apostles, have joined together, let no man dare to put asunder. Let not any one flatter himself with the hope of obtaining the rewards, or even escaping the punishments of the Gospel, by performing only one branch of his duty. Let him not imagine that the most rigorous severity of manners can excuse him from the exercise of undissembled love to God and to mankind; nor, on the other hand, let him suppose that under the shelter either of devotion or of benevolence, he may securely indulge his favourite passions; may compound, as it were, with God for his sensuality by acts of generosity, and purchase by his wealth a general licence to sin. Let him not, in short, content himself with being only half a Christian. Let him visit, as often as he pleases, the fatherless and the widows in their affliction. Let his piety be fervent, and his faith sincere. But let him, at the same time, take care, as he values his salvation, that he keep himself unspotted from the world. BISHOP PORTEUS. THE INFAMY OF SLANDER. THIS delusive itch for slander, too common in all ranks of people, whether to gratify a little ungenerous resentment ;-whether oftener out of a principle of levelling, from a narrowness and poverty of soul, ever impatient of merit and superiority in others;-whether from a mean ambition, or the insatiate lust of being witty (a talent in which ill nature and malice are no ingredients); -or lastly, whether from a natural cruelty of disposition, abstracted from all views and considerations of self; to which one, or whether to all jointly, we are indebted for this contagious malady, thus much is certain, from whatever seeds it springs, the growth and progress of it are as destructive to as they are unbecoming a civilized people. To pass a hard and ill natured reflection upon an undesigning action ;-to invent, or, which is equally bad, to propagate a vexatious report without colour and grounds; to plunder an innocent man of his character and good name, a jewel which, perhaps, he has starved himself to purchase, and probably would hazard his life to secure ;-to rob him at the same time of his happiness and peace of mind, perhaps his bread, -the bread, may be, of a virtuous family; and all this, as Solomon says of the madman who casteth firebrands, arrows, and death, and saith, Am I not in sport? all this out of wantonness, and oftener from worse motives,-the whole appears such a complication of badness, as requires no words or warmth of fancy to aggravate. Pride, treachery, envy, hypocrisy, malice, cruelty, and self-love, may have been said, in one shape or other, to have occasioned all the frauds and mischiefs that ever happened in the world; but the chances against a coincidence of them all in one person are so many, that one would have supposed the character of a common slanderer as rare and difficult a production in nature as that of a great genius, which seldom happens above once in an age. STERNE. ON THE ORIGIN AND PREVALENCE OF CALUMNY. ALMOST one half of our time is spent in telling and hearing evils of one another; some unfortunate knight is always upon the stage; and every hour brings forth something strange and terrible to fill up our discourse and our astonishment, "How people can be so foolish !"—and it is well if the compliment ends there; so that there is not a social virtue for which there is so constant a demand, or, consequently, so well worth cultivating, as that which opposes this unfriendly current. Many and rapid are the springs which feed it; and various and sudden, God knows, are the gusts which render it unsafe to us in this short passage of our life! Let us make the discourse as serviceable as we can, by tracing some of the most remarkable of them up to their source. And, first, there is one miserable inlet to this evil, and which, by the way, if speculation be supposed to precede practice, may have been derived, for aught I know, from some of our busiest inquirers after nature; and that is, when with more zeal than knowledge we account for phenomena before we are sure of their existence. "It is not the manner of the Romans to condemn any man to death" (much less to be martyred) said Festus; "and doth our law judge any man before it hear him, and know what he doth ?" cried Nicodemus; "and he that answereth or determineth a matter before he has heard it,-it is folly and shame unto him." We are generally in such a haste to make our own decrees, that we pass over the justice of these,-and then the scene is so changed by it that 'tis our own folly which is real, and that of the accused which is imaginary; through too much precipitancy it will happen so: and then the jest is spoiled,we have criticised our own shadow. -or - A second way is, when the process goes on more orderly, and we begin with getting information;-but do it from those suspected evidences, against which our Saviour warns us when he bids us "Not to judge according to appearance." In truth, it is behind these that most of the things which blind human judgment lie concealed ;and, on the contrary, there are many things which appear to be,-which are not: "Christ came eating and drinking,-behold a wine-bibber!"he sat with sinners, he was their friend :-in many cases of which kind, Truth, like a modest matron, scorns art,-and disdains to press herself forward into the circle to be seen :-ground sufficient for Suspicion to draw up the libel,-for Malice to give the torture, or rash Judgment to start up and pass a final sentence. A third way is, when the facts which denote misconduct are less disputable, but are commented upon with an asperity of censure, which a humane or a gracious temper would spare. An abhorrence against what is criminal is so fair a plea for this, and looks so like virtue in the face, that in a sermon against rash judgment, it would be unseasonable to call it in question, and yet, I declare, in the fullest torrent of exclamations which the guilty can deserve, that the simple apostrophe, Who made me to differ?—why was not I in an example? would touch my heart more, and give me a better earnest of the commentators than the most corrosive period you could add. The punishment of the unhappy, I fear, is enough without it; and were it not,-'tis piteous the tongue of a Christian (whose religion is all candour and courtesy) should be made the executioner! We find in the discourse between Abraham and the rich man, though the one was in heaven, and the other in hell, yet still the patriarch treated him with mild language:-" Son! Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime," &c.— And in the dispute about the body of Moses, between the archangel and the devil (himself) St. Jude tells, he durst not bring a railing accusation against him;-it was unworthy his high character, and, indeed, might have been impolitic too; for if he had (as one of our divines notes upon the passage) the devil had been too hard for him at railing; it was his own weapon; and the basest spirits, after his example, are the most expert at it. This leads me to the observation of a fourth cruel inlet to this evil: and that is, the desire of being thought men of wit and parts; and the vain expectation of coming honestly by the title, by shrewd and sarcastic reflections upon whatever is done in the world. This is setting up trade upon the broken stock of other people's failings, perhaps their misfortunes, so much good may it do them with what honour they can get; the furthest of which, I think, is to be praised, |