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one Spectator a week. Since we are not so happy as to 'be of your acquaintance, give me leave to reprefent to you our prefent circumftances as well as I can in writing. You are to know then that I am not of a very different conftitution from Nathaniel Henrooft, whom you have lately recorded in your fpeculations; and have a wife who makes a more tyrannical use of the knowledge of my eafy temper than that lady ever pretend-> 'ed to. We had not been a month married, when the 'found in me a certain pain to give offence, and an indolence that made me bear little inconveniencies ra'ther than difpute about them. From this obfervation it 'foon came to that pass, that if I offered to go abroad, she would get between me and the door, kifs me, and fay fhe could not part with me; and then down again I fat. In a day or two after this first pleasant step towards confining me, the declared to me, that I was all "the world to her, and the thought she ought to be all 'the world to me. If, faid fhe, my dear loves me as much as I love him, he will never be tired of my company. This declaration was followed by my being denied to all my acquaintance; and it very foon came to that pass, that to give an anfwer at the door before my face, the fervants would ask her whether I was within or not; and she would anfwer No with great fondness, and tell me I was a good dear. I will not enumerate more little circumftances to give you a livelier fenfe of my condition; but tell you in general, that from fuch fteps as thefe at first, I now live the life of a prifoner of ftate; my letters are opened, and I have not the use of pen, ink, and paper, but in her ⚫ presence. I never go abroad, except the fometimes 'takes me with her in her coach to take the air, if it may be called fo, when we drive, as we generally do, 'with the glaffes up. I have over-heard my fervants lament my condition, but they dare not bring me meffages without her knowledge, because they doubt my refolution to ftand by them. In the midst of this infipid way of life, an old acquaintance of mine, Tom Meggot, who is a favourite with her, and allowed to vifit me in 'her company, because he fings prettily, has roufed me to rebel, and conveyed his intelligence to me in the

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following manner. My wife is a great pretender to mufic, and very ignorant of it; but far gone in the Italian tafte. Tom goes to Armstrong, the famous fine writer of mufic, and defires him to put this fentence of Tully in the fcale of an Italian air, and write it out for my spouse from him. "An ille mihi liber cui "mulier imperat? Cui leges imponit, præfcribit, jubet, vetat, quod videtur? Qui nihil imperanti negare, nihil "recufare audet? Pofcit? dandum eft. Vocat? veni"endum. Ejicit? abeundum. Minitatur ? extimefcen"dum. Does he live like a gentleman who is com"manded by a woman? He to whom the gives law, "grants and denies what the pleases? who can neither "deny her any thing fhe afks, or refufe to do any thing "fhe commands?"

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To be fhort, my wife was extremely pleafed with it; faid, the Italian was the only language for mufic; and • admired how wonderfully tender the fentiment was, and how pretty the accent is of that language, with the reft that is faid by rote on that occafion. Mr. Meggot is fent for to fing this air, which he performs with mighty applaufe; and my wife is in ecftacy on the occafion, and glad to find, by my being fo much pleased, that I was at laft come into the notion of the Italian for, faid fhe, it grows upon one when one once comes to know a little of the language: and pray, Mr. Meggot, fing again thofe notes," Nihil imperanti negare, nihil recufare." You may believe I was not a little delighted with my friend Tom's expedient to alarm me, and in obedience to his fummons I give all this story thus at large; and I am refolved, when this appears in the Spectator, to declare for myself. The manner of the infurrection I contrive by your means, ⚫ which shall be no other than that Tom Meggot, who is at our tea-table every morning, fhall read it to us; and if my dear can take the bint, and fay not one word, but let this be the beginning of a new life without farther explanation, it is very well; for as foon as the Spectator is read out, I fhall without more ado, call for the coach, name the hour when I fhall be at home, if I come at all; if I do not, they may go to dinner. • If my spouse only fwells and fays nothing, Tom and I

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go out together, and all is well, as I faid before; but if he begins to command or expoftulate, you shall in my next to you receive a full account of her refiftance and fubmiffion, for submit the dear thing must to,

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Your most obedient humble fervant,
'ANTHONY FREEMAN.

'P. S. I hope I need not tell you that I defire this may be in your very next.'

N° 213.

IT

Saturday, November 3.

T.

-Mens fibi confcia reči. VIRG. En. 1. ver. 608. A good intention.

is the great art and fecret of Chriftianity, if I may ufe that phrase, to manage our actions to the best advantage, and direct them in fuch a manner, that every thing we do may turn to account at that great day, when every thing we have done will be fet before us.

In order to give this confideration its full weight, we may caft all our actions under the divifion of fuch as are in themselves either good, evil, or indifferent. If we divide our intentions after the fame manner, and confider them with regard to our actions, we may difcover that great art and fecret of religion which I have here mentioned.

A good intention joined to a good action, gives it its proper force and efficacy: joined to an evil action, extenuates its malignity, and in fome cafes may take it wholly away; and joined to an indifferent action turns it to a virtue, and makes it meritorious as far as human actions can be fo.

In the next place, to confider in the fame manner the influence of an evil intention upon our actions. An evil intention perverts the best of actions, and makes them in reality, what the fathers with a witty kind of zeal have termed the virtues of the heathen world, fo many fhining

fins. It destroys the innocence of an indifferent action, and gives an evil action all poffible blackness and horror, or in the emphatical language of facred writ, "makes "fin exceeding finful."

If, in the laft place, we confider the nature of an indifferent intention, we shall find that it destroys the merit of a good action; abates, but never takes away, the malignity of an evil action; and leaves an indifferent action in its natural state of indifference.

It is therefore of unfpeakable advantage to poffefs our minds with an habitual good intention, and to aim all cur thoughts, words and actions at fome laudable end, whether it be the glory of our Maker, the good of mankind, or the benefit of our own fouls.

This is a fort of thrift or good husbandry in moral life, which does not throw away any fingle action, but makes every one go as far as it can. It multiplies the means of falvation, increases the number of our virtues, and diminifhes that of our vices.

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There is fomething very devout, though not folid, in Acofta's answer to Limborch, who objects to him the multiplicity of ceremonies in the Jewish religion, as wafhings, dreffes, meats, purgations, and the like. The reply which the Jew inakes upon this occafion, is, to the beft of my remembrance, as follows: There are not duties enough (fays he) in the effential parts of the law for a zealous and active obedience. Time, place, and perfon are requifite, before you have an opportunity of putting a moral virtue into practice. We have therefore, fays he, enlarged the fphere of our duty, and made many things which are in themfelves indifferent, a part of our religion, that we may have more occafions of fhewing our love to God, and in all the circumftances of life be doing fomething to please

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• him.'

Monfieur St. Evremond has endeavoured to palliate the fuperftitions of the Roman-catholic religion with the fame kind of apology, where he pretends to confider the different fpirit of the papifts and the calvinifts, as to the great points wherein they difagree. He tells us, that the former are actuated by love, and the other by fear; and that in their expreflions of duty and

devotion towards the Supreme Being, the former feem" particularly careful to do every thing which may poffibly pleafe him, and the other to abftain from every thing which may poffibly difplease him.

But notwithstanding this plaufible reason with which both the Jew and the Roman-catholic would excufe their refpective fuperftitions, it is certain there is fomething in them very pernicious to mankind, and destructive to religion; because the injunction of fuperfluous ceremonies makes fuch actions duties, as were before indifferent, and by that means renders religion more burthenfome and difficult than it is in its own nature, betrays many into fins of omiffion which they could not otherwise be guilty of, and fixes the minds of the vulgar to the fhadowy uneffential points, inftead of the more weighty and more important matters of the law.

This zealous and active obedience however takes place in the great point we are recommending; for if, instead of prefcribing to ourfelves indifferent actions as duties, we apply a good intention to all our moft indifferent actions, we make our very exiftence one continued act of obedience, we turn our diverfions and amusements to our eternal advantage, and are pleafing him, whom we are made to please, in all the circumftances and occurrences of life.

It is this excellent frame of mind, this holy officioufnefs, if I may be allowed to call it fuch, which is recommended to us by the Apostle in that uncommon precept, wherein he directs us to propofe to ourselves the glory of our Creator in all our moft indifferent actions, whe⚫ther we eat or drink, or whatsoever we do.'

A perfon therefore who is poffeffed with such an habitual good intention, as that which I have been here speaking of, enters upon no fingle circumftance of life, without confidering it as well-pleafing to the great Author of his being, conformable to the dictates of reason, suitable to human nature in general, or to that particular station in which Providence has placed him. He lives in a perpetual fenfe of the Divine Prefence, régards himself as acting, in the whole courfe of his exiftence, under the observation and inspection of that Being, who is privy to all his motions, and all his thoughts, who knows his

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