The lofs or prefervation

the lantern of Guy Faux. of these seems to be a thing indifferent, nor can I perceive why the poffeffion of them fhould be coveted. Yet, perhaps, even this curiofity is implanted by nature; and when I find Tully confeffing of himfelf, that he could not forbear at Athens to vifit the walks and houses which the old philosophers had frequented or inhabited, and recollect the reverence which every nation, civil and barbarous, has paid to the ground where merit has been buried, I am afraid to declare against the general voice of mankind, and am inclined to believe, that this regard, which we involuntarily pay to the meaneft relique of a man great and illuftrious, is intended as an incitement to labour, and an encouragement to expect the fame renown, if it be fought by the fame virtues.

The virtuofo therefore cannot be faid to be wholly useless; but perhaps he may be fometimes culpable for confining himself to business below his genius, and lofing in petty fpeculations, thofe hours by which, if he had spent them in nobler studies, he might have given new light to the intellectual world. It is never without grief, that I find a man capable of ratiocination or invention enlisting himself in this fecondary clafs of learning; for when he has once discovered a method of gratifying his defire of eminence by expence rather than by labour, and known the fweets of a life bleft at once with the ease of idleness, and the reputation of knowledge, he will not easily be brought to undergo again the toil of thinking, or leave his toys and trinkets for arguments and principles, arguments which require circumfpection and vigilance, and principles which

cannot

cannot be obtained but by the drudgery of meditation. He will gladly fhut himself up for ever with his fhells and metals, like the companions of Ulyffes, who having tasted the fruit of Lotos, would not even by the hope of feeing their own country be tempted again to the dangers of the fea.

Ἀλλ ̓ αὐτε βέλοντο μετ' άνδρασι Λωτοφάγοισι,
Λωτὸν ἐςεπλόμενοι μένεμεν νοςετε λάθεσθαι.

-Whofo tastes

Infatiate riots in the fweet repafts;

Nor other home nor other care intends,

But quits his house, his country, and his friends. POPE.

Collections of this kind are of ufe to the learned, as heaps of ftones and piles of timber are neceffary to the architect. But to dig the quarry or to search the field, requires not much of any quality beyond stubborn perfeverance; and though genius must often lie unactive without this humble affiftance, yet this can claim little praise, becaufe every man can afford it.

To mean understandings, it is fufficient honour to be numbered amongst the lowest labourers of learning; but different abilities muft find different tasks. To hew ftone, would have been unworthy of Palladio; and to have rambled in fearch of shells and flowers, had but ill fuited with the capacity of Newton.

NUMB. 84. SATURDAY, January 5, 1751.

Cunarum fueras motor, CHARIDEME, mearum,

Et pueri cuftos, affiduufque comes.

Fam mihi nigrefcunt tonfa fudaria barba,
Sed tibi non crevi: te nofter villicus horret:
Te difpenfator, te domus ipfa pavet.
Corripis, obfervas, quereris, fufpiria ducis,

Et vix a ferulis abftinet ira manum.

You rock'd my cradle, were my guide
In youth, ftill tending at my fide:
But now, dear fir, my beard is grown,
Still I'm a child to thee alone.
Our fteward, butler, cook and all
You fright, nay e'en the very wall;

You pry, and frown, and growl, and chide,
And scarce will lay the rod afide.

SIR,

To the RAMBLER.

MART.

F. LEWIS.

OU feem in all your papers to be an enemy

γου

to tyranny, and to look with impartiality upon the world; I fhall therefore lay my cafe before you, and hope by your decifion to be set free from unreafonable restraints, and enabled to justify myself against the accufations which fpite and peevifhness produce against me.

At the age of five years I loft my mother, and my father being not qualified to fuperintend the education of a girl, committed me to the care of his fifter, who inftructed me with the authority, and, not to

deny

deny her what she may juftly claim, with the affection of a parent. She had not very elevated fentiments or extenfive views, but her principles were good, and her intentions pure; and though fome may practice more virtues, fcarce any commit fewer faults.

Under this good lady, I learned all the common rules of decent behaviour, and ftanding maxims of domestick prudence; and might have grown up by degrees to a country gentlewoman, without any thoughts of ranging beyond the neighbourhood, had not Flavia come down, last summer, to vifit her relations in the next village. I was taken, of course, to compliment the ftranger, and was, at the first fight, furprised at the unconcern with which she faw herself gazed at by company whom she had never known before; at the careleffnefs with which she received compliments, and the readiness with which fhe returned them. I found fhe had fomething which I perceived myself to want, and could not but wish to be like her, at once eafy and officious, attentive and unembarraffed. I went home, and for four days could think and talk of nothing but mifs Flavia; though my aunt told me, that she was a forward flut, and thought herself wife before her time.

In a little time fhe repaid my vifit, and raised in my heart a new confufion of love and admiration. I foon faw her again, and still found new charms in her air, converfation, and behaviour. You who have perhaps feen the world, may have obferved, that formality foon ceases between young perfons. I know not how others are affected on fuch occafions,

but

but I found myself irrefiftibly allured to friendship and intimacy, by the familiar complaifance and airy gaiety of Flavia; so that in a few weeks I became her favourite, and all the time was paffed with me, that she could gain from ceremony and visit.

As fhe came often to me, fhe neceffarily spent fome hours with my aunt, to whom she paid great respect by low courtefies, fubmiffive compliance, and foft acquiefcence; but as I became gradually more accustomed to her manners, I discovered that her civility was general; that there was a certain degree of deference fhewn by her to circumftances and appearances; that many went away flattered by her humility, whom the despised in her heart; that the influence of far the greatest part of those with whom the converfed ceafed with their prefence; and that fometimes fhe did not remember the names of them, whom, without any intentional infincerity or false commendation, her habitual civility had fent away with very high thoughts of their own import

ance.

It was not long before I perceived, that my aunt's opinion was not of much weight in Flavia's deliberations, and that fhe was looked upon by her as a woman of narrow fentiments, without knowledge of books, or obfervations on mankind. I had hitherto confidered my aunt, as entitled by her wisdom and experience to the highest reverence, and could not forbear to wonder that any one fo much younger should venture to fufpect her of error, or ignorance; but my surprise was without uneafinefs, and being now accustomed to think Flavia always in the right, I readily learned from her to trust my own reason,

and