Tome, must of necessity turn their thoughts back to try what retrofpect will afford. It ought, therefore, to be the care of thofe who wish to pass the last hours with comfort, to lay up such a treasure of pleasing ideas, as shall support the expences of that time, which is to depend wholly upon the sund already acquired. Petite bine, juvenesque senesque Finem ammo cerium, mistrisque viatica canis. Seek here, ye young, the anchor of your mind; Elphinstow. In youth, however unhappy, we solace ourselves with the hope of better fortune, and however vicious, appease our consciences with intentions of repentance; but the time comes at last, in which lise has no more to promise, in which happiness can be drawn only from recollection, and virtue will be all that we can recollect with pleasure. Numb. 42. Saturday, Augvjl u, 1750. M'-hi tardafiuunt higrataque lemfora. Hor. To the RAMBLE R. Mr. Rambler, IAM no great admirer of grave writings, and therefore very frequently lay your papers aside before I have read them through; yet I cannot but consess that, by flow degrees, you have raised my opinion of your understanding, and that, though I believe it will be long before I can be prevailed upon to regard you with much kindness, you have; however, more of my esteem than thofe whom I sometiir.es make happy with opportunities to fill my tea-pot, or pick up my san. I shall therefore chuse you for the consident of my distresses, and ask your counsel with regard to the means of conquering or efcaping them, though I never expect from you any of that softness and pliancy, which constitutes the perfection os a companion for the ladies: as, in the place where I now am, I have recourse to the mastiff sor protection, though I have no intention of making him a Lip-dog. My mamma is a very fine lady, who has more numerous and more frequent assemblies at her house, than any other person in the same quarter of the town. I was bred from my earliest insancy in a perpetual petual tumult of pleasure, and remember to have heard of little else than messages, visits, playhouses, and balls; of the awkwardness of one woman, and the coquetry of another; the charming convenience of some rising sashion, the difficulty of playing a new game, the incidents of a masquerade, and the dresses of a court-night. I knew before I was ten years old all the rules of paying and receiving visits, and to how much civility everyone of my acquaintance was entitled; and was able to return, with the proper degree of reserve or of vivacity, the stated and established answer to every compliment; so that I was very soon celebrated as a wit, and a beauty, and had heard before I was thirteen all that is ever said "to a young lady. My mother was generous to so uncommon a degree as to be pleased with my advance into lise, and allowed me, without envy or reproof to enjoy the same happiness with herself; though most women about her own age were very angry to see young girls so forward, and many fine gentlemen told her how cruel it was to throw new chains upon mankind, and to tyrannize over them at the same time with her own charms, and thofe of her daughter. I have now lived two and twenty years, and have passed of each year nine months in town, and three at Richmond; so that my time has been spent unisormly in the same company, and the same amusements, except as sashion has introduced new diversions, or the revolutions of the gay world have afforded new successions of wits and beaus. However, my mother is so good an economist of pleasure, that I have no spare hours upon my hands; 5 for
for every morning brings some new appointment, and every night ib hurried away by the necessity of making our appearance at different places, and of being with one lady at the opera, and with another at the card-table. When the time came of settling our scheme of felicity for the summer, it was determined that I should pay a visit to a rich aunt in a remote county. As you know the chief conversation os all tea-tables, in the spring, arises from a communication of the manner in which time is to be passed till winter, it was a great relief to the barrenness of our topicks, to relate the pleasures that were in More for me, to describe my uncle's seat, with the park and gardens, the charming walks and beautisul watersalls; and every one told me how much she envied me, and what satissaction she had once enjoyed in a situation of the same kind. As we are all credulous in our own savour, and willing to imagine some latent satissaction in anything which we have not experienced, I will consess to you, without restraint, that I had suffered my head to be filled with expectations of some nameless pleasure in a rural lise, and that I hoped for the happy hour that lhould set me free from noise, and flutter, and ceremony, dismiss me to the peacesul shade, and lull me in content and tranquillity. To solace myself under the misery of delay, I sometimes heard a studious lady of my acquaintance read pastorals, I was delighted with scarce any talk but of leaving the town, and never went to bed without dreaming of groves, and meadows, and frisking lambs. Ac Ac length I had all my clothes in a trunk, and saw the coach at the door; I sprung in with ecstasy, « quarrelled with my maid for being too long in taking leave of the other servants, and rejoiced as the ground grew less which lay between me and the completion of my wishes. A sew days brought me to a large old house, encompassed on three sides with woody hills, and looking from the front on a gentle river, the sight of which renewed all my expectations of pleasure, and gave me some regret for having lived so long without the enjoyment which these delightsul scenes were now to afford me. My aunt came out to receive me, but in a dress so sar removed from the present sashion, that I could scarcely look upon her without laughter, which would have been no kind requital for the trouble which she had taken to make herself fine against my arrival. The night and the next morning were driven along with enquiries about our samily; my aunt then explained our pedigree, and told me stories of my great grandsather's bravery in the civil wars, nor was it less than three days before I could persuade her to leave me to myself. At last economy prevailed; she went in the usual manner about her own affairs, and I was at liberty to range in the wilderness, and sit by the cascade. The novelty of the objects about me pleased me for a while, but aster a sew days they were new no longer, and I soon began to perceive that the country was not my element; that shades, and flowers, and lawns, and waters, had very soon exhausted all their power of pleasing, and that I had not in myself any Vol. V." T sund |