There are, indeed, many conveniencies almost peculiar to this method of publication, which may naturally Batter the author, whether he be consident or timorous. The man to whom the extent of his knowledge, or the sprightliness of his imagination, has, in his own opinion, already secured the praises of the world, willingly takes that way of displaying his abilities which will soonest give him an opportunity of hearing the voice of same; it heightens his alacrity to think in how many places he shall hear what he is now writing, read with extasies to-morrow. He will often please himself with reflecting, that the author of a large treatise must proceed with anxiety, lest, before the completion of his work, the attention of the publick may have changed its object j but that he who is confined to no single topick, may follow the national taste through all its variations, and catch the Aura popularity the gale of savour, from what point soever it shall blow.

Nor is the profpect less likely to ease the doubts of the cautious, and the terrours of the searsul, for to such the shortness of every single paper is a powersul encouragement. He that questions his abilities to arrange the dissimilar parts of an extensive plan, or sears to be lost in a complicated system, may yet hope to adjust a sew pages without perplexity j and if, when he turns over the repositories of his memory, he finds his collection too small for a volume, he may yet have enough to furnish out an essay. He that would sear to lay out too much time upon an experiment of which he knows not the event, persuades himself that

a sew

a sew days will shew him what he is to expect from his learning and his genius. If he thinks his own judgment not susficiently enlightened, he may, by attending the remarks which every paper will produce, rectify his opinions. If he should with too little premeditation encumber himself by an unwieldy subject, he can quit it without consessing his ignorance, and pass to other topicks less dangerous, or more tractable. And is he finds, with all his industry, and all his artifices, that he cannot deserve regard, or cannot attain it, he may let the design fall at once, and, without injury to others or himself, retire to amusements of greater pleasure, or to studies of better prospect.

Numb. 2. Saturday, March 24, 1750.

Start loco Htscit, ftrtunt vtftigia millt

AnUsugam, absenttmqutftrit gravir ungula cams urn.

Statius.

Th' impatient courser pants in every vein,

And pawing seems to beat the distant plain;

Hills, vales, and floods appear already crost,

And ere he starts, a thousand steps are lost. Pope.

THAT the mind of man is never fatisfied with the objects immediately besore it, but is always breaking away from the present moment, and losing Itself in schemes of suture felicity; and that B 4 we we forget the proper use of the time now in our power, to provide for the enjoyment of that which, perhaps, may never be granted us, has been frequently remarked; and as this practice is a commodious subject of raillery to the gay, and of declamation to the serious, it has been ridiculed, with all the pleasantry of wit, and exaggerated with all the amplifications of rhetorick. Every instance, by which its. absurdity might appear most flagrant, has been studiously collected; it has been marked with every epithet of contempt, and all the tropes and sigures have been called forth against it. . Censure is willingly indulged, because it always implies some superiority; men please themselves with imagining that they have made a deeper search, or wider survey, than others, and detected faults and follies, which escape vulgar observation. And the pleasure of wantoning in common topicks is so tempting to «. writer, that he cannot easily resign it; a train of sentiments generally received enables him to shine without labour, and to conquer without a contest. It is so easy to laugh at the folly of him who lives only in idea, resuses immediate ease for distant pleasures, and, instead of enjoying the blessings of lise, lets lise glide away in preparations to enjoy them; it affords such opportunities of triumphant exultation, to exemplify the uncertainty of the human state, to rouse mortals from their dream, and insorm them of the silent celerity of time, that we may believe authors willing rather to transmit than examine so advantageous a principle, and more inclined to pursue a track so smooth 6 and

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and so flowery, than attentively to consider whether it leads to truth.

This quality of looking forward into futurity seems the unavoidable condition of a being, whofe motions are gradual, and whofe lise is progressive: as his powers are limited, he must use means for the attainment of his ends, and intend first what he performs last; as bv continual advances from his first stage of existence, he is perpetually varying the horizon of his profpects, he must always discover new motives of action, new excitements of sear, and allurements of desire.

The end therefore which at present calls forth our efforts, will be found, when it is once gained, to be only one of the means to some remoter end. The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.

He that directs his steps to a certain point, must frequently turn his eyes to that place which he strives to reach; he that undergoes the satigue of labour, must solace his weariness with the contemplation of its reward. In agriculture, one of the most simple and necessary employments, no man turns up the ground but because he thinks of the harvest, that harvest which blights may intercept, which inundations may sweep away, or which death or calamity may hinder him from reaping.

Yet as sew maxims are widely received or long retained but for some consormity with truth and nature, it must be consessed, that this caution against keeping our view too intent upon remote advantages is not without its propriety or usesulness, though it may have been recited with too much

levity, levity, or ensorced with too little distinction: for, not to speak of that vehemence of desire which presses through right and wrong to its gratification, or that anxious inquietude which is justly chargeable with distrust of heaven, subjects too solemn for my present purpofe; it frequently happens that, by indulging early the raptures of success, we forget the measures necessary to secure it, and suffer the imagination to riot in the fruition of some possible good, till the time of obtaining it has flipped away.

There would however be sew enterprizes of great labour or hazard undertaken, if we had not the power of magnisying the advantages which we persuade ourselves to expect from them. When the knight of La Mancha gravely recounts to his companion the adventures by which he is to signalize himself in such a manner that he shall be summoned to the support of empires, solicited to accept the heiress of the crown which he has preserved, have honours and riches to scatter about him, and an island to bestow on his worthy squire, very sew readers, amidst their mirth or pity, can deny that they have admitted visions of the same kind; though they have not, perhaps, expected events equally strange, or by means equally inadequate. When we pity him, we reflect on our own disappointments; and when we laugh, our hearts insorm us that he is not more ridiculous than ourselves, except that he tells what we have only thought.

The understanding of a man, naturally sanguine, may, indeed, be easily vitiated by the luxurious indulgence of hope, however necessary to the production