Mr. Bickerstaff, I Tis fome Years ago fince the Entail of the Estate of our Family was altered, by paffing a Fine in Favour of me (who now am in offeffion of it) after • fome others deceated. The He rs General who lived beyond Sea, were excluded by this Settlement, and the whole Eftate is to pafs in a new Char nei after me and my Heirs. But feveral Tenants of the Lordship perfwade me to let them hereafter hold their Lands of me according to the old Customs of the Barony, and not oblige them to act by the Limitations of the laft Settlement. This, they fay, will make me more po'pular among my Dependants, and the antient Vafials of the Eftate, to whom any Deviation from the Line of Succeffion is always invidious. SIR, Y Yours, &c. Sheer Lane, June 24. OU have by the Fine a plain Right, in which none elfe of your Family can be your Competitor; for which Reafon, by all Means demand Vaffallage upon that Title. The contrary Advice can be given for no other Purpose in Nature but to betray you, and favour other Pretenders, by making you place a Right which is in you only, upon a Level with a Right which you have in Common with others, ⚫ I am, SIR, Your most Faithful Servant, till Death, I. B. THERE is nothing fo dangerous or fo pleafing, as Compliments made to us by our Enemies: And my Correfpondent tells me, That though he knows feveral of thofe who give him this Couníel were at firft against paffing the Fine in Favour of him; yet he is fo touched with their Homage to him, that he can hardly believe they have a Mind to fet it afide, in order to introduce the Heirs General into his Eftate. THESE THESE are great Evils; but fince there is no proceeding with Succefs in this World, without complying with the Arts of it, I fhall use the fame Method as my Correfpondent's Tenants did with him, in Relation to one whom I never had a Kindness for; but fhall, notwithstanding, presume to give him my Advice. Ifaac Bickerstaff, Efq; of Great Britain, to Lewis XIV. of France. SIR, Y some lagages OUR Majefty will pardon me while I take the ten from your Side of the Water do very much obstruct your Intereft. We take it very unkindly that the Prints of Pa ris are fo very partial in Favour of one Set of Men among us, and treat the others as irreconcileable to your Interefts. Your Writers are very large in recounting any Thing which relates to the Figure and Power of one Party, but are dumb when they should represent the Actions of the other. This is a trifling Circumftance many here are apt to lay fome Stress upon; therefore I thought fit to offer it to your Confideration before you dispatch the next Courier. I. B. -Propter vitam vivendi perdere caufas.. Juv. F all the Evils under the Sun, that of making Vice commendable is the greateft: For it seems to be the Basis of Society, that Applause and Contempt fhould be always given to proper Objects. But in this Age we behold Things, for which we ought to have an Abhorrence, not only received without Difdain, but even valued as Motives of Emulation. This is naturally the Destruction of Simplicity of Manners, Openness of Heart, B 3 Heart, and Generofity of Teniper. When one gives one's felf the Liberty to range, and run over in one's Thoughts the different Genius's of Men which one meets in the World, one cannot but obferve, that most of the Indirection and Artifice which is ufed among Men, does not proceed fo much from a Degeneracy in Nature, as an Affectation of appearing Men of Confequence by fuch Practices. By this Means it is, that a cunning Man is fo far from being afhamed of being efteemed fuch, that he fecretly rejoices in it. It has been a Sort of Maxim, That the greatest Art is to conceal Art; but I know not how, among fome People we meet with, their greateft Cunning is to appear cunning. There is Polypragmon makes it the whole Bufinefs of his Life to be thought a cunning Fellow, and thinks it a much greater Character to be terrible than agreeable. When it has once enter'd into a Man's Head to have an Ambition to be thought crafty, all other Evils are necessary Confequences. To deceive, is the immediate Endeavour of him who is proud of the Capacity of doing it. It is certain, Polypragmon does all the Ill he poffibly can, but pretends to much more than he performs. He is contented in his own Thoughts, and hugs himself in his Clofet, that though he is locked up there and doing nothing, the World does not know but that he is doing Mifchief. To favour this Sufpicion, he gives HalfLooks and Shrugs in his general Behaviour, to give you to underfland that you don't know what he means. He is alfo wonderfully adverbial in his Expreffions, and breaks off with a Perhaps and a Nod of the Head upon Matters of the most indifferent Nature. It is a mighty Practice with Men of this Genius to avoid frequent Appearance in Publick, and to be as myfterious as poffible when they do come into Company. There is nothing to be done, according to them, the Common Way; and let the Matter in Hand be what it will, it must be carried with an Air of Importance, and tranfacted, if we may fo fpeak, with an oftentatious Secrecy. Thefe are your Perfons of long Heads, who would fain make the World believe their Thoughts and Ideas are very much fuperior to their Neighbours, and do not value what thefe their Neighbours think of them, provided they they do not reckon them Fools. Thefe have fuch a Romantick Touch in Bufinefs, that they hate to perform any Thing like other Men. Were it in their Choice, they had rather bring their Purposes to bear by overreaching the Perfous they deal with, than by a plain and fimple Manner. They make Difficulties for the Honour of furmounting them. Polypragmon is eternally bufied after this Manner, with no other Prospect than that he is in hopes to be thought the moft cunning of all Men, and fears the Imputation of the want of Underftanding much more than that of the Abuse of it. But alas! How contemptible is fuch an Ambition, which is the very Reverse of all that is truly laudable, and the very Contradiction to the only Means to a juft Reputation, Simplicity of Manners! Cunning can in no Circumftance imaginable be a Quality worthy a Man, except in his own Defence, and meerly to conceal himself from fuch as are fo; and in fuch Cafes it is no longer Craft, but Wisdom. The monftrous Affectation of being thought artful, immediately kills all Thoughts of Humanity and Goodness, and gives Men a Senfe of the foft Affections and Impulfes of the Mind (which are imprinted in us for our mutual Advantage and Succour) as of meer Weakneffes and Follies. According to the Men of Cunning, you are to put off the Nature of a Man as faft as you can, and acquire that of a Dæmon, as if it were a more eligible Character to be a powerful Enemy, than an able Friend. But it ought to be a Mortification to Men affected this Way, that there wants but little more than Inftinct to be confiderable in it; for when a Man has arrived at being very bad in his Inclination, he has not much more to do but to conceal himself, and he may revenge, cheat, and deceive without much Employment for Understanding, and go on with great Chearfulness with the high Applaufe of being a prodigious cunning Fellow. But indeed, when we arrive at that Pitch of false Tafte, as not to think Cunning a contemptible Quality, it is methinks, a very great Injustice that Pick-pockets are had in fo little Veneration, who must be admirably well turned, not only for the Theoretick, but also the practical Behaviour of cunning Fellows. After all the Endeavours of B 4 this this Family of Men whom we call cunning, their whole Work fails to Pieces, if others will lay down all Efteem for fuch Artifices, and treat it as an unmanly Quality, which they forbear to practice only because they abhor When the Spider is ranging in the different Apartments of his Web, it is true, that he only can weave fo fine a Thread; but it is in the Power of the meereft Drone that has Wings to fly through and deftroy it. Will's Coffee-boufe, June 28. THO' the Tafle of Wit and Fleafure is at prefent but very low in this Town, yet there are fome that preferve their Relish undebauched with common Impreffions, and can diflinguifh between Reality and Impolture. A Gentleman was faying here this Evening, That he would go to the Play to morrow Night to fee Heroifm as it has been reprefented by fome of our Tragedians, reprefented in Burlefque. It feems, the Play of Alexander is to be then turned into Ridicule for its Bombaft, and other falfe Ornaments in the Thought as well as the Language. The Blutter Alexander makes is as much inconfiftent with the Character of an Hero, as the Roughness of Clytus, an Inflance of the Sincerity of a bold artless Soldier. To be plain is not to be rude, but rather inclines a Man to Civility and Deference; not indeed to fhew it in the Geftures of the Body, but in the Sentiments of the Mind. It is, among other Things, from the impertinent Figures unfkilful Dramatifts draw of the Characters of Men, that Youth are bewildered and prejudiced in their Senfe of the World, of which they have no Notions but what they draw from Books and fuch Reprefentations. Thus talk to a very young Man, let him be of never fo good Senfe, and he fhall fmile when you fpeak of Sincerity in a Courtier, good Senfe in a Soldier, or Honefty in a Politician. The Reafon of this is, That you hardly fee one Play wherein each of thefe Ways of Life is not drawn by Hands that know nothing of any one of them; and the Truth is fo far of the oppofite Side to what they paint, that it is more impracticable, to live in Efteem in Courts, than any where elfe, without Sincerity. Good Senfe is the |