"Yet confidently doft decide at once "In truth and justice thou haft no delight, "Virtue thou doft not know by fight; "But, as the chymift by his skill "From drofs and dregs a fpirit can diftill, "So from the prifons, or the stews, "Bullies, blafphemers, cheats or Jews "Shall turn to heroes, if they serve thy views. "Thou doft but make a ladder of the mob, "Whereby to climb into fome courtly job; "There fafe repofing, warm and fnug, "Thou answer'ft with a patient fhrug, "Mifcreants, begone! who cares for you, "Ye bafe-born, brawling, clamorous crew? "You've ferv'd my turn, and, vagabonds, adieu !'* No. LXXXVI. BEING now arrived at the conclufion of my Third Volume, and having hitherto given my readers very little interruption in my own perfon, I hope I may be permitted to make one fhort valedictory address to these departing adventurers, in whofe fuccefs I am naturally fo much interested. I have employed much time and care in rearing up thefe Effays to what I conceived maturity, and qualifying them, as far as I was able, to fhift for themselves, in a world where they are to inherit no popularity from their author, nor to look for any favour but what they can earn for themfelves. To any, who fhall queftion them who they are, and whence they come, they may truly anfwer-We are all one man's fons-we are indeed Obfervers, but no Spies. If this fhall not fuffice, and they muft needs give a further account of themfelves, they will have to fay, that he who fent them into the world, fent them as an offering of his good-will to mankind; that he trufts they have been so trained as not to hurt the feelings or offend the principles of any man, who fhall admit them into his company; and that for their errors (which he cannot doubt are many) he hopes they will be found errors of the understanding, not of the heart: They are the first-fruits of his leifure and retirement; and as the mind of a man in that fituation will naturally bring the paft fcenes of active life under its examination and review, it will furely be confidered as a pardonable zeal for being yet serviceable to mankind, if he gives his experience and obfervations to the world, when he has no further expectations from it on the score of fame or fortune. These are the real motives for the publication of these Papers, and this the Author's true ftate of mind: To ferve the cause of morality and religion is his firft ambition; to point out fome useful leffons for amending the education and manners of young people of either fex, and to mark the evil habits and unfocial humours of men, with a view to their reformation, are the general objects of his undertaking. He He has formed his mind to be contented with the consciousness of these honeft endeavours, and with a very moderate fhare of fuccefs: He has ample reason notwithstanding to be more than fatisfied, with the reception thefe Papers have already had in their probationary excurfion; and it is not from any difguft, taken up in a vain conceit of his own merits, that he has more than once obferved upon the frauds and follies of popularity, or that he now repeats his opinion, that it is the worst guide a public man can follow, who wishes not to go out of the track of honefty; for at the fame time that he has feen men force their way in the world by effrontery, and heard others applauded for their talents, whofe only recommenda tion has been their ingenuity in wickednefs, he can recollect very few indeed who have fucceeded, either in fame or fortune, under the difavantages of modefty and merit. To fuch readers, as fhall have taken up these Effays with a candid difpofition to be pleased, he will not fcruple to express a hope that they have not been altogether difap. pointed; pointed; for though he has been unaffifted in compofing them, he has endeavoured to open a variety of refources, fenfible that he had many different palates to provide for. The fubject of politics, however, will never be one of thefe refources; a fubject which he has neither the will nor the capacity to meddle with. There is yet another topic, which he has been no less studious to avoid, which is perfonality; and though he profeffes to give occafional delineations of living manners, and not to make men in his closet (as fome Effayists have done) he does not mean to point at individuals; for as this is a practice which he has ever rigidly abftained from when he mixed in the world, he fhould hold himfelf without the excufe, even of temptation, if he was now to take it up, when he has withdrawn himself from the world. In the Effays (which he has perfumed to call Literary, because he cannot strike upon any appofite title of an humbler fort) he has ftudied to render himself intelligible to readers of all defcriptions, and the deep-read scholar will not faftidiously pronounce them fhallow, |