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the extreme of fimplicity above that of refine

ment.

We may also obferve, that thofe compofitions, which we read the ofteneft, and which every man of tafte has got by heart, have the recommendation of fimplicity, and have nothing furprizing in the thought, when divested of that elegance of expreffion, and harmony of numbers, with which it is cloath'd. If the merit of the compofition lyes 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 first 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 tir'd 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 modeft and bafhful beauty, to whom we grant every thing, because he affumes nothing, and whofe purity and nature make a durable, tho' not a violent, impreflion upon 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 paffes for dulnefs, when it is not accompany'd with great elegance and propriety.

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propriety. On the contrary, there is something furprizing in a blaze of wit and conceit. Ordinary readers are mightily ftruck with it, and falfely imagine it to be the most difficult, as well as moft excellent way of writing. Seneca abounds with agreeable faults, fays Quintilian, abundat dulcibus vitiis ; and for that reason is the more dangerous, and the more apt to pervert the taste of the young and inconfiderate.

I SHALL add, that the excefs 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 appear'd 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. 'Twas thus the Afiatic eloquence degenerated fo much from the Attic. 'Twas thus the age of Claudius and Nero became fo much inferior to that of Augustus in' taste and genius: And perhaps there are, at present, some fymptoms of a like degeneracy of taste, in France as well as in England.

ESSAY

ESSAY XXIV.

Of NATIONAL CHARACTERS.

HE vulgar are very apt to carry all national characters to extremes; and having once establish'd 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 thefe undiftinguishing judgments; tho' 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 Swifferland 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; tho' Cervantes was born in Spain. An Englishman will naturally be fuppos'd to have more knowledge than a Dane; tho' Tycho Brahe was a native of Denmark.

DIFFERENT reasons are affign'd for these national characters; while fome account for them from moral

and

and others from phyfical caufes. By moral causes, I mean all circumftances, which are fitted to work on the mind as motives or reasons, and which 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 fuch like circumftances. By phyfical causes, I mean thofe qualities of the air and climate, which are fuppos'd to work infenfibly on the temper, by altering the tone and habit of the body, and giving a particular complexion, which tho' reflection and reafon may fometimes overcome, yet will it prevail among the generality of mankind, and have an influence on their manners.

THAT the character of a nation will very much depend on moral caufes must be evident to the most fuperficial obferver; fince a nation is nothing but a collection of individuals, and the manners of indi viduals are frequently determin'd by these causes. As poverty and hard labour debase the minds of the common people, and render them unfit for any science and ingenious profeffion; fo where any government becomes very oppreffive to all its subjects, it must have a proportional effect on their temper and genius, and must banish all the liberal arts from amongst 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,

difpofition, which the particular members receive from the hand of nature. A foldier 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.

THE uncertainty of their life makes foldiers lavish and generous as well as brave: Their idleness, as well as 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 employ'd only against a public and an open enemy, they become candid, honeft, and undefigning And as they ufe more the labour of the body than that of the mind, they are commonly thoughtless and ignorant *.

'Tis a trite, but not altogether a false maxim, that priests of all religions are the fame; and tho' the character of the profeffion will not, in every inftance, prevail over the perfonal character, yet is it fure al

* 'Tis a faying of Menander, Koufòs seatiúrns, &ð äv si πλάττει θεὸς Οὐθεῖς γένοιτ' ἄν. Men. apud Stobæum. 'Tis not in the power even of God to make a polite foldier. The contrary observation with regard to the manners of foldiers takes. place in our days. This feems to me a prefumption, that the ancients ow'd all their refinement and civility to books and study; 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 learn'd from company, they will certainly have a confiderable fhare of it.

ways

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