trade for scar of bankruptcy, broke off an hundred and thirteen matches by prognostications of unhappiness, and enabled the small-pox to kill nineteen ladies, by perpetual alarms of the lofs of beauty.

Whenever my evil stars bring us together, he never sails to represent to me the folly of my pursuits, and insorms me that we are much older than when we began our acquaintance, that the infirmities of decrepitude are coming sast upon me, that whatever I now get I shall enjoy but a little time, that same is to a man tottering on, the edge of the grave of very little importance, and that the time is at hand when I ought to look for no other pleasures than a good dinner and an easy chair.

Thus he goes on in his unharmonious strain, displaying present miseries, and foreboding more, KvxTi«ofaj; ilu SatKaTJi'pojof, every syllable is loaded with misfortune, and death is always brought nearer to the view. Yer, what always raises my resentment and indignation, I do not perceive that his mournsul meditations have much effect upon himself. He talks, and has long talked of calamities, without discovering, otherwise than by the tone of his voice, that he seels any of the evils which he bewails or threatens, but has the same habit of uttering lamentations, as others of telling stories, and salls into expressions of condolence for past, or apprehension of suture mischiess, as all men studious of their ease have recourse to thole subjects upon which they can most fluently or copiously discourse.

It is reported of the Sybarites, that they destroyed all their cocks, that they might dream out their morning dreams without disturbance. Though I

would would not so sar promote effeminacy as to propose the Sybarites for an example, yet since there is no man so corrupt or foolish, but something usesul may be learned from him, I could wish that, in imitation of a people not often to be copied, some regulations might be made to exclude icreech-owls from all company, as the enemies of mankind, and confine them to some proper receptacle, where they may mingle sighs at leisure, and thicken the gloom of one another.

Thou prophet of evil, says Homer's Agamemnon, thou never foretellest me good, but the joy of thy heart is to predict misfortunes. Whoever is of the same temper might there sind the means of indulging his thoughts, and improving his vein of denunciation, and the flock of screech-owls might hoot together without injury to the rest of the world.

Yet, though I have so "little kindness for this dark generation, I am very sar from intending to debar the soft and tender mind srom the privilege of complaining, when the iigh rises from the desire not of giving pain, but of gaining ease. To hear complaints with patience, even when complaints are vain, is one of the duties of friendship; and though it must be allowed that he suffers most like a hero that hides his grief in silence,

Spew vu!tu fmulate prcir.i: chum cerde dolirem,

Ills ouiward s.niles ccnccal'd his inward smart. Dryden,

yet, it cannot be denied that he who complains acts like a man, like a social being, who looks for help from his sellow-creatures. Pity is to many of the unhappy a source of t comfort in hopeless distresses, as it contributes to recommend them to themselves, by proving that they have not lost the regard of others; and heaven seems to indicate the duty even of barren compassion, by inclining us to weep for evils which we cannot remedy.

Numb. 60. Saturday, October 13, 1750.

Quid fit pulchrum, quid /arfe, quid ut Us, quid ne*,

Pleniui et melius Chryfifpo et Crantore dicit. Hon.

Whofe works the beautisul and base contain,

Of vice and virtue more instructive rules,

Than all the sober sages of the schools. Francis.

ALL joy or sorrow for the happiness or calamities of others is produced by an act os the imagination, that realises the event however fictitious, or approximates it however remote, by placing us, for a time, in the condition of him whofe fortune we contemplate; so that we seel, while the deception lasts, whatever motions would be excited by the same good or evil happening to ourselves.

Our passions are therefore more strongly moved, in proportion as we can more readily adopt the pains or pleasure propofed to our minds, by recognising them as once our own, or considering them as naturally incident to our state of lise. It is not easy for the most artsul writer to give us an interest in happiness or misery, which we think ourselves never likely to seel, and with which we have never yet been made acquainted. Histories of the downsal of

kingdoms,

kingdoms, and revolutions of empires, are read with great tranquillity; the imperial tragedy pleases common auditors only by its pomp of ornament, and grandeur os ideas; and the man whose saculties have been engrossed by business, and whofe heart never Muttered but at the rise or sall of the stocks, wonders how the attention can be seized, or the affection agitated, by a tale of love.

Thofe parallel circumstances and kindred images, to which we readily consorm our minds, are, above all other writings, to be found in narratives of the lives of particular persons; and therefore no species of writing seems more worthy of cultivation than biography, since none can be more delightsul or more usesul, none can more certainly enchain the heart by irresistible interest, or more widely diffuse instruction to every diversity of condition.

The general and rapid narratives of history, which involve a thousand fortunes in the business of a day, and complicate innumerable incidents in one great transaction, afford sew lessons applicable to private lise, which derives its comforts and its wretchedness from the right or wrong management of things, which nothing but their srequency makes considerable, Parva si nan stunt quotiJie, says Pliny, and which can have no place in thofe relations which never descend below the consultation of senates, the motions of armies, and the schemes of conspirators.

1 have often thought that there has rarely passed a lise of which a judicious and saithsul narrative would not be useful. For, not only every man has, in the mighty mass of the world, great numbers in the same condition with himself, to whom his mistakes and

miscarriages, miscarriages, escapes and expedients, would be of immediate and apparent use; but there is such an uniformity in the state of man, considered apart from adventitious and separable decorations and disguises, that there is scarce any possibility of good or ill, but is common to human kind. A great part of the time of those who are placed at the greatest distance by fortune, or by temper, must unavoidably pass in the fame manner, and though, when the claims of nature are fatissied, caprice, and vanity, and accident, begin to produce discriminations and peculiarities, yet the eye is not very heedsul or quick, which cannot discover the fame causes still terminating their influence in the /ame effects, though sometimes accelerated, sometimes retarded, or perplexed by multiplied combinations. We are all prompted by the fame motives, all deceived by the fame fallacies, all animated by hope, obstructed by danger, entangled by desire, and seduced by pleasure.

It is frequently objected to relations of particular lives, that they are not distinguished by any striking or wondersul vicissitudes. The scholar who passed his lise among his books, the merchant who conducted only his own affairs, the priest, whose sphere of action was not extended beyond that of his duty, are considered as no proper objects of publick regard, however they might have excelled in their several stations, whatever might have been their learning, integrity, and piety. But this notion arises from false measures of excellence and dignity, and must be eradicated by considering, that in the esteem of urfeorrupted reason, what is of most tjse is of most value.

It