which these vultures have pounced upon to mangle afterward. By preparatory declarations of regard to the family, or esteem for the talents and many good qualities of the person, against whom, they have a poniard concealed in the bosom, and the poison of asps is under their lips, they better disguise the intentions: proceeding by an artful climax of insinuation to positive assertion, like a terse epigram, they twist about the dragon tail, till opportu nity serves, of darting in, at a certain point, the corroding sting: "they can smile and murder while they smile." "Slander, in whatever manner it is ushered in," says an elegant writer," is a vice impure in its source, dangerous in its effects, general in its influence, irreparable in its consequences: a vice that strikes at once three mortal blows; it wounds him who commits it; him against whom it is committed; and him who sees it committed: and is tolerated, in society only because every one has an invincible inclination to commit it.” It is therefore the bounden duty of all societies, whether of private or public, descrip tion, who are not the patrons of tale bearing, firmly to express, in the very first attempt of introducing it, their aversion to such mischievous loquacity: for the defamer, whoever, it may be, offers no small affront to the company to whom the information is communicated, in supposing, that slander is as welcome entertainment to them, as it is, to the haberdasher of it: the restless tongue of calumny knows no bounds, nor spares any character, age, or sex: like the spokes, of a wheel in rotatory motion, it whirls about, all in their turn, and when some, are up, others are sure to be down characters of publicity however are usually the more certain mark of illiberal attack; only those escape, but not always, who from obscurity of situation or insignificance "The failings of good men," it has been Ilished in the world, than their good deeds; and one fault of a deserving man shall meet with more reproaches, than all his virtues, praise; such is the force of ill will and ill nature; and it often happens that those are the best people, whose characters have been most injured by slanderers; for we usually find that to be the sweetest fruit, which the birds have been picking at," in this view of the subject, he that is loudly praised cannot bus expect otherwise, than to be loudly censured, and thus his character in the mouth of defamation, like the brilliancy of a diamond, may be better displayed through the intervention of some dark body. Even against an open enemy, the generous spirit disdains to offer malignant language. To To the Persian soldier who reviled Alexander the Great, excellent was this rebuke of his commander, "Sir, you are paid to fight against Alexander and not to rail at him.' The author of Tom Jones has justly told us," that vice has not a more abject slave; society produces not a more odious vermin, nor can the devil receive a gift more worthy of him, nor possibly more welcome to him, than a slanderer." Whose edge is sharper than the sword; whose tongue All corners of the world; kings, queens, and states, Maids, matronsnay, the secrets of the grave, This viperous slander enters,” i Cymbeline, A. 3. Sc. 4. ESSAY IX. AVARICE. THOUGH all rivers flow into the sea, yet that depository will not be full, and though the influx of wealth be unbounded, the coffers of avarice remain insatiable: age, which usually corrects other vices, strangely increases this. Avarice stands directly opposed to extravagance, and of the two evils, there scarcely can be a doubt, that avarice is by far the greater: if the prodigal, by squandering on himself, puts it out of his power to be gene rous |