, 1720. The paper has been claimed for John Hughes in the Preface to his
Poems
(1735).
| [No. 238] | Monday, December 3, 1711 | Steele |
Nequicquam populo bibulas donaveris Aures;
Respue quod non es
Persius, Sat. 4.
Among all the Diseases of the Mind, there is not one more epidemical or more pernicious than the Love of Flattery. For as where the Juices of the Body are prepared to receive a malignant Influence, there the Disease rages with most Violence; so in this Distemper of the Mind, where there is ever a Propensity and Inclination to suck in the Poison, it cannot be but that the whole Order of reasonable Action must be overturn'd, for, like Musick, it
So softens and disarms the Mind,
That not one Arrow can Resistance find.