Cafar, Mark Antony, and Brutus. When Atticus was young, the sweetness of his afpect and elocution was very remarkable. And it is recorded of him, by C. Nepos, that he never managed a criminal process against any one, nor subscribed to an accufation, or ever went to law. If much of this conduc might be owing to prudence, is it not apparent that much alfo was owing to natural temper? Nay, may we not afcribe great part of the former to the latter?

WHAT rendered Sardanapalus, Tiberius Cafar, Heliogabalus, pope Alexander VI, and his fon Cafar Borgia, with multitudes more, fuch prodigies of wickedness? And what caufed Titus Vefpafian, Marcus Antoninus, Adrian, Ariftides, and a few others among the great, to be such shining examples of virtue?

ALTHOUGH it is as natural for moft men to be wicked as for the fparks to fly upward, yet there are a fmall number naturally good. They are, by nature, fa happily formed that every thing indecent, confequently all vice, is fhocking in their fight: to them

Vice is a monster of fo frightful mein,
As, to be bated, needs but to be seen “.

And to fuch virtue appears with a most ami

able afpect.

Pope's Second Epiftle.

MENS

MENS opinions, even upon fpeculative fubjects, are greatly influenced by their natural difpofitions. How different, many times, are the fentiments of the compaffionate and the cruel, the courageous and the timorous? Nay, how oppofite are the opi nions of the fame perfon when in a melancholy mood, to what they are when he is chearful? in a low and desponding state, to what they are in an elevated and happy condition? Thus do our conftitutions greatly influence our way of thinking as well as our manners. When I obferve a robuft, roundfaced fellow, of a fanguine complection, herding with fanatics and enthufiafts, I cannot help fufpecting that his attachments are much more of a fleshly than a fpiritual nature, and that he has much clofer connections with the fifterhood than with the brotherhood: but when I fee a poor weakly creature, with a rueful length of countenance, and of a melancholy complection, among the fraternity, I conclude he may be an enthusiast by constitution, and confequently in carnest:

SINCE the natural temper has fo great an influence on almost every part we have to act, how unfortunate, by nature, are multitudes of men! However, in fome, this is

Ff3

not w We fee that people of violent tempers are frequently great bigots, and thofe of fearful difpofitions are very apt to be credulous and fuperftitious.

not without remedy. It has been elsewhere * obferved, that Socrates, tho' one of the most virtuous perfons the gentile world hath to boast of, yet acknowledged, that he was naturally inclined to be vicious.

PHOCION appeared by nature to be auftere and morofe, infomuch that he was hardly ever feen to laugh; yet on many occafions fhewed remarkable mildnefs and command of temper. At a time when he was speaking to the people of Athens, on a fubject of great public concernment, he was very rudely interrupted and grofly abused by an unmannerly orator: Phocion fat down 'till this fellow had done; then rofe up, and proceeding with his difcourfe, took no more notice of any thing the orator had said than if he had not heard him. As this admirable man was paffing to the place of his execution, one of the rabble spit in his face: upon which Phocion, turning to the officers, only faid, "Will nobody correct this fellow's "rudeness?" And when just before his death a friend asked him if he would fend any meffage to his fon; "Yes, by all means," faid he, "command him from me to forget the Athenians ill treatment of his "father."

It is not uncommon for great virtues and great vices to exist in the fame person: when

the

the former predominate, they many times, in a confiderable degree at least, fubdue the latter, and form a worthy and an excellent character: when the latter gain an ascendency, the former are frequently destroyed or rendered useless, and the whole man is then fo contaminated as to become a mere mass of corruption. Where there are some good qualities, an early cultivation of them by useful precepts and examples, and inuring the poffeffor to right habits, may be attended with the most happy confequences. But where nature has fupplied no proper materials, nothing that is valuable can ever be erected.

On the whole, it seems evident, that mens conduct and opinions alfo are greatly influenced by their natural difpofitions, and that happiness depends much more upon our tempers than on our understandings: fór we fee many perfons of the best sense, tho' in health and plenty, exceedingly unhappy; but very few fo, in the like circumstances, who are remarkably good-natured. Indeed, that quick fenfibility which generally accompanies fine fenfe, notwithstanding it may afford fome peculiar pleasures to those who poffefs it, yet oftentimes contributes to render them uneafy and uncomfortable.

440

A N

ORATION

IN PRAISE OF

DECEIT and LYING,

Delivered before a

Mixed and numerous Affembly of both Sexes.

DECEIT being the Orator.

NOT

OTWITHSTANDING the high rank and dignity of our family, its great antiquity, our extenfive dominion, and the general use we are of to all orders and degrees of men in every profeffion, art, and trade, and in almost all negotiations and tranfactions of the world; yet fo far are we from obtaining those honours and praises we fo justly merit, that we are univerfally de

cried

> Although the author of this trifle is well aware how greatly it must fuffer by being named with Erafmus's Moria Encomium, yet he chufes to acknowledge the hint was taken from that celebrated performance; by which he hopes the defigning part will be fufficiently warranted, however unworthy of the highly-finished original this flight sketch may be in the execution.