miseries by which all earthly beings are really | No. 135.]
more or less tormented, but with those which
do not yet exist, and which can only be discerned
by the perspicacity of cowardice.

Among all who sacrifice future advantage to present inclination, scarcely any gain so little as those that suffer themselves to freeze in idleness. Others are corrupted by some enjoyment of more or less power to gratify the passions; but to neglect our duties, merely to avoid the labour of performing them, a labour which is always punctually rewarded, is surely to sink under weak temptations. Idleness never can secure tranquillity; the call of reason and of conscience will pierce the closest pavilion of the sluggard; and though it may not have force to drive him from his down, will be loud enough to hinder him from sleep. Those moments which he cannot resolve to make useful by devoting them to the great business of his being, will still be usurped by powers that will not leave them to his disposal; remorse and vexation will seize upon them, and forbid him to enjoy what he is so desirous to appropriate.

TUESDAY, JULY 2, 1751,

Calum, non animum mutant.—

HOR

Place may be changed; but who can change his mind ↑ Ir is impossible to take a view on any side, of observe any of the various classes that form the great community of the world, without discovering the influence of example, and admitting with new conviction the observation of Aristotle, that man is an imitative being. The greater, far the greater number follow the track which others have beaten, without any curiosity after new discoveries, or ambition of trusting themselves to their own conduct. And of those who break the ranks and disorder the uniformity of the march, most return in a short time from their deviation, and prefer the equal and steady satisfaction of security before the frolics of caprice and the honours of adventure.

of long continuance incurred. Vanity might be expected to operate where the more powerful passions are not awakened; the mere pleasure of acknowledging no superior might produce slight singularities, or the hope of gairing some new degree of happiness awaken the mind to invention or experience.

In questions difficult or dangerous it is indeed natural to repose upon authority, and, when fear happens to predominate, upon the authority of those whom we do not in general think wiser There are other causes of inactivity incident than ourselves. Very few have abilities requisite to more active faculties and more acute discern- for the discovery of abstruse truth; and of those ment. He to whom many objects of pursuit few some want leisure, and some resolution. arise at the same time, will frequently hesitate But it is not so easy to find the reason of the unibetween different desires till a rival has pre-versal submission to precedent where every mar cluded him, or change his course as new attrac- might safely judge for himself; where no irre tions prevail, and harass himself without advanc-parable loss can be hazarded, nor any mischief ing. He who sees different ways to the same end, will, unless he watches carefully over his own conduct, lay out too much of his attention upon the comparison of probabilities, and the adjustment of expedients, and pause in the choice of his road till some accident intercepts his journey. He whose penetration extends to remote consequences, and who, whenever he applies his attention to any design, discovers new prospects of advantage, and possibilities of improvements, will not easily be persuaded that his project is ripe for execution; but will superadd one contrivance to another, endeavour to unite various purposes in one operation, multiply complications, and refine niceties, till he is entangled in his own scheme, and bewildered in the perplexity of various intentions. He that resolves to unite all the beauties of situation in a new purchase, must waste his life in roving to no purpose from province to province. He that hopes in the same house to obtain every convenience, may draw plans and study Palladio, but will never lay a stone. He will attempt a treatise on some important subject, and amass materials, consult authors, and study all the dependant and collateral parts of learning, but never conclude himself qualified to write. He that has abilities to conceive perfection, will not easily be content without it; and, since perfection cannot be reached, will lose the opportunity of doing well in the vain hope of unattainable excellence.

If in any case the shackles of prescription could be wholly shaken off, and the imagination left to act without control, on what occasion should it be expected, but in the selection of lawful pleasure? Pleasure, of which the essence is choice; which compulsion dissociates from every thing to which nature has united it; and which owes not only its vigour but its being to the smiles of liberty. Yet we see that the senses, as well as the reason, are regulated by credulity; and that most will feel, or say that they feel, the gratifications which others have taught them to expect.

At this time of universal migration, when almost every one, considerable enough to attract regard, has retired, or is preparing with all the earnestness of distress to retire, into the country; when nothing is to be heard but the hopes of speedy departure or the complaints of involuntary delay; I have often been tempted to inquire what happiness is to be gained, or what inconvenience to be avoided, by this stated recession? Of the birds of passage, some follow the summer, and some the winter, because they live upon The certainty that life cannot be long, and the sustenance which only summer or winter can probability that it will be much shorter than na- supply; but of the annual flight of human rovers ture allows, ought to awaken every man to the it is much harder to assign the reason, because active prosecution of whatever he is desirous to they do not appear either to find or seek any perform. It is true that no diligence can ascer-thing which is not equally afforded by the town tain success, death may intercept the swiftest career; but he who is cut off in the execution of an honest undertaking, has at least the honour of falling in his rank, and has fought the battle, though he missed the victory.

and country.

I believe that many of these fugitives may have heard of men whose continual wish was for the quiet of retirement, who watched every op portunity to steal away from observation, to for

mer in the country. Should any man pursue his acquaintances to their retreats, he would find few of them listening to Philomel, loitering in the woods, or plucking daisies, catching the healthy gale of the morning, or watching the gentle coruscations of declining day. Some will be discovered at a window by the road side, re joicing when a new cloud of dust gathers to wards them, as at the approach of a momentary supply of conversation, and a short relief from the tediousness of unideal vacancy. Others are placed in the adjacent villages, where they look

Bake the crowd and delight themselves with the society of solitude. There is indeed scarcely any writer who has not celebrated the happiness of rural privacy, and delighted himself and his reader with the melody of birds, the whisper of groves, and the murmur of rivulets: nor any man, eminent for extent of capacity, or greatness of exploits, that has not left behind him some memoriais of lonely wisdom and silent dignity. But almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those whom we cannot resemble. Those who thus testified their weariness of tumult and hurry, and hasted with so much eager-only upon houses as in the rest of the year, with ness to the leisure of retreat, were either men no change of objects but what a remove to any overwhelmed with the pressure of difficult em- new street in London might have given them. ployment, harassed with importunities, and dis- The same set of acquaintances still settle totracted with multiplicity; or men wholly en-gether, and the form of life is not otherwise divergrossed by speculative sciences, who having no other end of life but to learn and teach, found their searches interrupted by the common commerce of civility, and their reasonings disjointed by frequent interruptions. Such men might reasonably fly to that case and convenience which their condition allowed them to find only in the country. The statesman who devoted the greater part of his time to the public, was desirous of keeping the remainder in his own power. The general ruffled with dangers, wearied with labours, and stunned with acclamations, gladly snatched an interval of silence and relaxation. The naturalist was unhappy where the works of Providence were not always before him. The reasoner could adjust his systems only where his mind was free from the intrusion of outward objects.

sified than by doing the same things in a different place. They pay and receive visits in the usual form, they frequent the walks in the morning, they deal cards at night, they attend to the same tattle, and dance with the same partners; nor can they, at their return to their former habitation, congratulate themselves on any other advantage, than that they have passed their time like others of the same rank; and have the same right to talk of the happiness and beauty of the country, of happiness which they never felt, and beauty which they never regarded.

To be able to procure its own entertainments, and to subsist upon its own stock, is not the prerogative of every mind. There are indeed understandings so fertile and comprehensive, that they can always feed reflection with new supplies, and suffer nothing from the preclusion Such examples of solitude very few of those of adventitious amusements; as some cities who are now hastening from the town, have any have within their own walls enclosed ground pretensions to plead in their own justification, enough to feed their inhabitants in a siege.since they cannot pretend either weariness of But others live only from day to day, and must labour, or desire of knowledge. They purpose be constantly enabled, by foreign supplies, to nothing more than to quit one scene of idleness keep out the encroachments of languor and stufor another, and, after having trifled in public, to pidity. Such could not indeed be blamed for ho sleep in secrecy. The utmost that they can vering within reach of their usual pleasure, more hope to gain is the change of ridiculousness to than any other animal for not quitting its native obscurity, and the privilege of having fewer wit-element, were not their faculties contracted by nesses to a life of folly. He who is not suff ciently important to be disturbed in his pursuits, but spends all his hours according to his own inclination, and has more hours than his mental faculties enable him to fill either with enjoyment or desires, can have nothing to demand of shades and valleys. As bravery is said to be a panoply, insignificancy is always a shelter.

There are, however, pleasures and advantages in a rural situation, which are not confined to philosophers and heroes. The freshness of the air, the verdure of the woods, the paint of the meadows, and the unexhausted variety which summer scatters upon the earth, may easily give delight to an unlearned spectator. It is not necessary that he who looks with pleasure on the colours of a flower should study the principles of vegetation, or that the Ptolemaic and Copernican systems should be compared before the light of the sun can gladden, or its warmth invigorate. Novelty is itself a source of gratification; and Milton justly observes, that to him who has been long pent up in cities, no rural object can be presented which will not delight or refresh some of his senses.

their own fault. But let not those who go into the country, merely because they dare not be left alone at home, boast their love of nature, or their qualifications for solitude; nor pretend that they receive instantaneous infusions of wisdom from the Dryads, and are able, when they leave smoke and noise behind, to act, or think, or reason for

themselves.

THE regard which they whose abilities are employed in the works of imagination claim from the rest of mankind, arises in a great measure from their influence on futurity. Rank may be conferred by princes, and wealth bequeathed by Yet even these easy pleasures are missed by misers or by robbers; but the honours of a lasting the greater part of those who waste their sum-name, and the veneration of distant ages, only

Yet I would not overwhelm the authors with

the sons of learning have the power of bestow- | Every other kind of adulteration, however shameing. While, therefore, it continues one of the ful, however mischievous, is less detestable than characteristics of rational nature to decline obli- the crime of counterfeiting characters, and fixing vion, authors never can be wholly overlooked in the stamp of literary sanction upon the dross and the search after happiness, nor become con- refuse of the world. temptible but by their own fault. The man who considers himself as constitut-the whole load of infamy, of which part, perhaps ed the ultimate judge of disputable characters, and entrusted with the distribution of the last terrestrial rewards of merit, ought to summon all his fortitude to the support of his diguity with the most vigilant caution and scrupulous justice. To deliver examples to posterity, and to regulate the opinion of future times, is no slight or trivial undertaking; nor is it easy to commit more atrocious treason against the great republic of humanity, than by falsifying its records and misguiding its decrees.

To scatter praise or blame without regard to justice, is to destroy the distinction of good and evil. Many have no other test of actions than general opinion; and all are so far influenced by a sense of reputation, that they are often restrained by fear of reproach, and excited by hope of honour, when other principles have lost their power; nor can any species of prostitution promote general depravity more than that which destroys the force of praise, by showing that it may be acquired without deserving it, and which by setting free the active and ambitious from the dread of infamy, lets loose the rapacity of power, and weakens the only authority by which greatness is controlled.

Praise, like gold and diamonds, owes its value only to its scarcity. It becomes cheap as it becomes vulgar, and will no longer raise expectation, or animate enterprise. It is therefore not only necessary, that wickedness, even when it is not safe to censure it, be denied applause, but that goodness be commended only in proportion to its degree; and that the garlands due to the great benefactors of mankind, be not suffered to fade upon the brow of him who can boast only petty services and easy virtues.

the greater part, ought to fall upon their patrons. If he that hires a bravo, partakes the guilt of murder, why should he who bribes a flatterer, hope to be exempted from the shame of falsehood?The unhappy dedicator is seldom without some motives which obstruct, though not destroy, the liberty of choice; he is oppressed by miseries which he hopes to relieve, or inflamed by ambition which he expects to gratify. But the patron has no incitements equally violent; he can receive only a short gratification, with which nothing but stupidity could dispose him to be pleased. The real satisfaction which praise can afford is by repeating aloud the whispers of conscience, and by showing us that we have not endeavoured to deserve well in vain. Every other encomium is, to an intelligent mind, satire and reproach; the celebration of those virtues which we feel ourselves to want, can only impress a quicker sense of our own defects, and show that we have not yet satisfied the expectations of the world, by forcing us to observe how much fiction must contribute to the completion of our character.

Yet sometimes the patron may claim indulgence; for it does not always happen, that the encomiast has been much encouraged to his attempt. Many a hapless author, when his book, and perhaps his dedication, was ready for the press, has waited long before any one would pay the price of prostitution, or consent to hear the praises destined to insure his name against the casualties of time; and many a complaint has been vented against the decline of learning, and neglect of genius, when either parsimonious prudence has declined expense, or honest indignation rejected falsehood. But if at last, after long inquiry and innumerable disappointments, he find a lord willing to hear of his own eloquence and taste, a statesman desirous of knowing how a friendly historian will represent his conduct, or a lady delighted to leave to the world some memorial of her wit and beauty, such weakness cannot be censured as an instance of enormous depravity. The wisest man may, by a diligent solicitor, be surprised in the hour of weakness, and persuaded to solace vexation, or invigorate

Had these maxims been universally received, how much would have been added to the task of dedication, the work on which all the power of modern wit has been exhausted. How few of these initial panegyrics had appeared, if the author had been obliged first to find a man of virtue, then to distinguish the distinct species and degree of his desert, and at last to pay him only the honours which he might justly clain. It is much easier to learn the name of the last man whom chance has exalted to wealth and power, to ob-hope, with the music of flattery. tain by the intervention of some of his domestics the privilege of addressing him, or in confidence of the general acceptance of flattery, to venture on an address without any previous solicitation; and, after having heaped upon him all the virtues to which philosophy has assigned a name, inform him how much more might be truly said, did not the fear of giving pain to his modesty repress the raptures of wonder and the zeal of veneration.

To censure all dedications as adulatory and servile would discover rather envy than justice. Praise is the tribute of merit, and he that has incontestably distinguished himself by any public performance has a right to all the honours which the public can bestow. To men thus raised above the rest of the community, there is no need that the book or its author should have any particular relation: that the patron is known to deNothing has so much degraded literature from serve respect, is sufficient to vindicate him that its natural rank, as the practice of indecent and pays it. To the same regard from particular promiscuous dedication: for what credit can he persons, private virtue and less conspicuous excelexpect who professes himself the hireling of va-lence may be sometimes entitled. An author may nity, however profligate, and, without shame or scruple, celebrates the worthless, dignifies the mean, and gives to the corrupt, licentious, and oppressive, the ornaments which ought only to add grace to truth, and loveliness to innocence?

with great propriety inscribe his work to him by whose encouragement it was undertaken, or by whose liberality he has been enabled to prosecute it, and he may justly rejoice in his own fortitude that dares to rescue merit from obscurity.

Thus much I will indulge thee for thy ease,
And mingle something of our times to please.
DRYDEN, jun.

I know not whether greater relaxation may not be indulged, and whether hope as well as gratitude may not unblameably produce a dedication; but let the writer who pours out his praises only to propitiate power, or attract the attention of greatness, be cautious lest his desire betray him to exuberant eulogies. We are naturally more apt to please ourselves with the future than the past, and, while we luxuriate in expectation, may be easily persuaded to purchase what we yet rate, only by imagination, at a higher price than experience will warrant.

tonishment, without any effort to animate inqui ry, or dispel obscurity. What they cannot immediately conceive, they consider as too high to be reached, or too extensive to be comprehended; they therefore content themselves with the gaze of folly, forbear to attempt what they have no hopes of performing, and resign the pleasure of rational contemplation to more pertinacious study or more active faculties.

Among the productions of mechanic art, many are of a form so different from that of their first materials, and many consist of parts so numerous and so nicely adapted to each other, that it is not possible to view them without amazement. But when we enter the shops of artificers, observe the various tools by which every operation is facilitated, and trace the progress of a manufacture through the different hands, that, in succession to each other, contribute to its perfection, we soon discover that every single man has an easy task, and that the extremes, however remote, of natural rudeness and artificial elegance, are joined by a regular concatenation of effects, of which every one is introduced by that which precedes it, and equally introduces that which is to follow.

The same is the state of intellectual and manu

But no private views of personal regard can discharge any man from his general obligations to virtue and to truth. It may happen in the various combinations of life, that a good man may receive favours from one, who, notwithstanding his accidental beneficence, cannot be justly proposed to the imitation of others, and whom therefore he must find some other way of rewarding than by public celebrations. Self-love has indeed al performances. Long calculations or complex many powers of seducement, but it surely ought diagrams affright the timorous and unexperiencnot to exalt any individual to equality with the ed from a second view; but if we have skill collective body of mankind, or persuade him that sufficient to analyze them into simple principles, a benefit conferred on him is equivalent to every it will be discovered that our fear was groundother virtue. Yet many, upon false principles less. Divide and conquer, is a principle equally of gratitude, have ventured to extol wretches, just in science as in policy. Complication is a whom all but their dependents numbered among the reproaches of the species, and whom they would likewise have beheld with the same scorn, had they not been hired to dishonest appro

bation.

To encourage merit with praise, is the great business of literature; but praise must lose its influence, by unjust or negligent distribution; and he that impairs its value may be charged with misapplication of the power that genius puts into his hands, and with squandering on guilt the recompense of virtue.

THAT Wonder is the effect of ignorance, has been often observed. The awful stillness of attention, with which the mind is overspread at the first view of an unexpected effect, ceases when we have leisure to disentangle complications and investigate causes. Wonder is a pause of reason, a sudden cessation of the mental progress, which lasts only while the understanding is fixed upon some single idea, and is at an end when it recovers force enough to divide the object into its parts, or mark the intermediate gradations from the first agent to the last consequence.

species of confederacy which, while it continues united, bids defiance to the most active and vigo rous intellect; but of which every member is separately weak, and which may therefore be quickly subdued, if it can once be broken.

The chief art of learning, as Locke has observed, is to attempt but little at a time. The widest excursions of the mind are made by short flights frequently repeated: the most lofty fabrics of science are formed by the continued accumulation of single propositions.

It often happens, whatever be the cause, that impatience of labour, or dread of miscarriage, seizes those who are most distinguished for quickness of apprehension; and that they who might with greatest reason promise themselves victory are least willing to hazard the encounter. This diffidence, where the attention is not laid asleep by laziness, or dissipated by pleasures, can arise only from confused and general views, such as negligence snatches in haste, or from the disappointment of the first hopes formed by arrogance without reflection. To expect that the intricacies of science will be pierced by a careless glance, or the eminences of fame ascended without labour, is to expect a peculiar privilege, a power denied to the rest of mankind; but to suppose that the maze is inscrutable to diligence or the heights inaccessible to perseverance, is to submit tamely to the tyranny of fancy, and enchain the mind in voluntary shackles.

It is the proper ambition of the heroes of literature to enlarge the boundaries of knowledge by discovering and conquering new regions of the It may be remarked with equal truth, that ig intellectual world. To the success of such unnorance is often the effect of wonder. It is com- dertakings, perhaps, some degree of fortuitous mon for those who have never accustomed happiness is necessary, which no man can prothemselves to the labour of inquiry, nor invig- mise or procure to himself; and therefore doubt orated their confidence by conquests over diffi- and irresolution may be forgiven in him that venculty, to sleep in the gloomy quiescence of as-tures into the unexplored abysses of truth, and

attempts to find his way through the fluctuations | ments and tender officiousness; and therefore of uncertainty, and the conflicts of contradiction. no one should think it unnecessary to learn those But when nothing more is required, than to pur-arts by which friendship may be gained. Kindsue a path already beaten, and to trample obsta-ness is preserved by a constant reciprocation of cles which others have demolished, why should benefits or interchange of pleasures; but such any man so much distrust his own intellect as to benefits only can be bestowed, as others are caimagine himself unequal to the attempt? pable to receive, and such pleasures only imparted, as others are qualified to enjoy.

It were to be wished that they who devote their lives to study would at once believe nothing too great for their attainment, and consider no-honour will be lost; for the condescensions of thing as too little for their regard; that they would extend their notice alike to science and to life, and unite some knowledge of the present world to their acquaintance with past ages and

Books, says Bacon, can never teach the use of books. The student must learn by commerce THOUGH the contempt with which you have with mankind to reduce his speculations to prac-treated the annual migrations of the gay and tice, and accommodate his knowledge to the purposes of life.