who talk of him end with, After all he is a very pleasant Fellow. Dacinthus is an ill-natured Husband, and yet the very Women end their Freedom of Difcourfe upon this Subject, But after all he is very pleasant Company. Dacinthus is neither in point of Honour, Civility, good Breeding, or good Nature unexceptionable, and yet all is anfwered, For he is a very pleafant Fellow. When this Quality is confpicuous in a Man who has, to accompany it, manly and virtuous Sentiments, there cannot certainly be any thing which can give fo pleafing Gratification as the Gaiety of fuch a Perfon; but when it is alone, and ferves only to gild a Crowd of ill Qualities, there is no Man fo much to be avoided as your pleasant Fellow. A very pleasant Fellow fhall turn your good Name to a Jeft, make your Character contemptible, debauch your Wife or Daughter, and yet be received by the rest of the World with Welcome where-ever he appears. It is very ordinary with thofe of this Character to be attentive only to their own Satisfactions, and have very little Bowels for the Concerns or Sorrows of other Men, nay, they are capable of purchafing their own Pleasures at the Expence of giving Pain to others. But they who do not confider this Sort of Men thus carefully, are irrefiftibly expofed to his Infinuations. The Author of the following Letter carries the Matter fo high, as to intimate that the Liberties of England have been at the Mercy of a Prince merely as he was of this pleasant Cha racter. 6 Mr. SPECTATOR, THERE is no one Paffion which all Mankind fo naturally give into as Pride, nor any other Paffion which appears in fuch different Difguifes: It is to ⚫ be found in all Habits and all Complexions. Is it not a Question, whether it does more Harm or Good in the World? And if there be not fuch a Thing as what we may call a virtuous and laudable Pride? 6 IT is this Paffion alone, when mifapplyed, that lays us fo open to Flatterers; and he who can agreeably condefcend to footh our Humour or Temper, finds always an open Avenue to our Soul; efpecially if the Flatterer happen to be our Superior. ONE 6 ONE might give many Inftances of this in a late English Monarch, under the Title of, The Gayeties of King Charles II. This Prince was by Nature extreamly familiar, of very eafie Accefs, and much delighted to fee and be feen; and this happy Temper, which in the highest Degree gratified his Peoples Vanity, did him more Service with his loving Subjects than all his other Virtues, tho' it must be confeffed he had many. He delighted, tho' a mighty King, to give and take a Jeft, as they fay; and a Prince of this fortunate Difpofition, who were inclined to make an ill Ufe of his Power, may have any thing of his People, be it never fo much to their Prejudice. But this good King made generally a very innocent Ufe, as to the Publick, of this erinaring Temper; for, 'tis well known, he purfued Pleasure more than Ambition: He feemed to glory in 'being the firft Man at Cock-matches, Horfe-races, Balls, and Plays; he appeared highly delighted on thofe Occafions, and never failed to warm and gladden the Heart of every Spectator. He more than once dined with his good Citizens of London on their Lord-Mayor's Day, and did fo the Year that Sir Robert Viner was MaySir Robert was a very loyal Man, and, if you will allow the Expreffion, very fond of his Sovereign; but 'what with the Joy he felt at Heart for the Honour done him by his Prince, and thro' the Warmth he was in with continual toafting Healths to the Royal Family, his Lordship grew a little fond of his Majefty, and entered into a Familiarity not altogether fo graceful in fo publick a Place. The King understood very well how to extricate himself on all kinds of Difficulties, and with an Hint to the Company to avoid Ceremony, ftole off, and made towards his Coach, which stood ready for ⚫ him in Guild-Hall Yard: But the Mayor liked his Company fo well, and was grown fo intimate, that he purfued him haftily, and catching him faft by the Hand, cryed out with a vehement Oath and Accent, Sir, You Shall ftay and take t'other Bottle. The airy Monarch looked kindly at him over his Shoulder, and with a • Smile and graceful Air, (for I faw him at the Time, and do now) repeated this Line of the old Song; or. H He that's drunk is as great as a King. and immediately turned back and complied with his • Landlord. I give you this Story, Mr. SPECTATOR, because, as I faid, I faw the Paffage; and I affure you it's very < true, and yet no common one; and when I tell you the Sequel, you will fay I have yet a better Reason for't. This very Mayor afterwards erected a Statue of his merry Monarch in Stocks-Market, and did the • Crown many and great Services; and it was owing to this Humour of the King, that his Family had fo great a Fortune shut up in the Exchequer of their pleafant Sovereign. The many good-natured Condefcenfions of this Prince are vulgarly known; and it is excellently faid of him by a great Hand which writ his Character, • That he was not a King a Quarter of an Hour together in his whole Reign. He would receive Vifits even from Fools and half Mad-men, and at Times I have met with People who have Boxed, fought at Back-fword, and taken Poifon before King Charles II. In a Word, he was fo pleasant a Man, that no one could be forrowful under his Government. This made him capable of baffling, with the greateft Eafe imaginable, all Sugge⚫ftions of Jealoufie, and the People could not entertain Notions of any thing terrible in him, whom they faw every way agreeable. This Scrap of the familiar Part of that Prince's History I thought fit to fend you, in compliance to the Requeft you lately made to your ⚫ Correfpondents. 6 T I am, S IR, Your most humble Servant, 3 Thursday I Thursday, August 21. Omnia qua fenfu volvuntur vota diurno Claud. Was lately entertaining my felf with comparing Homer's Ballance, in which Jupiter is reprefented as weighing the Fates of Hector and Achilles, with a Paffage of Virgil, wherein that Deity is introduced as weighing the Fates of Turnus and Æneas. I then confidered how the fame way of thinking prevailed in the Eaftern Parts of the World, as in those noble Paffages of Scripture, wherein we are told, that the great King of Babylon the Day before his Death, had been weighed in the Ballance, and been found wanting. In other Places of the Holy Writings, the Almighty is defcribed as weighing the Mountains in Scales, making the Weight for the Winds, knowing the Ballancings of the Clouds, and in others, as weighing the Actions of Men, and laying their Calamities together in a Ballance. Milton, as I have obferved in a former Paper, had an Eye to feveral of these foregoing Inftances, in that beautiful Description wherein he reprefents the Arch-Angel and the Evil Spirit as addreffing themselves for the Combat, but parted by the Ballance which appeared in the Heavens and weighed the Confe quences of fuch a Battel. Th' Eternal to prevent fuch horrid fray Hung forth in Heav'n his golden Scales, yet feen In counterpoife, now ponders all events, The latter quick up flew, and kickt the Beam: Satan I know thy Strength, and thou know'ft mines Where thou art weigh'd, and fhewn how light, how weak, THESE feveral amufing Thoughts having taken Poffeffion of my Mind fome time before I went to fleep, and mingling themselves with my ordinary Ideas, raifed in my Imagination a very odd kind of Vifion. I was, methought, replaced in my Study, and feated in my Elbow Chair, where I had indulged the foregoing Speculations, with my Lamp burning by me, as ufual. Whilft I was here meditating on feveral Subjects of Morality, and confidering the Nature of many Virtues and Vices, as Materials for those Discourses with which I daily entertain the Publick; I faw, methought, a Pair of Golden Scales. hanging by a Chain of the fame Metal over the Table that ftood before me; when on a fudden, there were great Heaps of Weights thrown down on each fide of them.I found upon examining thefe Weights, they fhewed the Value of every thing that is in Efteem among Men. I made an Effay of them, by putting the Weight of Wifdom in one Scale, and that of Riches in another, upon which the latter, to fhew its comparative Lightness, immediately flew up and kickt the Beam. BUT, before I proceed, I muft inform my Reader, that thefe Weights did not exert their Natural Gravity, 'till they were laid in the Golden Ballance, infomuch that I could not guess which was light or heavy, whilft I held them in my Hand. This I found by feveral Inftances; for upon my laying a Weight in one of the Scales, which was |