haufted all the variations of honeft praife, and can delight no longer with the civility of truth, he will invent new topicks of panegyrick, and break out into raptures at virtues and beauties conferred by himfelf.

The drudgeries of dependance would, indeed, be aggravated by hopelesness of fuccefs, if no indulgence was allowed to adulation. He that will obftinately confine his patron to hear only the commendations which he deferves, will foon be forced to give way to others that regale him with more compafs of mufick. The greatest human virtue bears no proportion to human vanity. We always think ourselves better than we are, and are generally defirous that others fhould think us still better than we think ourselves. To praise us for actions or difpofitions, which deserve praise, is not to confer a benefit, but to pay a tribute. have always pretenfions to fame, which, in our own hearts, we know to be disputable, and which we are defirous to strengthen by a new fuffrage; we have always hopes which we fufpect to be fallacious, and of which we eagerly snatch at every confirmation.

We

It may, indeed, be proper to make the first approaches under the conduct of truth, and to fecure credit to future encomiums, by fuch praife as may be ratified by the confcience; but the mind once habituated to the lufcioufnefs of eulogy, becomes, in a fhort time, nice and faftidious, and, like a vitiated palate, is inceffantly calling for higher gratifications.

It is fcarcely credible to what degree discernment may be dazzled by the mift of pride, and wisdom infatuated by the intoxication of flattery;

or

or how low the genius may defcend by fucceffive gradations of fervility, and how swiftly it may fall down the precipice of falfehood. No man can, indeed, obferve, without indignation, on what names, both of ancient and modern times, the utmost exuberance of praise has been lavished, and by what hands it has been bestowed. It has never yet been found, that the tyrant, the plunderer, the oppreffor, the most hateful of the hateful, the most profligate of the profligate, have been denied any celebrations which they were willing to purchase, or that wickedness and folly have not found correspondent flatterers through all their fubordinations, except when they have been affociated with avarice or poverty, and have wanted either inclination or ability to hire a panegyrist.

As there is no character fo deformed as to fright away from it the proftitutes of praife, there is no degree of encomiastick veneration which pride has refused. The emperors of Rome fuffered themfelves to be worshipped in their lives with altars and facrifices; and in an age more enlightened the terms peculiar to the praise and worship of the Supreme Being, have been applied to wretches whom it was the reproach of humanity to number among men; and whom nothing but riches or power hindered thofe that read or wrote their deification, from hunting into the toils of justice, as disturbers of the peace of nature.

There are, indeed, many among the poetical flatterers, who must be refigned to infamy without vindication, and whom we must confefs to have deferted the cause of virtue for pay; they, have committed, against full conviction, the crime of obliterating the diftinctions between good and evil,

and

and instead of oppofing the encroachments of vice, have incited her progrefs and celebrated her conquefts. But there is a lower class of sycophants, whofe understanding has not made them capable of equal guilt. Every man of high rank is furrounded with numbers, who have no other rule of thought or action, than his maxims and his conduct; whom the honour of being numbered among his acquaintance, reconciles to all his vices and all his abfurdities; and who eafily perfuade themselves to esteem him, by whose regard they confider themselves as distinguished and exalted.

It is dangerous for mean minds to venture themfelves within the sphere of greatnefs. Stupidity is foon blinded by the fplendor of wealth, and cowardice is eafily fettered in the fhackles of dependance. To folicit patronage is, at least, in the event, to fet virtue to fale. None can be pleased without praise, and few can be praised without falfehood; few can be affiduous without fervility, and none can be fervile without corruption.

NUMB. 105. TUESDAY, March 19, 1751.

Animorum

Impulfu, et cæcd magnáque cupidine ducti.

Vain man runs headlong, to caprice refign'd;
Impell'd by paffion, and with folly blind.

Juv.

I WAS lately confidering, among other objects of fpeculation, the new attempt of an univerfal register, an office, in which every man may lodge an account of his fuperfluities and wants, of whatever he defires to purchase or to fell. My imagi nation foon prefented to me the latitude to which this defign may be extended by integrity and induftry, and the advantages which may be juftly hoped from a general mart of intelligence, when once its reputation fhall be fo established, that neither reproach nor fraud fhall be feared from it; when an application to it fhall not be cenfured as the last resource of defperation, nor its informations fufpected as the fortuitous fuggestions of men obliged not to appear ignorant. A place where every exuberance may be discharged and every deficiency fupplied, where every lawful pailion may find its gratifications, and every honest curiofity receive fatisfaction, where the stock of a nation, pecuniary and intellectual, may be brought together, and where all conditions of humanity may hope to find relief, pleasure, and accommodation, muft equally deferve the attention of the merchant and philofopher, of him who mingles in the tumult of business, and him who only lives to amuse himself with the various employments and purfuits of others. Nor will it be an unin-. ftructing school to the greatest masters of method and dispatch, if such multiplicity can be preserved

from

from embarraffment, and fuch tumult from inaccuracy.

While I was concerting this fplendid project, and filling my thoughts with its regulation, its conveniencies, its variety, and its confequences, I funk gradually into flumber; but the fame images, though less diftinct, ftill continued to float upon my fancy. I perceived myself at the gate of an immenfe edifice, where innumerable multitudes were paffing without confufion; every face on which I fixed my eyes, feemed fettled in the contemplation of fome important purpose, and every foot was haftened by eagernefs and expectation. I followed the crowd without knowing whither I fhould be drawn, and remained a while in the unpleafing state of an idler, where all other beings were bufy, giving place every moment to those who had more importance in their looks. Afhamed to ftand ignorant, and afraid to ask questions, at laft I faw a lady fweeping by me, whom, by the quickness of her eyes, the agility of her fteps, and a mixture of levity and impatience, I knew to be my long-loved protectrefs, CURIOSITY. "Great "goddess," faid I, "may thy votary be permitted "to implore thy favour; if thou hast been my di"rectrefs from the firft dawn of reafon, if I have "followed thee through the maze of life with in"variable fidelity, if I have turned to every new "call, and quitted at thy nod one purfuit for an“other, if I have never stopped at the invitations "of fortune, nor forgot thy authority in the bowers " of pleasure, inform me now whither chance has "conducted me."

"Thou art now," replied the fmiling power, "in the prefence of JUSTICE, and of TRUTH, "whom