Author, the Lounger risks but little either in cenfure or in praife. There is a cenfure, indeed, and a fuffrage, which no man can escape, to which one of his difpofition is peculiarly liable, I mean that of his own mind. He trusts his publication will be fuch as to rifk nothing on this ground; it is the only promife which he will venture on its behalf. It may be gay without wit, and grave without depth, when its author is difpofed to gaiety or to thought: but while it endeavours to afford fome little amusement by the one, or fome little instruction by the other, it will at least be harmless in both. N° 2. SATURDAY, February 12, 1785. THE precepts of the Moralift and Philofo pher are generally directed to guide their difciples in the great and important concerns of life, to incite to the practice of cardinal virtues, and to deter from the commiffion of enormous crimes: The advices of Wisdom and Experience point out the road to fuccefs and to honour in ftations of public confequence, or in nice and important circumftances of private duty. In the earlier periods of fociety, a very fimple code of morality and of rectitude was all that was neceffary. To controul the violence of the ftronger paffions, to prescribe the rules of diftributive juftice, and to inculcate the duties of active humanity, was the proper and effential province of the inftructor, as well as of the legiflator. At first, indeed, thefe two characters would be nearly the fame; legislation embracing all that was required of morality, and morality having no range beyond that of the laws. And even when man advanced to a certain point, where the doctrine of morals went beyond the legal rules of conduct; yet that would contain incentives to the exertion only of principal and leading virtues, in certain modes and and fituations, which the law could not forefee, and for which it could not provide. In a ftate of society so advanced as ours (for it is needless to trouble my reader with the intermediate gradations), every one will fee the neceffity of a nicer and more refined system of morality. The family of the focial virtues, like the genealogical, tree of an extensive ancestry, spreads with the advancing cultivation of mankind, till it is branched out into a numerous list of collateral duties, many of which it needs an acute difcernment to trace up to their fource; and fome acknowledge their connection, without being able to unravel their pedigree. The study of thofe leffer branches of duty and of excellence is called the fcience of Manners; but our language has no word to distinguifh the teacher of it. As Moralift is applied to the teacher of the more important obligations, fo Mannerift fhould have been the denomination of him who inculcates the leffer, had not that word been already appropriated to a very different meaning. But however the profeffors of the art may be distinguished, its importance will not be denied.. It is feldom that in more effential points of duty men of a certain class are deficient. In moft par ticulars, the obligations of morality are aided by the ties of honour, and the fear of punishment enforced B 5 : enforced by the dread of shame. But in the fmaller offices of focial life, men may be wanting in their duty, without incurring either punishment or obloquy. The decalogue (if the phrase may be allowed) of manners, the laws of civility, of gentlenefs, of tafte, and of feeling, are not precisely fet down, and cannot eafily be punished in the breach, or rewarded in the obfervance And yet their obfervance forms, amidst the refinement of modern fociety, an important part of our own happiness, and of that regard we owe to the happinefs of others. To practise them is fomewhat difficult; to teach them is ftill more fo: Yet 'tis an art which, though difficult, does not always obtain the honours of difficulty. The pictures which it exhibits must be drawn in those middle tints which it requires a nice pencil to hit; and yet when attained they acquire but a fmall portion of that applause which ftronger colouring and deeper fhades are calculated to procure. It is not eafy to define that right which our neighbour poffeffes to general complacency, or to little attentions; nor to mark with precifion that injury we do, thofe wounds we inflict, by a contrary behaviour; and yet the favour in the first, and the wrong in the latter cafe, is often as strongly felt as in the ferious exertions of kindness or malevolence. I have known a friend acquired for life by a trifling civility in a crowded theatre; and a lasting enmity created by a boisterous laugh, or a mutilated bow. Amidst weighty business indeed, and momentous concerns, such things do not easily find place. But the number of those who are within their reach more than compenfates for the consequence of the few who are beyond it. "Tis but a very fmall proportion of men who can move in the sphere of government or of greatness; but fcarce any body is exempted from performing a part in the relations of ordinary life. Even of the first class, the reward they hope for their labours confifts often in the opportunity of coming down with advantage to the region of the latter; like the hero of a pageant, who looks forward to the hour when he fhall undo his trappings, and enjoy, in his plain apparel, the tale of the day at his family fire-fide. A periodical paper, though it may fometimes. lift its voice against a neglect of the greater moralities, yet has for its peculiar province the correction and reform of any breach of the lesser. For that purpose it is perhaps better calculated than more laboured and more extended compofitions, from its diurnal or weekly appearance. The greater virtues are always the fame; but many of the leffer duties of focial intercourse receive much of their complexion from the daily fluctuating B. 6 |