were allotted to purchase tea, fome to buy fnuff, and I myfelf was immediately trucked away at the door for the Sweetheart's Delight.

"It is not my defign to enumerate every little accident that has befallen me, or to dwell upon trivial and indifferent circumtances, as is the practice of those important egotists, who write narratives, memoirs, and travels. As ufelefs to community as my fingle felf may appear to be; I have been the inftrument of much good and evil in the intercourfe of mankind: I have contributed no fmall fum to the revenues of the crown, by my fhare in each news-paper; and in the confumption of tobacco, fpirituous liquors, and other taxable commodities. If I have encouraged debauchery, or fupported extravagance; I have alfo rewarded the labours of industry, and relieved the neceflities of indigence. The poor acknowledge me as their conftant friend; and the rich, though they affect to flight me, and treat me with contempt, are often reduced by their follies to diftreffes which it is even in my power to relieve.

"The prefent exact fcrutiny into our conftitution has, indeed, very much obftructed and embarraffed my travels; tho' I could not but rejoice in my condition last Tuesday, as I was debarred having any fhare in maiming, bruifing, and destroying the innocent victims of vulgar barbarity: I was happy in being confined to the mock encounters with feathers and ftuffed leather; a childish fport, rightly calculated to initiate tender minds in acts of cruelty, and prepare them for the exercife of inhumanity on helpless animals.

"I fhall conclude, Sir, with informing you by what means I came to you in the condition you fee. A choice fpirit, a member of the kill-care-club, broke a link boy's pate with me last night, as a reward for lighting him acrofs the kennel; the lad wafted half his tar flambeau in looking for me, but I efcaped his fearch, being lodged fnugly against a poft. This morning a parish girl picked me up, and carried me with raptures to the next baker's fhop to purchafe a roll. The mafter, who was churchwarden, examined me with great attention, and then gruty threatening her with Bridewell for putting off bad money, knocked a nail through my middle, and fattened me to the counter: but the moment the poor hungry child was gone, he whipt me up again, and fending me away with others in

change to the next customer, gave me this opportunity of relating my adventures to you." Adventurer.

§ 65.

History, our natural Fondness for it, and its true Ufe.

The love of history feems infeparable from human nature, because it seems infeparable from felf-love. The fame principle in this inflance carries us forward and backward, to future and to past ages. We imagine that the things which affect us, must affect pofterity: this fentiment runs through mankind, from Cæfar down to the parifh-clerk in Pope's Mifcellany. We are fond of preferving, as far as it is in our frail power, the memory of our own adventures, of thofe of our own time, and of thofe that preceded it. Rude heaps of ftones have been raised, and ruder hymns have been compofed, for this purpofe, by nations who had not yet the ufe of arts and letters. To go no further back, the triumphs of Odin were celebrated in Runic fongs, and the feats of our British ancestors were recorded in those of their bards. The favages of America have the fame custom at this day: and long hiftorical ballads of their hunting and wars are fung at all their festivals. There is no need of faying how this paffion grows among all civilized nations, in proportion to the means of gratifying it: but let us obferve, that the fame principle of nature directs us as ftrongly, and more generally as well as more early, to indulge our own curiofity, instead of preparing to gratify that of others. The child hearkens with delight to the tales of his nurfe; he learns to read, and he devours with eagerness fabulous legends and novels. In riper years he applies to hiftory, or to that which he takes for history, to authorized romance: and even in age, the defire of knowing what has happened to other men, yields to the defire alone of relating what has happened to ourselves. Thus hiftory, true or false, speaks to our paffions always. What pity is it, that even the best fhould fpeak to our understandings fo feldom! That it does fo, we have none to blame but ourfelves. Nature has done her part. She has opened this ftudy to every man who can read and think: and what he has made the most agreeable, reafon can make the most useful application of to our minds. But if we confult our reafon, we shall be far from following the examples of our fellow-creatures, in this as in most other cafes, who are fo proud of

being rational. We fhall neither read to footh our indolence, nor to gratify our vanity: as little shall we content ourselves to drudge like grammarians and critics, that others may be able to ftudy, with greater eafe and profit, like philofophers and ftatef men: as little fhall we affect the flender merit of becoming great fcholars at the expence of groping all our lives in the dark mazes of antiquity. All thefe miftake the true drift of study, and the true ufe of hiftory. Nature gave us curiofity to excite the industry of our minds; but he never intended it to be made the principal, much lefs the fole, object of their application. The true and proper object of this application, is a conftant improvement in private and in public virtue. An application to any ftudy, that tends neither directly nor indirectly to make us better men, and better citizens, is at beft but a fpecious and ingenious fort of idleness, to ufe an expreffion of Tillotfon: and the knowledge we acquire is a creditable kind of ignorance, nothing more. This creditable kind of ignorance is, in my opinion, the whole benefit which the generality of men, even of the most learned, reap from the ftudy of hiftory: and yet the study of history seems to me, of all other, the most proper to train us up to private and public virtue.

We need but to caft our eyes on the world, and we fhall fee the daily force of example: we need but to turn them inward, and we shall foon discover why example has this force. Pauci prudentia, fays Tacitus, bonefta ab deterioribus, utilia ab noxiis difcernunt: plures aliorum eventis docentur. Such is the imperfection of human underftanding, fuch the frail temper of our minds, that abstract or general propofitions, though never so true, appear obfcure or doubtful to us very often, till they are explained by examples; and that the wifeft leffons in favour of virtue go but a little way to convince the judgment and determine the will, unless they are enforced by the fame means, and we are obliged to apply to ourselves that we fee happen to other men. Inftructions by precept have the further difadvan. tage of coming on the authority of others, and frequently require a long deduction of reafoning. Homines amplius oculis quam auribus credunt: longum inter eft per præcepta, breve et efficax per exempla. The reason of this judgment, which I quote from one of Seneca's epiftles, in confirmation of my own opinion, refts I think on this, That when examples are pointed out to us, there

is a kind of appeal, with which we are flattered, made to our fenfes, as well as our understandings. The inftruction comes then upon our own authority: we frame the precept after our own experience, and yield to fact when we refift fpeculation. But this is not the only advantage of inftruction by example; for example appeals not to our understanding alone, but to our paffions likewife. Example affuages thefe or animates them; fets paffion on the fide of judgment, and makes the whole man of a-piece, which is more than the strongest reafoning and the cleareft demonftration can do; and thus forming habits by repetitions, example fecures the obfervance of thofe precepts which example infinuated. Bolingbroke.

$66. Human Nature, its Dignity.

In forming our notions of human nature we are very apt to make comparison betwixt men and animals, which are the only creatures endowed with thought, that fall under our fenfes. Certainly this comparifon is very favourable to mankind; on the one hand, we fee a creature, whofe thoughts are not limited by any narrow bounds either of place or time, who carries his researches into the moft diftant regions of this globe, and beyond this globe, to the planets and heavenly bodies; looks backward to confider the first origin of the human race; cafts his eyes forwards to fee the influence of his actions upon pofterity, and the judgments which will be formed of his character a thousand years hence: a creature who traces caufes and effects to great lengths and intricacy; extracts general principles from particular appearances: improves upon his difcoveries, corrects his mistakes, and make his very errors profitable. the other hand, we are prefented with a creature the very reverfe of this; limited in its obfervations and reasonings to a few fenfible objects which furround it; without curiofity, without a forefight, blindly conducted by instinct, and arriving in a very fhort time at its utmoft perfection, beyond which it is never able to advance a fingle ftep. What a difference is there betwixt thefe creatures; and how exalted a notion muft we entertain of the former, in comparifon of the latter! Hume's Efays.

On

fecting each other. Their operations indeed are entirely different. Whether the immortal fpirit that enlivens this machine, is originally of a fuperior nature in various bodies (which, I own, feems most confiftent and agreeable to the fcale and order of beings), or whether the difference depends on a fymmetry, or peculiar fruéture of the organs combined with it, is beyond my reach to determine. It is evidently certain, that the body is curiously formed with proper organs to delight. and fuch as are adapted to all the neceffary ufes of life. The spirit animates the whole; it guides the natural appetites, and confines them within juft limits. But the natural force of this fpirit is often immersed in matter; and the mind becomes fubfervient to paffions, which it ought to govern and direct. Your friend Horace, although of the Epicurean doctrine, acknowledges this truth, where he fays,

Atque affigit humo divinæ particulam auræ. It is no less evident, that this immortal fpirit has an independent power of acting, and, when cultivated in a proper manner, feemingly quits the corporeal frame within which it is imprifoned, and foars into higher, and more fpacious regions; where, with an energy which I had almoft faid was divine, it ranges among thofe heavenly bodies that in this lower world are fcarce vifible to our eyes; and we can at once explain the distance, magnitude, and velocity of the planets, and can foretel, even to a degree of minutenefs, the particular time when a comet will return, and when the fun will be eclipfed in the next century. Thefe powers certainly evince the dignity of human nature, and the furprifing effects of the immaterial spirit within us, which in fo confined a state can thus difengage itself from the fetters of matter. It is from this

pre-eminence of the foul over the body,

that we are enabled to view the exact or

der and curious variety of different beings; to confider and cultivate the natural productions of the earth; and to admire and imitate the wife benevolence which reigns throughout the fole fyftem of the universe. It is from hence that we form moral laws for our conduct. From hence we delight in copying that great original, who in his effence is utterly incomprehenfible, but in his influence is powerfully apparent to every degree of his creation. From hence too we perceive a real beauty in virtue, and a diftinction between good and evil. Virtue

acts with the utmoft generofity, and with no view to her own advantage: while Vice, like a glutton, feeds herself enormously, and then is willing to difgorge the naufeous offals of her feast. Orrery.

$68. Oeconomy, Want of it no Mark of genius.

The indigence of authors, and particu larly of poets, has long been the object of lamentation and ridicule, of compaffion and contempt.

It has been observed, that not one favourite of the mufes has ever been able to build a house fince the days of Amphion, whofe art it would be fortunate for them if they poffeffed; and that the greatest punifhment that can poffibly be inflicted on them, is to oblige them to fup in their own lodgings,

Molles ubi reddunt ova columba,
Where pigeons lay their eggs.

Boileau introduces Damon, whofe writings entertained and inftructed the city and the court, as having paffed the fummer without a shirt, and the winter without a cloak; and refolving at laft to forfake Paris,

cù la vertu n'a plus ni feu ni licu, Where thiving worth no longer finds a home, and to find out a retreat in fome diftant grotto.

D'où jamais ni l' Huffier, ni le Sergent n'approche, Safe, where no critics damn, no duns moleft. POPE

The rich comedian, fays Bruyere, "lolling in his gilt chariot, befpatters the face of Corneille walking afoot:" and Juvenal remarks, that his contemporary bards generally qualified themfelves by their diet to make excellent buftos; that they were baker's, in order to warm themselves for compelled fometimes to hire lodgings at a of the fraternity. nothing; and that it was the common fate

Pallere & vinum toto nefcire Decembri,
—to pine,
Look pale, and all December tafle no wine.
DRYDEN

Virgil himself is ftrongly fufpected to have lain in the streets, or on fome Roman bulk, when he speaks fo feelingly of a rainy and tempeftuous night in his well-known epigram.

"There ought to be an hofpital founded for decayed wits," faid a lively French

man,

man," and it might be called the Hofpital of Incurables."

Few, perhaps, wander among the laurels of Parnaffus, but who have reafon ardently to with and to exclaim with Æneas, tho' without that hero's good fortune,

Si nunc fe nobis ille aureus arbore ramus,
Ofendat remore in tanto!

Oh! in this ample grove could I behold
The tree that blooms with vegetable gold!

PITT.

The patronage of Lælius and Scipio did not enable Terence to rent a houfe. Taffo, in a humorous fonnet addreffed to his favourite cat, earnestly entreats her to lend him the light of her eyes during his midnight ftudies, not being himself able to purchase a candle to write by. Dante, the Homer of Italy, and Camoens of Portugal, were both banished and imprifoned. Cervantes, perhaps the moft original genius the world ever beheld, perifhed by want in the ftreets of Madrid, as did our own Spenfer at Dublin. And a writer little inferior to the Spaniard in the exquifitenefs of his humour and raillery, I mean Erafmus, after tedious wanderings of many years from city to city, and from patron to patron, praifed, and promifed, and deceived by all, obtained no fettlement but with his printer. "At laft," fays he in one of his epiftles, "I should have been advanced to a cardinalship, if there had not been a decree in my way, by which thofe are excluded from this honour, whofe income amounts not to three thousand ducats."

I remember to have read a fatire in Latin profe entitled, "A poet hath bought a houfe." The poet having purchafed a houfe, the matter was immediately laid before the parliament of poets affembled on that important occafion, as a thing unheardof, as a very bad precedent, and of moft pernicious confequence; and accordingly a very fevere fentence was pronounced against the buyer. When the members came to give their votes, it appeared there was not a fingle perfon in the aflembly, who, through the favour of powerful patrons, or their own happy genius, was worth fo much as to be proprietor of a houfe, either by inheritance or purchafe: all of them neglecting their private fortunes, confeffed and boafted that they lived in lodgings. The poet was, therefore, ordered to feil his houfe immediately, to buy wire with the money for their entertainment, in order to make fome

expiation for his enormous crime, and to teach him to live unfettled, and without care, like a true poet.

Such are the ridiculous, and fuch the piti ble ftories related, to expofe the poverty of poets in different ages and nations; but which, I am inclined to think, are rather boundless exaggerations of fatire and fancy, than the fober refult of experience, and the determination of truth and judgment; for the general pofition may be contradicted by numerous examples; and it may, perhaps, appear on reflection and examination, that the art is not chargeable with the faults and failings of its particular profeffors; that it has no peculiar tendency to make them either rakes or fpendthrifts; and that thofe who are indigent poets, would have been indigent merchants and mechanics.

The neglect of economy, in which great geniufes are fuppofed to have indulged themselves, has unfortunately given fo much authority and juftification to careleffnefs and extravagance, that many a minute rhymer has fallen into diffipation and drunkennefs, becaufe Butler and Otway lived and died in an alehoufe. As a cer tain blockhead wore his gown on one fhoulder, to mimic the negligence of Sir Thomas More, fo these fervile imitators follow their mafters in all that difgraced them; contract immoderate debts, because Dryden died infolvent; and neglect to change their linen, because Smith was a floven. fhould happen to look pale, fays Horace, "all the hackney writers in Rome would immediately drink cummin to gain the fame complexion." And I myself am acquainted with a witling, who ufes a glafs only becaufe Pope was near-fighted.

"If I

Adventurer.

$ 69. Operas ridiculed, in a Perfian Ļetter.

The first objects of a ftranger's curiofity are the public fpectacles. I was carried last night to one they call an Opera, which is a concert of mufic brought from Italy, and in every respect foreign to this country. It was performed in a chamber as magnificent as the refplendent palace of our emperor, and as full of handsome women as his feraglio. They had no eunuchs among them; but there was one who fung upon the ftage, and, by the luxurious tendernefs of his airs, feemed fitter to make them wanton, than keep them chaste.

Inftead of the habit proper to fuch crea

tures,

I asked who Julius Cæfar was, and whether he had been famous for finging? They told me he was a warrior that had conquered all the world, and debauched half the women in Rome.

I was going to express my admiration at feeing him fo reprefented, when I heard two ladies, who fat nigh me, cry out, as it were in ecftafy, "O that dear creature! I am dying for love of him."

At the fame time I heard a gentleman fay aloud, that both the mufic and finging were deteftable.

"You must not mind him," faid my friend, "he is of the other party, and comes here only as a spy."

"How! faid 1, have you parties in mufic? Yes," replied he, it is a rule with us to judge of nothing by our fenfes and understanding, but to hear and fee, and think, only as we chance to be differently engaged."

"I hope," faid I, "that a ftranger may be neutral in thefe divifions; and, to fay the truth, your mufic is very far from inflaming me to a fpirit of faction; it is much more likely to lay me afleep. Ours in Perfia fets us all a-dancing; but I am quite unmoved with this."

"Do but fancy it moving," returned my friend, "and you will foon be moved as much as others. It is a trick you may learn when you will, with a little pains: we have most of us learnt it in our turns." Lord Lyttelton.

$70. Patience recommended. The darts of adverfe fortune are always levelled at our heads. Some reach us, and fome fly to wound our neighbours. Let us therefore impofe an equal temper on our minds, and pay without murmuring the tribute which we owe to humanity. The winter brings cold, and we must freeze. The fummer returns with heat, and we muft melt. The inclemency of the air diforders our health, and we must be fick. Here we are expofed to wild beafts, and there to men more favage than the beasts: and if we efcape the inconveniences and dangers of the air and the earth, there are perils by water and perils by fire. This established courfe of things it is not in our power to change; but it is in our power to affume fuch a greatnefs of mind as becomes wife and virtuous men, as may enable us to encounter the accidents of life

to the order of Nature, who governs her great kingdom, the world, by continual mutations. Let us fubmit to this order; let us be perfuaded that whatever does happen ought to happen, and never be fo foolish as to expoftulate with nature. The beft refolution we can take, is to fuffer what we cannot alter, and to purfue without repining the road which Providence, who directs every thing, has marked to us: for it is enough to follow; and he is but a bad foldier who fighs, and marches with reluctancy. We must receive the orders with fpirit and chearfulness, and not endeavour to flink out of the poft which is affigned us in this beautiful difpofition of things, whereof even fufferings make a neceffary part. Let us address ourselves to God who governs all, as Cleanthes did in those admirable verses,

Parent of nature! Mafter of the world!
Where'er thy providence directs, behold
My steps with chearful refignation turn;
Fate leads the willing, drags the backward on.
Why fhould I grieve, when grieving I mut

bear;

Or take with guilt, what guiltless I might share?

Thus let us fpeak, and thus let us act. Refignation to the will of God is true magnanimity. But the fure mark of a pufillanimous and bafe fpirit, is to ftruggle against, to cenfure the order of Providence, and, inftead of mending our own conduct, to fet up for correcting that of our Maker. Bolingbroke.

$71. Patience exemplified in the Story of an Ajs.

I was just receiving the dernier compliments of Monfieur Le Blanc, for a plea fant voyage down the Rhône when I was stopped at the gate

'Twas by a poor afs, who had just turned in with a couple of large panniers upon his back, to collect eleemofinary turnip-tops and cabbage leaves; and stood dubious, with his two fore-feet on the infide of the threshold, and with his two hinder feet towards the street, as not knowing very well whether he was to go in or