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for his own inftruction, or the confolation of their vanity, He put them upon topics with which they were the beft acquainted, and thus, without affectation, procured them the pleasure of an outward difplay of all the little they poffelled; whence he derived the double advantage, of not being wearied in their company, and of rendering them happy beyond their hopes. If they were fatisfied with Fontenelle, they were enchanted with la Motte. May this example of philofophical charity ferve as a lefon to thofe ftern and untractable men of wit, whofe intolerant pride is not fatisfied without treating fools with humiliating dildain; while this unfeeling mode of teaching them what they are, ftill leaves them understanding enough to feek and to difcover the means of revenge.

Anticipation of the Pofthumous Character of Sir Richard Steele, written during his Life by Dr. Rundle; from Butler's Memoirs of Bishop Hildefley.

N day of

ON

in The year, died fir R. S. (in decency we muft fuppofe him dead, when we fum up his actions.) It is pity there is no perfon of abilities left, to give his character to the world, who drew fo many, fo finely! In a well-written life of him might be feen an epitome of mankind; and the motto of his firft Tatlers was as true of his example as of his writings. Surely, fo many follies, and fo much worth, were never blended together in any fingle perfon before. The laft he refolved hould be the guide of his beha

viour, though he always followed
the former.

as

He was a coquette to virtue; made continual advances, and feem, ed juft yielding up himself to the comely dame who courted him, he once did Hercules; when, un a fudden, he would flounce off, flirt back, and fink into the arms of pleafure. His foul, in his calm morning-hours, was truly great; and fome defign for public good, the improvement of knowledge, and the fecurity of liberty (which he always efteemed the manhood of the mind), was formed in his thoughts, and was the delight of his medita tions: and it must be owned that England is ungrateful, if the doth not confefs, that the prefent hap pinefs the enjoys was more guarded to her by him, than by any thousand other private men fhe can boast of. He had undaunted courage to op pofe all mankind, for the fake of what was right; but ftill, his inborn imprudences generally rendered that courage feebly ufeful to the world, and his inability to withstand fome eening's merriment ruined half his attempts.

But, notwithstanding the ridicule of fuch an allay in his patriot ambition, he went on, like others, through good and ill report; and fuffered himself to be laughed at and railed at, with all the indolence and infenfibility of a Stoic.

No bribes of riches or greatnefs could have tempted him to do a base action; though the neceffities into which his careleffnels in the management of his fortune, and a thoughtlefs generofity, had thrown him, often.compelled him to fubmit to bafenefs, almost as low as those

* Quicquid agunt homines noftri eft farrago libelli.
X 4

Juv.

by

by which others raife eftates, and become glorious in villainy. Yet, while he did it, he fcorned and hated himself; and refolved to be rich, that he might be honeft. But ftill, the want of money returned, and with it all the mean fhifts to extricate himself from the fatigue of lying to his creditors.

Thus he went on, in a continual round of felf-dislike, and doing actions which produced new felfdiflike: but he had this to fay for his worst conduct, that his vices were always rencounters, and never meditated wickedness.

He was a pleasant companion, a generous enemy, and a zealous friend. His company was courted by every body, as more entertaining than a comedy: he never refufed to forgive, and then forget, the injuries that had been done him by thofe, who defired they fhould be forgiven; and all his fortune was at the command of his friends, as well as his labour and reputation. He feemed to want gold only to give it away his bufy mind purfued projea after project, in hopes to be rich; that by it he might be more eminently ferviceable to his friends, and his country. He embraced every appearance that flattered this public fpirited avarice, though the propofal were ever fo wanton and improbable. In hopes of getting immense wealth, he ran after every whim, and fo firft aimed at the philofopher's ftone; and when that would not do, he could condefcend to be thought the author of the humble difcovery of a new-fafhioned hoop-petticoat: but ftill, it was with the facred view of ferving his country by his riches.

This brifknefs and quickfightednefs, to find out mines of treasure

in a notion, made him inquire ostgreat numbers of men of abilities, who were obfcured by poverty ; and animated them to exert their inventive talents, by high promises. When any of them had contrived a handsome scheme, he would, in the hurry of his approbation, expend his whole cafh to promote it: and at laft, when the project was almost ready to repay with intereft his trouble and charges, the hopes would be blasted, for want of another ten pounds to complete the undertaking. Thus he rid hard, continually courfing after treafure; and, when his dog bore at the game, by a nimble unexpected turn, it always escaped from its mouth, and he returned empty: however, he comforted himfelf that he had brave (port, and went out again the next day, fresh and eager to the field. Thus, con ftantly, with high hopes and felf complacency, he renewed his project, as warm in expectation of fuccefs, as if he had met with no difappointment. He was often within a day of being the richest, and therefore the honefteft man in England; but, before that ill-natured to-mor row came, he died! much lamented by all who value wit and good fenfe; and he must be owned to be, if not virtuous, yet a lover of virtue.

His writings will make him be loved by all, in ages to come, when his follies are forgot, or softened by time. To him we owe not only his own performances, but those of others likewife; and he was properly the man-midwife to all the children of the mufes born in his own time, and was fufpected very often to be their father allo.

He would have been what he was, had Addifon never been born:

bat

us.

but Addison would have died with writings equal to thofe he has left narrow fame, had he never had a friendship with fir R. whole compofitions have done eminent service to mankind. To him we owe, that fwearing is unfafhionable, and that a regard to religion is become a part of good breeding.

He had learning; but it was feldom transfufed into his performances. He ftudied nature more than books; and as Numa confulted with Egeria, and learnt his laws from that divine nymph, fir R was in love with a more real goddefs; and was taught by her, in reality, all his precepts. He had an art to make people hate their follies, without hating themselves for having them; and he flewed gentlemen a way of becoming virtuous with a good grace.

A bold free fpirit, a lively humour, a quickness of thought, and the most delicate touches of the paffions, infpire pleafure into all that read and understand his writings, He had not leifure and coolness enough to bear the fatigue of being correct: his obfervations on mankind crowded so fast upon him, that, for want of patience to write them down in a due studied natural order, he sometimes became obfcure. His fatire was levere and pointed; but, I think, he never once exerted that talent against his private, but al ways against his country's enemies; and therefore fhewed good nature, even in his fharpest and bitterest invectives.

He had no genius for rhime; and he knew that he had not, and there fore but seldom attempted it. Thole who love S. will only admire Addifon: he will never have many applauders; but thofe who can relifh him, will never think any

How good his political judgement was, may be learnt from his letters to fir Miles Wharton, and to the bailiff of Stockbridge: how generous his fentiments of religion may be feen in his Epiftle to the Pope. The juftnefs of his wit, and his exact knowledge of true character, every body confeffed, by their approbation of his plays and Tatlers.

Let thy faults, O! fir R. be buried in thy grave, and thy virtues be imitated by all! Let thy writings be beloved; for whoever doth that fincerely, will, before he thinks of it, become a lover, if not a prac-» tifer of virtue; and the world may. owe to thee the removal of fopperies, that are to be born again in centuries to come. Thy works will be a medicine of the mind, and cure all the green ficknessed appetites that will feize on the gay and the young, without fo friendly a cordial. If all who have been, or fhall be benefited by thy advice, will own themfelves thy admirers, never could author boast a more univerfal or a better founded applanfe; and Socrates himself fhall have fewer difciples than Steele.

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of his countrymen. His army was entirely compofed of Highlanders -a fingular people, of whom it is not fufficient barely to mention the name. Amidft the clouds and darknefs which envelop the high and remote periods of hiftoric antiquity, it appears from ftrong prefumptive evidence, that at this æra the High. land nation exhibited the unmixed remains of that vaft Celtic empire which once ftretched from the pillars of Hercules to the fea of Archangel. The Highlanders were compofed of a number of tribes or clans, each of which bore a different name, and lived upon the lands of a different chieftain. The members of every clan were connected with. each other not only by the feudal but the patriarchal bond; and each of them could recount with pride the degree of his affinity to the common head. The caftle of the chieftain was open and eafy of access to every individual of the tribe. There all were hofpitably entertained in times of peace, and thither all reforted at the found of war. They lived in villages built in glens or deep valleys, and for the moft part by the fides of rivers. At the end of fpring they fowed their grain, and at the commencement of winter they reaped their fcanty harveft. The reft of the year was all their own for amufement or for war. In the fhort interval of fummer they indulged themselves in the enjoy ment of a bright and lengthened fun, and in ranging over a wild and romantic country, frequently paffing whole nights in the open air among the mountains and the forefts. They fpent the winter in the chafe while the fun was up; and in the evening, affembling round a blazing hearth, they entertained themfelves with

the fong, the tale,, and the dance. Their vocal mufic was plaintive even to melancholy, but their inftrumental was bold, martial, and anima ting. In order to cherish, high fentiments in the minds of all, every confiderable family had an hiftorian who recounted, and a hard who fung, the deeds of the clan and its chieftain, or on more folemn occafions the glorious exploits of their heroic ancestors. The vaftness of the objects which furrounded them, lakes, mountains, rocks, cataracts, feemed to expand and elevate their minds; and the 'severity of the climate, with the nature of the country, and their love, in common with other femi-barbarous nations, of the chafe and of war, forced them to great corporeal exertions; while their want of regular occupation on the other hand led them to contemplation and focial converse. They received the rare and occafional viɓtș of ftrangers with a genuine and cor dial hofpitality, never indulging in a rude or contemptuous ridicule of manners oppofite to their own.Confidering the inhabitants of the Lowlands in the light of invaders and ufurpers, they thought themfelves entitled to make reprifals at all convenient opportunities. What their enemies therefore called violence and rapine, they termed right and juftice; and in the frequent practice of depredation they became bold, artful, and enterprifing. An injury done to one of the clan was held, from the common relation of blood, to be an injury to all. Hence the Highlanders were in the habitual practice of war; and hence arofe in various inftances between clan and clan mortal and deadly feuds, defcending from generation to generation. They ufually went

com

completely armed with a broadfword, a dirk or dagger, a target, mufket, and piftols. Their drefs confifted of a jacket and loose lower garment, with a roll of light woollen, called a plaid, wrapt round them fo as to leave the right arm at full liberty. Thus equipped and accoutred, they would march forty or fifty miles in a day, fometimes even without food or halting, over mountains, along rocks, through morafies; and they would fleep on beds formed by tying bunches of heath haftily and carelessly together, Their advance to battle was rapid; and after difcharging their muskets and piftols, they rushed into the ranks of the enemy with their broad fwords; and in clofe fight, when unable to use their ordinary weapon, they suddenly stabbed with the dirk. Their religion, which they called Chriftianity, was ftrongly tinctured with the ancient and bar barous fuperftitions of the country, They were univerfally believers in ghofts and preternatural appearances. They marked with eager attention the variable forms of their cloudy and changeful ky; from the different aspect of which, they foretold future and contingent events; and, abforbed in fantastical imaginations, they perceived in a fort of ecftatic vifion things and perfons feparated from them by a vaft in terval of space. Each tribe had its peculiar dogmas and modes of faith, which the furrounding clans regarded with indifference, or at most with a cold diflike far removed from the rancour of religious hatred; and perfecution for religion was happily a fpecies of folly and wickednefs unknown and unheard of among them.

Introduction of Chriflianity into the Ruffian Empire; from Tooke's Hip tory of Ruffia.

LADIMIR refolved to return

VLADIN

thanks to the gods for the fuccefs they had granted to his arms, by offering them a facrifice of the prifoners of war. His courtiers, more cruel in their piety than even their prince, perfuaded him that a victim felected from his own people would more worthily teftify his gratitude for thefe fignal difpenfations of Heaven. The choice fell on a young Varagian, the fon of a Chrif tian, and brought up in that faith. The unhappy father refused the victim: the people enraged, as thinking their prince and their religion thus infulted at once, affailed the houfe; and, having beat in the doors, furiously murdered both father and fon, enfolded in mutual embraces.

Thus it was that Vladimir thought to honour the gods. The zealous Olga had never been able to induce her fon to embrace Chriftianity, and her grandfon Vladimir was of all the Ruffian princes the most bigoted to idolatry. He augmented the number of the idols of Kief; he commiffioned Dobryna, his uncle by the mother's fide, to raise a feperb ftatue at Novgorod to the deity Perune; his offerings enriched both the temples and the priests of his gods, while his zeal inflamed that of the nation. But the grandeur of the Ruffian monarch was already fo confpicuous, as to firike the eyes of the neighbouring princes. All of them courted the friendship of Vladimir, and dreaded his arms: each was in hopes of fixing his attachment by the ties of one common

religion.

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