I am fenfible of the contempt and ridicule with which thofe authors are treated by lord Shaftesbury, who, differing from his favourites the antients, have preferred to their method of writing in foliloquy and dialogue, the more authoritative and didactic form of effays; but who knows not that the ways by which intelligence and wifdom may be communicated are many and various, and that Johnfon has followed the beft exemplars? What are the fapiential books in the Scriptures, and all collections of precepts and counfels, but moral effays, leffons of œconomical prudence, and rules for the conduct of human life?

In a full perfuafion of the utility of this mode of inftruction, it undoubtedly was, that Montaigne, lord Bacon, Ofborne, Cowley, Sir William Temple, and others, in thofe excellent difcourfes, which they have not fcrupled to term effays, have laid out their minds, and communicated to mankind that skill in worldly, and I will add, in heavenly prudence, which is fcarcely attainable but by long experience, and an exercise both of the active and contemplative life; and to diffeminate and recommend the principles and practice of religion and virtue; as alfo, to correct the leffer foibles in behaviour, and to render human intercourfe eafy and delightful, was the avowed defign of those periodical effays, which, in the beginning of this century, contributed to form the manners of the then rifing generation.

A long space had intervened fince the publication of the Tatlers, Guardians, and Spectators: it is true it had been filled up by The Lover, and The Reader, The Theatre, The Lay-monaftery, The Plain-dealer,

The

The Free-thinker, The Speculatift, The Cenfor, and other productions of the like kind, but of fome of these it may be faid, that they were nearly ftill-born, and of others, that they enjoyed a duration little more extended than that of the ephemeron: fo that Johnson had no competitors for applaufe; his way was open, and he had the choice of many paths. Add to this, that a period of near forty years, in a country where commerce and its concomitant luxury had been increafing, had given rife to new modes of living, and even to characters that had scarcely before been known to exift. The clergyman was now become an amphibious being, that is to fay, both an ecclefiaftic and a laic; the ftately ftalking fop, whofe gait, as Cibber describes it, refembled that of a peacock, was fucceeded by a coxcomb of another fpecies, a fidgetting, tripping animal, that for agility might be compared to a grasshopper; the shopkeeper was transformed into a merchant, and the parfimonious stockbroker into a man of gallantry; the apron, the badge of mechanic occupations, in all its varieties of stuff and colour, was laid afide; phyficians and lawyers were no longer diftinguishable by their garb; the former had laid aside the great whig, and the latter ceased to wear black, except in the actual exercife of their profeffions in fhort, a few years of public tranquillity had transformed a whole nation into gentlemen,

In female life the refinements were alfo to be noted. In confequence of a better education than it had been ufual to beftow on them, women were become proficients in literature, and a man might read a lady's letter without blushing at the fpelling. The convenience

of turnpike-roads had deftroyed the diftinction between town and country manners, and the maid of honour and the farmer's wife put on a cap of the latest form, almost at the fame inftant. I mention this, because it may have escaped the obfervation of many, that a new fashion pervades the whole of this our island almost as instantaneously as a spark of fire illuminates a mass of gunpowder *.

Thefe, it may be faid, were but foibles in the manners of the times; but there were certain notions and opinions, which having been diffeminated fubfequent

to

The town-life had also received great improvements, which have fince been further extended: public entertainments are now enjoyed in an immediate fucceffion: from the play the company are generally able to get away by eleven, the hour of affembling at other places of amufement; from thefe the hour of retirement is three, which gives, till noon the next day, nine hours for reft; and after that fufficient time for a ride, auctions, or shopping, before five or fix the dinner hour. Nor is this feeming indulgence and immoderate purfuit of pleafure fo inconfiftent with the attendance on public worship as it may feem: methodifm, or fomething like it, in many instances, makes them compatible; fo that I have known a lady of high rank enjoy the pleafures of a rout, that almoft barred access to her houfe, on the evening of a Sunday which he had begun with prayer, and a participation of the folemnities which at an early hour in that day, are conftantly celebrated at St. James's chapel.

For most of these refinements on our public diverfions we are indebted to the late Mrs. Cornelys, to whofe elegant tafte for pleafure the magiftrates of Turin and Bruffels were fo blind, and of her worth fo infenfible, that, as I was given to understand by intelligence communicated to me in my judicial capacity, they severally drove her out of both thofe cities: this hofpitable country, however, afforded her an afylum; and in Weftminster she was permitted to improve our manners, without any further interruption, than a prefentment of her houfe as a nuifance, by a grand jury of the

county,

and

to the publication of the last of the collections of effays above-mentioned, escaped their cenfure, and were now become principles that had mifled many, and were young likely to affect the moral conduct of the unthinking: these had for their authors and propagators fuch men as Collins, Mandeville †, Morgan and Tindal; the first pair deifts, and the latter infidels. And to these I might add, though I would not brand

county, which, had it been profecuted, it might have been my lot to try; but by the aid of her friends she found means to fmother it. Soon after, she became a prisoner for debts to a large amount ; but in the riots in 1780 found means to escape from confinement, and has never fince been heard of.

+ Mandeville, whose christian name was Bernard, was a native of Dort in Holland. He came to England young, and, as he says in fome of his writings, was so pleased with the country, that he took up his refidence in it, and made the language his ftudy. He lived in obfcure lodgings in London, and betook himself to the profeffion of phyfic, but was never able to acquire much practice. He was the author of the book above-mentioned, as also of Free Thoughts on Religion,' and a Difcourfe on Hypochondriac Affections,' which Johnfon would often commend; and wrote befides, fundry papers in the London Journal,' and other fuch publications, to favour the cuftom of drinking fpirituous liquors, to which employment of his pen, it is fuppofed he was hired by the diftillers. I once heard a London phyfician, who had married the daughter of one of that trade, mention him as a good fort of man, and one that he was acquainted with, and at the fame time affert a fact, which I fuppofe he had learned from Mandeville, that the children of women addicted to dram-drinking, were never troubled with the rickets. He is faid to have been coarfe and overbearing in his manners where he durft be fo; yet a great flatterer of fome vulgar Dutch merchants, who allowed him a penfion. This laft information comes from a clerk of a city attorney, through whofe hands the money paffed.

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them

them with so harsh an appellation as the last, Toland, Gordon, Trenchard, and others of that clafs of writers, men who having drank the lees of the Bangorian controversy, were become fo intoxicated in their notions of civil and religious liberty, as to talk of the majefty of the people! and fhewed themselves anxious that their zeal for religion might be estimated by their jealousy of all establishments for the fupport

of it.

The flimfy arguments contained in Collins's dif courfe on Free-thinking, had been refuted with great learning and pleafantry by Bentley, before which time, as I have been informed, a clergyman in his habit, walking the streets of London, was in danger of being affronted; but the poifon of Mandeville had affected many. His favourite principle is, the title to the most noted of all his books, Private vices, public benefits,' throughout which he labours to inculcate, as a fubordinate pofition, this other, that man is a selfish being, and that all that we call human beneficence is to be accounted for upon principles that exclude the love of any but ourselves *.

Johnson has remarked, that malevolence to the clergy is feldom at a great distance from irreverence for religion. He faw the features of that malevolence

Lord Macclesfield, when chief-juftice, was ufed often to have him at his houfe, and was pleafed with his converfation He once got Mr. Addison to meet him, of whom being asked his opinion by his lordship, Mandeville answered, he thought him a parfon in a tye-wig. See Johnfon's life of Addifon among the Lives of the Poets.