THE

MAN IN THE MOON.

"From envy, hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness, good Lord deliver us.”

LITURGY.

NUMBER XXIV. (Price 4d.)

Saturday, 28th Jan. 1804.

PERHAPS better service cannot be done to society than to define with truth, and in all its proper colouring, the beast denominated in the natural history of mankind, AN ENEMY. This cruel and ferocious animal is of two species, public, and private; the first, prowling like the wolf, and the second, cunning as the serpent, or insidious as the tiger, watching when to spring and destroy. The first, warring openly against society, and criminating without justice or distinction the worthy part of every class; the second, detracting from, or depreciating the talents or virtues of a private individual, or watching with hungry malice the moment of misfortune to feed upon its unhappy victim. What is called a noble enemy (if there can be any thing noble in the character of an enemy) is the foe who fights the armies of another country in arms; but even then, he must have his quarrel just, or he is no other than a robber and a murderer, and when great Powers amuse themselves with war to the detri

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ment of their subjects, from mere political questions of ambition, both parties are the enemies of mankind; but as I do not mean, in this Paper, to enter into the consideration of the greater mischiefs and abuses of the commonwealth, I shall proceed to mark the characters of the public and private enemies, who molest and disturb society, that they may be known and shunned.

The worst public enemy is the man who avowedly scorns and contemns the rights and duties of morality and religion; who encourages, by his example, the weak and credulous to turn aside from the plain wholesome maxims of honest minds, upon which they have hitherto relied, to indulge new and fantastic ideas which only serve to disturb and lessen their happiness. The next public enemy is him who, in the schemes of avarice, grinds and oppresses the poor, destroying the reciprocities of society to secure great advantages to himself, and robbing on the great scale with impunity; while the poor wretch, who steals to the value of halfa-crown, is condemned to death. Another public enemy is the man who, by his love of expence and cruel ostentation, invites hundreds to ruin; who, but for his example, would have lived secure and happy in their own moderate plan of life.

Another dangerous and cruel enemy, fostered by the former character, is fashion, drawing aside, by her absurd fascinations, the quiet passenger of life, by presenting before him the bugbear called DIS-RESPECT.

But to proceed to the next class, or what is called the private enemy, the proper subject of this paper.

The private enemy usually makes his debut in the masquerade character of a friend, which, if he is at all clever, he supports very well; he treats his object with attention and respect, ventures a little modest flattery, and mixes up his slow poison in the sweet materials of approbation; seeks opportunities to soothe the discontents, and to do innumerable little kindnesses and services, to the man he has fixed on, whenever the occasion offers. These are the advances; and bad indeed must be the heart which could reject so apparently amiable and interesting a character. At length, the heart is opened, and the kind attentive stranger invited to the full possession of the mansion, even as the owner. It is then that the dark and insidious traitor creeps into every corner of it to detect its weaknesses, for the base purpose of subjugating the powers of the mind which first entertained him, to suit his base and interested purposes. It is then that he begins rather to demand than to ask favours. It is then that he begins to doubt, to question, and to contradict; to try the different effects of a different conduct, and to make successful inroads where to erect the standards of his own consequence in depreciation of his friend; by degrees he gets more into power, and his assumption of it increases till, at length, tired of restraint, he erects at once his crest, perches himself on the materials collected from the good-nature of his patron, and at once becomes ungrateful and offensive. It is then that he

says, I need you no longer; and that he would, if he could, betray the interests of the man who had kindly taken him to his heart. Happy for society, though this enemy may, for a time, lurk about in search of victims, he soon meets with his destruction, and from the very means by which he hopes to conquer and destroy. Men, though they may contemn the weaknesses of the betrayed, fear and hate the betrayer; and the insidious assassin of his friend no sooner becomes marked and known, than he is hunted with a general cry of indignation into the same obscure corner from which he had emerged, neglected, and despised.

I believe that the goodness of Providence seldom interferes more greatly than to prevent and destroy the designs of the private enemy, and that it is a proof of any man's having its particular protection when his enemies have no power to succeed against him.

Envy seems to resemble the scorpion, which if confined in the limits of a small circle of live ashes, seeks to enlarge its dominion at all points, till unable to succeed, it at length fixes its own sting within its back, and expires. Hatred dies in much the same way; unable to hurt, it runs, like the swine possessed with the evil spirit to the sea side, and destroys itself. Malice may exist longer, as it may creep insidiously to stab in bye corners; but truth is the sun from which, at length, malice must retire, and then it sickens into a state of corruption that is too offensive to be suffered, and the hideous object is avoided by all.

There are some leading features in the character of this enemy by which, notwithstanding his mask and cloak, he may be known; the principal one is, that in speaking of others he is inconsistent. At one time. his reports are favourable, and at another he depreciates from the merits of the very man he had praised before; in short, he blows hot and cold with the same breath. It is always sufficient cause to shun a man if we find he has the habit of speaking ill of another who is not present; and much as you may be entertained with his severities, you may rest assured that you will have also your share the first opportunity. Another feature is, that he is never open and candid, that he sculks, as it were, along a wall, ashamed to look any body in the face; his actions resemble those of a thief, because he is the worst of thieves, seeking to rob and supplant every one he meets. If he gives praise, it is only to introduce some observation that stabs at the same time; it is administering honey and arsenic ; and if he flatters you, it is the flattery of the devil, and meant only the better to tempt and deceive.

I shall not dismiss the subject of enemies without describing another species, which is composed of the public and private characters; I mean that of the venal or partial critic, for the effects of venality or undue partiality are alike. Partiality always presumes prejudice, and prejudice is almost always unjust. The unjust critic is at once the private and public enemy of society; he robs honest talent of its due, and enriches the blockhead with the offerings of praise; he