ligent folicitor be surprised in the hour of weakness, and perfuaded to folace vexation, or invigorate hope with the mufick of flattery. To cenfure all dedications as adulatory and fervile, would difcover rather envy than juftice. Praise is the tribute of merit, and he that has incontestably distinguished himself by any publick performance, has a right to all the honours which the publick can bestow. To men thus raised above the rest of the community, there is no need that the book or its author fhould have any particular relation: that the patron is known to deserve respect, is fufficient to vindicate him that pays it. To the same regard from particular perfons private virtue and lefs confpicuous excellence may be fometimes entitled. An author may with great propriety infcribe his work to him by whofe encouragement it was undertaken, or by whofe liberality he has been enabled to profecute it, and he may juftly rejoice in his own fortitude that dares to rescue merit from obfcurity. Acribus exemplis videor te cludere: mifce Thus much I will indulge thee for thy eafe, DRYDEN jun. I know not whether greater relaxation may not be indulged, and whether hope as well as gratitude may not unblameably produce a dedication; but let the writer who pours out his praifes only to propitiate power, or attract the attention of greatnefs, be cautious lest his defire betray him to exuberant eulogies. We are naturally more apt to please ourselves with the the future than the paft, and while we luxuriate in expectation, may be eafily perfuaded to purchase what we yet rate only by imagination, at a higher price than experience will warrant. But no private views of perfonal regard can difcharge any man from his general obligations to virtue and to truth. It may happen in the various combinations of life, that a good man may receive favours from one, who, notwithstanding his accidental beneficence, cannot be justly propofed to the imitation of others, and whom therefore he must find some other way of rewarding than by public celebrations. Selflove has indeed many powers of seducement, but it furely ought not to exalt any individual to equality with the collective body of mankind, or perfuade him that a benefit conferred on him is equivalent to every other virtue. Yet many upon false principles of gratitude have ventured to extol wretches, whom all but their dependents numbered among the reproaches of the fpecies, and whom they would likewife have beheld with the fame fcorn had they not been hired to dishonest approbation. To encourage merit with praise is the great bufinefs of literature; but praise must lofe its influence, by unjuft or negligent diftribution; and he that impairs its value may be charged with mifapplication of the power that genius puts into his hands, and with fquandering on guilt the recompence of virtue. NUMB. 137. TUESDAY, July 9, 1751. T Dum vitant ftulti vitia, in contraria currunt. Whilft fools one vice condemn, They run into the opposite extreme. HOR. CREECH. HAT wonder is the effect of ignorance, has been often obferved. The awful ftillness of attention, with which the mind is overspread at the first view of an unexpected effect, ceases when we have leisure to difentangle complications and inves tigate causes. Wonder is a pause of reason, a fudden ceffation of the mental progrefs, which lafts only while the understanding is fixed upon fome fingle idea, and is at an end when it recovers force enough to divide the object into its parts, or mark the intermediate gradations from the first agent to the last confequence. It may be remarked with equal truth, that igno rance is often the effect of wonder. It is common for those who have never accustomed themselves to the labour of enquiry, nor invigorated their confi dence by conquests over difficulty, to fleep in the gloomy quiefcence of aftonishment, without any ef fort to animate enquiry or difpel obscurity. What they cannot immediately conceive, they confider as too high to be reached, or too extenfive to be comprehended; they therefore content themfelves with the gaze of folly, forbear to attempt what they have no hopes of performing, and refign the pleasure of VOL. V. rational Ee rational contemplation to more pertinacious study or more active faculties. Among the productions of mechanick art, many are of a form fo different from that of their first materials, and many confift of parts fo numerous and fo nicely adapted to each other, that it is not poffible to view them without amazement. But when we enter the fhops of artificers, obferve the various tools by which every operation is facilitated, and trace the progrefs of a manufacture through the different hands, that, in fucceffion to each other, contribute to its perfection, we foon difcover that every fingle man has an easy task, and that the extremes, however remote, of natural rudeness and artificial elegance, are joined by a regular concate nation of effects, of which every one is introduced by that which precedes it, and equally introduces that which is to follow. The fame is the ftate of intellectual and manual performances. Long calculations or complex diagrams affright the timorous and unexperienced from a fecond view; but if we have fkill fufficient to analife them into fimple principles, it will be discovered that our fear was groundlefs. Divide and conquer, is a principle equally juft in fcience as in policy. Complication is a fpecies of confederacy which, while it continues united, bids defiance to the most active and vigorous intellect; but of which every member is feparately weak, and which may therefore be quickly fubdued, if it can once be broken. The chief art of learning, as Locke has obferved, is to attempt but little at a time. The wideft excurfions of the mind are made by fhort flights fre quently quently repeated; the moft lofty fabricks of fcience are formed by the continued accumulation of fingle propofitions. It often happens, whatever be the caufe, that impatience of labour, or dread of mifcarage, feizes those who are most distinguished for quickness of apprehenfion; and that they who might with greateft reafon promise themselves victory, are leaft willing to hazard the encounter. This diffidence, where the attention is not laid asleep by laziness, or diffipated by pleasures, can arife only from confused and general views, fuch as negligence fnatches in hafte, or from the disappointment of the first hopes formed by arrogance without reflection. To expect that the intricacies of fcience will be pierced by a carelefs glance, or the eminences of fame afcended without labour, is to expect a particular privilege, a power denied to the rest of mankind; but to fuppofe that the maze is infcrutable to diligence, or the heights inacceffible to perfeverance, is to fubmit tamely to the tyranny of fancy, and enchain the mind in voluntary fhackles. It is the proper ambition of the heroes in literature to enlarge the boundaries of knowledge by difcovering and conquering new regions of the intellectual world. To the fuccefs of fuch undertakings perhaps fome degree of fortuitous happiness is neceffary, which no man can promife or procure to himself; and therefore doubt and irrefolution may be forgiven in him that ventures into the unexplored abyffes of truth, and attempts to find his way through the fluctuations of uncertainty, and the conflicts of contradiction. But when nothing |