for ages, be no longer thought worthy of a triumph. As the acquifition of honour is frequently a motive to the rifque of life, it is of great importance to confer it only upon virtue; and as honour is conferred by the public voice, it is of equal moment to ftrip thofe vices of their difguife which have been mistaken for viitue. The wretches who compofe the army of a tyrant, are affociated by folly in the fervice of rapine and murder; and that men should imagine they were deferving honour by the maffacre of each other, merely to flatter ambition with a new title, is perhaps as infcrutable a mystery as any that has perplexed reafon, and as grofs an abfurdity as any that has difgraced it. It is not, indeed, fo much to punish vice, as to prevent mifery, that I with to fee it always branded with in famy: for even the fucceffes of vice terminate in the anguifh of difappointment, To Alexander, the fruit of all his conquests was tears; and whoever goes about to gratify intemperate wifhes, will labour to as little purpose, as he who should attempt to fill a fieve with water. T I was accidentally led to purfue my fubject in this train, by the fight of an hiftorical chart, in which the rife, the progrefs, the declenfion, and duration of empire, are reprefented by the arrangement of different colours, and in which, not only extent, but duration is rendered a fentible object. The Grecian empire, which is distinguished by a deep red, is a long but narrow line; becaufe, though Alexander marked the world with his colour from Macedonia to Egypt, yet the colours peculiar to the hereditary potentates whom he difpoffeffed, again took place upon his death: and indeed, the question whofe name fhall be connected with a particular country as it's king, is to thofe who hazard life in the deci fion as trifling as whether a small spot in a chart shall be stained with red or yellow. That man should be permitted to decide fuch questions by means fo dreadful, is a reflection under which he only can rejoice, who believes that GOD ONLY REIGNS; and can appropriate the promise, that ALL THINGS SHALL WORK TOGETHER FOR GOOD. No XLVIII. SATURDAY, APRIL 21, 1753. IBAT TRIUMPHANS VIRGO SUNT QUI ROGATAM RETTULERINT PRECES AS RESCU'D FROM INTENDED WRONG, O LOVE AN ENEMY, is the diftinguishing characteristic of a religion, which is not of man but of GOD. it could be delivered as a precept only by HIM who lived and died to establish it by his example, At the clofe of that feafon in which human frailty has commemorated fufferings which it could not sustain, a feafon in which the moft zealous devotion can only fubftitute a change of food for a total abftinence of forty days; it cannot, furely, be incongruous to confider, what approaches we can make to that divine love which these sufferings ex PRUDENT preffed, and how far man, in imitation of his SAVIOUR, can blefs those who curfe him, and return good for evil. We cannot, indeed, behold the example but at a distance; nor confider it without being ftruck with a sense of our own debility: every man who compares his life with this divine rule, instead of exulting in his own excellence, will finite his breaft like the publican, and cry out God be merciful to me a fin ner!' Thus to acquaint us with ourfelves may, perhaps, be one ufe of the precept; but the precept cannot, furely, be confidered as having no other. I know it will be faid, that our pafLons are not in our power; and that therefore a precept to love or to hate is impoffible; for if the gratification of all our wishes was offered us to love a ftranger as we love a child, we could not fulfil the condition, however we might defire the reward. But admitting this to be true, and that we cannot love an enemy as we love a friend; it is yet equally certain, that we may perforin thofe actions which are produced by love from a higher principle: we may, perhaps, derive moral excellence from natural defects, and exert our reafon instead of indulging a paffion. If our enemy hungers, we may feed him; and if he thirsts, we may give him drink: this, if we could love him, would be our conduct; and this may ftill be our conduct, though to love him is impoffible. The Chriftian will be prompted to relieve the neceffities of his eneiny, by his love to God: he will rejoice in an opportunity to exprefs the zeal of his gratitude and the alacrity of his obedience, at the fame time that he appropriates the promifes, and anticipates his reward. But though he who is beneficent upon thefe principles, may in the Scripture fenfe be faid to love his enemy, yet fomething more may still be effected; the paffion itself in fome degree is in our power; we may rife to a yet nearer emu, lation of divine forgiveness; we may think as well as act with kindness, and be fanctified as well in heart as in life. Though love and hatred are neceffarily produced in the human breaft, when the proper objects of these paffions occur, as the colour of material fubftances is neceffarily perceived by an eye before which they are exhibited; yet it is in our power to change the paffion, and to caufe either love or hatred to be excited, by placing the fame object in different circumstances; as a changeable filk of blue and yellow may be held fo as to excite the idea either of yellow or blue, No act is deemed more injurious, or refented with greater acrimony, than the marriage of a child, efpecially of a daughter, without the confent of a parent: it is frequently confidered as a breach of the strongest and tenderest obligations; as folly and ingratitude, treachery, and rebellion. By the imputation of these vices, a child becomes the object of indignation and refentment; indignation and refentment in the breaft, therefore, of the parent, are neceffarily excited; and there can be no doubt but that these are species of hatred. But if the child is confidered as ftill retaining the endearing foftness of filial affection, as ftill longing for reconciliation, and profaning the rites of marriage with tears; as having been driven from the path of duty, only by the violence of paffions which none have always refitted, and which many have indulged with much greater turpitude; the fame object that before excited indignation and refentment, will now be regarded with pity, and pity is a fpecies of love. Thofe, indeed, who refent this breach of filial duty with implacability, though perhaps it is the only one of which the offender has been guilty, demonftrate that they are without natural affection; and that they would have prostituted their offspring, if not to luft, yet to affections which are equally vile and fordid, the thirit of gold, or the cravings of ambition: for he can never be thought to be fincerely interested in the felicity of his child, who when fome of the means of happiness are loft by indifcretion, fuffers his refentment to take away the reft. Among friends, fallies of quick refentment are extremely frequent. Friendfhip is a conftant reciprocation of benefits, to which the facrifice of private întereit is fometimes neceffary: it is common for each to fet too much value upon thofe which he beftows, and too little upon thofe which he receives; this mutual mistake in fo important an estimation, produces mutual charges of unkindness and ingratitude; each perhaps profefles himfelf ready to forgive, but neither will condefcend to be forgiven. Pride, therefore, ftill increafes the enmity which it began; the friend is confidered as selfish, affuming, injurious and revengeful; he confequently becomes an object of hatred: and while he is thus considered, to love him is impoffible. But thus to confider him, is at once a folly and a fault each ought to reflect, that he is, at leaft in the opinion of the other, incurring the crimes that he imputes; that the foundation of their eninity is no more than a miftake; and that this mistake is the ef fect of weakness or vanity, which is common to all mankind: the character of both would then affume a very dif ferent afpect, love would again be excited by the return of it's object, and each would be impatient to exchange acknowledgments, and recover the felicity which was fo near being loft. But, But, if after we have admitted an acquaintance to our bofom as a friend, it hould appear that we had mistaken his character; if he fhould betray our confidence, and ufe the knowledge of our affairs, which perhaps he obtained by offers of fervice, to effect our ruin; if he defames us to the world, and adds perjury to falfhood; if he violates the chaftity of a wife, or feduces a daughter to prostitution; we may still confider him in fuch circumftances as will incline us to fulfil the precept, and to regard him without the rancour of hatred or the fury of revenge. Every character, however it may deferve punishment, excites hatred only in proportion as it appears to be malicious; and pure malice has never been imputed to human beings. The wretch, who has thus deceived and injured us, fhould be confulered as having ultimately intended, not evil to us, but good to himfelf. It fhould alfo be remembered, that he has miftaken the means; that he has forfeited the friendship of Him whose favour is better than life, by the fame conduct which forfeited ours; and that to whatever view he facrificed our temporal intereft, to that alfo he facrified his own hope of immortality; that he is now feeking felicity which he can never find, and incurring punishment that will last for ever. And how much better than this TH wretch is he, in whom the contemplation of his condition can excite no pity! Surely, if fuch an enemy hungers, we may, without fuppreffing any paffion, give him food; for who that fees a criminal-dragged to execution, for whatever crime, would refufe him a cup of cold water? On the contrary, he, whom GOD has forgiven, muft neceffarily become amiable to man: to confider his character without prejudice or partiality, after it has been changed by repentance, is to love him; and impartially to confider it, is not only our duty but our intereft. Thus may we love our enemies, and add a dignity to our nature of which pagan virtue had no conception. But if to love our enemies is the glory of a Chriftian, to treat others with coldnefs, neglect, and malignity, is rather the reproach of a fiend than a man. Unprovoked enmity, the frown of unkindness, and the menaces of oppreffion, should be far from thofe who profefs themfelves to be followers of HIM who in his life went about doing good; who inftantly healed a wound that was given in his defence; and who, when he was fainting in his last agony, and treated with mockery and derifion, conceived at once a prayer and an apology for his murderers; FATHER, FORGIVE THEM; 'THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY 'DO.' N° XLIX. TUESDAY, APRIL 24, 1753. AND GENTLY SIP THE DIMPLY RIVER'S BRIM. HE character of the scholars of the prefent age will not be much injured or misreprefented by faying, that they feem to be fuperficially acquainted with a multitude of fubjects, but to go to the bottom of very few. This appears in criticifin and polite learning, as well as in the abftrufer fciences: by the diffusion of knowledge it's depth is abated. Eutyches harangues with wonderful plaufibility on the diftin&t merits of all the Greek and Roman claffics, without having thoroughly and attentively perufed, or entered into the fpirit and fcope, of one of them. But Eutyches has diligently digefted the differtations of Ra pin, Bouhours, Felton, Blackwall, and Rollin; treatifes that adminifter great confolation to the indolent and incurious, to thofe who can tamely rest satisfied with fecond-hand knowledge, as they give concife accounts of all the great heroes of antient literature, and enable them to speak of their feveral characters without the tedious drudgery of perufing the originals. But the characters of writers, as of men, are of a very mixed and complicated nature, and are not to be comprehended in fo fir all a compafs: fuch objects do not admit of being drawn in miniature, with accuracy and diftin&tnefs. To the prefent prevailing paffion for French French moralifts and French critics, may be imputed the fuperficial fhew of learning and abilities of which I am complaining. And fince thefe alluring authors are become not only so fashionable an amufement of those who call themselves the polite world, but alfo engrofs the attention of academical ftudents, I am tempted to enquire into the merits of the most celebrated among them of both kinds. That Montagne abounds in native wit, in quick penetration, in a perfect knowledge of the human heart, and the various vanities and vices that lurk in it, cannot be justly denied. But a man who undertakes to tranfmit his thoughts on life and manners to pofterity, with the hopes of entertaining and amending future ages, must be either exceedingly vain or exceedingly careless, if he expects either of thefe effects can be produced by wanton fallies of the imagination, by useless and impertinent digreffions, by never forming or following any regular plan, never claffing or confining his thoughts, never changing or rejecting any fentiment that occurs to him. Yet this appears to have been the conduct of our celebrated effayit: and it has produced many aukward imitators, who under the notion of writing with the fire and freedom of this lively old Gafcon, have fallen into confufed thapfodies and uninterefting egotisms. But these blemishes of Montagne are trifling and unimportant, compared with his vanity, his indecency, and his fcepticifin. That man muft totally have fuppreffed the natural love of honest reputation, which is fo powerfully felt by the truly wife and good, who can calmly fit down to give a catalogue of his private vices, and publifh his most fecret infirmities, with a pretence of exhibiting a faithful picture of himself, and of exactly pourtraying the minuteft features of his mind. Surely he deferves the cenfure Quintilian beftows on Demetrius, a celebrated Grecian ftatuary, that he was nimius in veri'tate, et fimilitudinis quam pulchritudinis amantior-more ftudious of likeness than of beauty." Though the maxims of the Duke de la Rochefoucault, another fashionable philofopher, are written with expreftive elegance, and with nervous brevity; yet I must be pardoned for affirming, that he who labours to leffen the dignity of human nature, deftroys many efficacious motives for praƐtifing worthy actions, and deferves ill of his fellow creatures, whom he paints in dark and difagreeable colours. As the opinions of men ufually contract a tracture from the circumftances and conditions of their lives, it is eafy to difcern the chagrined courtier, in the fatire which this polite mifanthrope has compofed on his own fpecies. According to his gloomy and uncomfortable fyftem, virtue is merely the refult of temper and conftitution, of chance or of vanity, of fashion or the fear of lofing reputation. Thus humanity is brutalized; and every high and generous principle is reprefented as imaginary, romantic, and chimerical; reason, which by fome is too much aggrandized and almoft deified, is here degraded into an abject flave of appetite and paffion, and deprived even of her juft and indifputable authority. As a Christian, and as a man, I defpife, I deteft, fuch debafing principles. Rochefoucault, to give a smartness and fhortnefs to his fentences, frequently makes ufe of the antithefis, a mode of fpeaking the most tiresome and difgufting of any, by the famenels and fimilarity of the periods; and fometimes, in. order to keep up the point, he neglects the propriety and juftnefs of the fentiment, and grofsly contradicts himself. Happinefs, fays he, confifts in the tafte, and not in the things: and it is by enjoying what a man loves, that he becomes happy; not by having what others think defirable. The obvious doctrine contained in this reflection, is the great power of imagination with regard to felicity: but, adds the reflector, in a following maxim- We are 6 never fo happy or fo miferable, as we imagine ourselves to be:' which is certainly a plain and palpable contradiction of the foregoing opinion. And of fuch contradictions many inftances might be alledged in this admired writer, which evidently thew that he had not digefted his thoughts with philofophical exactnefs and precifion. But the characters of La Bruyere deferve to be fpaken of in far different terms. They are drawn with fpirit and propriety, without a total departure from nature and refemblance, as fometimes is the cafe in pretended pictures of life. In a few inftances only he has failed, by overcharging his portraits with many ridiculous features that can Rot 128 THE ADVENTURER. not exift together in one fubject; as in Saint Evremond is a florid and ver- As the corruption of our tafte is not of equal confequence with the depravation of our virtue, I fhall not fpend fo much time on the critics, as I have done on the moralifts of France. the bead of the commentators on Arif. Brumoy has difplayed the excellencies ancients. Let no one, however, deceive himself in thinking, that he can gain a competent knowledge either of Ariftotle or Ŝoexcellent foever these two commentators phocles from Boffu or Brumoy, how may be. To contemplate these exalted geniuses through fuch mediums, is like beholding the orb of the fun, during an eclipfe, in a vefel of water. But let him nals: Juvet integros accedere fonteseagerly prefs forward to the great origi His be the joy t'approach th' untasted fprings. Let him remember that the Grecian writers alone, both critics and Milton's emphatical style, 'What the poets, are the best masters to teach, in How admirably Rapin, the moft popular among them, was qualified to fit in judgment upon Homer and Thucydides, Demofthenes and Plato, may be gathered from an anecdote preserved by Menage, who affirms upon his own knowledge, that Le Fevre of Saumur furnished this affuming critic with the Greek paffages he had occafion to cite, Rapin himself being totally ignorant of that language. The cenfures and the commendations this writer beftows, are general and indifcriminate; without fpecifying the reafons of his approbation or diflike, and without alledging the paf-piece to obferve. This would make fages that may fupport his opinion: whereas just criticifim demands, not only that every beauty or blemish be minutely pointed out in it's different degree and kind, but also that the reafon and foundation of excellencies and faults be accurately afcertained. Boffu is ufually and juftly placed at laws are of a true epic poem, what of a dramatic, what of a lyric; what decorum is; which is the grand mafter them foon perceive, what defpicable 'creatures our common rhymers and play-wrights be; and fhew them, what religious, what glorious and magnif cent ufe might be made of poetry, both in divine and human things.' N° L. |