a man of business enters into life and action, he is more apt to confider the characters of men, as they have relation to his intereft, than as they ftand in themselves; and has his judgment warped on every occafion by the violence of his paffion. When a philofopher contemplates characters and manners in his clofet, the general abftract view of the objects leaves the mind fo cold and unmoved, that the fentiments of nature have no room to play, and he fcarce feels the difference between vice and virtue. Hiftory keeps in a juft me dium between thefe extremes, and places the objects in their true point of view. The wri ters of hiftory, as well as the readers, are fufficiently interested in the characters and events, to have a lively fentiment of blame or praise; and, at the fame time, have no particular interest or concern to pervert their judgment.

Vero voces tum demum pectore ab imo
Eliciuntur.

LUCRET.

ESSAY

No. I.

ESSAY IV.

OF AVARICE.

IT is eafy to obferve, that comic writers exaggerate every character, and draw their fop or coward with stronger features than are any where to be met with in nature. This moral kind of painting for the flage has been often compared to the painting for cupolas and ceilings, where the colours are overcharged, and every part is drawn exceffively large, and beyond nature. The figures feem monftrous and difproportioned, when feen too nigh; but become natural and regular, when fet at a diftance, and placed in that point of view, in which they are intended to be furveyed. For a like reafon, when characters are exhibited in theatrical reprefentations, the want of reality removes, in a manner, the perfonages; and rendering them more cold and unentertaining, makes it neceffary to compenfate, by the force of colouring, what they want in fubftance. Thus we find in common life, that when a man once allows himself to depart from truth in his narrations, he never can keep within bounds of probability; but adds ftill fome new circumstance to render his ftories more marvellous, and to fatisfy his imagination. Two men in buckram fuits became eleven to Sir John Falstaff, before the end of his story.

There is only one vice, which may be found in life with as ftrong features, and as high a colouring as need be employed by any fatirist or comic poet; and that is Avarice. Every day we meet with men of immenfe fortunes, without heirs, and on the very brink of the grave, who refuse themfelves the most common neceffaries of life, and go on heaping poffeffions on poffeffions under all the real preffures of the fevereft poverty. An old ufurer, fays the ftory, lying in his laft agonies was prefented by the priest with the crucifix to worship. He opens his eyes a moment before he expires, confiders the crucifix, and cries, Thefe jewels are not true; I can only lend ten piftoles upon fuch a pledge. This was probably the invention of fome epigrammatift; and yet every one, from his own experience, may be able to recollect almost as ftrong inftances of perfeverance in avarice. It is commonly reported of a famous mifer in this city, that finding himfelf near death, he fent for fome of the magiftrates, and gave them a bill of an hundred pounds, payable after his decease, which fum he intended fhould be difpofed of in charitable ufes; but scarce were they gone, when he orders them to be called back, and offers them ready money if they would abate five pounds of the fum. Another noted mifer in the north, intending to defraud his heirs, and leave his fortune to the building an hofpital, protracted the drawing of his will from day to day; and it is thought, that if thofe interested in it had not paid for the drawing of it, he would have died inteftate. In fhort, none of the most

furious

furious exceffes of love and ambition are, in any respect, to be compared to the extremes of avarice.

The best excufe that can be made for avarice is, that it generally prevails in old men, or in men of cold tempers, where all the other affections are extinct; and the mind being incapable of remaining without fome paffion or purfuit, at laft finds out this monftroufly abfurd one, which fuits the coldness and inactivity of its temper. At the fame time, it feems very extraordinary, that fo frofty, spiritless a paffion fhould be able to carry us farther than all the warmth of youth and pleasure. But if we look more narrowly into the matter, we shall find, that this very circumftance renders the explication of the cafe more eafy. When the temper is warm and full of vigour, it naturally shoots out more ways than one, and produces inferior paffions to counterbalance, in fome degree, its predominant inclination. It is impoffible for a perfon of that temper, however bent on any purfuit, to be deprived of all fenfe of fhame, or all regard to the fentiments of mankind. His friends muft have fome influence over him; and other confiderations are All this ferves to reftrain But it is no wonder that

apt to have their weight. him within fome bounds. the avaritious man, being, from the coldness of his temper, without regard to reputation, to friendship or to pleasure, fhould be carried fo far by his prevailing inclination, and fhould difplay his paffion in fuch furprizing inftances. Accordingly

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Accordingly we find no vice fo irreclaimable as avarice: and though there scarcely has been a mo ralift or philofopher, from the beginning of the world to this day, who has not levelled a stroke at it, we hardly find a fingle inftance of any perfon's being cured of it. For this reafon, I am more apt to approve of thofe, who attack it with wit and humour, than of thofe who treat it in a ferious manTheir being fo little hopes of doing good to the people infected with this vice, I would have the reft of mankind, at least, diverted by our manner of expofing it as indeed there is no kind of diver fion, of which they feem fo willing to partake.

ner.

Among the fables of Monfieur de la Motte, there is one levelled against avarice, which feems to me more natural and eafy than most of the fables of that ingenious author. A mifer, fays he, being dead, and fairly interred, came to the banks of the Styx, defiring to be ferried over along with the other ghofts. Charon demands his fare, and is surprised to see the mifer, rather than pay it, throw himself into the river, and swim over to the other fide, notwithstanding all the clamour and oppofition. that could be made to him. All hell was in an uproar; and each of the judges was meditating fome punishment, fuitable to a crime of fuch dangerous confequence to the infernal revenues. Shall he be chained to the rock with Prometheus? Or tremble below the precipice in company with the Danaides? Or affift Sifyphus in rolling his ftone? No, fays Minos, none of thefe. We must invent fome fe

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