expence; and was every moment taking occafion to mention fome delicacy, which I knew it my duty upon fuch notices to procure. After our return, being now more familiar, she told me, whenever we met, of fome new diverfion; at night she had notice of a charming company that would breakfast in the gardens; and in the morning had been informed of fome new fong in the opera, fome new dress at the playhouse, or fome performer at a concert whom fhe longed to hear. Her intelligence was fuch, that there never was a fhew, to which she did not fummon me on the fecond day; and as fhe hated a crowd, and could not go alone, I was obliged to attend at fome intermediate hour, and pay the price of a whole company. When we passed the ftreets, fhe was often charmed with fome trinket in the toyshops; and from moderate defires of feals and snuff-boxes, rose, by degrees, to gold and diamonds. I now began to find the fimile of Charybdis too coftly for a private purse, and added one more to fix and forty lovers, whose fortune and patience her rapacity had exhaufted. Imperia then took poffeffion of my affections; but kept them only for a fhort time. She had newly inherited a large fortune, and having spent the early part of her life in the perufal of romances, brought with her into the gay world all the pride of Cleopatra; expected nothing lefs than vows, altars, and facrifices; and thought her charms difhonoured, and her power infringed, by the fofteft oppofition to her sentiments, or the finalleft tranfgreffion of her commands. Time might indeed cure this fpecies of pride in a mind not naturally undifcerning, and vi tiated only by false representations; but the operations of time are flow; and I therefore left her to grow wife at leifure, or to continue in error at her own expence. Thus I have hitherto, in fpite of myself, paffed my life in frozen celibacy. My friends, indeed, often tell me, that I flatter my imagination with higher hopes than human nature can gratify; that I drefs up an ideal charmer in all the radiance of perfection, and then enter the world to look for the fame excellence in corporeal beauty. But furely, Mr. RAMBLER, it is not madness to hope for fome terrestrial lady unstained with the fpots which I have been defcribing; at least I am refolved to purfue my fearch; for I am fo far from thinking meanly of marriage, that I believe it able to afford the highest happiness decreed to our present state; and if after all these miscarriages I find a woman that fills up my expectation, you shall hear once more from, Yours, &c. HYMENÆUS, NUMB. 116. SATURDAY, April 27, 1751. Optat ephippia bos; piger optat arare caballus. Thus the flow ox wou'd gaudy trappings claim; HOR. FRANCIS. To the RAMBLER. I SIR, WAS the fecond fon of a country gentleman by the daughter of a wealthy citizen of London. My father having by his marriage freed the estate from a heavy mortgage, and paid his fifters their portions, thought himself discharged from all obligation to further thought, and entitled to spend the reft of his life in rural pleasures. He therefore fpared nothing that might contribute to the completion of his felicity; he procured the best guns and horses that the kingdom could fupply, paid large falaries to his groom and huntsman, and became the envy of the country for the difcipline of his hounds. But above all his other attainments, he was eminent for a breed of pointers and fetting-dogs, which by long and vigilant cultivation he had fo much improved, that not a partridge or heathcock could rest in fecurity, and game of whatever species that dared to light upon his manor, was beaten down by his thot, or covered with his nets. My elder brother was very early initiated in the chace, and at an age when other boys are creeping like Snails unwillingly to school, he could wind the horn, beat beat the bushes, bound over hedges, and swim rivers. When the huntsman one day broke his leg, he supplied his place with equal abilities, and came home with the fcut in his hat, amidft the acclamations of the whole village. I being either delicate or timorous, lefs defirous of honour, or lefs capable of fylvan heroifm, was always the favourite of my mother; because I kept my coat clean, and my complexion free from freckles, and did not come home like my brother mired and tanned, nor carry corn in my hat to the horse, nor bring dirty curs into the parlour. My mother had not been taught to amuse herself with books, and being much inclined to despise the ignorance and barbarity of the country ladies, difdained to learn their fentiments or conversation, and had made no addition to the notions which he had brought from the precincts of Cornhill. She was, therefore, always recounting the glories of the city; enumerating the fucceffion of mayors; celebrating the magnificence of the banquets at Guildhall; and relating the civilities paid her at the companies feasts by men of whom fome are now made aldermen, some have fined for sheriffs, and none are worth less than forty thousand pounds. She frequently difplayed her father's greatnefs told of the large bills which he had paid at fight; of the fums for which his word would pass upon the Exchange; the heaps of gold which he used on Saturday night to tofs about with a shovel; the extent of his warehouse, and the strength of his doors; and when the relaxed her imagination with lower fubjects, defcribed the furniture of their country-house, or repeated the wit of the clerks and porters. By By these narratives I was fired with the fplendor and dignity of London, and of trade. I therefore devoted myself to a fhop, and warmed my imagination from year to year with enquiries about the privileges of a freeman, the power of the common council, the dignity of a wholefale dealer, and the grandeur of mayoralty, to which my mother affured me that many had arrived who began the world with less than myself. I was very impatient to enter into a path, which led to fuch honour and felicity; but was forced for a time to endure fome repreffion of my eagerness, for it was my grandfather's maxim, that a young man feldom makes much money, who is out of his time before two-and-twenty. They thought it neceffary, therefore, to keep me at home till the proper age, without any other employment than that of learning merchants accounts, and the art of regulating books; but at length the tedious days elapfed, I was tranfplanted to town, and, with great fatisfaction to myfelf, bound to a haberdasher. My master, who had no conception of any virtue, merit, or dignity, but that of being rich, had all the good qualities which naturally arife from a close and unwearied attention to the main chance; his defire to gain wealth was fo well tempered by the vanity of fhewing it, that without any other principle of action, he lived in the esteem of the whole commercial world; and was always treated with respect by the only men, whofe good opinion he valued or folicited, those who were univerfally allowed to be richer than himself. |