There are many injuries which almost every man feels, though he does not complain, and which, upon thofe whom virtue, elegance, or vanity, have made delicate and tender, fix deep and lafting impreffions; as there are many arts of gracioufnefs and conciliation, which are to be practised without expence, and by which those may be made our friends, who have never received from us any real benefit: Such arts, when they include neither guilt nor meanness, it is furely reasonable to learn, for who would want that love which is fo eafily to be gained? And fuch injuries are to be avoided; for who would be hated without profit? Some, indeed, there are, for whom the excufe of ignorance or negligence cannot be alledged, becaufe it is apparent that they are not only careless of pleafing, but ftudious to offend; that they contrive to make all approaches to them difficult and vexatious, and imagine that they aggrandize themfelves by wafting the time of others in ufeless attendance, by mortifying them with flights, and teazing them with affronts. Men of this kind are generally to be found among thofe that have not mingled much in general converfation, but spent their lives amidst the obfequioufnefs of dependants and the flattery of parafites; and by long confulting only their own inclination, have forgotten that others have a claim to the fame deference. Tyranny thus avowed, is indeed an exuberance of pride, by which all mankind is fo much enraged, that it is never quietly endured, except in those who can reward the patience which they exact; and infolence is generally furrounded only by by fuch whofe bafenefs inclines them to think nothing infupportable that produces gain, and who can laugh at fcurrility and rudenefs with a luxurious table and an open purse. But though all wanton provocations and contemptuous infolence are to be diligently avoided, there is no lefs danger in timid compliance and tame refignation. It is common, for foft and fearful tempers, to give themselves up implicitly to the direction of the bold, the turbulent, and the overbearing; of those whom they do not believe wiser or better than themselves; to recede from the best defigns where oppofition must be encountered, and to fall off from virtue for fear of cenfure. Some firmnefs and refolution is neceffary to the discharge of duty; but it is a very unhappy state of life in which the neceffity of such struggles frequently occurs; for no man is defeated without fome refentment, which will be continued with obftinacy while he believes himself in the right, and exerted with bitterness, if even to his own conviction he is detected in the wrong. Even though no regard be had to the external confequences of contrariety and difpute, it must be painful to a worthy mind to put others in pain, and there will be danger left the kindeft nature may be vitiated by too long a custom of debate and conteft. I am afraid that I may be taxed with infenfibility by many of my correfpondents, who believe' their contributions unjustly neglected. And indeed when I fit before a pile of papers, of which each is the production of laborious study, and the offspring of a fond parent, I, who know the paffions of an author, cannot remember how long they they have lain in my boxes unregarded, without imagining to myself the various changes of forrow, impatience, and refentment, which the writers must have felt in this tedious interval. Thefe reflections are ftill more awakened, when, upon perufal, I find fome of them calling for a place in the next paper, a place which they have never yet obtained; others writing in a style of fuperiority and haughtiness, as fecure of deference and above fear of criticism; others humbly offering their weak affiftance with foftnefs and fubmiffion, which they believe impoffible to be refifted; fome introducing their compofitions with a menace of the contempt, which he that refuses them will incur ; others applying privately to the bookfellers for their interest and folicitation; every one by different ways endeavouring to fecure the blifs of publication. I cannot but confider myself as placed in a very incommodious fituation, where I am forced to reprefs confidence, which it is pleafing to indulge, to repay civilities with appearances of neglect, and fo frequently to offend those by whom I never was offended. I know well how rarely an author, fired with the beauties of his new compofition, contains his raptures in his own bofom, and how naturally he imparts to his friends his expectations of renown; and as I can easily conceive the eagerness with which a new paper is fnatched up, by one who expects to find it filled with his own production, and perhaps has called his companions to share the pleasure of a fecond perufal, I grieve for the difappointment which he is to feel at the fatal inspection. His hopes however do not yet forsake him; he is certain of giving luftre the next day. The next day day comes, and again he pants with expectation, and having dreamed of laurels and Parnaffus, cafts his eyes upon the barren page with which he is doomed never more to be delighted. For fuch cruelty what atonement can be made? For fuch calamities what alleviation can be found? I am afraid that the mischief already done must be without reparation, and all that deferves my care is prevention for the future. Let therefore the next friendly contributor, whoever he be, obferve the cautions of Swift, and write fecretly in his own chamber, without communicating his defign to his nearest friend, for the nearest friend will be pleafed with an opportunity of laughing. Let him carry it to the poft himself, and wait in filence for the event. If it is published and praised, he may then declare himself the author: if it be fuppreffed, he may wonder in private without much vexation; and if it be cenfured, he may join in the cry, and lament the dulnefs of the writing generation. I NUMB. 57. TUESDAY, October 2, 1750. Non intelligunt homines quam magnum vectigal fit parfimonia. The world has not yet learned the riches of frugality. SIR, To the RAMBLER. TULL AM alway pleafed when I fee literature made ufeful, and fcholars defcending from that elevation, which, as it raises them above common life, muft likewise hinder them from beholding the ways of men otherwise than in a cloud of bustle and confufion. Having lived a life of business, and remarked how feldom any occurrences emerge for which great qualities are required, I have learned the neceffity of regarding little things, and though I do not pretend to give laws to the legiflators of mankind, or to limit the range of those powerful minds that carry light and heat through all the regions of knowledge, yet I have long thought, that the greatest part of those who lofe themselves in ftudies, by which I have not found that they grow much wifer, might, with more advantage both to the publick and themselves, apply their understandings to domestick arts, and ftore their minds with axioms of humble prudence and private economy. Your late paper on frugality was very elegant and pleafing, but, in my opinion, not fufficiently adapted to common readers, who pay little regard to the mufick of periods, the artifice of connection, or the arrangement of the flowers of rhetorick; but require a few plain and cogent inftructions, |