days will fhew him what he is to expect from his learning and his genius. If he thinks his own judgment not fufficiently enlightned, he may, by attending the remarks which every paper will produce, inform himself of his miftakes, rectify his opinions, and extend his views. If he fufpects that he may with too little premeditation encumber himself by an unwieldy fubject, he may quit it without confeffing his ignorance, and pass to other topicks lefs dangerous, or more tractable. And if he finds, with all his industry, and all his artifices, that he cannot deferve regard, or cannot attain it, he may let the defign fall at once, and, without injury to others or himself, retire to amusements of greater pleasure, or to studies of better profpect. NUMB. 2. SATURDAY, March 24, 1750. T сатрит. STATIUS. HAT the mind of man is never fa tisfied with the objects before it, but is always breaking away from the present moment, and lofing itself in fchemes of future felicity; that we forget the proper use of the time now in our power, to provide for the enjoyment of that which, perhaps, may never be granted us, has been frequently remarked; and as this practice is a very commodious subject of raillery' to the gay, and of declamation to the ferious, it has been ridiculed with all the pleafantry of wit, and exaggerated with all the amplifications of rhetoric. Every inftance, by which its absurdity night appear moft flagrant, has been ftudioufly collected; it has been marked with every epithet of contempt, and all the tropes and figures have been called forth against it. CENSURE is willingly indulged, because it always always implies fome fuperiority; men please themselves with imagining that they have made a deeper fearch, or wider furvey, than others, and detected faults and follies, which efcaped vulgar observation. And the pleasure of wantoning in common topicks is fo tempting to a writer, that he cannot easily refign it; a train of fentiments generally received enables him to fhine without labour, and to conquer without a conteft. It is so easy to laugh at the folly of him who lives only in idea, refufes immediate ease or diftant pleasures, and, instead of enjoying the bleffings of life, lets life glide away in preparations to enjoy them ; it affords fuch opportunities of triumphant exultations, to exemplify the uncer tainty of human state, to rouse mortals from their dream, and inform them of the filent celerity of time, that we may reasonably believe most authors willing rather to transmit than examine fo advantageous a principle, and more inclined to purfue a track so smooth and fo flowery, than attentively to consider whether it leads to truth. THIS quality of looking forward into futurity feems the unavoidable and neceflary conB6 dition dition of a being, whofe motions are gradual, and whofe life is progreffive: as his powers are limited, he muft ufe means for the attainment of his ends, and muft intend first what he performs laft; as, by continual advances from his first stage of existence, he is perpetually varying the horizon of his profpects, he muft always difcover new motives of action, new excitements of fear, and allurements of defire. THE end, therefore, which, at present, calls forth our efforts will be found, when it is once gained, to be only one of the means to fome remoter end, and the natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleafure, but from hope to hope. He that directs his steps to a certain point, muft frequently turn his eyes to that place which he ftrives to reach; he that undergoes the fatigue of labour, muft folace his wearinefs with the contemplation of its reward. In agriculture, one of the most simple and neceffary employments, no man turns up the ground but because he thinks of the harvest, that harveft which blights may intercept, which inundations dations may sweep away, or which death or calamity may hinder him from reaping. YET as few maxims are widely received, or long retained, but for fome conformity with truth and nature, it must be confeffed, that this caution against keeping our view too intent upon remote advantages is not without its propriety or usefulness, though it may have been inculcated with too much levity, or inforced with too little distinction: for, not to fpeak of that vehemence of defire which preffes through right and wrong to its gratification, or that anxious inquietude which is juftly chargeable with distrust of heaven, subjects too folemn for my prefent purpose; it very frequently happens that, by indulging too early the raptures of fuccefs, we forget the . measures neceffary to secure it, and suffer the imagination to, riot in the fruition of fome poffible good, till the time of obtaining it has flipped away. THERE would however, perhaps, be few enterprises, either of great labour or hazard, undertaken, if we had not the power of magnifying the advantages, which we perfuade |