These are the Foibles and narrow Whims of a perfect Humourist.  But, on the other hand, he stands upon a very enlarged Basis; Is a Lover of Reason and Liberty; and scorns to flatter or betray; nor will he falsify his Principles, to court the Favour of the Great.  He is not credulous, or fond of Religious or Philosophical Creeds or Creed-makers; But then he never offers himself to forge Articles of Faith for the rest of the World.  Abounding in poignant and just Reflections; The Guardian of Freedom, and Scourge of such as do wrong.  It is He checks the Frauds, and curbs the Usurpations of every Profession.  The venal Biass of the assuming Judge, the cruel Pride of the starch’d Priest, the empty Froth of the florid Counsellor, the false Importance of the formal Man of Business, the specious Jargon of the grave Physician, and the creeping Taste of the trifling Connoisseur, are all bare to his Eye, and feel the Lash of his Censure; It is He that watches the daring Strides, and secret Mines of the ambitious Prince, and desperate Minister:  He gives the Alarm, and prevents their Mischief.  Others there are who have Sense and Foresight; but they are brib’d by Hopes or Fears, or bound by softer Ties; It is He only, the Humourist, that has the Courage and Honesty to cry out, unmov’d by personal Resentment:  He flourishes only in a Land of Freedom, and when that ceases he dies too, the last and noblest Weed of the Soil of Liberty.

It is a palpable Absurdity to suppose a Person an Humourist, without excellent Sense and Abilities; as much as to suppose a Smith in his full Business, without his Hammers or Forge.—­But the Humourist, as he advances in Years, is apt to grow intolerable to himself and the World; becoming at length, uneasy, and fatigued with the constant View of the same Follies; like a Person who is tir’d with seeing the same Tragi-Comedy continually acted.  This sowres his Temper; And unless some favorable Incidents happen to mellow him, he resigns himself wholly to Peevishness.—­By which Time he perceives that the World is quite tir’d of him.—­After which he drags on the Remainder of his Life, in a State of War with the rest of Mankind.

The Humourist is constitutionally, and also from Reflection, a Man of Sincerity.—­If he is a Rogue upon any Occasion, he is more wilfully one, and puts greater Violence upon himself in being such, than the rest of the World; And though he may generally seem to have little Benevolence, which is the common Objection against him, it is only for want of proper Objects; for no Person has certainly a quicker Feeling; And there are Instances frequent, of greater Generosity and humane Warmth flowing from an Humourist, than are capable of proceeding from a weak Insipid, who labours under a continual Flux of Civility.