NUMB. 107. TUESDAY, March 26, 1751. A Alternis igitur contendere verfibus ambo On themes alternate now the fwains recite ; VIRG. ELPHINSTON. MONG the various cenfures, which the unavoidable comparison of my performances with thofe of my predeceffors has produced, there is none more general than that of uniformity. Many of my readers remark the want of thofe changes of colours, which formerly fed the attention with unexhaufted novelty, and of that intermixture of subjects, or alternation of manner, by which other writers relieved weariness, and awakened expectation. I have, indeed, hitherto avoided the practice of uniting gay and folemn fubjects in the fame paper, because it seems abfurd for an author to counteract himself, to prefs at once with equal force upon both parts of the intellectual balance, or give medicines, which, like the double poifon of Dryden, destroy the force of one another. I have endeavoured fometimes to divert, and fometimes to elevate; but have imagined it an useless attempt to disturb merriment by folemnity, or interrupt seriousness by drollery. Yet I shall this day publifh two letters of very different tendency, which I hope, like tragi-comedy, may chance to please even when they are not critically approved. DEAR SIR, To the RAMBLER. THOUGH, as my mamma tells me, I am too young to talk at the table, I have great pleafure in liftening to the converfation of learned men, efpecially when they difcourfe of things which I do not understand; and have, therefore, been of late particularly delighted with many difputes about the alteration of the ftile, which, they fay, is to be made by act of parliament. One day when my mamma was gone out of the room, I asked a very great fcholar what the ftile was? He told me, he was afraid I fhould hardly underftand him when he informed me, that it was the ftated and established method of computing time. It was not, indeed, likely that I fhould understand him; for I never yet knew time computed in my life, nor can imagine why we fhould be at fo much trouble to count what we cannot keep. He did not tell me whether we are to count the time paft, or the time to come; but I have confidered them both by myself, and think it as foolish to count time that is gone, as money that is fpent; and as for the time which is to come, it only feems farther off by counting; and therefore when any pleafure is promised me, I always think of the time as little as I can. I have fince liftened very attentively to every one that talked upon this fubject, of whom the greater part feem not to understand it better than myfelf; for though they often hint how much the nation has been mistaken, and rejoice that we are at laft growing wifer than our ancestors, I have never been able able to discover from them, that any body has died fooner or been married later for counting time wrong; and, therefore, I began to fancy, that there was a great buftle with little confequence. At laft, two friends of my papa, Mr. Cycle, and Mr. Starlight, being, it seems, both of high learning, and able to make an almanack, began to talk about the new ftile. Sweet Mr. Starlight-I am fure I fhall love his name as long as I live; for he told Cycle roundly, with a fierce look, that we should never be right without a year of confufion. Dear. Mr. RAMBLER, did you ever hear any thing fo charming? a whole year of confufion! When there has been a rout at mamma's, I have thought one night of confufion worth a thousand nights of reft; and if I can but fee a year of confufion, a whole year, of cards in one room, and dancings in another, here a feast, and there a masquerade, and plays, and coaches, and hurries, and meffages, and milliners, and raps at the door, and vifits, and frolicks, and new fashions, I shall not care what they do with the rest of the time, nor whether they count it by the old ftile or the new; for I am refolved to break loofe from the nurfery in the tumult, and play my part among the rest; and it will be strange if I cannot get a husband and a chariot in the year of confusion. Cycle, who is neither fo young nor fo handsome as Starlight, very gravely maintained, that all the perplexity may be avoided by leaping over eleven days in the reckoning; and indeed, if it fhould come only to this, I think the new ftile is a delightful thing; for my mamma fays I fhall go to court when I am fixteen, and if they can but contrive often to Jeap Q3 leap over eleven days together, the months of reftraint will foon be at an end. It is ftrange, that with all the plots that have been laid against time, they could never kill it by act of parliament before. Dear Sir, if you have any vote or intereft, get them but for once to deftroy eleven months, and then I fhall be as old as fome married ladies. But this is defired only if you think they will not comply with Mr. Starlight's fcheme; for nothing furely could pleafe me like a year of confufion, when I fhall no longer be fixed this hour to my pen and the next to my needle, or wait at home for the dancing-mafter one day, and the next for the mufick-mafter, but run from ball to ball, and from drum to drum; and spend all my time without tasks, and without account, and go out without telling whither, and come home without regard to prescribed hours, or family-rules. I am, SIR, Mr. RAMBLER, Your humble Servant, PROPERANTIA. I WAS feized this morning with an unusual penfivenefs, and finding that books only ferved to heighten it, took a ramble into the fields, in hopes of relief and invigoration from the keennefs of the air and brightness of the fun. As I wandered wrapped up in thought, my eyes were ftruck with the hofpital for the reception of deferted infants, which I furveyed with pleasure, till by a natural train of fentiment, I began to reflect on the fate of the mothers. For to what shelter can they they fly? Only to the arms of their betrayer, which perhaps are now no longer open to receive them; and then how quick must be the transition from deluded virtue to fhameless guilt, and from fhameless guilt to hopeless wretchedness. The anguish that I felt, left, me no reft till I had, by your means, addreffed myself to the publick on behalf of those forlorn creatures, the women of the town; whofe mifery here might fatisfy the most rigorous cenfor, and whose participation of our common nature might surely induce us to endeavour, at leaft, their preservation from eternal punishment. These were all once, if not virtuous, at least innocent; and might ftill have continued blameless and eafy, but for the arts and infinuations of those whofe rank, fortune, or education, furnished them with means to corrupt or to delude them. Let the libertine reflect a moment on the fituation of that woman, who, being forfaken by her betrayer, is reduced to the neceffity of turning prostitute for bread, and judge of the enormity of his guilt by the evils which it produces. It cannot be doubted but that numbers follow this dreadful courfe of life, with fhame, horror, and regret ; but where can they hope for refuge; "The world is not their friend, nor the world's law." Their fighs, and tears, and groans, are criminal in the eye of their tyrants, the bully and the bawd, who fatten on their mifery, and threaten them with want or a gaol, if they shew the leaft defign of efcaping from their bondage. "To wipe all tears from off all faces,” is a task too hard for mortals; but to alleviate misfortunes is often within the most limited power: yet the oppor tunities Q4 |