thieves and pick-pockets, who, like other societies, are a rule to one another.

Without these necessary distinctions, that sense of honour, which you take to be the security of your character, will endanger the loss of it: because you will be tempted either to mean or rash actions, for fear of losing the esteem of those whose judgment is of no value.

Suppose a man, whose birth and fortune put him amongst gentlemen, is a scandalous and notorious liar. When such a person is charged with his fault before company, he ought to confess and repent of it, by all the laws of conscience, virtue, and religion. But what saith honour? It bids him persist in the denial of his guilt, and murder his accuser, if it is in his power; when the voice of reason and justice would have thanked him for the admonition.

First, a man tells a lie, to defame the character of another; then he tells a second by denying the first; then he fights in defence of his denial: and the vulgar notion of honour not only acquits him, but obliges him to it. Between this honour and the frantic fury of actual madness, there is no difference but in the name: if there is any difference, it is only this, that honour acts deliberately upon principle, and madness raves by accident and misfortune. The devil would be better pleased if the world were full of such honour; but God and all good men must detest it, as one of the greatest plagues that ever prevailed upon earth.

LETTER XIX.

ON LITERARY COMPOSITION.

COMPOSITION is not only a difficult task, but is indeed a miserable drudgery, when you have neither rules to direct you, nor matter to work upon; which is the case with many poor boys, who are obliged to squeeze out of their brains an exercise against the time appointed.

To store the mind with good matter, you must accustom yourself to the reading of good authors, such as historians, poets, orators, philosophers, and controversialists; the last are particularly to be studied for the well managing of an argument. The political and theological controversialists are best; but they seldom fall in the way of the younger sort of readers.

When you are to write upon any subject, the best way of entering upon it, is to set down what your own mind furnishes, and say all you can, before you descend to consult books and read upon it: for if you apply to books before you have laid your plan, your own thoughts will be dissipated, and you will dwindle from a composer to a transcriber.

In thinking upon a subject you are to consider, that every proposition is an answer to some question: so that if you can answer all the questions that can be put to you concerning it, you have a thorough understanding of it and in order to compose, you have nothing to do but to ask yourself those questions; by which you will raise from your mind the latent matter,

and having once got it, you may dispose of it and put it into form afterwards.

Suppose the discovery of America by Columbus were proposed; you might put these questions upon it: How came he to think of such an expedition ? What evidence had he to proceed upon? Did the ancients believe any thing that might lead him to such a discovery? What steps did he take in the affair? How was his opinion received? What happened to him in the attempt? How did it succeed? How was he rewarded afterwards? What were the consequences of this discovery to the old world, and what farther consequences may still be expected? When you have given a circumstantial answer to all these questions, you will have composed a methodical history of the discovery of America.

By this way of asking questions, a subject is drawn out, so that you may view it in all its parts, and treat of it with little difficulty, provided you have acquired a competent knowledge of it by reading or discoursing about it in time past: if not, ex nihilo nil fit; where no water is in the well, you may pump for ever without effect.

Subjects are either single or compounded; in other words, they are either simple or complex. A single subject consists of one notion or idea, which is to be pursued in all its branches. A compound subject is a proposition, in which some one thing is affirmed of another. These two are to be treated after different methods.

If your subject is simple, you may examine it under all the following heads, which are called common places: as, 1st, Its relation to the senses, affections, understandings, interests, and expressions of men. 2nd, Its several kinds; which are to be described and

distinguished. 3d, Its causes or principles. 4th, The effects produced by it, with the ends of good or evil which it does or should aim at. 5th, Its relation to place; which comprehends the state of it in different places, or the places which have been distinguished by it. 6th, Its relation to time; which will include the different state of your subject in different ages.

Thus, for example; suppose the subject to be treated of is war. 1st, It is the scourge of God upon the corruptions of mankind; and being so reputed is never to be undertaken wantonly and unadvisedly : but as things now are, it is in many cases unavoidable; so that every nation should be prepared by having their youth trained to arms and to all manly exercises, avoiding luxury and effeminacy, by which every nation is weakened and rendered insufficient for its own defence.

2d, There are several kinds of war; offensive, and defensive; a land war and a naval war; an invasion of one's own country by a foreign enemy; but the worst of all is a civil war, in which the people turn their arms against one another, and so make themselves a prey to foreign enemies.

3d, The causes of war are the encroachments and insults of some neighbouring kingdom; a want of due authority and subordination at home; the oppression of one part of a nation by another part; improper concessions, which encourage insolence; treaties ill advised or not sufficiently explicit, and a want of good faith and honour in observing them.

4th, The end to be obtained by every war is peace, which is often never to be obtained by lighter methods. But too frequently the ambition of princes tempts them to make war for the vanity of conquest, or to extend their dominions, or to take revenge upon an old enemy

that has unfortunately given some advantage. In some cases an invasion has the good effect of rousing a nation sunk in pleasure and dissipation; it brings them to their senses, and restores them by proper exercise to a military state.

5th, Its relation to place will give occasion to recount the most memorable wars that have been carried on in different parts of the world, and the places that have been rendered famous in history by battles, and sieges, and victories; such as the wars of Cæsar in Gaul; the battles of Cannæ and Pharsalia; the sacking of Rome by Brennus; the victory of the Christians over the Turks at Lepanto; the conquest of Mexico, and the West Indies, &c.

6th, Its relation to time will bring in the changes that have taken place in the art of war, the different modes of fighting when the Macedonian phalanx and Roman legion were thought impregnable, from the present way of determining a battle by fire arms, and heavy artillery, which have made defensive armour useless. The difference also may be shewn, so far as it is understood, between the Roman gallies and a British man of war.

Thus you see, that, by pursuing one simple idea under the several common places above mentioned, we are led through the whole subject, and may soon throw together so many hints, that it would require a folio volume to handle them all distinctly. But here let me admonish you, that it requires more skill, and learning, and judgment to contract a subject than to expand it; and he is the best composer who knows how to prune away all superfluous matter.

If your subject is compound, or made up of more notions than one, it forms a proposition, in which some one thing is predicated (as the logicians speak) of