indeed, taste a kind of malignant Pleasure in those Actions to which they are accustomed, whilst in this Life; but when they are removed from all those Objects which are here apt to gratify them, they will naturally become their own Tormentors, and cherish in themselves those painful Habits of Mind which are called in Scripture Phrafe, the Worm which never dies. This Notion of Heaven and Hell is so very conformable to the Light of Nature, that it was discovered by several of the most exalted Heathens. It has been finely improved by many eminent Divines of the laft Age, as in particular by Archbishop Tillotson and Dr. Sherlock, but there is none who has rais'd such noble Speculations upon it as Dr. Scott, in the first Book of his Chriftian Life, which is one of the finest and most rational Schemes of Divinity, that is written in our Tongue, or in any other. That Excellent Author has shewn how every particular Custom and Habit of Virtue will, in its own Nature, produce the Heaven, or a State of Happiness, in him who shall hereafter practise it: As on the contrary, how every Custom or Habit of Vice will be the natural Hell of him in whom it subsists.

N° 448. Monday, August 4.

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Fædius hoc aliquid quandoque audebis.

Juv.

HE first Steps towards Ill are very carefully to be avoided, for Men insensibly go on when they are once entered, and do not keep up a lively Abhorrence of the least Unworthiness. There is a certain frivolous Falfhood that People indulge themselves in, which ought to be had in greater Detestation than it commonly meets with: What I mean is a Neglect of Promises made on small and indifferent Occafions, such as Parties of -Pleasure, Entertainments, and sometimes Meetings out of Curiofity in Men of like Faculties to be in each other's Company. There are many Causes to which one may affign this light Infidelity. Jack Sippet never keeps the Hour Hour he has appointed to come to a Friend's to Dinner; but he is an infignificant Fellow who does it out of Vanity. He could never, he knows, make any Figure in Company, but by giving a little Disturbance at his Entry, and therefore takes care to drop in when he thinks you are just feated. He takes his Place after having difcomposed every Body, and defires there may be no Ceremony; then does he begin to call himself the faddest Fellow, in disappointing so many Places as he was invited to elsewhere. It is the Fop's Vanity to name Houses of better Chear, and to acquaint you that he chose yours out of ten Dinners which he was obliged to be at that Day. The last time I had the Fortune to eat with him, he was imagining how very fat he should have been had he eaten all he had ever been invited to. But it is impertinent to dwell upon the Manners of fuch a Wretch as obliges all whom he disappoints, though his Circumftances constrain them to be civil to him. But there are those that every one would be glad to fee, who fall into the fame detestable Habit. It is a merciless thing that any one can be at Ease, and suppose a Set of People who have a Kindness for him, at that Moment waiting out of Refpect to him, and refusing to taste their Food or Conversation with the utmost Impatience. One of these Promifers fometimes shall make his Excuses for not coming at all, so late that half the Company have only to lament, that they have neglected Matters of Moment to meet him whom they find a Trifler. They immediately repent of the Value they had for him; and fuch Treatment repeated, makes Company never depend upon his Promifes any more; fo that he often comes at the Middle of a Meal, where he is secretly flighted by the Persons with whom he eats, and curfed by the Servants, whose Dinner is delayed by his prolonging their Master's Entertainment. It is wonderful, that Men guilty thas way, could never have observed, that the whiling Time, and gathering together, and waiting a little before Dinner, is the most aukwardly pafled away of any Part in the four and twenty hours. If they did think at all, they would reflect upon their Guilt, in lengthning fuch a Sufpenfion of agreeable Life. The conftant offending this way, has, in a Degree, an Effect upon the Honcity

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of his Mind who is guilty of it, as common Swearing is a kind of habitual Perjury: It makes the Soul unattentive to what an Oath is, even while it utters it at the Lips. Phocion beholding a wordy Orator while he was making a magnificent Speech to the People full of vain Promises, Methinks, said he, I am now fixing my Eyes upon a Cypress Tree, it has all the Pomp and Beauty imaginable in its Branches, Leaves, and Height, but alas it bears no Fruit.

THOUGH the Expectation which is raised by impertinent Promises is thus barren, their Confidence, even after Failures, is so great, that they subsist by ftill promifing on. I have heretofore discoursed of the infignificant Liar, the Boaster, and the Castle-builder, and treated them as no ill-designing Men, (tho' they are to be placed among the frivolously false ones) but Persons who fall into that Way purely to recommend themselves by their Vivacities; but indeed I cannot let heedless Promifers, though in the most minute Circumstances, pass with fo flight a Censure. If a Man should take a Resolution to pay only Sums above an hundred Pounds, and yet contract with different People Debts of five and ten, how long can we suppose he will keep his Credit? This Man will as long support his good Name in Business, as he will in Conversation, who without Difficulty makes Afsignations which he is indifferent whether he keeps or not.

I am the more severe upon this Vice, because I have been so unfortunate as to be a very great Criminal my felf. Sir ANDREW FREEPORT, and all my other Friends who are fcrupulous to Promises of the meanest Confideration imaginable from an Habit of Virtue that way, have often upbraided me with it. I take shame upon my felf for this Crime, and more particularly for the greatest I ever committed of the Sort, that when as agreeable a Company of Gentlemen and Ladies as ever were got together, and I forsooth Mr. SPECTATOR, to be of the Party with Women of Merit, like a Booby as I was, miftook the time of Meeting, and came the Night following. I wish every Fool who is negligent in this Kind, may have as great a Loss as I had in this; for the fame Company will never meet more, but are difperfed into various Parts of the World, and I am left under the ComCompunction that I deserve, in so many different Place to be called a Trifler.

THIS Fault is sometimes to be accounted for, when defirable People are fearful of appearing precious and referved by Denials; but they will find the Apprehenfion of that Imputation will betray them into a childish Impotence of Mind, and make them promise all who are fo kind to ask it of them. This leads such foft Creatures into the Misfortune of seeming to return Overtures of Good-will with Ingratitude. The first Steps in the Breach of a Man's Integrity are much more important than Men are aware of. The Man who fcruples breaking his Word in little Things would not fuffer in his own Confcience fo great Pain for Failures of Consequence, as he who thinks every little Offence against Truth and Justice a Disparagement. We should not make any thing we our felves difapprove habitual to us, if we would be fure of our Integrity.

at

I remember a Falfhood of the trivial Sort, tho' not in relation to Affignations, that expofed a Man to a very uneafy Adventure. Will. Trap and Jack Stint were Chamber fellows in the Inner-Temple about 25 Years ago. They one Night fat in the Pit together at a Comedy, where they both observed and liked the fame young Woman in the Boxes. Their Kindness for her entred both Hearts deeper than they imagined. Stint had a good Faculty writing Letters of Love, and made his Address privately that way; while Trap proceeded in the ordinary Course, by Money and her Waiting-Maid. The Lady gave them both Encouragement, receiving Trap into the utmoft Favour, and anfwering at the fame time Stint's Letters, and giving him Appointments at third Places. Trap began to fufpect the Epiftolary Correspondence of his Friend,' and discover'd also that Stint opened all his Letters which came to their common Lodgings, in order to form his own Affignations. After much Anxiety and Reftlesness, Trap came to a Resolution, which he thought would break off their Commerce with one another without any hazardous Explanation. He therefore writ a Letter in a feigned Hand to Mr. Trap at his Chambers in the Temple. Stint, according to Custom, seized and opened it, and was not a little furpris'd to find the Infide directed to himfelf,

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self, when, with great Perturbation of Spirit, he read as follows.

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Mr. Stint,

YOU have gained a flight Satisfaction at the Expence doing a very heinous Crime. At the Price of

a faithful Friend you have obtained an inconstant Mif* tress. I rejoice in this Expedient I have thought of to break my Mind to you, and tell you, You are a base Fellow, by a Means which does not expose you to the • Affront except you deserve it. I know, Sir, as criminal as you are, you have still Shame enough to avenge yourself against the Hardiness of any one that should publickly tell you of it. I therefore, who have received ' so many fecret Hurts from you, shall take Satisfac' tion with Safety to my felf. I call you Base, and you ' must bear it, or acknowledge it; I triumph over you • that you cannot come at me; nor do I think it dif• honourable to come in Armour to afsault him, who was in Ambuscade when he wounded me.

WHAT need more be faid to convince you of being guilty of the basest Practice imaginable, than that it ' is such as has made you liable to be treated after this manner, while you your felf cannot in your own Con

• science but allow the Justice of the Upbraidings of

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Your Injured Friend,

Ralph Trap.

N° 449.

Tuesday, August 5.

-Tibi fcriptus, Matrona, libellus.

W lick, I

Mart.

HEN I reflect upon my Labours for the Pubcannot but observe, that Part of the Species, of which I profess my felf a Friend and Guardian, is sometimes treated with Severity; that is, there are in my Writings many Descriptions given of ill

Perfons,