While pleas'd amidst the general fhouts of Troy,
His mother's confcious heart o'erflows with joy.

He fpoke, and fondly gazing on her charms,
Reftor'd the pleafing burden to her arms;
Soft on her fragrant breaft her babe the laid,
Hufh'd to repofe and with a fmile furvey'd.
The troubled pleasure foon chaftis'd by fear,
She mingled with the fmile a tender tear.
The foften'd chief with kind compaffion view'd,
And dry'd the falling drops, and thus purfu'd:
Andromache! my foul's far better part,
Why with untimely forrows heaves thy heart?
No hoftile hand can antidate my doom,
Till fate condemns me to the filent tomb.
Fix'd is the term to all the race of earth,
And fuch the hard condition of our birth.
No force can then refift, no flight can fave,
All fink alike, the fearful and the brave.
No more-but haften to thy tasks at home,
There guide the spindle and direct the loom;
Me glory fummons to the martial scene,
The field of combat is the fphere for men.
Where heroes war, the foremost place I claim,
The firft in danger, as the firft in fame.

ཤྰ་་་་

Thus having faid, the glorious chief refumes
His towery, helmet, black with fhading plumes,
His princess parts with a prophetic figh,
Unwilling parts, and oft reverts her eye,
That ftream'd at every look; then moving flow,
Sought her own palace,, and indulg'd her woe,
There, while her tears deplor'd the godlike man,
Thro' all her train the foft infection ran,
The pious maids their mingled forrows fhed,
And mourn the living Hector, as the dead.

POPE'S HOMER.

BOOK HI.

DIDACTIC PIECES.

CHAPTER I.

ON MODESTY.

I KNOW no two words that have been more abused by the different and wrong interpretations which are put upon them, than these two-Modefly and Affurance. To fay fuch a one is a modeft man, fometimes indeed paffes for a good character; but at prefent is very often used to fignify a fheepish, aukward fellow, who has neither good breeding, politenefs, nor any knowledge of the world.

Again, a man of affurance, though at firft only denoting a perfon of 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 blufh. smut

I fhall endeavour, therefore, in this effay to reflore thefe words to their true meaning, to prevent the idea of Modefty from being confounded with that of Sheepishness, and to hinder Impudence from paffing for Affurance.

If I was put to define Modefty, I would call it, The reflection of an ingenuous mind, either when a man has committed an action for which he cenfures himself, or fancies that he is expofed 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 in 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 several complaints laid against

him before the Senate, as a tyrant and oppreffor of his fubjects. The Prince went to Rome to defend his father,but coming into the Senate, and hearing a multitude of crimes proved upon him, was fo oppreffed when it came to his turn to speak, that he was unable to utter a word. The ftory tells us, that the Fathers were more moved at this inftance of modefty and ingenuity, than they could have been by the most pathetic oration; and, in fhort, pardoned the guilty father, for this early promife of virtue in his fon.

I take Affurance to be, the faculty of poffeffing a man's felf, or of faying and doing indifferent things without any uneafiness or emotion in the mind. That which generally gives a man affurance, is a moderate knowledge of the world; but above all, a mind fixed and determined in itfelf 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 him-felf, and from a confciousness of his own integrity, affumes force enough to despise the little cenfures of ignorance or malice.

Every one ought to cherish and encourage in himself the modefty and affurance I have here mentioned,

A man without affurance is liable to be made uneasy by the folly or ill-nature of every one he converfes with. A man without modefty is loft to all fenfe of honour and virtue.

It is more than probable, that the Prince above-mentioned 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 caufe he had taken upon him, though 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 say, a modest assurance; by which we underftand the just mean between bashfulness and impudence.

I shall conclude with obferving, that as the fame man may be both modeft and assured; fo it is also poffible for the fame perfon to be both impudent and bashful.

We have frequent inftances of this odd kind of mixture in people of depraved minds and mean education; who, though they are not able to meet a man's eyes or pronounce a sentence without confufion, can voluntarily commit the greatest villanies, or most indecent actions.

Such a perfon feems to have made a refolution to do ill even in fpite of himself, and in defiance of all thofe 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 proper method to give a man a becoming affurance in his words and actions. Guilt always feeks to shelter itself in one of the extremes, and is fometimes attended with both.

SPECTATOR.

CHAPTER II.

ON CHEERFULNESS.

The

I HAVE always preferred Cheerfulness to Mirth. latter I confider as an act, the former as a habit of the mind. Mirth is fhort and tranfient, Cheerfulness fixed and permanent. Those are often raised into the greatest tranfports of mirth, who are fubject to the greateft depreffions of melancholy on the contrary, cheerfulness, though it does not give the mind fuch an exquifite gladnefs, prevents

us from falling into any depths of forrow. Mirth is like a flash of lightning, that breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment: cheerfulness keeps up a kind of day-light in the mind, and fills it with a fleady and perpetual ferenity.

Men of auftere principles look upon mirth as too wanton and diffolute for a flate of probation, and as filled with a certain triumph and infolence of heart that is incon fiftent with a life which is every moment obnoxious to the greatest dangers. Writers of this complexion have obferved, that the Sacred Perfon, who was the great pattern of perfection, was never feen to laugh.

Cheerfulness of mind is not liable to any of these exceptions; it is of a serious and composed nature: it does. not throw the mind into a condition improper for the prefent ftate of humanity, and is very confpicuous in the characters of those who are looked upon as the greatest philofophers among the Heathens, as well as among those who have been defervedly esteemed as faints and holy men among Chriftians.

If we confider Cheerfulness in three lights, with regard to ourselves, to thofe we converfe with, and to the great. Author of our being, it will not a little recommend itself on each of these accounts. The man who is poffetfed of this excellent frame of mind, is not only easy in his thoughts, but a perfect mafter of all the powers and faculties of his foul; his imagination is always clear, and his judgment undisturb'd; his temper is even and unruffled, whether in action or in folitude. He comes with a relish to all thofe goods which nature has provided for him, tafles all the pleasures of the creation which are poured upon him, and does not feel the full weight of thofe accidental evils which may befal him.

If we confider him in relation to the perfons whom he converfes with, it naturally produces love and good-will