time before I had ftrength of mind fufficient to conquer it. I had not been long at home when I received accounts of his being attacked by a violent diftemper, and in a few days after I learned that it had put an end to his life. This blow, for a time, unmanned me quite. Even now, the chief confolation I find is in the fociety of a few chofen friends. Should they alfo be torn from me, the world would to me be as a defert; and, though I fhould ftill endeavour to difcharge my duty in that ftation which providence has affigned me in life, I should never ceafe to look forward, not without impatience, to thofe peaceful manfions where the weary are at reft, and where only we can hope to meet again with thofe from whom we have been parted by the inexorable hand of death. R N° 91. N° 91. TUESDAY, March 21. 1780. Non quia, Macenas, Lydorum, quidquid E trufcos Incoluit fines, nemo generofior eft te; Nec quod avus tibi maternus fuit atque pater nus Olim qui magnis legionibus imperitârint, Ignotos. HOR. IN eftimating the conduct of men, we natu rally take into account not only the merit or blame of their actions, abftractedly confidered, but also that portion of either which thofe actions derive from the fituation of the perfons performing them. Befides the great moral laws by which every man is bound, particular ranks and circumftances have their peculiar obligations; and he who attains elevation of place or extent of fortune, increases not only the pleasures he has to enjoy, but the duties he has to perform. This, however, moralifts have always complained, is apt to to be forgotten; the great are ever ready to exercise power, and the rich to purchase pleafure; but the firft are not always mindful of benignity, nor the latter of beneficence. In the lighter duties of life, the fame rule takes place, and is, in the fame manner, but little attended to. In thefe, indeed, it is more liable to be difregarded from an idea of its unimportance. Yet, to the little and the poor, the behaviour of the great or the rich is often as effential as their conduct. There may be tyranny and injuftice in the one as well as in the other; nay, I have known many men who could forgive the oppreffion of the powerful and the encroachments of the wealthy in more material inftances, who never could pardon the haughtiness of their demeanour, and the faftidioufnefs of their air. It is ftrange,, methinks, that the defire of depreffing the humble, and overawing the modeft, fhould be fo common as it is among thofe on whom birth or ftation has conferred fuperiority. One might wonder how it should ever happen, that people should prefer being feared to being loved, to spread around them the chilnefs of unfocial grandeur, rather than the warmth of reciprocal attachment. Yet, from pro from the pride of folly, or of education, we find this is often the cafe; there is fcarce any one who cannot recollect inftances of perfons who seem to have exchanged all the pleasures of fociety, all intercourfe of the affections, for the cold pre-eminence of state and place. But, in the ideas of their power, it is per to inform fuch perfons, they are frequently mistaken. It must be on a mind very contemptible indeed, that mere greatnefs can have the effects they are apt to afcribe to it. They cannot blast with a frown or elevate with a fmile, from rank or station alone, without fome other qualities attending them. Tis with rank and station, as an acquaintance of mine, fomewhat of a coxcomb, though a better thing from nature, obferved to me of drefs, "Every man,” said he, looking at him. felf in a mirror, "every man can put on a "fine coat; but it is not every man who can "( wear one." It is, by no means, fo eafy to do the honours of a high ftation as many who attain high stations are apt to imagine. The importance of a man to himself is a feeling common to all; to fettle with propriety the claims of others, as well as of ourfelves, requires no inconfiderable inconfiderable degree of difcernment; and the jealousy of inferior stations in this matter, will criticife with the utmost nicety the determinations of their fuperiors. In proportion as the great claim refpect or adulation, the spirit of those beneath them will commonly refuse it. We fee daily examples of men, who go on arrogating dignity, and procuring contempt; who meet with flights where they demand refpect, and are refufed even the attention to which they are intitled, because they would impofe attention rather than receive it. But it is not always by haughtiness of dedemeanour that people fhew themselves most haughty. There is a claim of fuperiority, amidst the condefcenfion of fome men infinitely more difgufting than the diftant dignity of ordinary pride. Somebody has called the part which the inferiors of fuch people play, "holding the lower end of familiarity." Orgilius keeps a pack of those end-holders conftantly about him. He calls them by their names, as he does his hounds; they open at his jefts, follow the fcent of every observation he makes, and run down every character he attacks. For all this he rewards them exactly as |