than Penthefilea, whofe letter lay upon my desk three days before I could fix upon the real writer. There was a confufion of images, and medley of barbarity, which held me long in fufpence; till by perfeverance I difentangled the perplexity, and found, that Penthefilea is the fon of a wealthy ftock-jobber, who spends his morning under his father's eye in Change Alley, dines at a tavern in Covent-Garden, paffes his evening in the playhoufe, and part of the night at a gaming-table, and having learned the dialects of thefe various regions, has mingled them all in a ftudied compofition.

When Lee was once told by a critick, that it was very easy to write like a madman; he anfwered, that it was difficult to write like a madman, but easy enough to write like a fool; and I hope to be exeufed by my kind contributors, if, in imitation of this great author, I prefume to remind them, that it is much easier not to write like a man, than to write like a woman.

I have, indeed, fome ingenious well-wishers, who, without departing from their fex, have found very wonderful appellations. A very fmart letter has been fent me from a puny enfign, figned Ajax Telamonius; another, in recommendation of a new treatise upon cards, from a gamefter, who calls himfelf Sefoftris; and another upon the improvements of the fishery, from Dioclefian: but as these feem only to have picked up their appellations by chance, without endeavouring at any particular imposture, their improprieties are rather inftances of blunder than of affectation, and are, therefore, not equally fitted to inflame the hoftile paffions; for it is not

folly but pride, not error but deceit, which the world means to perfecute, when it raises the full cry of nature to hunt down affectation.

The hatred which diffimulation always draws upon itself, is fo great, that if I did not know how much cunning differs from wisdom, I should wonder that any men have fo little knowledge of their own intereft, as to aspire to wear a mask for life; to try to impofe upon the world a character, to which they feel themselves void of any just claim; and to hazard their quiet, their fame, and even their profit, by expofing themselves to the danger of that reproach, malevolence, and neglect, which fuch a discovery as they have always to fear will certainly bring upon them.

It might be imagined, that the pleasure of reputation fhould confift in the fatisfaction of having our opinion of our own merit confirmed by the fuffrage of the publick; and that, to be extolled for a quality, which a man knows himself to want, should give him no other happiness than to be mistaken for the owner of an eftate, over which he chances to be travelling. But he who fubfifts upon affectation, knows nothing of this delicacy; like a desperate adventurer in commerce, he takes up reputation upon truft, mortgages poffeffions which he never had, and enjoys, to the fatal hour of bankruptcy, though with a thousand terrors and anxieties, the unneceffary fplendour of borrowed riches.

Affectation is to be always diftinguished from hypocrify, as being the art of counterfeiting those qualities which we might, with innocence and fafety, be known to want. Thus the man, who to carry

on

on any fraud, or to conceal any crime, pretends to rigours of devotion, and exactnefs of life, is guilty of hypocrify; and his guilt is greater, as the end, for which he puts on the falfe appearance, is more pernicious. But he that, with an awkward address, and unpleafing countenance, boafts of the conquests made by him among the ladies, and counts over the thousands which he might have poffeffed if he would have fubmitted to the yoke of matrimony, is chargeable only with affectation. Hypocrify is the neceffary burthen of villany, affectation part of the chofen trappings of folly; the one completes a villain, the other only finishes a fop. Contempt is the proper punishment of affectation, and deteftation the juft confequence of hypocrify.

With the hypocrite it is not at present my intention to expoftulate, though even he might be taught the excellency of virtue, by the neceffity of seeming to be virtuous; but the man of affectation may, perhaps, be reclaimed, by finding how little he is likely to gain by perpetual constraint, and inceffant vigilance, and how much more fecurely he might make his way to esteem, by cultivating real, than difplaying counterfeit qualities.

Every thing future is to be eftimated by a wife man, in proportion to the probability of attaining it, and its value, when attained; and neither of these confiderations will much contribute to the encouragement of affectation. For, if the pinnacles of fame be, at beft, flippery, how unsteady must his footing be who ftands upon pinnacles without foundation! If praise be made, by the inconftancy K 4

and

and maliciousness of those who must confer it, a bleffing which no man can promise himself from the moft confpicuous merit and vigorous industry, how faint must be the hope of gaining it, when the uncertainty is multiplied by the weaknefs of the pretenfions! He that pursues faine with juft claims, trufts his happiness to the winds; but he that endeavours after it by falfe merit, has to fear, not only the violence of the storm, but the leaks of his veffel. Though he should happen to keep above water for a time, by the help of a foft breeze, and a calm fea, at the first guft he muft inevitably founder, with this melancholy reflection, that, if he would have been content with his natural ftation, he might have escaped his calamity. Affectation may poffibly fucceed for a time, and a man may, by great attention, perfuade others, that he really has the qualities which he prefumes to boast; but the hour will come when he should exert them, and then, whatever he enjoyed in praise, he must suffer in reproach.

Applause and admiration are by no means to be counted among the neceffaries of life, and therefore any indirect arts to obtain them have very little claim to pardon or compaffion. There is scarcely any man without fome valuable or improveable qualities, by which he might always fecure himself from contempt. And perhaps exemption from ignominy is the most eligible reputation, as freedom from pain is, among fome philofophers, the definition of happiness.

If we therefore compare the value of the praise obtained by fictitious excellence, even while the

cheat

cheat is yet undifcovered, with that kindness which every man may fuit by his virtue, and that esteem to which most men may rife by common understanding steadily and honeftly applied, we fhall find that when from the adfcititious happiness all the deductions are made by fear and cafualty, there will remain nothing equiponderant to the fecurity of truth. The state of the poffeffor of humble virtues, to the affecter of great excellencies, is that of a fmall cot+ tage of stone, to the palace raised with ice by the emprefs of Ruffia; it was for a time fplendid and luminous, but the first sunshine melted it to nothing.

E

NUMB. 21. TUESDAY, May 29, 1750.

Terra falutiferas herbas, eademque nocentes,
Nutrit; urticæ proxima fæpe rofa eft.

Our bane and phyfick the fame earth bestows,
And near the noisome nettle blooms the rose.

OVID.

VERY man is prompted by the love of himfelf to imagine, that he poffeffes fome qualities, fuperior, either in kind or in degree, to those which he fees allotted to the reft of the world; and, whatever apparent difadvantages he may fuffer in the comparison with others, he has fome invifible dif tinctions, fome latent reserve of excellence, which he throws into the balance, and by which he generally fancies that it is turned in his favour.

The ftudious and fpeculative part of mankind always feem to confider their fraternity as placed in

a ftate