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as to make it touch in as many points as poffible; otherwise it can never fo poife the weight above it, as to keep it firm and fteady on its proper centre.

To give an example of the right ufe and application of this figure I again apply to a learned author already quoted-" Our first parents having fallen "from their native state of innocence, the tinc"ture of evil, like an hereditary disease infected "all their pofterity; and the leaven of fin having once corrupted the whole mafs of mankind, all "the fpecies ever after would be foured and taint"ed with it; the vitious ferment perpetually dif "fufing and propagating itfelf through all gene"rations."-(Bentley, Comm. Sermon).

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There will be found alfo in certain writers' a profufion of words ramifying indeed from the fame root, yet rifing into climax by their power and importance, which feems to burft forth from the overflow and impetuofity of the imagination; refembling at firft fight what Quintilian characterises as the Abundantia Juvenilis, but which, when tempered by the hand of a mafter, will upon closer examination be found to bear i the ftamp of judgment under the appearance of precipitancy. I need only turn to the famous Commencement Sermon before quoted, and my meaning will be fully illuftrated-" Let them tell us then "what is the chain, the cement, the magnetism, " what they will call it, the invifible tie of that "union, whereby matter and an incorporeal mind, "things that have no fimilitude or alliance to each "other, can fo fympathize by a mutual league of "motion and fenfation. No: they will not pre"tend to that, for they can frame no conceptions "of it: They are fure there is fuch an union

"from

"from the operations and effects, but the cause "and the manner of it are too fubtle and fecret "to be discovered by the eye of reafon : 'tis myftery, 'tis divine magic, 'tis natural miracle."

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N° CXXXIV.

̓Αληθόμυθον χρὴ εἶναι, ὁ πολύλογον.

(DEMOCRATES.)

"Remember only that your words be true, "No matter then how many or how few."

To THE OBSERVER.

I HAVE a habit of dealing in the marvellous, which I cannot overcome: Some people, who feem to take a pleasure in magnifying the little flaws to be found in all characters, call this by a name, which no gentleman ought to ufe, or likes to hear: The fact is, I have fo much tender confideration for Truth in her ftate of nakednefs, that, till I have put her into decent cloathing, I cannot think of bringing her into company; and if her appearance is fo much altered by drefs, that her best friends cannot find her out, am I to blame for that?

There is a matter-of-fact man of my acquaintance, who haunts me in all places and is the very torment of my life; he sticks to me as the thresher

-does

does to the whale; and is the perfect night-mare of my imagination; this fellow never lets one of my ftories pafs without docking it like an attorney's bill before a master in chancery: He cut forty miles out of a journey of one hundred, which but for him I had performed in one day upon the fame horfe; in which I confefs I had ftretched a point for the pleasure of out-riding a fat fellow in company, who by the malicious veracity of my aforefaid Damper threw me at least ten miles distance behind him.

This provoking animal cut up my fuccefs in fo many intrigues and adventures, that I was determined to lay my plan out of his reach in a spot, which I had provided for an evil day, and accordingly I led him a dance into Corfica, where I was fure he could not follow me: Here I had certainly been, and knew my ground well enough to prance over it at a very handsome rate: I noticed a kind of fly leer in fome of the company, which was pointed towards a gentleman prefent, who was a stranger to me, and fo far from joining in the titter was very politely attentive to what I was relating. I was at the moment warm in the cause of freedom, and had performed fuch prodigies of valour in its defence, that before my ftory was well ended I had got upon fuch close terms with General Paoli, that, had my hearers been but half as credulous as they ought to have been, they might have fet us down for fworn friends and infeparables But here again, as ill luck would have it, my evil genius tapt me on the fhoulder, and remarking that I principally addreffed myself to the gentleman, whofe politenefs and attention were fo flattering, faid to me with a smile, that had the

:

malice of the devil in it" Give me leave to in

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"troduce you to General Paoli here prefent.". Death and confufion, what I felt! a ftroke of lightning would have been charity compared to this. My perfecutor had not done with me" I am "afraid you have forgot your old friend and fa"miliar, who no doubt will be overjoyed at re"cognizing a brother warrior, who has perform"ed fuch noble fervices jointly with himself in the "glorious ftruggle for the liberties of his beloved "country."-Can I paint the shame I fuffered at this moment? It is impoffible; I can only fay there is a generofity in true valour, which fcorns to triumph over the fallen." There were fo many brave men," (faid that gallant perfon in a tone I fhall never lofe the impreffion of)" of whofe "fervices I fhall ever preferve a grateful memory, "but whofe perfons have flipt from my recollec"tion, that I have only to entreat your pardon "for a forgetfulness, which I defire you to be"lieve is not my fault, but my infirmity."-If a bottle had been vollied at my head, I could not have been more in need of a furgeon, than I was at this inftant: I could never have fufpected Truth of playing me fuch a jade's trick; I always confidered her as a good-natured fimple creature without gall or bitterness, and was in the habit of treating her accordingly; but this was fuch a fpecimen of her malice, that I fled out of her company as hastily as I could.

The very next morning I took my paffage in the ftage coach for my native town in the north of England, heartily out of humour with my trip to Corfica; but even here I could not fhake off old habits fo far as to refift the temptation of getting

into

into a poft-chaife for the laft ftage, by which manœuvre I took the credit of having travelled like a gentleman, and became intitled to rail against the poft-tax and the expences of the road.

I was now voted into a club of the chief inh ́bitants of the place, and as I had no reason to believe the story of my late discomfiture had reached them, I foon recovered my fpirits, and with them the amplifying powers of my invention. My ftories for a confiderable time were swallowed so glibly, and feemed to fit fo easy on the ftomachs of these natural, unfophifticated people, that I was encouraged to encrease the dose to such a degree, as feemed at length to produce fomething like a naufea with those I administered it to; especially with a certain precife perfonage of the fect of Quakers, one Simon Stiff, a wealthy trader and much refpected for his probity and fair-dealing. Simon had a way of afking me at the end of a ftory-But is it true ?-which fometimes difconcerted me, and confiderably leffened the applauses, that the rest of the club had been accustomed to bestow upon my narratives.

One evening, when I had been defcribing an enormous fhark, by which I had been attacked in one of my Weft-India voyages, Simon Stiff, lifting up both his hands in an attitude of aftonishment, cried out-" Verily, friend Cracker, thou draw"eft a long bow." With an angry look I demanded the meaning of that expreffion." I

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mean," replied Simon," thou speakest the thing which is not." "That is as much as to say I "tell a lie."—" Even fo, friend, thou haft hit it," faid Simon, without altering his voice, or regarding the tone of rage I had thrown mine into The

fteady

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