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lover's coat of armour, which the herfelf had wrought, she could not contain her grief.She fhed a flood of tears; fhe tore her hair; and, in the tranfports of her forrow, uttered the most violent imprecations against her brother. Horatius, warm with his victory, and enraged at the grief which bis fifter expreffed with fuch unfeafonable paffion in the midft of the public joy, in the heat of his anger drove a poniard to her heart.— Begone to thy lover,' fays he, and carry him that degenerate paffion, which makes thee prefer a dead enemy to the glory of thy country.' Every body detefted an action fo cruel and inhuman. The murderer was immediately seized, and dragged before the Duumviri, the proper judges of fuch crimes. Horatius was condemned to lofe his life; and the very day of his triumph had been that of his punishment, if he had not, by the advice of Tullus Hoftilius, appealed from that judgment to the affembly of the people. He appeared there with the fame courage and refolution, that he had fhown in his combat with the Curiatii.The people thought fo great a fervice might juftly excufe them, if for once they. moderated the rigour of the law; and, accordingly, he was acquitted, rather through admiration of his courage, than for the juftice of his cause.

XIV. On the Power of Cuftom.

THERE is not a common faying which has a better turn of fenfe in it, than what we often hear in the mouths of the vulgar, that Custom is a fecond Nature. It is indeed able to form the man anew, and give him inclinations and capacities altogether different from those he was born with. A perfon who is addicted to play or gaming, though he took but little delight in it at firft, by degrees. contracts fo ftrong an inclination towards it, and gives himself up fo entirely to it, that it feems the only end of his being. The love of a retired or bufy life will grow upon a man infenfibly, as he is converfant in the one or the other, till he is utterly unqualified for relifhing that to which he has been for fome time difufed. Nay, a man may fmcke, or drink, or take fnuff, till he is unable to pass away his time without it; not to mention how our delight in any particular fudy, art, or fcience,

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rifes and improves in proportion to the application which we bestow upon it. Thus what was at firit an exercise, becomes at length an entertainment. Our employments are changed into diverfions. The mind grows fond of thofe actions it is accuftomed to, and is drawn with reluctancy from thofe paths in which it has been used to walk.

If we confider attentively this property of human nature, it may inftruct us in very fine moralities. In the. firft place, I would have no man difcouraged with that kind of life or feries of action, in which the choice of others, or his own neccffities may have engaged him. It may perhaps be very difagreeable to him at firft; but fe and application will certainly render it not only lefs painful, but pleafing and fatisfactory.

In the fecond place, I would recommend to every one the admirable precept which Pythagoras is faid to have given to his difciples, and which that philofopher must have drawn from the obfervation I have enlarged upon: "Pitch upon that courfe of life which is the most excellent, and cuftom will render it the moft delightful." Men, whofe circumftances will permit them to choofe their own way of life, are inexcufable if they do not purfue that which their judgment tells them is the most laudable. The voice of reafon is more to be regarded than the bent of any prefent inclination, fince, by the qule above-mentioned, inclination will at length come over to reafon, though we can never force reafon to comply with inclination.

In the third place, this obfervation may teach the moft fenfual and irreligious man to overlook those hardhips and difficulties, which are apt to difcourage him from the profecution of a virtuous life. “The Gods," faid Hefiod, "have placed labour before virtue; the way to her is at firft rough and difficult, but grows more fmooth and eafy the farther you advance in it." The man who proceeds in it with fteadinefs and refolution, will in a little time find that "her ways are ways of pleafantnefs, and that all her paths are peace."

To enforce this confideration, we may further obferve, that the practice of religion will not only be attended with that pleasure which naturally accompanies thofe

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actions to which we are habituated, but with those fu pernumerary joys of heart that rife from the conscioufnefs of fuch a pleasure, from the fatisfaction of acting. up to the dictates of reason, and from the prospect of an happy immortality.

In the fourth place, we may learn from this obfervation which we have made on the mind of man, to take particular care, when we are once fettled in a regular course of life, how we too frequently indulge ourselves in any the most innocent diverfions and entertainments, fince the mind may infenfibly fall off from the relish of virtuous actions, and, by degrees, exchange that pleasure which it takes in the performance of its duty, for delights of a much more inferiour and unprofitable nature.

The laft ufe which I fhall make of this remarkable property in human nature, of being delighted with those actions to which it is accustomed, is to fhow how abfolutely neceffary it is for us to gain habits of virtue in this life, if we would enjoy the pleatures of the next. The state of blifs, we call Heaven, will not be capable of affecting thofe minds which are not thus qualified for it; we muft in this world gain a relish of truth and virtue, if we would be able to tafte that knowledge and perfection which are to make us happy in the next. The feeds of thofe fpiritual joys and raptures, which are to rife up and flourish in the foul to all eternity, muft be planted in it during this its prefent ftate of probation. In short, heaven is not to be looked upon only as the reward, but as the natural effect of a religious life.

XV. On Pedantry.

PEDANTRY, in the common fenfe of the word, means an abfurd oftentation of learning, and ftiffness of phrafeology, proceeding from a mifguided knowledge of books, and a total ignorance of men.

But I have often thought, that we might extend its fignification a good deal farther; and, in general, ap ply it to that failing which difpofes a perfon to obtrude upon others fubjects of converfation relating to his own bufinefs, ftudies, or amusements.

In this fenfe of the phrafe, we fhould find pedants in every character and condition of life. Inftead of a black

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coat and plain flirt, we fhould often fee pedantry appear in an embroidered fuit and Bruffels lace: instead of being bedaubed with fnuff, we fhould find it breathing perfumes; and, in place of a book-worm, crawling through the gloomy cloifters of an univerfity, we should mark it in the state of a gilded butterfly, buzzing through. the gay region of the drawing-room.

Robert Daily Efq. is a pedant of this laft kind. When he tells you that his ruffles coft twenty guineas a pair; that his buttons were the first of the kind, made by one of the most eminent artists in Birmingham; that his buckles were procured by means of a friend at Paris, and are the exact pattern of thofe worn by the Comte d'Artois; that the loop of his hat was of his own contrivance, and has fet the fashion to half a dozen of the fineft fellows in town: when he defcants on all thefe particulars, with that fmile of felf-complacency which fits for ever on his cheek, he is as much a pedant as his quondam tutor, who recites verfes from Pindar, tells ftories out of Herodotus, and talks for an hour on the energy of the Greek particles..

But Mr Daify is ftruck dumb by the approach of his brother Sir Thomas, whofe pedantry goes a pitchhigher, and pours out all the intelligence of France and Italy, whence the young Baronet is just returned, after a tour of fifteen months over all the kingdoms of the continent. Talk of mufic, he cuts you fhort with the hiftory of the first finger at Naples; of painting, he runs you down with a description of the gallery at Florence; of architecture, he overwhelms you with the dimensions of St Peter's, or the great church at Antwerp; or, if You leave the province of art altogether, and introduce The name of a river or hill, he inftantly deluges you with the Rhine, or makes you dizzy with the height of Æt na, or Mount Blanc.

Mifs will have no difficulty of owning her great aunt to be a pedant, when fhe talks all the time of dinner on the compofition of the pudding, or the feafoning of the

ince-pies; or enters into a difquifition on the figure of the damask table-cloth, with a word or two on the thrift of making one's own linen: but the young lady will be frprifed when I inform her, that her own hiftory of laft Thursday's

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Thursday's affembly, with the epifode of Lady Di's feather, and the digreffion to the qualities of Mr Frizzle the hair-dreffer, was alto a piece of downright pedantry.

Mrs Caudle is guilty of the fame weakness, when the. recounts the numberlefs witticifms of her daughter Emmy, describes the droll figure her little Bill made yefterday at trying on his first pair of breeches, and informs us, that Bobby has got feven teeth, and is just cutting.. an eighth, though he will be but nine months old next Wednesday at fix o'clock in the evening. Nor is her pedantry lefs difgufting, when the proceeds to enumerate the virtues and good qualities of her husband ; though this laft fpecies is fo uncommon, that it may, perhaps, be admitted into converfation for the fake of novelty.

There is pedantry in every difquifition, however mafterly it may be, that ftops the general converfation of the company. ture he is apt to get into, though it is fupported by the moft extensive information and the clearest difcernment, it is ftill pedantry; and, while I admire the talents of Silius, I cannot help being unealy at his exhibition of them. Last night, after fupper, Silius began upon Proteftantifin, proceeded to the Irish matfacre, went through the Revolution, drew the character of King William, repeated anecdotes of Schomberg, and ended at a quar ter past twelve, by delineating the courfe of the Boyne, in half a bumper of port, upon my best tables which river, happening to overflow its banks, did infinite damage to my coufin Sophy's white fatin petticoat.

When Silius delivers that fort of lec.

In short, every thing, in.this fenfe of the word, is pedantry, which tends to deftroy that equality of cof verfation which is neceffary to the perfect eafe and good humour of the company. Every one would be ftruck with the unpolitepefs of that perfon's behaviour, who fhould help himself to a whole plate of peale or strawberries which fome friend had fent him for a rarity in the beginning of the feafon. Now, converfation is one of thofe good things of which our guests or companions are equally intitled to a fhare, as of any other confti, tuent part of the entertainment; and it is as fential a

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