thing of the company, but their cloaths and their faces. I faw their looks clouded at the beginning of every game with an uniform folicitude, now and then in it's progrefs varied with a fhort triumph, at one time wrinkled with cunning, at another deadened with defpondency, or by accident flushed with rage at the unfkilful or unlucky play of a partner. From fuch affemblies, in whatever humour I happened to enter them, I was quickly forced to retire; they were too trifling for me when I was grave, and too dull when I was chearful.

Yet I cannot but value myfelf upon this token of regard from a lady who is not afraid to ftand before the torch of Truth. Let her not, however, confult her curiofity more than her prudence; but reflect a moment on the fate of Semele, who might have lived the favourite of Jupiter, if he could have been content without his thunder. It is dangerous for mortal beauty, or terrestrial virtue, to be examined by too ftrong a light. The torch of Truth fhews much that we cannot, and all that we would not fee. In a face dimpled with fmiles, it has often difcovered malevolence and envy; and detected, under jewels and brocade, the frightful forms of poverty and diftrefs. A fine hand of cards have changed before it into a thousand spectres of fick nefs, mifery, and vexation; and immenfe fums of money, while the winner counted them with transport, have at the first glimpse of this unwelcome luftre vanished from before him. If her ladythip therefore defigns to continue her affembly, I would advife her to fhun fuch dangerous experiments, to fatisfy herfelf with common appearances, and to light up her apartments rather with myrtle than the torch of Truth.

A Modeft young man fends his fer

'vice to the author of the Rambler, and will be very willing to aflift him in his work, but is fadly afraid of ⚫ being difcouraged by having his first effay rejected; a difgrace he has woefully experienced in every offer he had ⚫ made of it to every new writer of every new paper: but he comforts himself by thinking, without vanity, that this has been from a peculiar favour of the Mufes, who faved his performance from being buried in trafh, and referved it to appear with lustre in the • Rambler.

I am equally a friend to modefty and enterprize; and therefore fhall think it an honour to correfpond with a young man who poffeffes both in fo eminent a degree. Youth is, indeed, the time in which thefe qualities ought chiefly to be found; modefty fuits well with inexperience, and enterprize with health and vigour, and an extenfive profpe& of life. One of my predeceffors has juftly obferved, that, though modesty has an amiable and winning appearance, it ought not to hinder the exertion of the active powers, but that a man fhould fhew under his blushes a

latent resolution. This point of perfection, nice as it is, my correfpondent feems to have attained. That he is modeft, his own declaration may evince; and, I think, the latent refolution may be difcovered in his letter by an acute obferver. I will advife him, fince he fo well deferves my precepts, not to be difcouraged, though the Rambler should prove equally envious, or taftelefs, with the rest of his fraternity. If his paper is refufed, the preffes of England are open; let him try the judgment of the publick. If, as it has fometimes happened in general combinations against merit, he cannot perfuade the world to buy his works, he may prefent them to his friends; and if his friends are feized with the epidemical infatuation, and cannot find his genius, or will not confefs it, let him then refer his cause to pofterity, and referve his labours for a wifer age.

Thus have I difpatched fome of my correfpondents in the ufual manner, with fair words and general civility. But to Flirtilla, the gay Flirtilla, what thall I reply? Unable as I am to fly, at her. command, over land and feas, or to fupply her, from week to week, with the fafhions of Paris, or the intrigues of Ma

drid, I am yet not willing to incur her further displeafure, and would fave my papers from her monkey on any reafonable terms. By what propitiation, therefore, may I atone for my former gravity, and open, without trembling, the future letters of this fprightly perfecutor! To write in defence of mafquerades is no eafy tafk; yet fomething difficult and daring may well be required, as the price of fo important an approbation. I therefore confulted, in this great emergency, a man of high reputation in gay life; who, having added to his other accomplishments,

accomplishments, no méan proficiency in the minute philofophy, after the fifth perufal of her letter, broke out with rapture into these words And can you, Mr. Rambler, ftand out against this charming creature? Let her know, at least, that from this moment Nigrinus devotes his life and his labours to her fervice. Is there any ftubborn prejudice of education that ftands between thee and the moft amiable of mankind? Behold, Flirtilla, at thy feet, a man grown grey in the ftudy * of thofe noble arts by which right and wrong may be confounded; by which 'reafon may be blinded when we have

a mind to escape from her infpection; and caprice and appetite inftated in un'controuled command, and boundless 'dominion! Such a cafuift may furely " engage, with certainty of fucceis, in ⚫ vindication of an entertainment which in an instant gives confidence to the

timorous, and kindles ardour in the 'cold; an entertainment where the vigilance of jealousy has so often been eluded, and the virgin is fet free from the neceffity of languishing in filence; where all the outworks of chastity are ' at once demolished; where the heart is laid open without a blush; where ⚫ bashfulness may furvive virtue, and no with is crushed under the frown of modefty. Far weaker influence than Flirtilla's might gain over an advocate for fuch amufements. It was declared by Pompey, that, if the com⚫monwealth was violated, he could stamp with his foot, and raife an army out of the ground; if the rights of pleafure are again invaded, let but Flirtilla crack her fan, neither pens nor fwords fhall be wanting at the fummons; the wit and the colonel fhall 'march out at her command; and neither law nor reafon shall stand before us.'

HOR.

HE maxim which Periander of Corinda, one of the feven lages of Greece, left as a memorial of his knowledge and benevolence, was, xóλy xpâtes be matter of thy anger. He confidered anger as the great difturber of human life, the chief enemy both of publick happiness, and private tranquillity, and thought that he could not lay on pofterity a stronger obligation to reverence his memory, than by leaving them a falutary caution against this out rageous paffion.

To what latitude Periander might extend the word, the brevity of his precept will scarcely allow us to conjecture. From anger, in it's full import, protracted into malevolence, and exerted in Levenge, arise, indeed, many of the evils

FRANCIS.

to which the life of man is expofed. By anger operating upon power are produced the fubverfion of cities, the defolation of countries, the maffacre of nations, and all thofe dreadful and altonishing calamities which fill the hiftories of the world, and which could not be read at any diftant point of time, when the paffions ftand neutral, and every motive and principle is left to it's natural force, without fome doubt of the truth of the relation, did we not fee the fame caufes ftill trending to the fame effects, and only acting with lefs vigour for want of the fame concurrent opportunities.

But this gigantic and enormous fpecies of anger fails not properly under the animadverfion of a writer whofe chief end is the regulation of common life, on!

whofe precepts are to recommend themfelves by their general ute. Nor is this ellay intended to expofe the tragical or fatal effects even of private malignity. The anger which I propote now for my fubject is fuch as makes thofe who indulge it more troublefome than formidable, and ranks them rather with hornets and wafps, than with bafilifks and lions. I have therefore prefixed a motto, which characterites this pathion, not fo much by the mifchief that it caules as by the noife that it utters.

There is in the world a certain clafs of mortals, known, and contentedly known, by the appellation of paffionate men, who imaging themfelves entitled by that diftinction to be provoked on every flight occation, and to vent their rage in vehement and fierce vociferations, in furious menaces and licentious reproaches. Their rage, indeed, for the moft part, fumes Tway in outcries of injury, and proteftations of vengeance, and feldom proceeds to actual violence, unlefs a drawer or linkboy fall in their way; but they interrupt the quiet of thofe that happen to be within the reach of their clamours, obstruct the course of converfation, and disturb the enjoyment of fociety.

Men of this kind are fometimes not without understanding or virtue; and are, therefore, not always treated with the feverity which their neglect of the ease of all about them might juftly provoke: they have obtained a kind of prefeription for their folly, and are confidered by their companions as under a predominant influence that leaves them not masters of their conduct or language; as acting without confcioufnets, and rufhing into mifchief with a mitt before their eves; they are therefore pitied rather than cenfured, and their fallies are paffed over as the involuntary blows of a man agitated by the fpafins of a convul

fion.

It is furely not to be obferved without. indignation, that men may be found of minds mean enough to be fatisfied with this treatment; wretches who are proud to obtain the privilege of madmen, and can, without fhame, and without regret, confider themselves as receiving hourly pardons from their companions, and giving them continual opportunities of exercising their patience, and boasting

their clemency.

end at laft.

Thofe fudden burfts of rage generally break out upon fmall occafions; for life, unhappy as it is, cannot fupply great evils as frequently as the man of fire thinks it fit to be enraged; therefore the first reflection upon his violence muft fhew him that he is mean enough to be driven from his poft by every petty incident, that he is the mere flave of cafualty, and that his reafon and virtue are in the power of the wind.

One motive there is of thefe loud extravagances, which a man is careful to conceal from others, and does not always difcover to himtelf. He that finds his knowledge narrow, and his arguments weak, and by confequence his fuffrage not much regarded, is sometimes in hope of gaining that attention by his clamours which he cannot otherwife obtain, and is pleased with remembering that at least he made himself heard, that he had the power to interrupt thofe whom he could not confute, and fufpend the decifion which he could not guide.

Of this kind is the fury to which many men give way among their fervants and domefticks; they feel their own ignorance; they fee, their own infignificance; and therefore they endeavour, by their fury, to fright away contempt from before them, when they know it must follow them behind; and think themfelves eminently mafters, when they fee one folly tamely complied with, only left refutal or delay thould provoke them to a greater.

Thefe temptations cannot but be owned to have fome force. It is fo little pleafing to any man to fee himself wholly overlooked in the mafs of things, that he may be allowed to try a few expedients for procuring fome kind of fupplemental dignity, and ufe forme endeavour to add weight, by the violence of his temper, to the lightnefs of his other powers. But this has now been long practifed, and found, upon the most

exact estimate, not to produce advantages equal to it's inconveniences; for it appears not that aman can by uproar, tumult, and blufter, alter any one's opinion of his understanding, or gain influence except over those whom fortune or nature have made his dependents. He may, by a steady perfeverance in his ferocity, fright his children, and harafs his fervants; but the rest of the world will look on and laugh, and he will have the comfort at laft of thinking, that he lives only to raise contempt and hatred, emotions to which wildom and virtue would be always unwilling to give occafion. He has contrived only to make thofe fear him whom every reasonable being is endeavouring to endear by kindnels, and muft content himself with the pleature of a triumph obtained by trampling on them who could not refift. He muft perceive that the apprehenfion which his prefence caufes is not the awe of his virtue, but the dread of his brutality, and that he has given up the felicity of being loved without gaining the honour of being reverenced.

But this is not the only ill confequence of the frequent indulgence of this bluftering paffion, which a man, by often calling to his affiftance, will teach, in a fhort time, to intrude before the fummons, to rush upon him with refiftlefs violence, and without any previous notice of it's approach. He will find himfelf liable to be inflamed at the first touch of provocation, and unable to retain his refentment, till he has a full conviction of the offence, to proportion his anger to the caufe, or to regulate it by prudence or by duty. When a man has once fuffered his mind to be thus vitiated, he becomes one of the moft hateful and unhappy beings. He can give no fecurity to himself that he shall not, at the next interview, alienate by fome

fudden transport his dearest friend; or break out, upon fome flight contradiction, into fuch terms of rudeness as can never be perfectly forgotten. Whoever converfes with him, lives with the fufpicion and folicitude of a man that plays with a tame tiger, always under a neceffity of watching the moment in which the capricious lavage fhall begin to growl.

It is told by Prior, in a panegyrick on the Duke of Dorfet, that his fervants used to put themselves in his way when he was angry, because he was fure to recompenfe them for any indignities which he made them fuffer. This is the round of a paffionate man's life; he contracts debts when he is furious, which his virtue, if he has virtue, obliges him to difcharge at the return of reaton. He spends his time in outrage and acknowledgment, injury and reparation. Or, if there be any who hardens himself in oppreffion, and juftifies the wrong, becaufe he has done it, his infenfibility can make fmall part of his praife, or his happiness; he only adds deliberate to hafty folly, aggravates petulance by contumacy, and deftroys the only plea that he can offer for the tenderness and patience of mankind.

Yet, even this degree of depravity we may be content to pity, because it feldom wants a punishment equal to it's guilt. Nothing is more defpicable or more miferable than the old age of a paffionate

man.

When the vigour of youth fils him, and his amufements pall with frequent repetition, his occafional rage finks by decay of ftrength into peevishness; that peevishness, for want of novelty and variety, becomes habitual; the world falls off from around him, and he is left, as Homer expreffes it, φθινύθων φίλον κῆς-το devour his own heart in folitude and contempt.

LUCANUS AD PISONEM

SIR,

A

TO THE RAMBLER.

S you feem to have devoted your labours to virtue, I cannot forbear to inform you of one fpecies of cruelty with which the life of a man of letters perhaps does not often make him acquainted; and which, as it feems to produce no other advantage to thefe that practise it than a fhort gratification of thoughtlefs vanity, may ⚫ become lefs common when it has been < once expofed in it's various forms, and it's full magnitude.

I am the daughter of a country gentleman, whofe family is numerous, and whofe eftate, not at firit fufficient to fupply us with affluence, has been lately fo much impaired by an unfuccefsful law-fuit, that all the younger children are obliged to try 'fuch means as their education affords them, for procuring the neceffaries of life. Diftrefs and curiofity concurred to bring me to London, where I was received by a relation with the coldness which misfortune generally finds. A week, a long week, I lived with my coufin, before the moft vigilant enquiry could procure us the leaft hopes of a place, in which time I was much better qualified to bear all the vexations of fervitude. The first two days fhe was content to pity me, and only wished I had not been quite fo well bred; but people must comply with their circumstances. This lenity, however, was foon at an end; and, for the remaining part of the week, I

heard every hour of the pride of my family, the obftinacy of my father, and of people better born than myself

that were common fervants.

At last, on Saturday noon, she told me, with very vifible fatisfaction, that Mrs. Bombaine, the great filk'mercer's lady, wanted a maid; and a fine place it would be, for there would be nothing to do but to clean my mif'trefs's room, get up her linen, drefs the young ladies, wait at tea in the morning, take care of a little mifs just come from nurfe, and then fit down to my needle. But Madam was a woman of great fpirit, and would not be contradicted; and therefore I fhould take care, for good places were not eafily to be got.

With thefe cautions I waited on Madam Bombafine, of whom the firit fight gave me no ravishing ideas. She was two yards round the waift, her voice was at once loud and fqueaking, and her face brought to my mind the picture of the full moon. "Are you the young woman," favs fhe, that are come to offer yourself? "It is ftrange when people of fubftance

want a fervant, how foon it is the "town-talk! But they know they "fhall have a belly-full that live with

"me.

Not like people at the other "end of the town, we dine at one "o'clock. But I never take any body "without a character; what friends "do you come of?" I then told her. that my father was a gentleman, and that we had been unfortunate. "A misfortune indeed, to come to great

"me