veneration of diftant ages, only the fons of learning have the power of beflowing. While therefore it continues one of the characteristicks of rational nature to decline oblivion, authors never can be wholly overlooked in the fearch after happinels, nor become contemptible but by their own fault.

The man who confiders himself as conftituted the ultimate judge of difputable characters, and entruited with the diftribution of the last terreftrial rewards of merit, ought to fummon all his fortitude to the support of his integrity, and refolve to difcharge an office of such dignity with the mot vigilant caution and fcrupulous juftice. To deliver examples to pofterity, and to regulate the opinion of future times, is no flight or trivial undertaking; nor is it eafy to commit more attrocious treason against the great republick of humanity, than by falifying it's records, and milguiding it's decrees.

Tofcatter praise or blame without regard to justice, is to deftroy the diftinction of good and evil. Many have no other teit of actions than general opinion; and all are fo far influenced by a fenfe of reputation, that they are often reftrained by fear of reproach, and excited by hope of honour, when other principles have loft their power; nor can any fpecies of prostitution promote general depravity more than that which deftroys the force of praife, by fhewing that it may be acquired without detery ing it, and which, by fetting free the active and ambitious from the dread of infamy, lets loofe the rapacity of power, and weakens the only authority by which greatness is controuled.

Praife, like gold and diamonds, owes it's value only to it's fcarcity. It becomes cheap as it becomes vulgar, and will no longer raife expectation, or animate enterprize. It is therefore not only neceffary, that wickedness, even when it is not fafe to cenfure it, be denied applaufe, but that goodness be commended only in proportion to it's degree; and that the garlands, due to the great benefactors of mankind, be not fuffered to fade upon the brow of him who can boaft only petty services and eafy vir

tues.

Had thefe maxims been univerfally received, how much would have been added to the task of dedication, the work on which all the power of modern wit

has been exhaufted? How few of these initial panegyricks had appeared, if the author had been obliged first to find a man of virtue, then to diftinguish the diftinct fpecies and degree of his defert, and at laft to pay him only the honours which he might justly claim. It is much

easier to learn the name of the last man whom chance has exalted to wealth and power, to obtain by the intervention of fome of his domefticks the privilege of addreffing him, or in confidence of the general acceptance of flattery, to venture on an addrefs without any previous folicitation; and after having heaped upon him all the virtues to which philofophy has affigned a name, inform him how much more might be truly faid, did not the fear of giving pain to his modesty reprefs the raptures of wonder and the zeal of veneration.

Nothing has fo much degraded literature from it's natural rank, as the practice of indecent and promifcuous dedication; for what credit can he expect who profeffes himself the hireling of vanity, however profligate, and without shame or fcruple celebrates the worthless, dignifies the mean, and gives to the corrupt, licentious, and oppreffive, the ornaments which ought only to add grace to truth, and lovelinefs to innocence ? Every other kind of adulteration, however fhameful, however mischievous, is lefs deteftable than the crime of counterfeiting characters, and fixing the ftamp of literary fanction upon the drofs and refufe of the world.

Yet I would not overwhelm the authors with the whole load of infamy, of which, part, perhaps the greater part, ought to fall upon their patrons. If he that hires a bravo, partakes the guilt of murder, why should he who bribes a flatterer hope to be exempted from the fhame of falfehood? The unhappy dedicator is feldom without fome motives which obftruct, though not deftroy, the liberty of choice; he is oppreffed by miferies which he hopes to relieve, or inflamed by ambition which he expects to gratify. But the patron has no incitements equally violent; he can receive only a fhort gratification, with which nothing but ftupidity could difpofe him to be pleased. The real fatisfaction which praife can afford is by repeating aloud the whispers of conscience, and by fhewing us that we have not endeavoured to deferve well in vain.

Every other encomium is, to an intelligent mind, fatire and reproach; the celebration of thofe virtues which we feel ourfelves to want, can only imprefs a quicker fenfe of our own defects, and fhew that we have not yet fatisfied the expectations of the world, by forcing us to obferve how much fiction muft contribute to the completion of our

character.

Yet fometimes the patron may claim indulgence; for it does not always happen, that the encomiaft has been much encouraged to his attempt. Many a haplefs author, when his book, and perhaps his dedication, was ready for the prefs, has waited long before any one would pay the price of proftitution, or confent to hear the praifes deftined to infure his name against the cafualties of, time; and many a complaint has been vented against the decline of learning, and neglect of genius, when either parfimonious prudence has declined expence, or honeft indignation rejected talfehood. But if at laft, after long enquiry and innumerable disappointments, he finds a lord willing to hear of his own cloquence and tafte, a ftatefman defirous of knowing how a friendly hiftorian will reprefent his conduct, or a lady delighted to leave to the world fome memorial of her wit and beauty, Auch weakness cannot be cenfured as an inftance of enormous depravity. The wifeft man may by a diligent folicitor be furprifed in the hour of weakness, and perfuaded to folace vexation, or invigorate hope, with the musick of flattery.

To centure all dedications as adulatory and fervile, would difcover rather envy than justice. Praite is the tribute of merit; and he that has inconteftibly diftinguished himielf by any publick performance, has a right to all the hohours which the publick can beftow. To men thus raid above the rest of the community, there is no need that the bock or it's author fhould have any particular relation: that the patron is known to deferve refpect, is fufficient to vindicate him that pays it. To the fame regard from particular perfons, private virtue and lefs confpicuous excellence may be fometimes entitled. An author may with great propriety infcribe his work to him by whofe encouragement it was undertaken, or by

whofe liberality he has been enabled to profecute it, and he may justly rejoice in his own fortitude, that dares to rescue merit from obfcurity.

Acribus exemplis videor te cludere: mifce
Ergo aliquid noftris de moribus.-
Thus much I will indulge thee for thy eafe,
And mingle fomething of our times to please.
DRYDEN, JUN.

I know not whether greater relaxation may not be indulged, and whether hope as well as gratitude may not unblameably produce a dedication; but let the writer who pours out his praifes only to propitiate power, or attract the attention of greatnefs, be cautious left his defire betray him to exuberant eulogies. We are naturally more apt to please ourselves with the future than the paft; and while we luxuriate in expectation, may be cafily perfuaded to purchase what we yet rate only by imagination, at a higher price than experience will warrant.

But no private views or perfonal regard can difcharge any man from his general obligations to virtue and to truth. It may happen in the various combinations of life, that a good man may reccive favours from one, who, notwithftanding his accidental beneficence, cannot be justly propofed to the imitation of others, and whom, therefore, he must find fome other way of rewarding than by publick celebrations. Self-love has indeed many powers of feducement, but it furely ought not to exalt any individual to equality with the collective body of mankind, or perfuade him that a benefit conferred on him is equivalent to every other virtue. Yet many upon falfe principles of gratitude have ventured to extol wretches whom all but their dependents numbered among the reproaches of the fpecies, and whom they would likewife have beheld with the fame fcorn had they not been hired to dishoneft approbation.

To encourage merit with praise is the great bufinefs of literature; but praise muft lofe it's influence by unjust or negligent diftribution; and he that impairs it's value may be charged with mifapplication of the power that genius puts into his hands, and with fquandering on guilt the recompence of virtue.

N° CXXXVII,

ΤΗ

HAT wonder is the effect of ignorance, has been often obferved. The awful ftillness of attention, with which the mind is overipread at the first view of an unexpected effect, ceafes when we have leifure to difentangle complications and inveftigate caufes. Wonder is a paufe of reafon, a fudden ceffation of the mental progrefs, which lafts only while the understanding is fixed upon fome fingle idea, and is at an end when it recovers force enough to divide the object into it's parts, or mark the intermediate gradations from the first agent to the laft confequence.

It may be remarked with equal truth, that ignorance is often the effect of wonder. It is common for those who have never accustomed themselves to the labour of enquiry, nor invigorated their confidence by conquefts over difficulty, to fleep in the gloomy quiefcence of astonishment, without any effort to animate enquiry or dispel obfcurity. What they cannot immediately conceive, they confider as too high to be reached, or too extenfive to be comprehended; they therefore content themfelves with the gaze of folly, forbear to attempt what they have no hopes of performing, and refign the pleafure of rational contemplation to more pertinacious ftudy or more active faculties.

Among the productions of mechanick art, many are of a form fo different from that of their firft materials, and many confift of parts fo numerous and fo nicely adapted to each other, that it is not poffible to view them without amazement. But when we enter the fhops of artificers, obferve the various tools by which every operation is facilitated, and trace the progrefs of a manufacture through the different hands, that, in fucceffion to each other, contribute to it's perfection, we foon difcover that every ingle man has an easy task, and that the extremes, however remote, of natural rudeness and artificial elegance, are

CREECH.

Hoa.

joined by a regular concatenation of ef fects, of which every one is introduced by that which precedes it, and equally introduces that which is to follow.

The fame is the ftate of intellectual and manual performances. Long calculations or complex diagrams affright the timorous and unexperienced from a fecond view; but if we have skill fufficient to analize them into fimple principles, it will be difcovered that our fear was groundless. Divide and conquer, is a principle equally just in science as in policy. Complication is a fpecies of confederacy, which, while it continues united, bids defiance to the most active and vigorous intellect; but of which every member is feparately weak, and which may therefore be quickly fubdued if it can once be bro ken.

The chief art of learning, as Locke has obferved, is to attempt but little at a time. The wildeft excurfions of the mind are made by fhort flights frequently repeated; the mott lofty fabricks of fcience are formed by the continued ac cumulation of single propofitions.

It often happens, whatever be the caufe, that impatience of labour, or dread of miscarriage, feizes thofe who are most diftinguished for quickness of apprehenfion; and that they who might with greatest reafon promife themfeives victory, are leaft willing to hazard the encounter. This diffidence, where the attention is not laid afleep by laziness, or diffipated by pleasures, can arise only from confufed and general views, fuch as negligence fnatches in hafte, or from the difappointment of the first hopes formed by arrogance without reflection. To expect that the intricacies of fcience will be pierced by a careless glance, or the eminences of fame afcended without labour, is to expect a particular privilege, a power denied to the rest of mankind; but to fuppofe that the maze is infcrutable to dili

gence,

gence, or the heights inacceffible to perieverance, is to fubmit tamely to the tyfanny of fancy, and enchain the mind in voluntary hackles.

It is the proper ambition of the heroes in literature to enlarge the boundaries of knowledge by difcovering and conquering new regions of the 1lectual world. To the fuccefs of fuch undertakings perhaps fome degree of fortuitous happiness is neceffary, which no man can promife or procure to himfelf; and therefore doubt and irrefolution may be forgiven in him that ventures into the unexplored abyffes of truth, and attempts to find his way through the fluctuations of uncertainty, and the conflicts of contradiction. But when nothing more is required, than to purfue a path already beaten, to trample obftacles which others have demolifned, why fhould any man fo much distrust his own intellect as to imagine himself unequal to the attempt ?

It were to be wished that they who devote their lives to ftudy would at once believe nothing too great for their attainment, and confider nothing as too little for their regard; that they would extend their notice alike to feience and to life, and unite fome knowledge of the prefent world to their acquaintance with paft ages and remote events.

Nothing has fo much expofed men of learning to contempt and ridicule, as their ignorance of things which are known to all but themfelves. Thofe who have been taught to confider the inftitutions of the fchools, as giving the laft perfection to human abilities, are furprised to fee men wrinkled with ftudy, yet wanting to be inftructed in the minute circumstances of propriety, or the neceffary forms of daily tranfiction; and quickly fhake 'off their reverence for modes of education, which they find to produce no ability above the reit of mankind.

Books,' fays Bacon, can never teach the ufe of books.' The student muit learn by commerce with mankind to reduce his fpeculations to practice, and accommodate his knowledge to the purpotes of life.

It is too common for those who have been bred to fcholaftick profeffions, and piffed much of their time in academies where nothing but learning confers honours, to difregard every other qualification, and to imagine that they shall

find mankind ready to pay homage their knowledge, and to crowd about them for inftrustion. They therefore ftep out from their cells into the open world, with all the confidence of authority and dignity of importance: they look round about them at once with ignorance and icorn on a race of beings to whom they are equally unknown and equally contemptible, but whofe manners they muft imitate, and with whofe opinions they must comply, if they defire to país their time happily among them.

To leffen that difdain with which fcholars are inclined to look on the com mon bulinefs of the world, and the unwillingness with which they condefcend to learn what is not to be found in any fyftem of philofophy, it may be neceflary to confider, that though admiration is excited by abftrufe refearches and remotes difcoveries, yet pleafure is not given, nor affection conciliated, but by fofter accomplishments, and qualities more easily communicable to those about

us.

He that can only converfe upon queftions, about which only a finall part of mankind has knowledge fuficient to make them curious, muft lofe his days in unfocial filence, and live in the crowd of life without a companion. He that can only be ufeful on great occafions, may die without exerting his abilities, and stand a helplefs fpectator of a thoufand vexations which fret away happinefs, and which nothing is required to remove but a little dexterity of conduct and readiness of expedients.

No degree of knowledge attainable by man is able to fet him above the want of hourly affiftance, or to extinguish the defire of fond endearments, and tender officioufnels; and therefore, no one fhould think it unneceffary to learn thote arts by which friendship may be gained. Kindnets is preferved by a conftant reciprocation of benefits or interchange of pleatures; but fuch benefits only can be beltowed, as others are capable to receive, and fuch pieatures only imparted, as others are qualified to enjoy.

By this defcent from the pinnacles of art no honour will be loft; for the condefcenfions of learning are always overpaid by gratitude. An elevated genius employed in little things, appears, to ufe the fimile of Longinus, like the fun in his evening declination, he remits his fplendor, but retains his magnitude, and pleates more though he dazzles lefs. N° CXXXVIII.

SIR,

ΤΗ

TO THE RAMBLER.

HOUGH the contempt with which you have treated the annual migrations of the gay and bufy part of mankind, is juftified by daily obfervation, fince most of thofe who leave the town, neither vary their entertainments nor enlarge their notions; yet I fuppofe you do not intend to reprefent the practice itself as ridiculous, or to declare that he whose condition puts the distribution of his time into his own power may not properly divide it between the town and country.

That the country, and only the country, difplays the inexhaustible varieties of nature, and supplies the philofophical mind with matter for admiration and enquiry, never was denied; but my curiofity is very little attracted by the colour of a flower, the anatomy of an infect, or the structure of a neft; I am generally employed upon human manners, and therefore fill up the months of rural leifure with remarks on those who live within the circle of my notice. If writers would more frequently visit thofe regions of negligence and liberty, they might diverfify their reprefentations, and multiply their images, for in the country are original characters chiefly to be found. In cities, and yet more in courts, the minute difcriminations which diitinguifh one from another are for the most part effaced, the peculiarities of temper and opinion are gradually worn away by promifcuous converfe, as angular bodies and uneven furfaces lofe their points and afperities by frequent attrition against one another, and approach by degrees to uniform rotundity. The prevalence of fashion, the influence of example, the defire of applaufe, and the dread of cenfure, obftruct the natural tendencies of the mind, and check the fancy in it's first efforts to break forth into experiments of caprice.

Few inclinations are fo ftrong as to

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grow up into habits, when they must ftruggle with the constant oppofition of fettled forms and established customs. But in the country every man is a feparate and independent being: folitude flatters irregularity with hopes of fecrecy; and wealth, removed from the mortification of comparison, and the awe of equality, fwells into contemptuous confidence, and fets blame and laughter at defiance; the impulses of nature act unreftrained, and the difpofition dares to fhew itself in it's true form, without any difguife of hypocrify, or decorations of elegance. Every one indulges the full enjoyment of his own choice, and talks and lives with no other view than to please himself, without enquiring how far he deviates from the general prac tice, or confidering others as entitled to any account of his fentiments or actions. If he builds or demolishes, opens or encloses, deluges or drains, it is not his care what may be the opinion of those who are killed in perfpective or architecture, it is fufficient that he has no landlord to controul him, and that none has any right to examine in what projects the lord of the manor fpends his own money on his own grounds.

For this reafon it is not very common to want fubjects for rural converfation. Almost every man is daily doing something which produces merriment, wonder, or refentment, among his neighbours. This utter exemption from reftraint leaves every anomalous quality to operate in it's full extent, and fuffers the natural character to diffuse itself to every part of life. The pride which, under the check of public obfervation, would have been only vented among fervants and domefticks, becomes in a country baronet the torment of a province, and inftead of terminating in the deftruction of China-ware and glaffes, ruins tenants, difpoffeffes cottagers, and haraffes villages with actions of trefpaís

and bills of indictmeut.

It frequently happens that even with

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out