of the pernicious influence of gold; but to virtue, valour, and public good, it is scarce poffible; there is something repugnant in the nature of these things, to the accepting pecuniary rewards; a military order hanging at a button-hole, a rib band croffing a breaft, the word bonor even, can do more in the hands of a great man, than the millions which were fquander'd the last war; with it every thing may be atchieved, and without it nothing.

I think, a government fhould never fuffer any difquifitions on the nature of fuch things, or permit men to reafon themselves, as it is call'd, out of every virtue, into the pursuit of every vice; the fashion of examining all things, is unrealizing every thing which is active in the human frame,

How easy is it to laugh a man out of what must give him fatigue and trouble, into an opinion of cafe and fafety; money is never won by pains; the foldier who mounts the breach has five-pence a day, and the changealley Jew gets a thousand pounds during that time; yet, the former, I prefume, is the honefter

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nefter man, and defends the property of him who laughs at him for the folly of being shot at for five-pence a day, whilft the latter is honored for his riches; a Jew who has plundered his country of a million, finds a kind reception by a minifter, when a foldier, who

•

has fuftain'd his country's honor at the lofs of

his limbs, is denied admittance.

: THE very value of money is as ideal as that of honor, and an American chief would defpife gold, who would be piqued to any desperate action by glory; a blue bead of glass, or a common mirror, will operate on them ftronger than money, at leaft it would till the natives of Europe feduced them from their original state; and I believe, at present a belt of wampum, deliver'd by an Indian chief, binds them as truly to their words, as any treaty made amongst chriftian princes at the Pyrenean mountains, Utrecht, or Aix la Chapelle; they have affixed an idea of facred to these things, and farther than these ideas operate, no treaty can bind or oblige, in whatever manner it may be executed.

THIS

THIS nation, of all the others of Europe, has fuffer'd the most by neglecting the influence which honor has amongst them; the very nature of its conftitution prevents it from being filled with numbers of perfons diftinctly honored for their fervice; here is no inferior order of knighthood, and a fimple knight is to be found amongst grocers, tobacconists, cheesemongers, and other trades; which effaces its effects, and renders it below the confideration of a man. who has deferved well of his country, either in arts, arms, or science.

*

Too many honorary diftinctions also, as the nation is of the mixed kind of government, would render that part which bestows honors, too powerful; those fo diftinguish'd would find an attachment to that alone, and the ba lance would preponderate on that fide. In France the king is not divided from the country's intereft, (the people of England think he pos fibly may); but universal honor, confider'd as facred, would have a juft and true influence on all; nothing discovers this fo effectually as a regiment of foldiers, which has been once 3 efteemed

efteemed for some gallant action, the same spirit runs thro' it for generations, and the least exalted man of the kingdom becomes animated with the gallant foul of the corps, in fix months after he has been lifted amongst them, and filled with a fpirit of bravery, to which he was before a ftranger; and yet, the pay of these men is no better than those of other regiments, where no fuch animating principle prevails in the day of battle the honor of the regiment fhall operate on their minds, stronger than untold fums of gold; and this fpirit grows by indulgence, whereas that arifing from money is ruin'd by its reward.

THIS is the present fate of England, adieu,

I am your most obedient ferwant.

¡ ..

LET.

LETTER XLIX.

To the Reverend Father CURTIO MARINELLI at Rome.

Dear Sir,

multiplicity of printing is a proof of much learning, the ftate of letters was never in fo flourishing a condition as at prefent; and yet, notwithstanding this, it really was never fo ̊ truly the contrary, fince the firft rife of learning in this island.

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IF

NAY, fo true it is, tho' it may seem paradoxical, that even that art, which was the greatest propagator of science, is now the most likely to prove its deftruction, and printing will probably become the greateft enemy to letters.

To produce works of science, fuppofing that there are men of genius in a kingdom, literature must be held in honor, and careffed; genius is as coy as a virgin, and will make no more advances to the company of the

great, than

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chastity