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tion; we may be lefs profligate than they are, by being more cowardly: but what I advance as certain is, That we cannot be fafe among them that they will, in fome degree, and may in a very great one, hurt our morals. You may not, perhaps, be unwilling to have a diftinct view of the reafons, upon which I affert this.

I will enter upon them in my next. I was going to write adieu, when it came into my thoughts, that though you may not be a ftranger to the much cenfured doctrine of our countryman Pelagius a ftranger to his having denied original fin; you may, perhaps, have never heard how he accounted for the depravity, fo manifeft in the whole of our race-He afcribed it to imitation. Had he said, that imitation makes fome of us very bad, and most of us worse than we otherwife fhould have been; I think he would not have paffed for an heretic. Dean Bolton.

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I promised you, that you fhould have the reafons, why I think that there is great danger of your being hurt by vitious acquaintance. The first thing I have here to propose to your confideration is, what I just mentioned at the clofe of my last-our aptnefs to imitate.

For many years of our life we are forming ourselves upon what we obferve in thofe about us. We do not only learn their phrase, but their mamers. You perceive among whom we were educated, not more plainly by our idiom, than by our behaviour. The cottage offers you a brood, with all the rufticity and favagenefs of its grown inhabitants. The civility and courtefy, which, in a well-ordered family, are conftantly feen by its younger members, fail not to influence their deportment; and will, whatever their natural brutality may be, difpofe them to check its appearance, and exprefs an averfenefs from what is rude and difgufting. Let the defcendant of the meanest be placed, from his infancy, where he perceives every one mindful of decorum; the marks of his extraction are foon obliterated; at leaft, his carriage does not difcover it: and were the heir of his Grace to be continually in the kitchen or ftables, you would foon only know the young Lord by is cloaths and title: in other refpects, you would judge him the fon of the groom er the fcullion.

Nor is the difpofition to imitate confined to our childhood; when this is paft, and the man is to fhew himfelf, he takes his colours, if I may fo speak, from thofe he is near-he copies their appearance-he feldom is, what the ufe of his reafon, or what his own inclinations, would make him.

Are the opinions of the generality, in moft points, any other, than what they hear advanced by this or that perfon high in their efteem, and whofe judgment they will not allow themfelves to question? You well know, that one could not lately go into company, but the first thing faid was

You have, undoubtedly, read—What an excellent performance it is! The fine imagination of its noble author difcovers itfelf in every line. As foon as this noble author feriously disowned it, all the admiration of it was at an end. Its merit, with thole who had moft commended it, appeared to be wholly the name of its fuppofed writer. Thus we find it throughout. It is not what is written, or faid, or acted, that we examine; and approve or condemn, as it is, in itself, good or bad: Our concern is, who writes, who fays, or does it; and we, accordingly, regard, or difregard it.

Look round the kingdom. There is, perhaps, fcarce a village in it, where the ferioufnefs or diffoluteness of the Squire, if not quite a driveller, is not more or lefs feen in the manners of the rest of its inhabitants. And he, who is thus a pattern, takes his pattern-fafhions himself by fome or other of a better eftate, or higher rank, with whofe character he is pleafed, or to whom he fecks to recommend himself.

In what a fhort space is a whole nation metamorphofed! Fancy yourfelf in the middle of the last century. What grave faces do you every where behold! The moft diffolutely inclined fuffers not a libertine expreflion to escape him. He who leaft regards the practice of virtue, affumes its appearance.

None claim, from their flations, a privilege for their vices. The greateft ftrangers to the influence of religion obferve its form. The foldier not only forbears an oath, but reproves it; he may poflibly make free with your goods, as having more grace than you, and, therefore, a better uide to them; but you have nothing to fear from his lewdnefs, or drunkennefs.

The Royal Brothers at length land—
The

The monarchy is reftored. How foon then is a grave afpect denominated a puritanical; decorum, precifeness; serioufnels, fanaticifm! He, who cannot extingih in himself all fenfe of religion, is induftrious to conceal his having any-appears worfe than he is would be thought to favour the crime, that he dares not commit. The lewdeft converfation is the politeft. No reprefentation pleafes, in which decency is confulted. Every favourite drama has its hero a libertine-introduces the magiftrate, only to expofe him as a knave, or a cuckold; and the prieft, only to defcribe him a profligate or hypocrite.

How much greater the power of fashion is, than that of any laws, by whatfoever penalties enforced, the experience of all ages and nations concurs in teaching us. We readily imitate, where we cannot be contrained to obey; and become by example, what our rule feeks in vain to make

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As the Chameleon, who is known
To have no colours of his own;
Fut borrows from his neighbour's hue
H's white or black, his green or blue;
And ftruts as much in ready light,
Which credit gives him upon fight,
As if the rainbow were in tail
Settled on him, and his heirs male:
So the young Squire, when first he comes
From country school to Will's or Tom's;
And equally, in truth, is fit

To be a statefman, or a wit;
Without one notion of his own,
He faunters wildly up and down;
Tu fome acquaintance, good or bad,
1 kes notice of a flaring lad,
Admits him in among the gang:
They jeft, reply, difpute, harangue;
Hects and talks as they befriend him,

Converfation, like marriage, must have confent of parties. There is no being intimate with him, who will not be fo with you; and, in order to contract or fupport an intimacy, you must give the pleafure, which you would receive. This is a truth, that every man's experience muft force him to acknowledge: we are fure to feek in vain a familiarity with any, who have no intereft to ferve by us, if we difregard. their humour.

In courts, indeed, where the art of pleafing is more ftudied than it is elfewhere, you fee people more dexterously accommodating themfelves to the turn of thofe, for whofe favour they wish; but, wherever you go, you almoft conftantly perceive the fame end purfued by the fame means, though there may not be the fame adroitness in applying them. What a proof have you in your own neighbourhood, how effectual thefe means are!

Did you ever hear Charles-tell a good ftory-make a fhrewd obfervation-drop an expreffion, which bordered either on wit or humour? Yet he is welcome to all tables-he is much with those, who have wit, who have humour, who are, really, men of abilities. Whence is this, but from the approbation he fhews of whatever paffes? A ftory he cannot tell, but he has

laugh in readiness for every one he hears: by his admiration of wit, he fupplies the want of it; and they, who have capacity, find no objection to the meannefs of his, whilst he appears always to think as they do. Few have their looks and tempers fo much at command as this man; and few, therefore, are fo happy in recommending themselves; but as in his way of doing it, there is, obviously, the greateft likelihood of fuccefs, we may be fure that it will be the way generally taken.

Some, I grant, you meet with, who by their endeavours, on all occafions, to fhew a fuperior difcernment, may feem to think,

Smear'd with the colours which they lend him. that to gain the favour of any one, he must

Thus, merely, as his fortune chances, His merit or his vice advances.

SIR,

PRIOR. Dean Bolton.

122. LETTER III.

My laft endeavoured to fhew you, how apt we are to imitate. Let me now defire you to confider the difpofition you will be trder to recommend yourself to thofe, whofe company you defire, or would not decline,

be brought to their fentiments, rather than they adopt his; but I fear thefe perfons will be found only giving too clear a proof, either how abfurdly felf-conceit sometimes operates, or how much knowledge there may be, where there is very little common, fenfe.

Did I, in defcribing the creature called MAN, reprefent him as having, in proportion to his bulk, more brains than any other animal we know of; I fhould not think this defcription falfe, though it could

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be proved that fome of the fpecies had fcarce any brains at all.

Even where favour is not particularly fought, the very civility, in which he, who would be regarded as a well-bred man, is never wanting, muft render him unwilling to avow the most juft difapprobation of what his companions agree in acting, or commending. He is by no means to give difguft, and, therefore, when he hears the word principles vindicated, and the beft ridiculed; or when he fees what ought to be matter of the greatest frame, done without any; he is to acquiefce, he is to fhew no token, that what paffes is at all offenfive to him.

Confider yourself then in either of these fituations-defirous to engage the favour of the bad man, into whofe company you are admitted-or, only unwilling to be thought by him deficient in good manners; and, I think, you will plainly fee the danger you should apprehend from him-the likelihood there is, that you should at length lofe the abhorrence of his crimes, which, when with him, you never exprefs.

Will you ask me, why it is not as probable that you should reform your vitious acquaintance, as that they fhould corrupt you? Or, why may I not as well fuppofe

that they will avoid fpeaking and acting what will give you offence, as that you will be averfe from giving them any-that they will confult your inclinations, as that you will theirs?

To avoid the length, which will be equally disagreeable to both of us, I will only anfwer-Do you know any inftance, which can induce you to think this probable? Are not you apprifed of many inftances, that greatly weaken the probability of it ?

The vaft difproportion, which there is between the numbers of the ferious and the diffolute, is fo notorious, as to render it unqueftionable that the influence of the latter far exceeds the influence of the former-that a vitious man is much more likely to corrupt a virtuous, than to be reformed by him.

An anfwer of the fame kind I fhould have judged fatisfactory; if, with respect to what I had urged in my former letter, you queflicned me-why the readiness to imitate thofe, with whom we are much converfant, might not as juftly encourage you to hate, when you aflociated with the

lefs fober, that they might be won to your regularity, as occafion you to fear, that you thould be brought to join in their exceffes? The good have been for fo long a space lofing ground among us, and the bad gaining it; and thefe are now become fuch a prodigious multitude; that it is undeniable, how much more apt we are to form ourfelves on the manners of thofe, who difregard their duty, than on theirs, who are attentive to it.

You will here be pleafed to remark, that I do not confider you as fetting out with any reforming views-as converfing with the immoral, in order to difpofe them to reasonable purfuits; but that I only apply to you, as induced to affociate with them from the eafinefs of their temper, or the pleafantry of their humour, or your common literary purfaits, or their skill in fome of your favourite amufements, or on some fuch-like account: and then, what I have cbferved may not appear a weak argument, that they are much more likely to hurt you, than you are to benefit them.

I will clofe my argument and my letter, with a paffage from a very good hiftorian, which will thew you the fenfe of one of the ableft of the ancient legiflators on my prefent fubject.

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This writer, mentioning the laws which Charondas gave the Thurians, fays" He “ enacted a law with reference to an evil, on which former lawgivers had not ani"madverted, that of keeping bad compare ny. As he conceived that the morals "of the good were fometimes quite ruin"ed by their diffolute acquaintance-that "vice was apt, like an infectious difeafe, "to fpread itself, and to extend its conta

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gion even to the beft difpofed of our "fpecies. In order to prevent this mif"chief, he exprefsly enjoined, that none "fhould engage in any intimacy or fami

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liarity with immoral perfons-he appointed that an accufation might be " exhibited for keeping bad company, "and laid a heavy fine on fuch as were "convicted of it."

Remember Charondas, when you are difpofed to cenfure the caution fuggefted by.

§ 123. SIR

Dear SIR,

Yours &c.
Dean Bolton.

LETTER IV.

Sir Francis Walfingham, in a letter to

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Mr. Anthony Bacon, then a very young man, and on his travels, exprefles himself thus—“ The anger is great that we are "fubje&t to, in lying in the company of "the worker fort. In natural bodies, evil "airs are avoided, and infection fhunned of them, that have any regard to their "health. There is not fo probable a rea"fen for the corruptions, that may grow "to the mind of one, from the mind of another; but the danger is far greater, and "the feats, we fee, more frequent: for "the number of evil-difpofed in mind is greater than the number of fick in body...... Though the well-difpofed will "remain fome good space without corrup“tion, yet time, I know not how, worketh "a wound into him......Which weaknefs of curs confidered, and eafinefs of nature, "apt to be deceived, looked into; they do best provide for themselves, that feparate "themelues, as far as they can, from the bad, and draw as nigh to the good, as "by are pofibility they can attain to.'

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To what I have already faid, in proof that we fhould thus feparate ourselves, I shall now add two further reafons for our doing it: 1. The wrong inclinations, the proneness to violate fome or other part of our duty, which we all find in ourfelves. 2. The power which cuftom hath, to reconcile us to what we, at first, most dreaded

Need I tell you, that our natural depravity has not only been the theme of chriftian writers; but that the most eminent heathen authors, poets, hiftorians, philofophers, join in confeiling it?

Where, alas! is the man, who has not his wrong tendencies to lament? Whom do you know able to conceal them, to prevent a clear discovery of them in his practice ?

According as we are liable to act amifs, we, certainly, must be in more or lefs dan ger from affociating with thofe, who either will feek to draw us into guilt or will countenance us in it-or will diminish our abhorrence of it. Some danger from fuch company there must be even to him, whofe inclinations are leaft faulty; fince they may be made worse they may produce bad action, the repetition of which would form bad habits; and nothing could be fo likely to heighten any depravity of difpotion, and carry it to the most fatal lengths of mifconduct, as a familiarity with thofe, who have no dread of guilt, or none that

reftrains them from complying with the temptations they meet with to guilt.

You may, perhaps, think, that you could be in no danger from any companion, to whofe exceffes you found not in yourself the leaft propensity: but believe me, my friend, this would by no means warrant your fafety.

Though fuch a companion might not. induce you to offend in the very fame way, that he doth; he would, probably, make you the offender, that you otherwife never would have been. If he did not bring you to conform to his practice, would he not be likely to infinuate his principles? His difregard to his duty would tend to render you indifferent to yours: and, while he leffened your general regard to virtue, he might make you a very bad man, though you should continue wholly to avoid his particular crimes.

The unconcernednefs, with which he gave his worst inclinations their scope, could hardly be day after day obferved, without making you lefs folicitous to reftrain your own wrong tendencies, and ftrongly urging you to a compliance with them.

2. The danger there is in converfing with the immoral will be yet more apparent; if you will, next, attend to the power of custom in reconciling us to that, which we, at first, most dreaded.

Whence is it, that veteran troops face an enemy, with almoft as little concern as they perform their exercife? The man of the greateft courage among them felt, probably, in the firit battle wherein he was, a terror that required all his courage to furmount. Nor was this terror, afterwards, overcome by him, but by degrees; every fucceeding engagement abated it: the of tener he fought, the lefs he feared: by being habituated to danger, he learned, at length, to despise it.

An ordinary fwell of the ocean alarms the youth who has never before been upon it; but he, whofe fears are now raifed, when there is nothing that ought to excite them, becomes foon without any, even when in a fituation, that might justly difmay him; he is calm, when the form is most violent; and difcovers no uneafy apprehenfions, while the veffel, in which he fails, is barely not finking.

You cannot, I am perfuaded, vifit an hofpital-furvey the variety of direfs there-hear the complaints of the fickH 3

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fee the fores of the wounded, without being yourself in pain, and a sharer of their fufferings.

The conftant attendants on these poor wretches have no fuch concern: with difpofitions not lefs humane than yours, they do not feel the emotions, that you would be under, at this fcene of mifery; their frequent view of it has reconciled them to it has been the caufe, that their minds are no otherwife affected by it, than yours is by the objects ordinarily before you.

From how many other inftances might it be fhewn, that the things, which, at their first appearance, ftrike us with the greateft terror, no fooner become familiar, than they ccafe to difcompofe us? Let, therefore, our education have been the carefulleft and wifeft; let there have been ufed therein all the means likelieft to fix in us an abhorrence of vice; we, yet, cannot be frequently among thofe, who allow themfelves in it, and have as few fcruples about the concealment of any crime they are difpofed to, as about its commiffion, without beholding it with abundantly lefs uneafinefs than its first view occafioned us.

When it is fo beheld; when what is very wrong no more fhocks us-is no longer highly offenfive to us; the natural and neceffary progrefs is to a ftill farther abatement of our averfion from it: and what is of force enough to conquer a ftrong diflike, may be reasonably concluded well able to effect fome degree of approbation. How far this fhall proceed, will, indeed, depend, in a good measure, upon our temper, upon our conftitutional tendencies, upon our circumflances: but furely we are become bad enough, when it is not the confideration of what is amifs in any practice, that withholds us from it-when we only avoid it, because it is not agreeable to our humour; or, because the law punishes it; or becaufe it interferes with fome other criminal gratification, which better pleases us.

I begun this with an extract from a letter of Walfingham: I will end it with one from a letter of Grotius, when ambaffador in France, to his brother, concerning his fon, whom he had recommended to that gentleman's care.

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After having expreffed his wifhes, that the young man might be formed a complete advocate, he concludes thus" Above all things I intreat you to cultivate thofe "feeds of knowledge, fown by me in him, "which are productive of piety; and to recommend to him, for companions,

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When I ended my laft, I continued in my chair, thinking of the objections which might be made to what I had written to you. The following then occurred to me.

That, when we are in poffeffion of truth, from fair examination and full evidence, there can be very little danger of our being induced to quit it, either by repeatedly hearing the weak objections of any to it, or by remarking them to act as wrongly as they argue-That, as in mathematics the propofition, which we had once demonftrated, would always have our affent, whomfoever we heard cavilling at it, or ridiculing our judgment concerning it: fo in morals, when once a due confideration of the effential and unchangeable differences of things hath rendered us certain of what is right and our duty; we can never be made lefs certain thereof, whatever errors, in judgment or practice, we may daily obferve in our affociates, or daily hear them abfurd enough to defend-That, when we not only plainly perceive the practice of virtue to be molt becoming us to be what the nature and reafon of things require of us; but actually feel, likewife, the fatisfaction which it affords, the folid pleafure which is its infeparable attendant; there can be no more ground to suppose, that our having continually before us the follies and vices of any would lead us to depart from what we know to be fitteft, and have experienced to be beft for us, than there can be to believe, that a man in his wits would leave the food, which his judgment approved and his palate relished, for another fort, which he faw, indeed, pleafing to his companions, but which he was certain would poifon them.

How little weight there is in this kind of arguing, I think every one might be convinced, who would attend to his own practice, who would confider the numerous inftances in which he cannot but condemn it

in which he cannot but acknowledge it contrary to what his prefent welfare requires it should be.

Let us think the moft juftly of our duty, and fhun, with the greatest care, all who would countenance us in a departure from it; we fill fhall find that departure 100 fre

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