Whqever finds himself incited, by some violent impulse of passion, to pursue riches as the chief end of being, must surely be so much alarmed by the successive admonitions of thofe, whofe experience and sagacity have recommended them as the guides of mankind, as to stop and consider whether he is about to engage in an undertaking that will reward his toil, and to examine, before he rushes to wealth, through right and wrong, what it will confer wh(ja he has acquired it; and this examination will seldom sail to repress his ardour, and retard his violence.

Wealth is nothing in itself, it is not useful but when it departs from us; its value is found onlv in that which it can purchase, which, if we suppofe it put to its best use by thole that possess it, seems not much to deserve the desire or envy of a wise man. It is certain that, with regard to corporal enjoyment, money can neither open new avenues to pleasure, nor block up the passages of anguish, Disease and insirmity still continue to torture and enseeble, perhaps exasperated by luxury, or promoted by softness. With respect to the mind, it has rarely been observed, that wealth contributes much to quicken the discernment, enlarge the capa-* city, or elevate the imagination; but may, by hiring flattery, or laying diligence asleep, consirm error, and harden stupidity.

Wealth cannot conser greatness, for nothing can make that great, which the decree of nature has ordained to be little. The bramble may be placed in a hot-bed, but can never become an oak. Even royalty itself is not able to give that dignity which

it happens not to find, but oppresses seeble minds, though it may elevate the strong. The world has been governed in the name of kings, whofe existence has scarcely been perceived by any real effects beyond their own palaces.

When theresore the desire of wealth is taking hold of the heart, let us .look round and see how it operates upon thofe whofe industry or fortune has obtained it. When we find them oppressed with their own abundance, luxurious without pleasure, idle without ease, impatient and querulous in themselves, and despised or hated by the rest of mankind, we shall soon be convinced that is the real wants of our condition are fatisfied, there remains little to be sought with solicitude, or desired with eagerness.

Numb. 59. Tuesday, Oftabcr 9, 1750.

Esi aliquidfalale malum ptr •vtrba Icvare,

Hoc querulam Halcyonenque Prognen /acts:
Hoc trat in solo quare Pœantiai antro

Foxfatigaret Lemnia J'axasua.
Strangulat inclusus dolor at que exitsluat intus,

Cogitur et •virts multiplicare fuas, Ovin.

Complaining oft, gives respite to our grief;
From hence the wretched Progne sought relief.
Hence the Paantian chief his hitc deplores,
And vents his sorrow to the Lemnian shores:
In vain by secrecy we wou'd ailuage
Our eares; conceal'd they gather tenfold rage.

F. Lewis.

IT is common to distinguish men by the names of animals which they are suppofed to resemble. Thus a hero is frequently termed a lion, and a statesman a sox, an extortioner gains the appellation of vulture, and a fop the title of monkey. There is also among the various anomalies of character, which a survey of the world exhibits, a species of beings in human form, which may be properly marked out as the screech-owls of mankind,

These screech-owls seem to be settled in an opinion that the great business of lise is to complain, and that they were born sor no other purpofe than to disturb the happiness of others, to lessen the little comforts, and shorten the short pleasures of our condition, by painsul remembrances of the past, or melancholy prognosticks of the suture; their only

care care is to crush the rising hope, to damp the kindling transport, and allay the golden hours of gaiety with the hatesul drofs of grief and suspicion.

To thofe, whofe weakness of spirits, or timidity of temper, subjects them to impressions from others, and who are apt to susfer by fascina'ion, and catch the contagion of misery, it is extremely unhappy to live within the compass of a screech-owl's voice; for it will often fill their ears in the hour of dejection, terrisy them with apprehensions, which their own thoughts would never have produced, and fadden, by intruded sorrows, the day which might have been passed in amusements or in business; it will burthen the heart with unnecessary discontents, and weaken for a time that love of lise, which is necessary to the vigorous profecution of any undertaking.

Though I have, like the rest of mankind, many failings and weaknesses, I have not yet, by either friends or enemies, been charged with superstition; I never count the company which I enter, and I look at the new moon indifferently over either shoulder. I have, like most other philofophers, often heard the cuckoo without money in my pocket, and have been sometimes reproached a* fool-hardy for not turning down my eyes when a raven flew over my head. I never go home abruptly because a snake crosses my way, nor have any particular dread of a climacterical year; yet I consess that, with all my scorn of old women, and their tales, I consider it as an unhappy day when I happen to be greeted> in the morning, by Suspirius the screech-owl.

I have now known Suspirius fifty-eight years and four months, and have never yet passed an hour

with with him in which he has nor made some attack upon my quiet. When we were first acquainted, his great topick was the misery of youth without riches, and whenever we walked out together he solaced me with a long enumeration of pleasures, which, as they were beyond the reach of my sortune, were without the verge of my desires, and which I should never have considered as the objects of a wish, had not his unseasonable representations placed them in my sight.

Another os his topicks is the neglect of merit, with which he never sails to amuse every man whom lie sees not eminently fortunate. If he meets with a young officer, lie always informs him of gentleman whofe personal courage is unquestioned, and whofe military flull qualities them to command armies, that have, notwithstanding all their merit, grown old with subaltern commissions. For a genius in the church, he is always provided with a curacy fur lise. The lawyer lie insorms of many men of great parts and deep study, who have never had an opportunity to speak in the courts: And meeting Serenus the physician, "Ah doctor, says he, what "a-foot still, when so many blockheads are rattling "in their ciiariots? I told you seven years ago that "you would never meet with encouragement, and I 'c hope you will now take more notice, when I tell "you, that your Greek, and your diligence, and your "honesty, will never enable you to live like yonder --' apothecary, who prescribes to his own shop, and "laughs at the physician."

Suspirius has, in his time, intercepted fifteen authois in their way to the stage; persuaded nine and thirty merchants to retire from a profperous

trade