O.

[Footnote 1:  Blackmore’s.]

* * * * *

No. 544.  Monday, November 24, 1712.  Steele.

  ’Nunquam ita quisquam bene subducta ratione ad vitam fuit
  Quia res, AEtas usus semper aliquid apportet novi
  Aliquid moneat, ut illa, quae te scire credas, nescias
  Et, quae tibi putaris prima, in experiundo ut repudies.’

  Ter.

There are, I think, Sentiments in the following Letter from my Friend Captain SENTRY, which discover a rational and equal Frame of Mind, as well prepared for an advantageous as an unfortunate Change of Condition.

  Coverley-Hall, Nov. 15, Worcestershire.

  SIR,

’I am come to the Succession of the Estate of my honoured Kinsman Sir ROGER DE COVERLEY; and I assure you I find it no easy Task to keep up the Figure of Master of the Fortune which was so handsomely enjoyed by that honest plain Man.  I cannot (with respect to the great Obligations I have, be it spoken) reflect upon his Character, but I am confirmed in the Truth which I have, I think, heard spoken at the Club, to wit, That a Man of a warm and well-disposed Heart with a very small Capacity, is highly superior in human Society to him who with the greatest Talents is cold and languid in his Affections.  But, alas! why do I make a difficulty in speaking of my worthy Ancestor’s Failings?  His little Absurdities and Incapacity for the Conversation of the politest Men are dead with him, and his greater Qualities are even now useful to him.  I know not whether by naming those Disabilities I do not enhance his Merit, since he has left behind him a Reputation in his Country which would be worth the Pains of the wisest Man’s whole Life to arrive at.  By the way I must observe to you, that many of your Readers have mistook that Passage in your Writings, wherein Sir ROGER is reported to have enquired into the private Character of the young Woman at the Tavern.  I know you mentioned that Circumstance as an Instance of the Simplicity and Innocence of his Mind, which made him imagine it a very easy thing to reclaim one of those Criminals, and not as an Inclination in him to be guilty with her.  The less discerning of your Readers cannot enter into that Delicacy of Description in the Character:  But indeed my chief Business at this time is to represent to you my present State of Mind, and the Satisfactions I promise to my self in the Possession of my new Fortune.  I have continued all Sir ROGER’S Servants, except such as it was a Relief to dismiss into little Beings within my Manor:  Those who are in a List of the good Knight’s own Hand to be taken care of by me, I have quartered upon such as have taken new Leases of me, and added so many Advantages during the Lives of the Persons so quartered, that it is the Interest of those whom they are joined with, to cherish and befriend them upon all Occasions.  I find a considerable Sum