numerous dependants, in refined praise or popular acclamations, in the accumulation of curiofities or the revels of luxury, in fplendid edifices or wide plantations, must still either by birth or acquifition poffefs riches. They may be confidered as the elemental principles of pleafure, which may be combined with endless diverfity; as the effential and neceffary substance, of which only the form is left to be adjusted by choice.

The neceffity of riches being thus apparent, it is not wonderful that almoft every mind has been employed in endeavours to acquire them; that multitudes have vied in arts by which life is furnished with accommodations, and which therefore mankind may reafonably be expected to reward.

Ít had indeed been happy if this predominant appetite had operated only in concurrence with virtue, by influencing none but those who were zealous to deserve what they were eager to poffefs, and had abilities to improve their own fortunes by contributing to the eafe or happiness of others. To have riches and to have merit would then have been the fame, and fuccefs might reasonably have been confidered as a proof of excellence. But we do not find that any of the wishes of men keep a stated proportion to their powers of attainment. Many envy and defire wealth, who can never procure it by honeft industry or useful knowledge. They therefore turn their eyes about to examine what other methods can be found of gaining that which none, however impotent or worthlefs, will be content to want.

A little enquiry will difcover that there are nearer ways to profit than through the intricacies of art, or up the steeps of labour; what wisdom and virtue fcarcely receive at the clofe of life, as the recompence of long toil and repeated efforts, is brought within the reach of fubtilty and dishonesty by more expeditious and compendious measures: the wealth of credulity is an open prey to falfehood; and the poffeffions of ignorance and imbecility are easily flen away by the conveyances of fecrertifice, or feized by the gripe of unreffed violence.

It is likewife not hard to difcover, that riches always procure protection for themselves, that they dazzle the eyes of enquiry, divert the celerity of purfuit, or appeafe the ferocity of vengeance. When any man is inconteftibly known

to have large poffeffions, very few think it requifite to enquire by what practices they were obtained; the refentment of mankind rages only against the struggles of feeble and timorous corruption; but when it has furmounted the first oppofition, it is afterwards fupported by favour, and animated by applaufe.

The profpect of gaining speedily what is ardently defired, and the certainty of obtaining by every acceffion of advantage an addition of fecurity, have fo far prevailed upon the paffions of mankind, that the peace of life is deftroyed by a general and inceffant ftruggle for riches. It is obferved of gold, by an old epi, grammatift, that to have it is to be in fear, and to want it is to be in forrow. There is no condition which is not difquieted either with the care of gaining or of keeping money; and the race of man may be divided in a political estimate between those who are practising fraud, and those who are repelling it.

If we confider the prefent ftate of the world, it will be found, that all confidence is loft among mankind, that no man ventures to act, where money can be endangered, upon the faith of another. It is impoffible to fee the long fcrolls in which every contract is includ ed, with all their appendages of feals and atteftation, without wondering at the depravity of thofe beings, who must be reftrained from violation of promise by fuch formal and publick evidences, and precluded from equivocation and fubterfuge by fuch punctilious minutenefs. Among all the fatires to which folly and wickednefs have given occa fion, none is equally fevere with a bond or a fettlement.

Of the various arts by which riches may be obtained, the greater part are at the firft view irreconcileable with the laws of virtue; fome are openly flagitious, and practifed not only in neglect, but in defiance of faith and juftice; and the reft are on every fide fo entangled with dubious tendencies, and fo belet with perpetual temptations, that very few, even of those who are not yet abandoned, are able to preferve their innocence, or can produce any other claim to pardon than that they have deviated from the right lefs than others, and have fooner and more diligently endeavoured to return.

One of the chief characteristicks of the golden age, of the age in which Pp2

neither

neither care nor danger had intruded on mankind, is the community of poffeffions: ftrife and fraud were totally excluded, and every turbulent paffion was filled by plenty and equality. Such were indeed happy times, but fuch times can return no more. Community of poffeffion must include fpontaneity of production; for what is obtained by labour will be of right the property of him by whofe labour it is gained. And while a rightful claim to pleasure or to affluence must be procured either by flow industry or uncertain hazard, there will always be multitudes whom cowardice or impatience incite to more fafe and more speedy methods, who ftrive to pluck the fruit without cultivating the tree, and to share the advantages of victory without partaking the danger of the battle.

In later ages, the conviction of the danger to which virtue is expofed while the mind continues open to the influ

ence of riches, has determined many to vows of perpetual poverty; they have fuppreffed defire by cutting off the poffibility of gratification, and fecured their peace by deftroying the enemy whom they had no hope of reducing to quiet fubjection. But by debarring themfelves from evil, they have refcinded many opportunities of good; they have too often funk into inactivity and ufeleffuefs; and though they have forborne to injure fociety, havenot fully paid their contributions to it's happiness.

While riches are fo neceffary to present convenience, and fo much inore eafily obtained by crimes than virtues, the mind can only be fecured from yielding to the continual impulfe of covetoufnels by the preponderation of unchangeable and eternal motives. Gold will turn the intellectual balance, when weighed only against reputation; but will be light and, ineffectual when the oppofite fcale is charged with justice, veracity, and piety.

Juv.

TO THE RAMBLER.

MR. RAMBLER,

I Was bred a fcholar, and after the ufual courfe of education, found it neceflary to employ for the fupport of life that learning which I had almoft exhaufted my little fortune in acquiring. The lucrative profeffions drew my regard with equal attraction; each prefented ideas which excited my curiofity, and each impofed duties which terrified my apprehenfion.

There is no temper more unpropitious to intereft than defultory application and unlimited enquiry, by which the defires are held in a perpetual equipoife, and the mind fluctuates between different purpofes without determination. I had books of every kind round me, among which I divided my time as caprice or accident directed. I often spent the frt hours of the day in confidering to what fly I fhould devote the reft; and at last matched up an author that lay upon the table, or perhaps fled

to a coffee-houfe for deliverance from the anxiety of irrefolution, and the gloominess of folitude.

Thus my little patrimony grew im perceptibly lefs, till I was roufed from my literary flumber by, a creditor,. whofe importunity obliged me to pacify him with fo large a fun, that what remained was not fufficient to fupport me more than eight months. I hope you will not reproach me with avarice or cowardice, if I acknowledge that I now thought myfelf in danger of distress, and obliged to endeavour after fome certain competence.

There have been heroes of negligence, who have laid the price of their laft acre in a drawer, and, without the least interruption of their tranquillity or abatement of their expences, taken out one piece after another, till there was no more remaining. But I was not born to fuch dignity of imprudence, or fuch exaltation above the cares and neceffities of life: I therefore immediately engaged my friends to procure me a little em

ployment,

ployment, which might fet me free from the dread of poverty, and afford me time to plan out fome final scheme of lafting advantage.

My friends were ftruck with honeft folicitude, and immediately promifed their endeavours for my extrication. They did not fuffer their kindness to languish by delay, but profecuted their enquiries with fuch fuccefs, that in lefs than a month I was perplexed with variety of offers and contrariety of profpects. I had however no time for long pautes of confideration; and therefore foon refolved to accept the office of inftructing a young nobleman in the houfe of his father: I went to the feat at which the family then happened to refide, was received with great politness, and invited to enter immediately on my charge. The terms offered were fuch as I fhould willingly have accepted, though my fortune had allowed me greater liberty of choice: the respect with which I was treated flattered my vanity; and perhaps the fplendor of the apartments, and the luxury of the table, were not wholly without their influence. I immediately complied with the propofals, and received the young lord into my

care.

Having no defire to gain more than I fhould truly deferve, I very diligently profecuted my undertaking, and had the fatisfaction of discovering in my pupil a flexible temper, a quick appre henfion, and a retentive memory. I did not much doubt that my care would, in time, produce a wife and ufeful coun-, fellor to the ftate, though my labours were fomewhat obstructed by want of authority, and the neceflity of complying with the freaks of negligence, and of waiting patiently for the lucky moment of voluntary attention. To a man whofe imagination was filled with the dignity of knowledge, and to whom a ftudious life had made all the common amufements infipid and contemptible, it was not very easy to fupprefs his indignation, when he faw himself forfaken in the midst of his lecture, for an opportunity to catch an infect, and found his instructions debarred from access to the intellectual faculties, by the memory of a chikdifh frolick, or the defire of a new plaything.

Thole vexations would have recurred lefs frequently, had not his mamma, by

entreating at one time that he fhould be excufed from a tak as a reward for fome petty compliance, and withholding him from his book at another, to gratify herfelf or her vifitants with his vivacity, fhewn him that every thing was more pleating and more important than knowledge, and that ftudy was to be endured rather than chofen, and was only the bufinefs of thofe hours which pleasure left vacant, or discipline ufurped.

I thought it my duty to complain, in tender terms, of there frequent avocations; but was anfwered, that rank and fortune might reasonably hope for some indulgence; that the retardation of my pupil's progrefs would not be imputed to any negligence or inability of mine; and that with the fuccefs which fatisfied every body elfe, I might furely fatisfy myfelf. I had now done my duty, and without more remonftrances continued to inculcate my precepts whenever they could be heard, gained every day new influence, and found that by degrees my fcholar began to feel the quick impulfes of curiosity, and the honeft ardour of ftudious ambition.

At length it was refolved to pass a winter in London. The lady had too much fondness for her fon to live five months without him, and too high an opinion of his wit and learning to refufe her vanity the gratification of exhibiting him to the public. I remonitrated against too early an acquaintance with cards and company; but with a soft contempt of my ignorance and pedautry, fhe faid that he had been already confined too long to folitary study, and it was now time to fhew him the world; nothing was more a brand of meannels than bathtul timidity; gay freedom and elegant affurance were only to be gained by mixed converiation, a frequent intercourfe with ftrangers, and a timely introduction to fplendid affemblies; and he had more that once oblerved, that his forwardness and complaitance begin to defert him, that he was filent when he had not fomething of confequence to fay, blushed whenever he happened to find himself mittaken, and hung down his head in the prefence of the ladies, without the readiness of reply, and activity of officiouthefs remarkable in young gentlemen that are bred in London.

Agia

Again I found refistance hopeless, and again thought it proper to comply. We entered the coach, and in four days were placed in the gayeft and moft magnificent region of the town. My pupil, who had for several years lived at a remote feat, was immediately dazzled with a thousand beams of novelty and show. His imagination was filled with the perpetual tumult of pleasure that paffed before him, and it was impoffible to allure him from the window, or to overpower by any charm of eloquence the rattle of coaches, and the founds which echoed from the doors in the neighbourhood. In three days his attention, which he began to regain, was difturbed by a rich fuit, in which he was equipped for the reception of company, and which, having been long accustomed to a plain drefs, he could not at first furvey without ecStacy.

The arrival of the family was now formally notified; every hour of every day brought more intimate or more diitant acquaintances to the door; and my pupil was indifcriminately introduced to all, that he might accuftom imfelf to change of faces, and be rid with speed of his ruftick diffidence.

He foon endeared himself to his mother, by the fpeedy acquifition or recovery of her darling qualities; his eyes sparkle at a numerous affembly, and his heart dances at the mention of a ball. He has at once caught the infection of high life, and has no other teft of principles or actions than the quality of those to whom they are afcribed. He begins already to look down on me with fuperiority, and submits to one short leffon in a week, as an act of condefcenfion rather than obedience; for he is of opinion, that no tutor is properly qualified who cannot speak French; and having formerly learned a few familiar phrafes from his fifter's governess, he is every day foliciting his mamma to procure him a foreign footman, that he may grow polite by his converfation. I am not yet infulted, but find myself likely to become foon a fuperfluous incumbrance, for my scholar has now no time for fcience, or for virtue; and the lady yesterday declared him fo much the favourite of every company, that she was afraid he would not have an hour in the day to dance and fence. I am, &c.

EUMATHES.

Juv.

TO THE RAMBLER.

have fhewn, by the publica

Ytion of my letter, that you think

the life of Victoria not wholly unworthy of the notice of a philofopher: I thall therefore continue my narrative, without any apology for unimportance which you have dignified, or for inaccuracies which you are to corre&t.

When my life appeared to be no longer in danger, and as much of my gth was recovered as enabled me to

CRZZCH.

bear the agitation of a coach, I was placed at a lodging in a neighbouring village, to which my mother difmiffed me with a faint embrace, having repeated her command not to expole my face too foon to the fun or wind, and told me, that with care I might perhaps become tolerable again. The prospect of being tolerable had very little power to elevate the imagination of one who had to long been accustomed to praife and ectacy; but it was fome fatisfaction to be separated from my mother, who was incefiantly ringing the knell of de

ported

At last I was permitted to return home, but found no great improvement of my condition; for I was imprifoned in my chamber as a criminal, whofe appearance would difgrace my friends, and condemned to be tortured into new beauty. Every experiment which the officioufnefs of folly could coinmunicate, or the credulity of ignorance adinit, was tried upon me. Sometimes I was covered with emollients, by which it was expected that all the fears would be filled, and my cheeks plumped up to their former fmoothness; and fometimes I was punished with artificial excoriations, in hopes of gaining new graces with a new fkin. The cofmetic fcience was exhaufted upon me; but who can repair the ruins of nature? My mother was forced to give me reft at laft, and abandon me to the fate of a fallen toaft, whofe fortune fhe confidered as a hopeless game, no longer worthy of folicitude or attention.

The condition of a young woman who has never thought or heard of any other excellence that beauty, and whom the fudden blait of difeafe wrinkles in her bloom, is indeed fufficiently calamitous. She is at once deprived of all that gave her eminence or power; of all that elated her pride, or animated her activity; all that filied her days with pleasure, and her nights with hope; all that gave gladness to the prefent hour, or brightened her profpects of futurity. It is perhaps not in the power of a man whofe attention has been divided by diverfity of purfuits, and who has not been accustomed to derive from others much of his happiness, to image to himlelf fuch helpless deititution, fuch difinal inanity. Every object of pleating contemplation is at once fnatched away, and the foul finds every receptacle of ideas empty, or filled only with the memory

of joys that can return no more. All is gloomy privation, or impotent defire; the faculties of anticipation flumber in defpondency, or the powers of pleasure mutiny for employment.

I was fo little able to find entertain ment for myself, that I was forced in a fhort time to venture abroad, as the folitary favage is driven by hunger from his cavern.

I entered with all the humility of difgrace into affemblies, where I had lately fparkled with gaiety, and towered with triumph. I was not wholly without hope, that dejection had mifrepresented me to myself, and that the remains of my former face might yet have fome attraction and influence: but the first circle of vifits convinced me that my reign was at an end; that life and death were no longer in my hands; that I was no more to practife the glance of command, or the frown of prohibition; to receive the tribute of fighs and praises, or be foothed with the gentle murmurs of amorous timidity. My opinion was now unheard, and my propofals were unregarded; the narrowness of my knowledge, and the meanness of my fentiments, were eafily difcovered, when the eyes were no longer engaged against the judgment; and it was obferved, by thofe who had formerly been charmed with my vivacious loquacity, that my understanding was impaired as well as my face, and that I was no longer qualified to fill a place in any company but a party at cards.

It is fcarcely to be imagined how foon the mind finks to a level with the condition. I, who had long confidered all who approached me as vaffals condemned to regulate their pleatures by my eyes, and harafs their inventions for my entertainment, was in lefs than three weeks reduced to receive a ticket with profef fions of obligation, to catch with eagernefs at a compliment; and to watch with all the anxioufnefs of dependance, left any little civility that was paid me fhould pafs unacknowledged.

Though the negligence of the men was not very pleafing when compared with vows and adoration, yet it was far more fupportable than the infolence of my own fex. For the first ten months after my return into the world, I never entered a fingle houfe in which the memory of my downfal was not revived. At one place I was congratulated on my cape with life; at another I heard of

the