days of Solomon; who tells us, that the eye that mocketh his father, or disdains obedience to his mother, the crows of the valley shall pick it out, or else the young eagles eat it: which, in effect, is to say, that he shall come to some untimely end, either be hanged on some tree, or cast out without burial, for the fowls of the air to feed on. To this inclines the opinion of St. Jerom, where he says, Nec vultu loedenda est pietas parentum: the sacred duty owing to parents, must not be infringed even by a look. He that hath forgotten to be a son, is an Agrippa to the world, and is born averse to nature. It was a good reason the philosopher gave to one, why he should not go to law with his father: if you charge him unjustly, (says he,) all will condemn you: and if your charge be just, you will yet be condemned, for blazing it forth. It was Cassianus who asked an undutiful son: Quem alienum tibi fidum invenies, si tuis hostis fueris? Qui fallere audebit parentes; qualis erit in cæteros? What stranger shall he ever find faithful to him, who to his parents has become an enemy? What will he be to others, who is false to parents?-It is the same, in other relations; between husband and wife; between master and servants. To be false in our rela tions, is to break our trust; which both religion and nature require us to keep truly. When Judas had betrayed his Master, neither his friends, nor his enemies, nor his own conscience, could endure him afterwards. Whereas, he who behaves himself well in his relations, gives us hope of his being sound in all other things, in which we have to do with him. If we can believe the excellent Silius, we shall find that by being false in our relations, we not only lose ourselves as well as others, but we thus become plunged into all the calamities of life, in the several bearings in which we stand to others. Qui frangere rerum Gaudebit pacta, ac tenues spes linquet amici; Dispecta, ac violata fides. Who loves to break Ital. 1. 13. Wise nature's bonds, and cheat his friend's poor hope, Nor house, nor wife, nor life is safe: but he Certainly, there is no man but some way, stands connected with others, either by religion, policy, nature, alliance, or humanity;-therefore, as a Christian, a friend, a kindred, a superior, or a man, to all, a man has an honest course of conduct to pursue. Though I comply not with all their ways, yet Christian piety and natural probity are never to be parted with. He who loses, or throws away these, descends into a beast, and has not reason for his guide, and is human in shape alone. WHENCE A MAN'S FAME ARISES. THERE is not a greater cheat, than fame and reputation sometimes prove to be. Few converse enough with persons abroad, for them to shew their real humours and inclinations. To their superiors, they put on obsequiousness and dress out their virtues, while they studiously conceal their vices; to their inferiors, they are all courtesy and profession; to all, there is a disguise. They are like ladies, who, careful of their beauty, admit none into their presence, till they are dressed and trimmed out to the best advantage. It is only, in a man's retirement, and among his domestics and friends, that he opens himself with freedom, and without care. He then walks among them, as nature framed him: among them, he may be seen, not as he seems, but as he is; without the deceptions of art, or the varnish of counterfeit virtue. Indeed, no one is able to pass a true judgment upon another, but he who familiarly and inwardly knows him and has viewed him, by the light of time. While Tiberius had a noble fame among strangers, he who read him rhetoric, hesitated not to pronounce him luto et sanguine maceratum. It is much harder to read the actions, and rightly to understand the characters of great persons, than those of men of inferior condition: for, though they be extravagant, yet their greatness is some kind of awe to the loose and scattered reports that fly about from mean men's tongues: and their attendants not only palliate their vices, as improper for them to divulge, but, at the same time, magnify their good parts, and represent them to the world, as greater than they are; so that oftentimes, those pass with the world at large, for persons rarely qualified, who, being strictly viewed, are but shew and deceiving outside. And besides this, many a man, while he has a curb upon him, can be kept in modest bounds; from which once freed, he lavishes into excess and gross enormities. And doubtless, a man's fame and estimation is, in some measure, according Even a good man, to those among whom he lives. among ill neighbours, may be ill spoken of; and a bad man, by some, may be beloved. Some vices are falsely looked upon as ornament and education: and a modest innocence, is mistaken for silliness and ignorance. To be good, is thought too near a way to contempt. That, which the ancients admired, we slight and ridicule. A good honest man, is but a better word for a fool; so that no man can promise himself to be free from the whip of a licentious tongue. Slanders and calumnies, like contagious airs, are epidemical in their infection: but, the soundest constitutions are less tainted by them. I like not those who disdain what the world says of them. I suspect that woman's modesty, who cares not to be accounted modest. While I am innocent, injurious rumours shall the less disturb me. But, as he that is careful of his health, will not only avoid infective places, but antidote himself by preventive physic, and will not only be abstemious at a feast, but in his private diet; so he who would be well-esteemed, must not only eschew evil company, but must fortify himself with precepts and resolutions to preserve himself, not only in the throng, and abroad, but in his retired dressingroom for, since a man's good or bad fame takes its first rise from those who are about him, (and servants not being always in our interests, nor always discreet,) it behoves him who values his own reputa S tion, to give them no cause of reporting what shall cross it. He who is careless of his fame, I doubt, is not fond of his integrity. The first ground to be laid, is a man's honest endeavours, and that, as well in the chamber as in the court: and then, it is likely a good fame will follow him. If I do my part, I shall be the less troubled, if the world shall not do its part, in allowing me what I labour for. THAT IT IS DIFFICULT TO BE RICH AND GOOD. It is rare to see a rich man, religious: for religion preaches restraint, and riches prompt to unlicensed freedom. If our Saviour himself had not given an exposition of his own hard text, of the camel and the eye of a needle; certainly no rich man could be thought to be saved, but by a miracle. When wealth abounds, men are seldom by suffering brought to be, soberminded. They buy out their penance, and pass over those considerations that should rightly dispose their minds. The education of rich men teaches them to command, and prevents their being acquainted with that which is better than sacrifice, obedience: and by the corruption of man's weak nature, they become so attached to the perishable and imperfect enjoyments of this life, that they seldom give themselves time to think of the concerns of another and a better. Agur prayed directly against plenty and though Solomon was so wise as not to ask it, yet we see, when he had it, it had well nigh eaten out all his wisdom. Riches |