eived them as very great injuries. For my own part, I would never
trust a man that I thought was capable of giving these secret wounds; and
cannot but think that he would hurt the person, whose reputation he thus
assaults, in his body or in his fortune, could he do it with the same
security. There is indeed something very barbarous and inhuman in the
ordinary scribblers of lampoons. An innocent young lady shall be exposed
for an unhappy feature; a father of a family turned to ridicule for some
domestic calamity; a wife be made uneasy all her life for a
misinterpreted word or action; nay, a good, a temperate, and a just man
shall be put out of countenance by the representation of those qualities
that should do him honour; so pernicious a thing is wit when it is not
tempered with virtue and humanity.

I have indeed heard of heedless, inconsiderate writers that, without any
malice, have sacrificed the reputation of their friends and acquaintance
to a certain levity of temper, and a silly ambition of distinguishing
themselves by a spirit of raillery and satire; as if it were not
infinitely more honourable to be a good-natured man than a wit. Where
there is this little petulant humour in an author, he is often very
mischievous without designing to be so. For which reason I always lay it
down as a rule that an indiscreet man is more hurtful than an ill-natured
one; for as the one will only attack his enemies, and those he wishes ill
to, the other injures indifferently both friends and foes. I cannot
forbear, on this occasion, transcribing a fable out of Sir Roger
L'Estrange, which accidentally lies before me. A company of waggish boys
were watching of frogs at the side of a pond, and still as any of them
put up their heads, they would be pelting them down again with stones.
"Children," says one of the frogs, "you never consider that though this
be play to you, 'tis death to us."

As this week is in a manner set apart and dedicated to serious thoughts,
I shall indulge myself in such speculations as may not be altogether
unsuitable to the season; and in the meantime, as the settling in
ourselves a charitable frame of mind is a work very proper for the time,
I have in this paper endeavoured to expose that particular breach of
charity which has been generally overlooked by divines, because they are
but few who can be guilty of it.

TRUE AND FALSE HUMOUR.

--_Risu inepto res ineptior nulla est_.

CATULL.,