cock up his hat, and wear a fashionable wig, without being taken for a rake or a fool. The medium between a fop and a floven is what a man of fenfe would endeavour to keep; yet I remember Mr. Ofborn advifes his fon to appear in his habit rather above than below his fortune; and tells him, that he will find an handfome fuit of clothes always procures fome additional refpect. I have indeed myself obfarved that my banker ever bows lowest to me when I wear my full bottomed wig; and writes me Mr. or Efq; accordingly as he fees me dreffed. I fhall conclude this paper with an adventure which I was myfelf an eye-witnefs of very lately. I happened the other day to call in at a celebrated coffee-house near the Temple. I had not been there long when there came in an elderly man very meanly dreffed, and fat down by me; he had a thread-bare loofe coat on, which it was plain he wore to keep himfelf warm, and not to favour his under-fuit; which feemed to have been at least its cotemporary: his fhort wig and hat were both anfwerable to the reft of his apparel. He was no fooner feated than he called for a dish of tea; but as feveral gentlemen in the room wanted other things, the boys of the houfe did not think themselves at leifure to mind him. I could obferve the old fellow was very uneafy at the affront, and at his being obliged to repeat his commands feveral times to no purpofe; until at laft one of the lads prefented him with fome stale tea in a broken dish, accompanied with a plate of brown fugar; which fo raised his indignation, that after feveral obliging appellations of dog and rafcal, he afked him aloud before the whole company, Why he must be used with «lefs refpect than that fop there?" pointing to a well-dreffed young gentleman who was drinking tea at the oppofite table. The boy of the houfe replied with a great deal of pertnefs, that his master had two forts of cuftomers, and that the gentlemen at the other table had given him many a fixpence for wiping his fhoes. By this time the young Templar, who found his honour concerned in the difpute, and that the eyes of the whole coffee-houfe were upon him, had thrown afide a paper he had in his hand, and was coming towards us, while we at the table made what hafte we could to get away from the impending quarrel, but were all of us furprifed to fee him as he approached nearer put on an air of deference and refpect. To whom the old man faid, "Hark you, firrah, I will pay off your extravagant bills once more; but will take ef"fectual care for the future, that your prodiga"lity thall not fpirit up a parcel of rafcals to in"fult your father." fents a good ridiculous image to the imagination, than that of a man of wit and pleasure about the town. This defcription of a man of fashion spoken by fome with a mixture of fcorn and ri dicule, by others with great gravity as a laudable diftinction, is in every body's mouth that spends any time in converfation. My friend Will Honey→ comb has this expreffion very frequently; and I never could understand by the ftory which fol lows, upon his mention of fuch a one, but that his man of wit and pleafure was either a drunkard too old for wenching, or a young lewd fellow with fome livelinefs, who would converfe with you, received kind offices of you, and at the fame time debauch your fifter, or lie with your wife. According to his defeription, a man of wit, when he could have wenches for crowns apiece which he liked quite as well, would be fo extravagant as to bribe servants, make false friendfhips, fight relations: fay, according to him, plain and fimple vice was too little for a man of wit and pleafure; but he would leave an eafy and acceffible wickednefs, to come at the fame thing with only the addition of certain falfhood and poffible murder. Will thinks the town grow very dull, in that we do not hear fo much as we used to do of thefe coxcombs, whom, without obferving it, he defcribes as the most infamous rogues in nature, with relation to friendship, love, or converfation. When pleasure is made the chief pursuit of life, it will neceffarily follow that fuch monfters as thefe will arife from a conftant application to fuch blandishments as naturally root out the force of reafon and reflection, and fubftitute in their place a general impatience of thought, and a conftant pruriency of inordinate defire. Pleafure, when it is a man's chief purpofe, difappoints itfelf; and the conftant application to it palls the faculty of enjoying it, though it leaves the fenfe of our inability for that we wish, with a difrelish of every thing else. Thus the intermediate feafons of the man of pleasure are more heavy than one would impofe upon the vileft criminal. Take him when he is awaked too foon after a debauch, or difappointed in following a worthlefs woman without truth, and there is no man living whofe being is fuch a Though I by no means approve either the im-weight or vexation as his is. He is an utter pudence of the fervants or the extravagance of the fon, I cannot but think the old gentleman was in fome measure juftly ferved for walking in masquerade, I mean appearing in a dress fo much beneath his quality and eftate. stranger to the pleafing reflections in the evening of a well fpent day, or the gladnefs of heart or quicknefs of fpirit in the morning after profound fleep or indolent flumbers. He is not to be at eafe any longer than he can keep reafon and good X fenfe without his curtains; otherwife he will be haunted with the reflection, that he could not believe fuch a one the woman that tipon trial he found her. What has he got by his conquest, but to think meanly of her for whom a day or two before he had the highest honour? and of himself for, perhaps, wronging the man whom of all men living he himself would leaft willingly have injured? Pleasure Pleasure feizes the whole man who addicts himself to it, and will not give him leifure for any good office in life which contradicts the gaiety of the prefent hour. You may indeed obferve in people of pleasure a certain compla. cency and abfence of all feverity, which the habit of a loofe and unconcerned life gives them; but tell the man of pleasure your fecret wants, cares, or forrows, and you will find he has given up the delicacy of his paffions to the cravings of his appetites. He little knows the perfect joy he lofes, for the disappointing gratifications which he purfues. He looks at pleasure as the approaches, and comes to him with the recommendation of warm wishes, gay looks, and graceful motion; but he does not obferve how the leaves his prefence with diforder, impotence, down-caft ihame, and confcious imperfection. She makes our youth inglorious, our age fhameful. Will Honeycomb gives us twenty intimations in an evening of feveral hags whofe bloom was given up to his arms; and would raise a value to himfelf for having had, as the phrafe is, very good women. Will's good women are the comfort of his heart, and fupport him, I warrant, by the memory of paft interviews with perfons of their condition. No, there is not in the world an occafion wherein vice makes fo phantaftical a figure, as at the meeting of two old people who have been partners in unwarrantable pleasure. To tell a toothlefs old lady that the once had a good fet, or a defunct wencher that he once was the admired thing in the town, are fatires inftead of applaufes; but on the other fide, confider the old age of thofe who have paffed their days in labour, indufry, and virtue; their decays make them but appear the more venerable, and the imperfections of their bodies are beheld as a misfortune to human fociety that their make is fo little durable. But to return more directly to my man of wit and pleasure. In all orders of men, wherever this is the chief character, the perfon who wears it is a negligent friend, father, and husband, and entails poverty on his unhappy defcendants. Mortgages, difeafes, and fettlements are the legacies a man of wit and pleasure leaves to his family. All the poor rogues that make fuch lamentable fpeeches after every feffions at Tyburn, were, in their way, men of wit and pleafure, before they fell into the adventures which brought them thither. Irrefolution and procraftination in all a man's affairs, are the natural effects of being addicted to pleafure; dishonour to the gentleman and bankruptcy to the trader, are the portion of either whofe chief purpose of life is delight. The chief caufe that this purfuit has been in all ages received with fo much quarter from the foberer part of mankind, has been that fome men of great talents have facrificed themfelves to it: the fhining qualities of fuch people have given a beauty to whatever they were engaged in, and a mixture of wit has recommended madness. For let any man who knows what it is to have paffed much time in a feries of jollity, mirth,- wit, or humourous entertainments, look back at what he was all that while a doing, and he will find that he has been often at one inftant fharp to fome man he is forry to have offended, impertinent to fonie one it was cruelty to treat with fuch freedom, ungracefully noify at fuch a time, unfkilfully open at fuch a time, unmercifully calumnious at fuch a time; and from the whole courfe of his applauded fatisfactions, unable in the end to recollect any circumftance which can add to the enjoyment of his own mind alone, or which he would put his character upon with other men. Thus it is with thofe who are beft made for becoming pleasures; but how monftrous is it in the generality of mankind who pretend this way, without genius or inclination towards it? The fcene then is wild to an extravagance: this is as if fools fhould mimic madmen. Pleasure of this kind is the intemperate meals and loud jollities of the common rate of the country gentlemen, whofe practice and way of enjoyment is to put an end as faft as they can to that little particle of reason they have when they are fober: thefe men of wit and pleasure difpatch their fenfes as faft as poffible by drinking until they cannot tafte, smoking until they cannot fee, and roaring until they cannot hear. T POPE. HERE is no fört of people whofe conver fation is fo pleafant as that of military men who derive their courage and magnanimity from thought and reflection. The many adventures which attend their way of life makes their converfation fo full of incidents, and gives them fo frank an air in speaking of what they have been witneffes of, that no company can be more amiable than that of men of sense who are soldiers. There is a certain irregular way in their narrations or difcourfe, which has fomething more warm and pleafing than we meet with among men, who are used to adjust and methodize their thoughts. I was this evening walking in the fields with my friend Captain Sentry, and I could not, from the many relations which I drew him into of what paffed when he was in the fervice, forbear expreffing my wonder, that the fear of death, which we, the reft of mankind, arm ourselves againft with fo much contemplation, reason and philofophy, fhould appear fo little in camps, that common men march into open breaches, meet oppofite battalions, not only without reluctance but with alacrity. My friend answered what I faid in the following manner: "What you won"der at may very naturally be the fubject of ad"miration to all who are not converfant in "camps; but when a man has spent fome time "in that way of life, he obferves a certain me"chanic courage, which the ordinary race of men become mafters of from acting always "in a crowd: they fee indeed many drop, but "then they fee many more alive; they obferve themfelves escape very narrowly, and they do "not know why they fhould not again. Be"fides which general way of loofe thinking, "they ufually spend the other part of their time "in pleasures upon which their minds are fo in"tirely bent, that short labours or dangers, are but a cheap purchase of joility, triumph, vic-. "tory, fresh quarters, new fcenes, and uncomBb 2 (6 The "cried out, "Who is that is drowned trow ??" "He was immediately answered "Your friend, "Harry Thompfon." He very gravely replied, 66 Ay, he had a mad horfe." This short epitaph "from fuch a familiar, without more words, << gave me, at that time under twenty, a very "moderate opinion of the friendship of compa"nions. Thus is affection and every other mo"tive of life in the generality rooted out by the "prefent bufy fcene about them: they lament << no man whofe capacity can be fupplied by "another; and where men converfe without de"licacy, the next man you meet with will ferve << as well as he whom you have lived with "half your life. To fuch the devaftation of "countries, the mifery of inhabitants, the cries "of the pillaged, and the filent forrow of the great unfortunate, are ordinary objects; their "minds are bent upon the little gratifications of "their own fenfes and appetites, forgetful of "compaffion, infenfible of glory, avoiding only "fhame; their whole heart is taken up with the "trivial hope of meeting and being merry. "Thefe are the people who make up the grofs of "the foldiery: but the fine gentleman in that "band of men, is fuch a one as I have now in '' mon adventures. Such are the thoughts of the executive part of an army, and indeed of "the grofs of mankind in general; but none of thefe men of mechanical courage have ever made any great figure in the profeffion of arms. "Thofe who are formed for command, are "fuch as have reafoned themfelves, out of a "confideration of greater good than length of days, into f ch a negligence of their being, as "to make it their first position, that it is one day to be refigned; and fince it is, in the profecution of worthy a&tions and fervice of man"kind they can put it to habitual hazard. " event of our defigns, they fay, as it relates to "others, is uncertain; but as it relates to ourfelves it must be profperous, while we are in the purfuit of our duty, and within the terms upon which Providence has enfured our happinefs, whether we die or live. All that nature has prefcribed must be good; and as "death is natural to us, it is abfurdity to fear "it. Fear lofes its purpofe when we are fure it cannot preferve us, and we fhould draw refo"lution to meet it from the impoffibility to "efcape it.' Without a refignation to the neceffity of dying, there can be no capacity in man to attempt any thing that is glorious; "but when they have once attained to that perfection, the pleasures of a life fpent in martial adventures, are as great as any of which the "human mind is capable. The force of reason "gives a certain beauty, mixed with the confcience of well-doing and thirft of glory, to all which before was terrible and ghaftly to the imagination. Add to this, that the fellowfhip of danger, the common good of mankind, "the general caufe, and the manifeft virtue you may obferve in fo many men, who made no "figure until that day, are fo many incentives "to deftroy the little confideration of their own "perfons. Such are the heroic part of foldiers "who are qualified for leaders: as to the reft "whom before fpoke of, I know not how it "is, but they arrive at a certain habit of being "void of thought, infomuch that on occafion of "the most imminent danger they are ftill in the "fame indifference. Nay I remember an in"ftance of a gay Frenchman, who was led on "in battle by a fuperior officer, whofe conduct tr ' 46 "it was his custom to speak of always with contempt and raillery, and in the beginning "of the action received a wound he was fenfible "was mortal; his reflection on this occafion << was, "I wish I could live another hour, to fee how this blundering coxcomb will get clear "of this bufinefs." my eye, who is foremoft in all danger to which "he is ordered. His officers are his friends and "companions, as they are men of honour and "gentlemen; the private men his brethren, as "they are of his fpecies. He is beloved of all "that behold him: they wish him in danger as "he views their ranks, that they may have occa"fions to fave him at their own hazard. Mu"tual love is the order of the files where he com "mands; every man afraid for himfelf and his "neighbour, not left their commander fhould "punish them, but left he fhould be offended, "Such is his regiment who knows mankind, " and feels their diftreffes fo far as to prevent "them. Juft in diftributing what is their due, "he would think himself below their taylor to "wear a fnip of their clothes in lace upon his own: and below the most rapacious agent, "fhould he enjoy a farthing above his own pay, "Go on, brave man, immortal glory is thy for"tune, and immortal happiness thy reward." "I remember two young fellows who rid in the fame quadron of a troop of horfe, who were ever together; they eat, they drank, they intrigued; in a word, all their paffions and af"fections feemed to tend the fame way, that appeared ferviccable to each other in them. We "" were in the dusk of the evening to march over a river, and the troop thefe gentlemen belong"ed to were to be tranfported in a ferry-boat, as "faft as they could. One of the friends was now in the boat, while the other was drawn up "with others by the water-fide waiting the re"turn of the boat. A diforder happened in the p fiage by an unruly horfe; and a gentleman "who had the rein of his horfe negligently under "his arm, was forced into the water by his "horfe's jumping over. The friend on the shore N° 153. SATURDAY, AUGUST 25. Habet natura ut aliarum omnium rerum fic vivendi modum; fenectus autem peraétio ætatis eft tanquam fabule. Cujus defatigationem fugere debemus præfertim adjun&tâ fatietate. TULL. De Senect, Life, as well as all other things, has its bounds affigned by nature; and its conclufion, like the laft act of a play, is old age; the fatigue of which we ought to fhun, efpecially when our appetites are fully fatisfied. Fall the impertinent wishes which we hear expreffed in converfation, there is not one more unworthy a gentleman or a man of liberal education, than that of wifhing one's felf younger. I have obferved this wifh is usually made upon fight of fome object which gives the idea of a past action, that it is no difhonour to us that we cannot now repeat; or elfe on what was in itself fhameful when we performed it. It is a certain fign of a foolish or a diffolute mind if we want our youth again only for the ftrength of bones and A fon, is certainly the more eligible. The memory and finews which we once were mafters of. It As to all the rational and worthy pleasures of our being, the confcience of a good fame, the contemplation of another life, the respect and commerce of honeft men, our capacities for fuch enjoyments are enlarged by years. While health endures, the latter part of life, in the eye of rea The fond humour of appearing on the gay and fashionable world, and being applauded for trivial excellencies, is what makes youth have age in contempt, and makes age refign with fo ill a grace the qualifications of youth: but this in both fexes is inverting all things, and turning the natural courfe of our minds, which should build their approbations and diflikes upon what nature and reafon dictate, into chimera and confufion. Age, in a virtuous perfon, of either fex, carries in it an authority which makes it preferable to all the pleasures of youth. If to be faluted, attended, and confulted with deference, are inftances of pleasure, they are fuch as never fail a virtuous old age. In the enumeration of the imperfections and advantages of the younger and later years of man, they are fo near in their condition, that, methinks, it fhould be incredible we fee fo little commerce of kindness between them. If we confider youth and age with Tully, regarding the affinity to death, youth has many more chances to be near it than age; what youth can fay more than an old man, "Hefhall live until night?" Youth catches difternpers more eafily, its fickness is more violent, and its recovery more doubtful. The youth indeed hopes for many more days, fo cannot the old man. The youth's hopes are ill-grounded; for what is more foolish than to place any confidence upon an uncertainty? But the old man has not room fo much as for hope; he is ftill happier than the youth, he has already enjoyed what the other does but hope for: one wishes to live long, the other has iived long. But alas, is there any thing in human life, the duration of which can be called long? There is nothing which must end to be va lued for its continuance. If hours, days, months, and years pafs away, it is no matter what hour, what day, what month, or what year we die. The applaufe of a good actor is due to him at whatever fcene of the play he makes his exit. It is thus in the life of a man of fenfe: a fhort life is fufficient to manifeft himself a man of honour and virtue: when hejceases to be fuch, he has lived too long, and while he is fuch, it is of no confequence to him how long he shall be fo, provided he is fo to his life's end, T N.. N° 154. MONDAY, AUGUST 27. Juv. Sat. 2. v. 33. No man e'er reach'd the heights of vice at first. TATE. • Mr. Spectator, Yo YOU are frequent in the mention of matters which concern the feminine world, and take upon you to be very fevere againft men upon all thofe occafions: but all this while I am afraid you have been very little converfant with women, or you would know the generality of them are not fo angry as you imagine at the general vices among us. I am apt to believe, begging your pardon, that you are ftill what I myfelf was once, a queer modeft fellow; and therefore, for your information, fhall give you a fhort account of myfelf, and the reafons why I was forced to wench, drink, play, and do every thing which are neceffary to the character of a man of wit and pleasure, to be well with the ladies. You are to know then that I was bred a gentleman, and had the finishing part of my education under å man of great probity, wit, and learning, in one of our univerfities. I will not deny but this made my behaviour and mien bear in it a figure of thought rather than action; and a man of a quite contrary character, who never thought in his life, rallied me one day upon it, and faid, he believed I was ftill a virgin. There was a young lady of virtue prefent, and I was not difpleafed to favour the infinuation; but it had a quite contrary effect from what I exposed. I was ever after treated with great coldnefs both by that lady and all the reft of my acquaintance. In a very little time i never came into a room but I could hear a whisper, "here comes the maid:" A girl of humour would on fome occafion fay, "why "how do you know more than any of us? An expreffion of that kind was generally followed by a loud laugh: in a word, for no other fault in the world than that they really thought me as innocent as themfelves, I became of no confequence among them, and was received always upon the foot of a jeft. This made fo ftrong an impreffion upon me, that I refolved to be as agreeable as the beft of the men who laughed at me; but I obferved it was nonfenfe for me to be impudent at firft among those who knew me; my character for modefty was fo notorious wherever I had hitherto appeared, that I refolved to fhew my new face in new quarters of the world. My firft ftep I chofe with judgment; for I went to Aftrop, and come down among a crowd of Academics, at orc dath, the impudenteft fellow that they had ever feen in their lives. Flushed with this fuccefb, I made love and was happy. Upon this conqueft I thought it would be unlike a gentleman to tay longer with my miftrefs, and crofied the country to Bury: I could give you a very good account of myself at that place ⚫ alfo. At these two ended my firft fummer of gallantry. The winter following, you would wonder at it, but I relapfed into modefty upon coming among people of figure in London, yet not fo much but that the ladies who had formerly laughed at me, faid, Blefs us! how won 4 derfully that gendeman is improved? Seme familiarities about the play-houres towards the ' end of the enfuing winter, made me conceive new hopes of adventures; and inftead of returning the next fummer to Aftrop or Bury, I thought myfelf qualified to go to Fpfom, and 'followed a young woman, whofe relations were jealous of my place in her favour, to Scarbo'rough. I carried my point, and in my third year afpired to go to Tunbridge, and in the autumn of the fame year made my appearance at Bath. I was now got into the way of talk proper for ladies, and was run into a vaft acquaintance among them, which I always im' proved to the beft advantage. In all this courfe of time, and fome years following, I found a fober modeft man was always looked upon by both fexes as a precife unfashioned fellow of no life or fpirit. It was ordinary for a man who had been drunk in good company, or paffed a night with a wench, to fpeak of it the 'next day before women for whom he had the greatest refpect. He was reproved, perhaps, with a blow of the fan, or an ch fy! but the C angry lady ftill preferved an apparent appro bation in her countenance: he was called a frange wicked fellow, a fad wretch; he fhrugs his fhoulders, fwcars, receives another blow, fwears again he did not know he swore, and all was well. You might often fee men game in the prefence of women, and throw at once for more than they were worth, to recommend themfelves as men of fpirit, I found by long experience that the loofeft principles and moft abandoned behaviour, carried all befoe them in pretensions to women of fortune. The encouragement given to people of this ftamp, made me foon throw off the remaining im 'preffions of a fober education. In the abovementioned places, as well as in town, I always kept company with thofe who lived most at large; and in due procefs of time I was a pretty rake among the men, and a very pretty fellow among the women. I must confefs, I had fome melancholy hours upon the account of the narrownofs of my fortune, but my confcience at the fame time gave me the comfort that I had qualified myself for marrying a fortune. When I had lived in this manner for fome time, and became thus accomplished, I was now in the twenty-feventh year of my age, about the forty-feventh of my conflitution, my health and eftate wafting very faft; when I I happened to fall into the coinpany of a very pretty young lady in her own difpofal. I entertained the company, as we men of gallantry generally do, with the many haps and difafters, watchings under windows, efcapes from jealous husbands, and several other perils. The young thing was wonderfully charmed with one that knew the world fo well, and talked fo fine; with Defdemona, all her lover faid affected her; "it was ftrange, it was won"derous ftrange." In a word, I faw the impreffion I had made upon her, and with a very ttle application the pretty thing has married There is fo much charm in her innocence and beauty, that I do now as much deteft the courfe I have been in for many years, as I ever did before I entered into it. mc. What I intend, Mr. Spectator, by writing all this to you, is that you would, before you go any further with your panegyrics on the fair < fx, give them fume lectures upon their filly approbations. It is that I am weary of vice, Cand |