:

HOR.

TO THE RAMBLER.

MR. RAMBLER,

T

HE laws of focial benevolence require, that every man should endeavour to affift others by his experience. He that has at laft efcaped into port from the fluctuations of chance, and the gufts of oppofition, ought to make fome improvements in the chart of life, by marking the rocks on which he has been dafhed, and the fhallows where he has been ftranded.

The error into which I was betrayed, when custom firft gave me up to my ovun direction, is very frequently incident to the quick, the fprightly, the fearless, and the gay; to all whofe ardour hurries them into precipitate execution of their designs, and imprudent declaration of their opinions; who feldom count the cost of pleasure, or examine the diftant confequences of any practice that flatters them with immediate gratification.

I came forth into the crowded world with the ufual juvenile ambition, and defired nothing beyond the title of a wit. Money I confidered as below my care; for I faw fuch multitudes grow rich without understanding, that I could not forbear to look on wealth as an acquifition eafy to induftry directed by genius, and therefore threw it afide as a fecondary convenience, to be procured when my principal with fhould be fatisfied, and the claim to intelle&ual excellence univerfally acknowledged.

With this view I regulated my behaviour in publick, and exercifed my meditations in folitude, My life was divided between the care of providing topicks for the entertainment of my company, and that of collecting company worthy to be entertained; for I foon found, that wit, like every other power, has it's boundaries; that it's fuc

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cefs depends upon the aptitude of others to receive impreffions; and that as fome bodies, indiffoluble by heat, can set the furnace and crucible at defiance, there are minds upon which the rays of fancy may be pointed without effect, and which no fire of fentiment can agitate or exalt.

It was, however, not long before I fitted myself with a set of companions who knew how to laugh, and to whom no other recommendation was neceffary than the power of ftriking out a jeft. Among thofe I fixed my refidence, and for a time enjoyed the felicity of difturbing the neighbours every night with the obftreperous applaufe which my fallies, forced from the audience. The reputation of our club every day increased, and as my flights and remarks were circulated by my admirers, every day brought new folicitations for admiffion into our fociety.

To fupport the perpetual fund of merriment, I frequented every place of concourfe, cultivated the acquaintance of all the fashionable race, and paffed the day in a continual fucceffion of visits, in which I collected a treasure of plea fantry for the expences of the evening. Whatever error of conduct I could difcover, whatever peculiarity of manner I could obferve, whatever weakness was betrayed by confidence, whatever lapse was fuffered by neglect, all was drawn together for the diverfion of my wild companions, who, when they had been taught the art of ridicule, never failed to fignalize themselves by a zealous imitation, and filled the town on the enfuing day with fcandal and vexation, with merriment and shame,

I can fcarcely believe, when I recollec my own practice, that I could have been fo far deluded with petty praise, as to divulge the fecrets of truft, and to expose the levities of frankness; to waylay the

walks

walks of the cautious, and furprize the fecurity of the thoughtlefs. Yet it is certain, that for many years I heard nothing but with defign to tell it, and faw nothing with any other curiofity than after foine failure that might furnish out a jelt.

My heart, indeed, acquits me of deliberate malignity, or interested infidioufnefs. I had no other purpofe than to heighten the pleasure of laughter by communication, nor ever raised any pecuniary advantage from the calamities of others. I led weaknefs and negligence into difficulties, only that I might divert myself with their perplexities and diftreffes; and violated every law of friendfhip, with no other hope than that of gaining the reputation of smartness and

waggery.

I would not be understood to charge myself with any crimes of the atrocious or deftructive kind. I never betrayed an heir to gamefters, or a girl to debauchees; never intercepted the kindness of a patron, or fported away the reputation of innocence. My delight was only in petty mifchief and momentary vexations, and my acutenefs was employed not upon fraud and oppreffion which it had been meritorious to detect, but upon harmless ignorance or absurdity, prejudice or mistake.

This enquiry I purfued with fo much diligence and fagacity, that I was able to relate, of every man I knew, fome blunder or miscarriage; to betray the most circumfpect of my friends into follies, by a judicious flattery of his predominant paffion; or expofe him to contempt, by placing him in circumftances which put his prejudices into action, brought to view his natural defects, or drew the attention of the company on his airs of affectation.

The power had been poffeffed in vain if it had never been exerted; and it was not my custom to let any arts of jocularity remain unemployed. My impatience of applaufe brought me always early to the place of entertainment; and I feldom failed to lay a fcheme with the fmall knot that first gathered round me, by which fome of thofe whom we expected might be made fubfervient to our fport. Every man has fome favourite topick of converfation, on which, by a feigned ferioufnefs of attention, he may be drawn to expatiate without end. Every man has fome habitual contor

tion of body, or established mode of expreffion, which never fails to raise mirth if it be pointed out to notice. By promotions of these particularities I fecured our pleafantry. Our companion entered with his ufual gaiety, and began to partake of our noily cheerfulness, when the converfation was imperceptibly diverted to a subject which preffed upon his tender part, and extorted the expected fhrug, the customary exclamation, or the predicted remark. A general clamour of joy then burft from all that were admitted to the ftratagem. Our mirth was often increafed by the triumph of him that occafioned it; for as we do not haftily form conclufions against ourfelves, feldom any one fufpected, that he had exhilarated us otherwife than by

his wit.

You will hear, I believe, with very little furprize, that by this conduct I had in a fhort time united mankind against me, and that every tongue was diligent in prevention or revenge. I foon perceived myself regarded with malevolence or diftruft, but wondered what had been difcovered in me either terrible or hateful. I had invaded no man's property; I had rivalled no man's claims; nor had ever engaged in any of thofe attempts which provoke the jealousy of ambition, or the rage of faction. I had lived but to laugh, and make others laugh; and believed that I was loved by all who careffed, and favoured by all who applauded me. I never imagined, that he who, in the mirth of a nocturnal revel, concurred in ridiculing his friend, would confider, in a cooler hour, that the fame trick might be played against himself; or that, even where there is no fenfe of danger, the natural pride of human nature rifes against him, who by general cenfures lays claim to general superiority.

I was convinced, by a total defertion, of the impropriety of my conduct; every man avoided, and cautioned others to avoid me.

Wherever I came, I found filence and dejection, coldness and terror. No one would venture to speak, left he should lay himself open to unfavourable representations; the company, however numerous, dropped off at my entrance upon various pretences; and if I retired to avoid the fhame of being left, I heard confidence and mirth revive at my departure.

If thofe whom I had thus offended, 3 D could

could have contented them felves with repaying one infult for another, and kept up the war only by a reciprocation of farcafins, they might have perhaps vexed, but would never much have hurt me; for no man heartily hates him at whom he can laugh. But thefe wounds which they give me as they fly, are without cure; this alarm which they spread by their so

licitude to escape me, excludes me from all friendship and from all pleasure: I am condemned to pafs a long interval of my life in folitude, as a man fufpected of infection is refused admiffion into cities; and must linger in obscurity, till my conduct shall convince the world, that I may be approached without hazard. I am, &c. DICACULUS.

ΝΩΝ

Juv.

TONE of the axioms of wifdom which recommend the ancient fages to veneration, seems to have required lefs extent of knowledge, or perfpicacity of penetration, than the remark of Bias, that loveç xaxd-the majority are wicked.'

The depravity of mankind is fo eafily discoverable, that nothing but the defert or the cell can exclude it from notice. The knowledge of crimes intrudes uncalled and undefired. They whom their abstraction from common occurrences hinders from feeing iniquity, will quickly have their attention awakened by feeling it. Even he who ventures not into the world, may learn it's corruption in his clofet. For what are treatifes of morality, but perfuafives to the practice of duties, for which no arguments would be neceffary, but that we are continually tempted to violate or neglect them? What are all the records of hiftory, but narratives of fucceffive villanies, of treafons and ufurpations, maffacres and

wars?

But, perhaps, the excellence of aphorifms confifts not fo much in the expreffion of fome rare or abftrufe fentiment, as in the comprehenfion of fome obvious and ufeful truth in a few words. We frequently fall into error and folly, not because the true principles of action are not known, but becaufe, for a time, they are not remembered; and he may therefore he justly numbered among the benefactors of mankind, who contracts the

CREECHI

great rules of life into fhort fentences, that may be easily impreffed on the memory, and taught by frequent recollection to recur habitually to the mind.

However thofe who have paffed through half the life of man may now wonder that any should require to be cautioned against corruption, they will find that they have themfelves purchafed their conviction by many disappointinents and vexations, which an earlier knowledge would have spared them; and may fee, on every fide, fome entangling themselves in perplexities, and fome finking into ruin, by ignorance or neglect of the maxim of Bias.

Every day fends out, in queft of pleafure and diftinction, fome heir fondled in ignorance, and flattered into pride. He comes forth with all the confidence of a fpirit unacquainted with fuperiors, and all the benevolence of a mind not yet irritated by oppofition, alarmed by fraud, or embittered by cruelty. He loves all, because he imagines himself the univerfal favourite. Every exchange of falutation produces new acquaintance, and every acquaintance kindles into friendship.

Every feafon brings a new flight of beauties into the world, who have hitherto heard only of their own charms, and imagine that the heart feels no paffion but that of love. They are foon furrounded by admirers whom they credit, because they tell them only what is heard with delight.

Whoever gazes upon

upon them is a lover; and whoever forces a figh, is pining in defpair.

He furely is a useful monitor who inculcates to these thoughtless strangers, that the majority are wicked; who informs them, that the train which wealth and beauty draw after them, is lured only by the fcent of prey; and that, perhaps, among all thofe who crowd about them with profeffions and flatteries, there is not one who does not hope for fome opportunity to devour or betray them, to glut himself by their deftruction, or to fhare their spoils with a ftronger favage.

Virtue prefented fingly to the imagi. nation or the reafon, is fo well recommended by it's own graces, and fo ftrongly fupported by arguments, that a good man wonders how any can be bad; and they who are ignorant of the force of paffion and intereft, who never obferved the arts of feduction, the contagion of example, the gradual defcent from one crime to another, or the infenfible depravation of the principles by loofe converfation, naturally expect to find integrity in every bofom, and veracity on every tongue.

It is indeed impoffible not to hear from thofe who have lived longer, of wrongs and falfehoods, of violence and circumvention; but fuch narratives are commonly regarded by the young, the heady, and the confident, as nothing more than the murmurs of peevishness, or the dreams of dotage; and notwithtanding all the documents of hoary wifdom, we commonly plunge into the world fearless and credulous, without any forefight of danger, or apprehenfion of deceit.

I have remarked, in a former paper, that credulity is the common failing of unexperienced virtue; and that he who is fpontaneously fufpicious, may be juftly charged with radical corruption; for if he has not known the prevalence of difhonefty by information, nor had time to oblerve it with his own eyes, whence can he take his meafures of judgment but from himself?

They who beit deferve to escape the fnares of artifice, are most likely to be entangled. He that endeavours to live for the good of others, mult always be expofed to the arts of them who live only for themfelves, unless he is taught by timely precepts the caution required in

common tranfactions, and fhewn at a diftance the pitfals of treachery.

To youth, therefore, it should be carefully inculcated, that to enter the road of life without caution or reserve, in expectation of general fidelity and juttice, is to launch on the wide ocean without. the inftruments of ftcerage, and to hope that every wind will be profperous, and that every coaft will afford a harbour,

To enumerate the various motives to deceit and injury, would be to count all the defires that prevail among the fons of men; fince there is no ambition however petty, no with however abfurd, that by indulgence will not be enabled to overpower the influence of virtue. Many there are, who openly and almost profeffedly regulate all their conduct by their love of money; who have no reafon for action or forbearance, for compliance or refufal, than that they hope to gain more by one than by the other. Thefe are indeed the meanest and cruelest of human beings, a race with whom, as with fome peftiferous animals, the whole creation feems to be at war; but who, however detefted or fcorned, long continue to add heap to heap, and when they have reduced one to beggary, are still permitted to fatten on another.

Others, yet lefs rationally wicked, pafs their lives in mifchief, because they cannot bear the fight of fuccefs, and mark out every man for hatred whose fame or fortune they believe increasing.

Many, who have not advanced to thefe degrees of guilt, are yet wholly unqualified for friendthip, and unable to maintain any conftant or regular courfe of kindnefs. Happinefs may be destroyed not only by union with the man who is apparently the flave of interest, but with him whom a wild opinion of the dignity of perfeverance, in whatever caufe, difpofes to purfue every injury with unwearied and perpetual refentment; with him whofe vanity inclines him to confider every man as a rival in every pretenfion; with him whofe airy negligence puts his friend's affairs or fecrets in continual hazard, and who thinks his forgetfulness of others excufed by his inattention to himself; and with him whofe inconftancy ranges with out any fettled rule of choice through varieties of friendship, and who adopts and difmiffes favourites by the fudden impule of caprice. 3 D 2

Thus

Thus numerous are the dangers to which the converfe of mankind expofes us, and which can be avoided only by prudent diftruft. He therefore that, remembering this falutary maxim, learns

early to withhold his fondness from fair appearances, will have reafon to pay fome honours to Bias of Priene, who enabled him to become wife without the coft of experience.

HOR.

TH

HERE are many vexatious accidents and uneafy fituations which raife little compaffion for the fufferer, and which no man but those whom they immediately diftrefs can regard with ferioufnefs. Petty mifchiefs that have no influence on futurity, nor extend their effects to the reit of life, are always feen with a kind of malicious pleafure. A mistake or embarraffment, which for the prefent moment fills the face with blushes, and the mind with confufion, will have no other effect upon thofe who obferve it than that of convulfing them with irresistible laughter. Some circumftances of mifery are fo powerfully ridiculous, that neither kindness nor duty can withstand them; they bear down love, intereft, and reverence, and force the friend, the dependent, or the child, to give way to instantaneous motions of merriment.

Among the principal of comick calamities, may be reckoned the pain which an author, not yet hardened into infenfibility, feels at the onfet of a furious critick, whofe age, rank, or fortune, gives him confidence to speak without referve; who heaps one objection upon another, and obtrudes his remarks, and enforces his corrections, without tendernefs or awe.

The author, full of the importance of his work, and anxious for the justification of every fyllable, starts and kindles at the flightest attack; the critick, eager to eftablish his fuperiority, triumphing in every discovery of failure, and zealous to imprefs the cogency of his arguments, purfues him from line to line without ceffation or remorfe. The critick, who hazards little, proceeds with vehemence, impetuofity, and fearleffnefs; the author, whofe quiet and

fame, and life and immortality, are involved in the controverfy, tries every art of fubterfuge and defence; maintains modeftly what he refolves never to yield, and yields unwillingly what cannot be maintained. The critick's purpofe is to conquer, the author only hopes to efcape; the critick therefore knits his brow, and raises his voice, and rejoices whenever he perceives any tokens of pain excited by the preffure of his affertions, or the point of his farcasms. The author, whofe endeavour is at once to mollify and elude his perfecutor, compofes his features and foftens his accent, breaks the force of affault by retreat, and rather steps afide than flies or advances.

As it very feldom happens that the rage of extemporary criticism inflicts fa-> tal or lafting wounds, I know not that the laws of benevolence entitle this diftrefs to much fympathy. The diversion of baiting an author has the fanction of all ages and nations, and is more lawful than the sport of teizing other animals, becaufe, for the most part, he comes voluntarily to the ftake, furnished, as he imagines, by the patron powers of literature, with refiftlefs weapons, and impenetrable armour, with the mail of the boar of Erymanth, and the paws of the lion of Nemea.

But the works of genius are fometimes produced by other motives than vanity; and he whom neceffity or duty enforces to write, is not always fo well satisfied with himself, as not to be difcouraged by cenforious impudence. It may therefore be neceffary to confider how they whom publication lays open to the infults of fuch as their obscurity fecures against reprisals, may extricate themfelves from unexpected encounters.