it is graceful and ornamental to human nature. The religious man fears, the man of honour fcorns, to do an ill action. The latter confiders vice as fomething that is beneath him, the other as fomething as offenfive to the Divine Being. The one as what is becoming, the other as what is forbidden. Thus Seneca fpeaks in the natural and genuine language of a man of honour, when he declares, that were there no God to fee or punish vice, he would not commit it, because it is of fo mean, and fo base, and fo vile a nature. I fhall conclude this head with the description of honour in the parting of young Juba "Honour's a facred tie, the law of kings, CATO. In the fecond place, we are to confider those who have miftaken notions of honour. And these are fuch as eftablish any thing to themfelves for a point of honour which is contrary either to the laws of God or of their country; who think it more honourable to revenge than to forgive an injury; who make no fcruple of telling a lie, but would put any man to death that accuses them of it; who are more careful to guard their reputation by their courage than by their virtue. True fortitude is indeed fo becoming in human nature, that he who wants it fcarce deserves the name of a man; but we find several who so much abuse this notion, that they place the whole idea of honour in a kind of brutal courage; by which means we have had many among us who have called themselves men of honour, that would have been a difgrace to a gibbet. In a word, the man who facrifices any duty of a reasonable creature to a prevailing mode or fashion, who looks upon any thing as honourable that is difpleafing to his Maker, or deftructive to fociety, who thinks himself obliged by this principle to the practice of fome virtues and not of others, is by no means to be reckoned among true men of honour. Timogenes was a lively inftance of one actuated by falfe honour. Timogenes would fmile at a man's jest who ridiculed his Maker, and at the fame time, run a man through the body that spoke ill of his friend. Timogenes would have fcorned to have betrayed a fecret, even though the fate of his country depended on the discovery of it. Timogenes took away the life of a young fellow in a duel, for having fpoken ill of Belinda, a lady whom he himself had feduced in her youth, and betrayed into want and ignominy. To close his character, Timogenes, after having ruined several poor tradesmen's families who had truffed him, fold his eftate to fatisfy his creditors; but, like a man of honour, difposed of all the money he could make of it, in the paying of all his play debts, or, to speak in his own language, his debts of honour. In the third place, we are to confider those persons whe treat the principle as chimerical, and turn it into ridicule. Men who are profeffedly of no honour, are of a more profligate and abandoned nature than even those who are actuated by false notions of it, as there is more hope of a Heretic than of an Atheist. The fons of infamy confider honour with old Syphax, in the play before-mentioned, as a fine imaginary notion that leads aftray young unexperienced men, and draws them into real mifchiefs, while they are engaged in the purfuits of a fhadow. These are generally perfons who, in Shakespeare's phrase," are worn and hackneyed in the ways of men;" whose imaginations are grown callous, and have loft all those delicate fentiments which are natural to minds that are innocent and undepraved. Such old battered miscreants I ridicule every thing as romantic that comes into competition with their prefent intereft, and treat those persons as vifionaries, who dare ftand up in a corrupt age for what has not its immediate reward joined to it. The talents, intereft, or experience of fuch men, make them very often useful in all parties, and at all times. But whatever wealth and dignities they may arrive at, they ought to confider, that every one stands as a blot in the annals of his country, who arrives at the temple of honour by any other way than through that of virtue. GUARDIAN. CHAPTER V. ON GOOD HUMOUR. GOOD humour may be defined a habit of being pleased, a conftant and perpetual foftnefs of manner, eafinefs of approach, and fuavity of disposition: like that which every man perceives in himself, when the first transports of new felicity have fubfided, and his thoughts are only kept in motion by a flow succession of foft impulfes. Good humour is a state between gaiety and unconcern; the act or emanation of a mind at leifure to regard the gratification of another. It is imagined by many, that whenever they aspire to please, they are required to be merry, and to shew the gladness of their fouls by flights and pleasantry, and bursts of laughter. But though these men may be for a time heard with applause and admiration, they feldom delight us long. We enjoy them a little, and then retire to easinefs and good humour, as the eye gazes a while on eminences glittering with the, fun, but foon turns aching away to verdure and to flowers. Gaiety is to good humour, as animal perfumes to vegetable fragrance; the one over-powers weak spirits, and the other recreates and revives them. Gaiety feldom fails to give fome pain; the hearers either ftrain their faculties to accompany its towerings, or are left behind in envy and defpair. Good humour boafts no faculties which every one does not believe in his power, and pleases principally by not offending. It is well known, that the most certain way to give any man pleasure, is to perfuade him that you receive pleafure from him, to encourage him to freedom and confidence, and to avoid any fuch appearance of superiority as may overbear and deprefs him. We fee many that by this art only, fpend their days in the midft of careffes, invitations, and civilities: and without any extraordinary qualities or attainments, are the universal favourites of both fexes, and certainly find a friend in every place. The darlings of the world will, indeed, be generally found fuch as excite neither jealoufy nor fear; and are not confidered as candidates for any eminent degree of reputation, but content themselves with common accomplishments, and endeavour rather to folicit kindness than to raise esteem. Therefore in affemblies and places of refort it feldom fails to happen, that though at the entrance of fome particular perfon every face brightens with gladness, and every hand is extended in falutation,/ yet if you pursue him beyond the firft exchange of civili ties, you will find him of very small importance, and only welcome to the company, as one by whom all conceive themselves admired, and with whom any one is at liberty to amufe himself when he can find no other auditor or companion; as one with whom all are at ease, who will hear a jeft without criticism, and a narrative without contradiction; who laughs with every wit, and yields to every difputer. There are many whofe vanity always inclines them to affociate with thofe from whom they have no reafon to fear mortification; and there are times in which the wife and the knowing are willing to receive praise without the labour of deferving it, in which the most elevated mind is willing to defcend, and the most active to be at reft, All therefore are at some hour or another fond of companions whom they can entertain upon eafy terms, and who will relieve them from folitude, without condemning them to vigilance and caution. We are most inclined to love when we have nothing to fear; and he that encourages us to please ourselves, will not be long without preference in our affection to those whofe learning holds us at the distance of pupils, or whose wit calls all attention from us, and leaves us without importance and without regard. It is remarked by Prince Henry, when he fees Falfaff lying on the ground, "that he could have better spared a better man." He was well acquainted with the vices and follies of him whom he lamented, but while his conviction compelled him to do juftice to fuperior qualities, his tenderness still broke out at the remembrance of Falstaff, of the cheerful companion, the loud buffoon, with whom he had paffed his time in all the luxury of idleness, who had gladdened him with unenvied merriment, and whom he could at once enjoy and despise. But You may perhaps think this account of those who are diftinguished for their good humour, not very confiftent with the praifes which I have bestowed upon it. furely nothing can more evidently fhew the value of this quality, than that it recommends those who are destitute. of all other excellencies, and procures regard to the trifling, friendship to the worthlefs, and affection to the dull. Good humour is indeed generally degraded by the charafters in which it is found; for being confidered as a cheap and vulgar quality, we find it often neglected by |