i

street amidst the rush of coaches; he has been furrounded by robbers without number; he has headed parties at the playhouse; he has fcaled the windows of every toaft of whatever condition; he has been hunted for whole winters by his rivals; he has flept upon bulks, he has cut chairs, he has bilked coachmen; he has refcued his friends from the bailiffs, has knocked down the conftable, has bullied the juftice, and performed many other exploits, that have filled the town with wonder and with merriment.

But yet greater is the fame of his understanding than his bravery; for he informs us, that he is, at London, the established arbitrator of all points of honour, and the decifive judge of all performances of genius; that no mufical performer is in reputation till the opinion of Frolick has ratified his pretenfions; that the theatres suspend their fentence till he begins to clap or hifs, in which all are proud to concur; that no publick entertainment has failed or fucceeded, but because he oppofed or favoured it; that all controverfies at the gaming-table are referred to his determination; that he adjusts the ceremonial at every affembly, and prefcribes every fashion of pleasure or of dress.

With every man whose name occurs in the papers of the day, he is intimately acquainted; and there are very few pofts, either in the ftate or army, of which he has not more or lefs influenced the dispofal. He has been very frequently confulted both upon war and peace; but the time is not yet come when the nation fhall know how much it is indebted to the genius of Frolick.

Yet, notwithstanding all these declarations, I can. not hitherto perfuade myself to see that Mr. Frolick has more wit, or knowledge, or courage, than the

reft

reft of mankind, or that any uncommon enlargement of his faculties has happened in the time of his absence. For when he talks on subjects known to the rest of the company, he has no advantage over us, but by catches of interruption, brifknefs of interrogation, and pertnefs of contempt; and therefore if he has stunned the world with his name, and gained a place in the first ranks of humanity, I cannot but conclude, that either a little understanding confers eminence at London, or that Mr. Frolick thinks us unworthy of the exertion of his powers, or that his faculties are benumbed by rural ftupidity, as the magnetick needle lofes its animation in the polar climes.

I would not, however, like many hafty philofophers, fearch after the cause till I am certain of the effect; and, therefore, I defire to be informed, whether you have yet heard the great name of Mr. Frolick. If he is celebrated by other tongues than his own, I shall willingly propagate his praise; but if he has fwelled among us with empty boafts, and honours conferred only by himself, I shall treat him with ruftick fincerity, and drive him as an impoftor from this part of the kingdom to fome region of more credulity.

I am, &c.

RURICOLA

NUMB. 62. SATURDAY, October 20, 1750.

Nunc ego Triptolemi cuperem confcendere currus,

Mifit in ignotam qui rude femen humum :
Nunc ego Medea vellem franare dracones,
Quos habuit fugiens arva, Corinthe, tua ;

Nunc ego jatandas optarem fumere pennas,
Sive tuas, Perfeu; Dædale, five tuas.

OVID.

I

Now would I mount his car, whose bounteous hand
First fow'd with teeming feed the furrow'd land:
Now to Medea's dragons fix my reins,

That swiftly bore her from Corinthian plains;
Now on Dadalian waxen pinions stray,
Or those which wafted Perfeus on his way.

SIR,

To the RAMBLER.'

F. LEWIS.

AM a young woman of a very large fortune, which, if my parents would have been perfuaded to comply with the rules and customs of the polite part of mankind, might long fince have raised me to the highest honours of the female world; but fo ftrangely have they hitherto contrived to wafte my life, that I am now on, the borders of twenty, without having ever danced but at our monthly affembly, or been toasted but among a few gentlemen of the neighbourhood, or feen any company in which it was worth a wish to be diftinguished.

My father having impaired his patrimony in foliciting a place at court, at laft grew wife enough to ceafe his purfuit, and, to repair the confequences of expenfive attendance and negligence of his affairs, married a lady much older than himself, who had lived in the fashionable world till she was confidered as an incumbrance upon parties of pleasure,

pleasure, and as I can collect from incidental informations, retired from gay affemblies just time enough to escape the mortification of univerfal neglect.

She was, however, ftill rich, and not yet wrinkled; my father was too diftrefsfully embarrassed to think much on any thing but the means of extrication, and though it is not likely that he wanted the delicacy which polite converfation will always produce in understandings not remarkably defective, yet he was contented with a match, by which he might be fet free from inconveniences, that would have destroyed all the pleasures of imagination, and taken from foftness and beauty the power of delighting.

As they were both fomewhat difgufted with their treatment in the world, and married, though without any diflike of each other, yet principally for the fake of fetting themselves free from dependence on caprice or fashion, they foon retired into the country, and devoted their lives to rural business and diverfions.

They had not much reafon to regret the change of their situation; for their vanity, which had fo long been tormented by neglect and disappointment, was here gratified with every honour that could be paid them. Their long familiarity with publick life made them the oracles of all those who afpired to intelligence or politenefs. My father dictated politicks, my mother prescribed the mode, and it was fufficient to entitle any family to some confideration, that they were known to vifit at Mrs. Courtly's.

In this ftate they were, to speak in the style of novelifts, made happy by the birth of your correfpondent.

VOL. II.

D

fpondent. My parents had no other child, I was therefore not brow-beaten by a faucy brother, or loft in a multitude of co-heireffes, whofe fortunes being equal, would probably have conferred equal merit, and procured equal regard; and as my mother was now old, my understanding and my perfon had fair play, my enquiries were not checked, my advances towards importance were not repreffed, and I was foon fuffered to tell my own opinions, and early accustomed to hear my own praifes.

By thefe accidental advantages I was much exalted above the young ladies with whom I converfed, and was treated by them with great deference. I faw none who did not feem to confefs my fuperiority, and to be held in awe by the splendour of my appearance; for the fondnefs of my father made himself pleafed to fee me dreffed, and my mother had no vanity nor expences to hinder her from concurring with his inclinations.

Thus, Mr. Rambler, I lived without much defire after any thing beyond the circle of our visits; and here I fhould have quietly continued to portion out my time among my books, and my needle, and my company, had not my curiosity been every moment excited by the conversation of my parents, who, whenever they fit down to familiar prattle, and endeavour the entertainment of each other, immediately transport themselves to London, and relate fome adventure in a hackney-coach, fome frolick at a masquerade, fome converfation in the Park, or fome quarrel at an affembly, difplay the magnificence of a birth-night, relate the conquefts of maids of honour, or give a hiftory of diverfions, fhows, and entertainments, which I had never known but from their accounts.