manner, and the merchant according to that of Umbra. Among these men,
honour and credit are not valuable possessions in themselves, or pursued
out of a principle of justice; but merely as they are serviceable to
ambition and to commerce. But the world will never be in any manner of
order or tranquillity, till men are firmly convinced, that conscience,
honour, and credit, are all in one interest; and that without the
concurrence of the former, the latter are but impositions upon ourselves
and others. The force these delusive words have, is not seen in the
transactions of the busy world only, but also have their tyranny over
the fair sex. Were you to ask the unhappy Lais, what pangs of
reflection, preferring the consideration of her honour to her
conscience, has given her? She could tell you, that it has forced her to
drink up half a gallon this winter of Tom Dassapas' potions; that she
still pines away for fear of being a mother; and knows not, but the
moment she is such, she shall be a murderess: but if conscience had as
strong a force upon the mind, as honour, the first step to her unhappy
condition had never been made; she had still been innocent, as she's
beautiful. Were men so enlightened and studious of their own good, as to
act by the dictates of their reason and reflection, and not the opinion
of others, Conscience would be the steady ruler of human life; and the
words, Truth, Law, Reason, Equity, and Religion, would be but synonymous
terms for that only guide which makes us pass our days in our own favour
and approbation."

[Footnote 461: A coffee-house in Exchange Alley, Cornhill, with an
auction-room on the first floor, where wine and other things were sold
(see No, 147). Thomas Garway was originally a tobacconist and
coffee-man. Defoe ("Journey through England") says that this
coffee-house was frequented by "the people of quality who have business
in the City, and the most considerable and wealthy citizens."]

[Footnote 462: Adroit.]

No. 49. [STEELE.

From _Saturday, July 30_, to _Tuesday, August 2, 1709._

Quicquid agunt homines ... nostri farrago libelli.
JUV., Sat. i. 85, 86.

* * * * *

White's Chocolate-house, August 1.

The imposition of honest names and words upon improper subjects, has
made so regular a confusion amongst us, that we are apt to sit down with
our errors, well enough satisfied with the m