prudence, and the ties of friendship fubordi nate to the obligations of duty. I am, &c. V LEONTIUS No 102. No 102. SATURDAY, April 29. 1780, To the AUTHOR of the MIRROR. SIR, OU have already obferved how difficult YOU it is to reduce the fcience of manners to general denominations, and have fhown how liable to mifapplication are some of the terms which are used in it. To your inftances of man of fashion and good company, you will give me leave to add another, of which, I think, the perverfion is neither lefs common. nor lefs dangerous: I mean the term applied to a certain fpecies of character, which we diftinguish by the appellation of a man of Spi rit. Lord Chefterfield fays fomewhere, that, to speak and act with fpirit, is to speak rudely and act foolishly; and his Lordship's defini tion is frequently right. At the fame time, SPIRIT may be, and certainly is, often applied to that line of conduct and fentiment that deferves it: A perfon of virtue, dignity, and prudence, prudence, is, with much propriety, denominated a 66 MAN OF SPIRIT;" but, by the abufe I complain of, "man of fpirit" is, for the most part, very differently applied. In the various departments of business, the term Spirit is frequently applied to unprofit able projects and vifionary fpeculations. Let a man be bold enough to risk his own for tune, and the fortunes of other people, upon fchemes brilliant but improbable; let him go on, fanguine amidst repeated loffes, and dreaming of wealth till he wakes in bankruptcy; and it is ten to one, that, after he fails,. the world will give a fort of fame to his folly, and hold him up to future truft and patronage, under the title of an unfortunate man of fpirit. But these are not the most glaring instances of the monftrous perverfion of this character; the airy adventurer, or the magnificent but ruined projector, may both be men of fpirit, though it is not fpirit, but want of judgement, and vifionary impetuofity, that have procured them the character. They may, however, poffefs that dignity and independ ence of mind in which alone true fpirit confifts, and may have been ruined by whim and want want of forefight, not want of spirit. But there is one set of men on whom the appellation is bestowed, whofe conduct, for the moft part, is, in every article, the reverfe of dig nity or fpirit, and perfectly inconsistent with it. The men I mean are thofe, who, by a train of intemperance and profufion, run out their fortunes, and reduce themselves to mifery. Such men are common, and will be fo, while vice, folly, and want of forefight, prevail among mankind. They have been frequently ridiculed and exposed by the ablest pens: and it is not the character itself that falls under my obfervation; it is the unaccountable abfurdity of bestowing upon fuch characters the appellation of "men of fpirit;" which they uniformly acquire, whether the fortune they have fquandered is new, or has been handed down to them through a long line of anceftors. The mifapplication of the term is fo completely ridiculous, as to be beneath contempt, were it not for the mifchief that I am convinced has been occafioned by it. Youths entering on the stage of life are catched with the engaging appellation, "a man of fpirit:" they become become ambitious of acquiring that epithet; and perceiving it to be most generally bestowed on fuch men as I have defcribed, they look up to them as patterns of life and manners, and begin to ape them at an age which thinks only of enjoyment, and despises confequences; nay, if they should look forward, and view the 66 man of fpirit" reduced, by his own profufion, to the most abject state of fervile dependence, it does not mend the matter. In the voice of the world, he is "a man of fpi"rit" ftill. It is faid, that the eafy engaging manners of Captain Macheath have induced many young men to go on the highway. I am convinced the character of a "man of "fpirit" tempts many a young man to enter on a course of intemperance and prodigality, that most frequently ends in defperate circumftances and a broken constitution. This perverfion is the more provoking, that, of all human characters, the intemperate prodigal is, in every feature and every stage, the moft diametrically oppofite to a man of fpirit. True Spirit is founded on a love and defire of independence, and the two are fo blended together, that it is impoffible, even in idea, to separate them. But the inteinperate prodi gal |