⚫ often met with their Faces, and observed a certain flinking way in their dropping in one after another, I had the Curiofity to inquire into their Characters, being the rather moved to it by their agreeing in the Singularity ⚫ of their Dress; and I find upon due Examination they are a Knot of Parish-Clerks, who have taken a fancy to one another, and perhaps fettle the Bills of Mortality over their Half-pints. I have fo great a Value and Veneration for any who have been but even an affenting • Amen in the Service of Religion, that I am afraid left thefe Persons should incur fome Scandal by this Prac⚫tice; and would therefore have them, without Rallery, advise, to fend the Florence and Pullets home to their own Houses, and not pretend to live as well as 'the Overfeers of the Poor.

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I

I am, SIR,

Your most humble Servant,
Humphry Transfer.

Mr. SPECTATOR, May 6. Was laft Wednesday Night at a Tavern in the City, among a Set of Men who call themselves the Lawyers-Club. You must know, Sir, this Club confifts only of Attorneys; and at this Meeting every one propofes the Caufe he has then in hand to the Board, upon which each Member gives his Judgment according to the Experience he has met with. If it happens that any one puts a Cafe of which they have had no Precedent, ⚫ it is noted down by their Clerk Will. Goofequil, (who registers all their Proceedings) that one of them may go the next Day with it to a Counsel. This indeed is commendable, and ought to be the principal End of their Meeting; but had you been there to have heard them ⚫ relate their Methods of managing a Caufe, their Manner of drawing out their Bills, and, in short, their Arguments upon the feveral ways of abufing their Clients, with the Applaufe that is given to him who has done it moft artfully, you would before now have given your • Remarks on them. They are fo confcious that their Dif⚫ courfes ought to be kept fecret, that they are very cautious of admitting any Perfon who is not of their Profeffion. When any who are not of the Law are let in,

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the Perfon who introduces him, fays, he is a very honeft Gentleman, and he is taken in, as their Cant is, to 6 pay Cofts. I am admitted upon the Recommendation of one of their Principals, as a very honest good-natur'd Fellow, that will never be in a Plot, and only defires to drink his Bottle and fmoke his Pipe. You have • formerly remarked upon feveral forts of Clubs; and 6 as the Tendency of this is only to increase Fraud and Deceit, I hope you will please to take notice of it.

I am (with Refpe&t)

Your humble Servant,

. T

H. R.

N° 373.

Thursday, May 8.

Fallit enim Vitium fpecie virtutis & umbra. Juv.

M

R. LOCKE, in his Treatise of Human Underftanding, has spent two Chapters upon the Abuse of Words. The first and most palpable Abuse of Words, he fays, is, when they are used without clear and diftin&t Ideas: The fecond, when we are so inconftant and unfteddy in the Application of them, that we sometimes ufe them to fignify one Idea, sometimes another. He adds, that the Refult of our Contemplations and Reasonings, while we have no precife Ideas fixed to our Words, muft needs be very confused and abfurd. To avoid this Inconvenience, more especially in moral Difcourfes, where the fame Word should constantly be used in the fame Senfe, he earneftly recommends the use of Definitions. A Definition, fays he, is the only way whereby the precife Meaning of moral Words can be known. He therefore accufes thofe of great Negligence, who difcourfe of moral things with the leaft Obfcurity in the Terms they make ufe of, fince upon the forementioned Ground he does not fcruple to fay, that he thinks Morality is capable of Demonflration as well as the Mathematicks.

I know no two Words that have been more abused by the different and wrong Interpretations which are put upon them, than thofe two, Modefty and Affurance. To fay fuch a one is a modest man, fometimes indeed paffes for a good Character; but at present is very often used to fignify a fheepish aukward Fellow, who has neither Good. breeding, Politeness, nor any Knowledge of the World.

AGAIN, A Man of Affurance, tho' at firft it only denoted a Perfon of a free and open Carriage, is now very ufually applied to a profligate Wretch, who can break through all the Rules of Decency and Morality without a Blush.

I fhall endeavour therefore in this Effay to reftore these Words to their true Meaning, to prevent the Idea of Modefty from being confounded with that of Sheepiness, and to hinder Impudence from paffing for Affurance.

IF I was put to define Modefty, 1 would call it, The Reflexion of an Ingenuous Mind, either when a Man has committed an Action for which he cenfures himself, or fancies that he is exposed to the Cenfure of others.

FOR this reafon a Man truly modeft is as much fo when he is alone as in Company, and as fubject to a Blush in his Clofet, as when the Eyes of Multitudes are upon him,

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 feveral Complaints laid against him before the Senate, as a Tyrant and Oppreffor of his Subjects. The Frince went to Rome to defend his Father, but coming into the Senate, and hearing a Multitude of Crimes prov'd upon him, was fo oppreffed 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 moft pathetick Oration; and, in fhort, pardoned the guilty Father for this early Promife of Virtue in the Son.

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

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World,

World, but above all a Mind fixed and determined in it felf 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 himself, and from a Consciousness of his own Integrity, affumes Force enough to defpife the little Cen fures of Ignorance or Malice.

EVERY one ought to cherish and encourage in himfelf 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 Senfe of Honour and Virtue.

IT is more than probable, that the Prince abovementioned poffeffed both thefe Qualifications in a very eminent degree. Without Affurance he would never have undertaken to speak before the most auguft Affembly in the World; without Modefty he would have pleaded the Cause he had taken upon him, tho' 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 compofe what we endeavour to exprefs when we fay a modeft Affurance; by which we understand the juft Mean between Bashfulness and Impudence.

I fhall conclude with obferving, that as the fame Man may be both modeft and affured, so it is alfo poffible for the fame Perfon to be both impudent and bashful.

WE have frequent Inftances of this odd kind of Mix ture in People of depraved Minds and mean Education; who tho' they are not able to meet a Man's Eyes, or pronounce a Sentence without Confufion, can voluntarily commit the greatest Villanies, or moft indecent Actions.

SUCH a Perfon feems to have made a Refolution to do Ill even in fpite of himself, and in defiance of all those Checks and Restraints 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 most proVOL. V.

K

per

per Method to give a Man a becoming Affurance in his Words and Actions. Guilt always feeks to fhelter it felf in one of the Extremes, and is fometimes attended with both.

X

N° 374. Friday, May 9.

Nil actum reputans fi quid fuperesset agendum.

T

Luc.

HERE is a Fault, which, tho' common, wants a Name. It is the very contrary to Procraftination: As we lose the present Hour by delaying from day to day to execute what we ought to do immediately; fo most of us take occafion to fit ftill and throw away the time in our poffeffion, by Retrospect on what is paft, imagining we have already acquitted our felves, and eftablished our Characters in the fight of Mankind. But when we thus put a Value upon our felves for what we have already done, any further than to explain our felves in order to affift our future Conduct, that will give us an over-weening_opinion of our Merit to the prejudice of our prefent Industry. The great Rule, methinks, fhould be to manage the Inftant in which we ftand, with Fortitude, Equanimity, and Moderation, according to Mens refpective Circumftances. If our paft Actions reproach us, they cannot be atoned for by our own fevere Reflexions fo effectually as by a contrary Behaviour. If they are praife-worthy, the Memory of them is of no use but to act fuitably to them. Thus a good prefent Behaviour is an implicit Repentance for any Mifcarriage in what is paft; but prefent Slackness will not make up for pait Activity. Time has fwallowed up all that we Contemporaries did yesterday, as irrevocably as it has the Actions of the Antediluvians: But we are again awake, and what fhall we do to-day, to-day which pafies while we are yet fpeaking? Shall we remember the Folly of laft Night, or refolve upon the Exercise of Virtue to-morrow? Laft Night is certainly gone, and Tomorrow may never arrive: This Inftant make ufe of.

Can