ing holds us at the distance of pupils, or whose wit calls all attention from us, and leaves us without importance and without regard. It is remarked by prince Henry, when he fees FalStaff lying on the ground, that he could have better Spared a better man. He was well acquainted with the vices and follies of him whom he lamented, but while his conviction compelled him to do juftice to fuperior qualities, his tendernefs ftill broke out at the remembrance of Falstaff, of the cheerful companion, the loud buffoon, with whom he had paffed his time in all the luxury of idleness, who had gladded him with unenvied merriment, and whom he could at once enjoy and defpife. You may perhaps think this acccount of those who are distinguished for their good-humour, not very confiftent with the praises which I have bestowed upon it. But furely nothing can more evidently fhew the value of this quality, than that it recommends those who are deftitute of all other excellencies, and procures regard to the trifling, friendship to the worthless, and affection to the dull. Good-humour is indeed generally degraded by the characters in which it is found; for being confidered as a cheap and vulgar quality, we find it often neglected by thofe that having excellencies of higher reputation and brighter fplendor, perhaps imagine that they have fome right to gratify themselves at the expence of others, and are 'to demand compliance, rather than to practise it. It is by fome unfortunate mistake that almost all those who have any claim to esteem or love, prefs their pretenfions with too little confideration of others. This mistake my own own interest, as well as my zeal for general happiness, makes me defirous to rectify; for I have a friend, who, because he knows his own fidelity and usefulness, is never willing to fink into a companion: I have a wife whose beauty first subdued me, and whose wit confirmed her conqueft, but whofe beauty now ferves no other purpose than to entitle her to tyranny, and whose wit is only used to justify perverseness. Surely nothing can be more unreasonable than to lofe the will to please, when we are confcious of the power, or fhow more cruelty than to chufe any kind of influence before that of kindness. He that regards the welfare of others, fhould make his virtue approachable, that it may be loved and copied; and he that confiders the wants which every man feels, or will feel of external affistance, must rather wish to be furrounded by those that love him, than by those that admire his excellencies, or folicit his favours; for admiration ceases with novelty, and interest gains its end and retires. A man whofe great qualities want the ornament of fuperficial attractions, is like a naked mountain with mines of gold, which will be frequented only till the treasure is exhausted. I am, &c. PHILOMIDES. NUMB. 73. TUESDAY, November 27, 1750. Stulte quid heu votis fruftra puerilibus optas Why thinks the fool with childish hope to fee OVID. ELPHINSTONE. SIR, To the RAMBLER. IF you feel any of that compaffion which you recommend to others, you will not difregard a cafe which I have reason from obfervation to believe very common, and which I know by experience to be very miferable. And though the querulous are feldom received with great ardour of kindness, I hope to escape the mortification of finding that my lamentations spread the contagion of impatience, and produce anger rather than tenderness. I write not merely to vent the fwelling of my heart, but to enquire by what means I may recover my tranquillity; and shall endeavour at brevity in my narrative, having long known that complaint quickly tires, however elegant, or however just. I was born in a remote county, of a family that boasts alliances with the greatest names in English history, and extends its claims of affinity to the Tudors and Plantagenets. My ancestors, by little and little, wasted their patrimony, till my father had not enough left for the fupport of a family, without de fcending fcending to the cultivation of his own grounds, be ing condemned to pay three fifters the fortunes allotted them by my grandfather, who is fufpected to have made his will when he was incapable of adjusting properly the claims of his children, and who, perhaps without defign, enriched his daughters by beggaring his fon. My aunts being, at the death of their father, neither young nor beautiful, nor very eminent for foftness of behaviour, were suffered to live unsolicited, and by accumulating the interest of their portions grew every day richer and prouder. My father pleased himself with foreseeing that the poffeffions of thofe ladies must revert at last to the hereditary estate, and that his family might lofe none of its dignity, refolved to keep me untainted with a lucrative employment; whenever therefore I difcovered any inclination to the improvement of my condition, my mother never failed to put me in mind of my birth, and charged me to do nothing with which I might be reproached when I fhould come to my aunts' eftate. In all the perplexities or vexations which want of money brought upon us, it was our conftant practice to have recourfe to futurity. If any of our neighbours furpaffed us in appearance, we went home and contrived an equipage, with which the death of my aunts was to fupply us. If any purfeproud upftart was deficient in respect, vengeance was referred to the time in which our eftate was to be repaired. We registered every act of civility and rudeness, enquired the number of dishes at every feaft, and minuted the furniture of every house, that we might, when the hour of affluence fhould come, come, be able to eclipfe all their fplendor, and furpass all their magnificence. Upon plans of elegance and schemes of pleasure the day rofe and fet, and the year went round unregarded, while we were bufied in laying out plantations on ground not yet our own, and deliberating whether the manor-house fhould be rebuilt or repaired. This was the amufement of our leisure, and the folace of our exigencies; we met together only to contrive how our approaching fortune should be enjoyed; for in this our converfation always ended, on whatever fubject it began. We had none of the collateral interefts, which diverfify the life of others with joys and hopes, but had turned our whole attention on one event, which we could neither haften nor retard, and had no other object of curiofity than the health or fickness of my aunts, of which we were careful to procure very exact and early intelligence. This vifionary opulence for a while foothed our imagination, but afterwards fired our wishes, and exasperated our neceffities, and my father could not always reftrain himself from exclaiming, that no creature had fo many lives as a cat and an old maid. At last, upon the recovery of his fifter from an ague, which she was supposed to have caught by fparing fire, he began to lose his ftomach, and four months afterwards funk into the grave. My mother, who loved her husband, furvived him but a little while, and left me the fole heir of their lands, their schemes, and their wishes. As I had not enlarged my conceptions either by books or converfation, I differed only from my father by the fresh nefs |