him who sees it committed: and is tolerated in society only because every one has an invincible inclination to commit it." 2 It is therefore the bounden duty of all soci eties, whether of private or public descrip tion, who are not the patrons of tale bearing, firmly to express, in the very first attempt of introducing it, their aversion to such mischievous loquacity: for the defamer, whoever it may be, offers no small affront to the com pany to whom the information is communicated, in supposing, that slander is as welcome entertainment to them, as it is to the haberdasher of it: the restless tongue of calumny knows no bounds, nor spares any character, age, or sex like the spokes of a wheel in rotatory motion, it whirls about all in their turn, and when some are up, others are sure to be down: characters of publicity however are usually the more certain mark of illiberal attack; only those escape, but not always, who from obscurity of situation or insignificance ficance of life, have not sufficiently interested the genius of slander. "The failings of good men," it has been well observed, are commonly more published in the world than their good deeds; and one fault of a deserving man shall meet with more reproaches, than all his virtues, praise; such is the force of ill will and ill nature; and it often happens that those are the best people, whose characters have been most injured by slanderers; for we usually find that to be the sweetest fruit, which the birds have been picking at;" in this view of the subject, he that is loudly praised cannot expect otherwise, than to be loudly censured, and thus his character in the mouth of defamation, like the brilliancy of a diamond, may be better displayed through the intervention of some dark body. Even against an open enemy, the generous spirit disdains to offer malignant language. Το To the Persian soldier who reviled Alexander the Great, excellent was this rebuke of his commander, "Sir, you are paid to fight against "Alexander and not to rail at him." The author of Tom Jones has justly told us," that vice has not a more abject slave; society produces not a more odious vermin, nor can the devil receive a gift more worthy of him, nor possibly more welcome to him, than a slanderer." 'Tis slander, Whose edge is sharper than the sword; whose tongue All corners of the world; kings, queens, and states, This viperous slander enters." Cymbeline, A. 3. Sc. 4. ESSAY IX. AVARICE. THOUGH all rivers flow into the sea, yet that depository will not be full, and though the influx of wealth be unbounded, the coffers of avarice remain insatiable: age, which usually corrects other vices, strangely increases this. Avarice stands directly opposed to extravagance, and of the two evils, there scarcely can be a doubt, that avarice is by far the greater: if the prodigal, by squandering on himself, puts it out of his power to be gene rous rous to others, and sometimes even honest; the niggard, while possessing the most ample means of doing both, wants the spirit to indulge in the former, and too frequently trespasses against the latter. A moralist of antiquity calls him a thief who covets, though he never steals; if this assertion be true, the avaricious are by imagination and wish, with their hands in the pockets of others, and if the act could be as secret as the thought, or the effort as practicable as the desire, would be plundering cities and swallowing empires! Such is the dominion of avarice, which seldom permits her slaves to be restrained by any noble principle, that by analogy it is reasonably to be feared, every such ignoble sacrifice would be made at her altar. "For sordid lucre plunge we in the mire; Drudge, sweat, through every shame for every gain. "For vile contaminating trash throw up our "Hope in Heaven, our dignity with man, "And deify the dirt matured to gold!" YOUNG. |