ed upon my mother to fend me to town, and shall set out in three weeks on the grand expedition. I intend to live in publick, and to crowd into the winter every pleafure which money can purchafe, and every honour which beauty can obtain.

But this tedious interval how fhall I endure? Cannot you alleviate the mifery of delay by fome pleafing defcription of

the entertainments of the town? I can read, I can talk, I can think of nothing elfe; and if you will not tooth my impatience, heighten my ideas, and animate my hopes, you may write for those who have more leifure, but are not to expect any longer the honour of being read by thote eyes which are now intent only on conquest and destruction. RHODOCLIA.

HOR.

I T has been remarked, perhaps, by observations upon life, that no man is pleafed with his prefent ftate; which proves equally unfatisfactory, fays Horace, whether fallen upon by chance, or chofen with deliberation; we are always difgufted with fome circumftance or other of our situation, and imagine the condition of others more abundant in bleffings, or lefs exposed to calamities.

This univerfal difcontent has been generally mentioned with great feverity of cenfure, as unreafonable in itself, fince of two, equally envious of each other, both cannot have the larger share of happiness, and as tending to darken life with unneceffary gloom, by with drawing our minds froin the contemplation and enjoyment of that happiness which our state affords us, and fixing our attention upon foreign objects, which we only behold to deprefs ourfelves, and increase our misery by injurious comparifons.

When this opinion of the felicity of others predominates in the heart, fo as to excite refolutions of obtaining, at whatever price, the condition to which fuch tranfcendent privileges are fuppofed to be annexed; when it burfts into action, and produces fraud, violence, and injustice, it is to be pursued with all the rigour of legal punishments. But while

FRANCIS.

operating only upon the thoughts, it dif

to admit it, and, however it may interrupt content, makes no attack on piety or virtue, I cannot think it fo far criminal or ridiculous, but that it may deferve fome pity, and admit some excufe.

That all are equally happy, or miferable, I fuppofe none is fufficiently enthufiaftical to maintain; because though we cannot judge of the condition of others, yet every man has found frequent viciffitudes in his own state, ard must therefore be convinced that life is fufceptible of more or lefs felicity. What then fhall forbid us to endeavour the alteration of that which is capable of being improved, and to grafp at augmentations of good, when we know it poffible to be increafed, and believe that any particular change of fituation will increase it?

If he that finds himself uneafy may reasonably make efforts to rid himself from vexation, all mankind have a fufficient plea for fome degree of reftleffnefs, and the fault feems to be little more than too much temerity of conclufion in favour of fomething not yet experienced, and too much readiness to believe that the mifery which our own palfions and appetites produce, is brought upon us by accidental causes, and external efficients.

Τ

I

It is, indeed, frequently discovered by us, that we complained too hastily of peculiar hardships, and imagined ourfelves diftinguished by embarraffinents, in which other claffes of men are equally entangled. We often change a lighter for a greater evil, and with ourfelves reftored again to the ftate from which we thought it defirable to be delivered. But this knowledge, though it is eafily gained by the trial, is not always attainable any other way; and that error cannot justly be reproached, which reafon could not obviate, nor prudence

avoid.

To take a view at once diftinct and comprehenfive of human life, with all it's intricacies of combination, and varieties of connexion, is beyond the power of mortal intelligences. Of the state with which practice has not acquainted us, we inatch a glimpfe, we difcern a point, and regulate the reft by paffion, and by fancy. In this enquiry every favourite prejudice, every innate defire, is bufy to deceive us. We are unhappy, at leaft lefs happy than our nature feems to admit; we neceffarily defire the me- . lioration of our lot; what we defire, we very reasonably feek, and what we feek we are naturally eager to believe that we have found. Our confidence is often difappointed, but our reafon is not convinced; and there is no man who does not hope for fomething which he has not, though perhaps his wifhes lie unactive, because he forefees the difficulty of attainment. As among the numerous ftudents of Hermetick philofophy, not one appears to have defited from the talk of tranfmutation from conviction of it's impoflibility, but from wearinefs of toil, or impatience of delay, a broken body, or exhaufted fortune.

Irrefolution and mutability are often the faults of men whofe views are wide, and whofe imagination is vigorous and excurfive, because they cannot confine their thoughts within their own boundaries of action, but are continually ranging over all the fcenes of human exiitence, and confequently are often apt to conceive that they fall upon new regions of pleasure, and fart new poffibilities of happiness. Thus they are bufied with a perpetual fucceffion of fchemes, and pafs their lives in alternate elation and forrow, for want of that calm and immoveable acquicfcence in their condition by which men of flower underflaudings are fixed for ever to a certain

point, or led on in the plain beaten track which their fathers and grandfires have trod before them.

Of two conditions of life equally inviting to the profpect, that will always have the difadvantage which we have already tried; becaufe the evils which we have felt we cannot extenuate; and though we have, perhaps from nature, the power as well of aggravating the calamity which we fear, as of heightening the blefiing we expect, yet in those meditations which we indulge by choice, and which are not forced upon the mind by neceffity, we have always the art of fixing our regard upon the more pleafing images, and fuffer hope to difpofe the lights by which we look upon futurity.

The good and ill of different modes of life are fometimes fo equally oppofed, that perhaps no man ever yet made his choice between them upon a full conviction and adequate knowledge; and therefore fluctuation of will is not more wonderful, when they are propofed to the election, than ofcillations of a beam charged with equal weights. The mind no fooner imagines itfelf determined by fomne prevalent advantage, than fome convenience of equal weight is discovered on the other fide, and the refolutions which are fuggested by the nicest examination are often repented as foon as they are taken.

Eumenes, a young man of great abilities, inherited a large estate from a father long eminent in confpicuous employments. His father, haraffed with competitions, and perplexed with multiplicity of bufinefs, recommended the quiet of a private ftation with so much force, that Eumenes for fome years refifted every motion of ambitious wishes; but being once provoked by the fight of oppreffion, which he could not redrefs, he began to think it the duty of an honeft man to enable himself to protect others, and gradually felt a defire of greatnefs, excited by a thousand projects of advantage to his country. His fortune placed him in the fenate, his knowledge and eloquence advanced him at court, and he poffeffed that authority and influence which he had refolved to exert for the happiness of mankind.

He now became acquainted with greatnefs, and was in a thort time convinced, that in proportion as the power of doing well is enlarged, the temptations to do ill are multiplied and enforced. He felt

himfelf

himself every moment in danger of being either feduced or driven from his honeft purposes. Sometimes a friend was to be gratified, and fometimes a rival to be crushed, by means which his confcience could not approve. Sometimes he was forced to comply with the prejudices of the publick, and fometimes with the fchemes of the ministry. He was by degrees wearied with perpetual struggles to unite policy and virtue, and went back to retirement as the fhelter of innocence, perfuaded that he could only hope to benefit mankind by a blameless example of private virtue. Here he spent fome years in tranquillity and beneficence; but finding that corruption increafed, and falle opinions in government prevailed, he thought himself again fummoned to posts of publick truft,

from which new evidence of his own weakness again determined him to re

tire.

Thus men may be made inconftant by virtue and by vice, by too much or too little thought; yet inconftancy, however dignified by it's motives, is always to be avoided, becaufe life allows us but a fmall time for enquiry and experiment; and he that steadily endeavours at excellence, in whatever employment, will more benefit mankind, than he that hefitates in chufing his part till he is called to the performance. The traveller that refolutely follows a rough and winding path will fooner reach the end of his journey than he that is always changing his direction, and wastes the hours of day-light in looking for smoother ground, and fhorter pallages.

SALLUST.

HEN Socrates was building

may fuperinduce inability to deny any

a

ing afked by one that obferved the littleneis of the defign, why a man fo eminent would not have an abode more fuitable to his dignity? he replied, that he fhould think himfelf fufficiently accommodated, if he could fee that narrow habitation filled with real friends. Such was the opinion of this great mafter of human life concerning the infrequency of fuch an union of minds as might deferve the name of Friendship, that, among the multitudes, whom vanity or curiofity, civility or veneration, crouded about him, he did not expect that very spacious apartments would be neceffary to contain all that should regard him with fincere kindness, or adhere to him with fteady fidelity.

So many qualities are indeed requifite to the poffibility of friendship, and fo many accidents must concur to it's rife and it's continuance, that the greatest part of mankind content themselves without it, and fupply it's place as they can, with intereft and dependance.

Multitudes are unqualified for a conftant and warm reciprocation of benevolence, as they are incapacitated for any other elevated excellence by perpetual attention to their intereft, and unrefitting fubjection to their paffions. Long habits

the importunities of any immediate gratification, and an inveterate felfifhnefs will imagine all advantages diminished in proportion as they are communicated.

But not only this hateful and confirmed corruption, but many varieties of difpofition, not inconfiftent with common degrees of virtue, may exclude friendship from the heart. Some ardent enough in their benevolence, and defective neither in officioufnefs nor liberality, are mutable and uncertain, foon attracted by new objects, difgufted without offence, and alienated without enmity. Others are foft and flexible, cafily influenced by reports or whipers, ready to catch alarms from every dubious cir cumitance, and to liften to every suspicion which envy and flattery fhail fuggeft; to follow the opinion of every confident adviser, and move by the impulfe of the last breath. Some are impatient of contradiction, more willing to go wrong by their own judgment, than to be indebted for a better or fafer way to the fagacity of another; inclined to confider counfel as infult, and enquiry as want of confidence; and to confer their regard on no other terms than u ferved fubmiflion, and implicit con Some are dark and involved, (auly T2 careful

careful to conceal good and bad purpoles, and pleafed with producing effects by invisible means, and fhewing their defign only in it's execution. Others are univerfally communicative, alike open to every eye, and equally profufe of their own fecrets and thofe of others, without the neceffary vigilance of caution, or the honeft arts of prudent integrity; ready to accufe without malice, and to betray without treachery. Any of thefe may be useful to the community, and pass through the world with the reputation of good purposes and uncorrupted morals, but they are unfit for clote and tender intimacies. He cannot properly be chofen for a friend whofe kindness is exhaled by it's own warmth, or frozen by the first blaft of flander; he cannot be a useful counfeller who will hear no opinion but his own; he will not much invite confidence whofe principal maxim is to fufpect; nor can the candour and franknefs of that man be much efteemed who fpreads his arms to human-kind, and makes every man,without diftinction, a denizen of his bofom.

That friendship may be at once fond and lasting, there must not only be equal virtue on each part, but virtue of the fame kind; not only the fame end must be propofed, but the fame means muft be approved by both. We are often, by fuperficial accomplishments and accidental endearments, induced to love thofe whom we cannot efteem; we are fometimes, by great abilities, and inconteftible evidences of virtue, compelled to efteem thofe whom we cannot love. But friendship, compounded of efteem and love, derives from one it's tendencfs, and it's permanence from the other; and therefore requires not only that it's candidates fhould gain the judgment, but that they thould attract the affections; that they should not only be firm in the day of diftrefs, but gay in the hour of jollity; not only useful in exigencies, but pleng in familiar life; their prefence hould give cheerfulness as well as courage, and difpel alike the gloom of fear and of melancholy.

To this mutual complacency is generally requifite an uniformity of opiniens, at leaft of those active and confpicucus principles which difcriminate parties in government, and fects in rejgion, and which every day operate more or let on the common bufinefs of life. For though great tendernefs hias, per

haps, been fometimes known to continue between men eminent in contrary factions, yet fuch friends are to be fhewn rather as prodigies than examples; and it is no more proper to regulate our conduct by fuch inftances, than to leap a precipice, because fome have fallen from it and efcaped with life.

It cannot but be extremely difficult to preferve private kindness in the midst of publick oppofition, in which will neceffarily be involved a thousand incidents, extending their influence to converfation and privacy. Men engaged, by moral or religious motives, in contrary parties, will generally look with different eyes upon every man, and decide almoft every queftion upon different principles. When fuch occafions of difpute happen, to comply is to betray our caufe, and to maintain friendship by ceafing to deserve it; to be filent, is to lofe the happiness and dignity of independence, to live in perpetual constraint, and to defert, if not to betray: and who fhall determine which of two friends fhall yield, where neither believes himfelf miftaken, and both confefs the importance of the question? What then remains but contradiction and debate? and from thofe what can be expected but acrimony and vehemence, the infolence of triumph, the vexation of defeat, and, in time, a weariness of conteft, and an extinction of benevolence? Exchange of endearments and intercourfe of civility may continue, indeed, as boughs may for a while be verdant, when the root is wounded; but the poifon of difcord is infufed," and though the countenance may preferve it's fmile, the heart is hardening and contracting.

That man will not be long agreeable whom we fee only in times of ferioufnefs and feverity; and therefore, to maintain the foftness and ferenity of benevolence, it is necefiary that friends partake each others pleatures as well as cares, and be led to the fame divertions by fimilitude of tafte. This is, however, not to be confidered as equally indifpenfable with conformity of principles, becaufe any man may honeftly, according to the precepts of Horace, refign the gratifications of tafte to the humour of another; and friendflip may well deferve the facrifice of pleasure, though not of confcience.

It was once confeffed to me, by a painter, that no profeffor of his art ever loved another. This declaration is to

far