"one unknown, and it may be from an

enemy. You will allow yourself indeed "to be prudent in the management of "your fortune; you are not a prodigal, "like Clodius, or Cataline; but furely that "deferves not the name of avarice. I will "inform you how to be convinced. Difguife your perfon, go among the com

mon people in Rome, introduce dif "courfes about yourself, enquire your own "character: do the fame in your camp; "walk about it in the evening, hearken "at every tent; and if you do not hear every mouth cenfuring, lamenting, curf

ing this vice in you, and even you for "this vice, conclude yourself innocent. "If you be not yet perfuaded, fend for "Atticus, Servius Sulpicius, Cato, or Bru"tus; they are all your friends; conjure "them to tell you ingenuously, which is your great fault, and which they would. chiefly wish you to correct; if they do "not agree in their verdict, in the name of "all the gods, you are acquitted. "When your adverfaries reflect how "far you are gone in this vice, they are tempted to talk as if we owed our fuc"ceffes not to your courage or conduct,

"but

"but to thofe veteran troops you com"mand; who are able to conquer under

any general, with so many brave and "experienced officers to lead them. Be"fides, we know the confequences your "avarice hath often occafioned. The "foldier hath been ftarving for bread, "furrounded with plenty, and in an ene"my's country; but all under fafeguards "and contributions; which, if you had "fometimes pleased to have exchanged "for provifions, might, at the expence of "a few talents in a campaign, have so "endeared you to the army, that they "would have defired you to lead them to "the utmost limits of Afia. But you "rather chose to confine your conquests "within the fruitful country of Mefopo"tamia, where plenty of money might "be raised. How far that fatal greediness "of gold may have influenced you in "breaking off the treaty with the old parthian king Orodes, you beft can tell;

your enemies charge you with it; your "friends offer nothing material in your "defence; and all agree, there is nothing "fo pernicious, which the extremes of a"varice may not be able to inspire.

"The

"The moment you quit this vice, you "will be a truly great man; and ftill there ❝ will imperfections enough remain to con"vince us, you are not a god. Farewel."

Perhaps a letter of this nature, sent to fo reasonable a man as Craffus, might have put him upon examining into himfelf, and correcting that little fordid appetite fo utterly inconfiftent with all pretences to heroifm. A youth in the heat of blood may plead with fome fhew of reafon, that he is not able to fubdue his lufts. An ambitious man may use the fame arguments for his love of power; or perhaps other arguments to justify it. But excess of avarice hath neither of these pleas to offer; it is not to be justified, and cannot pretend temptation for excufe. Whence can the temptation come? Reafon difclaims it altogether; and it cannot be faid to lodge in the blood, or the animal fpirits. So that I conclude, no man of true valour, and true underftanding, upon whom this vice bath ftolen unawares, when he is convinced he is guilty, will fuffer it to remain in his breaft an hour.

NUMBER XXVIII.

Thursday, February 15, 1710.

Inultus ut tu riferis Cotyttia?

An answer to the letter to the Examiner.

SIR,

A

London, Feb. 15. 1710-11. LTHOUGH I have wanted leisure to acknowledge the honour of a letter, you was pleased to write to me about fix months ago; yet I have been very careful in obeying fome of your commands, and am going on as fast as I can with the rest. I wish you had thought fit to have conveyed them to me by a more private hand than that of the printinghouse: for, although I was pleased with a pattern of ftyle and fpirit, which I proposed to imitate, yet I was forry the world fhould be a witness how far I fell fhort in both.

I am afraid you did not confider, what an abundance of work you have cut out for me; neither am I at all comforted by the promise you are fo kind to make, that

when

n

when I have performed my task, D fall blush in his grave among the dead, Walpole among the living, and even Volpone fball feel fome remcrfe. How the gentleman in his grave may have kept his countenance, I cannot inform you, having no acquaintance at all with the fexton: but for the other two, I take leave to affure you, there have not yet appeared the leaft figns of blushing or remorfe in either, although Some very good opportunities have offered, if they had thought fit to accept them: fo that with your permiffion, I had rather engage to continue this work until they be in their graves too; which I am fure will happen much fooner than the other.

You defire I would collect fome of those indignities offered last year to her majesty. I am ready to oblige you; and have got a pretty tolerable collection by me, which I am in doubt whether to publish by itself in a large volume in folio, or fcatter them here and there occafionally in my papers. Although indeed I am fometimes thinking to stifle them altogether; because such a history will be apt to give foreigners a monftrous opinion of our country. But fince

N 2