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nour, but found himself utterly unable to support another.

He then had recourse again to his books, and continued to range from one study to another. As I usually visit him once a month, and am admitted to him without previous notice, I have found him, within this last half year, decyphering the Chinese language, making a sarce, collecting a vocabulary of the obsolete terms of the English law, writing an inquiry concerning the ancient Corinthian brass, and forming a new scheme of the variations of the needle:

Thus is this powersul genius, which might have extended the sphere of any science, or benefited the world in any prosession, dissipated in a boundless variety, without profit to others or himself. He makes sudden irruptions into the regions of knowledge, and sees all obstacles give way besore him; but he never stays long enough to complete his conquest, to establish laws, or bring away the spoils.

Such is often the folly of men, whom nature has enabled to obtain skill and knowledge, on terms so easy, that they have no sense of the value of the acquisition; they are qualified to make such speedy progress in learning, that they think themselves at liberty to loiter in the way, and by turning aside aster every new object, lofe the race, like Atalanta, to flower competitors, who press diligently forward, and whofe force is directed to a single point.

I have often thought thofe happy that have been fixed, from the first dawn of thought, in a determination to some state of lise, by the choice of one, whofe authority may preclude caprice, and

Vol. X. 'K whose whose influence may prejudice them in savour c*his opinion. The general precept of consultir» the genius is of little use, unless we are told, how the genius can be known. Is it is to be discovered only by experiment, lise will be lost, before the resolution can be fixed; if any other indications are to be found, they may, perhaps, be very early discerned. At least, if to miscarry in an attempt be a proof of having mistaken the direction os the genius, men appear not less frequently deceived with regard to themselves than to others; and therefore, no one has much reason to complain that his lise was planned out by his friends, or to be confident that lie should have had either more honour or happiness, by being abandoned to the chance of his pwn sancy.

It was said of the learned bishop Sanderson, that, when he was preparing his lectures, he hesitated so much, and rejected so often, that, at the time of reading, he was often forced to produce, not what was best, but what happened to be at hand. This will be the state of every man, who, in the choice of his employment, balances all the arguments on every side; the complication is so intricate, the motives and objections so numerous, there is so much play for the imagination, and so much remains in the power of others, that reason is forced at last to rest in neutrality, the decision devolves into the hands of chance, and aster a great part of lise spent in inquiries which can never be resolved, the rest must often pass in repenting the unnecessary delay, and can be usesul to sew other purposes than to warn others against the same folly, and

to

to shew, that of two states of lise equally consistent with religion and virtue, he who chuses earliest chuses best.

Numb. 20. Saturday, May 26, 1750.

Adpopulum pbakras, ego te intus, et in cute nfiii. Persius.

Such pageantry be to the people shown;

There boast thy horse's trappings and thy own:

I know thee to thy bottom; from within

Thy shallow center, to thy utmost skin. • Dryden.

.

AMONG the numerous stratagems, by which pride endeavours to recommend folly to regard, there is scarcely one that meets with less success than affectation, or a perpetual disguise of the real character, by fictitious appearances; whether it be, that every man hates falsehood, from the natural congruity of truth to his faculties of reason, or that every man is jealous of the honour of his understanding, and thinks his discernment consequentially called in question, whenever any thing is exhibited under a borrowed form.

This aversion from all kinds of disguise, whatever be its cause, is univerfally diffused, and incessantly in action; nor is it necessary, that to exasperate detestation, or excite contempt, any interest Ihoulcl be invaded, of any competition attempted; it is sufficient, that there fs ah intention to deceive, ag K 2 intention

intention which every heart swells to oppofe, and every tongue is busy to detect.

This reflection was awakened in my mind by a very common practice among my correspondents, of writing under characters which they cannot support, which are of no use to the explanation or ensorcement of that which they describe or recommend; and which, therefore, since they assume them only for the sake of displaying their abilities, I will advise them for the suture to forbear, as laborious without advantage.

It is almost a general ambition of thofe who savour me with their advice for the regulation of my conduct, or their contribution for the assistance of my understanding, to affect the style and the names of ladies. And I cannot always withhold some expression of anger, like Sir Hugh in the comedy, when I happen to find that a woman has a beard. I must therefore warn the gentle Phyllis, that she send me no more letters from the Horse-Guards; and require of Belinda, that she be content to resign her pretensions to semale elegance, till she has lived three weeks without hearing the politicks of Batson's coffee-house. I must indulge myself in the liberty of observation, that there were some allusions in Chloris's production, sufficient to shew that Bracton and Plowden are her savourite authors; and that Euphelia has not been long enough at home, to wear out all the traces of the phraseology, which she learned in the expedition to Carthagena.

Among all my semale friends, there was none who gave me more trouble to decypher her true character,

than than Penthefilea, whofe letter lay upon my desk three days besore I could fix upon the real writer. There was a consusion of images, and medley of barbarity, which held me long in suspense; till by perseverance I disentangled the perplexity, and sound, that Penthefilea is the son of a wealthy stock-jobber, who spends his morning under his sather's eye in Change-Alley, dines at a tavern in Covent-Garden, pastes his evening in the playhouse, and part of the night at a gaming-table, and having learned the dialects of these various regions, has mingled them all in a studied compofition.

When Lee was once told by a cririck, that it was very easy to write like a madmao; he answered, that it was disficult to write like a madman, .but' easy enough to write like a fool; and I hope to be excused by my kind contributors, if, in imitation of this great author, 1 presume to remind, them, that it is much easier not to write like a man, than to write like a woman.

I have, indeed, some ingenious well-wishers, who, -without departing from their sex, have found very wondersul appellations. A very smart letter has been sent me from a puny ensign, signed Ajax Telamonius; another, in recommendation of a new treatise upon cards, from a gamester, who calls himself Sesostris; and another upon the improvements of the fishery, from Dioclefian: but as these seem only to have picked up their appellations by chance, without endeavouring at any particular imposture, their improprieties are rather instances of blunder than of afsectation, and are, therefore, not equally fitted to inflame the hostile passions for it is not

K 3 folly