Mr. Anthony Bacon, then a very young man, and on his travels, expreffes himfelf thus-"The danger is great that we are fubject to, in lying in the company of "the worfer fort. In natural bodies, evil "airs are avoided, and infection fhunned "of them, that have any regard to their health. There is not fo probable a rea"fen for the corruptions, that may grow "to the mind of one from the mind of an"other; but the danger is far greater, and "the effects, we fee more frequent: for "the number of evil-difpofed in mind is greater than the number of fick in body...... Though the well-difpofed will "remain fome good space without corruption, yet time, I know not how, worketh "a wound into him......Which weakness "of ours confidered, and eafinefs of nature, "apt to be deceived, looked into; they do "bet provide for themselves, that separate itemjelves, as far as they can, from the b.d, and draw as nigh to the good, as by any poffibility they can attain to."

To what I have already faid, in proof that we should thus feparate ourselves, I fhal now add two further reafons for our dcing it: 1. The wrong inclinations, the prone nefs to violate fome or other part of our duty, which we all find in ourfelves. 2. The power which custom hath, to reconcile us to what we, at first, most dreaded.

Need I tell you, that our natural depravity has not only been the theme of chrif tian writers; but that the most eminent heathen authors, poets, historians, philofopers, join in confeffing it?

Where, alas! is the man, who has not his wrong tendencies to lament? Whom do you know able to conceal them, to prevent a clear difcovery of them in his prac

tice?

According as we are liable to act amifs, we, certainly, must be in more or lefs dan ger from affociating with thofe, who either will feek to draw us into guilt or will Countenance us in it—or will diminith our abhorrence of it. Some danger from fuch company there must be even to him, whofe iminations are leaft faulty; fince they may be made worfe-they may produce bad actions, the repetition of which would form bad habits; and nothing could be fo likely to heighten any depravity of difpofition, and carry it to the moft ratal lengths of misconduct, as a familiarity with thofe, who have no dread of guilt, or none that

reftrains them from complying with the temptations they meet with to guilt.

You may, perhaps, think, that you could be in no danger from any companion, to whofe excefies you found not in yourfelf the leaft propensity: but believe me, my friend, this would by no means warrant your fafety.

Though fuch a companion might not induce you to offend in the very fame way, that he doth; he would, probably, make you the offender, that you otherwife never would have been. If he did not bring you to conform to his practice, would he not be likely to infinuate his principles? His difregard to his duty would tend to render you indiferent to yours: and, while he leffened your general regard to virtue, he might make you a very bad man, though you should continue wholly to avoid his particular crimes.

The unconcernednefs, with which he gave his worst inclinations their scope, could hardly be day after day obferved, without making you lefs folicitous to reftrain your own wrong tendencies, and ftrongly urging you to a compliance with them.

2. The danger there is in converfing with the immoral will be yet more apparent; if you will, next, attend to the power of custom in reconciling us to that, which we, at first, moft dreaded.

Whence is it, that veteran troops face an enemy, with almost as little concern as they perform their exercife? The man of the greatest courage among them felt, probably, in the first battle wherein he was, a terror that required all his courage to furmount. Nor was this terror, afterwards, overcome by him, but by degrees; every fucceeding engagement abated it: the of tener he fought, the lefs he feared: by being habituated to danger, he learned, at length, to defpife it,

An ordinary fwell of the ocean alarms the youth who has never before been upon it; but he, whofe fears are now railed, when there is nothing that ought to excite them, becomes foon without any, even when in a fituation, that might juftly dismay him; he is calm. when the form is molt violent; and discovers no uneafy apprehenfions, while the veflel, in which he fails, is barely not finki g.

You cannot, I am perfuaded, vifit an hofpital-furvey the variety of diftrefs there-hear the complaints of the fick

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quent we hall experience it fo, even when it is truly lamented; and when, to avoid it, is both our with and our endeavour. And if the influence of truth may receive fuch hindrance from our natural depravity, from this depravity, even when we have kept out of the way of all, who would encourge us to favour it, there, furely, mutt be an high degree of probability, that we fhall be lefs mindful of our obligations, when we are not only prompted by our own appetites to violate them, but moved thereto by the counsel and example of those, whole converfation best pleafes us; and whole opinions and actions will, therefore, come with a more than ordinary recommendation to us.

The affent, which we give, upon fufficient evidence, to moral truths, could no more be unfettled by ridicule and fophiftry, than that which we give to mathematical truths, did our minds always retain the fame difpofition with refpect to the one, that they do, as to the other.

With regard to the latter, we are never willing to be deceived-we always ftand alike affected towards them: our convicabout them was obtained, at first, upon fach grounds, as must always remain our inducements to preferve it: no luft could be gratined, no intereft ferved, by its acting lets forcibly upon us: in its defence the credit of our understanding is greatly concerned. And how vain muft ridicule and chitry be neceffarily thought, where their only aim is, that we should acknowledge a fuperior difcernment in thoie peris, whole oppofition increafes our contempt of their ignorance, by making a plainer difcovery of it?

As for moral truths, they are often digreeable to us-When we have had the fulleft evidence of them, we want not, occafionally, the inclination to overlook it: If, under feme circumstances, we are ready to acknowledge its force; there are others, when we will not give it any attention. Here fancy and hope interpole: a governing parton a lows us only a faint view of, or wholly diverts our notice from, whatever fhould be our inducement to reftrain it; and users us to dwell on nothing but what will justify, or excufe, us in giving way to it. Our reluctance to admit, that we have not judged as we ought to have done, is rangely abated, when we thereby are fet liberty to act as we plente.

When the endeavour is to laugh us, or to argue us, out of thofe principles that

we, with much felf denial adhere to; we fhall but feebly oppote its fuccefs. He has a ftrong party on his fide within our bofoms, who feeks to make us quit opinions, which are still controuling our affections. If we are not fecure from acting contrary to our duty, what cogent proofs foever we have of its being fuch, and what fatisfaction foever we have had in its difcharge; we are highly concerned to avoid every temptation to offend: and it, undoubt diy, is a very strong one, to hear continually what is likelieit to remove the fear of in

dulging our appetites; and continually to fee, that they who apply to us act as they advife-allow themselves in the liberties, they would have us to take; and are under none of the checks, which they prompt us to throw off.

Though what we did not relish, and what we thought would fpeedily dellroy us, we might not eat, when our companions fhewed themfelves fond of it, and prefied us to take it; yet, if we apprehended no immediate danger from their meal-if we were eye-witnes of its being attended with none-if they were continually expreffing their high delight in it, and repeating their affurances, that all, either our indifference towards, or difrelish of it, was only from prejudice and prepoffeffion; we, very probably, thould at length yield, and quit both our difguit of their repait, and our dread of its confequences. And if this might enfue, when we were invited to partake of that, which was lefs agreeable to our palates, what fhould be feared, when our company tempted us to that, which we could be pleased with, and were only withheld from by fuch an apprehenfion of danger, as nothing could fooner remove, than our obferving thofe, with whom we most converfed, to be without it?

Reafon is, certainly, always on the fide of duty. Nor is there, perhaps, any man, who, when he seriously confiders what is beit for him to do, will not purpose to do that which is right. But, fince we can act without confideration in the most important articles, and nothing is lefs likely to be considered, than what we find quite cuftomary with others-what we fee them act without remorse or fcruple; when we are, day after day, eye-witneffes of our affociates allowing themfelves in a wrong practice, perfifting in it without expreffing the leaft dread of its confequences; it is as abfurd to think, that our moral feeling fhould not be injured thereby, as it is to H 4

fuppofe,

fuppofe, that our hands would preferve the fame softness, when they had been for years accustomed to the oar, which they had when they first took it up; or, that hard labour would affect us as much when inured to it, as when we entered upon it.

I will, for the prefent, take my leave of you with an Italian proverb, and an Englifh one exactly anfwerable to it

Dimmi con chi tu vai, fapro chel che fai. Tell me with whom thou goeft, and I'll tell thee what thou doeft.

Dean Bolton.

$ 125. LETTER VI. SIR,

I know not what I can add on the prefent fubject of our correfpondence, that may be of greater fervice to you than the following fhort relation.-I may not, indeed, be exact in every particular of it, becaufe I was not at all acquainted with the gentleman, whom it concerns; and because many years have paffed fince I received an account of him; but as my information came from perfons, on whofe veracity I could depend, and as what they told me much affected me when I heard it, and has, fince, been very often in my thoughts; I fear that the melancholy defcription, which you will here have of human frailty, is but too true in every thing material

therein.

in

At the first appearance of town, nothing, perhaps, was more the topic of converfation, than his merit. He had read much: what he had read, as it was on the most useful fubjects, fo he was thoroughly mafter of it; gave an exact account of it, and made very wife reflections upon it. During his long refidence at a distance from our metropolis, he had met with few, to whom he was not greatly fuperior, both in capacity and attainments: yet this had not in the leaft difpofed him to dictate, to be pofitive and affuming, to treat any with contempt or neglect.

He was obliging to all, who came near him; talked on the fubjects which they beft understood, and which would be likelieft to induce them to take their full fhare of the converfation.

They, who had spent every winter near the court, faw nothing in his behaviour, that thewed how far he had lived from it -nothing which was lefs fuitable to any civility, that could be learned in it.

His manners were only lefs courtly, in their implicity and purity. He did not,

often, directly reprove the libertine dif courfe of his equals; but would recommend himself to none, by expreffing the flightest approbation of fuch difcourfe: He fhewed it did not pleafe him, though he declined Jaying fo.

He forbore that invective against the manners of the age, which could only irritate; and thought that, at his years, the fitteft cenfure he could pafs on them, would be to avoid them. It feemed, indeed, his particular care, that he might not be reprefented either as a bigot, or a cynic; but yet, as he knew how to defend his principles, fo he fhewed himfelf, on every proper occafion, neither afraid nor ashamed to engage in their defence.

His converfation was among perfons of his own rank, only fo far as decorum required it fhould be: their favourite topics were fo little to his tafte, that his leifure hours, where he could have his choice, were paffed among thofe, who had the most learning and virtue, and, whether diftinguished, or not, by their ancestors worth, would be fo by their own.

He had high notions of his duty to his country; but having feen what felf-intereftedness, at length, fhewed itself, where he had heard the ftrongest profeffions of patriotifm, it made, him very cautious with whom he engaged, and utterly averse from determining of any as friends to the public, merely because they were oppofers of the court.

No one judged more rightly of the hurt that muft enfue, from irreligion spreading itfelf among the common people; and, therefore, where his example was most remarked, and could be moft efficacious, he took particular care, that it should promote a juft reverence of the Deity.

Thus did A. A. fet out in the world, and thus behaved, for fome years, notwithftanding the bad examples he had every where before him, among thofe of his own ftation. In one of the accomplishments of a gentleman (though, furely, one of the very meaneft of them) he was thought to excel; and many fine speeches were made him upon that account. They were but too much regarded by him; and, gradually, drew him often into the company he would have defpifed, had he heard lefs of his own praife in it. The compliments fo repeatedly paid him by the frivolous reconciled him, at length, to them. As his attachment to them got ground, his ferioufness loft it. The patriot was no

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