(if I may use the Word) the Region round him; in the Collection of his Pictures; in the Oeconomy of his Family; and the Choice of his Pleafures; a Tafte for a fuperior Accomplishment, I mean that Grace with which he accompanies every Word or Act of Benevolence, attracts the more particular Regard of Mankind, yet leaves them in Sufpence to decide which is moft lovely, the Deed of Goodness, or the Manner of performing it. Without this happy Talent, Munificence ftabs a Dagger into the Breast of those the intends to relieve, with one Hand, while the difplays her Bounty with the other. This will be fully exemplified in the following fhort Story. PANDOLFO MALATESTA the Sovereign of REMINI, in the time of Pope ALEXANDER VIth, was the richest Prince in Italy, who, after having spent a defpicable Life in the Arms of Luxury, was reduced, by a merited reverfe of Fortune, to feek for an Afylum at last in a common Hofpital at Bologna. The Account goes, that this Tyrant, for such he was, being expelled from his Domi

nions, and perfecuted by his Enemies, in Pain and Want fled to the above-mentioned City, where at that very Time dwelt a Nobleman named PIETRO DEL SACCIO, a Native of Remini, who fome few Years before had been driven from his Country by the Tyranny of MALATESTA, who unjustly feized upon all his Poffeffions in that Principality, and put many of his Family to the Sword. When Word was brought to this Nobleman, that the late Ufurper was now in his Power, and that he might revenge thofe Injuries by delivering him up to CÆSAR BORGIA, or by killing him with his own Hand, the exafperated Italian with ingenious Malice replied, * Yes, I will now fully revenge the Injuries I have fuftained; I will do more than kill PANDOLFO, for I will order him to be carried to the Hof"pital I endowed myself, and let the "Tyrant know that the wretched Means "of protracting a miferable Being, is "owing to the Bounty of PIETRO DEL "SACCIO." - Such Cruelty will always attend ill-conducted Bounty, however I 2

other

otherwise intended! Yet methinks Nature leads us fo ftrongly to adminifter every Application of Humanity, with that lenient Hand fo requifite to make even Relief acceptable to an ingenuous Mind, that I wonder a proper Manner does not always accompany a benevolent Action; nay, farther, I am inclinable to think, where it does not, the Deed cannot proceed from a tender Sympathy of a Fellow-Creature's Distress, but from an Oftentation of fuperfluous Poffeffions. Of all Taste may Heaven. bestow on me chiefly this! that when I rock the Cradle of the Orphan, or wipe the gufhing Tear from the Eyes of the Widow, I may adminifter both in fo filent a manner, that neither they should feel the Pain of receiving, nor the tainting Breath of the World's Promulgation disturb the quiet Purpose of my Heart, brooding over it's unfpeakable Transport in facred Secrecy! My Love to LEONORA, to whom I ought to add fomething in Anfwer to her last Letter; but Ideas of Compaffion are now work'd up fo ftrongly in my Mind,

and

and those Dew-drops of Tenderness, as fhe called them (when I wept over the little Foundling nursed at a neighbouring Cottage) rife fo plentifully, that I must abruptly subscribe myself

IVE

LETTER XIX.

TO CRITOPHILUS.

VERY readily concur in your Opinion, CRITOPHILUS, that a Work of Criticism is the most difficult to be executed with a proper Taste of any literary Compofition whatever. There is fomething fo repugnant to the Pride of Mankind in general, fomething fo detractive from the fuppofed Sagacity of every Reader to pretend to inform by the dry Method of Precept, that except an Author has all the Delicacy and artful Addrefs imaginable, to feem to accompany the Judgments of those he writes for, rather than to lead them into Discoveries, in fuch a Performance, he will meet with that kind of contemptuous Treatment, which those good-natured People receive, who are ready to give their unafked Advice in the common Concerns of Life upon every Occafion. It is highly neceffary therefore, in fuch kind of Writings, to facrifice liberally to the GRACES, without whose Infpiration