when they have been a while accustomed to victory, can no longer be refifted.

Nothing is more fatal to happiness or virtue, than that confidence which flatters us with an opinion of our own ftrength, and by affuring us of the power of retreat precipitates us into hazard. Some may fafely venture further than others into the regions of delight, lay themfelves more open to the golden fhafts of pleasure, and advance nearer to the residence of the Syrens; but he that is best armed with conftancy and reafon is yet vulnerable in one part or other, and to every man there is a point fixed, beyond which, if he paffes, he will not eafily return. It is certainly moft wife, as it is moft fafe, to ftop before he touches the utmost limit, fince every step of advance will more and more entice him to go forward, till he fhall at laft enter the receffes of voluptuoufnefs, and floth and defpondency clofe the paffage behind

him.

To deny early and inflexibly, is the only art of checking the importunity of defire, and of preferving quiet and innocence. Innocent gratifications must be sometimes withheld; he that complies with all lawful defires will certainly lofe his empire over himfelf, and in time either fubmit his reafon to his wifhes, and think all his defires lawful, or difmifs his reafon as troublesome and intrufive, and refolve to fnatch what he may happen to wifh, without enquiry about right and wrong.

No man, whofe appetites are his mafters, can perform the duties of his nature with ftrictnefs and regularity;

6

regularity; he that would be fuperior to external influences must first become fuperior to his own paffions.

When the Roman general, fitting at fupper with a plate of turnips before him, was folicited by large prefents to betray his truft, he asked the messengers whether he that could fup on turnips was a man likely to fell his country. Upon him who has reduced his fenfes to obedience temptation has loft its power, he is able to attend impartially to virtue, and execute her commands without hefitation.

To fet the mind above the appetites is the end of abftinence, which one of the Fathers obferves to be not a virtue, but the ground-work of virtue. By forbearing to do what may innocently be done, we may add hourly new vigour or refolution, and fecure the power of refiftance when pleasure or intereft fhall lend their charms to guilt.

I

NUMB. 53. SATURDAY, April 21, 1759.

SIR,

To the IDLER.

Have a wife that keeps good company.

You

know that the word good varies its meaning according to the value fet upon different qualities in different places. To be a good man in a college, is to be learned; in a camp, to be brave; and in the city, to be rich. By good company in the place which I have the misfortune to inhabit, we understand not only those from whom any good can be learned, whether wifdom or virtue; or by whom any good can be conferred, whether profit or reputation. Good company is the company of those whofe birth is high, and whofe riches are great, or of those whom the rich and noble admit to familiarity.

I am a gentleman of a fortune by no means exuberant, but more than equal to the wants of my family, and for fome years equal to our defires. My wife, who had never been accustomed to fplendour, joined her endeavours to mine in the fuperintendence of our economy; we lived in decent plenty, and were not excluded from moderate pleasures.

But

But flight causes produce great effects. All my happiness has been destroyed by change of place; virtue is too often merely local; in fome fituations the air diseases the body, and in others poifons the mind. Being obliged to remove my habitation, I was led by my evil genius to a convenient house in a street where many of the nobility refide. We had scarcely ranged our furniture, and aired our rooms, when my wife began to grow difcontented, and to wonder what the neighbours would think when they saw fo few chairs and chariots at her door.

Her acquaintance who came to fee her from the quarter that we had left, mortified her without defign, by continual enquiries about the ladies, whose houses they viewed from our windows. She was afhamed to confefs that he had no intercourfe with them, and sheltered her diftrefs under general anfwers, which always tended to raise fufpicion that fhe knew more than fhe would tell; but she was often reduced to difficulties, when the course of talk introduced questions about the furniture or ornaments of their houfes, which, when he could get no intelligence, he was forced to pafs flightly over, as things which the faw fo often, that the never minded them..

To all thefe vexations fhe was refolved to put an end, and redoubled her vifits to thofe few of her friends, who vifited those who kept good company; and, if ever fhe met a lady of quality, forced herself into notice by refpect and affiduity. Her advances were generally rejected; and fhe heard

them, as they went down ftairs, talk how fome, creatures put themfelves forward.

She was not difcouraged, but crept forward from one to another; and, as perfeverance will do great things, fapped her way unperceived, till, unexpectedly, the appeared at the card-table of lady Biddy Porpoife, a lethargick virgin of feventy-fix, whom all the families in the next fquare vifited very punctually when fhe was not at home.

This was the firft ftep of that elevation to which my wife has fince afcended. For five months the had no name in her mouth but that of lady Biddy, who, let the world fay what it would, had a fine understanding, and fuch a command of her temper, that, whether fhe won or loft, fhe flept over her

cards.

At lady Biddy's fhe met with lady Tawdry, whofe favour the gained by eftimating her ear-rings, which were counterfeit, at twice the value of real diamonds. When fhe had once entered two houfes of diftinction, the was cafily admitted into more, and in ten weeks had all her time anticipated by parties and engagements. Every morning the is bespoke, in the fummer, for the gardens; in the winter, for a fale; every afternoon fhe has vifits to pay, and every night brings an inviolable appointment, or an affembly in which the best company in the town were to appear.

You will eafily imagine that much of my domeftick comfort is withdrawn. I never fee my wife but in the hurry of preparation, or the languor of wearinefs. To drefs and to undrefs is almost her whole bufinefs in private, and the fervants take

advantage