ed by thofe that love him, than by those that admire his excellencies, or folicit his favours; for admiration ceases with novelty, and interest gains its end and retires. A man whofe great qualities want the ornament of fuperficial attractions, is like a naked mountain with mines of gold, which will be frequented only till the treasure is exhaufted. I am, &c. PHILOMIDES. NUMB. 73. TUESDAY, November 27, 1750. Stulte quid heu votis fruftra puerilibus optas Why thinks the fool with childish hope to fee SIR, To the RAMBLER. OVID. ELPHINSTON. IF you feel any of that compaffion which you recommend to others, you will not disregard a cafe which I have reafon from observation to believe very common, and which I know by experience to be very miferable. And though the querulous are seldom received with great ardour of kindnefs, I hope to efcape the mortification of finding that my lamentations fpread the contagion of impatience, and produce anger rather than tenderness. I write not merely to vent the fwelling of my heart, but to enquire by what means I may recover my tranquillity; and fhall endeavour at brevity in my narrative, narrative, having long known that complaint quickly tires, however elegant or however juft. I was born in a remote county, of a family that boafts alliances with the greatest names in English hiftory, and extends its claims of affinity to the Tudors and Plantagenets. My ancestors, by little and little, wafted their patrimony, till my father had not enough left for the fupport of a family, without defcending to the cultivation of his own grounds, being condemned to pay three fifters the fortunes allotted them by my grandfather, who is fufpected to have made his will when he was incapable of adjusting properly the claims of his children, and who, perhaps without defign, enriched his daughters by beggaring his fon, My aunts being, at the death of their father, neither young nor beautiful, nor very eminent for softness of behaviour, were fuffered to live unfolicited, and by accumulating the intereft of their portions grew every day richer and prouder. My father pleafed himfelf with forefeeing that the poffeffions of those ladies must revert at laft to the hereditary estate, and that his family might lofe none of its dignity, refolved to keep me untainted with a lucrative employment; whenever therefore I discovered any inclination to the improvement of my condition, my mother never failed to put me in mind of my birth, and charged me to do nothing with which I might be reproached when I fhould come to my aunts' eftate. In all the perplexities or vexations which want of money brought upon us, it was our conftant practice to have recourse to futurity. If any of our neighbours furpaffed us in appearance, we went home and contrived an equipage, with which the, death F 6 death of my aunts was to fupply us. If any purfeproud upstart was deficient in refpect, vengeance was referred to the time in which our eftate was to be repaired. We registered every act of civility and rudeness, enquired the number of dishes at every feast, and minuted the furniture of every houfe, that we might, when the hour of affluence fhould come, be able to eclipse all their splendor, and surpass all their magnificence. Upon plans of elegance and schemes of pleasure the day rose and set, and the year went round unregarded, while we were bufied in laying out plantations on ground not yet our own, and deliberating whether the manor-house should be rebuilt or repaired. This was the amusement of our leifure and the folace of our exigencies; we met together only to contrive how our approaching fortune fhould be enjoyed; for in this our converfation always ended, on whatever subject it began. We had none of the collateral interefts, which diverfify the life of others with joys and hopes, but had turned our whole attention on one event, which we could neither haften nor retard, and had no other object of curiofity, than the health or fickness of my aunts, of which we were careful to procure very exact and early intelligence. This vifionary opulence for a while foothed our imagination, but afterwards fired our wishes and exasperated our neceffities, and my father could not always reftrain himself from exclaiming, that na creature had fo many lives as a cat and an old maid. At laft, upon the recovery of his fifter from an ague, which the was fuppofed to have caught by fparing fire, he began to lose his ftomach, and four months afterwards funk into the grave. My My mother, who loved her husband, survived him but a little while, and left me the fole heir of their lands, their schemes, and their wishes. As I had not enlarged my conceptions either by books or converfation, I differed only from my father by the freshness of my cheeks and the vigour of my step; and like him, gave way to no thoughts but of enjoying the wealth which my aunts were hoarding. At length the eldeft fell ill. I paid the civilities and compliments which fickness requires with the utmost punctuality. I dreamed every night of efcutcheons and white gloves, and enquired every morning at an early hour, whether there were any news of my dear aunt. At laft a meffenger was fent to inform me that I must come to her without the delay of a moment. I went and heard her laft advice, but opening her will, found that she had left her fortune to her second fifter. I hung my head; the younger fifter threatened to be married, and every thing was disappointment and discontent. I was in danger of lofing irreparably one third of my hopes, and was condemned ftill to wait for the reft. Of part of my terror I... was foon eased; for the youth, whom his relations would have compelled to marry the old lady, after innumerable ftipulations, articles, and settlements, ran away with the daughter of his father's groom; and my aunt, upon this conviction of the perfidy of man, refolved never to liften more to amorous addreffes. Ten years longer I dragged the fhackles of expectation, without ever fuffering a day to pass, in which I did not compute how much my chance was improved of being rich to-morrow. At At laft the fecond lady died, after a fhort illness, which yet was long enough to afford her time for the difpofal of her eftate, which she gave to me after the death of her fifter. I was now relieved from part of my misery; a larger fortune, though not in my power, was certain and unalienable; nor was there now any danger, that I might at last be fruftrated of my hopes bya fret of dotage, the flatteries of a chambermaid, the whifpers of a tale-bearer, or the officioufnefs of a nurse. But my wealth was yet in reverfion, my aunt was to be buried before I could emerge to grandeur and pleasure; and there were yet, according to my father's obfervation, níne lives between me and happiness. I however lived on, without any clamours of difcontent, and comforted myfelf with confidering, that all are mortal, and they who are continually decaying must at last be destroyed. But let no man from this time fuffer his felicity to depend on the death of his aunt. The good gentlewoman was very regular in her hours and fimple in her diet, and in walking or fitting ftill, waking or fleeping, had always in view the prefervation of her health. She was fubject to no diforder but hypochondriack dejection; by which, without intention, fhe increased my miseries, for whenever the weather was cloudy, the would take her bed and fend me notice that her time. was come. I went with all the hafte of eagernefs, and sometimes received paffionate injunctions to be kind to her maid, and directions how the laft offices fhould be performed; but if before my arrival the fun happened to break out, or the wind to change, I met her at the door, or found |