What might be the effect of thefe obfervations conveyed in Ciceronian eloquence to Roman understandings, cannot be determined; but few of those who fhall in the prefent age read my humble verfion will find themfelves much depreffed in their hopes, or retarded in their defigns; for I am not inclined to believe, that they who among us pafs their lives in the cultivation of knowledge, or acquifition of power, have very anxioufly enquired what opinions prevail on the further banks of the Ganges, or invigorated any effort by the defire of fpreading their renown among the clans of Caucajus. The hopes and fears of modern minds are content to range in a narrower compaís; a fingle nation, and a few years, have generally fufficient amplitude to fill our imaginations.

A little confideration will indeed teach us, that fame has other limits than mountains and oceans; and that he who places happinefs in the frequent repetition of his name, may fpend his life in propagating it, without any danger of weeping for new worlds, or neceffity of palling the Atlantick sea.

The numbers to whom any real and perceptible good or evil can be derived by the greatest power, or moft active diligence, are inconfiderable; and where neither benefit nor mifchief operate, the only motive to the mention or remembrance of others is curiofity; a paffion, which, though in fome degree univerfally affociated to reafon, is eafily confined, overborn, or diverted from any particular object.

Among the lower claffes of mankind, there will be found very little defire of any other knowledge, than what may contribute immediately to the relief of fome preffing uneafinefs, or the attainment of

fome

fome near advantage. The Turks are faid to hear with wonder a propofal to walk out only that they may walk back; and enquire why any man should labour for nothing fo those whofe condition has always reftrained them to the contemplation of their own neceffities, and who have been accustomed to look forward only to a fmall distance, will fcarcely underftand, why nights and days fhould be spent in ftudies, which end in new ftudies, and which, according to Malherbe's obfervation, do not tend to leffen the price of bread; nor will the trader or manufacturer eafily be perfuaded, that much pleasure can arise from the mere knowledge of actions, performed in remote regions, or in diftant times; or that any thing can deferve their enquiry, of which κλέΘ οἷον ακέομεν, de Tidue, we can only hear the report, but which cannot influence our lives by any confequences.

The truth is, that very few have leisure from indifpenfable bufinefs, to employ their thoughts upon narrative or characters; and among thofe to whom fortune has given the liberty of living more by their own choice, many create to themselves engagements, by the indulgence of fome petty ambition, the admiffion of fome infatiable defire, or the toleration of fome predominant pallion. The man whofe whole wish is to accumulate money, has no other care than to collect intereft, to estimate fecurities, and to engage for mortgages: the lover difdains to turn his ear to any other naine than that of Corinna; and the courtier thinks the hour loft, which is not spent in promoting his intereft, and facilitating his advance

The adventures of valour, and the difcoveries of fcience, will find a cold reception, when they

are obtruded upon an attention thus bufy with its favourite amusement, and impatient of interruption or disturbance.

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But not only fuch employments as feduce attention by appearances of dignity, or promifes of happiness, may reftrain the mind from excurtion and quiry; curiofity may be equally deftroyed by lefs formidable enemies; it may be diffipated in trifles, or congealed by indolence. The fportiman and the man of drefs have their heads filled with a fox or a horfe-race, a feather or a ball; and live in ignorance of every thing befide, with as much content as he that heaps up gold, or folicits preferment, digs the field, or beats the anvil; and fome yet lower in the ranks of intellect, dream out their days without pleafure or bufinefs, without joy or forrow, nor ever roufe from their lethargy to hear or think.

Even of thofe who have dedicated themselves to knowledge, the far greater part have confined their curiosity to a few objects, and have very little inclination to promote any fame, but that which their own ftudies entitle them to partake. The naturalift has no defire to know the opinions or conjectures of the philologer: the botanist looks upon the aftronomer as a being unworthy of his regard: the lawyer fcarcely hears the name of a phyfician without contempt; and he that is growing great and happy by electrifying a bottle, wonders how the world can be engaged by trifling prattle about war or peace.

If, therefore, he that imagines the world filled with his actions and praifes, fhall fubduct from the number of his encomiafts, all thofe who are placed below the flight of fame, and who hear in the vallies of life

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no voice but that of neceffity; all those who imagine themselves too important to regard him, and confider the mention of his name as an ufurpation of their time; all who are too much, or too little pleafed with themselves, to attend to any thing external; all who are attracted by pleasure, or chained down by pain, to unvaried ideas; all who are withheld from attending his triumph by different purfuits; and all who flumber in universal negligence; he will find his renown straitened by nearer bounds than the rocks of Caucafus, and perceive that no man can be venerable or formidable, but to a small part of his fellow-creatures.

That we may not languifh in our endeavours after excellence, it is neceffary, that, as Africanus counfels his defcendant, "we raise our eyes to higher profpects, and contemplate our future and eternal ftate, without giving up our hearts to the praise of crowds, or fixing our hopes on fuch rewards as "human power can bestow."

NUMB. 119. TUESDAY, May 7, 1751.

Iliacos intra muros peccatur, et extra.

HOL

Faults lay on either fide the Trojan tow'rs. ELPHINSTON.

SIR,

To the RAMBLER.

S, notwithstanding all that wit, or malice, or pride, or prudence, will be able to fuggeft, men and women must at last pass their lives together, I have never therefore thought thofe writers friends to human happiness, who endeavour to excite in either fex a general contempt or fufpicion of the other. To perfuade them who are entering the world, and looking abroad for a fuitable affociate, that all are equally vicious, or equally ridiculous; that they who truft are certainly betrayed, and they who esteem are always difappointed; is not to awaken judgment, but to inflame temerity. Without hope there can be no caution. Thofe who are convinced, that no reafon for preference can be found, will never harafs their thoughts with doubt and deliberation; they will refolve, fince they are doomed to mifery, that no needlefs anxiety fhall difturb their quiet; they will plunge at hazard into the crowd, and fnatch the firft hand that fhall be held toward them.

That the world is overrun with vice, cannot be denied, but vice, however predominant, has not