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to fence, he practifes both on friend and foe; but when he is a mafter in the art he never exerts it but on what he thinks the right fide.

That this laft allufion may not give my reader a wrong idea of my defign in this Paper, I muft here inform him, that the author of it is of no faction, that he is a friend to no interefts but those of truth and virtue; nor a foe to any but those of vice and folly. Though I make more noife in the world than I used to do, I am ftill refolved to act in it as an indifferent SPECTATOR. It is not my ambition to increase the number either of whigs or tories, but of wife and good men; and I could heartily wish there were not faults common to both parties, which afford me fufficient matter to work upon, without defcending to those which are peculiar to either.

If in a multitude of counsellors there is fafety, we ought to think ourselves the fecureft nation in the world. Most of our garrets are inhabited by statesmen, who watch over the liberties of their country, and make a shift to keep themfelves from ftarving by taking into their care the properties of their fellow-fubjects.

As these politicians of both fides have already worked the nation into a moft unnatural ferment, I fhall be fo far from endeavouring to raise it to a greater height, that on the contrary, it fhall be the chief tendency of my Papers to infpire my countrymen with a mutual good-will and benevolence. Whatever faults either party may be guilty of, they are rather inflamed than cured

by

by thofe reproaches which they caft upon one another. The most likely method of rectifying any man's conduct is by recommending to him the principles of truth and honour, religion and virtue; and fo long as he acts with an eye to these principles, whatever party he is of, he cannot fail of being a good Englishman, and a lover of his country.

As for the perfons concerned in this work, the names of all of them, or at least of fuch as defire it, fhall be publifhed hereafter; until which time I muft entreat the courteous reader to fufpend his curiofity, and rather to confider what is written than who they are that write it.

Having thus adjufted all neceflary preliminaries with my reader, I fhall not trouble him with any more prefatory difcourfes, but proceed in my old method, and entertain him with Speculations on every useful fubject that falls in my

way.

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557. Monday, June 21, 1714.

*

Quippe domum timet ambiguam, Tyriofque bilingues.
VIRG. n. 665.

He fears th' ambiguous race, and Tyrians double-,
'tongu❜d.'

T

HERE is nothing," fays Plato," fo delightful as the hearing or the fpeaking of truth." For this reafon there is no

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converfation fo agreeable as that of the man of integrity, who hears without any intention to betray, and fpeaks without any intention to deceive.

Among all the accounts which are given of Cato, I do not remember one that more redounds to his honour than the following paffage related by Plutarch. As an advocate was pleading the caufe of his client before one of the Prætors, he could only produce a fingle witnefs in a point where the law required the teftimony of two perfons: upon which the advocate infifted on the integrity of that person whom he had produced; but the Prætor told him, that where the law required two witneffes he would not accept of one, though it were Cato himself. Such a speech from a person who fat at the head of a court of justice, while Cato was ftill living, fhews us, more than a thousand examples, the high reputation this great man had gained among his contemporaries upon the account of his fincerity.

When fuch an inflexible integrity is a little foftened and qualified by the rules of converfation and good-breeding, there is not a more fhining virtue in the whole catalogue of social duties. A man however ought to take great care not to polish himself out of his veracity, nor refine his behaviour to the prejudice of his

virtue.

This fubject is exquifitely treated in the most elegant fermon of the great British preacher*. Archbishop Tillotfon, vol. II. Sermon I. p. 7. edit. in

folio.

3

I fhall

I fhall beg leave to tranfcribe out of it two or three fentences, as a proper introduction to a very curious letter, which I fhall make the chief entertainment of this Speculation.

The old English plainnefs and fincerity, that generous integrity of nature, and honesty of difpofition, which always argues true greatness • of mind, and is ufually accompanied with undaunted courage and refolution, is in a great • measure loft among us.

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The dialect of converfation is now-a-days fo fwelled with vanity and compliment, and fo furfeited (as I may fay) of expreffions of kindnefs and refpect, that if a man that lived an age or two ago fhould return into the world again, he would really want a dictionary to help him to understand his own language, and to know the true intrinfic value of the phrafe ‹ in fashion; and would hardly at first believe • at what a low rate the highest strains and expreffions of kindness imaginable do commonly pass in current payment; and when he should come to understand it, it would be a great while before he could bring himself with a good countenance, and a good confcience, to converfe with men upon equal terms and in their own way.'

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I have by me a letter which I look upon as a great curiofity, and which may ferve as an exemplification to the foregoing paffage, cited out of this most excellent prelate. It is faid to have been written in king Charles the Second's reign

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by the ambaffador of Bantam*, a little after his arrival in England.

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• MASTER,

HE people, where I now am, have

TH

tongues farther from their hearts than from London to Bantam, and thou knoweft ⚫ the inhabitants of one of these places do not 'know what is done in the other. They call thee and thy fubjects barbarians, because we fpeak what we mean; and account themselves a civilized people, because they speak one thing and mean another: truth they call barbarity, and falfehood politenefs. Upon my firft landing, one, who was fent from the king of this place to meet me, told me, "That he was extremely forry for the ftorm I had met with juft before my arrival." I was troubled to hear him grieve and afflict himself upon my account; but in less than a quarter of an hour he fmiled, and was as merry as if nothing had happened. Another who came with him told me by my interpreter, "He fhould be glad to do me any fervice that lay in his power." Upon which I defired him to carry one of my ⚫ portmanteaus for me; but, inftead of ferving me according to his promife, he laughed, and bid another do it. I lodged the first week " at the house of one who defired me "to think "myself at home, and to confider his house as my own." Accordingly, I the next morn

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* In 1682.

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