consulted what course of studies he should pursue,
we should see almost every man as eminent in his proper sphere as
_Tully_ was in his, and should in a very short time find impertinence
and affectation banished from among the women, and coxcombs and false
characters from among the men.

35. For my part I could never consider this preposterous repugnancy to
nature any otherwise, than not only as the greatest folly, but also one
of the most heinous crimes, since it is a direct opposition to the
disposition of providence, and (as _Tully_ expresses it) like the sin of
the giants, an actual rebellion against heaven.

SPECTATOR, Vol. VI. No. 404.

_Good Humour and Nature_.

1. A man advanced in years that thinks fit to look back upon his former
life, and calls that only life which was passed with satisfaction and
enjoyment, excluding all parts which were not pleasant to him, will find
himself very young, if not in his infancy. Sickness, ill-humour, and
idleness, will have robbed him of a great share of that space we
ordinarily call our life.

2. It is therefore the duty of every man that would be true to himself,
to obtain, if possible, a disposition to be pleased, and place himself
in a constant aptitude for the satisfaction of his being. Instead of
this, you hardly see a man who is not uneasy in proportion to his
advancement in the arts of life.

3. An affected delicacy is the common improvement we meet with in these
who pretend to be refined above others: they do not aim at true pleasure
themselves, but turn their thoughts upon observing the false pleasures
of other men. Such people are valetudinarians in society, and they
should no more come into company than a sick man should come into the
air.

4. If a man is too weak to bear what is a refreshment to men in health,
he must still keep his chamber. When any one in Sir _Roger_'s company
complains he is out of order, he immediately calls for some posset drink
for him; for which reason that sort of people, who are ever bewailing
their constitutions in other places, are the cheerfulest imaginable when
he is present.

5. It is a wonderful thing that so many, and they not reckoned absurd,
shall entertain those with whom they converse, by giving them the
history of their pains and aches; and imagine such narrations their
quota of the conversation. This is, of all others, the-meanest help to
discourse, and a man must not think at all, or think himself very
in