Tom is a lively impudent clown, and has wit enough to have made him a pleasant companion, had _it_ been polished and rectified by good manners. _Guardian_, Nº 162. It is the custom of the Mahometans, if they see any printed or written paper upon the ground, to take it up, and lay it aside carefully, as not knowing but it may contain some piece of their Alcoran. _Spectator_, Nº 85. The arrangement here leads to a wrong sense, as if the ground were taken up, not the paper. Better thus: It is the custom of the Mahometans, if they see upon the ground any printed or written paper, to take it up, _&c._ The following rule depends on the communication of emotions or feelings to related objects, a principle in human nature we have had more than one occasion to mention. We find this operation, even where the objects are not otherwise related than by the juxtaposition of the words that express them. Hence to elevate or depress an object, one method is, to join it in the arrangement to another that is naturally high or low. Witness the following speech of Eumenes to the Roman senate. Causam veniendi sibi Romam fuisse, præter cupiditatem visendi _deos hominesque_, quorum beneficio in ea fortuna esset, supra quam ne optare quidem auderet, etiam ut coram moneret senatum ut Persei conatus obviam iret. _Livy, l. 42. cap. 11._ To join the Romans with the gods in the same enunciation, is an artful stroke of flattery, because it tacitly puts them on a level. On the other hand, when the purpose is to degrade or vilify an object, this is done successfully by ranking it with one that is really low: I hope to have this entertainment in a readiness for the next winter; and doubt not but it will please more than the opera or puppet-show. _Spectator_, Nº 28. Manifold have been the judgments which Heaven from time to time, for the chastisement of a sinful people, has inflicted upon whole nations. For when the degeneracy becomes common, ’tis but just the punishment should be general. Of this kind, in our own unfortunate country, was that destructive pestilence, whose mortality was so fatal as to sweep away, if Sir William Petty may be believed, five millions of Christian souls, besides women and Jews. _God’s revenge against punning. Arbuthnot._ Such also was that dreadful conflagration ensuing in this famous metropolis of London, which consumed, according to the computation of Sir Samuel Morland, 100,000 houses, not to mention churches and stables. _Ibid._ But on condition it might pass into a law, I would gladly exempt both lawyers of all ages, subaltern and field officers, young heirs, dancing-masters, pickpockets, and players.