ficient to entitle any family to fome confideration, that they were known to vifit at Mrs. Courtly's. In this state they were, to fpeak in the ftyle of novellifts, made happy by the birth of your correfpondent. My parents had no other child, I was therefore not brow-beaten by a faucy brother, or lost in a multitude of coheireffes, whofe fortunes being equal, would probably have conferred equal merit, and procured equal regard; and as my mother was now old, my understanding and my perfon had fair play, my enquiries were not checked, my advances towards importance were not repreffed, and I was foon fuffered to tell my own opinions, and early accustomed to hear my own praises. By thefe accidental advantages I was much exalted above the young ladies with whom I converfed, and was treated by them with great deference. I faw none who did not feem to confefs my fuperiority, and to be held in awe by the fplendour of my appearance; for the fondness of my father made himfelf pleased to see me dreffed, and my mother had no vanity nor expences to hinder her from concurring with his inclination. Thus, Mr. Rambler, I lived without much defire after any thing beyond the circle of our vifits; and here I should have quietly continued to portion out my time among my books, and my needle, and my company, had not my curiosity been every moment excited by the converfation of my parents, who, whenever they fit down to familiar prattle, and endeavour the entertainment of each other, immediately tranfport themselves to London, and relate fome adventure in a hackney-coach, fome frolick at a masque rade, rade, fome converfation in the Park, or fome quarrel at an affembly, difplay the magnificence of a birthnight, relate the conquefts of maids of honour, or give a history of diverfions, fhows, and entertainments, which I had never known but from their ac counts. I am fo well verfed in the hiftory of the gay world, that I can relate, with great punctuality, the lives of all the laft race of wits and beauties; can enumerate, with exact chronology, the whole fucceffion of celebrated fingers, muficians, tragedians, comedians, and harlequins; can tell to the laft twenty years all the changes of fafhions; and am, indeed, a complete antiquary with respect to head-dreffes, dances, and operas. You will easily imagine, Mr. Rambler, that I could not hear thefe narratives, for fixteen years together, without fuffering fome impreffion, and wifhing myself nearer to those places where every hour brings fome new pleafure, and life is diverfified with an unexhausted fucceffion of felicity. I indeed often asked my mother why fhe left a place which she recollected with fo much delight, and why she did not vifit London once a year, like fome other ladies, and initiate me in the world by fhowing me its amusements, its grandeur, and its variety. But she always told me that the days which fhe had feen were such as will never come again; that all diverfion is now degenerated, that the converfation of the prefent age is infipid, that their fafhions are unbecoming, their cuftoms abfurd, and their morals corrupt; that there is no ray left of the genius which enlightened the times that he remembers; that that no one who had feen, or heard, the ancient performers, would be able to bear the bunglers of this despicable age; and that there is now neither politeness, nor pleasure, nor virtue, in the world. She therefore affures me that the confults my happiness by keeping me at home, for I fhould now find nothing but vexation and difguft, and fhe fhould be ashamed to see me pleased with fuch fopperies and trifles, as take up the thoughts of the present set of young people. With this answer I was kept quiet for feveral years, and thought it no great inconvenience to be confined to the country, till laft fummer a young gentleman and his fifter came down to pass a few months with one of our neighbours. They had generally no great regard for the country ladies, but distinguished me by a particular complaifance, and, as we grew intimate, gave me fuch a detail of the elegance, the splendour, the mirth, the happiness of the town, that I am refolved to be no longer buried in ignorance and obfcurity, but to share with other wits the joy of being admired, and divide with other beauties the empire of the world. I do not find, Mr. Rambler, upon a deliberate and impartial comparison, that I am excelled by Belinda in beauty, in wit, in judgment, in knowledge, or in any thing, but a kind of gay, lively familiarity, which fhe mingles with ftrangers as with perfons long acquainted, and which enables her to display her powers without any obftruction, hefitation, or confufion. Yet fhe can relate a thousand civilities paid to her in publick, can produce, from a hundred lovers, letters filled with praises, protefta tions, extafies, and despair; has been handed by dukes to her chair; has been the occafion of innumerable quarrels; has paid twenty visits in an afternoon; been invited to fix balls in an evening, and been forced to retire to lodgings in the country from the importunity of courtship, and the fatigue of pleasure. I tell you, Mr. Rambler, I will stay here no longer. I have at last prevailed upon my mother to fend me to town, and fhall fet out in three weeks on the grand expedition. I intend to live in publick, and to crowd into the winter every pleasure which money can purchase, and every honour which beauty can obtain. But this tedious interval how fhall I endure? Cannot you alleviate the misery of delay by fome pleafing defcription of the entertainments of the town? I can read, I can talk, I can think of nothing else; and if you will not footh my impatience, heighten my ideas, and animate my hopes, you may write for those who have more leifure, but are not to expect any longer the honour of being read by thofe eyes which are now intent only on conqueft and deftruc tion. RHODOCLIA. NUMB. 63. TUESDAY, October 22, 1750. Habebat fapa ducentos, Sape decem fer-vos; modò reges atque tetrarchas, Now with two hundred flaves he crowds his train; HOR. "And clothes, tho' coarfe, to keep me from the cold." FRANCIS. T has been remarked, perhaps, by every writer, who has left behind him obfervations upon life, that no man is pleased with his prefent ftate, which proves equally unfatisfactory, fays Horace, whether fallen upon by chance, or chofen with deliberation; we are always difgufted with fome circumstance or other of our fituation, and imagine the condition of others more abundant in bleffings, or lefs exposed to calamities. This univerfal difcontent has been generally mentioned with great feverity of cenfure, as unreafonable in itself, fince of two, equally envious of each other, both cannot have the larger fhare of happiness, and as tending to darken life with unneceffary gloom, by withdrawing our minds from the contemplation and enjoyment of that happiness which our state affords us, and fixing our attention upon foreign objects, which we only behold to de prefs IAN |