a few days will fhew him what he is to expect from his learning and his genius. If he thinks his own judgment not fufficiently enlightened, he may, by attending the remarks which every paper will produce, rectify his opinions. If he fhould with too little premeditation encumber himself by an unwieldy fubject, he can quit it without confeffing his ignorance, and pafs to other topicks lefs dangerous, or or more tractable. And if he finds, with all his industry, and all his artifices, that he cannot deferve regard, or cannot attain it, he may let the defign fall at once, and, without injury to others or himself, retire to amuse, ments of greater pleafure, or to ftudies of better profpe&t. NUMB. 2, SATURDAY, March 24, 1750. Stare loco nefcit, pereunt veftigia mille Ante fugam, abfentemque ferit gravis ungula campum. Th' impatient courfer pants in every vein, THA STATIUS. POPE HAT the mind of man is never fatisfied with the objects immediately before it, but is always breaking away from the prefent moment, and lofing itself in fchemes of future felicity; and that we forget the proper ufe of the time now in our power, to provide for the enjoyment of that which, perhaps, may never be granted us, has been frequently remarked; and as this practice is a commodious fubject of raillery to the gay, and of declamation to the ferious, it has been ridiculed, with all the pleasantry of wit, and exaggerated with all the amplifications of rhetorick. Every instance, by which its abfurdity might appear moft flagrant, has been ftudiously collected; it has been marked with every epithet of contempt, and all the tropes and figures have been called forth against it. Cenfure is willingly indulged, because it always implies fome fuperiority; men please themselves with imagining that they have made a deeper search, or wider furvey, than others, and detected faults and follies, which efcape vulgar obfervation. And the pleasure of wantoning in common topicks is fo tempting to a writer, that he cannot easily refign it; a train of fentiments generally received enables him to fhine without labour, and to conquer without a conteft. It is so easy to laugh at the folly of him who lives only in idea, refuses immediate eafe for diftant pleasures, and, inftead of enjoying the bleffings of life, lets life glide away in preparations to enjoy them; it affords fuch opportunities of triumphant exultation, to exemplify the uncertainty of the human state, to roufe mortals from their dream, and inform them of the filent celerity of time, that we may believe authors willing rather to tranfinit than examine fo advantageous a principle, and more inclined to purfue a track so smooth and and so flowery, than attentively to confider whether it leads to truth. This quality of looking forward into futurity feems the unavoidable condition of a being, whofe motions are gradual, and whofe life is progreffive: as his powers are limited, he muft ufe means for the attainment of his ends, and intend firft what he performs laft; as by continual advances from his first ftage of existence, he is perpetually varying the horizon of his profpects, he must always difcover new motives of action, new excitements of fear, and allurements of defire. The end therefore which at prefent calls forth our efforts, will be found, when it is once gained, to bę only one of the means to fome remoter end. The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope. He that directs his fteps to a certain point, must frequently turn his eyes to that place which he strives to reach; he that undergoes the fatigue of labour, muft folace his wearinefs with the contemplation of its reward. In agriculture, one of the most simple and neceffary employments, no man turns up the ground but because he thinks of the harvest, that harveft which blights may intercept, which inundations may fweep away, or which death or calamity may hinder him from reaping. Yet as few maxims are widely received or long retained but for fome conformity with truth and nature, it must be confeffed, that this caution against keeping our view too intent upon remote advantages is not without its propriety or usefulness, though it may have been recited with too much levity, levity, or enforced with too little diftinction: for, not to speak of that vehemence of defire which preffes through right and wrong to its gratification, or that anxious inquietude which is justly chargeable with diftruft of heaven, fubjects too folemn for my present purpose; it frequently happens that, by indulging early the raptures of fuccefs, we forget the measures neceffary to fecure it, and fuffer the imagination to riot in the fruition of fome poffible good, till the time of obtaining it has flipped away. There would however be few enterprizes of great labour or hazard undertaken, if we had not the power of magnifying the advantages which we perfuade ourselves to expect from them. When the knight of La Mancha gravely recounts to his companion the adventures by which he is to fignalize himself in fuch a manner that he fhall be summoned to the support of empires, folicited to accept the heirefs of the crown which he has preferved, have honours and riches to fcatter about him, and an island to bestow on his worthy fquire, very few readers, amidst their mirth or pity can deny that they have admitted vifions of the fame kind; though they have not, perhaps, expected events equally ftrange, or by means equally inadequate. When we pity him, we reflect on our own difappointments; and when we laugh, our hearts inform us that he is not more ridiculous than ourfelves, except that he tells what we have only thought. The understanding of a man, naturally fanguine, may, indeed, be easily vitiated by the luxurious indulgence of hope, however necessary to the pro duction duction of every thing great or excellent, as fome plants are destroyed by too open exposure to that fun which gives life and beauty to the vegetable world. Perhaps no clafs of the human species requires more to be cautioned against this anticipation of happiness, than those that aspire to the name of authors. A man of lively fancy no fooner finds a hint moving in his mind, than he makes momentaneous excurfions to the prefs, and to the world, and, with a little encouragement from flattery, pushes forward into future ages, and prognofticates the honours to be paid him, when envy is extinct, and faction forgotten, and thofe, whom partiality now fuffers to obfcure him, fhall have given way to the triflers of as fhort duration as themselves. Thofe, who have proceeded fo far as to appeal to the tribunal of fucceeding times, are not likely to be cured of their infatuation; but all endeavours ought to be used for the prevention of a disease, for which, when it has attained its height, perhaps no remedy will be found in the gardens of philofophy, however she may boaft her phyfick of the mind, her catharticks of vice, or lenitives of paffion. I fhall, therefore, while I am yet but lightly touched with the fymptoms of the writer's malady, endeavour to fortify myself against the infection, not without fome weak hope, that my prefervatives may extend their virtue to others, whofe employment exposes them to the fame danger: Laudis amore tumes? Sunt certa piacula, quæ te Is fame your paffion? Wifdom's powerful charm, FRANCIS. |