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in order to it, there had been got together a great quantity of mice; but Mr. Rich, the proprietor of the play-house, very prudently confidered that it would be impoffible for the cat to kill them all, and that confequently the princes of the stage might be as much infested with mice, as the prince of the island was before the cat's arrival upon it; for which reafon he would not permit it to be acted in his houfe. And indeed I cannot blame him: for, as he faid very well upon that occafion, I do not hear that any of the performers in our opera pretend to equal the famous pied piper*, who made all the mice of a great town in Germany follow his mufic, and by that means cleared the place of those little noxious animals.

Before I difmifs this Paper, I must inform my reader, that I hear there is a treaty on foot between London and Wife + (who will be appointed gardeners of the play-house) to furnish the opera of Rinaldo and Armida with an orangegrove; and that the next time it is acted, the finging-birds will be perfonated by tom-tits. The undertakers being refolved to fpare neither pains nor money for the gratification of the audiC‡.

ence.

June 26, 1284, the rats and mice by which Hamelen was infefted, were allured, it is faid, by a piper, to a contiguous river, in which they were all drowned.

+ London and Wife were the queen's gardeners at this time, and jointly concerned in the publication of a book on gardening.

By ADDISON, dated perhaps from Chelfea, where he had country lodgings at this time. See N°7; final Note.

I

N° 6. Wednesday, March 7, 1710-11.

Credebant boc grande nefas, & morte piandum,
Si juvenis vetulo non affurrexerat-

Juv. Sat. xiii. 54.

'Twas impious then (fo much was age rever'd) For youth to keep their feats when an old man

appear'd.

KNOW no evil under the fun fo great as the abuse of the Understanding, and yet there is no one vice more common. It has diffused itself through both fexes and all qualities of mankind, and there is hardly that perfon to be found, who is not more concerned for the reputation of wit and fenfe, than of honefty and virtue. But this unhappy affectation of being Wife rather than Honeft, Witty than Good-natured, is the fource of most of the ill habits of life. Such falfe impreffions are owing to the abandoned writings of men of wit, and the aukward imitation of the rest of mankind.

For this reafon Sir Roger was faying laft night, that he was of opinion none but men of fine parts deferve to be hanged. The reflections of fuch men are fo delicate upon all occurrences which they are concerned in, that they should be expofed to more than ordinary infamy and punishment, for offending against fuch quick admonitions as their own fouls give them, and blunting the fine edge of their minds in fuch á D 2

manner,

manner, that they are no more shocked at více and folly, than men of flower capacities. There is no greater monster in being, than a very ill man of great parts. He lives like a man in a palfy, with one fide of him dead. While perhaps he enjoys the fatisfaction of luxury, of wealth, of ambition, he has loft the taste of good-will, of friendship, of innocence. Scarecrow, the beggar in Lincoln's-Inn-Fields, who disabled himself in his right leg, and asks alms all day to get himself a warm fupper and a trull at night, is not half fo defpicable a wretch, as such a man of sense. The beggar has no relish above fenfations; he finds reft more agreeable than motion; and while he has a warm fire and his doxy, never reflects that he deserves to be whipped. Every man who terminates his fatisfactions and enjoyments within the supply of his own neceffities and paffions, is, fays Sir Roger, in my eye, as poor a rogue as Scarecrow. But, continued he, for the lofs of public and private virtue, we are beholden to your men of parts forfooth; it is with them no matter what is done, fo it be done with an air. But to me, who am so whimsical in a corrupt age as to act according to nature and reafon, a felfish man, in the most shining circumftance and equipage, appears in the fame condition with the fellow abovementioned, but more contemptible in proportion to what more he robs the public of, and enjoys above him. I lay it down therefore for a rule, that the whole man is to move toge-, ther; that every action of any importance, is to

have a profpect of public good; and that the general tendency of our indifferent actions, ought to be agreeable to the dictates of reafon, of religion, of good-breeding; without this, a man, as I before have hinted, is hopping instead of walking, he is not in his intire and proper motion.

While the honeft knight was thus bewildering himself in good starts, I looked attentively upon him, which made him, I thought, collect his mind a little. What I aim at, says he, is to represent, that I am of opinion, to polish our Understandings, and neglect our Manners, is of all things the most inexcufable. Reafon fhould govern paffion, but instead of that, you fee, it is often fubfervient to it; and as unaccountable as one would think it, a Wife man is not always a Good man. This degeneracy is not only the guilt of particular perfons, but alfo at fome times of a whole people; and perhaps it may appear upon examination that the most polite ages are the leaft virtuous. This may be attributed to the folly of admitting wit and learning as merit in themselves, without confidering the application of them. By this means it becomes a rule, not so much to regard what we do, as how we do it. But this falfe beauty will not pass upon men of honeft minds and true taste. Richard Blackmore* fays, with as much good sense as virtue, " It is a mighty shame and dif"honour to employ excellent faculties and

Sir

*See TAT. N° 3; N° 14; SPECT, N° 6; and N°. 339

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"abundance of wit, to humour and please men " in their vices and follies. The great enemy of "mankind, notwithstanding his wit and angelic faculties, is the most odious being in the whole "Creation." He goes on foon after to fay very generously, that he undertook the writing of his poem *"to refcue the Mufes out of the "hands of ravifhers, to restore them to their "fweet and chafte manfions, and to engage "them in an employment fuitable to their dig

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nity." This certainly ought to be the purpofe of every man who appears in public, and whoever does not proceed upon that foundation, injures his country as faft as he fucceeds in his ftudies. When modefty ceases to be the chief ornament of one fex, and integrity of the other, fociety is upon a wrong bafis, and we shall be ever after, without rules to guide our judgment in what is really becoming and ornamental. Nature and reafon direct one thing, paffion and humour another. To follow the dictates of thefe two latter, is going into a road that is both endlefs and intricate; when we pursue the other, our paffage is delightful, and what we aim at cafily attainable.

I do not doubt but England is at present as polite a nation as any in the world; but any man who thinks, can eafily fee, that the affectation of being gay and in fashion, has very near eaten up our good fenfe, and our religion. Is there

*

Note.

"CREATION." See Preface, SPECT. N° 333, and

any

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