accommodations of vanity, or any thing that fortune can give to please a human soul, when they are put in competition with the interest of truth and liberty? Mr. Ironside, I confess I writ to you that letter concerning the young lady of quality, and am glad that my aukward apology (as the Examiner calls it) has produced in him so much remorse as to make any reparation to offended beauty. Though, by the way, the phrase of "offended beauty" is romantic, and has little of the compunction which should rise in a man that is begging pardon of a woman for saying of her unjustly, that she had affronted her God and her sovereign. However, I will not bear hard upon his contri. tion; but am now heartily sorry I called him a miscreant, that word I think signifies an unbeliever. Mescroyant, I take it, is the old French word. will give myself no manner of liberty to make guesses at him, if I may say him: for though sometimes I have been told by familiar friends, that they saw me such a time talking to the Examiner; others, who have rallied me upon the sins of my youth, tell me it is credibly reported that I have formerly lain with the Examiner. I have carried my point, and rescued innocence from calumny; and it is nothing to me, whether the Examiner writes against me in the character of an estranged friend * or an exasperated mistress +. I He is welcome from henceforward to treat me as he pleases; but as you have begun to oppose him, never let innocence or merit be traduced by him. In particular, I beg of you, never let the glory of our nation ‡, who made France tremble, The duke of Marlborough, abused by the Examiner. to bear and yet has that gentleness to be unable opposition from the meanest of his own countrymen, be calumniated in so impudent a manner, as in the insinuation that he affected a perpetual dictatorship. Let not a set of brave, wise, and honest men, who did all that has been done to place their queen in so great a figure, as to shew mercy to the highest potentate in Europe, be treated by ungenerous men as traitors and betrayers. To prevent such evils is a care worthy a Guardian. These are exercises worthy the spirit of a man, and you ought to contemn all the wit in the world against you, when you have the consolation that you act upon these honest motives. If you ever shrink from them, get Bat Pidgeon to comb your noddle, and write sonnets on the smiles of the Sparkler; but never call yourself Guardian more in a nation full of the sentiments of honour and liberty. I am, Sir, Your most humble servant, RICHARD STEELE. 'P.S. I know nothing of the letter at Morphew's.' * For unable' to bear, readable' to bear. Guard. in folio, No. 54, ad finem. VOL. XVI. N° 54. WEDNESDAY, MAY 13, 1713. Neque ita porró aut adulatus aut admiratus sum fortunam alterius, ut me meæ pœniteret. TULL. I never flattered, or admired, another man's fortune, so as to be dissatisfied with my own, IT has been observed very often, in authors divine and prophane, that we are all equal after death, and this by way of consolation for that deplorable superiority which some among us seem to have over others; but it would be a doctrine of much more comfortable import, to establish an equality among the living; for the propagation of which paradox I shall hazard the following conceits. I must here lay it down, that I do not pretend to satisfy every barren reader, that all persons that have hitherto apprehended themselves extremely miserable shall have immediate succour from the publication of this paper; but shall endeavour to shew that the discerning shall be fully convinced of the truth of this assertion, and thereby obviate all the impertinent accusations of Providence for the unequal distribution of good and evil. If all men had reflection enough to be sensible of this equality of happiness; if they were not made uneasy by appearances of superiority; there would be none of that subordination and subjection, of those that think themselves less happy, to those they think more so, which is so very necessary for the support of business, and pleasure. The common turn of human application may be divided into love, ambition, and avarice, and whatever victories we gain in these our particular pursuits, there will always be some one or other in the paths we tread, whose superior happiness will create new uneasiness, and employ us in new contrivances; and so through all degrees there will still remain the insatiable desire of some seeming unacquired good, to imbitter the possession of whatever others we are accommodated with. If we suppose a man perfectly accommodated, and trace him through all the gradations betwixt necessity and superfluity, we shall find that the slavery which occasioned his first activity, is not abated, but only diversified. Those that are distressed upon such causes, as the world allows to warrant the keenest affliction, are too apt, in the comparison of themselves with others, to conclude, that where there is not similitude of causes, there cannot be of affliction, and forget to relieve themselves with this consideration, that the little disappointments in a life of pleasure are as terrible as those in a life of business; and if the end of one man is to spend his time and money as agreeably as he can, that of the other to save both, an interrruption in either of these pursuits is of equal consequence to the pursuers. Besides, as every trifle raiseth the mirth and gaiety of the men of good circumstances, so do others as inconsiderable expose them to spleen and passion, and as Solomon says, ' according to their riches, their anger riseth.' One of the most bitter circumstances of poverty has been observed to be, that it makes men appear ridiculous; but I believe this affirmation may with more justice be appropriated to riches, since more qualifications are required to become a great for tune, than even to make one; and there are several pretty persons, about town, ten times more ridiculous upon the very account of a good estate, than they possibly could have been with the want of it. I confess, having a mind to pay my court to fortune, I became an adventurer in one of the late lotteries; in which, though I got none of the great prizes, I found no occasion to envy some of those that did; comforting myself with this contemplation, that nature and education having disappointed all the favours fortune could bestow upon them, they had gained no superiority by an unenvied affluence. It is pleasant to consider, that whilst we are lamenting our particular afflictions to each other, and repining at the inequality of condition, were it possible to throw off our present miserable state, we cannot name the person whose condition in every particular we would embrace and prefer; and an impartial inquiry into the pride, ill-nature, ill-health, guilt, spleen, or particularity of behaviour of others, generally ends in a reconciliation to our dear selves. This my way of thinking is warranted by Shakspeare in a very extraordinary manner, where he makes Richard the Second, when deposed and imprisoned, debating a matter, which would soon have been discussed by a common capacity, Whether his prison or palace was most eligible, and with very philosophical hesitation leaving the preference undetermined, in the following lines: -Sometimes am I a king, Then treason makes me wish myself a beggar, |