ticular character, if it be not repugnant to the laws of general humanity, it is always his bufinefs to cultivate and preferve.

Every hour furnishes fome confirmation of Tully's precept. It feldom happens, that an affembly of pleasure is fo happily felected, but that fome one finds admiffion, with whom the reft are defervedly offended; and it will appear, on a clofe infpection, that scarce any man becomes eminently difagreeable but by a departure from his real character, and an attempt at fomething for which nature or education have left bim unqualified.

Ignorance or dulnefs have indeed no power of affording delight, but they never give difguft except when they affume the dignity of knowledge, or ape the fprightliness of wit. Awkwardness and inelegance have none of those attractions by which eafe and politenefs take poffeffion of the heart; but ridicule and cenfure feldom rife against them, unless they appear affociated with that confidence which belongs only to long acquaintance with the modes of life, and to consciousness of unfailing propriety of behaviour. Deformity itself is regarded with tenderness rather than averfion, when it does not attempt to deceive the fight by drefs and decoration, and to feize upon fictitious claims the prerogatives of beauty.

He that ftands to contemplate the crowds that fiil the streets of a populous city, will fee many paffengers whofe air and motion it will be difficult to behold without contempt and laughter; but if he examines what are the appearances that thus powerfully excite his rifibility, he will find among them neither poverty nor difeafe, nor any involuntary or painful defect. The difpofition to derifion and infult is awakened by the foftnefs of foppery, the fwell of infolence, the livelinefs of levity, or the folemnity of grandeur; by the fprightly trip, the fateTy talk, the formal ftrut, and the lofty mien; by geftures intended to catch the eye, and by looks elaborately formed as evidences of importance.

It has, I think, been fometimes urged in favour of affectation, that it is only a mistake of the means to a good end, and that the intention with which it is practifed is always to please. If all attempts to innovate the conftitutional or

habitual character have really proceeded from publick spirit and love of others, the world has hitherto been fufficiently ungrateful, since no return but scorn has yet been made to the moft difficult of all enterprizes, a conteft with nature; nor has any pity been shown to the fatigues of labour which never fucceeded, and the uneafinefs of disguise by which nothing was concealed.

It feems therefore to be determined by the general fuffrage of mankind, that he who decks himself in adfcititious qualities rather purposes to command applaufe than impart pleasure; and he is therefore treated as a man who by an unreasonable ambition ufurps the place in fociety to which he has no right. Praife is feldom paid with willingness even to inconteftible merit, and it can be no wonder that he who calls for it without defert is repulsed with univerfal indignation.

Affectation naturally counterfeits thofe excellencies which are placed at the greateft distance from poffibility of at tainment. We are conscious of our own defects, and eagerly endeavour to supply them by artificial excellence; not would fuch efforts be wholly without excufe, were they not often excited by ornamental trifles, which he that thus anxiously ftruggles for the reputation of poffeffing them would not have been known to want, had not his induftry quickened obfervation.

Gelafimus paffed the first part of his life in academical privacy and rural retirement, without any other converfa. tion than that of scholars, grave, studi. ous, and abstracted as himself. He cultivated the mathematical fciences with indefatigable diligence, difcovered many ufeful theorems, difcuffed with great ac curacy the refiftance of fluids, and though his priority was not generally acknow ledged, was the firft who fully explained all the properties of the catenarian curve.

Learning, when it rifes to eminence, will be obferved in time, whatever mists may happen to furround it. Gelafimus, in his forty-ninth year, was diftinguished by those who have the rewards of knowledge in their hands, and called out to display his acquifitions for the honour of his country, and add dignity by his prefence to philofophical affemblies. As he did not fufpect his unfitnefs for common affairs, he felt no re

luctance

luctance to obey the invitation, and what he did not feel he had yet too much honeity to feign. He entered into the world as a larger and more populous college, where his performances would be more publick, and his renown far ther extended; and imagined that he fhould find his reputation univerfally prevalent, and the influence of learning every where the fame.

His merit introduced him to splendid tables and elegant acquaintance; but he did not find himself always qualified to join in the converfation. He was diftreffed by civilities, which he knew not how to repay, and entangled in many ceremonial perplexities, from which his books and diagrams could not extricate him. He was fometimes unluckily engaged in difputes with ladies, with whom algebraic axioms had no great weight, and faw many whofe favour and efteem he could not but defire, to whom he was very little recominended by his, theories of the tides, or his approximations to the quadrature of the circle.

Gelafimus did not want penetration to discover, that no charm was more generally irrefiftible than that of eafy facetioufnefs and flowing hilarity. He faw that diversion was more frequently welcome than improvement, that authority and seriousness were rather feared than loved, and that the grave fcholar was a kind of imperious ally, haftily difmiffed when his affiftance was no longer neceffary. He came to a

fudden refolution of throwing off those cumbrous ornaments of learning, which hindered his reception, and commenced a man of wit and jocularity. Utterly unacquainted with every topick of merriment, ignorant of the modes and follies, the vices and virtues of inankind, and unfurnished with any ideas but such as Pappus and Archimedes had given him, he began to filence all enquiries with a jest instead of a solution, extended his face with a grin, which he miftook for a fmile, and in the place of a fcientifick discourse, retailed in a new language, formed between the college and the tavern, the intelligence of the news-paper.

Laughter, he knew, was a token of alacrity; and, therefore, whatever he faid or heard, he was careful not to fail in that great duty of a wit. If he asked or told the hour of the day, if he complained of heat or cold, stirred the fire, or filled a glass, removed his chair, or fnuffed a candle, he always found fome occafion to laugh. The jeft was indeed a fecret to all but himself; but habitual confidence in his own difcernment hindered him from fufpecting any weakness or mistake. He wondered that his wit was so little understood, but expected that his audience would comprehend it by degrees, and persisted all his life to fhow by grofs buffoonery, how little the strongest faculties can perform beyond the limits of their own province.

IT

AUTOMEDON.

books, and flocked round him with all the cringes of awkward complaisance. This eagerness answered the merchant's purpofe; he glutted them with delicacies, and foftened them with careffes, till he prevailed upon one after another to open his bofom, and make a discovery of his competitions, jealoufies, and refentments. Having thus learned each man's character, partly from himself, and partly from his acquaintances, he refolved to find fome other education for 3 E 2

his

his fon, and went away convinced, that a fcholaftick life has no other tendency than to vitiate the morals, and contract the understanding: nor would he afterwards hear with patience the praises of the ancient authors, being perfuaded that scholars of all ages must have been the fame, and that Xenophon and Cicero were profeffors of fome former univerfity, and therefore mean and selfish, ignorant and fervile, like those whom he had lately vifited and forfaken.

Envy, curiofity, and a fenfe of the imperfection of our present state, incline us to estimate the advantages which are in the poffeffion of others above their real value. Every one must have remarked, what powers and prerogatives the vulgar imagine to be conferred by learning, A man of fcience is expected to excel the unlettered and unenlightened even on occafions where literature is of no ufe, and among weak minds lofes part of his reverence, by difcovering no fuperiority in thofe parts of life in which all are unavoidably equal; as when a #monarch makes a progress to the remoter provinces, the rufticks are faid fometimes to wonder that they find him of the fame fize with themselves.

These demands of prejudice and folly can never be fatisfied; and therefore many of the imputations which learning fuffers from difappointed ignorance are without reproach. But there are some failures to which men of study are peculiarly expofed. Every condition has it's difadvantages. The circle of knowledge is too wide for the most active and diligent intellect, and while science is purfued, other accomplishments are neglected; as a fmall garrifon must leave one part of an extenfive fortress naked, when an alarm calls them to another.

The learned, however, might generally fupport their dignity with more fuccefs, if they fuffered not themselves to be mifled by the defire of fuperfluous attainments. Raphael, in return to Adam's enquiries into the courfes of the ftars and the revolutions of heaven, counfels him to withdraw his mind from idle fpeculations, and employ his faculties upon nearer and more interefting ob. jects, the farvey of his own life, the fubjection of his paffions, the knowledge of duties which must daily be perform ed, and the detection of dangers which mult daily be incurred.

This angelick counsel every man of

letters fhould always have before him. He that devotes himself to retired study, naturally finks from omiffion to forgetfulness of social duties; he must be therefore fometimes awakened, and recalled to the general condition of mankind.

I am far from any intention to limit curiofity, or confine the labours of learning to arts of immediate and necessary use. It is only from the various essays of experimental industry, and the vague excurfions of minds fent out upon difcovery, that any advancement of knowledge can be expected; and though many must be disappointed in their labours, yet they are not to be charged with having spent their time in vain; their example contributed to infpire emulation, and their mifcarriages taught others the way to fuccefs.

But the diftant hope of being one day ufeful or eminent, ought not to mislead us too far from that study which is equally requifite to the great and mean, to the celebrated and obfcure; the art of moderating the defires, of repreffing the appetites, and of conciliating or retaining the favour of mankind.

No man can imagine the course of his own life, or the conduct of the world around him, unworthy his attention; yet among the fons of learning many feem to have thought of every thing ra ther than of themselves, and to have observed every thing but what paffes before their eyes: many who toil through the intricacy of complicated fyftems, are infu perably embarraffed with the least perplexity in common affairs; many who compare the actions, and ascertain the characters of ancient heroes, let their own days glide away without examination, and fuffer various habits to encroach upon their minds without refiitance or detection.

The most frequent reproach of the fcholaftick race is the want of fortitude, not martial but philofophick. Men bred in fhades and filence, taught to immure theinfelves at funfet, and accustomed to no other weapon than fyllogifm, may be allowed to feel terror at perfonal danger, and to be difconcerted by tumult and alarm. But why should he whofe life is fpent in contemplation, and whose bufinefs is only to difcover truth, be unable to rectify the fallacies of imagination, or contend fuccessfully against prejudice and paffion? To what end has he read and meditated, if he gives up his understand

ing to falfe appearances, and fuffers himfelf to be enflaved by fear of evils to which only folly or vanity can expofe him; or elated by advantages to which, as they are equally conferred upon the good and bad, no real dignity is annexed?

Such, however, is the ftate of the world, that the most obfequious of the flaves of pride, the most rapturous of the gazers upon wealth, the moft officious of the whisperers of greatness, are collected from feminaries appropriated to the study of wisdom and of virtue, where it was intended that appetite fhould learn to be content with little, and that hope thould afpire only to honours which no human power can give or take

away.

The ftudent, when he comes forth into the world, instead of congratulating himfelf upon his exemption from the errors of thofe whofe opinions have been formed by accident or custom, and who live without any certain principles of conduct, is commonly in hafte to mingle with the multitude, and fhew his fprightlinefs and ductility by an expeditious compliance with fashions or vices. The firft fmile of a man, whofe fortune gives him power to reward his dependants, commonly enchants him beyond refiftance; the glare of equipage, the sweets of luxury, the liberality of general promifes, the foftnefs of habitual affability, fill his imagination; and he foon ceases to have any other

with than to be well received, or any measure of right and wrong but the opinion of his patron.

A man flattered and obeyed, learns to exact groffer adulation, and enjoin lower fubmiflion. Neither our virtues nor vices are all our own. If there were no cowardice, there would be little infolence; pride cannot rife to any great degree, but by the concurrence of blandifhment or the fufferance of tamenefs. The wretch who would fhrink and crouch before one that should dart his eyes upon him with the spirit of natural equality, becomes capricious and tyrannical when he fees himself approached with a downcaft look, and hears the foft addrefs of awe and fervility. To thofe who are willing to purchase favour by cringes and compliance, is to be imputed the haughtiness that leaves nothing to be hoped by firmness and integrity.

If, inftead of wandering after the meteors of philofophy, which fill the world. with fplendour for a while, and then fink and are forgotten, the candidates of learning fixed their eyes upon the permanent luftre of moral and religious truth, they would find a more certain direction to happiness. A little plaufibility of discourse, and acquaintance with unneceffary ipeculations, is dearly purchased, when it excludes thofe inftructions which fortify the heart with refolution, and exalt the spirit to independence.

ceeded with fuccefs proportionate to close application and untainted integrity; was a daring bidder at every fale; always paid my notes before they were due; and advanced fo faft in commercial reputation, that I was proverbially marked out as the model of young traders, and every one expected that a few years would make me an alderman.

In this course of even profperity, I was one day perfuaded to buy a ticket in the lottery. The fum was inconfiderable, part was to be repaid though fortune might fail to favour me, and therefore my established maxims of frugality did not restrain me from so trifling an experiment. The ticket lay almoft forgotten till the time at which every man's fate was to be determined; nor did the affair even then feem of any importance, till I difcovered by the publick papers that the number next to mine had conferred the great prize.

My heart leaped at the thought of fuch an approach to fudden riches, which I confidered myfelf, however contrarily to the laws of computation, as having miffed by a single chance; and I could not forbear to revolve the confequences which such a bounteous allotment would have produced, if it had happened to me. This dream of felicity, by degrees, took poffeffion of my imagination. The great delight of my folitary hours was to purchase an eftate, and form plantations with money which once might have been mine, and I never met my friends but I fpoiled all their merriment by perpetual complaints of my ill luck.

At length another lottery was opened, and I had now so heated my imagination with the profpect of a prize, that I fhould have preffed among the first purchafers, had not my ardour been withheld by deliberation upon the probability of fuccefs from one ticket rather than another. I hentated long between even and old; confidered the fquare and cubick numbers through the lottery; examined all thofe to which good luck had been hitherto annexed; and at last fixed upon one, which, by fome fecret relation to the events of my life, I thought predeftined to make me happy. Delay in great affairs is often mischievous; the ticket was fold, and it's poffeffor could not be found.

I returned to my conjectures, and after many arts of prognoftication, fixed

upon another chance, but with lefs confidence. Never did captive, heir, or lover, feel fo much vexation from the flow pace of time, as I fuffered between the purchase of my ticket and the diftri bution of the prizes. I folaced my uneafinefs as well as I could, by frequent contemplations of approaching happinefs; when the fun rose I knew it would fet, and congratulated myself at night that I was fo much nearer to my wishes. At last the day came, my ticket appear. ed, and rewarded all my care and fagacity with a despicable prize of fifty pounds.

My friends, who honeftly rejoiced upon my fuccefs, were very coldly received; I hid myself a fortnight in the country, that my chagrin might fume away without obfervation, and then returning to my fhop, began to listen after another lottery.

With the news of a lottery I was foon gratified, and having now found the vanity of conjecture and inefficacy of computation, I refolved to take the prize by violence, and therefore bought forty tickets, not omitting however to divide them between the even and odd numbers, that I might not miss the lucky clafs. Many conclufions did I form, and many experiments did I try to determine from which of thofe tickets I might moft reasonably expect riches. At last, being unable to fatisfy myself by any modes of reasoning, I wrote the numbers upon dice, and allotted five hours every day to the amufement of throwing them in a gar ret; and examining the event by an exact register, found on the evening before the lottery was drawn, that one of my numbers had been turned up five times more than any of the reft in three hundred and thirty thousand throws.

This experiment was fallacious; the first day prefented the hopeful ticket, a deteftable blank. The reft came out with different fortune, and in conclufion I loft thirty pounds by this great adventure.

I had now wholly changed the caft of my behaviour and the conduct of my life. The fhop was for the most part abandoned to my fervants; and if I entered it, my thoughts were fo engrossed by my tickets, that I fcarcely heard or anfwered a question, but confidered every customer as an intruder upon my meditations, whom I was in hafte to dispatch.