THE RAM MBLE R. VOLUME THE FOURTH. N CLX. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1751. INTER SE CONVENIT URSIS. Juv. 1 'TH BEASTS OF EACH KIND THEIR FELLOWS SPARE; HE world,' fays Locke, has Such is probably the natural state of the universe, but it is fo much deformed by intereft and paffion, that the benefit of this adaptation of men to things is not always perceived. The folly or indigence of those who set their services to fale, inclines them to boast of quali fications which they do not poffefs, and attempt business which they do not underftand; and they who have the power of affigning to others the task of life, are feldom honeft or feldom happy in their nominations. Patrons are corrupt. ed by avarice, cheated by credulity, or overpowered by refiftiefs folicitation. They are fometimes too strongly influenced by honeft prejudices of friendship, or the prevalence of virtuous compaffion. For, whatever cool reafon may direct, it is not eafy for a man of tender and fcrupulous goodness to overlook the immediate effect of his own actions, by turning his eyes upon remoter confequences, and to do that which must give prefent pain, for the fake of obviating evil yet unfelt, or fecuring advantage in time to come. What is diftant is in itself obscure, and, when we have no wish to fee it, eafily efcapes our notice, or takes fuch a form as defire or imagination bestows upon it. Every man might for the fame reafon, in the multitudes that fwarm about him, find fome kindred mind with which he could unite in confidence and friendship; yet we fee many ftraggling fingle about the world, unhappy for want of an affociate, and pining with the neceffity of confining their fentiments to their own bofoms. The inconvenience arifes in like manner from struggles of the will against the understanding. It is not often difficult to find a suitable companion, if every man would be content with fuck as he is qualified to please. But if vanity tempts him to forsake his rank, and post himself among those with whom no common intereft or mutual pleasure can ever unite him, he muft always live in a state of unfocial feparation, without tendernefs and without truft. There are many natures which can never approach within a certain distance, and which, when any irregular motive impels them towards contact, feem to ftart back from each other by fome in vincible repulfion. There are others which immediately cohere whenever they come into the reach of mutual attrac tion, and with very little formality of preparation mingle intimately as foon as they meet. Every man, whom either bufinefs or curiofity has thrown at large into the world, will recolle&t many instances of fondness and diflike, which Z22 have have forced themselves upon him without the intervention of his judgment; of difpofitions to court fome and avoid others, when he could affign no reafon for the preference, or none adequate to the violence of his paffions; of influence that acted inftantaneously upon his mind, and which no arguments or perfuafions could ever overcome. Among those with whom time and intercourfe have made us familiar, we feel our affections divided in different proportions without much regard to moral or intellectual merit. Every man knows fome whom he cannot induce himself to truft, though he has no reafon to fufpect that they would betray him; thofe to whom he cannot complain, though he never obferved them to want compaffion; thofe in whofe prefence he never can be gay, though excited by invitations to mirth and freedom; and thofe from whom he cannot be content to receive instruction, though they never infulted his ignorance by contempt or oftentation. That much regard is to be had to thofe instincts of kindness and diflike, or that reafon should blindly follow them, I am far from intending to inculcate it is very certain that by indulgence we may give them ftrength which they have not from nature, and almost every example of ingratitude and treachery proves, that by obeying them we may commit our happiness to thofe who are very unworthy of fo great a truft. But it may deferve to bremarked, that fince few contend much with their inclinations, it is generally vain to folicit the good-will of those whom we perceive thus involuntarily alienated from us; neither knowledge nor virtue will reconcile antipathy, and though officioufnefs may for a time be admitted, and diligence applauded, they will at laft be difmiffed with coldness, or difcouraged by neglect. effect. To these it is neceffary to look round and attempt every breast in which they find virtue fufficient for the foundation of friendship; to enter into the crowd, and try whom chance will offer to their notice, till they fix on fome temper congenial to their own, as the mag net rolled in the dust collects the fragments of it's kindred metal from a thoufand particles of other substances. Every man muft have remarked the facility with which the kindness of others is fometimes gained by those to whom he never could have imparted his own. We are by our occupations, education, and habits of life, divided almost into different fpecies, which regard one another for the most part with fcorn and malignity. Each of thefe claffes of the human race has defires, fears, and converfation, vexations, and merriment, peculiar to itself; cares which another cannot feel; pleafures which he cannot partake; and modes of expreffing every fenfation which he cannot understand. That frolick which fhakes one man with laughter, will convulfe another with indignation; the ftrain of jocularity which in one place obtains treats and patronage, would in another be heard with indifference, and in a third with abhorrence. To raise esteem we must benefit others; to procure love we must please them. Ariftotle obferves, that old men do not readily form friendships, because they are not eafily fufceptible of pleasure. He that can contribute to the hilarity of the vacant hour, or partake with equal guft the favourite amufement, he whofe mind is employed on the fame objects, and who therefore never harasses the underftanding with unaccustomed ideas, will be welcomed with ardour, and left with regret, unless he deftroys thofe recommendations by faults with which peace and fecurity cannot confift. It were happy if, in forming friend. Some have indeed an occult power of fhips, vie could concur with pleafure; ftealing upon the affections, of excit- but the greatest part of human gratifiing univerfal benevolence, and difpofing cations approach so nearly to vice, that every heart to fondness and friendship. few who make the delight of others But this is a felicity granted only to the their rule of conduct, can avoid difinfavourites of nature, The greater part genuous compliances; yet certainly he of mankind find a different reception that fuffers himself to be driven or allurfrom different difpofitions; they fome. ed from virtue, mistakes his own intetimes obtain unexpected careffes from reft, fince he gains fuccour by means, those whom they never flattered with for which his friend, if ever he becomes uncommon regard, and fometimes ex-wife, muft fcorn him, and for which at hauft all their arts of pleafing without laft he muft fcorn himself. N° CLXI. No CLXI. TUESDAY OCTOBER 1, 1751. STRY You FRAIL AS THE LEAVES THAT QUIVER ON THE SPRAYS, OU have formerly obferved that curiofity often terminates in bar. ren knowledge, and that the mind is prompted to ftudy and enquiry rather by the uneafiness of ignorance, than the hope of profit. Nothing can be of lefs importance to any prefent intereft than the fortune of thofe who have been long loft in the grave, and from whom nothing now can be hoped or feared. Yet to roufe the zeal of a true antiquary, little more is neceffary than to mention a name which mankind have conspired to forget; he will make his way to remote fcenes of action through obfcurity and contradiction, as Tally fought amidst bushes and brambles the tomb of Archimedes. It is not easy to difcover how it concerns him that gathers the produce, or receives the rent of an eftate, to know through what families the land has paffed, who is registered in the Conqueror's furvey as it's poffeffor, how often it has been forfeited by treason, or how often fold by prodigality. The power or wealth of the prefent inhabitants of a country cannot be much increased by an enquiry after the names of those barbarians, who deftroyed one another twenty centuries ago, in contests for the fhelter of woods or convenience of pafturage. Yet we see that no man can be at reft in the enjoyment of a new purchase till he has learned the hiftory of his grounds from the ancient inhabitants of the parish, and that no nation omits to record the actions of their anceftors, however bloody, savage, and rapacious. The fame difpofition, as different opportunities call it forth, difcovers itself in great or little things. I have always thought it unworthy of a wife man to flumber in total inactivity, only because he happens to have no employment equal to his ambition or genius; it is therefore my custom to apply my atten tion to the objects before me, and as cannot think any place wholly unworthy of notice that affords a habitation to a man of letters, I have collected the hiftory and antiquities of the several garrets in which I have refided. Quantulacunque eftis, vos ego magna voco. How fmall to others, but how great to me! Many of these narratives my industry has been able to extend to a confiderable length; but the woman with whom I now lodge has lived only eighteen months in the house, and can give no account of it's ancient rovolutions; the plaisterer having, at her entrance, obliterated, by his white-wafh, all the finoky memorials which former tenants had left upon the cieling, and perhaps drawn the veil of oblivion over politicians, philofophers, and poets. When I first cheapened my lodgings, the landlady told me, that the hoped I was not an author, for the lodgers on the first floor had ftipulated that the upper rooms fhould not be occupied by a noify trade. I very readily promised to give no disturbance to her family, and foon dispatched a bargain on the usual terms. I had not flept many nights in my new apartment before I began to enquire after my predeceffors, and found my landlady, whofe imagination is filled chiefly with her own affairs, very ready to give me information. Curiofity, like all other defires. produces pain as well as pleasure. Before fhe began her narrative, I had heated my head with expectations of adventures and difcoveries, of elegance in difguife, and learning in diftrefs; and was fomewhat mortified when I heard that the firft tenant was a tailor, of whom nothing was remembered but that he complained of his room for want of light; and after having lodged in it a month, and paid only a week's rent, pawned a piece vice. The room then stood empty for a fortnight; my landlady began to think that fhe had judged hardly, and often wifhed for fuch another lodger. At last an elderly man of a grave afpect read the bill, and bargained for the room at the He lived very first price that was asked. in clofe retirement, feldom went out till evening, and then returned early, fometines cheerful, and at other times dejected. It was remarkable, that whatever he purchased, he never had fmail money in his pocket; and though cool and temperate on other occafions, was always vehement and ftormy till he`received his change. He paid his rent with great exactnefs, and feldom failed once a week to requite my landlady's civility with a fupper. At last, fuch is the fate of human felicity, the house was alarmed at midnight by the conftable, who demanded to fearch the garrets. My landlady affuring him that he had miftaken the door, conducted him up ftairs, where he found the tools of a coiner; but the tenant had crawled along the roof to an empty house, and efcaped; much to the joy of my landlady, who declares him a very honeft man, and wonders why any body should be hanged for making money when fuch numbers are in want of it. She however confeffes that the fhall for the future always question the character of thofe who take her garret without beating down the price. The bill was then placed again in the window, and the poor woman was teazed for feven weeks by innumerable paffengers, who obliged her to climb with them every hour up five ftories, and then difliked the profpect, hated the noise of a publick street, thought the stairs narrow, objected to a low cieling, required the walls to be hung with fresh paper, afked questions about the neighbour hood, could not think of living so far from their acquaintance, wifhed the windows had looked to the fouth rather than the west, told how the door and chimney might have been better difpofed, bid her half the price that the asked, or promifed to give her earnest the next day, and came no more. At last, a fhort meagre man, in a tarnifhed waistcoat, defired to fee the garret, and when he had ftipulated for two long fhelves, and a large table, hired it at a low rate. When the affair was completed, he looked round him with great fatisfaction, and repeated some words which the woman did not underftand. In two days he brought a great box of books, took poffeffion of his room, and lived very inoffenfively, except that he frequently disturbed the inhabitants of the next floor by unfeasonable noifes. He was generally in bed at noon, but from evening to midnight he fometimes talked aloud with great vehemence, fometimes ftamped as in rage, fometimes threw down his poker, then clattered his chairs, then fat down' in deep thought, and again burst out into loud vociferations; fometimes he would figh as oppreffed with mifery, and fometimes thake with convulfive laughWhen he encountered any of the ter. family, he gave way or bowed, but rarely fpoke, except that as he went up ftairs he often repeated Ος υπέρτατα δώματα νάιει, Hard words, to which his neighbours My landlady was very often advised to beware of this ftrange man, who, though he was quiet for the present, might perhaps become outrageous in the hot months; but as fhe was punctually paid, the could not find any fufficient reafon for difmiffing him, till one night he convinced her, by fetting fire to his curtains, that it was not fafe to have an author for her inmate. She had then for fix weeks a fucceffion of tenants, who left the house on Saturday, and instead of paying their rent, ftormed at their landlady. At last she took in two fifters, one of whom had |