that had wished her ill; but on the Man who loved her more than any elfe loved her, and more than it was poífible for him to love any other Perfon. IN the next Place, I took Pains to confider her in all her Imperfections, and that I might be fure to hear of them conftantly, kept Company with thofe her Female Friends who were her deareft and moft intimate Acquaintance. up. AMONG her higheft Imperfections, I ftill dwelt on her Bafenefs of Mind and Ingratitude, that made her triumph in the Pain and Anguifh of the Man who loved her, and of one who in thofe Days (without Vanity be it spoken) was thought to deferve her Love. To fhorten my Story, fhe was married to another, which would have diftracted me, had he proved a good Husband; but to my great Pleasure, he ufed her at first with Coldnefs, and afterwards with Contempt. I hear he ftill treats her very ill; and am informed, that fhe often fays to her Woman, This is a juft Revenge for my Falfhood to my firft Love: What a Wretch am I, that might have been married to the famous Mr. Bickerstaff. MY Patient looked upon me with a kind of melan choly Pleafure, and told me, He did not think it was poffible for a Man to live to the Age I now am of, who in his thirtieth Year had been tortured with that Paffion in its Violence. For my Part, (faid he) I can neither eat, drink, nor fleep in it; nor keep Company with any Body, but two or three Friends who are in the fame Condition. THERE (anfwered I) you are to blame; for as you ought to avoid nothing more than keeping Company with your felf, fo you ought to be particularly cautious of keeping Company with Men like your felf. As long as you do this, you do but indulge your Distemper. Í must not difmifs you without further Inftructions. If poffible, transfer your Paffion from the Woman you are now in Love with, to another; or if you cannot do that, change the Paffion it felf into fome other Paffior, that is, to speak more plainly, find out fome other a greeable Woman: Or if you can't do this, grow covetous, ambitious, litigious; turn your Love of Woman into that of Profit, Preferment, Reputation; and for a Time, give up your self entirely to the Pursuit. THIS is a Method we sometimes take in Physick, when we turn a desperate Disease into one we can more eafily cure. HE made little Answer to all this, but crying out, Ah, Sir! For his Passion reduced his Discourse into Interjections. THERE is one Thing, added I, which is prefent Death to a Man in your Condition, and therefore to be avoided with the greatest Care and Caution; that is, in a Word, to think of your Mistress and Rival together, whether walking, difcourfing, dallying-The Devil! (he cried out) Who can bear it? To compofe him, for I pitied him very much; the Time will come, faid I, when you shall not only bear it, but laugh at it. As a Preparation to it, ride every Morning an Hour at leaft with the Wind full in your Face. Upon your Return, recollect the feveral Precepts which I have now given you, and drink upon them a Bottle of Spaw-Water. Repeat this every Day for a Month fucceffively, and let me fee you at the End of it. He was taking his Leave, with many Thanks, and some Appearance of Confolation in his Countenance, when I called him back to acquaint him, That I had private Information of a Defign of the Coquets to buy up all the true Spaw-Water in Town: Upon which he took his Leave in Haste, with a Refolution to get all Things ready for entring upon his Regimen the next Morning. Prø Pronaque cum fpectant Animalia catera Terram, Fuffit. Ovid. Met. No 108. Saturday, Dec. 17. 1709. Sheer-Lane, December 16. T is not to be imagined, how great an Effect welldifpofed Lights, with proper Forms and Orders in Affemblies, have upon fome Tempers. I am fure I feel it in fo extraordinary a Manner, that I cannot in a Day or two get out of my Imagination any very beautiful or difagreeable Impreffion which I receive on fuch Occafions. For this Reafon I frequently look in at the Play-houfe, in order to enlarge my Thoughts, and warm my Mind with fome new Idea's, that may be ferviceable to me in my Lucubrations. IN this Difpofition I entered the Theatre the other Day, and placed my felf in a Corner of it, very convenient for feeing, without being my self obferved. I found the Aucience hufh'd in a very deep Attention, and did not queftion but fome noble Tragedy was juft then in its Crifis, or that an Incident was to be unravelled which would determine the Fate of an Hero. While I was in this Sufpenfe, expecting every Moment to fee my old Friend Mr. Betterton appear in all the Majefty of Distress, to my unspeakable Amazement, there came up a Monster with a Face between his Feet; and as I was looking on, he raised himself on one Leg in fuch a perpendicular Pofture, that the other grew in a direct Line above his Head. It afterwards twifted it felf into the Motions and Wreathings of feveral different Animals, and after great Variety of Shapes and Transformations, went off the Stage in the Figure of an human Creature. The Admiration, the Applaufe, the Satis faction faction of the Audience, during the ftrange Entertainment, is not to be expreffed. I was very much out of Countenance for my dear Countrymen, and looked a bout with fome Apprehenfion, for fear any Foreigner fhould be prefent. It is poffible (thought I) that human Nature can rejoice in its Difgrace, and take pleafure in feeing its own Figure turned to Ridicule, and distorted into Forms that raife Horror and Averfion! There is fomething difingenuous and immoral in the being able to bear fuch a Sight. Men of elegant and noble Minds, are fhocked at feeing the Characters of Perfons who deferve Efteem for their Virtue, Knowledge, or Servi ces to their Country, placed in wrong Lights, and by Mifreprefentation made the Subject of Buffoonry, Such a nice Abhorrence is not indeed to be found among the Vulgar; but methinks it is wonderful, that thefe who have nothing but the outward Figure to distinguish them as Men, fhould delight in feeing it abufed, vilified and difgraced. I must confefs, there is nothing that more pleafes me, in all that I read in Books, or fee among Mankind, than fuch Paffages as reprefent human Nature in its proper Dignity. As Man is a Creature made up of different Extremes, he has fomething in him very great and very mean: A skilful Artist may draw an excellent Picture of him in either of these Views. The fineft Authors of Antiquity have taken him on the more advantageous Side. They cultivate the natural Grandeur of the Soul, raife in her a generous Ambition, feed her with Hopes of Immortality and Perfection, and do all they can to widen the Partition between the Virtuous and the Vicious, by making the Difference betwixt them as great as between Gods and Brutes. In fhort, it is impoffible to read a Page in Plato, Tully, and a thousand other ancient Moralifts, without being a greater and a better Man for it. On the contrary, I could never read any of our modifh French Authors, or thofe of our own Country, who are the Imitators and Admirers of that trifling Nation, without being for fome Time out of Humour with my felf, and at every Thing about me. Their Bufinefs is, to depreciate human Nature, and confider it under its worft Appearances. They give mean mean Interpretations and bafe Motives to the worthieft Actions: They refolve Virtue and Vice into Conftitution. In fhort, they endeavour to make no Diftinction between Man and Man, or between the Species of Men and that of Brutes. As an Inftance of this kind of Authors, among many others, let any one examine the celebrated Rochefaucault, who is the great Philofopher for adminiftring of Confolation to the Idle, the Envious, and worthlefs Part of Mankind. The I remember a young Gentleman of moderate Underftanding, but great Vivacity, who by dipping into many Authors of this Nature, had got a little Smattering of Knowledge, just enough to make an Atheist or a Freethinker, but not a Philofopher or Man of Senfe. With thefe Accomplishments, he went to vifit his Father in the Country, who was a plain, rough, honest Man, and wife, though not learned. The Son, who took all Opportunities to fhew his Learning, began to eftablish a new Religion in the Family, and to enlarge the Narrowness of their Country Notions; in which he fucceeded fo well, that he had feduced the Butler by his Table-Talk, and ftaggered his eldest Sifter. old Gentleman began to be alarmed at the Schifms that arofe among his Children, but did not yet believe his Son's Doctrine to be fo pernicious as it really was, 'till one Day talking of his Setting-Dog, the Son faid, He did not queftion but Trey was as immortal as any one of the Family; and in the Heat of the Argument told his Father, That for his own Part, he expected to die like Dog. Upon which, the old Man ftarting up in a very great Paffion, cried out, Then, Sirrah, you fhall live like one and taking his Cane in his Hand, cudgelled him out of his Syftem. This had fo good an Effect upon him, that he took up from that Day, fell to reading good Books, and is now a Bencher in the Middle-Temple. I do not mention this cudgelling Part of the Story with a Design to engage the fecular Arm in Matters of this Nature; but certainly, if it ever exerts it felf in Af fairs of Opinion and Speculation, it ought to do it on fuch fhallow and defpicable Pretenders to Knowledge, who endeavour to give Man dark and uncomfortable Profpects of his Being, and destroy thofe Principles Voi. IL a which |