_Ita facillime_
_Sine invidia invenias laudem_.--

TER., _Andr._, Act i. _se._ 1.

His manner of life was this: to bear with everybody's humours; to
comply with the inclinations and pursuits of those he conversed with;
to contradict nobody; never to assume a superiority over others. This
is the ready way to gain applause without exciting envy.

Man is subject to innumerable pains and sorrows by the very condition of
humanity, and yet, as if Nature had not sown evils enough in life, we are
continually adding grief to grief, and aggravating the common calamity by
our cruel treatment of one another. Every man's natural weight of
affliction is still made more heavy by the envy, malice, treachery, or
injustice of his neighbour. At the same time that the storm beats on the
whole species, we are falling foul upon one another.

Half the misery of human life might be extinguished, would men alleviate
the general curse they lie under, by mutual offices of compassion,
benevolence, and humanity. There is nothing, therefore, which we ought
more to encourage in ourselves and others, than that disposition of mind
which in our language goes under the title of good nature, and which I
shall choose for the subject of this day's speculation.

Good-nature is more agreeable in conversation than wit, and gives a
certain air to the countenance which is more amiable than beauty. It
shows virtue in the fairest light, takes off in some measure from the
deformity of vice, and makes even folly and impertinence supportable.

There is no society or conversation to be kept up in the world without
good nature, or something which must bear its appearance, and supply its
place. For this reason, mankind have been forced to invent a kind of
artificial humanity, which is what we express by the word good-breeding.
For if we examine thoroughly the idea of what we call so, we shall find
it to be nothing else but an imitation and mimicry of good nature, or, in
other terms, affability, complaisance, and easiness of temper, reduced
into an art. These exterior shows and appearances of humanity render a
man wonderfully popular and beloved, when they are founded upon a real
good nature; but, without it, are like hypocrisy in religion, or a bare
form of holiness, which, when it is discovered, makes a man more
detestable than professed impiety.

Good-nature is generally born with us: health, prosperity, and kind
treatment from the wo