Cato: A Tragedy, and Selected Essays

Spectator 169 (September 13, 1711)

1. “This is how he lived: he fell in easily with the / ways of all his acquaintances, gave himself up to his / company, and joined heartily in their pursuits. That / keeps clear of jealousy and is the simplest way of / getting a good name and making friends.” Terence The Lady of Andros I.62– 66. Spectator, No. 169 Thursday, September 13, 1711 Sic vita erat: facile omnes perferre ac pati: Cum quibus erat cunque una, his sese dedere, Eorum obsequi studiis: advorsus nemini; Nunquam praeponens se aliis. Ita facillime Sine invidia invenias laudem. . . . Ter. And.1 Man is subject to innumerable Pains and Sorrows by the very Condition of Humanity, and yet, as if Nature had not sown Evils enough in Life, we are continually adding Grief to Grief, and aggravating the common Calamity by our cruel Treatment of one another. Every Man’s natural weight of Affliction is still made more heavy by the Envy, Malice, Treachery or Injustice of his Neighbour. At the same time that the Storm beats upon the whole Species, we are falling foul upon one another. Half the Misery of Human Life might be extinguished, would Men alleviate the general Curse they lye under, by mutual Offices of Compassion, Benevolence and Humanity. There is nothing therefore which we ought more to encourage in our selves and others, than that Disposition of Mind which in our Language goes under the Title of Good-nature, and which I shall chuse for the Subject of this Day’s Speculation. 128 selected essays 2. Xenophon’s (c. 430 –c. 354 b.c.) Cyropaedia recounts the life of the Persian King Cyrus. 3. Cyropaedia 8.2 and 8.7.25. “I have always been a friend to Man, and I think I should gladly now become a part of that which does him so much good.” Good-nature is more agreeable in Conversation than Wit, and gives a certain Air to the Countenance which is more amiable than Beauty. It shows Virtue in the fairest Light, takes off in some measure from the Deformity of Vice, and makes even Folly and Impertinence supportable. There is no Society or Conversation to be kept up in the World without Good-nature, or something which must bear its Appearance , and supply its Place. For this Reason Mankind have been forced to invent a kind of artificial Humanity, which is what we express by the Word Good-Breeding. For if we examine thoroughly the Idea of what we call so, we shall find it to be nothing else but an Imitation and Mimickry of Good-nature, or in other Terms, Affability, Complaisance and Easiness of Temper reduced into an Art. These exterior Shows and Appearances of Humanity render a Man wonderfully popular and beloved, when they are founded upon a real Good-nature; but without it are like Hypocrisie in Religion, or a bare Form of Holiness, which, when it is discovered, makes a Man more detestable than professed Impiety. Good-nature is generally born with us; Health, Prosperity and kind Treatment from the World are great Cherishers of it where they find it, but nothing is capable of forcing it up, where it does not grow of it self. It is one of the Blessings of a happy Constitution, which Education may improve but not produce. Xenophon2 in the Life of his Imaginary Prince, whom he describes as a Pattern for Real ones, is always celebrating the (Philanthropy ) or Good-nature of his Hero, which he tells us he brought into the World with him, and gives many remarkable Instances of it in his Childhood, as well as in all the several parts of his Life.3 Nay, on his Death-bed, he describes him as being pleased, that while his Soul returned to him who made it, his Body should incorporate with the great Mother of all things, and by that means become beneficial to Mankind. For which reason he gives his Sons a positive Order not to enshrine it in Gold or Silver, but to lay it in the Earth as soon as the Life was gone out of it. spectator 169 129 4. See Sallust The War with Catiline LIV.1– 6 and Cato IV.4 (p. 81, n. 6). An Instance of such an overflowing of Humanity, such an exuberant Love to Mankind, could not have entred into the Imagination of...