law would not have obliged him, at the expence of liberty. But the champion

tery; and to preferve her from the refentment of her husband, had killed him in a duel: and the martyr to his promife had paid a fum, which should have difcharged the bill of a neceffitous tradesman, to a gamefter of quality who had given him credit at cards.

Such, in the common opinion, are men of honour; and he who in certain circumftances fhould abstain from murder, perfidy, or ingratitude, would be avoided as reflecting infamy upon his company.

In thefe fpeculations I exhaufted my waking powers a few nights ago; and at length finking into flumber, I was immediately tranfported into the regions of fancy.

As I was fitting penfive and alone at the foot of a hill, a man, whofe appearance was extremely venerable, advanced towards me with great fpced; and, beckoning me to follow him, began haftily to climb the hill. My mind fuddenly fuggefted that this was the Genius of Inftruction; I, therefore, inftantly rofe up, and obeyed the filent intimation of his will; but not being able to afcend with equal rapidity, he caught hold of my hand: Linger not, faid he, left ⚫ the hour of illumination be at an end.' We now afcended together, and when we had gained the fummit he stood still. Survey the profpect, faid he, and 'tell me what thou feeft. To the right, replied I, is a long valley, and on the left a boundless plain: at the end of the valley is a mountain that reaches to the clouds; and on the ⚫ fummit a brightness which I cannot 'ftedfaftly behold. In that valley,` yet faid he, the difciples of virtue prefs forward; and the votaries of vice wan' der on the plain. In the path of virtue are many afperities: the foot is fometimes wounded by thorns, and ⚫ fometimes bruised against a stone; but the fky over it is always ferene; the traveller is refreshed by the breezes of health, and invigorated by the ray of chearfulness. The plain is adorned with flowers, which gratify the fenfe with fragrance and beauty; but the beauty is tranfient, and the fragrance ⚫ hurtful: the ground is soft and level, and the paths are fo various, that the turf is no where worn away; but

fufe drowfinefs, laffitude, and anxiety. At the foot of the mountain are the • bowers of Peace, and on the fummit' is the temple of Honour.

But all the difciples of Virtue do ⚫ not afcend the mountain; her path, indeed, is continued beyond the bowers; and the last stage is the afcent of the precipice: to climb, is the voluntary labour of the vigorous and the bold; to defift, is the irreproachable repofe of the timid and the weary. To thofe, however, who have furmounted the difficulties of the way, the gates of the temple have not always been opened; nor against thofe by whom it has never been trodden, have they always been 'fhut: the declivity of the mountain on the other fide is gradual and easy; and by the appointment of Fate, the entrance of the temple of Honour has been always kept by Opinion. Opinion, indeed, ought to have acted under the influence of Truth, but was foon perverted by Prejudice and Cuftom; the admitted many who afcended the mountain without labour from the plain, and rejected fome who had toiled up the precipice in the path of Virtue. Thefe, however, were not clamorous for admittance; but either repined in filence, or, exulting with honeft pride in the confcioufnels of their own dignity, turned from Opinion with contempt and difdain; and fmiled upon the world which they had left beneath them, the witnefs of that labour of ' which they had been refused the re'ward.

But the crowd within the temple ⚫ became difcontented and tumultuous: the difciples of Virtue, jealous of an eminence which they had obtained by the utmost efforts of human power, 'made fome attempts to expel those who had ftrolled negligently up the flope, and been admitted by Opinion to pollute the temple and difgrace the affembly: thofe whofe right was difputed were, however, all ready to decide the controverfy by the fword; and as they dreaded scarce any imputation but cowardice, they treated thofe with great infolence who declined this decifion, and yet would not admit their claim.

This confufion and uproar was beheld

mitted, yet he has gained admiffion for but few who had been rejected; ⚫ and Opinion still continues negligent and perverfe; for as the has often felt the fcourge of Ridicule when it has not been deferved, the dread of it has ⚫ no otherwife influenced her conduct, 'than by throwing her into fuch con'fufion, that the purposes of Reafon are 'fometimes involuntarily defeated.'

How then,' faid I, fhall Honour diftinguish thofe whom the wishes to ' reward? They shall be diftinguifh

ed, replied the vifionary fage, in the regions of Immortality; to which they will at length be conducted by Time, who will not fuffer them to be finally • difappointed."

While I was liftening to this reply, with my eyes fixed ftedfaftly upon the temple, it fuddenly difappeared: the black clouds that hovered over the plain. of Vice burit in thunder; the hill on which I ftood began to fink under me; and the start of fudden terror as I den fcended awaked ine.

TO THE ADVENTURER.

FLEET, JUNE 6. O the account of fuch of my companions as are imprifoned without being miferable, or are miferable without any claim to compaffion; I promifed to add the hiftories of thofe whofe virthe has made them unhappy, or whofe misfortunes are at leaft without a crime. That this catalogue fhould be very nu merous, neither you nor your readers ought to expect; rari quippe boni

The good are few. Virtue is uncommon in all the claffes of humanity; and I fuppofe it will scarcely be imagined more frequent in a prison than in other places.

Yet in thefe gloomy regions is to be found the tendernefs, the generofity, the philanthropy, of Serenus, who might have lived in competence and eafe, if he could have looked without emotion on the miferies of another. Serenus was one of thofe exalted minds, whom knowledge and fagacity could not make fufpicious; who poured out his foul in boundless intimacy, and thought community of poffeffions the law of friend. hip. The friend of Serenus was arrested for debt; and after many endeavours to foften his creditor, fent his wife to follicit that affiftance which never was refufed. The tears and importunity of female diftrefs were more than was neceffary to move the heart of Serenus; he

SENECA.

hafted immediately away, and confer ring a long time with his friend, found him confident that if the preffure was taken off, he fhould foon be able to reestablish his affairs. Serenus, accuftomed to believe, and afraid to aggravate diftrefs, did not attempt to detect the fallacies of hope, nor reflect that every man overwhelmed with calamity believes, that if that was removed he fhall immediately be happy: he therefore, with little hesitation, offered himself as furety.

In the first raptures of efcape all was joy, gratitude and confidence; the friend of Serenus difplayed his profpects, and counted over the fums of which he fhould infallibly be matter before the day of payment. Serenus in a fhort time began to find his danger, but could not prevail with himself to repent of beneficence; and therefore fuffered himself still to be amufed with projects which he durft not confider, for fear of finding them impracticable. The debtor, after he had tried every method of raising money which art or indigence could prompt, wanted either fidelity or refolution to furrender himself to prifon, and left Serenus to take his place.

Serenus has often propofed to the creditor, to pay him whatever he shall appear to have loft by the flight of his friend; but however reasonable this pro pofal may be thought, avarice and brus tality have been hitherto inexorable, and

Serenus

Serenus ftill continues to languifh in prifon.

In this place, however, where want makes almost every man selfish, or defperation gloomy, it is the good fortune of Serenus not to live without a friend: he passes most of his hours in the converfation of Candidus, a man whom the fame virtuous ductility has with fome difference of circumstances made equally unhappy.

Candidus when he was young, helpless, and ignorant, found a patron that educated, protected, and fupported him his patron being more vigilant for others than himself, left at his death an only fon, deftitute and friendless. Candidus was eager to repay the benefits he had received; and having maintained the youth for a few years at his own house, afterwards placed him with a merchant of eminence, and gave bonds to a great value as a fecurity for his conduct.

The young man, removed too early from the only eye of which he dreaded the obfervation, and deprived of the only inftruction which he heard with reverence, foon learned to confider virtue as restraint, and restraint as oppreffion; and to look with a longing eye at every expence to which he could not reach, and every pleafure which he could not partake: by degrees he deviated from his first regularity, and unhappily mingling among young men bufy in diffipating the gains of their fathers induftry, he forgot the precepts of Candidus, fpent the evening in parties of pleafure, and the morning in expedients to fupport his riots. He was, however, dextrous and active in bufinefs; and his mafter, being fecured against any confequences of difhonesty, was very little follicitous to infpect his manners, or to enquire how he paffed thofe hours which were not immediately devoted to the bufinefs of his profeffion: when he was informed of the young man's extravagance or debauchery Let his bondsman look to that,' faid he, I have taken care of myself.' Thus the unhappy fpendthrift proceeded from folly to folly, and from vice to vice, with the connivance if not the encouragement of his mafter; till in the heat of a nocturnal revel he committed fuch violences in the street as drew upon him a criminal profecution. Guilty and unexperienced, he knew not what courfe to take; to confefs his crime to Candidus, and follicit his interpofition, was

little lefs dreadful than to ftand before the frown of a court of juftice. Having, therefore, paffed the day with anguish in his heart and distraction in his looks, he feized at night a very large fum of money in the counting houfe, and fetting out he knew not whither, was heard of

no more.

The confequence of his flight was the ruin of Candidus; ruin furely undeferved and irreproachable, and such as the laws of a just government ought either to prevent or repair: nothing is more inequitable than that one man fhould fuffer for the crimes of another, for crimes which he neither prompted nor permitted, which he could neither forefee nor prevent. When we confider the weakness of human resolution and the inconfiftency of human conduct, it must appear abfurd that one man fhall engage for another, that he will not change his opinions or alter his conduct.

It is, I think, worthy of confideration, whether, fince no wager is binding without a poffibility of lofs on each fide, it is not equally reasonable, that no contract fhould be valid without reciprocal ftipulations: but in this cafe, and others of the fame kind, what is ftipulated on his fide to whom the bond is given? he takes advantage of the fecurity, neglects his affairs, omits his duty, fuffers timorous wickedness to grow daring by degrees, permits appetite to call for new gratifications, and, perhaps, fecretly longs for the time in which he fhall have power to feize the forfeiture: and if virtue or gratitude fhould prove too ftrong for temptation, and a young man perfift in honefty, however inftigated by his paffions, what can fecure him at laft against a falfe accufation? I for my part always fhall fufpect, that he who can by fuch methods fecure his property, will go one step farther to increase it: nor can I think that man fafely trufted with the means of mifchief, who by his defire to have them in his hands, gives an evident proof how much lefs he values his neighbour's happiness than his own.

Another of our companions is Lentulus, a man whofe dignity of birth was very ill fupported by his fortune. As fome of the firft offices in the kingdom were filled by his relations, he was early invited to court, and encouraged by careffes and promises to attendance and follicitation: a conftant appearance in fplendid company neceffarily.required magnificence

By this course of life his little fortune, was every day made lefs: but he received fo many distinctions in publick, and was known to refort fo familiarly to the houses of the great, that every man look ed on his preferment as certain, and believed that it's value would compenfate for it's flownefs: he therefore found no difficulty in obtaining credit for all that his rank or his vanity made neceffary; and as ready payment was not expectcd, the bills were proportionably enlarged, and the value of the hazard or delay were adjusted folely by the equity of the creditor. At length death deprived Lentulus of one of his patrons, and a revolution in the miniftry of another; fo that all his profpects vanished at once, and thofe that had before encouraged his expences began to perceive that their money was in danger: there was now no other contention but who fhould first feize upon his perfon, and, by forcing immediate payment, deliver him up naked to the vengeance of the reft. In purfuance of this fcheme, one of them invited him to a tavern, and procured him to be arrested at the door; but Lentulus, instead of endeavouring fecretly to pacify him by payinent, gave notice to the rett, and offered to divide amongst them the remnant of his fortune: they feafted fix hours at his expence, to deliberate on his propofal; and at last determined, that, as he could not offer more than five shillings in the pound, it would

be more prudent to keep him in prison, till he could procure from his relations the payment of his debts.

Lentulus is not the only man confined within these walls, on the fame ac count: the like procedure, upon the like motives, is common among men whom yet the law allows to partake the use of fire and water with the compaffionate and the juft; who frequent the affemblies of commerce is open day, and talk with deteftation and contempt of highwaymen or houfebreakers: but, furely, that man must be confeffedly robbed who is compelled, by whatever means, to pay the debts which he does not owe; nor can I look with equal hatred upon him who, at the hazard of his life, holds out his piítol and demands my purfe, as on him who plunders under Thelter of the law, and, by detaining my fon or my friend in prifon, extorts from me the price of their liberty. No man can be more an enemy to fociety than he by whofe machinations our virtues are turned to our difadvantage; he is lefs deftructive to mankind that plunders cowardice, than he that preys upon compaffion.

I believe, Mr. Adventurer, you will readily confefs, that though not one of thefe, if tried before a commercial judicature, can be wholly acquitted from imprudence or temerity; yet that, in the eye of all who can confider virtue as diftinct from wealth, the fault of two of them, at least, is out-weighed by the merit; and that of the third is so much extenuated by the circumftances of his life, as not to deferve a perpetual prison: yet must these, with multitudes equally blameless, languifh in confinement, till malevolence fhall relent, or the law be changed. I am, Sir,

Your humble fervant,

MISARGYRUS.