of persons who have filled a much more elevated station, who have been appointed guardians of the people, and whose obligation to promote their happiness was therefore more complicated and extensive.

I am told that formerly a patent could not be obtained for dispensing these infallible remedies, at a less expence than sixty pounds; and yet that, without a patent, counterfeits are imposed upon the public, by which diseases are rendered more malignant, and death precipitated. I am, however, very unwilling to believe, that the legislature ever refused to permit others to snatch sickness and decrepitude from the grave, without receiving so exorbitant a consideration.

At present a patent may be obtained for a much more reasonable sum; and it is not worth while to inquire, whether this tax upon health was ever exorbitant, as it is now too light to be felt; but our enemies, if they cannot intercept the licence to do good, still labour to render it ineffectual.

They insinuate, that though a patent is known to give a sanction to the medicine, and to be regarded by the vulgar as a certificate of its virtue; yet that, for the customary fee, a patent may be obtained to dispense poison: for if the nostrum itself is a secret, its qualities cannot be otherwise known than by its effects; and concerning its effects no inquiry is made.

Thus it appears that the Jesuits, who formerly did us so much mischief, are still busy in this kingdom: for who else could propagate so invidious a reproach for so destructive a purpose?

But the web of subtlety is sometimes so extremely attenuated, that it is broken by its own weight; and if these implacable enemies of our church and state had attempted less, they would have effected more: for who can believe, that those names, which should always be read with a sense of duty and obligation, were ever prostituted in public advertisements, for

a paltry sum, to the purposes of wretches who defraud the poor of their money, and the sick of their life, by dispensing as remedies, drugs that are either ineffectual or pernicious, and precluding, till it is too late, more effectual assistance? To believe this, would be as ridiculous as to doubt, whether an attempt was made to cure Mr. Woodward's patient, by applying trusses to the abdomen of his friends, after it has been so often and so publicly asserted, in an advertisement, signed by persons of unquestionable veracity; persons who were probably among the number of those by whom trusses were worn, and might first think of applying to Mr. Woodward, upon perceiving that a remedy which was so troublesome to them, produced no apparent effect upon the patient. For my own part, I never hear the cavils of sophistry with patience; but when they are used to bring calamity upon my country, my indignation knows no bounds. Let us unite against the arts as well as the power of our enemies, and continue to improve all the advantages of our constitution and our climate; and we cannot fail to secure health, vigour, and longevity, from which the wreath of glory and the treasures of opulence derive all their value.

N° 16. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1752.

Gratior et pulchro veniens in corpore virtus. VIRG.

More lovely virtue, in a lovely form.

:

I HAVE observed in a former paper, that the relation of events is a species of writing which affords more general entertainment than any other and to afford entertainment appears to have been often the principal if not the only design of those by whom events have been related.

It must, indeed, be confessed, that when truths are to be recorded, little is left to the choice of the writer; a few pages of the book of Nature or of Providence are before him; and if he transcribes with fidelity, he is not to be blamed, if in this fragment good and evil do not appear to be always distributed as reward and punishment.

But it is justly expected of the writer of fiction, who has unbounded liberty to select, to vary, and to complicate, that his plan should be complete, that he should principally consider the moral tendency of his work, and that when he relates events he should teach virtue.

The relation of events becomes a moral lecture, when vicious actions produce misery, and vicious characters incur contempt; when the combat of virtue is rewarded with honour, and her sufferings terminate in felicity: but though this method of instruction has been often recommended, yet I think

some of its peculiar advantages have been still overlooked, and for that reason not always secured.

Facts are easily comprehended by every understanding; and their dependence and influence upon each other are discovered by those, who would soon be bewildered in a series of logical deductions: they fix that volatility which would break away from ratiocination; and the precept becomes more forcible and striking as it is connected with example. Precept gains only the cold approbation of reason, and compels an assent which judgment frequently yields with reluctance, even when delay is impossible: but by example the passions are roused; we approve, we emulate, and we honour or love; we detest, we despise, and we condemn, as fit objects are successively held up to the mind: the affections are, as it were, drawn out into the field: they learn their exercise in a mock fight, and are trained for the service of virtue.

Facts, as they are most perfectly and easily comprehended, and as they are impressed upon the mind by the passions, are tenaciously remembered, though the terms in which they are delivered are presently forgotten; and for this reason the instruction that results from facts, is more easily propagated: many can repeat a story, who would not have understood a declamation; and though the expression will be varied as often as it is told, yet the moral which it was intended to teach will remain the same.

But these advantages have not been always secured by those who have professed to make a story the vehicle of instruction,' and to surprise levity into knowledge by a show of entertainment;' for instead of including instruction in the events themselves, they have made use of events only to introduce declamation and argument. If the events excite curiosity, all the fine reflections which are said to be interspersed, are passed over; if the events do not

excite curiosity, the whole is rejected together, not only with disgust and disappointment, but indignation, as having allured by a false promise, and engaged in a vain pursuit. These pieces, if they are read as a task by those for whose instruction they are intended, can produce none of the effects for which they were written; because the instruction will not be necessarily remembered with the facts; and because the story is so far from recommending the moral, that the moral is detested as interrupting the story. Nor are those who voluntarily read for instruction, less disappointed than those who seek only entertainment; for he that is eager in the pursuit of knowledge, is disgusted when he is stopped by the intervention of a trivial incident or a forced compliment, when a new personage is introduced, or a lover takes occasion to admire the sagacity of a mistress.

But many writers who have avoided this error, and interwoven precept with event, though they intended a moral lecture, have yet defeated their own purpose, by taking from virtue every accidental excellence, and decorating vice with the spoils.

I can think of nothing that could be alleged in defence of this perverse distribution of graces and defects, but a design to show that virtue alone is sufficient to confer honour upon the lowest character, and that without it nothing can preserve the highest from contempt; and that those excellences which we can acquire by our own efforts, are of more moment than those which are the gift of nature: but in this design, no writer, of whatever abilities, can succeed.

It has been often remarked, though not without wonder, that almost every man is more jealous of his natural than his moral qualities; and resents with more bitterness a satire upon his abilities than his practice: the fact is unquestionably true; and perhaps