moft certainly be loft, in a useless polemic, and a fcurvy logician.

It would be just the fame thing in morals. Our cobler received from his parents that beft and shortest of all christian and moral precepts, "Do as you would "be done by:" he adopted it without much examinnation, and fcrupulously practifed it in general, though with fome few exceptions perhaps in his own trade. But should fome philofopher, for the advancement of truth and knowledge, affure this cobler, "That his honefty was mere prejudice and habit, be"cause he had never fufficiently confidered the rela❝tion and fitnefs of things, nor contemplated the "beauty of virtue; but that, if he would carefully "ftudy the Characteristics, the Moral Philofopher, "and thirty or forty volumes more upon that fubject,

he might then, and not till then, juftly call him"felf an honeft man," what would become of the honefty of the cobler after this useful discovery, I do not know but this I very well know, that he fhould no longer be my cobler.

: I fhall borrow him in two inftances more, and then leave him to his honeft, useful, homefpun prejudices, which half-knowledge and lefs reasoning will, I hope, never tempt him to lay afide.

My cobler is also a politician. He reads the first news-papers he can get, defirous to be informed of the state of affairs in Europe, and of the street robberies in London. He has not, I prefume, analyfed the interests of the respective countries of Europe, nor deeply confidered thofe of his own: ftill lefs is he fyftematically informed of the political duties of a $ 2 citizen

citizen and a fubject. But his heart and his habit fupply thofe defects. He glows with zeal for the honor and profperity of Old England; he will fight for it, if there be occasion, and drink to it perhaps a little too often, and too much. However, is it not to be wished that there were in this country fix millions of such honest and zealous, though uninformed, citizens?

All thefe unreflected and unexamined opinions of our cobler, though prejudices in him, are in themfelves undoubted and demonftrable truths, and ought therefore to be cherished even in their coarseft dress. But I fhall now give an inftance of a common prejudice in this country, which is the refult of error, and which yet I believe no man in his fenfes would defire should be exposed or removed.

Our honeft cobler is thoroughly convinced, as his forefathers were for many centuries, that one Englishman can beat three Frenchmen; and, in that perfuafion, he would by no means decline the trial. Now, though in my own private opinion, deduced from physical principles, I am apt to believe that one Englishman could beat no more than two Frenchmen of equal ftrength and fize with himself, I fhould however be very unwilling to undeceive him of that aseful and fanguine error, which certainly made his countrymen triumph in the fields of Poitiers and Crecy.

But there are prejudices of a very different nature from thefe; prejudices not only founded on original error, but that gave birth and fanction to the most abfurd, extravagant, impious, and immoral customs.

Honor,

Honor, that facred name, which ought to mean the fpirit, the fupererogation of virtue, is, by custom, profaned, reduced, and fhrunk to mean only a readiress to fight a duel upon either a real or an imaginary affront, and not to cheat at play. No vices nor immoralities whatfoever blaft this fashionable character, but rather, on the contrary, dignify and adorn it: and what should banish a man from all fociety, recommends him in general to the beft. He may, with great honor, ftarve the tradefmen, who by their industry supply not only his wants, but his luxury; he may debauch his friend's wife, daughter, or fifter; he may, in fhort, unboundedly gratify every appetite, paffion, and intereft, and fcatter defolation round him, if he be but ready for fingle combat, and a fcrupulous obferver of all the moral obligations of a gamefter.

These are the prejudices for wit to ridicule, for fatire to lah, for the rigor of the law to punish, and (which would be the most effectual of all) for fashion to discountenance and profcribe. And thefe hall in their turns be the fubjects of fome future papers,

XXXVII.

THE

THE WORL D.

SATURDAY, Feb. 27, 1755.

N° 113.

HE custom of DUELLING is most evidently "the "refult of the paffions of the many, and of the "defigns of a few;" but here the definition ftops;

fince, far from being "the ape of reason," it prevails in open defiance of it. It is the manifeft offspring of barbarity and folly, a monftrous birth, and diftinguished by the moft fhocking and ridiculous marks of both its parents.

I would not willingly give offence to the politer part of my readers, whom I acknowledge to be my best customers, and therefore I will not fo much as hint at the impiety of this practice; nor will I labor to fhew how repugnant it is to instinct, reason, and every moral and focial obligation, even to the fashionable fitness of things. Viewed on the criminal fide, it excites horror; on the absurd fide, it is an inexhauftible fund of ridicule. The guilt has been confidered and exposed by abler pens than mine, and indeed ought to be cenfured with more dignity than a fugitive weekly paper can pretend to: I fhall therefore content myself with ridiculing the folly of it.

The antients moft certainly have had very imperfect notions of HONOR, for they had none of DUELLING. One reads, it is true, of murders committed every now and then among the Greeks and Romans, prompted only by intereft or revenge, and performed without the leaft Attic politeness, or Roman urbanity. No letters of gentle invitation were fent to any man to come and have his throat cut the next morning; and we may obferve that Milo had not the common decency to give Clodius, the most profligate of men, the most dangerous of citizens, and his own inveterate enemy, an equal chance of deftroying him.

This delicacy of fentiment, this refinement of manners, was reserved for the politer Goths, Vifigoths, Oftrogoths,

Oftrogoths, Vandals, &c. to introduce, cultivate, and establish. I must confefs that they have generally been confidered as barbarous nations; and to be fure there are fome circumftances which feem to favour that opinion. They made open war upon learning, and gave no quarter even to the monuments of arts and fciences. But then it must be owned, on the other hand, that upon thofe ruins they established the honorable and noble science of HOMICIDE, dignified, exalted, and afcertained TRUE HONOR, Worshiped it as their deity, and facrificed to it hecatombs of human victims.

In thofe happy days, HONOR, that is, single combat, was the great and unerring teft of civil rights, moral actions, and found doctrines. It was fanctified by the church, and the churchmen were occafionally allowed the honor and pleasure of it; for we read of many instances of DUELS between men and priests. Nay, it was, without appeal, the infallible test of female chastity. If a princefs, or any lady of diftinction, was fufpected of a little incontinency, fome brave champion, who was commonly privy to, or perhaps the author of it, ftood forth in her defence, and afferted her innocence with the point of his. fword or lance. If, by his activity, fkill, ftrength and courage, he murdered the accufer, the lady was fpotlefs; but, if her champion fell, her guilt was manifeft. This heroic gallantry in defence of the fair, I prefume, occafioned that affociation of ideas, otherwise feemingly unrelative to each other, of the BRAVE and the FAIR: for indeed in thofe days it behoved a lady, who had the least regard for her reputation,

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