to defcribe that diftrefs, which tears would not have fuffered me to behold: let it fuffice, that fuch was it's effect upon those who were prefent, that the murderer was not without difficulty conducted alive to the prifon; and I am confident, that few who read this story would have heard with regret that he was torn to pieces by the

way.

But before they congratulate themfelves upon a fenfe, which always diftinguishes right and wrong by fpontaneous approbation and cenfure; let them tell me, with what fentiments they read of a youthful monarch, who at the head of an army in which every man became a hero by his example, paffed over mountains and defarts, in search of new territories to invade, and new potentates to conquer; who routed armies which could fcarce be numbered, and took cities which were deemed impregnable. Do they not follow him in the path of flaughter with horrid complacency? and when they fee him deluge the peaceful fields of induftrious fimplicity with blood, and leave them defolate to the widow and the orphan of the poffeffor, do they not grow frantic in his praife, and concur to deify the mortal who could conquer only for glory, and to return the kingdoms that he won?

To thefe queftions, I am confident the greater part of mankind must answer in the affirmative; and yet nothing can be more abfurd than their different apprehenfions of the Hero and the Thief.

The conduct of Bagfhot and Alexander had in general the fame motives, and the fame tendency; they both fought a private gratification at the expence of others; and every circumftance in which they differ is greatly in favour of Baghot. Baghot, when he had loft his laft hilling, had loft the power of gratifying every appetite whether criminal or innocent; and the recovery of this power was the object of this expedition.

Alexander, when he fet out to conquer the world, poffeffed all that Bagfhot hoped to acquire, and more; all his appetites and paffions were gratified, as far as the gratification of them was pos fible; and as the force of temptation is always fuppofed proportionably to extenuate guilt, Alexander's guilt was

evidently greater than Bagshot's, be cause it cannot be pretended that his temptation was equal.

But though Alexander could not equally increase the means of his own happiness, yet he produced much more dreadful and extenfive evil to fociety in the attempt. Baghot killed two men; and I have related the murder and it's confequences, with fuch particulars as ufually rouze that fenfibility, which often lies torpid during narratives of general calamity. Alexander, perhaps, deftroyed a million: and whoever reflects, that each individual of this number had fome tender attachments which were broken by his death; fome parent or wife, with whom he mingled tears in the parting embrace, and who longed with fond follicitude for his return; or, perhaps, fome infant whom his labour was to feed, and his vigilance protect; will fee that Alexander was more the peft of fociety than Bagfhot, and more de ferved a gibbet in the proportion of a million to one.

It may, perhaps, be thought abfurd, to enquire into the virtues of Bagflot's character; and yet virtue has never been thought incompatible with that of Alexander. Alexander, we are told, gave proof of his greatnefs of mind by his contempt of danger; but as Bagshot's danger was equally voluntary and imminent, there ought to be no doubt but that his mind was equally great. Alexander, indeed, gave back the kingdoms that he won: but after the conquest of a kingdom, what remained for Alexander to give? To a prince, whofe country he had invaded with unprovoked hoftility, and from whom he had violently wrested the bleflings of peace, he gave a dominion over the widows and orphans of thofe he had flain, the tinfel of dependent greatnefs, and the badge of royal subjection. And does not Bagshot deferve equal honour, for throwing back a fhilling to the man, whofe perfon he had infulted, and whofe fon he had ftabbed to the heart? Alexander did not ravifh or maffacre the women whom he found in the tents of Darius; neither did honeft Bagshot kill the gentleman whom he had plun dered, when he was no longer able to

refift.