putation, as of negligence and inftability. This is a quality which the intereft of mankind requires to be diffufed through all the ranks of life, but which many feem to confider as a vulgar and ignoble virtue, below the ambition of greatness or attention of wit, fcarcely requifite among men of gaiety and fpirit, and fold at it's highest rate when it is facrificed to a frolick or a jeft.

Every man has daily occafion to remark what vexations arife from this privilege of deceiving one another. The active and vivacious have fo long difdained the restraints of truth, that promifes and appointments have lost their cògency, and both parties neglect their ftipulations, becaufe each concludes that they will be broken by the other.

Negligence is firft admitted in small affairs, and ftrengthened by petty indulgencies. He that is not yet hardened by custom, ventures not on the violation of important engagements, but thinks himself bound by his word in cafes of property or danger, though he allows himself to forget at what time he is to meet ladies in the park, or at what tavern his friends are expecting him.

This laxity of honour would be more tolerable, if it could be reftrained to the play-house, the ball-room, or the card-table; yet even there it is fuffici ently troublesome, and darkens thofe moments with expectation, suspense, and refentment, which are fet afide for pleafure, and from which we naturally hope for unmingled enjoyment, and total relaxation. But he that fuffers the flightest breach in his morality, can feldom tell what fhall enter it, or how wide it fhall be made; when a paffage is open, the influx of corruption is every moment wearing down oppofition, and by flow degrees deluges the heart.

Aliger entered the world a youth of lively imagination, extenfive views, and untainted principles. His curiofity in cited him to range from place to place, and try all the varieties of converfation; his elegance of address and fertility of ideas gained him friends wherever he appeared; or at least he found the geneneral kindness of reception always fhown to a young man whose birth and fortune give him a claim to notice, and who has neither by vice or folly deftroyed his privileges. Aliger was pleafed

with this general fmile of mankind, and was indufirious to preferve it by compliance and officioufnefs, but did not fuffer his defire of pleafing to vitiate his integrity. It was his eftablished maxim, that a promife is never to be broken; nor was it without long reluctance that he once fuffered himself to be drawn away from a feftal engagement by the importunity of another company.

He spent the evening, as is ufual in the rudiments of vice, in perturbation and imperfect enjoyment, and met his difappointed friends in the morning with confufion and excufes. His companions, not accustomed to such scrupulous anxiety, laughed at his uneafinefs, compounded the offence for a bottle, gave him courage to break his word again, and again levied the penalty. He ven. tured the fame experiment upon another fociety, and found them equally ready to confider it as a venial fault, always incident to a man of quickness and gaiety, till by degrees he began to think himself at liberty to follow the laft invitation, and was no longer fhocked at the turpitude of falfehood. He made no difficulty to promife his prefence at diftant places, and if liftlefinefs happened to creep upon him, would fit at home with great tranquillity; and has often funk to fleep in chair, while he held ten tables in continual expectations of his entrance.

It was fopleafant to live in perpetual vacancy, that he foon difmiffed his attention as an ufelefs incumbrance, and refigned himself to carelefsnefs and diffipation, without any regard to the future or the past, or any other motive of action than the impulfe of a fudden defire, or the attraction of immediate pleafure. The abfent were immediately forgotten, and the hopes or fears felt by others had no influence upon his conduct. He was in fpeculation completely juft, but never kept his promise to a creditor; he was benevolent, but al ways deceived those friends whom he undertook to patronize or affift; he was prudent, but fuffered his affairs to be embarrassed for want of regulating his accounts at ftated times. He courted a young lady, and when the fettlements were drawn, took a ramble into the country on the day appointed to fign them. He refolved to travel, and fent his chefts on fhipboard, but delayed to follow them till he loft his paffage. He

was

was fummoned as an evidence in a caufe of great importance, and loitered on the way till the trial was paft. It is faid, that when he had, with great expence, formed an intereft in a borough, his opponent contrived, by fome agents, who knew his temper, to lure him away on the day of election.

His benevolence draws him into the commiffion of a thoufand crimes, which others lefs kind or civil would efcape. His courtesy invites application; his promifes produce dependence; he has his pockets filled with petitions, which he intends fome time to deliver and enforce, and his table covered with letters of requeft, with which he purpofes to

N° CCII.

comply; but time flips imperceptibly away, while he is either idle or bufy; his friends lofe their opportunities, and charge upon him their mifcarriages and calamities.

This character,however contemptible, is not peculiar to Aliger. They whofe activity of imagination is often fhifting the fcenes of expectation, are frequently fubject to fuch fallies of caprice as make all their actions fortuitous, deftroy the value of their friendship, obftruct the efficacy of their virtues, and fet them below the meaneft of those that perfift in their refolutions, execute what they defign, and perform what they have promifed.

CALLIMACHUS.

F. LEWIS.

voured to promote learning, and rectify judgment, it has been long cuftomary to complain of the abuse of words, which are often admitted to fignify things fo different, that, inftead of affifting the understanding as vehicles of knowledge, they produce error, diffention, and perplexity, because what is affirmed in one fenfe is received in another.

If this ambiguity fometimes embarraffes the moft folemn controverfies, and obfcures the demonstrations of science, it may well be expected to infeft the pompous periods of declaimers, whofe purpofe is often only to amufe with fallacies, and change the colours of truth and falfehood; or the mufical compofitions of poets, whofe ftyle is profeffedly figurative, and whofe art is imagined to confift in diftorting words from their original meaning.

There are few words of which the reader believes himself better to know the import than of poverty; yet whoever tudies either the poets or philofophers, will find such an acccount of the con

perience or obfervation will not easily difcover to be true. Inftead of the meannefs, diftrefs, complaint, anxiety, and dependance, which have hitherto been coinbined in his ideas of poverty, he will read of content, innocence, and cheerfulness, of health and fafety, tranquillity and freedom; of pleasures not known but to men unincumbered with poffeffions; and of fleep that fheds his balfamick anodynes only on the cottage. Such are the bleffings to be obtained by the refignation of riches, that kings might defcend from their thrones, and generals retire from a triumph, only to lumber undisturbed in the elysium of poverty.

If thefe authors do not deceive us, nothing can be more abfurd than that perpetual conteft for wealth which keeps the world in commotion; nor any complaints more justly cenfured than those which proceed from want of the gifts of fortune, which we are taught by the great matters of moral wifdom to confider as golden fhackles, by which the wearer is at once difabled and adorned;

as lufcious poifons which may for a time please the palate, but foon betray their malignity by languor and by pain.

It is the great privilege of poverty to be happy unenvied, to be healthful without phyfick, and fecure without a guard; to obtain from the bounty of nature, what the great and wealthy are compelled to procure by the help of artifts and attendants, of flatterers and fpies.

But it will be found, upon a nearer view, that they who extol the happinefs of poverty, do not mean the fame ftate with those who deplore it's miferies. Poets have their imaginations filled with ideas of magnificence; and being accustomed to contemplate the downfal of empires, or to contrive forms of lamentations for monarchs in diftrefs, rank all the claffes of mankind in a ftate of poverty, who make no approaches to the dignity of crowns. To be poor, in the epick language, is only not to command the wealth of nations, nor to have fleets and armies in pay.

Vanity has perhaps contributed to this impropriety of ftyle. He that wishes to become a philofopher at a cheap rate, eafily gratifies his ambition by fubmitting to poverty when he does not feel it, and by boafting his contempt of riches, when he has already more than he enjoys. He who would show the extent of his views, and grandeur of his conceptions, or difcover his acquaintance with fplendor and magnificence, may talk like Cowley of an humble station and quiet obfcurity, of the paucity of nature's wants, and the inconveniencies of fuperfluity, and at laft, like him, limit his defires to five hundred pounds a year; a fortune indeed not exuberant when we compare it with the expences of pride and luxury, but to which it little becomes a philofopher to affix the name of poverty, fince

no

man can, with any propriety, be termed poor who does not fee the greater part of mankind richer than himself. As little is the general condition of human life understood by the panegyrifts and hiftorians, who amufe us with accounts of the poverty of heroes and fages, Riches are of no value in themfelves, their ufe is difcovered only in that which they procure. They are not coveted, unlefs by narrow underftandings, which confound the means with the end, but for the fake of power, in

fluence, and efteem; or by fome of lefs elevated and refined fentiments, as neceffary to fenfual enjoyment.

The pleafures of luxury, many have, without uncommon virtue, been able to defpife, even when affluence and idlenefs have concurred to tempt them; and therefore he who feels nothing from indigence but the want of gratifications which he could not in any other condition make confiftent with innocence, has given no proof of eminent patience. Esteem and influence every man defires, but they are equally pleafing and equally valuable, by whatever means they are obtained; and whoever has found the art of fecuring them without the help of money, ought, in reality, to be accounted rich, fince he has all that riches can purchase to a wife man. Cincinnatus, though he lived upon a few acres, cultivated by his own hand, was fufficiently removed from all the evils generally comprehended under the name of poverty, when his reputation was fuch, that the voice of his country called him from his farm to take abfolute command into his hand; nor was Diogenes much mortified by his refidence in a tub, where he was honoured with the visit of Alexander the Great.

The fame fallacy has conciliated veneration to the religious orders. When we behold a man abdicating the hope of terreftrial poffeffions, and precluding himself by an irrevocable vow from the purfuit and acquifition of all that his fellow-beings confider as worthy of withes and endeavours, we are immediately ftruck with the purity, abstraction, and firmness of his mind, and regard him as wholly employed in fecuring the interefts of futurity, and devoid of any other care than to gain at whatever price the fureft paffage to eternal reft.

Yet what can the votary be juftly faid to have loft of his prefent happinefs? If he refides in a convent, he converfes only with men whofe condi tion is the fame with his own; he has from the munificence of the founder all the neceffaries of life, and is fafe from that deflitution which Hooker declares to be fuch an impediment to virtue, as, till it be removed, fuffereth not the mind of man to admit any other care. All temptations to envy and competition are fhut out from his retreat; he is not pained with the fight of unattainable dignity, nor infulted with the bluf

ter

T feems to be the fate of man to feek

OVID.

WELSTED.

nobler pleasure of looking back upon

time prefent is feldom able to fill defire or imagination with immediate enjoyment, and we are forced to fupply it's deficiencies by recollection or anticipation.

Every one has fo often detected the fallacioufness of hope, and the inconvenience of teaching himself to expect what a thousand accidents may preclude, that, when time has abated the confidence with which youth rushes out to take poffeffion of the world, we endeavour, or with, to find entertainment in the review of life, and to repofe upon real facts, and certain experience. This is perhaps one reason, among many, why age delights in narratives.

But fo full is the world of calamity, that every fource of pleasure is polluted, and every retirement of tranquillity difturbed. When time has fupplied us with events fufficient to employ our thoughts, it has mingled them with fo many difafters, that we fhrink from their remembrance, dread their intrusion upon our minds, and fly from them as from enemies that purfue us with torture.

No man paft the middle point of life can fit down to feaft upon the pleafures of youth without finding the banquet imbittered by the cup of forrow; he may revive lucky accidents, and pleafing extravagancies; many days of harmlefs frolick, or nights of honeft feftivity, will perhaps recur; or, if he has been engaged in fcenes of action, and acquainted with affairs of difficulty and viciffitudes of fortune, he may enjoy the

lutely encountered, and oppofition artfully defeated. Æneas properly comforts his companions, when after the horrors of a ftorm they have landed on an unknown and defolate country, with the hope that their miferies will be at fome diftant time recounted with delight. There are few higher gratifications than that of reflection on furmounted evils, when they were not incurred nor protracted by our fault, and neither reproach us with cowardice nor guilt.

But this felicity is almost always abated by the reflection, that they with whom we fhould be most pleased to share it are now in the grave. A few years make fuch havock in human generations, that we foon fee ourselves deprived of those with whom we entered the world, and whom the participation of pleasures or fatigues had endeared to our remembrance. The man of enterprize recounts his adventures and expedients, but is forced, at the clofe of the relation, to pay a figh to the names of those that contributed to his fuccefs; he that paffes his life among the gayer part of mankind, has his remembrance ftored with remarks and repartees of wits, whofe fprightlinefs and merriment are now loft in perpetual filence; the trader, whose induftry has fupplied the want of inheritance, repines in folitary plenty at the abfence of companions with whom he had planned out amufements for his lat ter years; and the fcholar, whofe merit, after a long series of efforts, raises him from obfcurity, looks round in vain 3 La

from

from his exaltation for his old friends or enemies, whofe applaufe or mortification would heighten his triumph. Among Martial's requifites to happinefs is, Res non parta labore, fed relia-an eftate not gained by industry, but left by inheritance. It is neceffary to the completion of every good, that it be timely obtained; for whatever comes at the clofe of life, will come too late to give much delight; yet all human happinefs has it's defects. Of what we do not gain for ourselves we have only a faint and imperfect fruition, because we cannot compare the difference between want and poffeffion, or at least can derive from it no conviction of our own abilities, nor any increase of felf-esteem; what we acquire by bravery or fcience, by mental or corporal diligence, comes at laft when we cannot communicate, and therefore cannot enjoy it.

Thus every period of life is obliged to borrow it's happiness from the time to come. In youth we have nothing paft to entertain us, and in age we derive little from retrofpect but hopeless forrow. Yet the future likewife has it's limits, which the imagination dreads to approach, but which we fee to be not far diftant. The lofs of our friends and companions impreffes hourly upon us the neceffity of our own departure: we know that the fchemes of man are quickly at an end, that we must foon lie down in the grave with the forgotten multitudes of former ages, and yield our place to others, who, like us, fhall be driven awhile, by hope or fear, about the furface of the earth, and then like us be loft in the fhades of death.

Beyond this termination of our material existence, we are therefore obliged to extend our hopes; and almost every man indulges his imagination with fomething which is not to happen till he has changed h's manner of being: fome amule themselves with entails and fettlements, provide for the perpetuation of families and honours, or contrive to obviate the diffipation of the fortunes which it has been their bufinefs to accumulate; others, more refined or exalted, congratulate their own hearts upon the future extent of their reputation, the reverence of diftant nations, and the gratitude of unprejudiced pofterity.

They whofe fouls are fo chained down to coffers and tenements, that they cannot conceive a state in which they thall look upon them with lefs folicitude, are feldom attentive or flexible to arguments; but the votaries of fame are capable of reflection, and therefore may be called to reconfider the probability of their expectations.

Whether to be remembered in remote times be worthy of a wife man's with, has not yet been fatisfactorily decided; and, indeed, to be long remembered, can happen to fo fmall a number, that the bulk of mankind has very little intereft in the queftion. There is never room in the world for more than a certain quantity or measure of renown. The neceffary bufinefs of life, the immediate pleafures or pains of every condition, leave us not leifure beyond a fixed proportion for contemplations which do not forcibly influence our prefent welfare. When this vacuity is filled, no characters can be admitted into the circulation of fame, but by occupying the place of fome that must be thruft into oblivion. The eye of the mind, like that of the body, can only extend it's view to new objects, by lofing fight of thofe which are now before it.

Reputation is therefore a meteor which blazes a while and disappears for ever; and if we except a few tranfcendent and invincible names, which no revolutions of opinion or length of time is able to fupprefs; all thofe that engage our thoughts, or diversify our converfation, are every nioment hafting to obfcurity, as new favourites are adopted by fashion.

It is not therefore from this world that any ray of comfort can proceed to cheer the gloom of the last hour. But futurity has ftill it's profpects; there is yet happiness in referve, which, if we transfer our attention to it, will fupport us in the pains of difeafe, and the languor of decay. This happiness we may expect with confidence, because it is out of the power of chance, and may be attained by all that fincerely defire and earneftly purfue it. On this therefore every mind ought finally to reft. Hope is the chief bleffing of man, and that hope only is rational of which we ar certain that it cannot deceive us.

N° CCIV