deteftation, for nothing out of the common order of nature can be long borne. I had no inclination to a wife who had the ruggedness of a man without his force, and the ignorance of a woman without her foftnefs; nor could I think my quiet and honour to be entrusted to fuch audacious virtue as was hourly courting danger, and foliciting affault." My next miftrefs was Nitella, a lady of gentle mien, and foft voice, always fpeaking to approve, and ready to receive direction from those with whom chance had brought her into company. In Nitella, I promifed myself an eafy friend, with whom I might loiter away the day without disturbance or altercation. I therefore foon refolved to addrefs her, but was difcouraged from profecuting my courtship by obferving, that her apartments were fuperftitiously regular; and that, unlefs fhe had notice of my vifit, fhe was never to be feen. There is a kind of anxious cleanlinefs which I have always noted as the charactereftick of a flattern; it is the fuperfluous fcrupulofity of guilt, dreading difcovery, and fhunning fufpicion; it is the violence of an effort against habit, which being impelled by external motives, cannot top at the middle point. Nitella was always tricked out rather with nicety than elegance; and feldom could forbear to difcover, by her uneafinefs and constraint, that her attention was burdened, and her imagination engroffed: I therefore concluded, that being only occafionally and ambitioully dreffed, fhe was not familiarized to her ⚫wn ornaments. There are fo many competitors for the fame of cleanliness, that it is not hard to gain information of those that fail, from thole that defire to excel: I quickly found, that Nitella paffed her time between finery and dirt; and was always in a wrapper, night-cap, and flippers, when the was not decorated for immediate fhew. I was then led by my evil destiny to Charybdis, who never neglected an opportunity of feizing a new prey when it came within her reach. I thought myfelf quickly made happy by permiffion to attend her to public places; and pleafed my own vanity with imagining the envy which I fhould raife in a thoufand hearts, by appearing as the acknowledged favourite of Charybdis. She foon after hinted her intention to take a ramble for a fortnight into a part of the kingdom which the had ne ver feen. I folicited the happinefs of accompanying her, which, after a fhort reluctance, was indulged me. She had no other curiofity in her journey, than after all poffible means of expence; and was every moment taking occafion to mention fome delicacy, which I knew it my duty upon fuch notices to pro- q cure. After our return, being now mora familiar, fhe told me, whenever we met, of fome new diverfion; at night fhe had notice of a charming company that would breakfast in the gardens; and in the morning had been informed of fome new fong in the opera, fome new drefs at the playhoufe, or fome performer at a concert whom the longed to hear. Her intelligence was fuch, that there never was a fhew to which he did not fummon me on the fecond day; and as the hated a crowd, and could not go alone, I was obliged to attend at fomne intermediate hour, and pay the price of a whole company. When we pafled the streets, the was often charmed with fome trinket in the toy-fhops; and from moderate defires of feals and fnuff-boxes, rofe, by degrees, to gold and diamonds. I now began to find the fmile of Charybdis too costly for a private purfe, and added one more to fix and forty lovers, whofe fortune and patience her rapacity had exhausted. Imperia then took poffeffion of my affections; but kept them only for a fhort time. She had newly inherited a large fortune, and having spent the car ly part of her life in the perufal of romances, brought with her into the gay world all the pride of Cleopatra; expecting nothing lefs than vows, altars, and facrifices; and thought her charms difhonoured, and her power infringed, by the fofteft oppofition to her fentiments, or the finalleft tranfgreffion of her commands. Time might indeed cure this fpecies of pride in a mind not naturally undifcerning, and vitiated only by falfe reprefentations; but the ope. rations of time are flow; and I therefore left her to grow wife at leifure, or to continue in error at her own expence. Thus I have hitherto, in fpite of my felf, paffed my life in frozen celibacy. My friends, indeed, often tell me, that I flatter my imagination with higher hopes than human nature can gratify; that I drefs up an ideal charmer in all the radiance of perfection, and then enter the world to look for the fame excel. lence in corporeal beauty. But furcy, Mr. Mr. Rambler, it is not madnefs to hope for fome terreftrial lady unftained with the fpots which I have been defcribing; at least I am refolved to purfue my fearch; for I am fo far from thinking meanly of marriage, that I believe it able to afford the higheft happiness decreed to our pre fent ftate; and if after all these mifcarriages I find a woman that fills up my expectation, you fhall hear once more from, Yours, &c. HYMENÆUS N° CXVI. SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 1751. OPTAT EPHIPPIA BOS; PIGER OPTAT ARARE CABALLUS. Hot THUS THE SLOW OX WOULD GAUDY TRAPPINGS CLAIM: BIR, TO THE RAMBLER. I the second fo gentleman by the daughter of a wealthy citizen of London. My father having by his marriage freed the eftate from a heavy mortgage, and paid his fifters their portions, thought himself discharged from all obligation to further thought, and entitled to spend the reft of his life in rural pleafures. He therefore fpared nothing that might contribute to the completion of his felicity; he procured the best guns and horfes that the kingdom could fupply, paid large falaries to his groom and huntfman, and became the envy of the country for the difcipline of his hounds. But above all his other attainments, he was eminent for a breed of pointers and fetting-dogs, which by long and vigilant cultivation he had fo much improved, that not a partridge or heathcock could reft in fecurity, and game of whatever fpecies that dared to light upon his manor, was beaten down by his hot, or covered with his nets. My elder brother was very early initiated in the chace, and at an age when other boys are creeping like fuails unwillingly to fchool, he could wind the horn, beat the bushes, bound over hedges, and fwim rivers. When the huntfinan one day broke his leg, he fupplied his place with equal abilities, and came home with the fcut in his hat, amidft the acclamations of the whole village. I being either delicate or timorous, lefs defirous of honour, or lefs capable of fylyan heroifm, was always the favourite of my mother; because I kept my coat clean, and my complexion free from freckles, and did not come home like FRANCIS. my brother mired and tanned, nor carry corn in my hat to the horse, nor bring dirty curs into the parlour. My mother had not been taught to amufe herself with books, and being much inclined to defpife the ignorance and barbarity of the country ladies, difdained to learn their fentiments or converfation, and had made no addition to the notions which he had brought from the precincts of Cornhill. She was, therefore, always recounting the glories of the city; enumerating the fucceffion of mayors; celebrating the magnificence of the banquets at Guildhall; and relating the civilities paid her at the companies feafts by men of whom some are now made aldermen, some have fined for theriffs, and none are worth less than forty thousand pounds. She frequently difplayed her father's greatnefs; told of the large bills which he had paid at fight; of the fums for which his word would pafs upon the Exchange; the heaps of gold which he used on Saturday night to tofs about with a fhovel; the extent of his warehouse, and the ftrength of his doors and when the relaxed her imagination with lower fubjects, defcribed the furniture of their country-house, or repeated the wit of the clerks and porters. By thefe narratives I was fired with the fplendor and dignity of London, and of trade. I therefore devoted myself to a fhop, and warmed my imagination from year to year with enquiries about the privileges of a freeman, the power of the common council, the dignity of a wholesale dealer, and the grandeur of mayoralty, to which my mother affured me that many had arrived who began the world with less than myself. I was very impatient to enter into a path path, which led to fuch honour and felicity; but was forced for a time to endure fome repreflion of my eagernefs, for it was my grandfather's maxim, that a young man feldom makes much money, who is out of his time before two-and-twenty.' They thought it neceffary, therefore, to keep me at home till the proper age, without any other employment than that of learning merchants accounts, and the art of regulating books; but at length the tedious days elapfed, I was transplanted to town, and, with great fatisfaction to myself, bound to a haberdasher. My mafter, who had no conception of any virtue, merit, or dignity, but that of being rich, had all the good qualities which naturally arife from a clofe and unwearied attention to the main chance; his defire to gain wealth was fo well tempered by the vanity of Thewing it, that, without any other principle of action, he lived in the efteem of the whole commercial world; and was always treated with refpect by the only men whofe good opinion he valued or folicited, thofe who were univerfally allowed to be richer than himself. By his inftructions I learned in a few weeks to handle a yard with great dexterity, to wind tape neatly upon the ends of my fingers, and to make up parcels with exact frugality of paper and packthread; and foon caught from my fellow-apprentices the true grace of a counter bow, the careless air with which a finall pair of fcales is to be held between the fingers, and the vigour and fprightlinefs with which the box, after the ribband has been cut, is returned into it's place. Having no defire of any higher employment, and therefore applying all my powers to the knowledge of my trade, I was quickly matter of all that could be known, became a critick in fmall wares, contrived new variations of figures, and new mixtures of colours, and was fometimes confulted by the weavers when they projected fashions for the enfuing spring. With all thefe accomplishments, in the fourth year of my apprenticeship, I paid a visit to my friends in the country, where I expected to be received as a new ornament to the family, and confulted by the neighbouring gentlemen as a mafter of pecuniary knowledge, and by the ladies as an oracle of the mode. But unhappily, at the frit publick table to which I was invited, appeared a ftu- As I knew that neither of thefe gentlemen had more money than myfelf, I could not difcover what had deprefled me in their prefence; nor why they were confidered by others as more worthy of attention and refpect; and therefore refolved, when we met again, to roufe my fpirit, and force myself into notice. I went very early to the next weekly meeting, and was entertaining a finall circle very fuccefsfully with a minute reprefentation of my lord mayor's fhow, when the colonel entered careless and gay, fat down with a kind of uncere. monious civility, and without appearing to intend any interruption, drew my au dience away to the other part of the room, to which I had not the courage to follow them. Soon after came in the lawyer, not indeed with the fame at traction of mien, but with greater powers of language; and by one or other the company was fo happily amufed, that I was neither heard nor feen, nor was able to give any other proof of my exiltence than that I put round the glafs, and was in my turn permitted to name the toast. My mother, indeed, endeavoured to L1 comfort comfort me in my vexation, by telling me, that perhaps thefe fhowy talkers were hardly able to pay every one his own; that he who has money in his pocket need not care what any man fays of him; that, if I minded my trade, the time will come when lawyers and foldiers would be glad to borrow out of my purfe; and that it is fine, when a man can fet his hands to his fides, and fay he is worth forty thousand pounds every day of the year. Thefe and many more fuch confolations and encouragements I received from my good mother, which however did not much allay my uneafinefs; for having by fome accident heard, that the country ladies defpited her as a cit, I had therefore no longer much reverence for her opinions, but confidered her as one whofe ignorance and prejudice had hurried me, though without ill intentions, into a state of meannels and ignominy, from which I could not find any poffibility of riding to the rank which my ancestors had always held. I returned, however, to my master, and bufied myself among thread, and filks, and laces, but without my former cheerfulness and alacrity. I had now no longer any felicity in contemplating the exact difpofition of my powdered curls, the equal plaits of my ruffes, or the gloffy blackness of my fhoes; nor N heard with my former elevation those compliments which ladies fometimes condefcended to pay me on my readinefs in twisting a paper, or counting out the change. The term of Young Man, with which I was fometimes honoured, as I carried a parcel to the door of a coach, tortured my imagination; I grew negligent of my perfon, and fullen in my temper, often mistook the demands of the customers, treated their caprices and objections with contempt, and received and difmiffed them with furly filence. My mafter was afraid left the fhop fhould fuffer by this change of my behaviour; and, therefore, after fome expoftulations, pofted me in the warehouse, and preferved me from the danger and reproach of defertion, to which my difcontent would certainly have urged me, had I continued any longer behind the counter. In the fixth year of my fervitude my brother died of drunken joy, for having run down a fox that had baffled all the packs in the province. I was now heir, and with the hearty confent of my mafter commenced gentleman. The adventures in which my new character engaged me fhall be communicated in another letter, by, Sir, Yours, &c. MISOCAPELUS, N° CXVII. TUESDAY, APRIL 30, 1751. Οσσαν ἐπὶ Οὐλύμπω μέμασαν θέμεν ̓ αὐτὰρ ἐπ ̓ ἴσσῃ HOM. THE GODS THEY CHALLENGE, AND AFFECT THE SKIES TO THE RAMBLER. OTHING has more retarded the advancement of learning than the difpofition of vulgar minds to ridicule and vilify what they cannot comprehend. All industry must be excited by hope; and as the ftudent often proposes no other reward to himself than praife, he is eafily difcouraged by contempt and infult. He who brings with him into clamorous multitude the timidity of reclufe fpeculation, and has never har POPE. dened his front in publick life, or accuf tomed his paffions to the viciffitudes and accidents, the triumphs and defeats of mixed converfation, will blush at the ftare of petulent incredulity, and fuffer himself to be driven by a burst of laugh ter from the fortreffes of demonftration. The mechanift will be afraid to affert before hardy contradiction, the poffibility of tearing down bulwarks with a filk-worm's thread; and the astronomer of relating the rapidity of light, the dif tance of the fixed ftars, and the height of the lunar mountains. IfI could by any efforts have fhaken off this cowardice, I had not fheltered myself under a borrowed name, nor applied to you for the means of communicating to the publick the theory of a garret; a fubject which, except fome Aight and tranfient ftrictures, has been hitherto neglected by thofe who were beft qualified to adorn it, either for want of leifure to profecute the various refearches in which a nice difcuffion muft engage them, or because it requires fuch diverfity of knowledge, and fuch extent of curiofity, as is fcarcely to be found in any fingle intellect: or perhaps others forefaw the tumults which would be raised against them, and confined their knowledge to their own breafts, and abandoned prejudice and folly to the direction of chance. How fweet in fleep to pass the careless hours, 'Tis sweet thy lab'ring fteps to guide- And all the magazines of learning fortify'd: DRYDEN. The inftitution has, indeed, continued to our own time; the garret is ftill the ufual receptacle of the philofopher and poet; but this, like many ancient cuftoms, is perpetuated only by an accidental imitation, without knowledge of the original reafon for which it was efta That the profeffors of literature generally refide in the highest stories, has been immemorially obferved. The wifdom of the ancients was well acquainted with the intellectual advantages of an elevated fituation: why elfe were the Mufes ftationed on Olympus or Parnaffus by those who could with equal right have raised them bowers in the vale of Tempe, or erected their altars among the flexures of Meander? Why was Jove himself nurfed upon a mountain? or why did the goddeffes, when the prize of beauty was contested, try the caufe upon the top of Ida? Such were the fictions by which the great masters of the earlier ages endeavoured Conjectures have, indeed, been adto inculcate to pofterity the importance of a garret, which, though they had vanced concerning thefe habitations of been long obfcured by the negligence and literature, but without much fatisfacignorance of fucceeding times, were well tion to the judicious enquirer. Some enforced by the celebrated fymbol of have imagined, that the garret is gePythagoras —' åveμäv æveóvtwv Tv n'xnerally chofen by the wies, as moit ea • προσκύνει when the wind blows, worship it's echo.' This could not but be understood by his difciples as an inviolable injunction to live in a garret, which I have found frequently vifited by the echo and the wind. Nor was the tradition wholly obliterated in the age of Auguftus, for Tibullus evidently congratulates himself upon his garret, not without fome allufion to the Pythagorean precept Quàm juvat immites ventos audire cubantem blished. Caufa latet; res eft notiffima. The cause is fecret, but th' effe&t is known fily rented; and conchided that no man |