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I Do not remember to have met with any inftance of Modefty with which I am fo well pleased, as that celebrated one of the young prince, whofe father, being a tributary' king to the Romans, had several complaints laid against him before the fenate, as a tyrant and oppreffor of his fub. jects. The prince went to Rome to defend his father, but coming into the fenate, and hearing a multitude of crimes proved upon him, was fo oppreffcd when it came to his turn to speak, that he was unable to utter a word. The story tells us, that the fathers were more moved at this inftance of modefty and ingenuity, than they could have been by the most pathetic oration; and, in fhort, pardoned the guilty father for this early promise of virtue in the fon.

I TAKE affurance to be, The faculty of poffeffing a man's felf, or of faying and doing indifferent things without any uneafinefs or emotion in the mind. That which generally gives a man affurance, is a moderate knowledge of the world, but above all, a mind fixed and determined in itself to do nothing against the rules of honour and decency. An open and affured behaviour is the natural confequence of fuch a refolution. A man thus armed, if his words or actions are at any time mifinterpreted, retires within himfelf, and from a consciousness of his own integrity, affumes force enough to despise the little cenfures of ignorance or malice.

EVERY one ought to cherish and encourage in himself the modesty and affurance I have here mentioned.

A MAN without affurance is liable to be made uneafy by the folly or ill nature of every one he converfes with. A man without modefty is loft to all fenfe of honour and virtue.

IT is more than probable, that the prince above mentioned poffeffed both these qualifications in a very eminent degree. Without affurance he would never have undertaken to speak before the most august affembly in the world; with

out

out modefly he would have pleaded the cause he had taken upon him, though it had appeared ever fo fcandalous.

FROM what has been faid, it is plain, that modefty and affurance are both amiable, and may very well meet in the fame perfon. When they are thus mixed and blended together, they compose what we endeavour to exprefs when we say a modeft affurance; by which we understand the just mean between bashfulness and impudence.

I SHALL Conclude with obferving, that as the fame man may be both modest and affured, fo it is alfo poffible for the fame perfon to be both impudent and bashful.

"We have frequent inftances of this odd kind of mixture in people of depraved minds and mean education; who though they are not able to meet a man's eyes, or pronounce a fentence without confufion; can voluntarily commit the greatest villanies or most indecent actions.

SUCH a person seems to have made a refolution to do ill even in fpite of himself, and in defiance of all those checks and reftraints his temper and complexion feem to have laid in his way.

UPON the whole, I would endeavour to establish this maxim, That the practice of virtue is the moft proper method to give a man a becoming affurance in his words and actions. Guilt always feek to shelter itself in one of the extremes, and is fometimes attended with both. SPECTATOR.

CHAP. II.

ON CHEERFULNESS.

I HAVE always preferred Cheerfulness to Mirth. The

latter I confider as an act, the former as a habit of the mind. Mirth is fhort and tranfient, Cheerfulness fixed and permanent. Those are often raised into the greatest tranfports of mirth, who are fubject to the greatest depreffions

of melancholy; on the contrary, chee.tu nefs, though it does not give the mind fuch an exquifite gladness, prevents us from falling into any depths of forrow. Mirth is like a flash of lightning that breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment; cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual ferenity.

MEN of auftere principles look upon mirth as too wanton and diffolute for a state of probation, and as filled with a certain triumph and infolence of heart, that are inconfiftent with a life which is every moment obnoxious to the greatest dangers. Writers of this complexion have obferved, that the facred Perfon, who was the great pattern of perfection, was never seen to laugh.

CHEERFULNESS of mind is not liable to any of thefe exceptions; it is of a ferious and compofed nature; it does not throw the mind into a condition improper for the pre. fent ftate of humanity, and is very confpicuous in the characters of those who are looked upon as the greatest philofophers among the Heathens, as well as among those who have been defervedly esteemed as faints and holy men among Chriftians.

IF we confider cheerfulness in three lights, with regard to ourselves, to thofe we converfe with, and to the great Author of our being, it will not a little recommend itself on each of thefe accounts. The man who is poffeffed of this excellent frame of mind, is not only cafy in his thoughts, but a perfect master of all the powers and faculties of his foul: his imagination is always clear, and his judgment undisturbed: his temper is even and unruffled, whether in action or in folitude. He comes with a relish to all thofe goods which nature has provided for him, tastes all the pleafures of the creation which are poured upon him, and does not feel the full weight of thofe accidental evils which may befall him.

If we confider him in relation to the perfons whom he converfes with, it naturally produces love and good will towards him. A cheerful mind is not only difpofed to be affable and obliging, but raises the fame good humour in thofe who come within its influence. A man finds himfelf pleafed, he does not know why, with the cheerfulness of his companion: it is like a sudden sunshine that awakens a facred delight in the mind, without her attending to it. The heart rejoices of its own accord, and naturally flows out into friendship and benevolence towards the perfon who has fo kindly an effect upon it.

WHEN I confider this cheerful state of mind in its third relation, I cannot but look upon it as a conftant habitual gratitude to the Author of nature. An inward cheerfulnefs is an implicit praife and thanksgiving to Providence under all its difpenfations. It is a kind of acquiefcence in the ftate wherein we are placed, and a fecret approbation of the Divine will in his conduct towards man.

A MAN, who ufes his beft endeavours to live according to the dictates of virtue and right reafon, has two perpetual fources of cheerfulness in the confideration of his own nature, and of that Being on whom he has a dependence. If he looks into himself, he cannot but rejoice in that existence, which is fo lately beftowed upon him, and which, after millions of ages, will be ftill new, and ftill in its beginning. How many felf-congratulations naturally rife in the mind, when it reflects on this its entrance into eternity, when it takes a view of those improvable faculties, which in a few years, and even at its first fetting out, have made fo confiderable a progrefs, and which will be still receiving an increase of perfection, and confequently an increase of happinefs! The confciousness of fuch a being spreads a perpetual diffufion of joy through the foul of a virtuous man, and makes him look upon himself every moment as more happy than he knows how to conceive.

THE

THE fecond fource of cheerfulness to a good mind, is its confideration of that Being on whom we have our de. pendence, and in whom, though we behold him as yet but in the firft faint difcoveries of his perfections, we fee every thing that we can imagine as great, glorious, or amiable. We find ourselves every where upheld by his goodness, and furrounded with an immenfity of love and mercy. In fhort, we depend upon a Being, whose power qualifies him to make us happy by an infinity of means, whofe goodness and truth engage him to make those happy who defire it of him, and whofe unchangeableness will fecure us in this happiness to all eternity.

SUCH Confiderations, which every one fhould perpetually cherish in his thoughts, will banish from us all that fecret heaviness of heart which unthinking men are fubject to when they lie under no real affliction; all that anguish which we may feel from any evil that actually oppresses us: to which I may likewife add thofe little cracklings of mirth and folly that are apter to betray virtue than fupport it; and establish in us fuch an even and cheerful temper, as makes us pleasing to ourselves, to those with whom we converfe, and to Him whom we were made to please. SPECTATOR.

CHAP. III.

ON SINCERITY.

TRUTH and Sincerity have all the advantages of appearance, and many more. If the show of any thing be good for any thing, I am fure the reality is better; for why does any man diffemble, or feem to be that which he is not, but because he thinks it good to have the qualities he pretends to? For to counterfeit and to diffemble, is to put on the appearance of fome real excellency. Now the best way for a man to seem to be any thing, is really to be what he

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