upon confidering, what true raillery and fatire were in themfelves; and this, methought, occurred to me from reflection upon the great and excellent perfons that were admired for talents this way. When I had run over several fuch in my thoughts, I concluded, however unaccountable the affertion might appear at first fight, that good-nature was an effential quality in a fatirift, and that all the sentiments which are beautiful in this way of writing muft proceed from that quality in the author. Good-nature produces a difdain of all baseness, vice, and folly; which prompts them to exprefs themfelves with fmartness against the errors of men, without bitterness towards their perfons. This quality keeps the mind in equanimity, and never lets an offence unfeasonably throw a man out of his character. When Virgil faid, he that did not hate Bavius might love Mævius, he was in perfect good humour; and was not fo much moved at their abfurdities, as paffionately to call them fots or blockheads in a direct invective, but laughed at them with a delicacy of fcorn, without any mixture of anger. The best good man, with the worst natur'd muse, was the character among us of a gentleman as famous for his humanity as his wit. The ordinary fubjects of fatire are fuch as incite the greatest indignation in the beft tempers, and confequently men of fuch a make are the beft qualified for fpeaking of the offences in human life. These men can behold vice and folly, when they injure perfons to whom they are wholly unacquainted, with the fame feverity as others refent the ills they do to themfelves. A good-natured man cannot fée an overbearing fellow put a bashful man of merit out of countenance, or outftrip him in the pursuit of any advantage, but he is on fire to fuccour the oppreffed, to produce the merit of the one, and confront the impudence of the other. The men of the greatest character in this kind were Horace and-Juvenal. There is not, that I remember, one ill-natured expreffion in all their writings; not one fen tence, ། tence of severity, which does not apparently proceed from the contrary difpofition. Whoever reads them, will, I believe, be of this mind; and if they were read with this view, it might poffibly perfuade our young fellows, that they may be very witty men without fpeaking ill of any but those who deserve it: but in the perufal of these writers it may not be unneceffary to confider, that they lived in very different times. Horace was intimate with a prince of the greatest goodness and humanity imaginable, and his court was formed after his example: therefore the faults that poet falls upon were little inconfiftencies in behaviour, falfe pretences to politeness, or impertinent affectations of what men were not fit for. Vices of a coarfer fort could not come under his confideration, or enter the palace of Auguftus. Juvenal, on the other hand, lived under Domitian, in whofe reign every thing that was great and noble was banished the habitations of the men in power. Therefore he attacks vice as it paffes by in triumph, not as it breaks into converfation. The fall of empire, contempt of glory, and a general degeneracy of manners, are before his eyes in all his writings. In the days of Auguftus, to have talked like Juvenal had been madness, or in thofe of Domitian, like Horace. Morality and virtue are every where recommended in Horace, as became a man in a polite court, from the beauty, the propriety, the convenience, of purfuing them. Vice and corruption are attacked by Juvenal in a ftyle which denotes, he fears he shall not be heard without he calls to them in their own language, with a barefaced mention of the villanies and obfcenities of his contemporaries. This accidental talk of these two great men carries me from my defign, which was to tell fome coxcombs that run about this town with the name of smart satirical fellows, that they are by no means qualified for the characters they pretend to, of being fevere upon other men; for they want good-nature. There is no foundation in them for arriving at what they aim at; and they may as well pretend to flatter as rally agreeably, without being goodnatured. There is a certain impartiality neceffary to make what K 6 2 man a man fays bear any weight with those he speaks to. This quality, with refpect to men's errors and vices, is never feen but in good-natured men. They have ever fuch a frankness of mind, and benevolence to all men, that they cannot receive impreffions of unkindness without mature deliberation; and writing or fpeaking ill of a man upon perfonal confiderations is fo irreparable and mean an injury, that no one poffeffed of this quality is capable of doing it but in all ages there have been interpreters to authors when living, of the fame genius with the commentators into whofe hands they fall when dead. I dare fay it is impoffible for any man of more wit than one of thefe to take any of the four and twenty letters, and form out of them a name to describe the character of a vicious man with greater life, but one of thefe would immediately cry, Mr. Such-a-one is meant in that place. But the truth of it is, fatirifts defcribe the age, and backbiters affign their defcriptions to private men. In all terms of reproof, when the fentence appears to arife from perfonal hatred or paffion, it is not then made the cause of mankind, but a misunderstanding between two perfons. For this reafon the reprefentations of a good-natured man bear a pleasantry in them which fhews there is no malignity at heart, and by confequence they are attended to by his hearers or readers, because they are unprejudiced. This deference is only what is due to him; for no man thoroughly nettled can fay a thing general enough, to pafs off with the air of an opinion declared, and not a paffion gratified. I remember a humorous fellow at Oxford, when he heard any one had spoken ill of him, ufed to fay, I will not take my revenge of him until I have forgiven him.' What he meant by this was, that he would not enter upon this fubject until it was grown as indifferent to him as any other and I have by this rule feen him more than once triumph over his adverfary with an inimitable spirit and humour; for he came to the affault against a man full of fore places, and he himfelf invulnerable. There is no poffibility of fucceeding in a fatirical way of writing or fpeaking, except a man throws himfelf quite out T 12 out of the question. It is great vanity to think any one will attend to a thing, because it is your quarrel. You must make your fatire the concern of fociety in general, if you would have it regarded. When it is fo, the goodnature of a man of wit will prompt him to many brisk and difdainful fentiments and replies, to which all the malice in the world will not be able to repartee. NO. 243. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1710. Infert fe feptus nebulâ, mirabile diɛtu ! neque ulli. Per medios, mifcétque viris, RG. Æn. 1. ver. 443. Conceal'd in clouds, prodigious to relate! -and pass'd unseen along. DRYDEN. From my own Apartment, October 27. I HAVE fomewhere made mention of Gyges's ring; and intimated to my reader, that it was at present in my poffeffion, though I have not fince made any ufe of it. The tradition concerning this ring is very romantic, and taken notice of both by Plato and Tully, who each of them make an admirable use of it for the advancement of morality. This Gyges was the mafter-fhepherd to king Candaules. As he was wandering over the plains of Lydia, he faw a great chafm in the earth, and had the curiofity to enter it. After having defcended pretty far into it, he found the ftatue of a horfe in brafs, with doors in the fides of it. Upon opening them, he found the body of a dead man, bigger than ordinary, with a ring upon his finger, which he took off, and put it upon his own. The virtues of it were much greater than he at first imagined; for, for, upon his going into the affembly of thepherds, he obferved, that he was invifible when he turned the stone of the ring within the palm of his hand, and visible when he turned it towards his company. Had Plato and Cicero been as well verfed in the occult fciences as I am, they would have found a great deal of myftic learning in this tradition but it is impoffible for an adept to be underftood by one who is not an adept. As for myself, I have with much study and application arrived at this great fecret of making myself invifible, and by that means conveying myself where I please; or to fpeak in Rofycrucian lore, I have entered into the clifts of the earth, difcovered the brazen horfe, and robbed the dead giant of his ring. The tradition fays further of Gyges, that by the means of this ring he gained admiffion into the most retired parts of the court, and made fuch ufe of thofe opportunities, that he at length became king of Lydia. For my own part, I, who have always rather endeavoured to improve my mind than my fortune, have turned this ring to no other advantage than to get a thorough infight into the ways of men, and to make fuch obfervations upon the errors of others, as may be ufeful to the public, whatever effect they may have upon myself. About a week ago, not being able to sleep, I got up, and put on my magical ring; and with a thought transported myself into a chamber where I faw a light. I found it inhabited by a celebrated beauty, though the is of that fpecies of women which we call a flattern. Her head-drefs and one of her shoes lay upon her chair, her petticoat in one corner of the room, and her girdle that had a copy of verses made upon it but the day before, with her thread ftockings, in the middle of the floor. I was fo foolishly officious, that I could not forbear gathering up her clothes together, to lay them upon the chair that ftood by her bed-fide; when, to my great surprise, after a little muttering, fhe cried out, What do you do? Let my petticoat alone.' I was startled at firft, but foon found that she was in a dream; being one of thofe who, to use Shakespear's expreffion, are fo loofe of thought,' that they utter in |