failed along feemed to behold with pleafure; but no fooner touched, than the current, which, though not noify or turbulent, was yet irrefiftible, bore him away. Beyond thefe iflands all was darknefs, nor could any of the paffengers defcribe the thore at which he first embarked. Before me, and each other fide, was an expanfe of waters violently agitated, and covered with fo thick a miit, that the most perfpicuous eye could fee but a little way. It appeared to be full of rocks and whirlpools, for many funk mexpectedly while they were courting the gale with full fails, and infulting thofe whom they had left behind. So numerous, indeed, were the dangers, and fo thick the darknefs, that no caution could confer fecurity. Yet there were many who, by falfe intelligence, betrayed their followers into whirlpools, or by violence pushed thofe whom they found in their way against the rocks.

The current was invariable and infurmountable; but though it was impoffible to fail against it, or to return to the place that was once paffed, yet it was not fo violent as to allow no opportunities for dexterity or courage, fince, though none could retreat back from danger, yet they might often avoid it by oblique direction.

It was, however, not very common to fteer with much care or prudence; for by fome univerfal infatuation, every man appeared to think himself fafe, though he faw his conforts every moment finking round him; and no fooner had the waves clofed over them, than their fate and their misconduct were forgotten; the voyage was purfued with the fame jocund confidence; every man congratulated himself upon the foundnofs of his veffel, and believed himself able to ftem the whirlpool in which his friend was fwallowed, or glide over the rocks on which he was dafhed: nor was it often obferved that the fight of a wreck made any man change his courfe; if he turned afide for a moment, he foon forgot the rudder, and left hinfelf again to the difpofal of chance.

This negligence did not proceed from indifference, or from weariness of their prefent condition; for not one of thofe who thus rufhed upon deftruction failed, when he was finking, to call loudly upon his affociates for that help which could not now be given him; and many spent their last moments in cautioning

others against the folly by which they were intercepted in the midst of their courfe. Their benevolence was fometimes praifed, but their admonitions were unregarded.

The veffels in which we had embarked being confeffedly unequal to the turbulence of the stream of life, were viĥbly impaired in the courfe of the voyage; fo that every paflenger was certain, that how long foever he might, by favourable accidents, or by inceffant vigilance, be preferved, he must link at lait.

This neceflity of perishing might have been expected to fadden the gay, and intimidate the daring, at least to keep the melancholy and timorous in perpetual torments, and hinder them from any enjoyment of the varieties and gratifications which nature offered them as the folace of their labours; yet in effect none feemed lefs to expect deftruction than thofe to whom it was mott dreadful; they all had the art of concealing their danger from themfelves; and thofe who knew their inability to bear the fight of the terrors that embarraffed their way, took care never to look forward, but found fome amusement for the prefent moment, and generally entertained themselves by playing with Hope, who was the conftant affociate of the voyage of life.

Yet all that Hope ventured to promife, even to thofe whom the favoured moft, was, not that they thould efcape, but that they fhould fink latt; and with this promife every one was fatisfied, though he laughed at the reft for feeming to believe it. Hope, indeed, apparently mocked the credulity of her companions; for in proportion as their veicis grew leaky, the redoubled her affurances of fafety; and none were more busy in making provifions for a long voyage, than they whom all but themselves faw likely to perish foon by irreparable de

narrow outlet by which they might efcape; but very few could, by her intreaties or remonftrances, be induced to put the rudder into her hand, without ftipulating that she should approach fo near unto the rocks of Pleafure, that they might folace themfelves with a fhort enjoyment of that delicious region, after which they always determined to purfue their courfe without any other devia

tion.

Reafon was too often prevailed upon fo far by thefe promifes, as to venture her charge within the eddy of the gulph of Intemperance, where, indeed, the circumvolution was weak, but yet interrupted the courfe of the veffel, and drew it, by infenfible rotations, towards the center. She then repented her temerity, and with all her force endeavoured to retreat; but the draught of the gulph was generally too ftrong to be overcome; and the paffenger, having danced in circles with a pleafing and giddy velocity, was at laft overwhelmed and loft. Thofe few whom Reason was able to extricate, generally fuffered fo many fhocks upon the points which fhot out from the rocks of Pleasure, that they were unable to continue their course with the fame ftrength and facility as before, but floated along timoroufly and feebly, endangered by every breeze, and fhattered by every ruffle of the water, till they funk, by flow degrees, after long ftruggles, and innumerable expedients, always repining at their own folly, and warning others against the firft approach of the gulph of Intemperance. by AM! E. Carter, who wrote,

There were artists who profeffed to repair the breaches and ftop the leaks of the veffels which had been shattered on the rocks of Pleafure. Many appeared to have great confidence in their kill, and fome, indeed, were preferved by it from finking, who had received only a fingle blow; but I remarked that few veffels lafted long which had been much repaired, nor was it found that the artifts themselves continued afloat longer than those who had least of their affiftance.

The only advantage which, in the voyage of life, the cautious had above the negligent, was, that they funk later, and more fuddenly; for they paffed forward till they had fometimes feen all thofe in whofe company they had issued from the ftreights of infancy perish in the way, and at laft were overfet by a crofs breeze, without the toil of refiftance, or the anguish of expectation. But fuch as had often fallen against the rocks of Pleasure, commonly fubfided by fenfible degrees, contended long with the encroaching waters, and haraffed themfelves by labours that fcarce Hope herself could flatter with fuccefs,

As I was looking upon the various fate of the multitude about me, I was fuddenly alarmed with an admonition from fome unknown power-' Gaze not

idly upon others when thou thyself art finking. Whence is this thoughtlefs tranquillity, when thou and they are equally endangered?' I looked; and, feeing the guiph of Intemperance before me, started and awaked.

and Ode to wisdom, she died. Feb. 1806 At.89.

Juv.

CURI

URIOSITY is one of the permanent and certain characteristicks of a vigorous intellect. Every advance into knowledge opens new profpects, and produces new incitements to further progrefs. All the attainments poffible in our present state are evidently inadequate to our capacities of enjoyment; conqueft ferves no purpofe but that of kindling ambition; difcovery has no ef

DRYDEN.

fect but of raising expectation; the gratification of one defire encourages another; and after all our labours, studies, and enquiries, we are continually at the fame distance from the completion of our fchemes, have ftill fome with importunate to be fatisfied, and fome faculty reftlefs and turbulent for want of it's enjoyment.

The defire of knowledge, though of-
G g

ten

ten animated by extrinfick and adventitious motives, feems on many occafions to operate without fubordination to any other principle; we are eager to fee and hear, without intention of referring our obfervations to a farther end; we climb a mountain for a profpect of the plain; we run to the ftrand in a storm, that we may contemplate the agitation of the water; we range from city to city, though we profefs neither architecture nor fortification; we cross feas only to view nature in nakednets, or magnificence in ruins; we are equally allured by novelty of every kind, by a defert or a palace, a cataract or a cavern, by every thing rude and every thing polifhed, every thing great and every thing little; we do not fee a thicket but with fome tempration to enter it, nor remark an infect flying before us but with an inclipation to purfue it.

This paffion is, perhaps, regularly heightened in proportion as the powers of the mind are elevated and enlarged. Lucan therefore introduces Cæfar fpeaking with dignity Litable to the grandeur of his designs, and the extent of his capacity, when he declares to the highprieft of Egypt, that he has no defire equally powerful with that of finding the origin of the Nile, and that he would quit all the projects of the civil war for a fight of thofe fountains which had been fo long concealed. And Homer, when he would furnish the Sirens with a temptation, to which his hero, renowned for wisdom, might yield without difgrace, makes them declare that none ever departed from them but with increafe of knowledge,

torments us, and makes us taste every thing with joy, however otherwise infipid, by which it may be quenched.

It is evident that the earliest searchers after knowledge must have proposed knowledge only as their reward; and that fcience, though perhaps the nurfling of intereft, was the daughter of curiofity: for who can believe that they who first watched the courfe of the ftars forefaw the use of their discoveries to the facilitation of commerce, or the menfura, tion of time? They were delighted with the fplendor of the nocturnal skies, they found that the lights changed their places; what they admired they were anxious to understand, and in time traced their revolutions.

There are, indeed, beings in the form of men, who appear fatisfied with their intellectual poffeffions, and seem to live without defire of enlarging their conceptions; before whom the world paffes without notice, and who are equally unmoved by nature or by art.

This negligence is fometimes only the temporary effect of a predominant paffion : lover finds no inclination to travel any path but that which leads to the habitation of his miftrefs; a trader can fpare little attention to common occurrences, when his fortune is endangered by a form. It is frequently the confequence of a total immerfion in fenfuality: corporeal pleafures may be indulged till the memory of every other kind of happiness is obliterated; the mind, long habituated to a lethargick and quiefcent ftate, is unwilling to wake to the toil of thinking; and, though the may fometimes be difturbed by the obtrusion of new ideas, shrinks back again to ignorance and reft.

But, indeed, if we except them to whom the continual task of procuring the fupports of life denies all opportu

row track, the number of fuch as live without the ardour of enquiry is very finall, though many content themselves with cheap amusements, and waste their lives in refearches of no importance.

There is no fnare more dangerous to bufy and excurfive minds than the cobwebs of petty inquifitiveness, which entangle them in trivial employments and minute ftudies, and detain them in a middie ftate between the tediousness of total inactivity and the fatigue of laborious efforts, enchant them at once

with

with eafe and novelty, and vitiate them with the luxury of learning. The neceffity of doing fomething, and the fear of undertaking much, finks the hiftorian to a genealogift, the philofopher to a journalist of the weather, and the ma thematician to a constructer of dials.

It is happy when thofe who cannot content themselves to be idle, nor refolve to be industrious, are at least employed without injury to others; but it feldom happens that we can contain ourselves long in a neutral ftate, or forbear to fink into vice, when we are no longer foaring towards virtue.

Nugaculus was diftinguished in his earlier years by an uncommon livelinefs of imagination, quickness of fagacity, and extent of knowledge. When he entered into life, he applied himself with particular inquifitivenefs to examine the various motives of human actions, the complicated influence of mingled affections, the different modifications of intereft and ambition, and the various eaufes of miscarriage and fuccefs both in publick and private affairs.

Though his friends did not difcover to what purpose all thefe obfervations were collected, or how Nugaculus would much improve his virtue or his fortune by an inceffant attention to changes of countenance, burfts of inconfideration, fallies of paffion, and all the other cafualties by which he used to trace a character, yet they could not deny the ftudy of human nature to be worthy of a wife man; they therefore flattered his vanity, applauded his difcoveries, and liftened with fubmiffive modelty to his lectures on the uncertainty of inclination, the weakness of refolves, and the inftability of temper, to his account of the various motives which agitate the mind, and his ridicule of the modern dream of a ruling paflion.

Such was the first incitement of Nugaculus to a clofe inspection into the conduct of mankind. He had no intereit in view, and therefore no defign of fupplantation; he had no malevolence, and therefore detected faults without any intention to expose them; but having once found the art of engaging his attention upon others, he had no inclination to call it back to himself, but has pafled his time in keeping a watchful eye upon every rifing character, and lived

upon a finall cate without any thought of encreafing it.

He is, by continual application, become a general matter of fecret hiftory, and can give an account of the intrigues, private marriages, competitions, and itratagems, of half a century. He knows the mortgages upon every man's eftate, the terms upon which every spendthrift raifes his money, the real and reputed fortune of every lady, the jointure tipulated by every contract, and the expectations of every family from maiden aunts and childless acquaintances. He can relate the economy of every houfe, knows how much one man's cellar is robbed by his butler, and the land of another underlet by his fteward; he can tell where the manor-houfe is falling, though large fums are yearly paid for repairs; and where the tenants are felling woods without the confent of the owner.

To obtain all this intelligence he is inadvertently guilty of a thoufand acts of treachery. He fees no man's fervant without draining him of his truft; he enters no family without flattering the children into difcoveries; he is a perpetual fpy upon the doors of his neigh bours; and knows, by long experience, at whatever distance, the looks of a cre ditor, a borrower, a lover, and a pimp.

Nugaculus is not ill-natured, and therefore his induftry has not hitherto been very mischievous to others, or dangerous to himself; but fince he cannot enjoy this knowledge but by difcovering it, and, if he had no other motive to loquacity, is obliged to traffick like the chymifts, and purchase one fecret with another; he is every day more hated as he is more known; for he is confidered by great numbers as one that has their fame and their happiness in his power, and no man can much love him of whom he lives in fear.

Thus has an intention, innocent at first, if not laudable, the intention of regulating his own behaviour by the experience of others, by an accidental declenfion of minutenefs, betrayed Nugaculus, not only to a foolish, but vicious wafte of a life which might have been honourably paffed in publick fervices, or domeftick virtues. He has loft his original intention, and given up his mind to employments that engrofs, but do not improve it.