to vifit the walks or the houses which the old philofophers had frequented or inhabited, and the reverence which every nation, civil and barbarous, has paid to the ground where merit has been buried, I am afraid to declare against the general voice of mankind; and am inclined to believe, that this regard, which we involuntarily pay to the meanest relic of a man great and illustrious, is intended as an incitement to labour, and an encouragement to expect the same renown, if it be fought by the fame virtues. The virtuoso therefore cannot be cenfured, as contributing nothing to the increase of knowledge; but perhaps he may be sometimes justly culpable for confining himself to business below his genius, and lofing, in trifling amufements and petty speculations, those hours which he might have spent in nobler ftudies, and in which he might have given new light to the intellectual world. It is indeed never without grief, that I find a man capable of ratiocination or invention, enlifting himself in this fecondary class of learning: for when he has once found a method of gratifying his desire of eminence by expence rather than by labour, and found the sweets of a life bleft at once with the eafe of idleness and the reputation of knowledge, he will not easily be brought to undergo again the toil of thinking, or leave his toys and his trinkets for arguments and ideas; arguments, which require circumfpection and vigilance; and ideas, which cannot be obtained but by the drudgery of meditation. He will gladly shut himself up for ever with his fhells and medals; like the companions of Ulyffes, who having tafted the fruit of Lotos, would not even by the hope of feeing their own country, country, be brought again to the dangers of the fea. ̓Αλλ ̓ αὐτε βέλοντο μετ' άνδρασι Λωτοφάγοισι, Λωτὸν ἐρεπτόμενοι μενέμεν vora τε λαθέσθαι. Collections of this kind are of ufe to the learned, as heaps of ftone and piles of timber are neceffary to the architect. But to dig the quarry or to fearch the field, requires not much of any quality, but stubborn perfeverance; and though without this humble and neglected affistance genius must be useless, yet it can claim little praife, because every man can afford it. To mean understandings, it is indeed fufficient honour to be numbered amongst the lowelt labourers of learning; but furely different abilities muft find different tasks. To hew ftone, would have been unworthy of Palladio; and to have rambled in search of fhells and flowers, had but ill fuited with the capacity of Newton. THE RAMBLER. NUMBER LXXXIV. LONDON, Saturday, January 5. 1751. Gunarum fueras motor, Charideme, mearum, Jam mihi nigrefcunt tonsâ fudaria barbâ; — To the RAMBLER. SIR, Y MART. OU feem in all your papers to be fo much an enemy to tyranny and oppreffion, and to look with fo much indifference and impartiality upon the world, that I fhall lay my cafe before you with great confidence, and hope by VOL. IV. F your your decifion to be fet free from the unreasonable reftraints which I now fuffer, and enabled to juftify myself against the accufations which spite and peevishness produce against me. At the age of five years I lost my mother: and my father, being a man in public employment, and neither by his fituation or temper very well qualified to fuperintend the education of a girl, committed me to the care of his fifter, a woman of virtue and difcretion; who inftructed me with the authority, and, not to deny her what she may justly claim, with the affection of a parent. She had not indeed very elevated sentiments or extenfive views; but her principles were good, and her intentions pure; and though fome may practise more virtues, scarce any commit fewer faults. Under this good lady I learned all the common rules of decent behaviour, and all the ftanding maxims of domeftic prudence; and might have grown up by degrees to a country-gentlewoman, without any thoughts of ranging beyond the neighbourhood, had not Flavia come down laft fummer, to vifit her relations in the next village. I was taken, of courfe, to compliment the stranger; and was, at the first fight, surprised at the unconcern with which fhe faw herfelf gazed at by company whom she had never known before, at the careleffnefs with which the received compliments, and the readiness with which the returned them. I found fhe had fomething which I perceived myfelf to want; and could not but wish to be like her, at once eafy and officious, attentive and unembarraffed. I went home, and for four days could think and talk of nothing but Mifs Flavia; though |