ersed with are men eminent for
their humanity. I take, therefore, this remark to have been occasioned
by two reasons. First, because ill-nature among ordinary observers
passes for wit. A spiteful saying gratifies so many little passions in
those who hear it, that it generally meets with a good reception. The
laugh rises upon it, and the man who utters it is looked upon as a shrewd
satirist. This may be one reason why a great many pleasant companions
appear so surprisingly dull when they have endeavoured to be merry in
print; the public being more just than private clubs or assemblies, in
distinguishing between what is wit and what is ill-nature.

Another reason why the good-natured man may sometimes bring his wit in
question is perhaps because he is apt to be moved with compassion for
those misfortunes or infirmities which another would turn into ridicule,
and by that means gain the reputation of a wit. The ill-natured man,
though but of equal parts, gives himself a larger field to expatiate in;
he exposes those failings in human nature which the other would cast a
veil over, laughs at vices which the other either excuses or conceals,
gives utterance to reflections which the other stifles, falls
indifferently upon friends or enemies, exposes the person who has obliged
him, and, in short, sticks at nothing that may establish his character as
a wit. It is no wonder, therefore, he succeeds in it better than the man
of humanity, as a person who makes use of indirect methods is more likely
to grow rich than the fair trader.

Part Two.

--_Quis enim bonus_, _aut face dignus_
_Arcana_, _qualem Cereris vult esse sacerdos_,
_Ulla aliena sibi credat mala_?--

JUV., _Sat._ xv. 140.

Who can all sense of others' ills escape,
Is but a brute, at best, in human shape.

TATE.

In one of my last week's papers, I treated of good-nature as it is the
effect of constitution; I shall now speak of it as it is a moral virtue.
The first may make a man easy in himself and agreeable to others, but
implies no merit in him that is possessed of it. A man is no more to be
praised upon this account, than because he has a regular pulse or a good
digestion. This good nature, however, in the constitution, which Mr.
Dryden somewhere calls "a milkiness of blood," is an admirable groundwork
for the other. In order, therefore, to try our good-nature, whether it
arises from the body or the mind, whether it be foun