gard, to which every one is entitled by the customs of the world.

There are many injuries which almost every man feels, though he does not complain; and which, upon those whom virtue, elegance, or vanity, have made delicate and tender, fix deep and lafting impreffions; as there are many arts of graciouínefs and conciliation, which are to be practifed without expence, and by which thofe may be made our friends who have never received from us any real benefit. Such arts, when they include neither guilt nor meannefs, it is furely reasonable to learn, for who would want that love which is fo eafily to be gained? And fuch injuries are to be avoided; for who would be hated without profit?

Some, indeed, there are, for whom the excufe of ignorance or negligence cannot be alleged; because it is apparent that they are not only careless of pleasing, but ftudious to offend; that they contrive to make all approaches to them difficult and vexatious, and imagine that they aggrandize themfelves by wafting the time of others in ufelefs attendance, by mortifying them with flights, and teazing them with affronts.

Men of this kind are generally to be found among those that have not mingled much in general converfation, but fpent their lives amidst the obfequioufnefs of dependants, and the flattery of parafites; and by long confulting only their own inclination, have forgotten that others have a claim to the fame deference.

Tyranny, thus avowed, is indeed an exuberance of pride, by which all mankind is fo much enraged, that it is never quietly endured, except in thofe who can reward the patience which they exact; and infolence is generally furrounded only by fuch whofe bafenefs inclines them to think nothing infupportable that produces gain, and who can laugh at fcurrility and rudeness with a luxurious table and an open purfe.

But though all wanton provocations and contemptuous infolence are to be diligently avoided, there is no lefs danger in timid compliance and tame refignation. It is common for foft and fearful tempers to give themfelves up implicitly to the direction of the bold, the turbulent, and the overbearing; of thofe whom they do not believe wifer or better than theinfelves; to recede from the best defigns where oppofition must be encoun

tered; and to fall off from virtue for fear of cenfure.

Some firmnefs and refolution is ne ceffary to the difcharge of duty: but it is a very unhappy ftate of life in which the neceffity of fuch fruggles frequently occurs; for no man is defeated without fome refentment, which will be continued with obftinacy while he believes himself in the right, and exerted with bitterness, if even to his own conviction he is detected in the wrong.

Even though no regard be had to the external confequences of contrariety and difpute, it must be painful to a worthy mind to put others in pain; and there will be danger left the kindeft nature may be vitiated by too long a custom of debate and conteft.

I am afraid that I may be taxed with infenfibility by many of my correspondents, who believe their contributions un`jußtly neglected. And, indeed, when I fit before a pile of papers, of which each is the production of laborious ftudy, and the offspring of a fond parent; I, who know the paffions of an author, cannot remember how long they have lain in my boxes unregarded, without imagining to myself the various changes of ferrow, impatience, and refentment, which the writers must have felt in this tedious interval.

Thefe reflections are ftill more awakened, when, upon perufal, I find some of them calling for a place in the next paper, a place which they have never yet obtained; others writing in a ftyle of fuperiority and haughtiness, as fecure of deference, and above fear of criticifin; others humbly offering their weak affiftance with softness and submission, which they believe impoffible to be refifted; fome introducing their compofitions with a

menace of the contempt which he that refufes them will incur; others applying privately to the bookfellers for their intereft and folicitation; every one by different ways endeavouring to fecure the blifs of publication. I cannot but confider myself as placed in a very incommodious fituation, where I am forced to reprefs confidence, which it is pleafing to indulge, to repay civilities with appearances of neglect, and fo frequently to offend thofe by whom I never was offended.

I know well how rarely an author, fired with the beauties of his new compofition, contains his raptures in his own R 2

bosom,

bofom, and how naturally he imparts to his friends his expectations of renown; and as I can easily conceive the eagerness with which a new paper is fnatched up by one who expects to find it filled with his own production; and, perhaps, has called his companions to fhare the pleasure of a second perufal; I grieve for the difappointment which he is to feel at the fatal infpection. His hopes, however, do not yet forfake him; he is certain of giving luftre the next day. The next day comes, and again he pants with expectation; and having dreamed of laurels and Parnaffus, cafts his eyes upon the barren page with which he is doomed never more to be delighted. For fuch cruelty, what atonement can be made? for fuch calamities, what al

I

leviation can be found? I am afraid that the mischief already done must be without reparation; and all that deserves my care is prevention for the future. Let, therefore, the next friendly contributor, whoever he be, obferve the cautions of Swift, and write fecretly in his own chamber, without communicating his defign to his nearest friend, for the nearest friend will be pleased with an opportu nity of laughing. Let him carry it to the poft himself, and wait in filence for the event. If it is published and praised, he may then declare himself the author; if it be fuppreffed, he may wonder in private without much vexation; and if it be cenfured, he may join in the cry, and lament the dulnefs of the writing generation.

SIR,

TO THE RAMBLER.

Am always pleased when I fee literature made ufeful, and fcholars defcending from that elevation which, as it raises them above common life, muft likewife hinder them from beholding the ways of men, otherwife than in a cloud of bustle and confufion. Having lived a life of business, and remarked how feldom any occurrences emerge for which great qualities are required, I have learned the neceffity of regarding little things; and though I do not pretend to give laws to the legislators of mankind, or to limit the range of thofe powerful minds that carry light and heat through all the regions of knowledge; yet I have long thought, that the greateft part of thofe who lofe themfelves in ftudies, by which I have not found that they grow much wifer, might, with more advantage both to the publick and themselves, apply their understandings to domeftick arts, and ftore their minds with axioms of humble prudence, and private economy.

Your late paper on frugality was very elegant and pleafing; but, in my opinion, not fufficiently adapted to common readers, who pay little regard to the mufick of periods, the artifice of connection, or the arrangement of the flowers of rhetorick; but require a few plain and

TULL.

cogent inftructions, which may fink into the mind by their own weight.

Frugality is fo neceffary to the happinefs of the world, so beneficial in it's various forms to every rank of men, from the highest of human potentates, to the lowest labourer or artificer; and the miferies which the neglect of it produces are fo numerous and fo grievous, that it ought to be recommended with every variation of addrefs, and adapted to every clafs of understanding.

Whether thofe who treat morals as a fcience will allow frugality to be num bered among the virtues, I have not thought it neceffary to enquire. For I, who draw my opinions from a careful obfervation of the world, am fatisfied with knowing, what is abundantly fufficient for practice, that if it be not a virtue, it is at least a quality which can feldom exift without fome virtues, and without which few virtues can exist. Frugality may be termed the daughter of Prudence, the fifter of Temperance, and the parent of Liberty. He that is extravagant will quickly become poor, and poverty will enforce dependence, and invite corruption; it will almost always produce a paffive compliance with the wickednefs of others; and there are few who do not learn by degrees to practise thofe crimes which they ceafe to cenfure.

If there are any who do not dread poverty as dangerous to virtue, yet mankind feem unanimous enough in abhorring it as destructive to happiness; and all to whom want is terrible, upon whatever principle, ought to think themfelves obliged to learn the fage maxims of our parfimonious ancestors; and attain the falutary arts of contracting expence; for without frugality none can be rich, and with it very few would be poor.

To moft other acts of virtue, or exertions of wisdom, a concurrence of many circumstances is neceffary, fome previous knowledge must be attained, fome uncommon gifts of nature poffeffed, or fome opportunity produced by an extraordinary combination of things; but the mere power of faving what is already in our hands, must be easy of acquifition to every mind; and as the example of Bacon may fhew that the highest intellect cannot fafely neglect it, a thoufand inftances will every day prove, that the meaneft may practife it with fuccefs. Riches cannot be within the reach of great numbers, because to be rich is to poffefs more than is commonly placed in a fingle hand; and if many could obtain the fum which now makes a man wealthy, the name of wealth must then be transferred to still greater accumulations. But I am not certain that it is equally impoffible to exempt the lower claffes of mankind from poverty; because though whatever be the wealth of the community, fome will always have leaft, and he that has less than any other is comparatively poor; yet I do not fee any coactive neceflity that many fhould be without the indifpenfable conveniencies of life; but am fometimes inclined to imagine, that, cafual calamities excepted, there might, by univerfal prudence, be procured an univerfalexemption from want; and that he who fhould happen to have least, might notwithstanding have enough.

But without entering too far into fpeculations, which I do not remember that any political calculator has attempt ed, and in which the most perfpicacious rafoner may be easily bewildered, it is evident that they to whem Providence has allotted no other care but of their own fortune and their own virtue, which make far the greater part of mankind, have fufficient incitements to perfonal frugality; fince, whatever might be it's general effect upon provinces or nations,

by which it is never likely to be tried, we know with certainty that there is fcarcely any individual entering the world, who, by prudent parfimony, may not reasonably promife himfelf a cheerful competence in the decline of life.

The profpect of penury in age is fo gloomy and terrifying, that every man who looks before him muft refolve to avoid it; and it must be avoided generally by the fcience of fparing. For though in every age there are fome who, by bold adventures, or by favourable accidents, rife fuddenly to riches, yet it is dangerous to indulge hopes of fuch rare events: and the bulk of mankind muft owe their affluence to small and gradual profits, below which their expence must be refolutely reduced.

You must not therefore think me finking below the dignity of a practical philofopher, when I recommend to the confideration of your readers, from the ftatefman to the apprentice, a pofition replete with mercantile wisdom, A penny faved is two-pence got; which may, I think, be accommodated to all conditions, by obferving not only that they who purfue any lucrative employment will fave time when they forbear expence, and that the time may be em-, ployed to the increase of profit; but that they who are above fuch minute confiderations, will find, by every victory over appetite or paffion, new itrength added to the mind, will gain the power of refufing thofe folicitations by which the young and vivacious are hourly affaulted, and in time fet themfelves above the reach of extravagance and folly.

It may, perhaps, be enquired by those who are willing rather to cavil than to learn, what is the just meafure of frugality; and when expence, not abfolutely neceffary, degenerates into profufion? To fuch queftions no general anfwer can be returned; fince the liberty of fpending, or neceffity of parfimony, may be varied without end by different circumftances. It may, however, be laid down as a rule never to be broken, that a man's voluntary expence should not exceed his revenue. A maxim fo obvious and incontrovertible, that the civil law ranks the prodigal with the madman, and debars them equally from the conduct of their own affairs. Another precept arifing from the former, and indeed included in it, is yet neceflary to be diftinctly impreffed upon the warm,

the

the fanciful, and the brave-Let no man anticipate uncertain profits. Let no man prefime to spend upon hopes, to truft his own abilities for means of deliverance from penury, to give a loose to his prefent defires, and leave the reckoning to fortune or to virtue..

To thefe cautions, which, I fuppofe, are, at least among the graver part of mankind, undifputed, I will add another-Let no man fquander against his inclination. With this precept it may be, perhaps, imagined eaty to comply; yet if those whom profufion has buried in prifons, or driven into banishment,

were examined, it would be found that re-
ry few were ruined by their own choice,
or purchafed pleasure with the lofs of
their estates; but that they fuffered them-
felves to be borne away by the violence
of those with whom they converfed, and
yielded reluctantly to a thousand prodi-
galities, either from a trivial emulation
of wealth and fpirit, or a mean fear of
contempt and ridicule; an emulation for
the prize of folly, or the dread of the
laugh of focls.
I am, Sir,

Your humble Servant.
SOFHRON.

HOR.

S the love of Money has been, in

FRANCIS.

had tried it's inquietudes, merely to en

have given great difturbance to the tranquillity of the world, there is no topick more copiously treated by the ancient mno. ralifts than the folly of devoting the heart to the accumulation of riches. They who are acquainted with these authors need not be told how riches incite pity, contempt, or reproach, whenever they are mentioned; with what numbers of examples the danger of large poffeffions is illuftrated; and how all the powers of reafon and cloquence have been exhaufted in endeavours to eradicate a defire, which feems to have intrenched itself too ftrongly in the mind to be driven out, and which, perhaps, had not loft it's power, even over thofe who declaimed against it, but would have broken out in the poet or the fage, if it had been excited by opportunity, and invigorated by the approximation of it's proper object.

Their arguments have been, indeed, fo unfuccefsful, that I know not whether it can be fhewn, that by all the wit and reafon which this favourite caufe has called forth, a fingle convert was ever made; that even one man has refused to be rich, when to be rich was in his power, from the conviction of the greater happiness of a narrow fortune; or difburthened himself of wealth, when he

of a mean and unenvied ftate.

It is true, indeed, that many have neglected opportunities of raifing themfelves to honours and to wealth, and rejeted the kindeft offers of fortune: but, however their moderation may be boasted by themfelves, or admired by fuch as only view them at a distance, it will be, perhaps, feldom found that they value riches lefs, but that they dread labour or danger more than others; they are unable to roufe themfelves to action, to ftrain in the race of competition, or to ftand the fhock of conteft; but though they, therefore, decline the toil of climbing, they nevertheless with themfelves aloft, and would willingly enjoy what they dare not feize.

Óthers have retired from high ftations, and voluntarily condemned themfelves to privacy and obfcurity. But even thefe will not afford many occafions of triumph to the philofopher; for they have commonly either quitted that only which they thought themselves unable to hold, and prevented difgrace by refignation; or they have been induced to try new meafures by general inconftancy, which always dreams of happiness in novelty, or by a gloomy difpofition, which is dif gufted in the farge degree with every

ftate,

fite, and wishes every fcene of life to change as foon as it is beheld. Such men found high and low ftations equally unable to fatisfy the wishes of a diftempered mind, and were unable to shelter themfelves in the clofeft retreat from difappointment, folicitude, and mifery. Yet though thefe admonitions have been thus neglected by those who either enjoyed riches, or were able to procure them, it is not rafhly to be determined that they are altogether without ufe; for fince far the greatest part of mankind must be confined to conditions comparatively mean, and placed in fituations from which they naturally look up with envy to the eminences before them, thofe writers cannot be thought ill employed that have administered remedies to difcontent almost univerfal, by fhowing, that what we cannot reach may very well be forborn, that the inequality of diftribution, at which we murmur, is for the most part lefs than it feems, and that the greatnefs, which we admire at a diftance, has much fewer advantages, and much lefs fplendor, when we are fuffered to approach it.

It is the bufinefs of moralifts to detect the frauds of fortune, and to fhow that the impofes upon the careless eye, by a quick fucceffion of fhadows, which will fhrink to nothing in the gripe; that the difguifes life in extrinfick ornaments, which ferve only for fhow, and are laid afide in the hours of folitude and of pleasure; and that when greatness aspires either to felicity or to wifdom, it shakes off thofe diftinctions which dazzle the gazer, and awe the fupplicant.

It may be remarked, that they whofe condition has not afforded them the light of moral or religious inftruction, and who collect all their ideas by their own eyes, and digeft them by their own underftandings, feem to confider those who are placed in ranks of remote fuperiority, as almost another and higher fpecies of beings. As themfelves have known litthe other mifery than the confequences of want, they are with difficulty perfuaded that where there is wealth there can be forrow, or that those who glitter in dignity, and glide along in affluence, can be acquainted with pains and cares like thofe which lie heavy upon the rest of mankind.

This prejudice is, indeed, confined to the lowest meannefs and the darkest ignorance; but it is fo confined only be

caufe others have been fhown it's folly and it's falfehood, because it has been oppofed in it's progrefs by hiftory and philofophy, and hindered from spreading it's infection by powerful preserva tives.

The doctrine of the contemptof wealth, though it has not been able to extinguish avarice or ambition, or suppress that reluctance with which a man paffes his days in a state of inferiority, must, at leaft, have made the lower conditions lefs grating and wearifome, and has confequently contributed to the general fecurity of life, by hindering that fraud and violence, rapine and circumvention, which must have been produced by an unbounded cagernefs of wealth, arifing from an unfhaken conviction, that to be rich is to be happy.

Whoever finds himself incited, by fome violent impulfe of paffion, to purfue riches as the chief end of being, must furely be fo much alarmed by the fucceflive admonitions of those whofe experience and fagacity have recommended them as the guides of mankind, as to ftop and confider whether he is about to engage in an undertaking that will reward his toil, and to examine, before he rushes to wealth, through right and wrong, what it will confer when he has acquired it; and this examination will feldom fail to repress his ardour, and retard his violence.

Wealth is nothing in itfelf; it is not ufeful but when it departs from us; it's value is found only in that which it can purchase, which, if we fuppofe it put to it's beft ufe by thofe that poffefs it, feems not much to deferve the defire or envy of a wife man. It is certain that, with regard to corporal enjoyment, money can neither open new avenues to pleafure nor block up the paffages of anguish. Difeafe and infirmity itill continue to torture and enfeeble, perhaps exafperated by luxury, or promoted by foftnefs. With refpect to the mind, it has rarely been obferved, that wealth contributes much to quicken the difcernment, enlarge the capacity, or elevate the imagination; but may, by hiring flattery, or laying diligence afleep, confirm error, and harden ftupidity.

Wealth cannot confer greatness, for nothing can make that great which the decree of nature has ordained to be little. The bramble may be placed in a hot-bed, but can never become an oak.