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mon adventures. Such are the thoughts of the executive part of an army, and indeed of "the grofs of mankind in general; but none of "these men of mechanical courage have ever 6: made any great figure in the profeffion of arms. "Thofe who are formed for command, are "fuch as have reafoned themfelves, out of a confideration of greater good than length of days, into f ch a negligence of their being, as "to make it their firft pofition, that it is one day to be refigned; and fince it is, in the pro"fecution of worthy actions and fervice of man"kind they can put it to habitual hazard. The event of our defigns, they fay, as it relates to others, is uncertain; but as it relates to our"felves it must be profperous, while we are in the purfuit of our duty, and within the terms upon which Providence has enfured our happinefs, whether we die or live. All that nature has prefcribed must be good; and as "death is natural to us, it is abfurdity to fear "it. Fear lofes its purpose when we are fure it cannot preferve us, and we fhould draw refo"lution to meet it from the impoffibility to escape it. Without a refignation to the neceffity of dying, there can be no capacity in man to attempt any thing that is glorious; "but when they have once attained to that per"fection, the pleasures of a life spent in martial "adventures, are as great as any of which the "human mind is capable. The force of reason "gives a certain beauty, mixed with the con"fcience of well-doing and thirst of glory, to all

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which before was terrible and ghaftly to the imagination. Add to this, that the fellow"fhip of danger, the common good of mankind, "the general caufe, and the manifeft virtue you may obferve in fo many men, who made no "figure until that day, are fo many incentives "to destroy the little confideration of their own "perfons, Such are the heroic part of foldiers "who are qualified for leaders: as to the rest "whom I before fpoke of, I know not how it "is, but they arrive at a certain habit of being "void of thought, infomuch that on occafion of "the most imminent danger they are still in the "fame indifference. Nay I remember an in"ftance of a gay Frenchman, who was led on "in battle by a fuperior officer, whofe conduc "it was his cuftom to speak of always with (c contempt and raillery, and in the beginning "of the action received a wound he was fenfible 16 was mortal; his reflection on this occafion "I wish I could live another hour, to fee how this blundering coxcomb will get clear "of this bufpefs."

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was,

"I remember two young fellows who rid in the fame fquadron of a troop of horfe, who

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were ever together; they eat, they drank, they "intrigued; in a word, all their paffions and af"fections feemed to tend the fame way, that ap? peared fervicable to each other in them. We (6 were in the dusk of the evening to march over a river, and the troop there geniicimen belong. "ed to were to be transported in a ferry-boat, as "faft as they could, One of the friends was now

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in the boat, while the other was drawn up "with others by the water-fide waiting the re"<turn of the boat. A diforder happened in the pffage by an unruly horfe; and a gentleman who had the rein of his horfe negligently under his arm, was forced into the water by his "horfe's jumping over. The friend on the shore

"cried out, "Who is that is drowned trow ?!" "He was immediately answered "Your friend, "Harry Thompfon." He very gravely replied, (c Ay, he had a mad horfe." This short epitaph "from fuch a familiar, without more words, << gave me, at that time under twenty, a very "moderate opinion of the friendship of compa"nions. Thus is affection and every other mo"tive of life in the generality rooted out by the "present busy scene about them: they lament 66 no man whofe capacity can be supplied by "another; and where men converfe without de"licacy, the next man you meet with will ferve

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as well as he whom you have lived with "half your life. To fuch the devaftation of "countries, the mifery of inhabitants, the cries "of the pillaged, and the filent forrow of the 66 great unfortunate, are ordinary objects; their "minds are bent upon the little gratifications of "their own fenfes and appetites, forgetful of "compaffion, infenfible of glory, avoiding only "fhame; their whole heart is taken up with the "trivial hope of meeting and being merry. "Thefe are the people who make up the grofs of "the foldiery: but the fine gentleman in that "band of men, is fuch a one as I have now in

my eye, who is foremoft in all danger to which "he is ordered. His officers are his friends and "companions, as they are men of honour and "gentlemen; the private men his brethren, as "they are of his fpecies. He is beloved of all "that behold him; they wish him in danger as "he views their ranks, that they may have occa"fions to fave him at their own hazard. Mu"tual love is the order of the files where he com "mands; every man afraid for himself and his "neighbour, not left their commander should "punish them, but left he should be offended. "Such is his regiment who knows mankind, " and feels their diftreffes fo far as to prevent "them. Juft in diftributing what is their due, "he would think himself below their taylor to "wear a snip of their clothes in lace upon his "own: and below the most rapacious agent, "fhould he enjoy a farthing above his own pay, "Go on, brave man, immortal glory is thy for"tune, and immortal happiness thy reward."

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wishes which we hear expreffed in converfation, there is not one education, than that of wifhing one's felf youngmore unworthy a gentleman or a man of liberal er. I have obferved this wifh is ufually made upon fight of fome object which gives the idea of a past action, that it is no difhonour to us that we canfhameful when we performed it. not now repeat; or elfe on what was in itfelf It is a certain fign of a foolish or a diffolute mind if we want our youth again only for the strength of bones

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and finews which we once were mafters of. It is, as my author has it, as abfurd in an old man to wish for the strength of a youth, as it would be in a young man to wish for the ftrength of a bull or a horfe. Thefe wishes are both equally out of nature, which fhould direct in all things that are not contradictory to juftice, law, and reafon. But though every old man has been young, and every young one hopes to be old, there feems to be a moft unnatural mifunderftanding between those two stages of life. This unhappy want of commerce arifes from the infolent arrogance or exultation in youth, and the irrational defpondence or felf-pity in age. A young man whofe paffion and ambition is to be good and wife, and an old one who has no inclination to be lewd or debauched, are quite unconcerned in this fpeculation; but the cocking young fellow who treads upon the toes of his elders, and the old fool who envies' the faucy pride he fees in him, are the objects of our prefent con tempt and derifion. Contempt and derifion are harsh words; but in what manner can one give advice to a youth in the purfuit and poffeffion of fenfual pleasures, or afford pity to an old man in the impotence and defire of enjoying them? When young men in public places betray in their deportment an abandoned refignation to their appetites, they give to fober minds a profpect of a defpicable age, which, if not interrupted by death in the midft of their follies, muft certainly come. When an old man bewails the loss of such gratifications which are paft, he difcovers a monstrous inclination to that which it is not in the courfe of Providence to recal. The state of an old man, who is diffatisfied merely for his being fuch, is the most out of all measures of reafon and good fenfe of any Being we have any account of from the higheit angel to the lowest worm. How miferable is the contemplation to confider a libidinous old man, while all created things, befides himself and devils, are following the order of Providence, fretting at the courfe of things, and be ing almoft the fole male-content in the creation. But let us a little reflect upon what he has loft by the number of years: the paffions which he had in his youth are not to be obeyed as they were then, but reafon is more powerful now without the difturbance of them. An old gentleman, the other day in difcourfe with a friend of his, reflecting upon fome adventures they had in youth, together, cried out, "oh Jack, thofe were happy days! That is true," replied his friend, "but methinks we go about our bufinefs more quietly than we did then." One would think it fhould be no fall fatisfaction to have gone fo far in our journey that the heat of the day is over with us. When life itself is a fever, as it is in licentious youth, the pleasures of it are no other than the dreams of a man in that distemper, and it is as abfurd to wish the return of that feafon of life, as for a man in health to be forry for the lofs of gilded palaces, fairy walks and flowery paftures, with which he remembers he was entertained in the troubled lumbers of a fit of ficknefs.

As to all the rational and worthy pleasures of our being, the confcience of a good fame, the contemplation of another life, the respect and commerce of honeft men, our capacities for fuch enjoyments are enlarged by years. While health endures, the latter part of life, in the eye of rea

fon, is certainly the more eligible. The memory of a well-fpent youth gives a peaceable, unmixed, and elegant pleasure to the mind; and to fuch who are fo unfortunate as not to be able to look back on youth with fatisfaction, they may give themselves no little confolation, that they are under no temptation to repeat their follies, and that they at prefent defpife them. It was prettily faid, "He that would be long an old man, must "begin early to be one:" It is too late to refign a thing after a man is robbed of it; therefore it is neceffary that before the arrival of age we bid adieu to the pursuits of youth, otherwife fenfual habits will live in our imaginations when our limbs cannot be fubfervient to them. The poor fellow who loft his arm last siege, will tell you, he feels the fingers that were buried in Flanders ake every cold morning at Chelsea.

The fond humour of appearing on the gay and fashionable world, and being applauded for trivial excellencies, is what makes youth have age in contempt, and makes age refign with fo ill a grace the qualifications of youth: but this in both fexes is inverting all things, and turning the natural course of our minds, which fhould build their approbations and diflikes upon what nature and reafon dictate, into chimera and confufion.

Age, in a virtuous perfon, of either fex, carries in it an authority which makes it preferable to all the pleafures of youth. If to be faluted, attended, and confulted with deference, are inftances of pleasure, they are such as never fail a virtuous old age. In the enumeration of the imperfections and advantages of the younger and later years of man, they are fo near in their condition, that, methinks, it fhould be incredible we fee fo little commerce of kindness between them. If we confider youth and age withTully, regarding the affinity to death, youth has many more chances to be near it than age; what youth can fay more than an old man, "He fhall live until night?" Youth catches diftern pers more eafily, its fickness is more violent, and its recovery more doubtful. The youth indeed hopes for many more days, fo cannot the old man. The youth's hopes are ill-grounded; for what is more foolish than to place any confidence upon an uncertainty? But the old man has not room fo much as for hope; he is ftill happier than the youth, he has already enjoyed what the other does but hope for: one wishes to live long, the other has iived long. But alas, is there any thing in human life, the duration of which can be called long? There is nothing which must end to be va lued for its continuance. If hours, days, months, and years pafs away, it is no matter what hour, what day, what month, or what year we die. The applaufe of a good actor is due to him at whatever scene of the play he makes his exit. It is thus in the life of a man of sense: a fhort life is fufficient to manifeft himself a man of honour and virtue: when hejceases to be fuch, he has lived too long, and while he is fuch, it is of no confequence to him how long he shall be fo, provided he is fo to his life's end,

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You are to know then that I was bred a gentleman, and had the finishing part of my education under a man of great probity, wit, and learning, in one of our univerfities. I will not deny but this made my behaviour and mien bear in it a figure of thought rather than action; and a man of a quite contrary character, who never thought in his life, rallied me one day upon it, and faid, he believed I was still a virgin. There was a young lady of virtue prefent, and I was not difpleafed to favour the infinuation; but it had a quite contrary effect ⚫ from what I expeâed. I was ever after treated with great coldnefs both by that lady and all the reft of my acquaintance. In a very little time I never came into a room but I could hear a whisper, "here comes the maid:" A girl of humour would on fome occafion fay, "why "how do you know more than any of us?

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An expreffion of that kind was generally followed by a loud laugh: in a word, for no other fault in the world than that they really thought me as innocent as themfelves, I became of no confequence among them, and was received always upon the foot of a jeft. This made fo ftrong an impreffion upon me, that I refolved to be as agreeable as the beft of the < men who laughed at me; but I obferved it was nonfenfe for me to be impudent at firft among those who knew me; my character for modefty was fo notorious wherever I had hitherto appeared, that I refolved to fhew my new face in new quarters of the world. My first step I chofe with judgment; for I went to Aftrop, and come down among a crowd of Academics, at ore dalb, the impudenteft fellow that they had ever feen in their lives. Flushed with this fuccef, I made love and was happy. Upon this conqueft I thought it would be unlike a gentleman to stay ionger with my miftrefs, and crofied the country to Bury: I could give you a very good account of myself at that place ⚫ alfo. At these two ended my first fummer of gallantry. The winter following, you would < wonder at it, but I relapfed into modeftly upon < coming among people of figure in London, yet < not fo much but that the ladies who had for

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end of the enfuing winter, made me conceive < new hopes of adventures; and instead of returning the next fummer to Aftrop or Bury, I thought myfelf qualified to go to Fpfom, and 'followed a young woman, whofe relations were jealous of my place in her favour, to Scarbo'rough. I carried my point, and in my third year afpired to go to Tunbridge, and in the autumn of the fame year made my appearance at Bath. I was now got into the way of talk proper for ladies, and was run into a vast acquaintance among them, which I always improved to the beft advantage. In all this courfe of time, and fome years following, I found a fober modeft man was always looked upon by both fexes as a precife unfafhioned fellow of no life or fpirit. It was ordinary for a man who had been drunk in good company, or

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paffed a night with a wench, to speak of it the < next day before women for whom he had the greateft refpect. He was reproved, perhaps, with a blow of the fan, or an ch fy! but the C angry lady ftill preferved an apparent appro.. bation in her countenance: he was called a frange wicked fellow, a fad wretch; he fhrugs his fhoulders, fwcars, receives another blow, fwears again he did not know he fwore, and all was well. You might often fee men game in the prefence of women, and throw at once for more than they were worth, to recommend themfelves as men of fpirit, I found by long experience that the loofeft principles and moft 'abandoned behaviour, carried all befoe them in pretensions to women of fortune. The encouragement given to people of this ftamp, made me foon throw off the remaining im'preffions of a fober education. In the above' mentioned places, as well as in town, I always kept company with thofe who lived moft at large; and in due proccfs of time was a pretty rake among the men, and a very pretty fellow among the women. I must confefs, I had fome melancholy hours upon the account of the narrownefs of my fortune, but my confcience at the fame time gave me the comfort that I had qualified myself for marrying a fortune.

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When I had lived in this manner for fome time, and became thus accomplished, I was 6 now in the twenty-feventh year of my age, about the forty-feventh of my conflitution, my health and eftate wafting very faft; when I happened to fall into the coinpany of a very pretty young lady in her own difpofal. I entertained the company, as we men of gallantry generally do, with the many haps and difafters, watchings under windows, escapes from jealous husbands, and several other perils. The young thing was wonderfully charmed with one that knew the world fo well, and talked fo fine; with Detdemona, all her lover faid affected her; "it was ftrange, it was won"derous ftrange." In a word, I faw the impreffion I had made upon her, and with a very little application the pretty thing has married me. There is fo much charm in her innocence ard beauty, that I do now as much deteft the courfe. I have been in for many years, as I ever did before I entered into it.

merly laughed at me, faid, Blefs us! how wonderfully that gendeman is improved? Seme ⚫ familiarities about the play-houses towards the

What I intend, Mr. Spedator, by writing all this to you, is that you would, before you go any further with your panegyrics on the fair

x, give them fome lectures upon their filly approbations. It is that I am weary of vice,

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