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they call An Account of the Works of the Learned, in which they give us an abstract of all fuch books as are printed in any part of Europe. Now, Sir, it is my defign to publish every month, An Account of the Works of the Unlearned. Several late productions of my own countrymen, who many of them make a very eminent figure in the illiterate world, encourage me in this undertaking. I may, in this work, poffibly make a review of feveral pieces which have appeared in the foreign accounts above-mentioned, tho' they ought not to have been taken notice of in works which bear fuch a title. I may, likewife, take into confideration such pieces as appear, from time to time, under the names of those gentlemen who compliment one another in public affemblies, by the title of The Learned Gentlemen. Our party-authors will alfo afford me a great variety of fubjects, not to mention the editors, commentators, and others, who are often men of no learning, or what is as bad, of no knowledge. I fhall not enlarge upon this hint; but if you think any thing can be made of it I fhall fet about it with all the pains and application that fo useful a work deferves.

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Could not but fmile at the account that was yefterday given me of a modeft young gentleman, who being invited to an entertainment, though he was not ued to drink, had not the confidence to refufe his glafs in his turn, when on a sudden he grew fo flustered that

he took all the talk of the table into his own hands, abused every one of the company, and flung a bottle at the gentleman's head who treated him. This has given me occafion to reflect upon the ill effects of a vicious modefty, and to remember the faying of Brutus, as it is quoted by Plutarch, that the person has had but an ill education, who has not been taught to deny any thing, This falfe kind of modesty has, perhaps, betrayed both fexes into as many vices as the most abandoned impudence, and is the more inexcufable to reafon, because it acts to gratify others rather than itself, and is punished with a kind of remorse, not only like other vicious habits when the crime is over, but even at the very time that it is committed.

Nothing is more admirable than true modefty, and nothing is more contemptible than the falfe. The one guards virtue, the other betrays it. True modefty is afhamed to do any thing that is repugnant to the rules of right reafon: Falfe modefty is afhamed to do any thing that is oppofite to the humour of the company. True modefty avoids every thing that is criminal, falfe modefty every thing that is unfafhionable. The latter is only a general undetermined inftinct; the former is that inftinct, limited and circumfcribed by the rules of prudence and religion.

We may conclude that modefty to be falfe and vicious which engages a man to do any thing that is ill or indifcreet, or which reftrains him from doing any thing that is of a contrary nature. How many men, in the common concerns of life, lend fums of money which they are not able to fpare, are bound for perfons whom they have but little friendship for, give recommendatory characters of men whom they are not acquainted with, beftow places on thofe whom they do not efleem, live in fuch a manner as they themselves do not approve, and all this merely because they have not the confidence to refift folicitation, importunity or example?

Nor does this falfe modefty expofe us only to fuch actions as are indiscreet, but very often to such as are highly criminal. When Xenophanes was called timorous, because he would not venture his money in a game at dice: I confefs, faid he, that I am exceeding timorous for

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I dare not do any ill thing. On the contrary, a man of vicious modely complies with every thing, and is only fearful of doing what may look fingular in the company where he is engaged. He falls in with the torrent, and lets himfelf go to every action or difcourfe, however unjuftifiable in itself, fo it be in vogue among the prefent party. This, tho' one of the most common, is one of the most ridiculous difpofitions in human nature, that men should not be afhamed of speaking or acting in a diffolute or irrational manner, but that one who is in their company fhould be ashamed of governing himself by the principles of reason and virtue.

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In the fecond place we are to confider false modefty, as it reftrains a man from doing what is good and laudable. My reader's own thoughts will fuggeft to him many inftances and examples under this head. I fhall only dwell upon one reflexion, which I cannot make without a fecret, concern. We have in England a particular bafhfulness in every thing that regards religion. A well bred man is obliged to conceal any ferious fentiment of this nature, and very often to appear a greater libertine than he is, that he may keep himself in countenance among the men of mode. Our excefs of modefty makes us fhamefaced in all the exercises of piety and devotion. This humour prevails upon us daily; infomuch, that at many well-bred tables, the mafter of the house is fo very modeft a man, that he has not the confidence to fay grace at his own table: A custom which is not only practifed by all the nations about us, but was never omitted by the heathens themfelves. English gentlemen who travel into romancatholic countries, are not a little furprised to meet with people of the best quality kneeling in their churches, and engaged in their private devotions, tho' it be not at the hours of public worship. An officer of the army, or a man of wit and pleasure in thofe countries, would be afraid of paffing not only for an irreligious, but an ill-bred man, fhould he be feen to go to bed, or fit down at table without offering up his devotions on fuch occafions. The fame show of religion appears in all the foreign reformed churches, and enters fo much in their ordinary converfation, that an Englishman is apt to term them hypocritical and precife.

This little appearance of a religious deportment in our nation, may proceed in fome measure from that modefty which is natural to us, but the great occafion of it is certainly this: Thofe fwarms of fectaries that overran the nation in the time of the great rebellion, carried their hypocrify fo high, that they had converted our whole language into a jargon of enthufiafm; infomuch that upon the restoration men thought they could not recede too far from the behaviour and practice of thofe perfons, who had made religion a cloke to fo many villanies. This led them into the other extreme, every appearance of devotion was looked upon as puritanical, and falling into the hands of the ridiculers who flourished in that reign, and attacked every thing that was ferious, it has ever fince been cut of countenance among us. By this means we are gradually fallen into that vicious modefty, which has in fome measure worn out from among us the appearance of chriftianity in ordinary life and converfation, and which diftinguifhes us from all our neighbours.

Hypocrify cannot indeed be too much detefted, but at the fame time is to be preferred to open impiety. They are both equally deftructive to the person who is poffeffed with them; but in regard to others, hypocrify is not fo pernicious as barefaced irreligion. The due mean to be observed is to be fincerely virtuous, and at the fame time to let the world fee we are fo. I do not know a more dreadful menace in the Holy Writings, than that which is pronounced against those who have this perverted modefty, to be ashamed before men in a particular of such unspeakable importance.

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N° 459

Saturday, August 16.

Quicquid dignum fapiente bonoque eft.

R

Hor. Ep. 4. 1. 1. v. 5.

What befits the wife and good.

CREECH.

ELIGION may be confidered under two general heads. The first comprehends what we are to believe, the other what we are to practise. By those things which we are to believe, I mean whatever is revealed to us in the Holy Writings, and which we could not have obtained the knowledge of by the light of nature; by the things which we are to practife, I mean all thofe duties to which we are directed by reafon or natural religion. The first of thefe I fhall distinguish by the name of Faith, the second by that of Morality.

If we look into the more ferious part of mankind, we find many who lay fo great a firefs upon faith, that they neglect morality; and many who build fo much upon morality, that they do not pay a due regard to faith. The perfect man fhould be defective in neither of these particulars, as will be very evident to those who confider the benefits which arise from each of them, and which I fhall make the fubject of this day's paper.

Notwithstanding this general divifion of chriftian duty into morality and faith, and that they have both their peculiar excellencies, the firft has the pre-eminence in feveral refpects.

Firft, Becaufe the greateft part of morality (as I have stated the notion of it) is of a fixt eternal nature, and will endure when faith fhall fail, and be loft in conviction.

Secondly, Becaufe a perfon may be qualified to do greater good to mankind, and become more beneficial to the world, by morality without faith, than by faith without morality.

Thirdly

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