any Pretenfions to Greatness of Mind, or True Honour, let our Enemies themfelves be Judges.

Give me Leave, by way of Conclufion, to prefent you with a little Piece of a Tatler, fuppofed to be writ by Sir Richard Steele (Feb. 18, 1709). When I was a young Man about this Town, I frequented the Ordinary of the Black Horfe in Holborn, where the Perfon, that ufually prefided at the Table, was a rough, old-fashioned Gentleman, who, according to the Cuftom of thofe Times, had been the Major and Preacher of a Regiment. It happened one Day, that a noify young Officer, bred in France, was venting some new-fangled Notions, and fpeaking, in the Gaiety of his Humour, against the Difpenfations of Providence. The Major, at firft, only defired him to talk more respectfully of one, for whom all the Company had an Honour; but finding him to run on in his Extravagance, began to reprimand him, in a more ferious Manner. Young Man, faid he, do not abufe your Benefactor whilst you are eating his Bread ; confider whofe Air you breathe, whofe Prefence you are in, and who it is that gave you the Power of that very Speech, which you make use of to his Difhonour. The young Fellow, who thought to turn Matters into a Fest, afked him, if he was going to preach? but defired him, at the fame time, to take care what he said, when he Spoke to A MAN OF HONOUR.- A MAN OF HONOUR! fays the Major, thou art an INFIDEL and a BLASPHEMER, and I fhall ufe thee as fuch. In short, the Quarrel ran fo high, that the Major was defired to walk out; upon their coming into the Garden, the old Fellow advifed his Antagonist to confider the Place into which one Pafs might drive him; but, finding him grow upon him to a De

gree

gree of Scurrility, as believing the Advice proceeded from Fear: Sirrah, fays he, if a Thunderbolt does not Atrike thee dead before I come at thee, I shall not fail ta shaftife thee for thy Profaneness to thy Maker, and thy Sauciness to his Servant; upon this, he drew his Sword, and cried out with a loud Voice, The Sword of the Lord, and of Gideon; which fo terrified his Antagonist, that he was immediately difarmed, and thrown upon his Knees. In this Pofture he begged his Life; but the Major refused to grant it, before he had asked Pardon for his Offence in a fhort extemporary Prayer, which the old Gentleman dictated to him upon the Spot, and which his Profelyte repeated after him in the Prefence of the whole Ordinary, that were now gathered about him in the Garden,

LETTER IV.

N my laft I attempted to prove, that an irre

I religious a of

Honour; that whofoever was ignorant or negligent of his Duty to God, must be either a very filly, or a very indolent or ungrateful Creature, and as fuch can have no poffible Pretension to that Greatness of Mind, in which alone true Honour confifts. I fhall now endeavour to prove, that an Immoral Man, one that lives in the habitual, open, unrepented Violation of all, or any, of the Duties of Morality, or natural Religion, can have no better Title to Honour than the irreligious Unbeliever,

The

The Adulterer, the Murderer, the Robber, whe ther in a public or private Character, (condemned by the Laws of the moft favage and barbarous Nations to Infamy and Death) have cut themselves off from all Pretenfions to Honour by a direct avowed Violation of the primary and fundamental Laws of Reason, Juftice, and Order: Crimes that can admit of no Colouring or Excufe, for which nothing can be pleaded with any Shadow of Reason or common Sense, but are generally carried off with a high Hand, a hardened Forehead, a loud Laugh, and a libertine Joke. It is really too gentle a Cenfure upon fuch flagitious Offenders only to fay they are not Men of Honour, who have, by thofe atrocious Crimes, degraded themselves to the loweft Rank of Malefactors. Nor can it be thought unreasonable to affert, that thefe flagrant Crimes degrade Men from all Pretenfions to Honour, when it is demonftrable that the not exerting all the oppofite Virtues in an open, ingenuous, amiable Manner, is a fufficient Difqualification. A Man may be free from every notorious Vice, and yet be an errant Scoundrel. He may be just out of Fear or Policy, frugal and temperate out of Covetoufness, peaceable and harmlefs from a Milkiness of Blood; he may abstain from Acts of Violence out of Cowardice, from Lewdnefs for Want of Ability and Op portunity; and yet, in the State and Temper of his Heart, be fo far from a Man of Honour, as to deferve all the Infamy due to the moft fcandalous Vices.

By the bye, I have often wondered that so polite and accurate a Writer as Mr. Addifon could be guilty of fuch a Miftake, on fo important a Subject, as he

puts

puts into the Mouth of young Juba, in the Tragedy

of Cato.

"Honour 's the facred Tye, the Law of Kings, "The noble Mind's diftinguifhing Perfection, "That aids and ftrengthens Virtue, where it meets her;

"And imitates her Actions, where he is not."

not.

Where he is not!-Is that poffible? Can true Honour, even in Idea, be separate from Virtue? I think The Matter of an honourable Action is, that it be just; the Form, that it be performed in a polite, generous, amiable Manner. There is indeed to be found, even in the vileft Criminals, a certain Roughness and Sturdiness of Mind, that very nearly resembles it. The Behaviour of a hardened Malefactor, expiring under the Torture, refufing to confefs his Guilt, or discover his Accomplices, may impose upon the injudicious Spectators, but furely has no real Title to Honour. The Bully may resemble the Hero in the Appearance of Courage, as Prudes do Veftals in the Appearance of Chastity; but he that can mistake the one for the other, must be very little acquainted with human Nature, and the Ways of the World. True Honour is confiftent and uniform, as the immutable Laws of Truth and Reason on which it is founded, and by which it fubfifts. Whoever, therefore, fhall establish to himself, as a Point of Honour, any thing that is contrary to his Duty to God and his Country, and the immutable Laws of Truth and Justice; who shall think any thing honourable that is difpleafing to his Maker, or injurious to Society; who facrifices any VOL. I. H

Part

Part of his Duty, as a reasonable Creature, to a ridiculous Fashion, a prevailing Error, or an importunate Luft; who thinks himself obliged, by this Principle, to the Practice of fome Virtues, but not of others, is by no means to be counted a Man of Honour.

The Malignity of a bafe corrupt Heart discovers itself in a numberlefs Variety of peftilent Symptoms, foetid Eruptions, and diforderly Motions, which are neither cognizable in human Courts, nor punishable by human Laws, but are only known to the great Searcher of Hearts, who confiders them as the Root and Spring from whence the most heinous and capital Offences proceed. The Selfish, the Voluptuous, the Covetous, and the Proud, whom no human Laws can restrain or punish, are as criminal in the Sight of the Almighty, and as odious to his boundless Love and fpotlefs Purity, as thofe notorious Criminals who are daily recruiting Newgate and the Plantations.

1

Selfishness, or Self-love, in Oppofition to public Spirit and the Love of the Community, can only proceed from a Weakness of Understanding, and a Baseness of Heart. Nemo fibi foli nafcitur, is an obvious Maxim of Nature and common Senfe; he that cannot fee the Force and Obligation of it, must be a Fool, and he that fees it, and acts difagreeably to it, is a Poltron. Public Spirit is infeparable from great Minds, and is that alone which can qualify Men to fill the highest Stations, and execute the most important Offices with Dignity and Honour. The greatest Princes, without it, degenerate into Brokers and Stockjobbers. If they confider themselves in any other Light than the Fathers of the People, the Guardians of Religion and Liberty, the Protectors of the Oppreffed, and the im

partial