viations to the contrary extreme. The man who is branded with cowardice, may, with fome appearance of propriety, turn all his force of argument against a ftupid contempt of life, and rafh precipitation into unneceffary danger. Every receffion from temerity is an approach towards cowardice, and though it be confeffed that bravery, like other virtues, ftands between faults on either hand, yet the place of the middle point may always be difputed; he may therefore often impofe upon carelefs understandings, by turning the attention wholly from himself, and keeping it fixed invariably on the opposite fault; and by fhewing how many evils are avoided by his behaviour, he may conceal for a time those which are incurred. But vice has not always opportunities or address for fuch artful fubterfuges; men often extenuate their own guilt, only by vague and general charges upon others, or endeavour to gain reft to themfelves, by pointing fome other prey to the pursuit of cenfure. Every whisper of infamy is industriously circulated, every hint of fufpicion eagerly improved, and every failure of conduct joyfully published, by those whose interest it is, that the eye and voice of the publick should be employed on any rather than on themselves. All these artifices, and a thoufand others equally vain and equally despicable, are incited by that conviction of the deformity of wickednefs, from which none can set himself free, and by an abfurd defire to separate the cause from the effects, and to enjoy the profit of crimes without fuffering the fhame. Men are are willing to try all methods of reconciling guilt and quiet, and when their understandings are ftubborn and uncomplying, raise their paffions against them, and hope to overpower their own knowledge. It is generally not so much the defire of men, funk into depravity, to deceive the world as themselves, for when no particular circumstances make them dependent on others, infamy disturbs them little, but as it revives their remorfe, and is echoed to them from their own hearts. The fentence most dreaded is that of reafon and confcience, which they would engage on their fide at any price but the labours of duty, and the forrows of repentance. For this pur. pofe every feducement and fallacy is fought, the hopes ftill rest upon fome new experiment till life is at an end; and the last hour steals on unperceived, while the faculties are engaged in refifting reason, and repreffing the sense of the divine disapprobation. NUMB. 77. TUESDAY, December 11, 1750. Os dignum æterno nitidum quod fulgeat auro, A golden ftatue fuch a wit might claim, PRUDENT. F. LEWIS AMONG thofe whofe hopes of diftinction, or riches, arife from an opinion of their intel lectual attainments, it has been, from age to age, an established custom to complain of the ingratitude of mankind to their instructors, and the discouragement which men of genius and study fuffer from avarice and ignorance, from the prevalence of false taste, and the encroachment of barbarity. Men are most powerfully affected by thofe evils which themfelves feel, or which appear before their own eyes; and as there has never been a time of fuch general felicity, but that many have failed to obtain the rewards to which they had, in their own judgment, a juft claim, fome offended writer has always declaimed, in the rage of disappointment, against his age or nation; nor is there one who has not fallen upon times more unfavourable to learning than any former century, or who does not wifh, that he had been referved in the infenfibility of non-existence to fome happier hour, when literary merit fhall no longer be defpifed, and the gifts and careffes of mankind mankind shall recompenfe the toils of study, and add luftre to the charms of wit. Many of these clamours are undoubtedly to be confidered only as the burfts of pride never to be fatisfied, as the prattle of affectation mimicking dif treffes unfelt, or as the common-places of vanity folicitous for fplendour of fentences, and acuteness of remark, Yet it cannot be denied that frequent discontent must proceed from frequent hardfhips, and though it is evident, that not more than one age or people can deferve the cenfure of being more averse from learning than any other, yet at all times knowledge must have encountered impediments, and wit been mortified with contempt, or haraffed with perfecution. It is not neceffary, however, to join immediately in the outcry, or to condemn mankind as pleased with ignorance, or always envious of fuperior abili ties. The miseries of the learned have been related by themselves, and fince they have not been found exempt from that partiality with which men look upon their own actions and fufferings, we may conclude that they have not forgotten to deck their cause with the brightest ornaments and ftrongest colours. The logician collected all his fubtilties when they were to be employed in his own defence; and the master of rhetorick exerted against his adverfary all the arts by which hatred is embittered, and indignation inflamed. To believe no man in his own caufe, is the ftanding and perpetual rule of diftributive juftice. Since therefore, in the controverfy between the learned and their enemies, we have only the pleas of one party, of the party more able to delude our understandings, and engage our paffions, we muft determine our opinion by facts uncontested, and evidences on each fide allowed to be genuine. By this procedure, I know not whether the ftudents will find their caufe promoted, or the compaffion which they expect much increased. Let their conduct be impartially furveyed; let them be allowed no longer to direct attention at their pleasure, by expatiating on their own deferts; let neither the dignity of knowledge overawe the judgment, nor the graces of elegance feduce it. It will then, perhaps, be found that they were not able to produce claims to kinder treatment, but provoked the calamities which they fuffered, and feldom wanted friends, but when they wanted virtue. That few men, celebrated for theoretick wisdom, live with conformity to their precepts, must be readily confeffed; and we cannot wonder that the indignation of mankind rifes with great vehemence against thofe, who neglect the duties which they appear to know with fo ftrong conviction the neceffity of performing. Yet fince no man has power of acting equal to that of thinking, I know not whether the speculatift may not fometimes incur cenfures too fevere, and by thofe, who form ideas of his life from their knowledge of his books, be confidered as worse than others, only because he was expected to be better. He, by whose writings the heart is rectified, the appetites counteracted, and the paffions repreffed, may be confidered as not unprofitable to the great republick of humanity, even though his behaviour fhould |