I considered my newspaper, also, as another means of communicating
instruction, and in that view frequently reprinted in it extracts
from the Spectator, and other moral writers; and sometimes publish'd
little pieces of my own, which had been first compos'd for reading
in our Junto. Of these are a Socratic dialogue, tending to prove that,
whatever might be his parts and abilities, a vicious man could not
properly be called a man of sense; and a discourse on self-denial,
showing that virtue was not secure till its practice became a habitude,
and was free from the opposition of contrary inclinations.
These may be found in the papers about the beginning Of 1735.
In the conduct of my newspaper, I carefully excluded all libelling
and personal abuse, which is of late years become so disgraceful
to our country. Whenever I was solicited to insert anything
of that kind, and the writers pleaded, as they generally did,
the liberty of the press, and that a newspaper was like a stagecoach,
in which any one who would pay had a right to a place, my answer was,
that I would print the piece separately if desired, and the author
might have as many copies as he pleased to distribute himself,
but that I would not take upon me to spread his detraction;
and that, having contracted with my subscribers to furnish them
with what might be either useful or entertaining, I could not fill
their papers with private altercation, in which they had no concern,
without doing them manifest injustice.
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