self on tl e bed, and closed his eyes, but imagined, I stay, or free their hearts from the terror which in his sleep, that his palace and gardens were had seized upon them. The princesses inclosed overwhelmed by an inundation, and waked with themselves in the palace, and could yet scarcely all the terrors of a man struggling in the water. believe themselves in safety. Every attention He composed himself again to rest, but was af- was fixed upon the late danger and escape, and frighted by an imaginary irruption into his no mind was any longer at leisure for gay sallies kingdom; and striving, as is usual in dreams, or careless prattle. without ability to move, fancied himself betrayed to his enemies, and again started up with horror and indignation.

It was now day, and fear was so strongly impressed on his mind, that he could sleep no more. He rose; but his thoughts were filled with the deluge and invasion, nor was he able to disengage his attention, or mingle with vacancy and ease in any amusement. At length his perturbation gave way to reason, and he resolved no longer to be harassed by visionary miseries; but before this resolution could be completed, half the day had elapsed. He felt a new conviction of the uncertainty of human schemes, and could not forbear to bewail the weakness of that being, whose quiet was to be interrupted by vapours of the fancy. Having been first disturbed by a dream, he afterwards grieved that a dream could disturb him. He at last discovered that his terrors and grief were equally vain, and that to lose the present in lamenting the past was voluntarily to protract a melancholy vision. The third day was now declining, and Seged again resolved to be happy on the morrow.

Seged had now no other employment than to contemplate the innumerable casualties which lie in ambush on every side to intercept the happiness of man, and break in upon the hour of delight and tranquillity. He had, however, the consolation of thinking, that he had not been now disappointed by his own fault, and that the accident which had blasted the hopes of the day might easily be prevented by future caution.

That he might provide for the pleasure of the next morning, he resolved to repeal his penal edict, since he had already found that discontent and melancholy were not to be frighted away by the threats of authority, and that pleasure would only reside where she was exempted from control. He therefore invited all the companions of his retreat to unbounded pleasantry, by pro posing prizes for those who should, on the fol lowing day, distinguish themselves by any festive performances; the tables of the anti chamber were covered with gold and pearls, and robes and garlands decreed the rewards of those who could refine elegance or heighten pleasure.

At this display of riches every eye immediately sparkled, and every tongue was busied in celebrating the bounty and magnificence of the em peror. But when Seged entered, in hopes of uncommon entertainment from universal emulation, he found that any passion too strongly agitated puts an end to that tranquillity which is necessary to mirth, and that the mind that is to be moved by the gentle ventilations of gayety must be first smoothed by a total calm. Whatever we ardently wish to gain, we must, in the same degree, be afraid to lose, and fear and pleasure cannot dwell together.

ON the fourth morning Seged rose early, refreshed with sleep, vigorous with health, and eager with expectation. He entered the garden, All was now care and solicitude. Nothing. attended by the princess and ladies of his court, was done or spoken, but with so visible an enand, seeing nothing about but airy cheerfulness, deavour at perfection, as always failed to debegan to say to his heart, "This day shall be a light, though it sometimes forced admiration: day of pleasure." The sun played upon the and Seged could not but observe with sorrow, water, the birds warbled in the groves, and the that his prizes had more influence than himself. gales quivered among the branches. He roved As the evening approached, the contest grew from walk to walk as chance directed him, and more earnest, and those who were forced to sometimes listened to the songs, sometimes allow themselves excelled began to discover the mingled with the dancers, sometimes let loose malignity of defeat, first by angry glances, and his imagination in flights of merriment, and at last by contemptuous murmurs. Seged likesometimes uttered grave reflections and senten-wise shared the anxiety of the day; for considertious maxims, and feasted on the admirationing himself as obliged to distribute with exact with which they were received.

justice the prizes which had been so zealously Thus the day rolled on, without any accident sought, he durst never remit his attention, but of vexation, or intrusion of melancholy thoughts. passed his time upon the rack of doubt, in baAll that beheld him caught gladness from his lancing different kinds of merit, and adjusting ooks, and the sight of happiness conferred by the claims of all the competitors. himself filled his heart with satisfaction: but At last, knowing that no exactness could having passed three hours in this harmless lux-satisfy those whose hopes he should disappoint, ury, he was alarmed on a sudden by a univer- and thinking that, on a day set apart for hapsal scream among the women, and, turning back, piness, it would be cruel to oppress any heart saw the whole assembly flying in confusion. A with sorrow, he declared that all had pleased young crocodile had risen out of the lake, and him alike, and dismissed all with presents of was ranging the garden in wantonness or hun-equal value. ger. Seged beheld him with indignation, as a Seged soon saw that his caution had not been disturber of his felicity, and chased him back in- able to avoid offence. They who had believed to the lake, but could not persuade his retinue to themselves secure of the highest prizes, were

not pleased to be levelled with the crowd; and though, by the liberality of the king, they received more than his promise had entitled them to expect, they departed unsatisfied, because they were honoured with no distinction, and wanted an opportunity to triumph in the mortification of their opponents. "Behold here," said Seged, "the condition of him who places his happiness in the happiness of others." He then retired to meditate, and, while the courtiers were repining at his distributions, saw the fifth sun go down in discontent.

The next dawn renewed his resolution to be happy. But having learned how little he could effect by settled schemes or preparatory measures, he thought it best to give up one day entirely to chance, and left every one to please and be pleased his own way.

This relaxation of regularity diffused a general complacence through the whole court, and the emperor imagined that he had at last found the secret of obtaining an interval of felicity. But as he was roving in this careless assembly with equal carelessness, he overheard one of his courtiers in a close arbour murmuring alone: What merit has Seged above us, that we should thus fear and obey him? a man whom, whatever he may have formerly performed, his luxury now shows to have the same weakness with ourselves!" This charge affected him the more, as it was uttered by one whom he had always observed among the most abject of his flatterers. At first his indignation prompted him to severity; but reflecting, that what was spoken without intention to be heard was to be considered as only thought, and was, perhaps, but the sudden burst of casual and temporary vexation, he invented some decent pretence to send him away, that his retreat might not be tainted with the breath of envy; and after the struggle of deliberation was past, and all desire of revenge utterly suppressed, passed the evening not only with tranquillity, but triumph, though none but himself was conscious of the victory.

The remembrance of this clemency cheered the beginning of the seventh day, and nothing happened to disturb the pleasure of Seged, till, looking on the tree that shaded him, he recollected that under a tree of the same kind he had passed the night after his defeat in the kingdom of Goiama. The reflection on his loss, his disnonour, and the miseries which his subjects suffered from the invader, filled him with sadness. At last he shook off the weight of sorrow, and began to solace himself with his usual pleasure; when his tranquillity was again disturbed by jealousies which the late contest for the prizes nad produced, and which, having in vain tried to pacify them by persuasion, he was forced to silence by command.

On the eighth morning Seged was awakened early by an unusual hurry in the apartments, and, inquiring the cause, was told that the princess Balkis was seized with sickness. He rose, and, calling the physicians, found that they had little hope of her recovery. Here was an end of jollity; all his thoughts were now upon his daughter, whose eyes he closed on the tenth day.

305

WHEN Diogenes was once asked, what kind of wine he liked best, he answered, "That which is drunk at the cost of others."

Though the character of Diogenes has never excited any general zeal of imitation, there are many who resemble him in his taste of wine; many who are frugal, though not abstemious; whose appetites, though too powerful for reason, are kept under restraint by avarice; and to whom all delicacies lose their flavour, when they cannot be obtained but at their own ex pense.

Nothing produces more singularity of man ners, and inconstancy of life, than the conflict of opposite vices in the same mind. He that uniformly pursues any purpose, whether good or bad, has a settled principle of action; and, as he may always find associates who are travelling the same way, is countenanced by example, and sheltered in the multitude; but a man actuated at once by different desires must move in a di rection peculiar to himself, and suffer that re proach which we are naturally inclined to be stow on those who deviate from the rest of the world, even without inquiring whether they are worse or better.

Yet this conflict of desires sometimes produces wonderful efforts. To riot in far-fetched dishes, or surfeit with unexhausted variety, and yet practise the most rigid economy, is surely an art which may justly draw the eyes of mankind upon them whose industry or judgment has enabled them to attain it. To him, indeed, who is content to break open the chests, or mortgage the manors of his ancestors, that he may hire the ministers of excess at the highest price, glut tony is an easy science; yet we often hear the votaries of luxury boasting of the elegance which they owe to the taste of others; relating with rapture the succession of dishes with which their cooks and caterers supply them; and expecting their share of praise with the discoverers of arts, and the civilizers of nations. But to shorten the way to convivial happiness, by eating without cost, is a secret hitherto in few hands, but which certainly deserves the curiosity of those whose principal employment is their dinner, and who see the sun rise with no other hope than that they shall fill their bellies before it sets.

Of them that have within my knowledge attempted this scheme of happiness, the greater part have been immediately obliged to desist; and some, whom their first attempts flattered with success, were reduced by degrees to a few tables, from which they were at last chased to Such were the days which Seged of Ehtiopia make way for others; and, having long habitu had appropriated to a short respiration from theated themselves to superfluous plenty, growled

away their latter years in discontented compe

tence.

None enter the regions of luxury with higher expectations than men of wit, who imagine that they shall never want a welcome to that company whose ideas they can enlarge, or whose imaginations they can elevate, and believe themselves able to pay for their wine with the mirth which it qualifies them to produce. Full of this opinion, they crowd with little invitation whereever the smell of a feast allures them, but are seldom encouraged to repeat their visits, being dreaded by the pert as rivals, and hated by the dull as disturbers of the company.

Gulosulus was never embarrassed but when he was required to declare his sentiments before he had been able to discover to which side the master of the house inclined; for it was his invariable rule to adopt the notions of those that invited him.

It will sometimes happen that the insolence of wealth breaks into contemptuousness, or the turbulence of wine requires a vent; and Gulosulus seldom fails of being singled out on such emergencies, as one on whom any experiment of ribaldry may be safely tried. Sometimes his lordship finds himself inclined to exhibit a specimen of raillery, for the diversion of his No man has been so happy in gaining and guests, and Gulosulus always supplies him But he has keeping the privilege of living at luxurious with a subject of merriment. houses as Gulosulus, who, after thirty years of learned to consider rudeness and indignities as continual revelry, has now established, by un- familiarities that entitle him to greater freecontroverted prescription, his claim to partake dom: he comforts himself that those who treat of every entertainment, and whose presence and insult him pay for their laughter, and they who aspire to the praise of a sumptuous that he keeps his money while they enjoy their table are careful to procure on a day of import- jest. ance, by sending the invitation a fortnight before.

Gulosulus entered the world without any eminent degree of merit; but was careful to frequent houses where persons of rank resorted. By being often seen, he became in time known; and, from sitting in the same room, was suffered to mix in idle conversation, or assisted to fill up a vacant hour, when better amusement was not readily to be had. From the coffee-house he was sometimes taken away to dinner; and, as no man refuses the acquaintance of him whom he sees admitted to familiarity by others of equal dignity, when he had been met at a few tables, he with less difficulty found the way to more, till at last he was regularly expected to appear wherever preparations are made for a feast, within the circuit of his acquaintance.

His chief policy consists in selecting some dish from every course, and recommending it to the company, with an air so decisive, that no one ventures to contradict him. By this practice he acquires at a feast a kind of dictatorial authority; his taste becomes the standard of pickles and seasoning, and he is venerated by the professors of epicurism, as the only man who understands the niceties of cookery.

Whenever a new sauce is imported, or any innovation made in the culinary system, he procures the earliest intelligence, and the most authentic receipt; and, by communicating his knowledge under proper injunctions of secrecy, gains a right of tasting his own dish whenever it is prepared, that he may tell whether his directions have been fully understood.

By this method of life Gulosulus has so im When he was thus by accident initiated in pressed on his imagination the dignity of feastluxury, he felt in himself no inclination to re-ing, that he has no other topic of talk or subtire from a life of so much pleasure, and there-ject of meditation. His calendar is a bill of fore very seriously considered how he might fare; he measures the year by successive continue it. Great qualities or uncommon ac- dainties. The only common places of his me complishments he did not find necessary; for mory are his meals; and if you ask him at he had already seen that merit rather enforces what time an event happened, he considers respect than attracts fondness; and as he thought whether he heard it after a dinner of turbot or no folly greater than that of losing a dinner for venison. He knows, indeed, that those who any other gratification, he often congratulated value themselves upon sense, learning, or piety, himself, that he had none of that disgusting ex- speak of him with contempt; but he considers cellence which impresses awe upon greatness, them as wretches, envious or ignorant, who do and condemns its possessors to the society of not know his happiness, or wish to supplant those who are wise or brave, and indigent as him; and declares to his friends, that he is fully satisfied with his own conduct, since he has fed every day on twenty dishes, and yet doubled his estate.

themselves.

Solve senescentem mature sanus equum, ne
Peccet ad extremum ridendus.

Gulosulus, having never allotted much of his time to books or meditation, had no opinion in philosophy or politics, and was not in danger of injuring his interest by dogmatical positions, or violent contradiction. If a dispute arose, he took No. 207.] TUESDAY, MArch 10, 1752. care to listen with earnest attention; and, when either speaker grew vehement and loud, turned towards him with eager quickness, and uttered a short phrase of admiration, as if surprised by such cogency of argument as he had never known before. By this silent concession, he generally preserved in either controvertist such a conviction of his own superiority, as inclined him rather to pity than irritate his adversary, and prevented those outrages which are sometimes produced by the rage of defeat or petulance of triumph.

The voice of reason cries with winning force,
Loose from the rapid car your aged horse,
Lest, in the race derided, left behind,
He drag his jaded limbs and burst his wind.

HOR.

FRANCIS

SUCH is the emptiness of human enjoyment, that we are always impatient of the present. Attainment is followed by neglect, and possession by disgust; and the malicious remark of

Others, not able to feast their imagination with pure ideas, advance somewhat nearer to the grossness of action, with great diligence collect whatever is requisite to their design, and, after a thousand researches and consultations, are snatched away by death, as they stand in procinctu waiting for a proper opportunity to begin.

If there were no other end of life, than to find some adequate solace for every day, I know not whether any condition could be preferred to that of the man who involves himself in his own thoughts, and never suffers experience to show him the vanity of speculation; for no sooner are notions reduced to practice, than tranquillity and confidence forsake the breast; every day brings its task, and often without bringing abilities to perform it; difficulties embarrass, uncertainty perplexes, opposition retards, censure exasperates, or neglect depresses. We proceed because we have begun; we complete our design that the labour already spent may not be vain; but, as expectation gradually dies away, the gay smile of alacrity disappears, we are compelled to implore severer powers, and trust the event to patience and constancy.

When once our labour has begun, the comfort that enables us to endure it is the prospect of its end; for though in every long work there are some joyous intervals of self-applause, when the attention is recreated by unexpected facility, and the imagination soothed by incidental excellences; yet the toil with which performance struggles after idea is so irksome and disgusting, and so frequent is the necessity of resting below that perfection which we imagined within our reach, that seldom any man obtains more from his endeavours than a painful conviction of his defects, and a continual resuscitation of desires which he feels himself unable to gratify.

tained it, and because we have already done much, too suddenly conclude that no more is to be done.

All attraction is increased by the approach of the attracting body. We never find ourselves so desirous to finish, as in the latter part of our work, or so impatient of delay, as when we know that delay cannot be long. This unseasonable importunity of discontent may be partly imputed to languor and weariness, which must always oppress those more whose toil has been longer continued; but the greater part usually proceeds from frequent contemplation of that ease which is now considered as within reach, and which, when it has once flattered our hopes, we cannot suffer to be withheld.

In some of the noblest compositions of wit, the conclusion falls below the vigour and spirit of the first books; and as a genius is not to be degraded by the imputation of human failings, the cause of this declension is commonly sought in the structure of the work, and plausible reasons are given why in the defective part less or nament was necessary, or less could be admit ted. But, perhaps, the author would have confessed, that his fancy was tired, and his perse verance broken; that he knew his design to be unfinished, but that, when he saw the end so near, he could no longer refuse to be at rest.

Against the instillations of this frigid opiate, the heart should be secured by all the considera tions which once concurred to kindle the ardour of enterprise. Whatever motive first incited action, has still greater force to stimulate perseverance; since he that might have lain still at first in blameless obscurity, cannot afterwards desist but with infamy and reproach. He whom a doubtful promise of distant good could encourage to set difficulties at defiance, ought not to remit his vigour when he has almost obtained his recompense. To faint or loiter, when only the last efforts are required, is to steer the ship through tempests, and abandon it to the winds in sight of land; it is to break the ground and scatter the seed, and at last to neglect the har vest.

So certainly is weariness the concomitant of our undertakings, that every man, in whatever he is engaged, consoles himself with the The masters of rhetoric direct, that the most hope of change; if he has made his way by as- forcible arguments be produced in the latter part siduity to public employment, he talks among of an oration, lest they should be effaced or per his friends of the delight of retreat; if, by the plexed by supervenient images. This precept necessity of solitary application, he is secluded may be justly extended to the series of life: nofrom the world, he listens with a beating heart thing is ended with honour, which does not to distant noises, longs to mingle with living conclude better than it began. It is not suffi beings, and resolves to take hereafter his fill of cient to maintain the first vigour; for excellence diversions, or display his abilities on the univer-loses its effect upon the mind by custom, as light