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rupted the course of the veffel, and drew it, by infenfible rotations, towards the center. She then

repented her temerity, and with all her force endeavoured to retreat; but the draught of the gulph was generally too ftrong to be overcome; and the paffenger, having danced in circles with a pleafing and giddy velocity, was as laft overwhelmed and lost. Those few whom REASON was able to extricate, generally fuffered fo many fhocks upon the points which fhot out from the rocks of PLEASURE, that they were unable to continue their courfe with the fame ftrength and facility as before, but floated along timorously and feebly, endangered by every breeze, and fhattered by every ruffle of the water, till they funk, by flow degrees, after long ftruggles, and innumerable expedients, always repining at their own folly, and warning others against the first approach of the gulph of INTEMPERANCE.

There were artists who profeffed to repair the breaches and stop the leaks of the veffels which had been fhattered on the rocks of PLEASURE. Many appeared to have great confidence in their skill, and fome, indeed, were preferved by it from finking, who had received only a fingle blow; but I remarked that few veffels lafted long which had been much repaired, nor was it found that the artifts themselves continued afloat longer than those who had least of their affiftance.

The only advantage which, in the voyage of life, the cautious had above the negligent, was, that they funk later, and more fuddenly; for they paffed forward till they had fometimes feen all those in whofe company they had iffued from the ftreights

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of infancy, perish in the way, and at laft were overfet by a cross breeze, without the toil of resistance, or the anguish of expectation. But fuch as had often fallen against the rocks of PLEASURE, commonly fubfided by fenfible degrees, contended long with the encroaching waters, and haraffed themfelves by labours that scarce HOPE herself could flatter with fuccefs.

As I was looking upon the various fate of the multitude about me, I was fuddenly alarmed with an admonition from fome unknown Power," Gaze "not idly upon others when thou thyself art fink❝ing. Whence is this thoughtlefs tranquillity, "when thou and they are equally endangered?" I looked, and feeing the gulph of INTEMPERANCE before me, started and awaked.

NUMB. 103. TUESDAY, March 12, 1751.

C

Seire volunt fecreta domus, atque inde timeri.

They fearch the fecrets of the house, and fo

Are worshipp'd there, and fear'd for what they know.

Juv.

DRYDEN.

URIOSITY is one of the permanent and certain characteristicks of a vigorous intellect. Every advance into knowledge opens new profpects, and produces new incitements to further progress. All the attainments poffible in our present state are evidently inadequate to our capacities of enjoyment; conqueft ferves no purpose but that of kindling ambition, discovery has no effect but of raifing expectation; the gratification of one defire encourages another; and after all our labours, ftudies, and inquiries, we are continually at the fame distance from the completion of our fchemes, have ftill fome with importunate to be fatisfied, and fome faculty restless and turbulent for want of its enjoyment.

The defire of knowledge, though often animated by extrinfick and adventitious motives, feems on many occafions to operate without fubordination to any other principle; we are eager to fee and hear, without intention of referring our obfervations to a farther end; we climb a mountain for a profpect of the plain; we run to the strand in a storm, that we may contemplate the agitation of the water; we range from city to city, though we profess neither architecture

architecture nor fortification; we crofs feas only to view nature in nakedness, or magnificence in ruins; we are equally allured by novelty of every kind, by a defert or a palace, a cataract or a cavern, by every thing rude and every thing polished, every thing great and every thing little; we do not fee a thicket but with fome temptation to enter it, nor remark an infect flying before us but with an inclination to purfue it.

This paffion is, perhaps, regularly heightened in proportion as the powers of the mind are elevated and enlarged. Lucan therefore introduces Cafar fpeaking with dignity fuitable to the grandeur of his defigns and the extent of his capacity, when he declares to the high-priest of Egypt, that he has no defire equally powerful with that of finding the origin of the Nile, and that he would quit all the projects of the civil war for a fight of thofe fountains which had been fo long concealed. And Homer, when he would furnish the Sirens with a temptation, to which his hero, renowned for wisdom, might yield without difgrace, makes them declare, that none ever departed from them but with increase of knowledge.

There is, indeed, scarce any kind of ideal acquirement which may not be applied to fome ufe or which may not at least gratify pride with occafional fuperiority; but whoever attends the motions: of his own mind will find, that upon the first appearance of an object, or the first start of a question, his inclination to a nearer view, or more accurate difcuffion, precedes all thoughts of profit, or of

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competition; and that his defires take wing by inftantaneous impulfe, though their flight may be invigorated, or their efforts renewed, by fubfequent confiderations. The gratification of curiofity rather frees us from uneafinefs than confers pleasure; we are more pained by ignorance than delighted by inftruction. Curiofity is the thirft of the foul; it inflames and torments us, and makes us tafte every thing with joy, however otherwise infipid, by which it may be quenched.

It is evident that the earliest fearchers after knowledge must have proposed knowledge only as their reward; and that fcience, though perhaps the nurfling of intereft, was the daughter of curiofity: for who can believe that they who firft watched the courfe of the stars, forefaw the use of their discoveries to the facilitation of commerce, or the menfuration of time? They were delighted with the fplendour of the nocturnal skies, they found that the lights changed their places; what they admired they were anxious to understand, and in time traced their revolutions.

There are, indeed, beings in the form of men, who appear fatisfied with their intellectual poffeffions, and feem to live without defire of enlarging their conceptions; before whom the world paffes without notice, and who are equally unmoved by nature or by art.

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This negligence is fometimes only the temporary effect of a predominant passion; a lover finds no inclination to travel any path, but that which leads to the habitation of his mistress; a trader can spare

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