it a lighter evil to mifs a profitable bargain by fome accidental delay, than not to have thought of a smart reply till the time of producing it was paft? How little would he fufpect that this child of idleness and frolick enters every affembly with a beating bofom, like a litigant on the day of decifion, and revolves the probability of applaufe with the anxiety of a confpirator, whofe fate depends upon the next night; and at the hour of retirement he carries home, under a fhow of airy negligence, a heart lacerated with envy, or depreffed with dif appointment; and immures himself in his clofet, that he may difencumber his memory at leifure, review the progress of the day, ftate with accuracy his lofs or gain of reputation, and examine the causes of his failure or fuccefs?

Yet more remote from common conceptions are the numerous and reftless anxieties, by which female happiness is particularly disturbed. A folitary philofopher would imagine ladies born with an exemp tion from care and forrow, lulled in perpetual quiet, and feafted with unmingled pleafure; for what can interrupt the content of thofe, upon whom one age has laboured after another to confer honours, and accumulate immunities; thofe to whom rudeness is infamy, and infult is cowardice; whofe eye commands the brave, and whofe fmiles foften the fevere; whom the failor travels to adorn, the foldier bleeds to defend, and the poet wears out life to celebrate; who claim tribute from every art and fcience, and for whom all who approach them endeavour to multiply delights, without requiring from them any return but willingness to be pleafed?

Surely,

Surely, among thefe favourites of nature, thus unacquainted with toil and danger, felicity must have fixed her refidence; they must know only the changes of more vivid or more gentle joys; their life muft always move either to the flow or fprightly melody of the lyre of gladnefs; they can never affemble but to pleasure, or retire but to peace.

Such would be the thoughts of every man who fhould hover at a diftance round the world, and know it only by conjecture and fpeculation. But experience will foon difcover how eafily thofe are disgufted who have been made nice by plenty, and tender by indulgence. He will foon fee to how many dangers power is expofed which has no other guard than youth and beauty, and how eafily that tranquillity is molefted which can only be foothed with the fongs of flattery. It is impoffible to fupply wants as faft as an idle imagination may be able to form them, or to remove all inconveniencies by which elegance refined into impatience may be offended. None are fo hard to please, as those whom fatiety of pleasure makes weary of themselves; nor any fo readily provoked as thofe who have been always courted with an emulation of civility.

There are indeed fome ftrokes which the envy of fate aims immediately at the fair. The mistress of Catullus wept for her fparrow many centuries ago, and lapdogs will be fometimes fick in the prefent age. The most fashionable brocade is fubject to ftains; a pinner, the pride of Bruffels, may be torn by a careless wafher; a picture may drop from a watch;

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watch; or the triumph of a new fuit may be interrupted on the first day of its enjoyment, and all diftinctions of drefs unexpectedly obliterated by a general mourning.

Such is the state of every age, every fex, and every condition: all have their cares, either from nature or from folly: and whoever therefore finds himself inclined to envy another, fhould remember that he knows not the real condition which he defires to obtain, but is certain that by indulging a vicious paffion, he muft leffen that happinefs which he thinks already too fparingly bestowed.

NUMB. 129. TUESDAY, June 11, 1751.

Nunc, o nunc, Dadale, dixit,
Materiam, qua fis ingeniofus, babes.

Poffidet in terras, et poffidet æquora Minos:

Nec tellus noftræ, nec patet unda fuga.
Reftat iter cælo: calo tentabimus ire.
Da veniam capto, Jupiter alte, meo.

Now Dadalus, behold, by fate affign'd,
A tafk proportion'd to thy mighty mind!
Unconquer'd bars on earth and fea withstand;
Thine, Minos, is the main, and thine the land.
The skies are open-let us try the skies:
Forgive, great Jove, the daring enterprize.

ORALISTS, like other writers, instead of casting their eyes abroad in the living world, and endeavouring to form maxims of practice and new hints of theory, content their curiofity with that fecondary knowledge which books afford, and think themfelves entitled to reverence by a new arrangement of an ancient fyftem, or new illuftration of cftablished principles. The fage precepts of the first inftructors of the world are tranfmitted from age to age with little variation, and echoed from one author to another, not perhaps without fome lofs of their original force at every repercuffion.

I know not whether any other reason than this idleness of imitation can be affigned for that uniform and conftant partiality, by which fome vices have hitherto efcaped cenfure, and fome virtues

wanted recommendation; nor can I difcover why elfe we have been warned only against part of our enemies, while the reft have been fuffered to steal upon us without notice; why the heart has on one fide been doubly fortified, and laid open on the other to the incurfions of error, and the ravages of vice.

Among the favourite topicks of moral declamation, may be numbered the mifcarriages of imprudent boldness, and the folly of attempts beyond our power. Every page of every philofopher is crowded with examples of temerity that funk under burthens which fhe laid upon herself, and called out enemies to battle by whom she was deftroyed.

Their remarks are too just to be disputed, and too falutary to be rejected; but there is likewife fome danger left timorous prudence fhould be inculcated, till courage and enterprize are wholly repreffed, and the mind congealed in perpetual inactivity by the fatal influence of frigorifick wisdom.

Every man should, indeed, carefully compare his force with his undertaking; for though we ought not to live only for our own fakes, and though therefore danger or difficulty should not be avoided merely because we may expofe ourselves to mifery or difgrace; yet it may be juftly required of us, not to throw away our lives upon inadequate and hopeless defigns, fince we might, by a juft estimate of our abilities, become more ufeful to mankind.

There is an irrational contempt of danger, which approaches nearly to the folly, if not the guilt, of fuicide; there is a ridiculous perfeverance in impracticable schemes, which is justly punished with

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