putation, as of negligence and inftability. This is a quality which the intereft of mankind requires to be diffused through all the ranks of life, but which many feem to confider as a vulgar and ignoble virtue, below the ambition of greatness or attention of wit, fcarcely requifite among men of gaiety and fpirit, and fold at it's highest rate when it is facrificed to a frolick or a jeft.

Every man has daily occafion to remark what vexations arife from this privilege of deceiving one another. The active and vivacious have fo long difdained the restraints of truth, that promifes and appointments have loft their cogency, and both parties neglect their ftipulations, becaufe each concludes that they will be broken by the other.

Negligence is first admitted in fmall affairs, and firengthened by petty indulgencies. He that is not yet hardened by custom, ventures not on the violation of important engagements, but thinks himself bound by his word in cafes of property or danger, though he allows himself to forget at what time he is to meet ladies in the park, or at what tavern his friends are expecting him.

This laxity of honour would be more tolerable, if it could be reftrained to the play-houfe, the bail-room, or the card-table; yet even there it is fufficient ly troublesome, and darkens those moments with expectation, fufpenfe, and refentment, which are fet aide for pleafure, and from which we naturally hope for unmingled enjoyment, and total relaxation. But he that fuffers the fighteft breach in his morality, can feldom tell what fhall enter it, or how wide it fhall be made; when a paffage is cpen, the influx of corruption is every moment wearing down oppofition, and by flow degrees deluges the heart.

Aliger entered the world a youth of lively imagination, extenfive views, and untainted principles. His curiofity incited him to range from place to place, and try all the varieties of converfation; his elegance of addrefs and fertility of ideas gained him friends wherever he appeared, or at lealt he found the general kindness of reception always fewn to a young man whofe birth and fortune gave him a claim to notice, and who has neither by vice or folly defroy ed his privileges. Aliger was pleated

with this general smile of mankind, and was industrious to preserve it by compliance and officiousness, but did not fuffer his defire of pleafing to vitiate his integrity. It was his eftablished maxim, that a promife is never to be broken; nor was it without fome reluctance that he once fuffered himself to be drawn away from a fetal engagement by the importunity of another company.

He spent the evening, as is ufual in the rudiments of vice, in perturbation and imperfect enjoyment, and met his difappointed, friends in the morning with confusion and excuses. His companions, not accustomed to fuch foru pulous anxiety, laughed at his unafi nefs, compounded the offence for a bottle, gave him courage to break his word again, and again levied the penalty. He ventured the fame experiment upon another fociety, and found them equally ready to confider it as a venial fault, always incident to a man of quickness and gaiety, till by degrees he began to think himself at liberty to follow the laft invitation, and was no longer shocked at the turpitude of falfehood. made no difficulty to promife his prefence at diftant places, and if liftlessness happened to creep upon him, would fit at home with great tranquillity; and has often funk to fleep in a chair, while he held ten tables in continual expectations of his entrance.

He

It was so pleasant to live in perpetual vacancy, that he foon difmiffed his attention as an ufelefs incumbrance, and refigned himself to careleffnefs and dif fipation, without any regard to the future or the past, or any other motive of action than the impulfe of a fudden des fire, or the attraction of immediate pleafure. The abfent were immediately forgotten, and the hopes or fears felt by others had no influence upon his conduct. He was in fpeculation completely juft, but never kept his promile to a creditor; he was benevolent, but always deceived thofe friends whom he undertook to patronize or affift; he was prudent, but fuffered his affairs to be embarraffed for want of regulating his accounts at ftated times. He courted a young lady, and when the fettlements were drawn, took a ramble into the country on the day appointed to fign them. He refolved to travel, and fent his chefts or fhipboard, but delayed to follow them till he loft his paffage. He

was

was fummoned as an evidence in a caufe of great importance, and loitered on the way till the trial was paft. It is faid, that when he had, with great expence, formed an intereft in a borough, his opponent contrived, by fome agents, who knew his temper, to lure him away, on the day of election.

His benevolence draws him into the commiffion of a thousand crimes, which others lefs kind or civil would efcape. His courtely invites application; his promiles produce dependence; he has his pockets filled with petitions, which he intends fome time to deliver and enforce, and his table covered with letters of request, with which he purposes to

comply; but time flips imperceptibly away, while he is either idle or bufy; his friends lofe their opportunities, and charge upon him their miscarriages and calamities.

This character, however contemptible, is not peculiar to Aliger. They whofe activity of imagination is often shifting the fcenes of expectation, are frequently fubject to fuch fallies of caprice as make all their actions fortuitous, deftroy the value of their friendship, obftruct the efficacy of their virtues, and fet them below the meaneft of those that perfift in their refolutions, execute what they defign, and perform what they have promifed.

CALLIMACHU.

F. LEWIS.

voured to promote learning, and rectify judgment, it has been long cuftomary to complain of the abule of words, which are often admitted to fig. nify things fo different, that, inftead of affiting the understanding as vehicles of knowledge, they produce error, diffention, and perplexity, because what is affirmed in one fenfe is received in another.

If this ambiguity fometimes embarraffes the most folemn controverties, and obfcures the demonftrations of fcience, it may well be expected to infeit the pompous periods of declaimers, whofe purpofe is often only to amufe with fallacies, and change the colours of truth and fallehood; or the musical compofitions of poets, whofe ftyle is profeffedly figurative, and whofe art is imagined to confift in diftorting words from their original meaning.

There are few words of which the reader believes himself better to know the import than of poverty; yet whoever ftudies either the poets or philofophers, will find fuch an account of the con

perience or obfervation will not eafily difcover to be true. Instead of the meannefs, diftrefs, complaint, anxiety, and dependance, which have hitherto been combined in his ideas of poverty, he will read of content, innocence, and cheerfulness, of health and fafety, tranquillity and freedom; of pleasures not known but to men unincumbered with poffeffions; and of fleep that sheds his balfamick anodynes only on the cottage. Such are the bleffings to be obtained by the refignation of riches, that kings might defcend from their thrones, and generals retire from a triumph, only to lumber undisturbed in the elysium of poverty.

If these authors do not deceive us, nothing can be more abfurd than that perpetual contest for wealth which keeps the world in commotion; nor any complaints more justly cenfured than those which proceed from want of the gifts of fortune, which we are taught by the great mafters of moral wisdom to confider as golden fhackles, by which the wearer is at once difabled and adorned 3 L

as luscious poisons which may for a time please the palate, but foon betray their malignity by languor and by pain.

It is the great privilege of poverty to be happy unenvied, to be healthful without phyfick, and fecure without a guard; to obtain from the bounty of nature, what the great and wealthy are compelled to procure by the help of artifts and attendants, of flatterers and of fpies.

But it will be found, upon a nearer view, that they who extol the happinefs of poverty, do not mean the fame ftate with thofe who deplore it's mileries. Poets have their imaginations filled with ideas of magnificence; and being accustomed to contemplate the downfal of empires, or to contrive forms of lamentations for monarchs in diftrefs, rank all the claffes of mankind in a state of poverty, who make no approaches to the dignity of crowns. To be poor, in the epick language, is only not to command the wealth of nations, nor to have fleets and armies in pay.

Vanity has perhaps contributed to this impropriety of ftyle. He that wifhes to become a philofopher at a cheap rate, easily gratifies his ambition by fubmitting to poverty when he does not feel it, and by boafting his contempt of riches, when he has already more than he enjoys. He who would fhow the extent of his views, and grandeur of his conceptions, or difcover his acquaintance with fplendor and magnificence, may talk like Cowley of an humble ftation and quiet obfcurity, of the paucity of nature's wants, and the inconveniencies of fuperfluity, and at laft, like him, limit his defires to five hundred pounds a year; a fortune indeed not exuberant when we compare it with the expences of pride and luxury, but to which it little becomes a philofopher to affix the name of poverty, fince no man can, with any propriety, be termed poor, who does not fee the greater part of mankind richer than himself. As little is the general condition of human life understood by the panegyrifts and hiftorians, who amufe us with ac counts of the poverty of heroes and fages. Riches are of no value in themfelves, their ufe is difcovered only in that which they procure. They are not coveted, unlefs by narrow underftandings, which confound the means with the end, but for the take of power, in

fluence, and efteem; or by fome of left elevated and refined fentiments, as neceffary to fenfual enjoyment.

The pleasures of luxury, many have, without uncommon virtue, been able to defpife, even when affluence and idlenefs have concurred to tempt them; and therefore he who feels nothing from indigence but the want of gratifications which he could not in any other condition make confiftent with innocence, has given no proof of eminent patience. Efteem and influence every man defires, but they are equally pleating and equally valuable, by whatever means they are obtained; and whoever has found the art of fecuring them without the help of money, ought, in reality, to be accounted rich, fince he has all that riches can purchase to a wife man. Cincinnatus, though he lived upon a few acres, cultivated by his own hand, was fufficiently removed from all the evils generally comprehended under the name of poverty, when his reputation was fuch, that the voice of his country called him from his farm to take abfolute command into his hand; nor was Diogenes much mortified by his refidence in a tub, where he was honoured with the vifit of Alexander the Great.

The fame fallacy has conciliated veneration to the religious orders. When we behold a man abdicating the hope of terreftrial poffeffions, and precluding himfelf by an irrevocable vow from the purfuit and acquifition of all that his fellow-beings confider as worthy of withes and endeavours, we are immediately truck with the purity, abftractien, and firmnefs of his mind, and regard him as wholly employed in fecuring the interefts of futurity, and devoid of any other care than to gain at whatever price the fureft paffage to eternal reft.

Yet what can the votary be justly faid to have loft of his prefent happinefs? If he refides in a convent, he converfes only with men whofe condition is the fame with his own; he has from the munificence of the founder all the neceffaries of life, and is fafe from that deftitution which Hooker declares to be fuch an impediment to virtue, as, till it be removed, fuffereth not the mind of man to admit other care. any All temptations to envy and competi tion are thut out from his retreat; he is not pained with the fight of unattain able dignity, nor infulted with the bluf

ter of infolence, or the fmile of forced familiarity. If he wanders abroad, the fanctity of his character amply compenfates all other diftinctions, he is feldom feen but with reverence, nor heard but with fubmiffion.

It has been remarked, that death, though often defied in the field, feldom

fails to terrify when it approaches the bed of fickness in it's natural horror; fo poverty may easily be endured, while affociated with dignity and reputation, but will always be fhunned and dreaded when it is accompanied with ignominy and contempt.

OVID.

IT

T feems to be the fate of man to feek all his confolations in futury. The time prefent is feldom able to fill delire or imagination with immediate enjoy ment, and we are forced to fupply it's deficiencies by recollection or anticipa

tion.

Every one has fo often detected the fallacioufnefs of hope, and the inconvenience of teaching himself to expect what a thousand accidents may preclude, that, when time has abated the confidence with which youth rushes out to take poffeffion of the world, we endeavour, or with, to find entertainment in the review of life, and to repole upon real facts, and certain experience. This is perhaps one reafon, among many, why age delights in narratives."

But fo full is the world of calamity, that every fource of pleafure is polluted, and every retirement of tranquillity dif turbed. When time has fupplied us with events fufficient to employ our thoughts, it has mingled them with fo many difafters, that we fhrink from their remembrance, dread their intrufion upon our minds, and fly from them as from enemies that purfue us with torture.

No man past the middle point of life can fit down to feaft upon the pleafures of youth without finding the banquet imbittered by the cup of forrow; he may revive lucky accidents, and pleafing extravagancies; many days of harmless frolick, or nights of honett fettivity, will perhaps recur; or, if he has been engaged in fcenes of action, and acquainted with affairs of difficulty and viciffitudes of fortune, he may enjoy the

WELSTED.

nobler pleasure of looking back upon diftrets firmly fupported, dangers refolutely encountered, and oppofition artfully defeated. Eneas properly comforts his companions, when after the horrors of a storm they have landed on an unknown and defolate country, with the hope that their miferies will be at fome diftant time recounted with delight. There are few higher gratifications than that of reflection on furmounted evils, when they were not incurred nor protracted by our fault, and neither reproach us with cowardice nor guilt.

But this felicity is almost always abated by the reflection, that they with whom we should bemoft pleased to share it are now in the grave. A few years make fuch havock in human generations, that we foon fee ourfelves deprived of thofe with whom we entered the world, and whom the participation of pleasures or fatigues had endeared to our remembrance. The man of enterprize recounts his adventures and expedients, but is forced, at the clofe of the relation, to pay a figh to the names of thofe that contributed to his fuccefs; he that paffes his life among the gayer part of mankind, has his remembrance ftored with remarks and repartees of wits, whose fprightliness and merriment are now loft in perpetual filence; the trader, whose induftry has fupplied the want of inheritance, repines in folitary plenty at the abience of companions with whom he had planned out amusements for his latter years; and the fcholar, whofe merit, after a long ferics of efforts, raifes him from obfcurity, looks round in vain 3L 2

from

from his exaltation for his old friends or enemies, whofe applaufe or mortification would heighten his triumph. Among Martial's requifites to happinefs is, Res non parta labore, fed relita-an eftate not gained by industry, but left by inheritance. It is neceffary to the completion of every good, that it be timely obtained; for whatever comes at the clote of life, will come too late to give much delight; yet all human happiness has it's defects. Of what we do not gain for ourselves we have only a faint and imperfect fruition, becaufe we cannot compare the difference between want and poffeflion, or at least can derive from it no conviction of our own abilities, nor any increase of self-esteem; what we acquire by bravery or science, by mental or corporal diligence, comes at last when we cannot communicate, and therefore cannot enjoy it.

Thus every period of life is obliged to borrow it's happiness from the time to come. In youth we have nothing part to entertain us, and in age we derive little from retrofpect but hopeless forrow. Yet the future likewife has it's limits, which the imagination dreads to approach, but which we fee to be not far diftant. The lofs of our friends and companions impreffes hourly upon us the neceffity of our own departure: we know that the fchemes of man are quickly at an end, that we muft foon lie down in the grave with the forgotten multitudes of former ages, and yield our place to others, who, like us, fhall be driven awhile, by hope or fear, about the furface of the earth, and then like us be loft in the fhades of death.

Beyond this termination of our material existence, we are therefore obliged to extend our hopes; and aloft every man indulges his imagination with fomething which is not to happen till he has changed his manner of being: fome amufe themselves with entails and fettlements, provide for the perpetuation of families and honours, or contrive to obviate the diffipation of the fortunes which it has been their bufinefs to accumulate; others, more refined or exalted, congratulate their own hearts upon the future extent of their reputation, the reverence of diftant nations, and the gratitude of unprejudiced poíterity.

They whofe fouls are so chained down to coffers and tenements, that they cannot conceive a state in which they shall look upon them with lefs folicitude, are feldom attentive or flexible to arguments; but the votaries of fame are capable of reflection, and therefore may be called to reconfider the probability of their expectations.

Whether to be remembered in remote times be worthy of a wife man's wish, has not yet been fatisfactorily decided; and, indeed, to be long remembered, can happen to fo fmall a number, that the bulk of mankind has very little intereft in the queftion. There is never room in the world for more than a certain quantity or measure of renown. The nece fiary bufinefs of life, the immediate pleafures or pains of every condition, leave us not leifure beyond a fixed proportion for contemplations,which do not forcibly influence our prefent welfare. When this vacuity is filled, no characters can be admitted into the circulation of fame, but by occupying the place of fome that must be thrust into oblivion. The eye of the mind, like that of the body, can only extend it's view to new objects, by lofing fight of thofe which are now before it.

Reputation is therefore a meteor which blazes a while and difappears for ever; and if we except a few tranfcendent and invincible nanies, which no revolutions of opinion or length of time is able to fupprefs; all thofe that engage our thoughts, or diversify our converfation, are every moment háfting to obfcurity, as new favourites are adopted by fashion.

It is not therefore from this world that any ray of comfort can proceed to cheer the gloom of the last hour. But futurity has ftill it's profpects; there is yet happine's in referve, which, if we transfer our attention to it, will fupport us in the pains of difeafe, and the languor of decay. This happiness we may expect with confidence, because it is out of the power of chance, and may be attained by all that fincerely defire and earnestly purfue it. On this therefore every mind ought finally to reft. Hope is the chief bleffing of man, and that hope only is rational of which we are certain that it cannot deceive us.

N° CCIV.