prise, and, by consequence, to retard the improvement of science. They have annexed to every fpecies of knowledge fome chimerical character of terror and inhibition, which they tranfmit, without much reflection, from one to another; they first fright themselves, and then propagate the panick to their scholars and acquaintance. One ftudy is inconfiftent with a lively imagination, another with a folid judgment; one is improper in the early parts of life, another requires fo much time, that it is not to be attempted at an advanced age; one is dry and contracts the fentiments, another is diffufe and overburdens the memory; one is infufferable to tafte and delicacy, and another wears out life in the ftudy of words, and is useless to a wife man, who defires only the knowledge of things. But of all the bugbears by which the Infantes barbati, boys both young and old, have been hitherto frighted from digreffing into new tracts of learning, none has been more mifchievously efficacious than an opinion that every kind of knowledge requires a peculiar genius, or mental conftitution, framed for the reception of fome ideas, and the exclufion of others; and that to him whofe genius is not adapted to the study which he profecutes, all labour shall be vain and fruitlefs, vain as an endeavour to mingle oil and water, or in the language of chemiftry to amalgamate bodies of heterogeneous principles. This opinion we may, reasonably fufpect to have been propagated, by vanity, beyond the truth. It is natural for those who have raised a reputation by any fcience, to exalt themfelves as endowed by heaven with peculiar powers, or marked out by an extraordinary defignation for their profeffion; and to fright competitors away by representing the difficulties H 5 ficulties with which they must contend, and the neceflity of qualities which are fuppofed to be not generally conferred, and which no man can know but by experience, whether he enjoys. To this difcouragement it may be poffibly anfwered, that fince a genius, whatever it be, is like fire in the flint, only to be produced by collifion with a proper fubject, it is the business of every man to try whether his faculties may not happily co-ope rate with his defires; and fince they whofe proficiency he admires, knew their own force only by the event, he needs but engage in the fame undertaking with equal fpirit, and may reasonably hope for equal fuccefs. There is another fpecies of falfe intelligence, given by those who profefs to fhew the way to the fummit of knowledge, of equal tendency to deprefs the mind with falfe diftruft of itself, and weaken it by needlefs folicitude and dejection. When a fcholar whom they defire to animate, confults them at his entrance on fome new study, it is common to make flattering reprefentations of its pleasantness and facility. Thus they generally attain one of two ends almoft equally defirable; they either incite his industry by elevating his hopes, or produce a high opinion of their own abilities, fince they are fupposed to relate only what they have found, and to have proceeded with no lefs eafe than they promise to their followers. The ftudent, inflamed by this encouragement, fets forward in the new path, and proceeds a few steps with great alacrity, but he foon finds afperities and intricacies of which he has not been forewarned, and imagining that none ever were fo entangled or fatigued before him, finks suddenly into defpair, and defifts defifts as from an expedition in which fate oppofes him. Thus his terrors are multiplied by his hopes, and he is defeated without refiftance, because he had no expectation of an enemy. Of thefe treacherous inftructors, the one deftroys industry, by declaring that industry is vain, the other by representing it as needlefs; the one cuts away the root of hope, the other raises it only to be blafted. The one confines his pupil to the fhore, by telling him that his wreck is certain, the other fends him to sea, without preparing him for tempefts. Falfe hopes and false terrors are equally to be avoided. Every man who proposes to grow eminent by learning, fhould carry in his mind, at once, the difficulty of excellence, and the force of industry; and remember that fame is not conferred but as the recompence of labour, and that labour, vigorously continued, has not often failed of its reward. Τ NUMB. 26. SATURDAY, June 14, 1750.. Ingentes dominos, et clare nomina famæ, Each mighty lord, big with a pompous name, SENECA And near the shore improve the gentle gales. ELPHINSTON MR. RAMBLER. IT is ufual for men, engaged in the fame purfuits, to be inquifitive after the conduct and fortune of each other; and therefore, I fuppofe it will not be unpleafing to you, to read an account of the various changes which have happened in part of a life devoted to literature. My narrative will not exhibit any great variety of events, or extraordinary revolutions; but may, perhaps, be not lefs ufeful, because I shall relate nothing which is not likely to happen to a thousand others. I was born heir to a very small fortune, and left by my father, whom I cannot remember, to the care of an uncle. He having no children, always treated me as his fon, and finding in me thofe qualities which old men eafily discover in fprightly children, when they happen to love them, declared that a genius like mine should never be loft for want of cultivation. He therefore placed me, for the usual time, at a great school, and then sent me to the university, with a larger allowance than my own patrimony would have afforded, that I might not keep mean company, but learn to become my dignity when I fhould be made lord chancellor, which he often lamented, that the increase of his infirmities was very likely to preclude him from feeing. This exuberance of money difplayed itself in gaiety of appearance and wantonnefs of expence, and introduced me to the acquaintance of thofe whom the fame fuperfluity of fortune betrayed to the fame licence and oftentation: young heirs, who pleased themselves with a remark very frequent in their mouths, that though they were fent by their fathers to the univerfity, they were not under the neceffity of living by their learning. Among men of this clafs I eafily obtained the reputation of a great genius, and was perfuaded, that, with fuch liveliness of imagination and delicacy of fentiment, I fhould never be able to fubmit to the drudgery of the law. I therefore gave myfelf wholly to the more airy and elegant parts of learning, and was often fo much elated with my fuperiority to the youths with whom I converfed, that I began to liften, with great attention, to those that recommended to me a wider and more confpieuous theatre; and was particularly touched with an obfervation, made by one of my friends; That it was not by lingering in the university that Prior became ambaffador, or Addison fecretary of ftate. This defire was hourly increased by the folicitation of my companions, who removing one by one to London, as the caprice of their relations allowed them, or the legal difmiffion from the hands of their guardians put it in their power, never failed to fend an account of the beauty and felicity of the new world, and to remonftrate how much was loft by every |