office of inftructing a young nobleman in the house of his father: I went to the feat at which the family -then happened to refide, was received with great politenefs, and invited to enter immediately on my charge. The terms offered were fuch as I fhould willingly have accepted, though my fortune had allowed me greater liberty of choice: the refpect with which I was treated flattered my vanity; and perhaps the fplendor of the apartments, and the luxury of the table were not wholly without their influence. I immediately complied with the propofals, and received the young lord into my care. Having no defire to gain more than I should truly deferve, I very diligently profecuted my undertaking, and had the fatisfaction of discovering in my pupil a flexible temper, a quick apprehenfion, and a retentive memory. I did not much doubt that my care would, in time, produce a wife and useful counsellor to the state, though my labours were fomewhat obftructed by want of authority, and the neceffity of complying with the freaks of negligence, and of waiting patiently for the lucky moment of voluntary attention. To a man, whose imagination was filled with the dignity of knowledge, and to whom a studious, life had made all the common amusements infipid and contemptible, it was not very easy to fupprefs his indignation, when he faw himself for faken in the midst of his lecture, for an opportunity to catch an infect, and found his inftructions debarred from accefs to the intellectual faculties, by the memory of a childish frolick, or the defire of a new plaything. Those Thofe vexations would have recurred lefs frequently, had not his mamma, by entreating at one time that he fhould be excufed from a tafk as a reward for fome petty compliance, and withholding him from his book at another, to gratify herself or her vifitants with his vivacity, fhewn him that every thing was more pleafing and more important than knowledge, and that ftudy was to be endured rather than chofen, and was only the business of those hours which pleasure left vacant, or difcipline ufurped. I thought it my duty to complain, in tender terms, of these frequent avocations; but was anfwered, that rank and fortune might reasonably hope for fome indulgence; that the retardation of my pupil's progress would not be imputed to any negligence or inability of mine; and that with the fuccefs which fatisfied every body elfe, I might furely fatisfy myfelf. I had now done my duty, and without more remonftrances continued to inculcate my precepts whenever they could be heard, gained every day new influence, and found that by degrees my scholar began to feel the quick impulfes of curiofity, and the honeft ardour of ftudious ambition. At length it was refolved to país a winter in London. The lady had too much fondness for her son to live five months without him, and too high an opinion of his wit and learning to refufe her vanity the gratification of exhibiting him to the publick. I remonftrated against too early an acquaintance with cards and company; but with a soft contempt of my ignorance and pedantry, fhe faid that he had been already confined too long to folitary ftudy, and it was now time to fhew him the world; nothing was more a brand of meannefs than bashful timidity; gay freedom and elegant affurance were only to be gained by mixed converfation, a frequent intercourse with ftrangers, and a timely introduction to fplendid affemblies; and fhe had more than once obferved, that his forwardnefs and complaifance began to defert him, that he was filent when he had not fomething of confequence to fay, blushed whenever he happened to find himself mistaken, and hung down his head in the prefence of the ladies without the readinefs of reply, and activity of officiousness remark able in young gentlemen that are bred in London. Again I found refiftance hopeless, and again thought it proper to comply. We entered the coach, and in four days were placed in the gayest and most magnificent region of the town. My pupil, who had for several years lived at a remote seat, was immediately dazzled with a thousand beams of novelty and fhow. His imagination was filled with the perpetual tumult of pleasure that paffed before him, and it was impoffible to allure him from the window, or to overpower by any charm of eloquence the rattle of coaches, and the founds which echoed from the doors in the neighbourhood. In three days his attention, which he began to regain, was disturbed by a rich fuit, in which he was equipped for the reception of company, and which, having been long accustomed to a plain dress, he could not at first furvey without ecftacy. The arrival of the family was now formally notified; every hour of every day brought more intimate or more diftant acquaintances to the door; and my pupil was indifcriminately introduced to all, that he might accuftom himself to change of faces, and be rid with fpeed of his ruftick diffidence. He foon endeared himself to his mother by the speedy acquifition or recovery of her darling qualities; his eyes sparkle at a numerous affembly, and his heart dances at the mention of a ball. He has at once caught the infection of high life, and has no other teft of principles or actions than the quality of those to whom they are ascribed. He begins already to look down on me with fuperiority, and submits to one fhort leffon in a week, as an act of condefcenfion rather than obedience; for he is of opinion, that no tutor is properly qualified who cannot speak French; and having formerly learned a few familiar phrases from his fifter's governefs, he is every day foliciting his mamma to procure him a foreign footman, that he may grow polite by his conversation. I am not yet infulted, but find myself likely to become foon a fuperfluous incumbrance, for my scholar has now no time for science, or for virtue: and the lady yesterday declared him fo much the favourite of every company, that she was afraid he would not have an hour in the day to dance and fence. I am, &c. EUMATHES. NUMB. 133. TUESDAY, June 25, 1751. Υ Magna quidem facris quæ dat præcepta libellis Let Stoicks ethicks haughty rules advance Yet happy thofe, though not fo learn'd are thought, Nor shake the yoke, whit galls the more 'tis shook. SIR, To the RAMBLER. Juv. CREECH. my let YOU have fhewn, by the publication of ter, that you think the life of Victoria not wholly unworthy of the notice of a philofopher: I fhall therefore continue my narrative, without any apology for unimportance which you have dignified, or for inaccuracies which you are to correct. When my life appeared to be no longer in danger, and as much of my ftrength was recovered as enabled me to bear the agitation of a coach, I was placed at a lodging in a neighbouring village, to which my mother difmiffed me with a faint embrace, having repeated her command not to expofe my face too foon to the fun or wind, and told me, that with care I might perhaps become tolerable again. The prospect of being tolerable had very little power to elevate the imagination of one who had fo long been accuf |