rudely by one, whose own Character has been very roughly treated, answered a great deal of Heat and Intemperance very calmly, ’Good Madam spare me, who am none of your Match; I speak Ill of no Body, and it is a new Thing to me to be spoken ill of.’  Little Minds think Fame consists in the Number of Votes they have on their Side among the Multitude, whereas it is really the inseparable Follower of good and worthy Actions.  Fame is as natural a Follower of Merit, as a Shadow is of a Body.  It is true, when Crowds press upon you, this Shadow cannot be seen, but when they separate from around you, it will again appear.  The Lazy, the Idle, and the Froward, are the Persons who are most pleas’d with the little Tales which pass about the Town to the Disadvantage of the rest of the World.  Were it not for the Pleasure of speaking Ill, there are Numbers of People who are too lazy to go out of their own Houses, and too ill-natur’d to open their Lips in Conversation.  It was not a little diverting the other Day to observe a Lady reading a Post-Letter, and at these Words, ’After all her Airs, he has heard some Story or other, and the Match is broke off’, give Orders in the midst of her Reading, ‘Put to the Horses.’  That a young Woman of Merit has missed an advantagious Settlement, was News not to be delayed, lest some Body else should have given her malicious Acquaintance that Satisfaction before her.  The Unwillingness to receive good Tidings is a Quality as inseparable from a Scandal-Bearer, as the Readiness to divulge bad.  But, alas, how wretchedly low and contemptible is that State of Mind, that cannot be pleased but by what is the Subject of Lamentation.  This Temper has ever been in the highest Degree odious to gallant Spirits.  The Persian Soldier, who was heard reviling Alexander the Great, was well admonished by his Officer; Sir, you are paid to fight against Alexander, and not to rail at him.

Cicero in one of his Pleadings, [1] defending his Client from general Scandal, says very handsomely, and with much Reason, There are many who have particular Engagements to the Prosecutor:  There are many who are known to have ill-will to him for whom I appear; there are many who are naturally addicted to Defamation, and envious of any Good to any Man, who may have contributed to spread Reports of this kind:  For nothing is so swift as Scandal, nothing is more easily sent abroad, nothing received with more Welcome, nothing diffuses it self so universally.  I shall not desire, that if any Report to our Disadvantage has any Ground for it, you would overlook or extenuate it:  But if there be any thing advanced without a Person who can say whence he had it, or which is attested by one who forgot who told him it, or who had it from one of so little Consideration that he did not then think it worth his Notice, all such Testimonies as these, I know, you will think too slight to have any Credit against the Innocence and Honour of your Fellow-Citizen.