The last Enemy to Benevolence I shall mention is Uneasiness of any Kind.  A guilty, or a discontented Mind, a Mind ruffled by ill Fortune, disconcerted by its own Passions, sowered by Neglect, or fretting at Disappointments, hath not Leisure to attend to the Necessity or Reasonableness of a Kindness desired, nor a Taste for those Pleasures which wait on Beneficence, which demand a calm and unpolluted Heart to relish them.  The most miserable of all Beings is the most envious; as, on the other hand, the most communicative is the happiest.  And if you are in search of the Seat of perfect Love and Friendship, you will not find it till you come to the Region of the Blessed, where Happiness, like a refreshing Stream, flows from Heart to Heart in an endless Circulation, and is preserv’d sweet and untainted by the Motion.  ’Tis old Advice, if you have a Favour to request of any one, to observe the softest times of Address, when the Soul, in a Flush of good Humour, takes a Pleasure to shew it self pleased.  Persons conscious of their own integrity, satisfied with themselves, and their Condition, and full of Confidence in a Supreme Being, and the Hope of Immortality, survey all about them with a Flow of Good-will.  As Trees which like their Soil, they shoot out in Expressions of Kindness and bend beneath their own precious Load, to the hand of the Gatherer.  Now if the Mind be not thus easie, ’tis an infallible Sign that it is not in its natural State; Place the Mind in its right Posture, it will immediately discover its innate Propension to Beneficence.

[Footnote 1:  No. 588.]

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No. 602.  Monday, October 4, 1714 Budgell.

  ‘—­Facit hoc illos Hyacinthos—­’

  Juv.

The following Letter comes from a Gentleman, who, I find, is very dilgent in making his Observations, which I think too material not to be communicated to the Publick.

  SIR,

’In order to execute the Office of Love-Casuist to Great Britain, with which I take my self to be invested by your Paper of September 8, [1] I shall make some further Observations upon the two Sexes in general, beginning with that which always ought to have the upper Hand.  After having observed with much Curiosity the Accomplishments which are apt to captivate female Hearts, I find that there is no Person so irresistable as one who is a Man of Importance, provided it be in Matters of no Consequence.  One who makes himself talked of, tho’ it be for the particular Cock of his Hat, or for prating aloud in the Boxes at a Play, is in a fair way of being a Favourite.  I have known a young Fellow make his Fortune by knocking down a Constable; and may venture to say, tho’ it may seem a Paradox, that many a Fair One has died by a Duel in which both the Combatants have survived.

About three Winters ago I took Notice of a young Lady at the Theatre, who convceived of