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This cheerfulness, which is the characteristic of our nation in the eye of an Englifhman, paffes almoft for folly. But is their gloominess a greater mark of their wifdom? and folly againft folly is not the most cheerful fort the beft. If our gaiety makes them fad, they ought not to find it ftrange, if their ferioufnefs makes us laugh.

As this difpofition to levity is not familiar to them, and as they look on every thing as a fault which they do not find at home, the English, who live among us, are hurt by it. Several of their authors reproach us with it as a vice, or at leaft as a ridicule.

Mr. Addifon ftyles us a comic nation. In my opinion it is not acting the philofopher on this point, to regard as a fault that quality, which contributes moft to the pleasure of fociety and happiness of life. Plato, convinced that whatever makes men happier, makes them better, advises to neglect nothing that may excite and convert to an early habit this sense of joy in children. Seneca places it in the first rank of good things. Certain it is at leaft, that gaiety may be a concomitant of all forts of virtue, but that there are fome vices with which it is incompatible.

As to him who laughs at every thing, and him who laughs at nothing, neither of them has found judgment. All the difference I find between them is, that the laft is conftantly the most unhappy. Those, who speak against cheerfulness, prove nothing elfe, but that they were born melancholic, and that in their hearts they rather envy than condemn that levity they affect to despise.

The Spectator, whofe conftant object was the good of mankind in general, and of his own nation in particular, fhould according to his own principles place cheerfulness among the most defirable qualities; and probably, whenever he contradicts himfelf in this particular, it is only to conform to

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the tempers of the people whom he addreffes. He afferts that gaiety is one great obftacle to the prudent conduct of women. But are those of a melancholic temper, as the English women generally are, lefs fubject to the foibles of love? I am acquainted with fome doctors in this fcience, to whofe judg ment I would more willingly refer than to his. And perhaps in reality, perfons naturally of a gay temper are too eafily taken off by different objects, to give themselves up to all the exceffes of this paffion.

Mr. Hobbes, a celebrated philofopher of his nation, maintains that laughing proceeds from our pride alone. This is only a paradox if afferted of laughing in general, and only argues that mifanthropical difpofition for which he was remarkable.

To bring the caufes he affigns for laughing under fufpicion, it is fufficient to remark that proud people are commonly those who laugh least. Gravity is the infeparable companion of pride. To fay that a man is vain, becaufe the humour of a writer, or the buffooneries of an harlequin excite his laughter, would be advancing a great abfurdity. We fhould diftinguish between laughter infpired by joy, and that which arifes from mockery. The malicious fneer is improperly called laughter. It must be owned that pride is the parent of fuch laughter as this; but this is in itself vicious; whereas, the other fort has nothing in its principles or effects that deferves condemnation. We find this amiable in others, and is it unhappiness to feel a difpofition towards it i ourselves?

When I fee an Englishman laugh, I fancy I rather fee him hunting after joy, than having caught it; and this is more particularly remarkable in their women, whose tempers are inclined to melancholy. A laugh leaves no more traces on their countenance than a flash of lightning on the face of the heavens.

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The most laughing air is instantly fucceeded by the moft gloomy. One would be apt to think that their fouls open with difficulty to joy, or at least that joy is not pleased with its habitation there.

In regard to fine raillery it must be allowed that it is not natural to the English, and therefore those who endeavour at it make but an ill figure. Some of their authors have candidly confeffed, that pleasantry is quite foreign to their character; but according to the reafon they give, they lofe nothing by this confeffion. Bifhop Sprat gives the following one; "The English, "fays he," have too much bravery to "be derided, and too much virtue and honour to "mock others."

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THE BEE, No VIII.

SATURDAY,

NOVEMBER 24, 1759.

ON DECEIT AND FALSHOOD.

The following account is fo judiciously conceived, that I am convinced the reader will be more pleased with it, than with any thing of mine, fo I fhall make no apology for this new pub- lication.

SIR,

TO THE AUTHOR OF THE BEE.

DECEIT and falfhood have ever been an overmatch for truth, and followed and admired by the majority of mankind. If we inquire after the reason of this, we fhall find it in our own imaginations, which are amused and entertained with the perpetual novelty and variety that fiction affords, but find no manner of delight in the uniform fimplicity of homely truth, which ftill fues them under the fame appearance.

He therefore that would gain our hearts must make his court to our fancy, which being fovereign comptroller of the paffions, lets them loose, and inflames them more or lefs, in proportion to the force and efficacy of the firft caufe, which is ever

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the more powerful the more new it is. Thus in mathematical demonftrations themfelves, though they seem to aim at pure truth and inftruction, and to be addreffed to our reafon alone, yet I think it is pretty plain, that our understanding is only made a drudge to gratify our invention and curiofity, and we are pleased not fo much because our discoveries are certain, as because they are new.

I do not deny but the world is ftill pleafed with things that pleafed it many ages ago, but it fhould at the fame time be confidered, that man is naturally fo much of a logician, as to diftinguifh between matters that are plain and eafy, and others that are hard and inconceivable. What we underftand we overlook and defpife, and what we know nothing of we hug and delight in. Thus there are fuch things as perpetual novelties; for we are pleafed no longer than we are amazed, and nothing fo much contents us as that which confounds us.

This weakness in human nature gave occafion to a party of men to make fuch gainful markets as they have done of our credulity. All objects and facts whatever now ceased to be what they had been for ever before, and received what make and meaning it was found convenient to put upon them: what people ate, and drank, and faw, was not what they ate, and drank, and faw, but fomething farther, which they were fond of, because they were ignorant of it. In fhort nothing was itfelf, but fomething beyond itself; and by thefe artifices and amufements the heads of the world were fo turned and intoxicated, that at laft there was fcarcely a found fet of brains left in it.

In this ftate of giddinefs and infatuation it was no very hard talk to perfuade the already deluded, that there was an actual fociety and communion between human creatures and fpiritual dæmons. And when they had thus put people into the power and clutches

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