[No. 107 of his adherents, as he wishes to confirm his | than the founder of their sect preserves his repuopinion, and to strengthen his party, will dili- tation. gently peruse every paper from which he can There are, indeed, few kinds of composition hope for sentiments like his own. An object, from which an author, however learned or inhowever sinall in itself, if placed near to the eye, genious, can hope a long continuance of fame. will engross all the rays of light; and a transac- He who has carefully studied human nature, tion, however trivial, swells into importance and can well describe it, may with most reason when it presses immediately on our attention. flatter his ambition. Bacon, among all his preHe that shall peruse the political pamphlets of tensions to the regard of posterity, seems to have any past reign, will wonder why they were so pleased himself chiefly with his Essays, which eagerly read, or so loudly praised. Many of come home to men's business and bosoms, and of the performances which had power to inflame which, therefore, he declares his expectation, factions, and fill a kingdom with confusion, have that they will live as long as books last. It may, now very little effect upon a frigid critic; and however, satisfy an honest and benevolent mind the time is coming, when the compositions of to have been useful, though less conspicuous; later hirelings shall lie equally despised. In nor will he that extends his hope to higher proportion as those who write on temporary sub-rewards be so much anxious to obtain praise, jects are exalted above their merit at first, they as to discharge the duty which Providence as are afterwards depressed below it; nor can the signs him. brightest elegance of diction, or most artful subtility of reasoning, hope for much esteem from those whose regard is no longer quickened by curiosity or pride. It is, indeed, the fate of controvertists, even when they contend for philosophical or theological truth, to be soon laid aside and slighted. Either the question is decided, and there is no more place for doubt and opposition: or mankind despair of understanding it, and grow weary of disturbance, content themselves with quiet ignorance, and refuse to be harassed with labours which they have no hopes of recompensing with knowledge. The authors of new discoveries may surely expect to be reckoned among those whose writings are secure of veneration: yet it often happens that the general reception of a doctrine obscures the books in which it was delivered. When any tenet is generally received and adopted as an incontrovertible principle, we seldom look back to the arguments upon which it was first established or can bear that tediousness of deduction, and multiplicity of evidence, by which its author was forced to reconcile it to prejudice, and fortify it in the weakness of novelty against obstinacy and envy. It is well known how much of our philosophy is derived from Boyle's discovery of the qualities of the air, yet of those who now adopt or enlarge his theory, very few have read the detail of his experiments. His name is, indeed, reverenced; but his works are neglected: we are contented to know, that he conquered his opponents, without inquiring what cavils were produced against him, or by what proofs they were confuted. Some writers apply themselves to studies boundless and inexhaustible, as experiments and natural philosophy. These are always lost in successive compilations, as new advances are made, and foriner observations become more familiar. Others spend their lives in remarks on language, or explanations of antiquities, and only afford materials for lexicographers and commentators, who are themselves overwhelmed by subsequent collectors, that equally destroy the memory of their predecessors by amplification, transposition, or contraction. Every new system of nature gives birth to a swarm of expositors, whose business is to explain and illustrate it, and who can hope to exist no longer No. 107.] TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 1751. Alternis igitur contendere versibus ambo On themes alternate now the swains recite; VIRG ELPHINSTON AMONG the various censures, which the unavoidable comparison of my performances with those of my predecessors has produced, there is none more general than that of uniformity. Many of my readers remark the want of those changes of colours, which formerly fed the at tention with unexhausted novelty, and of that in termixture of subjects, or alternation of manner, by which other writers relieved weariness, and awakened expectation. I have, indeed, hitherto avoided the practice of uniting gay and solemn subjects in the same paper, because it seems absurd for an author to counteract himself, to press at once with equa force upon both parts of the intellectual balance, or give medicines, which, like the double poison of Dryden, destroy the force of one another. I have endeavoured sometimes to divert, and some times to elevate; but have imagined it a useless attempt to disturb merriment by solemnity, or interrupt seriousness by drollery. Yet I shall this day publish two letters of very different tendency, which I hope, like tragi-comedy, may chance to please even when they are not criu cally approved. TO THE RAMBLER. THOUGH, as my mamma tells me, I am too young to talk at the table, I have great pleasure in listening to the conversation of learned men, especially when they discourse of things which Í do not understand; and have, therefore, been of late particularly delighted with many disputes about the alteration of the style, which, they say, is to be made by act of parliament. One day when my mamma was gone out of the room, I asked a very great scholar what the style was? He told me, he was afraid I should hardly understand him when he informed me, that it was the stated and established method of computing time. It was not, indeed, likely that I should understand him; for I never yet knew time computed in my life, nor can imagine why we should be at so inuch trouble to count what we cannot keep. He did not tell me whether we are to count the time past, or the time to come; but I have considered them both by myself, and think it as foolish to count time that is gone, as money that is spent; and as for the time which is to come, it only seems farther off by counting: and, therefore, when any pleasure is promised me, I always think of the time as little as I can. I have since listened very attentively to every one that talked upon this subject, of whom the greater part seem not to understand it better | than myself; for though they often hint how much the nation has been mistaken, and rejoice that we are at last growing wiser than our ancestors, I have never been able to discover from them, that any body has died sooner or been married later for counting time wrong; and, therefore, I began to fancy that there was a great bustle with little consequence. tasks, and without account, and go out without Your humble Servant, MR. RAMBLER, I WAS seized this morning with an unusual pensiveness, and finding that books only served to heighten it, took a ramble into the fields, in hopes of relief and invigoration from the keenness of the air and brightness of the sun. As I wandered wrapt up in thought, my eyes were struck with the hospital for the reception of deserted infants, which I surveyed with pleasure, till, by a natural train of sentiment, I began to reflect on the fate of the mothers. For to what shelter can they fly? Only to the arms of their betrayer, which perhaps are now no longer open to receive them; and then how quick must be the transition from deluded virtue to shameless guilt, and from shameless guilt to hopeless wretchedness! satisfy the most rigorous censor; and whose participation of our common nature might surely induce us to endeavour, at least, their preserva tion from eternal punishment. These were all once, if not virtuous, at least innocent; and might still have continued blameless and easy; but for the arts and insinuations of those whose rank, fortune, or education, furnished them with means to corrupt or to delude them. Let the libertine reflect a moment on the situation of that woman, who, being forsaken by her betrayer, is reduced to the necessity of turning prostitute for bread, and judge of the enormity of his guilt by the evils which it produces. At last two friends of my papa, Mr. Cycle and The anguish that I felt left me no rest, till I Mr. Starlight, being, it seems, both of high learn- had, by your means, addressed myself to the ing, and able to make an almanack, began to public on behalf of those forlorn creatures, the talk about the new style. Sweet Mr. Starlight-women of the town, whose misery here might I am sure I shall love his name as long as I live; for he told Cycle roundly, with a fierce look, that we should never be right without a year of confusion. Dear Mr. Rambler, did you ever hear any thing so charming? a whole year of confusion! When there has been a rout at mamma's, I have thought one night of confusion worth a thousand nights of rest; and if I can but see a year of confusion, a whole year, of cards in one room, and dancings in another, here a feast, and there a masquerade, and plays, and coaches, and hurries, and messages, and milliners, and raps at the door, and visits, and frolics, and new fashions, I shall not care what they do with the rest of the ume, nor whether they count it by the old style or the new; for I am resolved to break loose It cannot be doubted but that numbers follow from the nursery in the tumult, and play my part this dreadful course of life, with shame, horror, among the rest; and it will be strange if I can- and regret; but where can they hope for refuge? not get a husband and a chariot in the year of" The world is not their friend, nor the world's confusion. law." Their sighs, and tears, and groans, are Cycle, who is neither so young nor so hand-criminal in the eye of their tyrants, the bully and some as Starlight, very gravely maintained, that all the perplexity may be avoided by leaping over eleven days in the reckoning: and, indeed, if it should come only to this, I think the new style is a delightful thing; for my mamma says I shall go to court when I am sixteen, and if they can but contrive often to leap over eleven days together, the months of restraint will soon be at an end. It is strange, that with all the plots that have been laid against time, they could never kill it by act of parliament before. Dear Sir, if you have any vote or interest, get them but for once to destroy eleven months, and then I shall be as old as some married ladies. But this is desired only if you think they will not comply with Mr. Starlight's scheme; for nothing surely could please me like a year of confusion, when I shall no longer be fixed this hour to my pen, and the next to my needle, or wait at home for the dancing-master one day, and the next for the music-master, but run from ball to ball, and from drum to drum; and spend all my time without W the bawd, who fatten on their misery, and threaten them with want or a gaol, if they show the least design of escaping from their bondage. "To wipe all tears from off all faces," is a task too hard for mortals; but to alleviate misfortunes is often within the most limited power, yet the opportunities which every day affords of relieving the most wretched of human beings are overlooked and neglected, with equal disregard of policy and goodness. There are places, indeed, set apart, to which these unhappy creatures may resort, when the diseases of incontinence seize upon them; but if they obtain a cure, to what are they reduced? Either to return with the small remains of beauty to their former guilt, or perish in the streets with nakedness and hunger. How frequently have the gay and thoughtless, in their evening frolics, seen a band of these miserable females, covered with rags, shivering with cold, and pining with hunger; and without cither pitying their calamities, or reflecting upon 170 the cruelty of those who perhaps first seduced | straitened by rocks and waters, is capable of prothem by caresses of fondness, or magnificence ducing more than all its inhabitants are able to of promises, go on to reduce others to the same consume, our lives, though much contracted by wretchedness by the same means? incidental distraction, would yet afford us a large To stop the increase of this deplorable multi-space vacant to the exercise of reason and vir tude, is undoubtedly the first and most pressing tue; that we want not time, but diligence, for consideration. To prevent evil is the great end great performances; and that we squander much of government, the end for which vigilance and of our allowance, even while we think it sparing severity are properly employed. But surely and insufficient. those whom passion or interest have already depraved, have some claim to compassion, from beings equally frail and fallible with themselves. Nor will they long groan in their present afflic-away. tions, if none were to refuse them relief, but those that owe their exemption from the same distress only to their wisdom and their virtue. No. 108.] I am, &c. AMICUS. SATURDAY, MARCH 30, 1751. Sapere aude, Begin, be bold, and venture to be wise: HOR. This natural and necessary comminution of our lives, perhaps, often makes us insensible of the negligence with which we suffer them to slide We never consider ourselves as pos sessed at once of time sufficient for any great design, and therefore indulge ourselves in fortuitous amusements. We think it unnecessary to take an account of a few supernumerary moments, which, however employed, could have produced little advantage, and which were exposed to a thousand chances of disturbance and interruption. It is observable that, either by nature, or by habit, our faculties are fitted to images of a certain extent, to which we adjust great things by division, and little things by accumulation. of extensive surfaces we can only take a survey, as the parts succeed one another; and atoms we cannot perceive till they are united into masses. Thus we break the vast periods of time into centuries and years; and thus, if we would know Till the whole stream, which stopp'd him, should be the amount of moments, we must agglomerate gone. That runs, and as it runs, for ever will run on. COWLEY. AN ancient poet unreasonably discontented at the present state of things, which the system of opinions obliged him to represent in its worst forin, has observed of the earth," that its greater part is covered by the uninhabitable ocean; that of the rest some is encumbered with naked mountains, and some lost under barren sands; some scorched with unintermitted heat, and some petrified with perpetual frost; so that only a few regions remain for the production of fruits, the pasture of cattle, and the accommodation of man." them into days and weeks. The proverbial oracles of our parsimonious of fortune is by small expenses, by the profusions ancestors have informed us, that the fatal waste of sums too little singly to alarm our caution, and which we never suffer ourselves to consider together. life; he that hopes to look back hereafter with Of the same kind is the prodigality of satisfaction upon past years, must learn to know the present value of single minutes, and endeavour to let no particle of time fall useless to the ground. attainment of any new qualification, to look upon It is usual for those who are advised to the The same observation may be transferred to course of their conduct, to dismiss business, and themselves as required to change the general the time allotted us in our present state. we have deducted all that is absorbed in sleep, nights to a particular attention. But all comWhen exclude pleasure, and to devote their days and all that is inevitably appropriated to the demands mon degrees of excellence are attainable at a of nature, or irresistibly engrossed by the tyranny lower price; he that should steadily and resoof custom; all that passes in regulating the su-lutely assign to any science or language those perficial decorations of life, or is given up in the reciprocations of civility to the disposal of others; all that is torn from us by the violence of disease, or stolen imperceptibly away by lassitude and languor; we shall find that part of our duration very sinall of which we can truly call ourselves masters, or which we can spend wholly at our own choice. Many of our hours are lost in a rotation of petty cares, in a constant recurrence of the same employments; many of our provisions for ease or happiness are always exhausted by the present day; and a great part of our existence serves no other purpose, than that of enabling us to enjoy the rest Of the few moments which are left in our disposal, it may reasonably be expected, that we should be so frugal, as to let none of them slip from us without some equivalent: and perhaps it might be found, that as the earth, however interstitial vacancies which intervene in the most crowded variety of diversion or employment, would find every day new irradiations of knowledge, and discover how much more is to be hoped from frequency and perseverance, than from violent efforts and sudden desires; efforts which are soon remitted when they encounter difficulty, and desires, which if they are indulged too often, will shake off the authority of reason, and range capriciously from one object to another. sign to a time of leisure, and a state of settled The disposition to defer every important demate of the human powers. If we except those uniformity, proceeds generally from a false estigigantic and stupendous intelligences who are said to grasp a system by intuition, and bound forward from one series of conclusions to another, without regular steps through intermediate propositions, the most successful students make | No. 103.] Few minds will be long confined to severe laborious meditation; and when a successful attack on knowledge has been made, the student recreates himself with the contemplation of his conquests, and forbears another incursion, till the new-acquired truth has become familiar, and his curiosity calls upon him for fresh gratifications. Whether the time of intermission is spent in company, or in solitude, in necessary business, or in voluntary levities, the understanding is equally abstracted from the object of inquiry, but perhaps if it be detained by occupations less pleasing, it returns again to study with greater alacrity, than when it is glutted with ideal pleasures, and surfeited with intemperance of application. He that will not suffer himself to be discouraged by fancied impossibilities, may sometimes find his abilities invigorated by the necessity of exerting them in short intervals, as the force of a current is increased by the contraction of its channel. From some cause like this it has probably preceded, that among those who have contributed to the advancement of learning, many have risen to eminence in opposition to all the obstacles which external circumstances could place in their way, amidst the tumult of business, the distresses of poverty, or the dissipations of a wandering and unsettled state. A great part of the life of Erasmus was one continual peregrination; ill supplied with the gifts of fortune, and led from city to city, and from kingdom to kingdom, by the hopes of patrons and preferment, hopes which always flattered and always deceived him; he yet found means, by unshaken constancy, and a vigilant improvement of those hours, which, in the midst of the most restless activity, will remain unengaged, to write more than another in the same condition would have hoped to read. Compelled by want to attendance and solicitation, and so much versed in common life, that he has transmitted to us the most perfect delineation of the manners of his age, he joined to his knowledge of the world, such application to books, that he will stand for ever in the first rank of literary heroes. How this proficiency was obtained he sufficiently discovers, by informing us, that the "Praise of Folly," one of his most celebrated performances, was composed by him on his road to Italy; ne totum illud tempus quo equo fuit insidendum, illiteratis fabulis tereretur, lest the hours which he was obliged to spend on horseback should be tattled away without regard to literature. An Italian philosopher expressed in his motto, that time was his estate; an estate, indeed, which will produce nothing without cultivation, but will always abundantly repay the labours of industry, and satisfy the most extensive desires, if no part of it be suffered to lie waste by negligence, to be overrun with noxious plants, or laid out for show rather than for use. TUESDAY, APRIL 2, 1751. Gratum est, quod patriacivem populoque dedisti Moribus instituas. Grateful the gift: a member to the state, JUV. If you that member useful shall create; TO THE RAMBLER. ELPHINSTON. SIR, THOUGH you seem to have taken a view suffi. ciently extensive of the miseries of life, and have employed much of your speculation on mournful subjects, you have not yet exhausted the whole stock of human infelicity. There is still a species of wretchedness which escapes your ob servation, though it might supply you with many sage remarks, and salutary cautions. I cannot but imagine the start of attention awakened by this welcome hint; and at this instant see the Rambler snuffing his candle, rubbing his spectacles, stirring his fire, locking out interruption, and settling himself in his easy chair, that he may enjoy a new calamity without disturbance. For, whether it be that continued sickness or misfortune has acquainted you only with the bitterness of being; or that you imagine none but yourself able to discover what I suppose has been seen and f. It by all the inhabitants of the world; whether you intend your writings as antidotal to the levity and merriment with which your rivals endeavour to attract the favour of the public; or fancy that you have some par ticular powers of dolorous declamation, and warble out your groans with uncommon elegance or energy; it is certain that, whatever be your subject, melancholy for the most part bursts in upon your speculations, your gayety is quickly overcast, and, though your readers may be flattered with hopes of pleasantry, they are seldom dismissed but with heavy hearts. That I may therefore gratify you with an imitation of your own syllables of sadness, I will inform you, that I was condemned by some disastrous influence to be an only son, born to the apparent prospect of a large fortune, and allotted to my parents at that time of life, when satiety of common diversions allows the mind to indulge parental affection with greater intenseness. My birth was celebrated by the tenants with feasts, and dances, and bagpipes: congratulations were sent from every family within ten miles round ; and my parents discovered in my first cries such tokens of future virtue and understanding, that they declared themselves determined to devote the remaining part of life to my happiness and the increase of their estate. The abilities of my father and mother were not perceptibly unequal, and education had given neither much advantage over the other. They had both kept good company, rattled in chariots, glittered in playhouses, and danced at court, and were both expert in the games that were in their time called in as auxiliaries against the intrusion of thought. marks, and the quickness of my replies; and many a scholar, five years older than myself, have I dashed into confusion by the steadiness of my countenance, silenced by my readiness of repartee, and tortured with envy by the address with which I picked up a fan, presented a snuff box, or received an empty tea cup. When there is such a parity between two per- | round the country for the petulance of my resons associated for life, the dejection which the husband, if he be not completely stupid, mist always suffer for want of superiority, sinks him to submissiveness. My mamma therefore governed the family without control; and except that my father still retained some authority in the stables, and now and then, after a supernumerary bottle, broke a looking-glass or China dish to prove his sovereignty, the whole course of the year was regulated by her direction, the servants received from her all their orders, and the tenants were continued or dismissed at her discretion. She therefore thought herself entitled to the superintendence of her son's education; and when my father at the instigation of the parson, faintly proposed that I should be sent to school, very positively told him, that she should not suffer so fine a child to be ruined; that she never knew any boys at a grammar-school that could come into a room without blushing, or sit at the table without some awkward uneasiness; that they were always putting themselves into danger by boisterous plays, or vitiating their behaviour with mean company; and that, for her part, she would rather follow me to the grave, than see me tear my clothes, and hang down my head, and sneak about with dirty shoes and blotted fingers, my hair unpowdered, and my hat uncocked. At fourteen I was completely skilled in all the niceties of dress, and I could not only enumerate all the variety of silks, and distinguish the product of a French loom, but dart my eye through a numerous company, and observe every deviation from the reigning mode. I was universally skilful in all the changes of expensive finery; but as every one, they say, has something to which he is particularly born, was eminently knowing in Brussels lace. The next year saw me advanced to the trust and power of adjusting the ceremonial of an assembly. All received their partners from my hand, and to me every stranger applied for introduction. My heart now disdained the instructions of a tutor, who was rewarded with a small annuity for life, and left me qualified, in my own opinion, to govern myself. In a short time I came to London, and as my father was well known among the higher classes of life, soon obtained admission to the most splendid assemblies and most crowded card-tables. Here I found myself universally caressed My father, who had no other end in his pro- and applauded: the ladies praised the fancy of posal than to appear wise and manly, soon ac- my clothes, the beauty of my form, and the softquiesced, since I was not to live by my learn-ness of my voice; endeavoured in every place to ing; for indeed he had known very few students force themselves to my notice; and invited by a that had not some stiffness in their manner. thousand oblique solicitations, my attendance to They therefore agreed that a domestic tutor the playhouse, and my salutations in the park. should be procured, and hired an honest gentle- I was now happy to the utmost extent of my man of mean conversation and narrow senti- conception; I passed every morning in dress, ments, but whom, having passed the common every afternoon in visits, and every night in some forms of literary education, they implicitly con- select assemblies, where neither care nor knowcluded qualified to teach all that was to be learn-ledge were suffered to molest us. ed from a scholar. He thought himself sufficiently exalted by being placed at the same table with his pupil, and had no other view than to perpetuate his felicity by the utmost flexibility of submission, to all my mother's opinions and caprices He frequently took away my book, lest I should mope with too much application, charged me never to write without turning up my ruffles, and generally brushed my coat before he dismissed me into the parlour. He had no occasion to complain of too burdensome an employment; for my mother very judiciously considered, that I was not likely to grow politer in his company, and suffered me not to pass any more time in his apartment than my lesson required. When I was summoned to my task, she enjoined me not to get any of my tutor's ways, who was seldom mentioned before me but for practices to be avoided. I was every moment admonished not to lean on my chair, cross my legs, or swing my hands like my tutor; and once my mother very seriously deliberated upon his total dismission, because I began, she said, to learn his manner of sticking on my hat, and had his bend in my shoulders, and his totter in my gait. Such, however, was her care, that I escaped all these depravities; and when I was only twelve years old, had rid myself of every appearance of childish diffidence. I was celebrated After a few years, however, these delights br came familiar, and I had leisure to look round me with more attention. I then found that my flatterers had very little power to relieve the languor of satiety, or recreate weariness, by varied amusement; and therefore endeavoured to enlarge the sphere of my pleasures, and to try what satisfaction might be found in the society of men. I will not deny the mortification with which I perceived, that every man whose name! had heard mentioned with respect, received me with a kind of tenderness, nearly bordering on compassion; and that those whose reputation was not well established, thought it necessary to justify their understandings, by treating me with contempt. One of these witlings elevated his crest, by asking me in a full coffee-house the price of patches; and another whispered that he wondered why Miss Frisk did not keep me that afternoon to watch her squirrel. When I found myself thus hunted from all masculine conversation by those who were them. selves barely admitted, I returned to the ladies, and resolved to dedicate my life to their service and their pleasure. But I find that I have now lost my charms. Of those with whom I entered the gay world, some are married, some have retired, and some have so much changed their opinion, that they scarcely pay any regard to my civilities, if there is any other man in the place |