of it, and shall think my self obliged, for the future, to speak always in Truth and Sincerity of Heart. While a Man is learning to fence, he practises both on Friend and Foe; but when he is a Master in the Art, he never ex-erts it but on what he thinks the right Side.

THAT this last Allufion may not give my Reader a wrong Idea of my Design in this Paper, I muft here inform him, that the Author of it is of no Faction, that he is a Friend to no Interests but those of Truth and Virtue, nor a Foe to any but those of Vice and Folly. Though I make more Noise in the World than I used to do, I am still refolved to act in it as an indifferent SPECTATOR. It is not my Ambition to encrease the Number either of Whigs or Tories, but of wife and good Men, and I could heartily with there were not Faults common to both Parties which afford me sufficient Matter to work upon, without descending to those which are peculiar to either.

IF in a Multitude of Counsellors there is Safety, we ought to think our selves the securest Nation in the World. Most of our Garrets are inhabited by Satefmen, who watch over the Liberties of their Country, and make a Shift to keep themselves from starving, by taking into their Care the Properties of their FellowSubjects.

A's these Politicians of both Sides havealready worked the Nation into a most unnatural Ferment, I shall be so far from endeavouring to raise it to a greater Height, that on the contrary, it shall be the chief Tendency of my Papers, to inspire my Countrymen with a mutual Good-will and Benevolence. Whatever Faults either Party may be guilty of, they are ra ther inflamed than cured by those Reproaches, which they caft upon one another. The most likely Method of rectifying any Man's Conduct, is, by recommending to him the Principles of Truth and Honour, Religion and Virtue; and so long as he acts with an Eye to these Principles, whatever Party he is of, he cannot fail of being a good Englishman, and a Lover of his Country.

As

As for the Persons concerned in this Work, the

Names of all of them, or at least of such as defire it, shall be published hereafter: Till which time I must entreat the courteous Reader to suspend his Curiosity, and rather to consider what is written, than who they are that write it.

HAVING thus adjusted all necessary Preliminaries with my Reader, I shall not trouble him with any more prefatory Difcourses, but proceed in my old Method, and entertain him with Speculations on every useful Subject that falls in my Way.

No. 557. Monday, June 21.

Quippe domum timet ambiguam, Tyriosque bilingues. Virg

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HERE is nothing, fays Plato, so delightful, as the bearing or Speaking of Truth. For this Reafon there is no Conversation fo agreeable as that of the Man of Integrity, who hears without any Intention to betray, and speaks without any Intention to deceive:

AMONG all the Accounts which are given of Cato, I do not remember one that more redounds to his Honour than the following Passage related by Plutarch. As an Advocate was pleading the Cause of his Client before one of the Prætors, he could only produce a fingle Witness in a Point where the Law required the Te.. stimony of two Persons; upon which the Advocate infifted on the Integrity of that Person whom he had produced: but the Prætor told him, That where the Law required two Witnesses he would not accept of one, tho it were Cato himself. Such a Speech from a Person who fat at the Head of a Court of Justice, while Cata was still living, shews us, more than a thousand Examples, the high Reputation this great Man had gained among his Contemporaries upon the Account of his Sineerity.

WHEN

WHEN such an inflexible Integrity is a little softened and qualified by the Rules of Conversation and Goodbreeding, there is not a more shining Virtue in the whole Catalogue of Social Duties. A Man however ought to take great Care not to polish himself out of his Veracity, nor to refine his Behaviour to the Prejudice of his Virtue.

THIS Subject is exquifitely treated in the most elegant Sermon of the great British Preacher. I shall beg Leave to transcribe out of it two or three Sen-tences, as a proper Introduction to a very curious Letter, which I shall make the chief Entertainment of this Speculation.

• THE Old English Plainness and Sincerity, that generous Integrity of Nature, and Honesty of Disposition, • which always argues true Greatness of Mind, and is • usually accompanied with undaunted Courage and Re• solution, is in a great Measure lost among us.

THE Dialect of Conversation is now-a-days so swel• led with Vanity and Compliment, and so surfeited (as • I may say) of Expressions of Kindness and Respect, that if a Man that lived an Age or two ago should re' turn into the World again, he would really want a • Dictionary to help him to understand his own Language, and to know the true intrinfick Value of the • Phrafe in fashion; and would hardly, at first, believe " at what a low Rate the highest Strains and Expref• fions of Kindness imaginable do commonly pass in cur-• rent Payment; and when he should come to understand

it, it would be a great while before he could bring ⚫ himself with a good Countenance and a good Conscience, to converse with Men upon equal Terms and in their own Way.

I have by me a Letter which I look upon as a great Curiofity, and which may serve as an Exemplification to the foregoing Passage, cited out of this moft excellent Prelate. It is faid to have been written in King Charles II's Reign by the Ambassador of Bantam, a little after. his Arrival in England..

Master

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Mafter,

T HE People, where I now am, have Tongues further from their Hearts than from London to • Bantam, and thou knowest the Inhabitants of one of ' these Places do not know what is done in the other. They call thee and thy Subjects Barbarians, because we speak what we mean; and account themselves a ci'vilized People, because they speak one thing and mean ' another: Truth they call Barbarity, and Falshood Po* liteness. Upon my first landing, one who was sent • from the King of this Place to meet me, told me, That * he was extremely forry for the Storm I had met with just before my Arrival. I was troubled to hear him grieve and • afflict himself upon my Account; but in less than a Quarter of an Hour he smiled, and was as merry as if nothing * had happened. Another who came with him told me by my Interpreter, He should be glad to do me any Service that lay in his Power. Upon which I desir'd him to carry one of my Port-mantuas for me, but instead of ferving me according to his Promise, he laughed, and bid another do it. I lodged, the first Week, at the House of one, who defired me to think my self at home, and to confider his House as my own. Accordingly, I the next Morning began to knock down one of the Walls of it, in order to let in the fresh Air, and had packed up fome of the Houshold-Goods, of which I intended to have made thee a Present: But the false Varlet no sooner faw me falling to Work, but he sent Word to defire me to give over, for that he would have no fuch Doings in his House. I had not been long in this Nation, before I was told by one, for whom I had asked a certain Favour from the Chief of theKing's Servants, whom they here call the Lord-Treasurer, That I had eternally obliged him. I was so surpriz'd at his Gratitude, that I could not forbear saying, What Service is there which one Man can do for another, that can oblige him to all Eternity! However I only asked him for my Reward that he would lend me his eldest Daughter during my Stay in this Country; but I quickly found that he was as treacherous as the rest of his Countrymen.

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• Ат my first going to Court, one of the great Men • almost put me out of Countenance, by asking ten thou'fand Pardons of me for only treading by Accident upon my Toe. They call this kind of Lyea Compliment; for when they are Civil to a great Man they tell him Untruths, for which thou wouldest order any of thy Officers of State to receive an hundred Blows upon his • Foot. I do not know how I shall negotiate any thing with his People, fince there is so littleCredit to be given to them. When I go to see the King's Scribe, I am generally told that he is not at home, tho' perhaps I saw ' him go into his House almost the very Moment before. • Thou wouldest fancy that the whole Nation are Physicians, for the first Question they always ask me, is, How I do: I have this Question put to me above an hundred times a Day. Nay, they are not only thus inquisitive after my Health, but wish it in a more fo * lemn Manner, with a full Glass in their Hands, every * time I sit with them at Table, tho' at the same time they would perfuade me to drink their Liquors in such Quantities as I have found by Experience will make me *fick. They often pretend to pray for thy Health alfo in the fame Manner; but I have more Reason to expect it from the Goodness of thy Constitution, than the Sincerity of their Wishes. May thy Slave escape in Safety * from this doubled-tongued Race of Men, and live to lay himself once more at thy Feet in the Royal City of Bantam.

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Wednesday,