the more any one predominates, the lefs room is there for the others to exert their vigour. For this reafon, a greater degree of fimplicity is required in all compofitions, where men, and actions, and paffions are painted, than in fuch as confift of reflections and observations. And as the former fpecies of writing is the more engaging and beautiful, one may fafely, upon this account, give the preference to the extreme of fimplicity above that of refinement.

We may also observe, that thofe compofitions, which we read the oftenest, and which every man of taste has got by heart, have the recommendation of fimplicity, and have nothing furprifing in the thought, when divefted of that elegance of expreffion, and harmony of numbers, with which it is cloathed. If the merit of the compofition lies in a point of wit; it may ftrike at firft; but the mind anticipates the thought in the second perufal, and is no longer affected by it. When I read an epigram of MARTIAL, the firft line recalls the whole; and I have no pleasure in repeating to myself what I know already. But each line, each word in CATULLUS, has its merit; and I am never tired with the perufal of him. 'Tis fufficient to run over COWLEY once: But PARNEL, after the fiftieth reading, is as fresh as at the firft. Befides, 'tis with books, as with women, where a certain plainnefs of manner and of drefs is , more engaging than that glare of paint and airs and apparel, which may dazzle the eye, but reaches not the affections. TERENCE is a modest and bashful beauty, to whom we grant every thing, because he affumes nothing, and whose purity and nature make a durable, though not a violent impreffion on us.

But refinement, as it is the lefs beautiful, fo is it the more dangerous extreme, and what we are the apteft to fall into. Simplicity

Simplicity paffes for dulnefs, when it is not accompanied with great elegance and propriety. On the contrary, there is fomething furprising in a blaze of wit and conceit. Ordinary readers are mightily struck with it, and falfely imagine it to be the moft difficult, as well as moft excellent way of writing. SENECA abounds with agreeable faults, fays QUINTILIAN, abundat dulcibus vitiis; and for that reafon is the more dangerous, and the more apt to pervert the taste of the young and incon fiderate.

I fhall add, that the excess of refinement is now more to be guarded against than ever; because 'tis the extreme which men are the most apt to fall into, after learning has made great progress, and after eminent writers have appeared in every species of compofition. The endeavour to please by novelty leads men wide of fimplicity and nature, and fills their writings with affectation and conceit. It was thus the ASIATIC eloquence degenerated fo much from the ATTIC. It was thus the age of CLAUDIUS and NERO became fo much inferior to that of Au GUSTUS in taste and genius: And perhaps there are, at present, some symptoms of a like degeneracy of taste, in FRANCE as well a as in ENGLAND.

ESSAY XXI.

OF NATIONAL CHARACTERS.

THE vulgar are very apt to carry all national characters to extremes; and having once established it as a principle, that any people are knavish, or cowardly, or ignorant, they will admit of no exception, but comprehend every individual under the fame character. Men of fenfe condemn these undistinguishing judgments: Though at the fame time, they allow, that each nation has a peculiar fet of manners, and that fome particular qualities are more frequently to be met with among one people than among their neighbours. The common people in SWISSERLAND have furely more probity than those of the fame rank in IRELAND; and every prudent man will, from that circumftance alone, make a difference in the truft which he reposes in each. We have reafon to expect greater wit and gaiety in a FRENCHMAN than in a SPANIARD; though CERVANTES was born in SPAIN. An ENGLISHMAN will naturally be fuppofed to have more knowledge than a DANE; though TYCHO BRAHE was a native of DENMARK.

Different reasons are affigned for these national characters; while fome account for them from moral and others from phyfical caufes. By moral caufes, I mean all circumstances, which are fitted to work on the mind as motives or reafons, and which

render

render a peculiar fet of manners habitual to us.

Of this kind are, the nature of the government, the revolutions of public affairs, the plenty or penury in which the people live, the fituation of the nation with regard to its neighbours, and above all, the course of education, and the example of parents and companions. By phyfical causes, I mean thofe qualities of the air and climate, which are fuppofed to work infenfibly on the temper, by altering the tone and habit of the body, and giving a particular complexion, which though reflexion and reason may fometimes overcome, yet will it prevail among the genera lity of mankind, and have an influence on their manners..

That the character of a nation will very much depend on moral causes, must be evident to the most fuperficial observer; fince a nation is nothing but a collection of individuals, and the manners of individuals are frequently determined by these causes. As poverty and hard labour debase the minds of the common people, and render them unfit for any fcience and ingenious profeffion; fo where any government becomes very oppreffive to all its fubjects, it must have a proportional effect. on their temper and genius, and muft banish all the liberal arts from among them. Inftances of this nature are very frequent

in the world.

The fame principle of moral causes fixes the character of different profeffions, and alters even that difpofition, which the particular members receive from the hand of nature. Afoldier and a priest are different characters, in all nations, and all ages; and this difference is founded on circumstances, whose operation is eternal and unalterable.

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The uncertainty of their life makes foldiers lavish and generous, as well as brave: Their idlenefs, together with the large focieties, which they form in camps or garrifons, inclines them to pleasure and gallantry: By their frequent change of company, they acquire good breeding and an openness of behaviour: Being employed only against a public and an open enemy, they become candid, honeft, and undefigning: And as they use more the labour of the body than that of the mind, they are commonly thoughtless and ignorant *.

'Tis a trite, but not altogether a falfe maxim, that priests of all religions are the fame; and though the character of the profeffion will not, in every inftance, prevail over the perfonal character, yet it is fure always to predominate with the greater number. For as chymifts observe, that spirits, when raised to a certain height, are all the fame, from whatever materials they be extracted; fo these men, being elevated above humanity, acquire a uniform character, which is intirely their own, and which, in my opinion, is, generally speaking, not the most amiable that is to be met with in human fociety. It is, in most points, opposite to that of a foldier; as is the way of life, from which it is derived t.

As

* 'Tis a faying of MENANDER, Κομψός τρατιώτης, εδ' ἂν εἰ πλάττει θεὺς Οὐθεῖς γίνοιτ' ἂν MEN. apud STOBÆUM. 'Tis not in the tower even of God to make a polite foldier. The contrary obfervation with regard to the manners of foldiers takes place in our days. This feems to me a prefumption, that the ancients owed all their refinement and civility to books and ftudy; for which, indeed, a foldier's life is not fo well calculated. Company and the world is their sphere. And if there be any politeness to be learned from company, they will certainly have a confiderable share of it.

+ Tho' all mankind have a strong propenfity to religion at certain times and in certain difpofitions; yet are there few or none, who have it to that degree, and with VOL. I.

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