r, 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 for the Persons concerned in this Work, the Names of all of them, or
at least of such as desire 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 Discourses, but proceed in my
old Method, and entertain him with Speculations on every useful Subject
that falls in my Way.

[Footnote 1: Addison's papers are marked on the authority of Tickell.]

* * * * *

No. 557. From Friday, June 18 to Monday, June 21, 1714. Addison.

'Quippe domum timet ambiguam, Tyriosque bilingues.'

Virg.

_There is nothing, says Plato, so delightful, as the hearing or the
speaking of Truth_. For this Reason there is no Conversation so
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 Praetors, he could only produce a single Witness in a Point
where the Law required the Testimony of two Persons; upon which the
Advocate insisted on the Integrity of that Person whom he had produced:
but the Praetor 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 sat at the Head of a Court of Justice, while _Cato_ 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 Sincerity.

When such an inflexible Integrity is a little softened and qualified by
the Rules of Conversation and Good-breeding, 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 exquisitely treated in the most elegant Sermon of the
gr