ftinately confine his patron to hear only the commendations which he deferves, will foon be forced to give way to others that regale him with more compafs of mufick. The greatest human virtue bears no proportion to human vanity. We always think ourselves better than we are, and are generally defirous that others fhould think us ftill better than we think ourfelves. To praise us for actions or difpofitions, which deferve praife, is not to confer a benefit, but to pay a tribute. We have always pretenfions to fame, which, in our own hearts, we know to be difputable, and which we are defirous to ftrengthen by a new fuffrage; we have always hopes which we fufpect to be fallacious, and of which we eagerly fnatch at every confirmation. It may, indeed, be proper to make the first approaches under the conduct of truth, and to fecure credit to future encomiums, by fuch praife as may be ratified by the confcience; but the mind once habituated to the lufcioufnefs of eulogy, becomes, in a fhort time, nice and faftidious, and, like a vitiated palate, is inceffantly calling for higher gratifi cations. It is fcarcely credible to what degree difcernment may be dazzled by the mift of pride, and wifdom infatuated by the intoxication of flattery; or how low the genius may defcend by fucceffive gradations of fervility, and how fwiftly it may fall down the precipice of falsehood. No man can, indeed, obferve, without indignation, on what names, both of ancient and modern times, the utmoft exuberance of praife has been lavished, and by by what hands it has been bestowed. It has never yet been found, that the tyrant, the plunderer, the oppreffor, the most hateful of the hateful, the most profligate of the profligate, have been denied any celebrations which they were willing to purchase, or that wickedness and folly have not found correfpondent flatterers through all their fubordinations, except when they have been affociated with avarice or po-. verty, and have wanted either inclination or ability to hire a panegyrift. As there is no character fo deformed as to fright away from it the prostitutes of praife, there is no degree of encomiaftick veneration which pride has refused. The emperors of Rome fuffered themselves to be worshipped in their lives with altars and facrifices; and in an age more enlightened, the terms peculiar to the praise and worship of the Supreme Being, have been applied to wretches whom it was the reproach of humanity to number among men; and whom nothing but riches or power hindered thofe that read or wrote their deification, from hunting into the toils of justice, as difturbers of the peace of nature, There are, indeed, many among the poetical flatterers, who must be refigned to infamy without vindication, and whom we muft confefs to have deferted the cause of virtue for pay: they have committed, against full conviction, the crime of obliterating the distinctions between good and evil, and inftead of oppofing the encroachments of vice, have incited her progrefs, and celebrated her conquefts. But there is a lower clafs of fycophants, whofe understanding has not made them capable of equal P 3 equal guilt. Every man of high rank is furrounded with numbers, who have no other rule of thought or action, than his maxims, and his conduct; whom the honour of being numbered among his acquaintance, reconciles to all his vices, and all his abfurdities; and who easily perfuade themselves to esteem him, by whofe regard they confider themfelves as diftinguished and exalted. It is dangerous for mean minds to venture themfelves within the fphere of greatnefs. Stupidity is foon blinded by the fplendor of wealth, and cowardice is eafily fettered in the fhackles of dependance. To folicit patronage, is, at least, in the event, to set virtue to fale. None can be pleafed without praife, and few can be praifed without falfehood; few can be affiduous without fervility, and none can be fervile without corruption. I NUMB. 105. TUESDAY, March 19, 1751. Animorum Impulfu, et cœcâ magnâque cupidine duɛti. Vain man runs headlong, to caprice refign'd; Juv. WAS lately confidering, among other objects of fpeculation, the new attempt of an univerfal register, an office, in which every man may lodge an account of his fuperfluities and wants, of whatever he defires to purchase or to fell. My imagination foon prefented to me the latitude to which this design may be extended by integrity and industry, and the advantages which may be justly hoped from a general mart of intelligence, when once its reputation fhall be fo established, that neither reproach nor fraud fhall be feared from it; when an application to it shall not be cenfured as the laft refource of defperation, nor its informations fufpected as the fortuitous fuggeftions of men obliged not to appear ignorant. A place where every exuberance may be difcharged, and every deficiency fupplied, where every lawful paffion may find its gratifications, and every honeft curiofity receive fatisfaction, where the stock of a nation, pecuniary and intellectual, may be brought together, and where all conditions of humanity may hope to find relief, pleasure, and accommodation, must equally deserve the attention of the merchant and philofopher, of him who mingles in the tumult of bufinefs, and him who only lives to amuse himself with the various. employ P 4 employments and purfuits of others. Nor will it be an uninftructing school to the greatest mafters of method and difpatch, if fuch multiplicity can be preferved from embarraffment, and fuch tumult from inaccuracy. While I was concerting this fplendid project, and filling my thoughts with its regulation, its conveniencies, its variety, and its confequences, I funk gradually into flumber; but the fame images, though lefs diftinct, ftill continued to float upon my fancy. I perceived myfelf at the gate of an immenfe edifice, where innumerable multitudes were paffing without confufion; every face on which I fixed my eyes, feemed fettled in the contemplation of fome important purpose, and every foot was haftened by eagernefs and expectation. I followed the crowd without knowing whither I fhould be drawn, and remained a while in the unpleafing state of an idler, where all other beings were bufy, giving place every moment to thofe who had more importance in their looks. Afhamed to ftand ignorant, and afraid to afk queftions, at last I faw a lady fweeping by me, whom, by the quickness of her eyes, the agility of her steps, and a mixture of levity and impatience, I knew to be my long-lov'd proteatrefs, CURIOSITY. "Great "goddess," faid I, "may thy votary be permitted. "to implore thy favour; if thou haft been my di"rectrels from the firft dawn of reafon, if I have "followed thee through the maze of life with in"variable fidelity, if I have turned to every new call, "and quitted at thy nod one purfuit for another, "if I have never flopped at the invitations of for"tune, nor forgot thy authority in the bowers of "pleasure, |