Inconsistencies, confidering that Irresolution seems to me to be the most common and manifeft Vice of our Nature; witness the famous Verse of Publius the Mimic, Malum confilium est quod mutari non potest *. There is fome Probability of forming a Judgment of a The Dificulty of Man from his most common Course of Life, determining the but confidering the natural Instability of our Characters of Manners and Opinions, I have often thought Men in general. even our best Authors wrong in endeavouring, with so much Obstinacy, to make us all of a Piece or Consistency. They pitch upon the general Air of a Man, and, according to that Appearance, endeavour to range and interpret all his Actions, and, if they cannot twist them to a tolerable Uniformity, they impute them to Dissimulation. Auguftus has escaped their Memory; for in this Man there was so manifest, sudden, and continual a Variety of Actions throughout his Life, that he is slipped away intire and uncensured by the boldest Critics. There is nothing I am fo hardly induced to believe as a Man's Constancy, and believe nothing more readily than his Inconstancy. He that would judge of a Man particularly, distinctly, and take him to Pieces, would oftener be sure of speaking Truth. 'Tis a hard Matter, out of all Antiquity, to pick a dozen Men who have passed their Lives in one certain constant Course, which is the principal Aim of Wisdom. For, to comprize all in one Word, says an ancient Author, and to collect all the Rules of human Life into one, is to Will the fame Thing always, and always not to Will it. I need not add this small Exception, provided that what thou willest be right; for, if it be not right, the same Thing cannot always please any one. I have, indeed, formerly learned, that Vice is nothing but the Want of Rule and Measure, and by Consequence 'tis impossible to fix Constancy to it. 'Tis reported to be a Saying of Demosthenes, that the Beginning of all Virtue is Confultation and Deliberation, and the End and Perfection of it, Conftancy. If we would set out upon a certain Course, * Ex Publii Mimis, apud A. Gell. lib. xvii. c. 14. † Senec. Ep. 20. Course, after mature Deliberation, we should take the best Way, but no-body has thought on it: Quod petiit, spernit; repetit quod nuper omifit, Æstuat, et vitæ disconvenit ordine toto*. i. e. He now despises what he late did crave, Our ordinary Practice is to follow the Inclinations of our Appetites, be it to the right or to the left, up- The Inconftanwards or downwards, according as we are im- cy of our Conpelled by Occafions. We never confider of what duct, on what we would have till the Instant we would have founded. it, and are as changeable as that Animal which receives its Colour from what Place foever it is laid upon. What we just now proposed to ourselves, we immediately alter, and presently recur to it; which is nothing but Wavering and Inconstancy : Ducimur ut nervis alienis mobile lignum t. i. e. Like Tops, with Leather-thongs we're whipp'd about. We do not go of ourselves, but are driven just like Things that float on the Water, sometimes slowly, at other times fwiftly, according to the Rapidity or Gentleness of the Stream: - nonne videmus Quid fibi quisque velit nefcire, et quærere semper, i. e. See we not up and down Men daily trot, Shifting from Place to Place, if here or there They might set down the Burden of their Care. B 2 Every † Horat. lib. ii. Sat. 7. v. 82. * Horat. Ep. I. lib. i. v. 96, 97. ‡ Lucr. lib. iii. v. 1070, 5. Every Day a new Whimsy starts, and our Humours move as the Times do : Tales funt hominum mentes, quali Pater ipse Jupiter arctifero luftravit lumine terras*. i. e. Such are the Motions of th' inconstant Soul, We fluctuate between various Opinions, + we will nothing : During the Civil Disorders of our poor Kingdom, I was A young Wo- told, that a Maid, hard by the Place where I man, of a du- then was, threw herself out of a Window, to bious Charac- avoid being ravished by a common Soldier that was quartered in the House. She was not killed by the Fall, and therefore, in order to purfue her Design, she attempted to cut her Throat, but was hindered in it; nevertheless she was fo dangerously wounded, that she confefsed the Soldier had not as yet importuned her, otherwise than by Courtship, Solli ter, throws berself out of a Window, for fear of being ravished. * Cicer. Fragm. Poemat. lib. x. † Senec. Epift. 52. || Diog. Laert. on the Life of Empedocles, lib. viii. Sect. 63. Ælian ascribes this Passage to Plato, Var. Hift. lib. xii. c. 29. Sollicitations, and Presents, but she was afraid, that at last he would have proceeded to Violence; and this she delivered with such an Accent and Afpect, as, together with her Effusion of Blood, gave such a Testimony of her Virtue, that she appeared perfectly like another Lucretia: And yet I have been very well assured, that, both before and since, she proved not so hard-hearted. Therefore, as the Story fays, though you are ever so handsome, and ever so much of the Gentleman, because you have miscarried in your Point, don't immediately conclude your Mistress to be inviolably chaste, since you are not sure but she may have a secret Kindness for the Man that looks after your Mules. loft all his Valour on his being cured of a Diftemper, Antigonus, having taken a Fancy to one of his Soldiers for his gallant Bravery, ordered his Physicians A Soldier who to attend him for an inward Ailment that had long tormented him; and perceiving, after he was cured, that he went much more coldly to work than before, he asked him, Who or what had so altered and daftardised him? Yourself, Sir, faid he, in having eased me of the Pains, which made me so weary of my Life, that I did not value it*. A Soldier of Lucullus, having been robbed by the Enemy, revenged himself on them by a gallant A Soldier of Exploit, and, when he had made himself A- Lucullus inmends, Lucullus, having conceived a good O- Spired with pinion of him, would fain have employed him Courage by bein some defperate Enterprize, and, for that ing robbed. Purpose, made Use of all the most plausible Arguments he could think of, Verbis quæ timido quoque possent addere mentem†. i. e. Words which would animate the rankest Coward. Pray, faid he, employ some miferable plundered Soldier, in that Undertaking: - quantumvis rufticus, ibit, Ibit eò quò vis, qui zonam perdidit, inquit ‡. i. e. + Hor. lib. ii. Epift. z. : i. e. Take a Wretch, faid be, that has nothing to lofe, And absolutely refused to go. When we read, that Mahomet having severely reprimanded Chafan, the Commander of his Fanizaries, for Cowardife, when he saw the Hungarians break into his Troops; and that Chasan, without any other Answer, rushed furioufly, by himself, with his drawn Scymeter, into the first Body of the Enemy that advanced, where he was immediately cut to Pieces: This, perhaps, was not so much to vindicate himself from the Reproach, as the Effect of a second Thought; nor so much natural Courage as a fudden Sally of Anger. He that you saw so adventurous Yesterday, don't think it strange, if you find him, next Day, as great a Poltroon: Anger, Neceffity, or Company, or Wine, or the Sound of a Trumpet had roused his Spirits. This was not Courage formed by Reafon, but established by fome or other of those Circumstances; and therefore no Wonder, if, by other contrary Circumstances, it become quite another Thing. These supple Variations and Contradictions, so manifest in us, have induced some Persons to think, that we have two Souls; others two distinct Powers, that always accompany and animate us, each after its own Manner, the one to do Good, the other to do Evil; it being hardly poffible, that two Qualities, fo contrary to each other, could affociate in one Subject. The Mind of Man is inconStant and The Wind of every Accident not only puffs me along with it, which Way foever it blows; but, moreover, I disturb and trouble myself by the Unfettledness of my Posture; and whoever nicely changeable. confiders it, will hardly find himself twice in the very fame State. I give my Mind sometimes one Hue, sometimes another, according to the Side I lie on. If I speak varioufly of myself, 'tis because I confider myself in different Lights, as having all Contrarieties within me, in their Turn and Measure; Bashful, Infolent, Chaste, Licentious, Talkative, Taciturn, Laborious, Delicate, Ingenious, Stupid, Morose, Complaisant, a Lyar, a true Speaker, Learned, |