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,- -or we have criticised our own shadow. 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, as we do some sauces, with tears in our eyes. It is a commerce most illiberal; and as it requires no vast capital, too many embark in it; and so long as there are bad passions to be gratified, and bad heads to judge,-with such it may pass for wit, or at least like some vile relation whom all in the family is ashamed of, claim kindred with it, even in better companies. Whatever be the degree of its affinity, it has helped to give wit a bad name; as if the main essence of it was satire :-certainly there is a difference between bitterness and saltness; and that is, between the malignity and festivity of wit: the one is a mere quickness of apprehension, void of humanity,— and is a talent of the devil: the other comes from the Father of spirits, so pure and abstracted from persons, that willingly it hurts no man; or if it touches upon an indecorum, 'tis with the dexterity of true genius, which enables him rather to give a new colour to the absurdity, and let it pass. He may smile at the shape of the obelisk raised to another's fame; but the malignant wit will level it at once with the ground, and build his own upon the ruins of it. What then, ye rash censurers of the world, have ye no mansions for your credit but those from whence ye have extruded the right owners? Are there no regions for you to shine in that ye descend for it into the low caverns of abuse and defamation? Have ye no seats but those of the scornful to sit down in? If Honour has mistook his road, or the Virtues in their excesses have approached too near the confines of Vice, are they therefore to be cast down the precipice? Must Beauty for ever be trampled upon in the dirt for one, one false step? And shall no one virtue or good quality, out of the thousand the fair penitent may have left,-shall not one of them be suffered to stand by her?-Just God of heaven and earth! -But thou art merciful, loving, and righteous, and lookest down with pity upon these wrongs thy servants do unto each other. Pardon us, we beseech thee, for them, and all our transgressions! let it not be remembered that we were brethren of the same flesh, the same feelings, and infirmities! My God! write it not down in thy book that thou madest us merciful after thy own image! that thou hast given us a religion so courteous, so good tempered, that every precept of it carries a balm along with it to heal the soreness of our natures and sweeten our spirit, that we might live with such kind intercourse in this world, as will fit us to exist together in a better. STERNE. THE malignity of an offence arises, either from the motives that prompted it, or the consequences produced by it. If we examine the sin of calumny by this rule, we shall find both the motives and consequences of the worst kind: we shall find its causes and effects concurring to distinguish it from common wickedness, and rank it with those crimes that pollute the earth and blacken human nature. The most usual incitement to defamation is envy, or impatience of the merit or success of |