latter are as adventitious as the other, and as little concern the effence of the foul. They are all laudable in the man who poffeffes them only for the juft application of them. A bright imagination, while it is fubfervient to an honeft and noble foul, is a faculty which makes a man juftly admired by mankind, and furnishes him with reflection upon his own actions, which add delicacies to the feast of a good confcience: But when wit defcends to wait upon fenfual pleasures, or promotes the bafe purpofes of ambition, it is then to be contemned in pro portion to its excellence. If a man will not refolve to place the foundation of his happiness in his own mind, life is a bewildered and unhappy ftate, incapable of reft or tranquility. For to fuch a one the general applaufe of valour, wit, nay of honefty itself, can give but a very feeble comfort, fince it is capable of being interrupted by any one who wants either understanding or good-nature to fee or acknowledge fuch excellencies. This rule is fo neceffary, that one may very fafely fay, it is impoffible to know any true relifh of our being without it. Look about you in common life among the ordinary race of mankind, and you will find merit in every kind is allowed only to thofe who are in peculiar diftricts or fets of company: But fince men can have little pleafure in thefe faculties which denominate them perfons of distinction, let them give up fuch an empty purfuit, and think nothing eflential to happinefs but what is in their power, the capacity of reflecting with pleafure on their own actions, however they are interpreted.

It is fo evident a truth, that it is only in our own bofoms we are to fearch for any thing to make us happy, that it is, methinks, a difgrace to cur nature to talk of the taking our meafures from thence only as a matter of fortitude. When all is well there, the viciffitudes and diftinctions of life are the mere fcenes of a drama, and he will never act his part well who has his thoughts more fixed upon the applause of the audience than the defign of his part.

The life of a man who acts with a fteady integrity,

without valuing the interpretations of his actions, has but one uniform regular path to move in, where he cannot meet oppofition, or fear ambufcade. On the other fide, the leaft deviation from the rules of honour introduces a train of numberlefs evils, and in-· volves him in inexplicable mazes. He who has entered into guilt has bid adieu to reft, and every criminal has his thare of the mifery expressed fo emphati cally in the tragedian-

Macbeth fall fleep no more!

It was with deteftation of any other grandeur bus: the calm command of his own paffion, that the excellent Mr. Cowley cries out with fo much juftice If e'er ambition did my fancy cheat, With any thought fo mean as to be great, Continae, Heav'n, ftill from me to remove, The humble blefings of that life I love.

TATLER, Vol. IV. No. 251.

FREE-THINKERS.

IT is indeed a melancholy reflection to confider,

that the British nation which is now at a greater height: of glory for its councils and conquefts, than it ever was before, fhould diftinguifh itself by a certain loofenefs of principles, and a falling off from thofe fchemes of thinking, which conduce to the happiness and perfection of human nature. This evil comes upon us from the works of a few folemn blockheads, that meet together with the zeal and ferioufnefs of Apoffles, to extirpate common fenfe, and propagate infidelity. Thefe are wretches, who, without any show of wit, learning or reafon, publish their crude conceptions with an ambition of appearing more wife than the rest of mankind, upon no other pretence than that of diffenting from them. One gets by heart a catalogue of title-pages and editions; and immediately to become confpicuous, declares that he is an unbeliever. Another knows how to write a receipt, VOL. II. F 2

ず

or cut up a dog, and forthwith argues against the immortality of the foul. I have known many a little wit, in the oftentation of his parts, rally the truth of the fcripture, who was not able to read a chapter in it. Thefe poor wretches talk blafphemy for want of difcourfe, and are rather the objects of fcorn or pity, than of our indignation; but the grave difputant, who reads and writes, and fpends all his time in convincing himself and the world, that he is no better than a brute, ought to be whipped out of a government, as a blot to civil fociety, and a defamer of mankind. I love to confider an infidel,whether diftinguished by the title of deift,atheift,cr free-thinker, in three different lights,. în his folitudes, his afflictions, and his last moments.

A wife man who lives up to the principles of reafon and virtue, if one confiders him in his folitude, as taking in the fyftem of the univerfe, obferving the mutual dependence and harmony, by which the whole frameof it hangs together, bearing down his paflions, or fwelling his thoughts with magnificent ideas of Providence, makes a nobler figure in the eye of an intelligent being, than the greatest conqueror amid all the pomps and folemnities of a triumph. On the contrary, there is not a more ridiculous animal than an atheit in his retirement. His mind is incapable of rapture or elevation: He can only confider himself as an infignificant figure in a land-fkip, and wandering up and down in a field or meadow, under the fame terms. as the meanest of animals about him, and as fubject. to as total a mortality as they, with this aggravation, that he is the only one amongst them who lies under: the apprehenfion of it.

In diftreffes, he must be of all creatures the moft helplefs and forlorn; he feels the whole preffure of a prefent calamity, without being relieved by the mem-ory of any thing that is paft, or the profpect of any thing that is to come. Annihilation is the greateft. bleffing that he proposes to himself; and an halter or a piftol the only refuge he can fly to. But if you vrould. behold one of thofe gloomy mifcreants in his poorelt

figure, you must confider him under the terrors, or at the approach of death.

About thirty years ago I was on fhipboard with one of thefe vermin, when there arofe a brifk gale, which could frighten no body but himfelf. Upon the rolling of the fhip, he fell upon his knees, and confeffed to the chaplain, that he had been a vile atheift, and had denied the Supreme Being ever fince he came tổ his eftate. The good man was aftonifhed, and a report immediately run through the fhip, that there was an atheift upon the upper deck. Several of the common feamen, who had never heard the word before, thought it had been fome strange fifh; but they were more furprifed when they faw it was a man, and heard out of his own mouth, that he never believed till that day that there was a God. As he lay in the agonies of confeflion, one of the honest tars whispered to the boatswain, that it would be a good deed to heave him overboard. But we were now within fight of port, when of a fudden the wind fell, and the penitent relapfed, begging all of us who were prefent, as we were gentlemen, not to fay any thing of what had paffed.

He had not been afhore above two days, when one of the company began to rally him upon his devotion on fhipboard, which the other denied in fo high terms, that it produced the lie on both fides, and ended in a duel. The atheift was run through the body, and after fome lofs of blood became as good a chriftian as he was at fea, till he found that his wound was not mortal. He is at prefent one of the free-thinkers of the age, and now writing a pamphlet against feveral received opinions concerning the existence of fai

ries.

As I have taken upon me to cenfure the faults of the age and country in which I live, I fhould have thought myself inexcufable to have paffed over this crying one, which is the fubject of my prefent difcourfe. I fhall therefore from time to time give my countrymen particular cautions against this diftemper of the mind, that is almoft become fashionable, and by that means more likely to fpread. I have. fome

where read or heard a very memorable fentence, that a man would be a most insupportable moniter, fhould he have the faults that are incident to his years, conftitution, profeffion, family, religion, age, and country; and yet every man is in danger of them all. For this reafon, as I am an old man, I take particular care to avoid being covetous, and telling long ftories: As Fam choleric, I forbear not only fwearing, but all interjections of fretting, as pugh! or pith and the like. As I am a layman, I refolve not to conceive an averfion for a wife and good man, because his coat is of a different colour from mine. As I am defcended from the ancient family of the Bickerstaffs, I never call a man of merit an upftart. As a proteftant, I do not fuffer my zeal fo far to tranfport me, as to name the pope and the devil together. As I am fallen into this degenerate age, I guard myself particularly against the folly I have been now fpeaking of. And as I am an Englishman, I am very cautious not to hate a ftranger, or defpife a poor Palatine.

TATLER, Vol. II. No. 111.

Several letters which I have lately received,give me information, that fome well-difpofed perfons have taken offence at my ufing the word free-thinker as a term of reproach. To fet therefore this matter in a clear light, I muft declare, that no one can have a greater veneration than myself for the free-thinkers of antiquity, who acted the fame part in thofe times, as the great men of the reformation did in several nations of Europe, by exerting themselves againft the idolatry and fuperftition of the times in which they lived. It was by this noble impulfe that Socrates and his difciples, as well as all-the philofophers of note in Greece, and Cicero, Seneca, with all the learned men of Rome, endeavoured to enlighten their cotemporaries amid the darknefs and ignorance in which the world was then funk and buried.

The great points which thefe free-thinkers endeav oured to establish and inculcate into the minds of men, were the formation of the universe, the superin