wealth till he wakes in bankruptcy; and it is ten to one that, after he fails, the world will give a sort of fame to his folly, and hold him up to future trust and patronage, under the title of an unfortunate man of spirit.

But these are not the most glaring instances of the monstrous perversion of this character; the airy adventurer, or the magnificent but ruined projector, may both be men of spirit, though it is not spirit, but want of judgment, and visionary impetuosity, that have procured them the character. They may, however, possess that dignity and independence of mind in which alone true spirit. consists, and may have been ruined by whim and want of foresight, not want of spirit. But there is one set of men on whom the appellation is bestowed, whose conduct, for the most part, is, in every article, the reverse of dignity or spirit, and perfectly inconsistent with it.

The men I mean are those, who, by a train of intemperance and profusion, run out their fortunes, and reduce themselves to misery. Such men are common, and will be so, while vice, folly, and want of foresight, prevail among mankind. They have been frequently ridiculed and exposed by the ablest pens: and it is not the character itself that falls under my observation; it is the unaccountable absurdity of bestowing upon such characters the appellation of "men of spirit;" which they uniformly acquire, whether the fortune they have squandered is new, or has been handed down to them through a long line of ancestors.

The misapplication of the term is so completely ridiculous, as to be beneath contempt, were it not for the mischief that I am convinced has been occasioned by it. Youths entering on the stage of life are caught with the engaging appellation," a man of spirit;" they become

ambitious of acquiring that epithet; and perceiving it to be most generally bestowed on such men as I have described, they look up to them as patterns of life and manners, and begin to ape them at an age which thinks only of enjoyment, and despises consequences; nay, if they should look forward, and view the "man of spirit" reduced, by his own profusion, to the most abject state of servile dependence, it does not mend the matter. In the voice of the world, he is "a man of spirit" still. It is said, that the easy engaging manners of Captain Macheath have induced many young men to go on the highway. I am convinced the character of "a man of spirit" tempts many a young man to enter on a course of intemperance and prodigality, that most frequently ends in desperate circumstances, and a broken constitution.

This perversion is the more pvovoking, that, of all human characters, the intem

perate prodigal is, in every feature and every stage, the most diametrically opposite to a man of spirit. True spirit is founded on a love and desire of independence; and the two are so blended together, that it is impossible, even in idea, to separate them. But the intemperate prodigal is the most dependent of all human beings. He depends on others for amusement and company; and, however fashionable he may be in the beginning, his decline in the article of companions is certain and rapid. In the course of his profusion, he becomes dependent on others for the means of supporting it; and when his race of prodigality is run, he suffers a miserable dependence for the support even of that wretched life to which it has reduced him. After all, the world calls him " a man of spirit,” when he is really in a state of servile indigence, with a broken constitution, without spirit, and without the power of exerting it;

with the additional reflection, of having himself been the cause of his distresses.

Nor is it only in the affirmative use of the term that I have to complain of its perversion; the same injustice takes place when it is applied in the negative. Calling an intemperate and ruined prodigal a "man of spirit," may proceed sometimes from pity; but, when you hear a nan of moderation and virtue, especially if he happen also to be opulent, blamed as wanting spirit," the accusation is generally the child of detraction and ma-` lignity. I do not apply my observation to the avaricious and niggardly, to men whose purses are shut against their friends, and whose doors are barred against every body; such men certainly want spirit, and are, for the most part, defective in every virtue: but I am afraid that it often happens, that a person, benevolent to his friends, hospitable to the deserving, kind to his servants, and indulgent to his