without pains and labour. The Gods have fet a price upon every real and noble pleafure. If you would gain the favour of the Deity, you must be at the pains of worshipping him; if the friendship of good men, you must ftudy to oblige them; if you would be honoured by your country, you must take care to ferve it: in fhort, if you would be eminent in war or peace, you must become mafter of all the qualifications that can make you so. These are the only terms and conditions upon which I can propofe happiness."

The Goddefs of Pleasure here broke in upon her discourse: " You fee," faid fhe, Hercules, by her own confeffion, the way to her pleafures is long and difficult; whereas that which I propofe is thort and eafy." Plas !" faid the other lady, whofe vifage glowed with paffion, made up of fcorn and pity, "what are the pleafures you propofe? To eat before you are hungry, drink before you are athirft, fleep before you are tired; to gratify appetites before they are raised, and raise fuch appetites as nature never planted. You never heard the most delicious mufic, which is the praise of one's-felf; nor faw the most beautiful object, which is the work of one's own hands. Your votaries pafs away their youth in a dream of miftaken pleasures; while they are hoarding up anguish, torment, and remorfe, for old

age.

"As for me, I am the friend of Gods, and of good men; an agreeable companion to the artizan; an houfhold guardian to the fathers of families; a patron and protector of fervants; an affociate in all true and generous friendships. The banquets of my votaries are never collly, but always delicious; for none eat or drink at them, who are not invited by hunger and thirst. Their flumbers are found, and their wakings chearful. My young men have the pleasure of hearing themselves praifed by thofe who are in years; and thofe who are in years, of being honoured by thofe who are young. In a word, my followers are favoured by the Gods, beloved by their acquaintance, efteemed by their country, and, after the clofe of their labours, honoured by pofterity.'

We know, by the life of this memorable here, to which of thefe two ladies he gave up his heart; and, I believe, every one who reads this, will do him the juffice to approve his choice. Tatler.

Letters on the Choice of Company.

§ 120. LETTER I. SIR,

but

As you are now no longer under the eye of either a parent, or a governor, wholly at liberty to act according to your own inclinations; your friends cannot be without their fears, on your account; they cannot but have fome uneafy apprehenfions, let the very bad men, with whom you may converse, should be able to efface thofe principles, which fo much care was taken at first to imprint, and has been fince to preferve, in you.

The intimacy, in which I have, for many years, lived with your family, suffers me not to be otherwife than a barer of their concern, on this occafion; and you will permit me, as fuch, to lay before you thofe confiderations, which, while they fhew you your danger, and excite your caution, may not be without their ufe in promoting your fafety.

That it should be the endeavour of our parents, to give us juft apprehenfions of things, as foon as we are capable of receiving them; and, in our earlier years, to flock our minds with useful truths-to accuftom us to the use of our reason, the restraint of our appetites, and the government of our paffions, is a point, on which, I believe, all are agreed, whofe opinions about it you would think of any confequence.

From a neglect in these particulars, you fee fo many of one fex, as much Girls at Sixty, as they were at Sixteen-their fol lies only varied their purfuits, though differently, yet equally, trifling; and you thence, likewife, find near as many of the other fex, Boys in their advanced yearsas fond of feathers and toys in their riper age, as they were in their childhood-living as little to any of the purposes of Reafon, when it has gained its full ftrength, as they did when it was weakeft. And, indeed, from the fame fource all thofe vices proceed, which most disturb and distrefs the world.

When no pains are taken to correct our bad inclinations, before they become confirmed and fixed in us; they acquire, at length, that power over us, from which we have the worft to fear-we give way to them in the inftances where we fee plaineft, how grievously we must fuffer by our com

pliance

pliance we know not how to refift them, notwithstanding the obvious ruin which will be the confequence of our yielding to them.

I don't fay, that a right education will be as benefcial, as a wrong one is hurtful: the very belt may be difappointed of its proper effects

Though the tree you set be put into an excellent foil, and trained and pruned by the skilfulleft hand; you are not, however, fare of its thriving: vermin may destroy all your hopes from it.

When the utmost care has been taken to fend a young man into the world well principled, and fully apprised of the reafonabels of a religious and virtuous life; he is, yet, far from being temptation proof he even then may fall, may fall into the wort both of principles and practices; and he is very likely to do fo, in the place where you are, if he will affociate with trofe who fpeak as freely as they act; and o feem to think, that their underftanding would be lefs advantageously fhewn, were they not to use it in defence of their

That we may be known by our compaty, is a truth become proverbial. The ends we have to serve may, indeed, occafoa us to be often with the perfons, whom we by no means refemble; or, the place, in which we are fettled, keeping us at a great diftance from others, if we will converfe at all, it must be with fome, whofe marners we least approve. But when we have our choice when no valuable intereft is promoted by affociating with the corrent-when, if we like the company of the wife and confiderate, we may have it; that we then court the one, and than the cther, feems as full a proof, as we can well give, that, if we avoid vice, it is not from the fenfe we have of the amiableness of

virtue.

Had I a large collection of books, and never looked into any that treated on grave and useful fubjects, that would contribute to make me wifer or better; but took thofe frequently, and thofe only, into my hands, that would raife my laugher, or that would merely amufe me, or that would give me loofe and impure ideas, or that inculcated atheistical or fceptical notions, or that were filled with fcurrility and invective, and therefore could only ferve to gratify my fpleen and ill-nature; they, who knew this to be my practice, muft,

certainly, form a very unfavourable opinion of my capacity, or of my morals. If nature had given me a good underflanding, and much of my time paffed in reading: were I to read nothing but what was trifling, it would spoil that understanding, it would make me a Trifler: and though formed with commendable difpofitions, or with none very blameable; yet if my favourite authors were-fuch as encouraged me to make the most of the present hour; not to look beyond it, to tafte every pleafure that offered itfelf, to forego no advantage that I could obtain-fuch as gave vice nothing to fear, nor virtue any thing to hope, in a future ftate; you would not, I am fure, pronounce otherwise of those writers, than that they would hurt my natural difpofition, and carry me lengths of guilt, which I should not have gone, without this encouragement to it.

Nor can it be allowed, that reading wrong things would thus affect me, but it muft be admitted, that hearing them would not do it lefs. Both fall under the head of Conversation; we fitly apply that term alike to both; and we may be faid, with equal propriety, to converfe with books, and to converfe with men. The impreffion, indeed, made on us by what we hear, is, ufually, much stronger than that received by us from what we read. That which paffes in our ufual intercourfe is liftened to, without fatiguing us: each, then, taking his turn in fpeaking, our attention is kept awake: we mind throughout what is faid, while we are at liberty to exprefs our own fentiments of it, to confirm it, or to improve upon it, or to object to it, or to hear any part of it repeated, or to ask what questions we please concerning it.

Difcourfe is an application to our eyes, as well as ears; and the one organ is here fo far afliftant to the other, that it greatly increases the force of what is tranfmitted to our minds by it. The air and action of the speaker gives no fmall importance to his words: the very tone of his voice adds weight to his reafoning; and occafions that to be attended to throughout, which, had it come to us from the pen or the press, we should have been afleep, before we had read half of it.

That bad companions will make us as bad as themfelves, I don't affirm. When we are not kept from their vices by our principles, we may be fo by our conftitu

H

tion;

tion; we may be lefs profligate than they are, by being more cowardly: but what I advance as certain is, That we cannot be fafe among them-that they will, in fome degree, and may in a very great one, hurt our morals. You may not, perhaps, be unwilling to have a diftinct view of the reafons, upon which I affert this.

I will enter upon them in my next. I was going to write adieu, when it came into my thoughts, that though you may not be a stranger to the much cenfured doctrine of our countryman Pelagius -a ftranger to his having denied original fin; you may, perhaps, have never heard how he accounted for the depravity, fo manifeft in the whole of our race-He afcribed it to imitation. Had he faid, that imitation makes fome of us very bad, and most of us worse than we otherwife fhould have been; I think he would not have paffed for an heretic. - Dean Bolton.

$121. LETTER II. SIR,

I promised you, that you should have the reafons, why I think that there is great danger of your being hurt by vitious acquaintance. The first thing I have here to propofe to your confideration is, what I juft mentioned at the clofe of my last-our aptnefs to imitate.

For many years of our life we are forming ourselves upon what we obferve in those about us. We do not only learn their phrafe, but their manners. You perceive among whom we were educated, not more plainly by our idiom, than by our behaviour. The cottage offers you a brood, with all the rufticity and favagenefs of its grown inhabitants. The civility and courtefy, which, in a well-ordered fa. mily, are conftantly feen by its younger members, fail not to influence their deportment; and will, whatever their natural brutality may be, difpofe them to check its appearance, and exprefs an averfenefs from what is rude and difgufting. Let the defcendant of the meanelt be placed, from his infancy, where he perceives every one mindful of decorum; the marks of his extraction are foon obliterated; a leaft, his carriage does not difcover it: and were the heir of his Grace to be continually in the kitchen or ftables, you would foon only know the young lord by his cloaths and title: in other refpects, you would judge him the fon of the groom or the fcullion.

Nor is the difpofition to imitate confined to our childhood; when this is paft, and the man is to fhew himself, he takes his colours, if I may fo fpeak, from those he is near-he copies their appearance-he feldom is, what the ufe of his reafon, or what his own inclinations, would make him.

Are the opinions of the generality, in moft points, any other, than what they hear advanced by this or that person high in their efteem, and whofe judgment they will not allow themselves to question? You well know, that one could not lately go into company, but the first thing faid was -You have, undoubtedly, read-What an excellent performance it is! The fine imagination of its noble author discovers itself in every line. As foon as this noble author seriously disowned it, all the admiration of it was at an end. Its merit, with those who had most commended it, ap. peared to be wholly the name of its fup. pofed writer. Thus we find it throughout. It is not what is written, or said, or acted, that we examine; and approve or condemn, as it is, in itself, good or bad: Our concern is, who writes, who fays, or does it; and we, accordingly, regard, or difregard it.

Look round the kingdom. There is, perhaps, fcarce a village in it, where the ferioufnefs or diffolutenefs of the Squire, if not quite a driveller, is not more or les feen in the manners of the rest of its inhabitants. And he, who is thus a pattern, takes his pattern-fashions himself by fome or other of a better eftate, or higher rank, with whose character he is pleafed, or to whom he feeks to recommend himself.

In what a fhort space is a whole nation metamorphofed! Fancy yourself in the middle of the laft century. What grave faces do you every where behold! The moft diffolutely inclined fuffers not a libertine expreffion to escape him. He who least regards the practice of virtue, assumes its appearance.

None claim, from their stations, a privilege for their vices. The greatest ftrangers to the influence of religion obferve its form. The foldier not only forbears an oath, but reproves it; he may poffibly make free with your goods, as having more grace than you, and, therefore, a better title to them; but you have nothing to fear from his lewdness, or drunkennefs.

The Royal Brothers at length land

The

The monarchy is reftored. How foon then is a grave afpect denominated a puritanical, decorum, precifenefs; ferioufnefs, fanaticifm! He, who cannot extingth in himself all fenfe of religion, is industrious to conceal his having any appears worfe than he is-would be thought to favour the crime, that he dares not commit. The lewdeft converfation is the politeft. No reprefentation pleafes, in which decency is confulted. Every favourite drama has its hero a libertine-introduces the magitrate, only to expofe him as a knave, or a cuckold; and the priest, only to defcribe him a profligate or hypocrite.

How much greater the power of fashion is, than that of any laws, by whatfoever penalties enforced, the experience of all ages and nations concurs in teaching us. We readily imitate, where we cannot be contrained to obey; and become by example, what our rule feeks in vain to make

As the Chameleon, who is known
To have no colours of his own;
But borrows from his neighbour's hue
His white or black, his green or blue;
And ftruts as much in ready light,
Which credit gives him upon fight,
As if the rainbow were in tail
Settled on him, and bis heirs male:
So the young Squire, when firft he comes
From country school to Will's or Tom's
And equally, in truth, is fit

To be a ftatesman, or a wit;
Without one notion of his own,
He faunters wildly up and down;
Till fome acquaintance, good or bad,
Takes notice of a staring lad,
Admits him in among the gang:
They jeft, reply, difpute, harangue:
He acts and talks as they befriend him,
Smear'd with the colours which they lend him.
Thus, merely, as his fortune chances,
His merit or his vice advances,

PRIOR.

Dean Bolton

Converfation, like marriage, mut have confent of parties. There is no being intimate with him, who will not be fo with you; and, in order to contract or support an intimacy, you must give the pleafure, which you would receive. This is a truth, that every man's experience must force him to acknowledge: we are sure to seek in vain a familiarity with any, who have no intereft to ferve by us, if we difregard their humour.

In courts, indeed, where the art of pleafing is more ftudied than it is elfewhere, you fee people more dexterously accommodating themselves to the turn of thofe, for whofe favour they wish; but, wherever you go, you almost conftantly perceive the fame end purfued by the fame means, though there may not be the fame adroitnefs in applying them. What a proof have you in your own neighbour hood, how effectual thefe means are!

Did you ever hear Charles-tell a good ftory-make a fhrewd obfervation-drop an expreflion, which bordered either on wit or humour? Yet he is welcome to all tables-he is much with thofe, who havẹ wit, who have humour, who are, really, men of abilities. Whence is this, but from the approbation he fhews of whatever paffes? A ftory he cannot tell, but he has a laugh in readiness for every one he bears; by his admiration of wit, he fupplies the want of it; and they, who have capacity, find no objection to the meanness of bis, whilft he appears always to think as they do. Few have their looks and tempers fo much at command as this man; and few, therefore, are fo happy in recommending themselves; but as in his way of doing it, there is, obviously, the greatest likelihood of fuccefs, we may be fure that it will be the way generally taken.

Some, I grant, you meet with, who by their endeavours, on all occafions, to fhew a fuperior difcernment, may seem to think, that to gain the favour of any one, he must be brought to their fentiments, rather than they adopt his; but I fear these perfons will be found only giving too clear a proof, either how abfurdly felf-conceit sometimes operates, or how much knowledge there may be, where there is very little common fenfe.

Did I, in defcribing the creature cailed MAN, reprefent him as having, in proportion to his bulk, more brains than any other animal we know of; I fhould not think this defcription falfe, though it could

be proved that fome of the fpecies had fcarce any brains at all.

Even where favour is not particularly fought, the very civility, in which he, who would be regarded as a well-bred man, is never wanting, muft render him unwilling to avow the moft juft difapprobation of what his companions agree in acting, or commending. He is by no means to give difguft, and, therefore, when he hears the worst principles vindicated, and the best ridiculed; or when he fees what ought to be matter of the greatest fhame, done without any; he is to acquiefce, he is to fhew no token, that what paffes is at all offenfive to him.

Confider yourself then in either of thefe fituations defirous to engage the favour of the bad man, into whofe company you are admitted-or, only unwilling to be thought by him deficient in good manners; and, I think, you will plainly fee the danger you should apprehend from him-the likelihood there is, that you should at length lofe the abhorrence of his crimes, which, when with him, you never exprefs.

lefs fober, that they might be won to your regularity, as occafion you to fear, that you should be brought to join in their exceffes? The good have been for fo long a space lofing ground among us, and the bad gaining it; and thefe are now become fuch a prodigious multitude; that it is undeniable, how much more apt we are to form ourselves on the manners of those, who difregard their duty, than on theirs, who are attentive to it."

You will here be pleased to remark, that I do not confider you as fetting out with any reforming views-as converfing with the immoral, in order to difpofe them to reasonable purfuits; but that I only apply to you, as induced to aflociate with them from the eafinefs of their temper, or the pleafantry of their humour, or your common literary pursuits, or their skill in fome of your favourite amusements, or on fome fuch-like account: and then, what I have obferved may not appear a weak argument, that they are much more likely to hurt you, than you are to benefit them.

I will clofe my argument and my letter, with a paffage from a very good hiftorian, which will fhew you the fenfe of one of the ableft of the ancient legiflators on my prefent fubject.

will theirs?

To avoid the length, which will be equally difagreeable to both of us, I will only anfwer-Do you know any inftance, which can induce you to think this probable? Are not you apprifed of many inftances, that greatly weaken the probability of it?

The vaft difproportion, which there is between the numbers of the ferious and the diffolute, is fo notorious, as to render it unquestionable that the influence of the latter far exceeds the influence of the former-that a vitious man is much more likely to corrupt a virtuous, than to be reformed by him.

An antwer of the fame kind I fhould have judged fatisfactory; if, with. respect to what I had urged in my former letter, you questioned me-why the readiness to imitate thofe, with whom we are much converfant, might not as juftly encourage you to hope, when you affociated with the

This writer, mentioning the laws which Charendas gave the Thurians, fays-" He enacted a law with reference to an evil, " on which former lawgivers had not ani"madverted, that of keeping bad compa"ny. As he conceived that the morals "of the good were fometimes quite ruin"ed by their diffolute acquaintance-that "vice was apt, like an infectious disease, "to spread itfelf, and to extend its conta

gion even to the beft difpofed of our "fptcies. In order to prevent this mif"chief, he exprefsly enjoined, that none "fhould engage in any intimacy or fami "liarity with immoral perfons-he ap"pointed that an accufation might be "

exhibited for keeping bad company, "and laid a heavy fine on fuch as were "convicted of it."

Remember Charondas, when you are difpofed to cenfure the caution fuggested by, Dear SIR, Yours, &c. Dean Bolton.

$123. LETTER IV. SIR,

Sir Francis Walfingham, in a letter to

Mr.