nobler motives than the love of fame, and can preserve the facred flame of friendship from the gufts of pride, and the rubbish of interest. Friendship is feldom lasting but between equals, or where the fuperiority on one fide is reduced by some equivalent advantage on the other. Benefits which cannot be repaid, and obligations which cannot be discharged, are not commonly found to increase affection; they excite gratitude indeed, and heighten veneration, but commonly take away that easy freedom, and familiarity of intercourse, without which, though there may be fidelity, and zeal, and admiration, there cannot be friendship. Thus imperfect are all earthly bleffings; the great effect of friendship is beneficence, yet by the first act of uncommon kindnefs it is endangered, like plants that bear their fruit and die. Yet this confideration ought not to restrain bounty, or reprefs compaffion; for duty is to be preferred before convenience, and he that lofes part of the pleasures of friendship by his generofity, gains in its place the gratulation of his conscience. NUMB. 65. TUESDAY, October 30, 1750. Ο Garrit aniles Ex re fabellas. The cheerful fage, when folemn dictates fail, Hok. BIDAH, the fon of Abenfina, left the caravanfera early in the morning, and pursued his journey through the plains of Indoftan. He was fresh and vigorous with reft; he was animated with hope; he was incited by defire; he walked fwiftly forward over the vallies, and faw the hills gradually rifing before him. As he paffed along, his ears were delighted with the morning fong of the bird of paradise, he was fanned by the last flutters of the finking breeze, and sprinkled with dew by groves of fpices; he fometimes contemplated the towering height of the oak, monarch of the hills; and sometimes caught the gentle fragrance of the primrose, eldest daughter of the spring all his fenfes were gratified, and all care was banished from his heart. Thus he went on till the fun approached his meridian, and the increafing heat preyed upon his strength; he then looked round about him for fome more commodious path. He faw, on his right hand, a grove that feemed to wave its fhades as a fign of invitation; he entered it, and found the coolness and verdure irresistibly pleasant. He did not, however, forget whither he was travelling, but found found a narrow way bordered with flowers, which appeared to have the fame direction with the main road, and was pleased that, by this happy experiment, he had found means to unite pleasure with bufinefs, and to gain the rewards of diligence without fuffering its fatigues. He, therefore, ftill continued to walk for a time, without the leaft remiffion of his ardour, except that he was fometimes tempted to ftop by the mufick of the birds, whom the heat had affembled in the fhade; and fometimes amused himself with plucking the flowers that covered the banks on either fide, or the fruits that hung upon the branches. At last the green path began to decline from its first tendency, and to wind among hills and thickets, cooled with fountains, and murmuring with water-falls. Here Obidah paufed for a time, and began to confider whether it were longer fafe to forfake the known and common track; but remembering that the heat was now in its greateft violence, and that the plain was dusty and uneven, he refolved to pursue the new path, which he fuppofed only to make a few meanders, in compliance with the varieties of the ground, and to end at laft in the common road. Having thus calmed his folicitude, he renewed his pace, though he fufpected that he was not gaining ground. This uneafinefs of his mind inclined him to lay hold on every new object, and give way to every fenfation that might footh or divert him. He liftened to every echo, he mounted every hill for a fresh profpect, he turned afide to to every cascade, and pleased himself with tracing the course of a gentle river that rolled among the trees, and watered a large region with innumerable circumvolutions. In thefe amusements the hours paffed away uncounted, his deviations had perplexed his memory, and he knew not towards what point to travel. He stood penfive and confused, afraid to go forward left he should go wrong, yet conscious that the time of loitering was now past. While he was thus tortured with uncertainty, the sky was overfpread with clouds, the day vanifhed from before him, and a fudden tempeft gathered round his head. He was now roufed by his danger to a quick and painful remembrance of his folly; he now faw how happiness is loft when ease is confulted; he lamented the unmanly impatience that prompted him to feek fhelter in the grove, and despised the petty curiofity that led him on from trifle to trifle. While he was thus reflecting, the air grew blacker, and a clap of thunder broke his meditation. He now refolved to do what remained yet in his power, to tread back the ground which he had paffed, and try to find fome iffue where the wood might open into the plain. He proftrated himself on the ground, and commended his life to the Lord of nature. He rofe with confidence and tranquillity, and preffed on with his fabre in his hand, for the beafts of the defart were in motion, and on every hand were heard the mingled howls of rage and fear, and ravage and expiration; all the horrors of darknefs and folitude furrounded him: the winds roared in the woods, and the torrents tumbled from the hills, α χείμαρροι ποταμοὶ κατ ̓ ὄρεσφι φίλες Work'd into fudden rage by wintry fhow'rs, Thus forlorn and diftreffed, he wandered through the wild, without knowing whither he was going, or whether he was every moment drawing nearer to fafety or to deftruction. At length not fear but labour began to overcome him; his breath grew fhort, and his knees trembled, and he was on the point of lying down in refignation to his fate, when he beheld through the brambles the glimmer of a taper. He advanced towards the light, and finding that it proceeded from the cottage of a hermit, he called humbly at the door, and obtained admiffion. The old man fet before him fuch provifions as he had collected for himself, on which Obidah fed with eagernefs and gratitude. When the repast was over, "Tell me," faid the hermit, "by what chance thou hast been brought "hither; I have been now twenty years an in"habitant of the wilderness, in which I never faw " a man before." Obidah then related the occurrences of his journey, without any concealment or palliation. cc Son," faid the hermit, "let the errors and follies, the dangers and escape of this day, fink 2 "deep |