the most infamous sneaking Vice that could infect the Heart or Tongue of Man. Hence alfo proceeds the common mistaken Notions of Pofts of Honour, by which is commonly understood no more than certain Pofts or Offices to which Precedence with Titles and Badges of Honour, are ufually affixed, without any Confideration of the Merit of the Persons, the Nature of the Service, the Means by which they were obtained, and the Ufes that are made of them. When the Honour and Service of their Prince and Country are the only Views aimed at in erecting and filling these Posts,' when they are freely bestowed as the Rewards of fuperior Merit, and are executed with Fidelity and Courage, they are then really and truly Pofts of Honour ; but if they be only erected upon private, perfonal, and corrupt Views, purchased by the best Bidder, or beflowed as the inglorious Rewards of Venality and Prostitution, and executed with all the low Cunning of a Stockjobber, or a Jockey.-In all fuch Cafes, as Mr. Addifon finely expreffes it, The Poft of Honour is the private Station. But the most abfurd Abuse of the Word, is, Debts of Honour; by which are usually understood only fuch Debts as are contracted by Play, or Wagers, whether at the Quadrille Table, or New-market. Lady TOWNLY is fcrupulously punctual in difcharging her Play Debts, but has no Patience to pay her Money to a Pack of flovenly dirty Tradefmen, who, for feveral Years, have had the Honour to provide Food and Raiment for her Ladyfhip and her Family; which, if the Rafcals had either Manners, or Confcience, they would think a fufficient Reward for all the Time and Expence they could poffibly employ in fuch an bonourable Service. To rectify thefe, and many other prevailing Mistakes upon this Head, I fhall endeavour to throw together a few occafional Thoughts concerning the true Notion of Honour, in Oppofition to the popular Prejudices and Mistakes about it, with the true Ufes and Abuses of both. True Honour is feated in the Soul. It is a Kind of Fons Perennis, rifing from a generous Heart, and flowing with a natural and eafy Defcent into all the different Traces of Life and Channels of Duty, refreshing, invigorating, and adorning all the Facul ties of the Soul, the Language of the Tongue, the very Air of the Face, and Motions of the Body. It displays itself in a natural unaffected Greatness and Firmness of Mind, improved by a Train of wise and religious Reflections, and generous Actions, in which perfonal Virtue and real Merit truly confift. The Jewish Cabbalifts had a 'pretty Allegory to exprefs this Truth as founded in the original Make and Frame of Nature. They tell us, That when Mofes describes the great River of Eden, branching out into four Streams, and watering the whole Garden of God, Gen. ii, 10. we are to understand by Paradise the Soul of Man. The River was this Connata Virtus, this original Fountain of Truth and Virtue, arifing from the very Root and Effence of the Soul, and branching out into the four Cardinal Virtues, and all the other lower Degrees and Kinds of Virtue, even the inferior Morals of Affability, Politenefs, Good-nature, and Good-manners; that in short there lies hid in the Root of every human Soul, however however defaced by Ignorance, and deformed by Sin, A Fund of Good, an Oracle of Truth; which, when affifted by a happy Concurrence of external Causes, fuch as particularly the Structure of the Organs, and the Texture of the Blood and Spirits, will, by due Culture and Discipline, naturally exert itself in a Train of great, generous, and beneficent Actions, fuitable to the original Grandeur and Dignity of its Nature. This is what Virgil, in his Pythagoric Stile, calls the Igneus Vigor & Cæleftis Origo of the human Soul. This, in the present ruinous State of human Nature, lies very often buried under the Ruins of Ignorance and Vice, like valuable Coins, Medals, Statues, Pillars, and other beautiful Ornaments of Architecture; or to speak more properly, that Order, Symmetry, and Proportion, which were as the Soul of the Structure, lie buried under the Ruins of a once famous and magnificent Building. Hence it comes to pafs, that many an excellent Genius is loft to the World, lies hid among the Rubbish of Mankind, who, with proper Affistance, due Culture, and in a happy Situation, might have done Honour to human Nature, and been a public Bleffing to Mankind.-A Man of Honour, confidered in this Light, performs not only all the Acts of Virtue in public and private Life, but does them with a peculiar Propriety and Dignity of Behaviour, as the Connoiffeurs in Writing, Mufic, Painting, Architecture, or even Drefs, execute even the justest Designs, not only with Proportion and Truth, but with fuch Decorations, Embellishments, and Graces, as naturally flow from a fine Tafte, and an improved Understanding. This alone, in high Life, makes glorious Princes, illuftrious F4 illuftrious Heroes, gallant Commanders, vigilant Magiftrates, and honourable Counsellors; and, in the lower Degree of focial Life, indulgent Husbands, tender Fathers, affectionate Friends, merciful Landlords and Masters, faithful Tenants and Servants, and executes all the relative Duties of Life with Juftice and HoThis is the true syve and real Virtue, the only proper Foundation of all the honourable Diftinctions among Men in all the different Stations of Life,' and it was a just and wise Observation of the Poet *. nour. Nobilitas fola eft atque unica Virtus. This is true Honour, which the greatest Princes upon Earth can neither give nor take away. Men that have approved themselves thus eminently: and illustriously good, have, in all Ages and Countries, been distinguished, by wife Princes and Governors, by certain honourable Titles and Enfigns of Dignity, expreffive of their particular Merit, as might at once. attract and command the Reverence of Inferiors, and encourage others to excel. And this has produced a fecondary and improper Senfe of the Word Honour, which, by a fatal Abuse of Language, has almoft fwallowed up the other, and is too often substituted in its room, meaning no more than the honourable Rewards and Titles ufually bestowed upon Perfons of fuperior Virtue. How it has happened that these honourable Titles have, in many Cafes, been made hereditary, and entailed not only on the direct Line, *See a moft excellent Treatife upon true Greatness by Mr. Rollin, in one of his Volumes upon the Study of the Belles Letters. but but even the collateral Branches of the Family, is not eafily accounted for. If it were upon a Presumption that a wife and good Man could entail his moral and intellectual Accomplishments, as well as his Eftate and Titles, upon the Heirs of his Body lawfully begotten, it was a very great Compliment to the Merit of the Father, as well as to the Virtue of the Mother; and it would be quite a right Institution, that a Race of virtuous and honourable Descendants should enjoy all the Honours and Privileges conferred upon their virtuous and honourable Progenitors. Were a Man unexperienced in human Nature and the frequent Inftances of Degeneracy that abound in it, were he only to confider the general Courfe of Nature in the Animal and Vegetable Worlds, he might be tempted to conclude, that as all Animals and Vegetables produce their like with very little Variety and Deviation, but what arifes from external and accidental Caufes, Man also, the most perfect Creature, the Head and Lord of the mundane Syftem, fhould do the fame; and that the Poet argued very philosophically, as well as politely, when he said, Fortes Creantur fortibus & bonis. This was, indeed, a very pretty Compliment from a well-bred Man to a potent Emperor, and a generous Patron, but has more in it of the good Courtier than the good Philofopher. For fad Experience fhews us the contrary; the beft and wifeft Man upon Earth |