a Commander is dead, Things very often take a "wrong Turn, and go extremely ill; otherwife what is Life, by not worth a Can of Flip, but for

"the Service of our Country."

THUS by his happy Mixture of Valour and Difcretion, he had repeated Times preferved his Majefty's Ship and Subjects, a Virtue to be valued above all the little Honours, which are to be gotten by tearing one another to Pieces, and which the Romans rewarded with a Civic Crown.

Ir is an old and a juft Remark, that no Man is wife at all Times, and indeed there were certain Moments when the Honourable Captain Charles Bounce, was totally divefted of all that cool and fedate Courage, which ever attended him in Purfuit, or in Battle with any Enemy's Ship of War.

Ir at any Time he efpied an Eaft or Weft Indiaman, laden with the Riches which thefe different Parts of the World produce, he was all Fire, nothing could reftrain him: More Sail, damme: what are you all afleep there? Mind that you don't fire a Gun till you come within Piftol-fhot of her," by this Means he often Fired but one Ball, and took his Prize without a Shot being returned on their Side.

NOTWITHSTANDING this Sally of Courage on fuch Occafions, I know there are many Men who flily infinuate that Courage does not admit of fach Mixture, and affert that fuch Men as the Honourable Captain Charles Bounce are of no Value, like Sherbet not worth drinking, because it wants Spirit.

METHINKS however, the juft Diftinction and Characteristics of Courage, have never been truly delineated, Men in general conceiving it to be like the Spirit of the English Maftiff, or Game-cock, which is ready to engage at all Times, and die rather than

run away.

THIS I think may be properly enough decided to the Character of Courage in Brutes, but in Man, a reasonable Creature, I humbly prefume it is fometimes of a different Nature, and may admit of much Variety; for the fake of which Variety alfo, we conclude this

Chapter,

Chapter, and bestow a separate one on the noble Virtue of Courage.

CHA P. V.

A Differtation on Courage in quite a new Way, which we hope will prove jatisfactory to many a warlike Outfide in this Kingdom.

I

T is a Remark as old as the Days of Solomon, that there is nothing New under the Sun; this Obfervation many wife Men who have no other Title to the Appellation, than that like the Monarch of the Ifraelites they have lived a Life of Vanity, have frequently repeated in our Times, expecting the fame Opinion was ftill equally founded in Truth.

INDEED a certain Set of Literariffimi, the Bookfellers, have long been of that Opinion with refpect to literary Productions for which Reafon they have employed many a voluminous Writer, to collect Scraps from the Works of other Men, which being tacked together and compiled into a new Title, like Rags gathered by old Women and then beaten up into Paper, forms a new Manufacture.

THESE Gentlemen tell us that all they want is a florid Stile, that runs tripping off the Tongue light and easy, like a Race Horfe carrying a Feather, or that of the **** not quite fo much encumbered with Thought.

Now one would be led to imagine, that thofe Men, like all others, fhould be the beft Judges of their feveral Callings, and the Wares they fell; this indeed, many great People are of Opinion is true also, for which Reafon when a new Work is advertised, the Male and Female Ladies confult only the Perfon for whom it is printed, which if it appear not to be for Mr. ✶✶✶✶ they immediately conclude it cannot be worth the Reading, and if it be for him, without reading it, that it is a moft excellent Performance, and worth peculiar Attention; and yet we have known the World more than once deceived, by this outward and

vifible

visible Sign of inward and fpiritual Grace, particularly in the Works which that Gentleman has favoured the World with from his own Hand.

THIS Affertion of nothing being new under the Sun, we conceive therefore, with all due Submission to the wifest Men, tho' it might be true at his Time, may be falfe at prefent; and that tho' he pronounced there was nothing new then, he never intended to mean that there never would be hereafter; therefore being thus gotten fhut of Solomon, we think ourselves free from all Imputation of Arrogance, if we dare to differ from the more modern Sages, who have prefumed to pronounce the fame Affertion.

FOR Example, if Solomon the wifeft of Men were now living, would not he allow that the Marriage Act was a new way of propagating Virtue, defending Innocence, and fupporting the Character of Religion, by favouring fo particularly thofe who manifeft the Holy Things?

THAT to keep a People without the Knowledge of Arms, was a New and moft Excellent Method of defending their Country, from the Invasion of those who are trained to the Ufe of them.

THAT Bribery and Corruption wer new and uncommon inoral İnftitutes, and Perjury fully permitted once in feven Years; like bleeding and purging in the Spring, a new and moft excellent Way of carrying off all the Ill-humours, which might otherwife come on during the remaining Time, from that vitious Difpofition in Man.

THESE and many other Things of the like Nature, we prefume that Solomon himself, were he to revifiť this Ifland, would allow at leaft to be a new way of defending the Property, and encouraging the Morality of a People.

HOWEVER, if he did not (which indeed we fhould not be forry for) we fhould then take him into our Arms as Hercules did Antæus, and giving him a Cornish Hug, fqueeze him to a Confeffion of the Truth, or unfolomonife him to fuperior Witdom; however, to wave all this Preface, we profefs to offer fomething New on the Nature of Courage, which tho' it is as

good

good as old Gold, we prefume alfo, has never been yet coined for the Subjects of any Country.

COURAGE then has been defined by Albumazar, a very old Arabian Writer in Phyfic (whofe Works are loft to the great Affliction of those who admire Antiquity more than Use) to be a Fever; in this we agree with this Sage of the dry Defarts of Arabia; but then the Moderns who have not truly ftudied the Language, have been led into a Miftake in the Meaning of this Arabic Philofopher, and conceived it to be a Caufus or continual burning Fever, in this we difagree from thefe modern wife Men.

HERE we might indeed have a very favourable Opportunity of fhewing our great Skill in the Oriental Tongues, and tho' perhaps one in a Million might disagree fron all we should fay upon it, yet we are not under the leaft Apprehenfion of not finding Applaufe from all the reft; which is as much as any reasonable Man ought to expect in any literary Performance.

THIS Inclination of declining to gain Fame in this Inftance, we with to have imputed to our Modesty yet when we thus deliver our Sentiments, we do not fay that Courage is never feen under the State of a continual and ardent Fever : We prefume, that it fometimes and not unfrequently, is an irregular Intermittent, as well as refembling many other Species of Fevers; or rather that Courage, like the Human Body, is fubject to various Diseases and Indifpofitions.

THAT it is fubjected to an Intermittency, we defire no other Proof than that of Experience void of Theory: whoever has had the fuperior Happiness of being intimate with that laudable Society of this great Metropolis, the Bucks, must have heard it univerfally afferted by these Blades, that they have been as brave as Hercules, and as ready to combat a Giant on a Monday, when no one happened to be in the Way to oppofe their Courage; which very identical and valorous young Gentlemen were as timid as Hares the next Day, when they had an Opportunity of fhewing their Prowess, against fome one who would have oppofed them.

THIS Difference it is vifible to all could arife from nothing but the cold Fit prevailing at that Time;

which I think is a plain Proof, that Courage is fometimes like an intermittent Fever, that the Soul as well as the Body, the Paffions like the Humours, are subject to the Influence of thofe Particles which can abate the vital Heat; and indeed the fame Symptoms accompany one which are found in the other, Paleness and great Tremblings, and on fome certain Occafions a fudden Diarrhea.

THIS Obfervation we do not pretend to fay, has never been hitherto discovered, all we mean by it is to justify these young Gentlemen from the Imputation of Cowardice who refufe fighting on a Tuesday, because they affert their Fighting-day was the Monday preceding; befides, this Species of Courage, or Disease, to which it is fubject, there is, we conceive, another entirely local, not in the vulgar Senfe of every Cock's fighting on his own Dunghill; but in this Manner as Difeafes are common to particular Places, fuch as Agues to the Fens of Effex, Calentures to the Sea, the Plague to Egypt, and the Itch to Scotland, that in this Way alfo, there are particular Spots which affect fome Minds with Courage more than others, and are, as one may fay, more Conftitutional to them.

To inftance in this Honourable Captain Charles Bounce, when he was at Home no Man was more indifcreet and fiery in his Valour in all his naval Engagements, which he fought over again upon Land to amufe his Friends; the Ships were almoft within Piftol-fhot of each other, you might fiing a Bifcuit-cake on board, or Yard-arm and Yard-arm; his Ship after the Engagement was fhattered like a Wreck, every Maft carried by the Board but the Mizen, more than half the Crew was killed and thrown over Board, and the Enemy's Ship faved only because he could not purfue it, by not being able to spread an Inch of Canvafs.

HENCE it plainly appears, that this noble Commander's Courage, was as great as any Man's in its conftitutional Place, and I here boldly affirm, notwithstanding what others may believe, that if two Men of War could be fought upon dry Land, that Captain Bounce's Courage had been as exemplary, and fhone forth with as much Fury, as that of any naval Officer on the Lift;