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felf, confidering the hortness of their duration, and the advan tage we may reap from them, do not deferve the name of evils.

12. A good mind may bear up under them with fortitude, with independence, and with cheerfulness of heart-the toffing of a tempeft does not difcompofe him, which he is fure will bring him to a joyful harbor,

13. A man who ufes his beft endeavors to live according to the dictates of virtue and right reafon has two perpetual fources of cheerfulness, in the confideration of his own nature and of that Being on whom he has a dependence.

14. If he looks into himself, he cannot but rejoice in that existence, which is fo lately bestowed upon him, and which after milions of ages will be still new, and still in its beginning. How many felf congratulations naturally arife in the mind, when it reflects on this its entrance into eternity, when it takes a view of those improveable faculties, which in a few years, and even at its firft fetting out have made fo confiderable a progrefs, and which will be ftill receiving an increase of perfection, and confequently an increase of happiness ?

15. The confcioufnefs of fuch a being fpreads a perpetualdiffufion of joy through the foul of a virtuous man, and makes him look upon himself every moment as more happy than he knows how to conceive.

16. The fecond fource of cheerfulness to a good mind is, its confideration of that Being on whom we have our dependence, and in whom, though we behold him as yet in the first faint difcoveries of his perfections, we fee every thing that we can imagin as great, glorious, or amiable. We find ourselves every where upheld by his goodness, and furrounded by an immenfity of love and mercy.

17. In fhort we depend upon a being, whofe power qualifies him to make us happy by an infinity of means, whofe goodnefs and truth engage him to make thofe happy who defire it of him, and whofe unchangeablenefs will fecure us in this happinefs to all eternity.

18. Such confiderations which every one fhould perpetually cherish in his thought will banish from us all that fecret heaviness of heart which unthinking men are subject to when they lie under no real affliction, all that anguish which we may feel from any evil that actually oppreffes us, to which I may likewise add thofe little cracklings of mirth and folly, that are

apter to betray virtue than fupport it; and establish in us fuck an even and cheerful temper as makes us pleafing to ourselves, to those with whom we converfe, and to him whom we are made to please.

ON CLEANLINESS.

Spectator, No. 631.

I HAD occafion to go a few miles out of town,

fome days fince, in a stage coach, where I had for my fellow-travellers, a dirty beau, and a pretty young Quaker woman. Having no inclination to talk much at that time, I placed myself backward, with a defign to furvey them, and pick a fpeculation out of my two companions. Their different figures were fufficient. of themfelves to draw my attention.

2. The gentleman was dreffed in a fuit, the ground whereof had been black, as I perceived from fome few fpaces that had efcaped the powder which was incorporated with the greatest part of his coat; his perywig, which coft no fmall fum was after fo flovenly a manner caft over his fhoulders, that it seemed not to have been combed fince the year 1712; his linen, which was not much concealed, was daubed with plain Spanish from the chin to the lowest button, and the diamond upon his finger (which naturally dreaded the water) put me in mind how it fparkled amidst the rubbish of the mine where it was first discovered.

3. On the other hand, the pretty Quaker appeared in all the elegance of cleanliness. Not a fpeck was to be found on her. A clear, clean oval face, juft edged about with litle thin plaits of the pureft cambrick, received great advantages froni the fhade of her black hood; as did the whitenefs of her arms from that fober-coloured stuff in which fhe had clothed herself. The plainnefs of her drefs was very well fuited to the fimplicity of her phrafes, all which put together, though they could not give me a great opinion of her religion, they did of her innocence.

4. This adventure occafioned my throwing together a few hints upon cleanliness, which I fhall confider as one of the half virtues, as Ariftotle calls them, and fhall recommend it under the three following heads; As it is a mark of politeness; as it produceth love; and as it bears analogy to the purity of mind.

5. First it is a mark of politenefs. It is univerfally agreed upon, that no one, unadorned with this virtue, can go into company without giving a manifeft offence. The eafier or higher any one's fortune is, this duty rifes proportionably. The different nations of the world are as much diftinguished by their cleanlinefs, as by their arts and sciences. The more any country is civilized, the more they confult this part of politenefs. We need but compare our ideas of a female Hottentot with an English beauty, to be fatisfied of the truth of what hath been advanced.

6. In the next place, cleanliness may be faid to be the fafter-mother of love. Beauty, indeed most commonly produces that paflion in the mind, but cleanliness preferves it. An indifferent face and perfon, kept in perpetual neatnefs, bath won many a heart from a pretty flattern. Age itself is not unamiable, while it is preferved clean and unfullied: like a piece of metal conftantly kept smooth and bright, we look on it with more pleasure than on a new veffel that is cankered with rust.

7. I might obferve further, that as cleanlinefs renders us agree able to others, fo it makes us eafy to ourselves; that it is an excellent prefervative of health and that feveral vices, destructive both to mind and body, are inconfiftent with the habit of it. But thefe reflections I fall leave to the leifure of my readers, and fhall obferve in the third place, that it bears a great analogy with purity of mind, and naturally infpires refined fentiments and paffions.

8. We find, from experience, that through the prevalence of cufton, the molt vicious actions lofe their horror by being made familiar to us. On the contrary, thofe who live in the neighborhood of good examples, fly from the first appearances of what is fhocking. It fares with us much after the fame manner as our ideas. Our fenfes, which are the inlets to all the images conveyed to the mind, can only tranfinit the impreffion of fuch things as ufually furround them; fo that pure and unfullied thoughts are naturally fuggefted to the mind, by those objects that perpetually encompass us, when they are beautiful and elegant in their kind.

9. In the Eaft, where the warmth of the climate makes cleanlinefs more immediately neceffary than in colder coun tries, it is made one part of their religion; the Jewish law (and

the Mahometan, which in fome things, copies after it) is filled with bathings, purifications, and other rites of the like nature. Tho' there is the above named convenient reafon to be affigned for thefe ceremonies, the chief intention, undoubtedly, was to tipify inward purity and cleanliness of heart by thofe outward washings.

10. We read feveral injunctions of this kind in the book of Deuteronomy, which confirm this truth, and which are but ill accounted for by faying, as fome do, that they were only inftituted for convenience in the defert, which otherways could not have been habitable for fo many years.

11. I fhall conclude this effay with a story which I have fomewhere read in an account of Mahometan fuperftition. A Dervife of great fanctity one morning had the misfortune as he took up a cryftal cup, which was confecrated to the prophet, to let it fall upon the ground, and dafh it in pieces. His fon coming in fome time after, he stretched out his hand to bless him as his manner was every morning; but the youth going out ftumbled over the threshold and broke his arm. As the old man wondered at thefe events, a caravan paffed by in its way from Mecca. The Dervife approached it to beg a bleffing, but as he ftroked one of the holy camels, he received a kick from the beast that forely bruised him. His forrow and amazement increafed upon him, till he recollected, that, through hurry and inadvertency, he had that morning come abroad without washing his hands.

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Scene between GENERAL SAVAGE, and Miss WALSINGHAM ; in which the courtship is carried on in fuch an ambiguous manner, that the General miflakes her confent to marry his fon Captain SAVAGE, for confent to marry himself.

Mifs Wal. GENERAL Savage, your most humble fer

vant.

Gen. Sav. My dear Mifs Walfingham, it is rather cruel that you fhould be left at home by yourself, and yet I am greatly rejoiced to find you at prefent without company.

Mifs Wal. I can't but think myself in the best company when I have the honor of your converfation, General.

Gen. You flatter me too much, Madam; yes I am come to talk to you on a serious affair; an affair of importance to me and yourself. Have you leifure to favor me with a fhort audience, if I beat a parley?

Mifs Wal. Any thing of importance to you, Sir, is always fufficient to command my leifure.

'Tis as the Captain fufpected-[afide.

Gen. You tremble my lovely girl, but don't be alarmed; for tho my bufinefs is of an important nature, I hope it will not be of a difagreeable one.

Mifs Wal. And yet I am greatly agitated-[afide.

Gen. Soldiers, Mifs Walfingham, are faid to be generally favored by the kind protection of the ladies.

Mifs Wal. The ladies are not without gratitude, Sir, to those who devote their lives peculiarly to the fervice of their country.

Gen. Generously faid, Madam. Then give me leave with Out any masked battery, to ask if the heart of an honeft foldier is a prize worthy your acceptance?

Mifs Wal. Upon my word, Sir, there is no mafked battery in this question.

Gen. I am as fond of a coup-de-main, Madam, in love as in war, and hate the tedious method of fapping a town, when there is a poffibility of entering it fword in hand.

Mifs Wal. Why really, Sir, a woman may as well know her own mind when fhe is firft fummoned by the trumpet of a lover, as when the undergoes all the tirefome formality of a fiege. You fee I have caught your own mode of converfing, General.

Gen. And a very great compliment I confider it, Madam. But now that you have candidly confeffed an acquaintance with your own mind, anfwer me with that franknefs for which every body admites you fo much Have you any objections to change the name of Walfingham ?

Mifs Wal. Why then, frankly, General, I fay, no.

Gen. Ten thoufand thanks to you for this kind declaration. Mifs Wel. I hope you won't think it a forward one.

Gen. I'd fooner fee my fon run away in the day of battleI'd fooner think Lord Ruffel was bribed by Lewis XIV; and fooner vilify the memory of Algernon Sidney.

Mifs. Wal. How unjuft it was ever to fuppofe the General a tyrannical father!-[afide.

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