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farther than the grave. What I afk is, I hope, no violation of it. She died foon after, and was interred

according to her request.

Their tombs are ftill to be feen, with a fhort Latin infcription over them to the following purpose:

Here lye the bodies of father Francis and fifter Conftance. They were lovely in their lives, and in their deaths they were not divided.

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Оп Оесспоту.

[Spectator, No 114.]

ECONOMY in our affairs has the fame effect upon our fortunes which good breeding has upon our converfations. There is a pretending behaviour in both cafes, which inftead of making men efteemed, renders them both miferable and contemptible. We had yesterday at Sir Roger's a fet of country gentlemen, who dined with them: and after dinner the glafs was taken, by thofe who pleased, pretty plentifully. Among others I obferved a perfon of a tolerable good afpect, who feemed to be more greedy of liquor than of the company, and yet, methought, he did not tafte it with delight. As he grew warm, he was fufpicious of every thing that was faid; and as he advanced towards being fuddled, his humour grew worse. At the fame time his bitterness feemed to be rather an inward diffatisfaction in his own mind, than any diflike he had taken to the company. Upon hearing his name, I knew him to be a gentleman of a confiderable fortune in this county, but greatly in debt. What gives the unhappy man this peevifhnefs of fpirit, is, that his eftate is dipped, and is eating out with ufury; and yet he has not the heart to fell any part of it. His proud ftomach, at the cost of restless nights, conftant inquietudes, danger of affronts, and a thoufand nameless inconveniencies, preferves this canker in his fortune, rather than it fhall be faid he is a man of fewer hundreds a year than he has been commonly reputed. Thus he endures the torment of poverty, to avoid the name

of

of being less rich. If you go to his houfe, you fee great plenty; but ferved in a manner that fhews it is all unnatural, and that the master's mind is not at home. There is a certain waste and carelessness in the air of every thing, and the whole appears but a covered indigence, a magnificent poverty. That neatness and chearfulness, which attends the table of him who lives within compafs, is wanting, and exchanged for a libertine way of service in all about him.

This gentleman's conduct, though a very common way of management, is as ridiculous as that officer's would be, who had but few men under his command, and fhould take the charge of an extent of country rather than of a small pafs. To pay for, perfonate, and keep in a man's hand, a greater eftate than he really has, is of all others the most unpardonable vanity, and must in the end reduce the man who is guilty of it to dishonour. Yet if we look round us in any county of Great Britain, we shall fee many in this fatal error; if that may be called by fo foft a name, which proceeds from a falfe fhame of appearing what they really are, when the contrary behaviour would in a fhort time advance them to the condition which they pretend to.

Laertes has fifteen hundred pounds a year; which is mortgaged for fix thousand pounds; but it is impoffible to convince him that if he fold as much as would pay off that debt, he would fave four fhillings in the pound, which he gives for the vanity of being the reputed mafter of it. Yet if Laertes did this, he would perhaps be eafier in his own fortune; but then Irus, a fellow of yesterday, who has but twelve hundred a year, would be his equal. Rather than this fhall be, Laertes goes on to bring well-born beggars into the world, and every twelvemonth charges his eftate with at least one year's rent more by the birth of a child.

Laertes and Iris are neighbours, whofe way of living are an abomination to each other. Irus is moved by the fear of poverty, and Laertes by the fhame of it. Though the motive of action is of fo near affinity in both, and may be refolved into this, "that to each of "them poverty is the greatest of all evils," yet are

their manners very widely different. Shame of poverty makes Laertes launch into unneceffary equipage, vain expence, and lavish entertainments; fear of poverty makes Irus allow himself only plain neceffaries, appear without a fervant, fell his own corn, attend his labourers, and be himself a labourer. Shame of poverty makes Laertes go every day a step nearer to it; and :fear of poverty ftirs up Irus to make every day fome

further progress from it.

Thefe different motives produce the exceffes which men are guilty of in the negligence of and provifion for themfelves. Ufury, ftock-jobbing, extortion, and op-preffion, have their feed in the dread of want; and vanity, riot, and prodigality, from the fhame of it: but both thefe exceffes are infinitely below the pursuit of a : reasonable creature. After we have taken care to command fo much as is neceffary for maintaining ourselves in the order of men fuitable to our character, the care of fuperfluities is a vice no lefs extravagant, than the neglect of neceffaries would have been before.

Certain it is, that they are both out of nature, when fhe is followed with reason and good fenfe. It is from this reflection that I always read Mr. Corley with the greatest pleafare: his magnanimity is as much above that of other confiderable men, as his understanding; and it is a true diftinguishing fpirit in the elegant author who published his works, to dwell fo much upon the temper of his mind, and the moderation of his defires by this means he has rendered his friend as amiable as famous. That ftate of life which bears the face of poverty with Mr. Cowley's Great Vulgar, is admirably defcribed; and it is no small fatisfaction to those of the fame turn of defire, that he produces the authority of the wifeft men of the beft age of the world to ftrengthen his opinion of the ordinary purfuits of mankind.

:

It would, methinks, be no ill maxim of life, if, according to that ancestor of Sir Roger, whom I lately mentioned, every man would point to himself what fum he would refolve not to exceed. He might, by this means, cheat himself into a tranquillity on this fide of

that

that expectation, or convert what he should get above it to nobler ufes than his own pleasures or neceffities. This temper of mind would exempt a man from an ignorant envy of restless men above him, and a more inexcufable contempt of h: ppy men below him. This would be failing by fome compafs, living with fome defign: but to be eternally bewildered in profpects of future gain, and putting on unneceffary armour against improbable blows of fortune, is a mechanic being which has not good fenfe for its direction, but is carried on by a fort of acquired inftinct towards things below our confideration and unworthy our esteem. It is poffible that the tranquillity I now enjoy at Sir Roger's may have created in me this way of thinking, which is fo abstracted from the common relish of the world: but as I am now in a pleafing arbour, furrounded with a beautiful landskip, I find no inclination fo ftrong as to continue in these mansions, so remote from the oftentatious fcenes of life; and am at this prefent writing, philofopher enough to conclude with Mr. Cowley,

If e'er ambition did my fancy cheat
With any wifh fo mean as to be great ;
Continue, heav'n, ftill from me to remove
The bumble blefings of that life I love.

On Pride.

[Guardian, No. 153.}

TH

HERE is no paffion which fteals into the heart more imperceptibly, and covers itself under more difguifes, than pride. For my own part, I think if there is any paffion or vice which I am wholly a ftranger to, it is this; though, at the fame time, perhaps this very judgment which I form of myself, proceeds in fome meafure from this corrupt principle.

I have been always wonderfully delighted with that fentence in holy writ, "Pride was not made for man." There is not indeed any fingle view of human nature under its prefent condition, which is not fufficient to éxtinguish in us all the fecret feeds of pride; and, on M

the

the contrary, to fink the foul into the lowest state of humility, and what the fchool-men call felf-annihilation. Pride was not made for man, as he is,

1. A finful,

2. An ignorant,

3. A miferable being.

There is nothing in his understanding, in his will, or in his prefent condition, that can tempt any confiderate creature to pride or vanity.

These three very reafons why he should not be proud, are notwithstanding the reafons why he is fo. Were not he a finful creature, he would not be fubject to a paffion which rifes from the depravity of his nature; were he not an ignorant creature, he would fee that he has nothing to be proud of; and were not the whole fpecies miferable, he would not have those wretched objects of comparifon before his eyes, which are the occafions of his paffion, and which make one man value himself more than another.

A wife man will be contented that his glory be deferred till fuch time as he fhall be truly glorified; when his understanding fhall be cleared, his will rectified, and his happiness affured; or, in other words, when he fhall be neither finful, nor ignorant, nor miserable.

If there be any thing which makes human nature appear ridiculous to beings of fuperior faculties, it must be pride. They know fo well the vanity of thofe imaginary perfections that fwell the heart of man, and of thofe little fupernumerary advantages, whether in birth, fortune, or title, which one man enjoys above another, that it must certainly very much astonish, if it does not very much divert them, when they see a mortal puffed up, and valuing himself above his neighbours on any of thefe accounts, at the fame time that he is obnoxious to all the common calamities of the fpecies.

To fet this thought in its true light, we will fancy, you pleafe; that yonder mole-hill is inhabited by reasonable creatures, and that every pifmire (his hape and way of life only excepted) is endowed with human paffions. How fhould we fmile to hear one give us an account of the pedigrees, diftinctions, and titles that

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