No. CXLIX. ON THE BEAUTY AND HAP

PINESS OF AN OPEN BEHAVIOUR AND AN INGENUOUS DISPOSITION.

A

Great part of mankind, if they cannot furnish themselves with the courage and generofity of the lion, think themfelves equally happy, and much wifer, with the pitiful cunning of the fox. Every word they fpeak, however trivial the fubject, is weighed before it is uttered. A difguftful filence is obferved till fomebody of authority has advanced an opinion, and then, with a civil leer, a doubtful and hefitating affent is given, fuch as may not preclude the opportunity of a fubfequent retraction. If the converfation turn only on the common topics, of the weather, the news, the play, the opera, they are no lefs referved in uttering their opinion, than if their lives and fortunes depended on the fentiment they should at laft venture, with oracular dignity, to advance. Whatever may be their real idea on the fubject, as truth is a trifle compared to the object of pleafing thofe with whom they converse, they generally contrive gently to agree with you; unlefs it fhould appear to them, on mature confideration, that their opinion (if contingencies to the number of at least ten thoufand fhould take place) may, at the distance of half a century, involve them in fome fmall danger of giving a little offence, or of incurring a trifling embarraffment. They wear a conflant fimile on their countenance, and are all goodness and benevolence, if you will believe their profeflions: but beware; for their hearts are as dark as the abyffes which conftitute the abodes of the evil fpirit. A man of this character niger eft, as Horace fays, and thou, who juftly claimeft the title of an honeft Englishman, be upon thy guard when thine ill fortune introduces thee into his ccpany.

Thefe crafty animals are even more reterved, cautious, timid, and ferpentine, in action than in converfation.

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verfation. They lay the deepest schemes, and no conclave of cardinals, no combination of confpirators, no confederacy of thieves, ever deliberated with more impenetrable fecrecy. Connections are fought with the most painful folicitude. No arts and no affiduities are neglected to obtain the favour of the great. Their hearts pant with the utmost anxiety to be introduced to a family of diftinction and opulence, not only because the connection gratifies their pride, but also because, in the wonderful complications and viciffitudes of human affairs, it may one day promote their interest. Alas! before that day arrives, their perpetual uneafinefs has usually put a period to their ambition, by terminating their existence. But even if they gain their ends after a youth and a manhood confumed in conftant care and fervitude, yet the pleasure is not adequate to the pain, nor the advantage to the labour. Every one is ready to complain of the hortness of life; to fpend, therefore, the greateft part of it in perpetual fear, caution, fufpence, and folicitude, merely to accomplish an object of worldly ambition or avarice; what is it but the proverbial folly of him who lofes a pound to fave a penny? Give me, ye powers! an ingenuous man would exclaim, give me health and liberty, with a competence, and I will compafionate the man of a timid and fervile foul, who has at laft crept on hands and knees, through thick and thin, into a ftall, and feated his limbs, after they have been palfied with care, on the bench of judges or of bifhops.

Indeed, the perpetual agitation of fpirits, the tormenting fears, and the ardent hopes, which alternately diforder the bofom of the subtle and fufpicious worldling, are more than a counterbalance to all the riches and titular honours which fuccefsful cunning can obtain. What avail croziers, coronets, fortunes, manfion- houses, parks, and equipages, when the poor poffeffor of them has worn out his fenfibility, ruined his nerves, loft his eyes, and perhaps ftained his honour, and wounded his confcience, in the toilfome drudgery of the most abject of fervitude, from his youth up even to the hoary age feebleness and decrepitude? When a man has a numerous offspring, it may, indeed, be generous to facrifice

his

his own eafe and happiness to their advancement. He may feel a virtuous pleasure in his conduct, which may foothe him under every circumftance of disagreeable toil or painful fubmiffion. But it is obvious to obferve, that the most artful of men and the greatest slaves to interest and ambition, are frequently unmarried men; and that they were unmarried, because their caution and timidity would never permit them to take a step which could never be revoked. Themselves, however unamiable, have been the only objects of their love; and the rest of mankind have been made ufe of merely as the inftruments of their mean purposes and felfifh gratifications. But the rest of mankind need not envy them, for they inflict on themfelves the punishments they deferve. They are always craving and never fatisfied; they fuffer a torment which is juftly reprefented as infernal; that of being perpetually reaching after bleffings which they can never grafp, of being prohibited to tafte the fruit whofe colour appears fo charming to the eye, and whofe flavour fo delicious to the imagination.

How lovely and how happy, on the other hand, an open and ingenuous behaviour! An honeft, unfufpicious heart, diffuses a ferenity over life like that of a fine day, when no cloud conceals the blue æther, nor a blaft ruffles the ftilnefs of the air; but a crafty and defigning bofom is all tumult and darkness, and may be faid to resemble a mifty and difordered atmosphere in the comfortless climate of the poor Highlander. The one raises a man almoft to the rank of an angel of light; the other finks him to a level with the powers of darkness.-The one conftitutes a terreftrial heaven in the breaft; the other deforms and debafes it till it becomes another hell.

An open and ingenuous difpofition is not only beautiful and moft conducive to private happiness, but productive of many virtues effential to the welfare of fociety. What is fociety without confidence? But if the selfish and mean fyftem, which is established and recommended among many whofe advice and example have weight, fhould univerfally prevail, in whom, and in what shall we be able to confide? It is already fhock

ing to a liberal mind to obferve, what a multitude of papers, parchments, oaths, and folemn engagements are required, even in a trivial negociation. On the contrary, how comfortable and how honourable to human nature, if promises were bonds, and affertions affidavits ! What pleasure, and what improvement would be derived from converfation, if every one would dare to speak his real fentiments, with modefty and decorum indeed, but without any unmanly fear of offending, or fervile defire to please for the fake of intereft! To please by honeft means and from the pure motives of friendship and philanthropy is a duty; but they who study the art of pleafing merely for their own fakes, are, of all characters, thofe which ought leaft to please, and which appear, when the mafque is removed, the moft difgufful. Truth, and fimplicity of manners, are not only effential to virtue and happiness, but, as objects of tafte, truly beautiful. Good minds will always be pleafed with them, and bad minds we need not with to pleafe.

Since cunning and deceit are thus odious in themfelves, and incompatible with real happinefs and dignity, I cannot help thinking, that thofe inftructors of the rifing generation who have infifted on fimulation and diffimulation, on the penfieri firetti, on the thoufand tricks of worldly wisdom, are no less mistaken in their ideas, than mean, contracted, and illiberal. Liften not, ye generous young men, whofe hearts are yet untainted, liften not to the delufive advice of men so deluded, or fo bafe. Have courage enough to avow the fentiments of your fouls, and let your countenance and your tongue be the heralds of your hearts. Please, confiftently with truth and honour, or be contented not to please. Let juftice and benevolence fill your bofom, and they will shine fpontaneously like the real gem without the aid of a foil, and with the moft durable and captivating brilliancy.

No.

No. CL. A REMEDY FOR DISCONTENT.

COME

OMPLAINTS and murmurs are often loudest and most frequent among those who poffefs all the external means of temporal enjoyment. Something is ftill wanting, however high and opulent their condition, fully to complete their fatisfaction. Suppofe an indulgent Providence to accomplish every defire; are they now at laft contented? Alas! no; their uneafiness feems for ever to encreafe, in proportion as their real neceffities are diminished. It is in vain then to endeavour to make them happy by adding to their store, or aggrandizing their honours. Their appetite is no lefs

infatiable than their tafte faftidious.

But there yet may remain a remedy. Let thofe, who are miferable among riches and grandeur, leave, for a moment, their elevated rank, and defcend from their palaces to the humble habitations of real and unaffected woe. If their hearts are not deftitute of feeling, they will return from the fad fcenes to their closets, and on their knees pour forth the ejaculations of gratitude to that univerfal Parent, who has given them abundance, and exempted them from the thoufand ills, under the preffure of which the greater part of His children drag the load of life. Inftead of fpending their hours in brooding over their own imaginary evils, they will devote them to the alleviation of real mifery among the deftitute fons of indigence, in the neglected walks of vulgar life.

That one half of the world knows not how the other half lives, is a common and just observation. A fine lady, furrounded with every means of accommodation and luxury, complains in a moment of ennui, that furely no mortal is fo wretched as herself. Her fufferings are too great for her acute fenfibility. She expects pity from all her acquaintance, and pleases herself with the idea that he is an example of fingular misfortune, and remarkable patience. Phyficians at

tend,