of turnpike-roads had deftroyed the diftinction between town and country manners, and the maid of honour and the farmer's wife put on a cap of the latest form, almost at the fame inftant. I mention this, because it may have escaped the obfervation of many, that a new fashion pervades the whole of this our island almost as inftantaneously as a fpark of fire illuminates a mass of gunpowder*.

Thefe, it may be faid, were but foibles in the manners of the times; but there were certain notions and opinions, which having been diffeminated fubfequent

to

The town-life had alfo received great improvements, which have fince been further extended: public entertainments are now enjoyed in an immediate fucceffion: from the play the company are generally able to get away by eleven, the hour of affembling at other places of amufement; from these the hour of retirement is three, which gives, till noon the next day, nine hours for reft; and after that fufficient time for a ride, auctions, or fhopping, before five or fix the dinner hour. Nor is this feeming indulgence and immoderate purfuit of pleafure fo inconfiftent with the attendance on public worship as it may feem: methodifm, or fomething like it, in many instances, makes them compatible; fo that I have known a lady of high rank enjoy the pleasures of a rout, that almost barred access to her house, on the evening of a Sunday which fhe had begun with prayer, and a participation of the folemnities which at an early hour in that day, are conftantly celebrated at St. James's chapel.

For most of these refinements on our public diverfions we are indebted to the late Mrs. Cornelys, to whose elegant tafte for pleafure the magistrates of Turin and Bruffels were fo blind, and of her worth fo infenfible, that, as I was given to understand by intelligence communicated to me in my judicial capacity, they severally drove her out of both those cities: this hofpitable country, however, afforded her an afylum; and in Westminster she was permitted to ¡mprove our manners, without any further interruption, than a prefentment of her house as a nuisance, by a grand jury of the

county,

to the publication of the last of the collections of effays above-mentioned, escaped their cenfure, and were now become principles that had mif-led many, and were likely to affect the moral conduct of the young and unthinking these had for their authors and propagators fuch men as Collins, Mandeville †, Morgan and Tindal; the first pair deifts, and the latter infidels. And to these I might add, though I would not brand

county, which, had it been profecuted, it might have been my lot to try; but by the aid of her friends fhe found means to fmother it. Soon after, fhe became a prifoner for debts to a large amount; but in the riots in 1780 found means to escape from confinement, and has never fince been heard of.

+ Mandeville, whose christian name was Bernard, was a native of Dort in Holland. He came to England young, and, as he says in fome of his writings, was so pleased with the country, that he took up his refidence in it, and made the language his study. He lived in obfcure lodgings in London, and betook himself to the profeffion of phyfic, but was never able to acquire much practice. He was the author of the book above-mentioned, as alfo of Free Thoughts on Religion,' and a Difcourfe on Hypochondriac Affections,' which Johnson would often commend; and wrote befides, fundry papers in the London Journal,' and other fuch publications, to favour the custom of drinking fpirituous liquors, to which employment of his pen, it is fuppofed he was hired by the diftillers. I once heard a London physician, who had married the daughter of one of that trade, mention him as a good fort of man, and one that he was acquainted with, and at the fame time affert a fact, which I fuppofe he had learned from Mandeville, that the children of women addicted to dram-drinking, were never troubled with the rickets. He is faid to have been coarfe and overbearing in his manners where he durft be fo; yet a great flatterer of fome vulgar Dutch merchants, who allowed him a penfion. This last informa tion comes from a clerk of a city attorney, through whose hands the money paffed.

them with so harsh an appellation as the last, Toland, Gordon, Trenchard, and others of that clàfs of writers, men who having drank the lees of the Bangorian controverfy, were become fo intoxicated in their notions of civil and religious liberty, as to talk of the majefty of the people! and fhewed themselves anxious that their zeal for religion might be estimated by their jealoufy of all establishments for the fupport of it.

The flimfy arguments contained in Collins's difcourse on Free-thinking, had been refuted with great learning and pleafantry by Bentley, before which time, as I have been informed, a clergyman in his habit, walking the ftreets of London, was in danger of being affronted; but the poifon of Mandeville had affected many. His favourite principle is, the title to the most noted of all his books, Private vices, public benefits,' throughout which he labours to inculcate, as a fubordinate pofition, this other, that man is a felfish being, and that all that we call human beneficence is to be accounted for upon principles that exclude the love of any but ourselves *.

Johnfon has remarked, that malevolence to the clergy is feldom at a great diftance from irreverence for religion. He faw the features of that malevolence

Lord Macclesfield, when chief-juflice, was used often to have him at his house, and was pleased with his conversation. He once got Mr. Addison to meet him, of whom being afked his opinion by his lordship, Mandeville answered, he thought him a parson in a tye-wig. See Johnson's life of Addison among the Lives of the Poets.

in the writings of thefe men, and the point at which free-thinking was likely to terminate; and taking up the defence of religion where Mr. Addison left it, he made it a part of his design as well to adduce new arguments for its support, and to enforce the practice of virtue, as to correct thofe errors in the finaller concerns and occupations of life, the ridiculing which rendered his paper an amusement.

In this fituation and ftate of public manners Johnfon formed the plan of his Rambler, and with what spirit he entered upon it may be inferred from the following folemn addrefs, which he compofed and offered up to the divine Being for a blefling on the undertaking:

• Almighty God, the giver of all good things, without whose help all labour is ineffectual, and without 'whose grace all wisdom is folly; grant, I befeech Thee, that in this undertaking thy holy spirit may ⚫ not be with-held from me, but that I may promote

thy glory, and the falvation of myself and others :

grant this, O Lord, for the fake of thy fon Jefus Christ. Amen.'

The work was undertaken without the communication of his defign to any of his friends, and confequently without any defire of affiftance from them; it was from the ftores of his own mind alone that he hoped to be able to furnish that variety of matter which it would require; which, that it might at no time fail him, he kept up by noting in a commonplace book that he carried about him, fuch incidents, fentiments, and remarks on familiar life and manners as were for his purpose. This method of accumulat

ing

ing intelligence had been practised by Mr. Addison, and is humourously described in one of the Spectators, wherein he feigns to have dropped his paper of Notanda, confifting of a diverting medley of broken fentences and loofe hints, which he tells us he had collected, and had meant to make ufe of. Much of the fame kind is Johnson's Adverfaria, as will appear by the following specimens:

• HEREDIPETA born heir prefumptive to great • fortune. Had two unkles and an aunt.- Eldeft un. fquire and fox-hunter; other a fea captain grown rich, -Mother a citizen's daughter. - Father an attorney, always told me of the riches to be gotten by pleasing unk.-Made a fycophant early-Hunted, found hares, caught fish, with the elder - asked the other his adventures, foreign countries. Wished I was bred to fea - taken at word " no land lubber "fhould" [have] "his money." Went to fea. During voyage eldeft fell in hunting died-Eftate came to his brother-He married aunt's maid, the groffness of his behaviour cutting off from equals. Only aunt remains - now haunted by a half pay officer, or officer of the guards, a young gentleman with a place at court, a rich widower without children, &c. The time spent in which I should have acquired the means of living-Folly of this • kind of dependence — Every man should live by his own powers. Flattery-flavery-defeated at

length by footman-chambermaid —or peevishness

cards

or caprice of age. Ideas - hunting failing-failors fate any manfion. Thus from 3 fortunes uncertain of any, indeed

difabled from