little attention to common occurrences, when his fortune is endangered by a ftorm. It is frequently the confequence of a total immersion in fenfuality: corporeal pleasures may be indulged till the memory of every other kind of happiness is obliterated; the mind, long habituated to a lethargick and quiescent state, is unwilling to wake to the toil of thinking; and though fhe may fometimes be disturbed by the obtrufion of new ideas, shrinks back again to ignorance and rest.

But, indeed, if we except them to whom the continual task of procuring the fupports of life, denies all opportunities of deviation from their own narrow track, the number of fuch as live without the ardour of inquiry is very small, though many content themselves with cheap amusements, and waste their lives in researches of no importance.

There is no fnare more dangerous to bufy and excurfive minds, than the cobwebs of petty inquifitiveness, which entangle them in trivial employments and minute ftudies, and detain them in a middle ftate, between the tediousness of total inactivity, and the fatigue of laborious efforts, enchant them at once with ease and novelty, and vitiate them with the luxury of learning. The ne. ceffity of doing fomething, and the fear of undertaking much, finks the hiftorian to a genealogist, the philofopher to a journalist of the weather, and the mathematician to a conftructer of dials.

It is happy when thofe who cannot content themselves to be idle, nor resolve to be industrious, are at least employed without injury to others; but it feldom happens that we can contain ourselves long

in a neutral state, or forbear to fink into vice, when we are no longer foaring towards virtue.

Nugaculus was distinguished in his earlier years by an uncommon liveliness of imagination, quicknefs of fagacity, and extent of knowledge. When he entered into life, he applied himself with parti cular inquifitiveness to examine the various motives of human actions, the complicated influencé of mingled affections, the different modifications of interest and ambition, and the various causes of miscarriage and fuccefs both in publick and private affairs.

Though his friends did not difcover to what purpose all these obfervations were collected, or how Nugaculus would much improve his virtue or his fortune by an inceffant attention to changes of countenance, bursts of inconfideration, fallies of paffion, and all the other cafualties by which he used to trace a character, yet they could not deny the study of human nature to be worthy of a wife man; they therefore flattered his vanity, applauded his difcoveries, and liftened with fubmiffive modefty to his lectures on the uncertainty of inclination, the weakness of refolves, and the inftability of temper, to his account of the various motives which agitate the mind, and his ridicule of the modern dream of a ruling paffion.

Such was the first incitement of Nugaculus to a close inspection into the conduct of mankind. He had no interest in view, and therefore no defign of fupplantation; he had no malevolence, and therefore detected faults without any intention to expose them; but having once found the art of engaging

his attention upon others, he had no inclination to call it back to himself, but has paffed his time in keeping a watchful eye upon every rifing character, and lived upon a small estate without any thought of increasing it.

He is, by continual application, become a general mafter of fecret hiftory, and can give an account of the intrigues, private marriages, competitions, and ftratagems, of half a century. He knows the mortgages upon every man's eftate, the terms upon which every spendthrift raises his money, the real and reputed fortune of every lady, the jointure ftipulated by every contract, and the expectations of every family from maiden aunts and childless acquaintances. He can relate the economy of every house, knows how much one man's cellar is robbed by his butler, and the land of another underlet by his steward; he can tell where the manor-house is falling, though large fums are yearly paid for repairs; and where the tenants are felling woods without the confent of the owner.

To obtain all this intelligence he is inadvertently guilty of a thousand acts of treachery. He fees no man's fervant without draining him of his trust; he enters no family without flattering the children into discoveries; he is a perpetual spy upon the doors of his neighbours; and knows by long experience, at whatever diftance, the looks of a creditor, a borrower, a lover, and a pimp.

Nugaculus is not ill-natured, and therefore his industry has not hitherto been very mischievous to others, or dangerous to himself; but fince he can

not

not enjoy this knowledge but by discovering it, and, if he had no other motive to loquacity, is obliged to traffic like the chymifts, and purchase one fecret with another; he is every day more hated as he is more known; for he is confidered by great numbers as one that has their fame and their happiness in his power, and no man can much love him of whom he lives in fear.

Thus has an intention, innocent at firft, if not laudable, the intention of regulating his own behaviour by the experience of others, by an accidental declenfion of minuteness, betrayed Nugaculus, not only to a foolish, but vicious waste of a life which might have been honourably paffed in public fervices, or domestick virtues. He has loft his original intention, and given up his mind to employments that engross, but do not improve it.

NUMB. 104. SATURDAY, March 16, 1751.

-Nihil eft quod credere de fe

Non poffit

None e'er rejects hyperboles of praife.

JUVENAL

THE apparent infufficiency of every individual to his own happiness or fafety, compels us to feek from one another affistance and fupport. The neceffity of joint efforts for the execution of any great or extenfive defign, the variety of powers diffeminated in the fpecies, and the proportion between the defects and excellencies of different perfons, demand an interchange of help, and communication of intelligence, and by frequent reciprocations of beneficence unite mankind in fociety and friendship.

If it can be imagined that there ever was a time when the inhabitants of any country were in a ftate of equality, without diftinction of rank, or peculiarity of poffeffions, it is reafonable to believe that every man was then loved in proportion as he could contribute by his ftrength, or his fkill, to the supply of natural wants; there was then little room for peevish diflike, or capricious favour; the affection admitted into the heart was rather esteem than tenderness; and kindness was only purchased by benefits. But when by force or policy, by wisdom or by fortune, property and fuperiority were introduced and established, so that many were condemned VOL. V.

P