"the prefumption of a champion: The

poets you now fo loudly praise when "dead, found the world as loud in defama"tion when living; you are now paying the "debts of your predeceffors, and atoning for "their injuftice; pofterity will in like man66 ner atone for your's.

"You mentioned the name of Addifon "in your lift, not altogether as a poet I prefuine, but rather as the man of morals, "the reformer of manners, and the friend of religion; with affection I subscribe my "tribute to his literary fame, to his amiable "character: In sweetness and fimplicity of

་

ftile, in purity and perfpicuity of fenti"ment, he is a model to all effayifts. At the "fame time I feel the honeft pride of a con

temporary in recalling to your memory the "name of Samuel Johnfón, who as a moral "and religious effayift, as an acute and pe

netrating critic, as a nervous and elaborate

poet, an excellent grammarian, and a ge"neral fcholar, ranks with the firft names in "literature.

"Not having named an Hiftorian in your "lift of illuftrious men, you have preclud"ed me from adverting to the histories of

"Hume,

Hume, Robertfon, Lyttelton, Henry, 66 Gibbon, and others, who are a host of "writers, which all antiquity cannot "equal.'

Here the clergyman concluded: The conversation now grew defultory and uninteresting, and I returned home.

No. LXXXIV.

Eft genus hominum, qui effe primos fe omnium

rerum volunt,

Nec funt.

W

(TERENT. EUN.)

HAT a delightful thing it is to find one's felf in a company, where tempers harmonize and hearts are open; where wit flows without any checks but what decency and good-nature impofe, and humour indulges itself in those harmless freaks and caprices, that raise a laugh, by which no man's feelings are offended.

This can only happen to us in a land of freedom; it is in vain to hope for it in those arbitrary

arbitrary countries, where men must lock the doors against spies and informers, and must entrust their lives, whilft they impart their fentiments, to each other. In fuch circumstances, a mind enlightened by education is no longer a bleffing: What is the advantage of difcernment, and how is a man profited by his capacity of feparating truth from error, if he dare not exercise that faculty? It were fafer to be the blind dupe of fuperftition than the intuitive philofopher, if born within the jurifdiction of an inquifitorial tribunal. Can a man felicitate him- . felf in the glow of genius and the gaiety of wit, when breathing the air of a country, where fo dire an inftrument is in force as a lettre de cachet? But experience hath shewn us, that if arbitrary monarchs, cannot keep their people in ignorance, they cannot retain them in flavery; if men read, they will meditate; if they travel, they will compare, and their minds must be as dark as the dungeons which imprison their persons, if they do not rife with indignation against fuch monftrous maxims, as imprisonment at pleasure for undefined offences, felf-accufations extorted by torments and fecret trials,

where

where the prisoner hath neither voice nor advocate. Let thofe princes, whofe government is fo administered, make darkness their pavilion, and draw their very mountains down upon them to shut out the light, or expect the period of their defpotifm: Illuminated minds will not be kept in flavery.

With a nation fo free, fo highly enlightened, and fo eminent in letters as the English, we may well expect to find the focial qualities in their beft ftate; and it is but justice to the age we live in, to confefs thofe expectations may be fully gratified: There are fome perhaps who will not fubfcribe to this affertion, but probably those very people make the disappointments they complain of: If a man takes no pains to please his company, he is little likely to be pleafed by his company. Liberty, though effential to good fociety, may in fome of it's effects operate against it, for as it makes men independant, independance will occafionally be found to make them arrogant, and none fuch can be good companions: yet let me fay for the contemporaries I am living with, that within the period of my own acquaint

ance

ance with the world, the reform in it's focial manners and habits has been gradual and encreafing. The feudal haughtinefs of our nobility has totally difappeared, and, in place of a proud distant reserve, a pleasing fuavity and companionable eafe have almost universally obtained amongst the higher orders: The pedantry of office is gone, and even the animofity of party is fo far in the wain, that it ferves rather to whet our wits than our fwords against each other: The agitation of political opinions is no longer a fubject fatal to the peace of the table, but takes it's turn with other topics, without any breach of good manners or good fellowship.

It were too much to fay that there are no general causes still fubfifting, which annoy our focial comforts, and difgrace our tempers; they are ftill too many, and it is amongst the duties of an Obferver to set a mark upon them, though by fo doing I may run into repetition, for I am not conscious of having any thing to fay upon the fubject, which I have not faid before; but if a beggar, who afks charity, because of his importunity fhail at length be relieved, an

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