of time fufficient for the regular maturation of our schemes, and a long enjoy ment of our acquifitions, we are eager to feize the prefent moment; we pluck every gratification within our reach, without fuffering it to ripen into perfection, and crowd all the varieties of delight into a narrow compass; but age feldom fails to change our conduct; we grow negligent of time in proportion as we have lefs remaining; and fuffer the laft part of life to fteal from us in languid preparations for future undertakings, or flow approaches to remote advantages, in weak hopes of fome fortuitous occurrence, or drowsy equilibrations of undetermined counsel. Whether it be that the aged, having tafted the pleasures of man's condition, and found them delufive, become less anxious for their attainment; or that frequent mifcarriages have depreffed them to defpair, and frozen them to inactivity; or that death fhocks them more as it advances upon them, and they are afraid to remind themselves of their decay, or to difcover to their own hearts, that the time of trifling is paft.

A perpetual conflict with natural defires feems to be the lot of our prefent ftate. In youth we require fomething of the tardiness and frigidity of age; and in age we must labour to recall the fire and impetuofity of youth; in youth we must learn to expect, and in age to enjoy.

The torment of expectation is, indeed, not eatily to be borne at a time when every idea of gratification fires the blood, and flathes on the fancy; when the heart is vacant to every fresh form of delight, and has no rival engagements to withdraw it from the importunities of a new defire. Yet fince the fear of miffing what we seek muft always be proportionable to the happiness expected from poffefling it, the paffions, even in this tempeftuous ftate, might be fomewhat moderated by frequent inculcation of the mifchief of temerity, and the hazard of lofing that which we endeavour to feize before our time.

He that too early afpires to honours, mult refolve to encounter not only the oppofition of intereft, but the malignity of envy. He that is too eager to be rich, generally endangers his fortune in wild adventures, and uncertain projects; and he that haftens too fpeedily to reputation, often raifes his character by arti

fices and fallacies, decks himself in colours which quickly fade, or in plumes which accident may shake off, or competition pluck away,

The danger of early eminence has been extended by fome, even to the gifts of nature; and an opinion has been long conceived, that quickness of invention, accuracy of judgment, or extent of knowledge, appearing before the ufual time, prefage a fhort life. Even those who are lefs inclined to form general conclufions, from inftances which by their own nature must be rare, have yet been inclined to prognofticate no fuitable progress from the firft fallies of rapid wits; but have obferved, that after a fhort effort they either loiter or faint, and suffer themselves to be furpaffed by the even and regular perfeverance of flower understandings.

It frequently happens, that applaufe abates diligence. Whofoever finds himfelf to have performed more than was demanded, will be contented to spare the labour of unneceffary performances, and fit down to enjoy at ease his fuperfluities of honour. He whom fuccef has made confident of his abilities, quickly claims the privilege of negligence, and looks contemptuously on the gra dual advances of a rival, whom he imagines himself able to leave behind whenever the fhall again fummon his force to the conteft. But long intervals of pleafure diffipate attention, and weaken conftancy; nor is it eafy for him that has funk from diligence into floth, to roufe out of his lethargy, to recollect his notions, rekindle his curiofity, and engage with his former ardour in the toils of study.

Even that friendship which intends the reward of genius, too often tends to obftruct it. The pleasure of being ca reffed, diftinguished, and admired, eafily feduces the ftudent from literary folitude. He is ready to follow the ca which fummons him to hear his own praife, and which, perhaps, at once flatters his appetite with certainty of pleafures, and his ambition with hopes of patronage; pleasures which he conceives inexhauftible, and hopes which he has not yet learned to distrust.

Thefe evils, indeed, are by no means to be imputed to nature, or confidered as infeparable from an early display of uncommon abilities. They may be certainly efcaped by prudence and refolu

tion,

tion, and must therefore be recounted rather as confolations to those who are Lefs liberally endowed, than as difcouragements to fuch as are born with uncommon qualities. Beauty is well known to draw after it the perfecutions of impertinence, to incite the artifices of envy, and to raife the flames of unlawful love; yet among the ladies whom prudence or modefty have made moft eminent, who has ever complained of the inconveniencies of an amiable form? or would have purchased fafety by the lofs of charms?

Neither grace of perfon, nor vigour of understanding, are to be regarded otherwife than as bleflings, as means of happiness indulged by the Supreme Benefactor; but the advantages of either may be loft by too much eagerness to obtain them. A thoufand beauties in "their first bloffom, by an imprudent expofure to the open world, have fuddenly withered at the blast of infamy; and men who might have fubjected new regions to the empire of learning, have

been lured by the praife of their firft productions from academical retirement, and wafted their days in vice and dependence. The virgin who too foon afpires to celebrity and conqueft, perifhes by childifh vanity, ignorant credulity, or guiltlefs indifcretion. The genius who catches at laurels and preferment before his time, mocks the hopes that he had excited, and lofes thote years which might have been most utefully employed, the years of youth, of fpirit, and vivacity.

It is one of the innumerable abfurdities of pride, that we are never more impatient of direction, than in that part of life when we need it moft; we are in hafte to meet enemies whom we have not strength to overcome, and to under. take tasks which we cannot perform: and as he that once mifcarries does not eafily perfuade mankind to favour another attempt, an ineffectual struggle for fame is often followed by perpetual ob fcurity.

Ovid.

ing fettled habits of life, and deviating fometimes into flight aberrations from the laws of medicine; by varying the proportions of food and exercife, interrupting the fucceffions of reft and labour, and mingling hardfhips with indulgence. The body long accustomed to ftated quantities and uniform pericds, is difordered by the fmallett irregularity; and fince we cannot adjust every day by the balance or barometer, it is fit fometimes to depart from rigid accuracy, that we may be able to comply with neceffary affairs, or ftrong inclinations. He that too long obferves nice punctualities, cerdenms himself to voluntary imbécility, and will not long efcape the miferies of difeafe.

The fame laxity of regimen is equally neceffary to intellectual health, and to

F. LEWIS.

a perpetual fufceptibility of occafional company which perhaps fumilitude of tafte brought firit together, quickly contras his faculties, and makes a thoufand things offenfive that are in themfelves indifferent; a man accustomed to hear only the echo of his own fentiments, fcon bars all the common avenues of delight, and has no part in the general gratifications of mankind.

In things which are not immediately fubject to religious or moral confideration, it is dangerous to be too long or too rigidly in the right. Senfibility may, by an inceffant attention to elegance and propriety, be quickened to a tendernefs inconfiftent with the condition of humanity, irritable by the fmalleft afperity, and vulnerable by the genleft touch. He that pleafes himself too match with minute exactness, and fub

Mits

prudence and circumfpection, that after ix years the will was made, and Juven culus was declared heir. But unhappily, a month afterwards, retiring at night from his uncle's chamber, he left the door open behind him: the old man tore his will, and being then perceptibly declining, for want of time to deliberate, left his money to a trading company.

When female minds are imbittered by age or folitude, their malignity is generally exerted in a rigorous and fpite ful fuperintendence of domeftick trifles. Eriphile has employed her eloquence for twenty years upon the degeneracy of fervants, the nattiness of her house, the ruin of her furniture, the difficulty of preferving tapestry from the moths, and the eareleffness of the fluts whom the employs in brushing it. It is her bufinefs every morning to vifit all her rooms, in hopes of finding a chair without it's cover, a window fhut or open contrary to her orders, a spot on the hearth, or a feather on the floor, that the rett of the day may be justifiably spent in taunts of contempt, and vociferations of anger. She lives for no other purpose but to preferve the neatnefs of a houte and gardens, and feels neither inclination to pleasure, nor aspiration after virtue, while the is engrossed by the great employment of keeping gravel from grafs, and wainscot from duft. Of three amiable nieces fhe has declared herself an irreconcileable enemy to one, becaufe the broke off a tulip with her hoop; to another, because the ipilt her coffee on a Turkey carpet; and to the third, because The let a wet dog run into the parlour. She has broken off her intercourse of vifits, because company makes a houfe dirty; and refolves to confine hertelf

more to her own affairs, and to live no longer in mire by foolish lenity.

Peevifhnefs is generally the vice of narrow minds; and, except when it is the effect of anguifh and difeafe, by which the resolution is broken, and the mind made too feeble to bear the lightest addition to it's miferies, proceeds from an unreasonable perfuafion of the importance of trifles. The proper remedy againft it is, to confider the dignity of human nature, and the folly of fuffering perturbation and uneasiness from caufes unworthy of our notice.

He that refigns his peace to little cafualties, and fuffers the course of his life to be interrupted by fortuitous inadvertencies or offences, delivers up himself to the direction of the wind, and lofes all that conftancy and equanimity which conftitate the chief praife of a wife man.

The province of prudence lies between the greatest things and the leaft; fome furpafs our power by their magnitude, and fome efcape our notice by their number and their frequency. But the in difpenfable butinets of life will afford fufficient exercise to every understanding; and fuch is the limitation of the human powers, that by attention to trifles we muft let things of importance pafs unobferved: when we examine a mite with" a glafs, we fee nothing but a mite.

That it is every man's intereft to be pleated, will need little proof: that it is his intereft to please others, experience will inform him. It is therefore not lets neceffary to happiness than to virtue, that he rid his mind of paffions which make him uneafy to himself, and hateful to the world, which enchain his intellects, and obstruct his improvement.

N⚫ CXIII.

BIR,

TO THE RAMBLER.

I whether it tire al

proof of innocence to treat cenfure with contempt. We owe fo much reverence to the wisdom of mankind, as juftly to wish that our own opinion of our merit may be ratified by the concurrence of other fuffrages; and fince guilt and infamy muft have the fame effect upon intelligences unable to pierce beyond external appearance, and influenced often rather by example than pre-, cept, we are obliged to refute a falfe charge, left we fhould countenance the crime which we have never committed. To turn away from an accufation with fupercilious filence, is equally in the power of him that is hardened by villainy, and infpirited by innocence. The wall of brafs which Horace erects upon a clear confcience, may be fometimes raised by impudence or power; and we fhould always wish to preferve the dignity of virtue by adorning her with graces which wickedness cannot affume.

For this reafon I have determined no Jonger to endure, with either patient or Tullen refignation, a reproach which is, at least in my opinion, unjuft; but will lay my cafe honeftly before you, that you or your readers may at length deside it.

Whether you will be able to preferve your boafted impartiality, when you hear, that I am confidered as an adverfary by half the female world, you may furely pardon me for doubting, notwithftanding the veneration to which you may imagine yourself entitled by your age, your learning, your abstraction, or your virtue. Beauty, Mr. Rambler, has often overpowered the refolutions of the firm, and the reafonings of the wife, roufed the old to fenfibility, and fubdued the rigorous to softness.

I am one of thofe unhappy beings, who have been marked out as huf

DRYDEN,

bands for many different women, and deliberated a hundred times on the brink of matrimony, I have difcuffed all the

repeat the forms in which jointures are fettled, pin-money fecured, and provifions for younger children afeertained; but am at laft doomed by general confent to everlasting folitude, and excluded by an irreversible decree from all hopes of connubial felicity. I am pointed out by every mother, as a man whofe vifits cannot be admitted without reproach; who raifes hopes only to embitter difappointment, and makes offers only to je duce girls into a waste of that part of life, in which they might gain advan tageous matches, and become miftreffes and mothers.

I hope you will think, that fome part of this penal severity may juftly be remitted, when I inform you, that I ne ver yet profeffed love to a woman without fincere intentions of marriage; that I have never continued an appearance of intimacy from the hour that my inclination changed, but to preferve her whom I was leaving from the fhock of abruptnefs, or the ignominy of contempt: that I always endeavoured to give the ladies an opportunity of feeming to difcard me; and that I never forfook a miftrefs for larger fortune, or brighter beauty, but because I difcovered fome irregularity in her conduct, or fome depravity in her mind; not because I was charmed by another, but because I was offended by herself.

I was very early tired of that fuccef, fion of amusements by which the thoughts of molt young men are diffipated, and had not long glittered in the fplendour of an ample patrimony before I wished for the calm of domeftick happiness. Youth is naturally delighted with fprightlinefs and ardour, and therefore I breathed out the fighs of my firft affec tion at the feet of the gay, the fparkling, the vivacious Ferocula. I fancied to Kk

myself