No. 61.] TUESDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1750.

now quick, and again slow, as an indication of a | If we owe regard to the memory of the dead, mind revolving something with violent commo- there is yet more respect to be paid to knowledge, tion. Thus the story of Melancthon affords a to virtue, and to truth. striking lecture on the value of time, by informing us, that when he made an appointment, he expected not only the hour but the minute to be fixed, that the day might not run out in the idleness of suspense and all the plans and enterprises of De Witt are now of less importance to the world than that part of his personal character, which represents him as careful of his health, and negligent of his life.

But biography has often been allotted to writers who seem very little acquainted with the nature of their task, or very negligent about the performance. They rarely afford any other account than might be collected from public papers, but imagine themselves writing a life when they exhibit a chronological series of actions or preferments; and so little regard the manners or behaviour of their heroes, that more knowledge may be gained of a man's real character, by a short conversation with one of his servants, than from a formal and studied narrative, begun with his pedigree, and ended with his funeral.

If now and then they condescend to inform the world of particular facts, they are not always so happy as to select the most important. I know not well what advantage posterity can receive from the only circumstance by which Tickell has distinguished Addison from the rest of mankind, the irregularity of his pulse: nor can I think my self overpaid for the time spent in reading the life of Malherb, by being enabled to relate, after the learned biographer, that Malherb had two predominant opinions; one, that the looseness of a single woman might destroy all her boast of ancient descent; the other, that the French beggars made use very improperly and barbarously of the phrase noble Gentleman, because either word included the sense of both.

Falsus honor juvat, et mendax infamia terret
Quem, nisi mendosum et mendacem ?————— HOR.
False praise can charm, unreal shame control,-
Whom, but a vicious or a sickly soul ?—

TO THE RAMBLER.

FRANCIS

SIR, Ir is extremely vexatious to a man of eager and thirsty curiosity to be placed at a great distance from the fountain of intelligence, and not only never to receive the current of report ti!! it has satiated the greatest part of the nation, but at last to find it mudded in its course, and corrupted with taints or mixtures from every channel through which it flowed.

One of the chief pleasures of my life is to hear what passes in the world, to know what are the schemes of the politic, the aims of the busy, and the hopes of the ambitious; what changes of public measures are approaching; who is likely to be crushed in the collision of parties; who is climbing to the top of power, and who is tottering on the precipice of disgrace. But as it is very common for us to desire most what we are least qualified to obtain, I have suffered this appetite of news to outgrow all the gratifications which my present situation can afford it; for being placed in a remote country, I am condemned always to confound the future with the past, to form prognostications of events no longer doubtful, and to consider the expediency of schemes already executed or defeated. Í am perplexed with a perpetual deception in my prospects, like a man pointing his telescope at a remote star, which before the light reaches his eye has forsaken the place from which it was emitted.

There are, indeed, some natural reasons why these narratives are often written by such as were not likely to give much instruction or delight, and The mortification of being thus always behind why most accounts of particular persons are bar- the active world in my reflections and discoveren and useless. If a life be delayed till interest ries, is exceedingly aggravated by the petulance and envy are at an end, we may hope for impar- of those whose health, or business, or pleasure, tiality, but must expect little intelligence; for the brings them hither from London. For, without incidents which give excellence to biography are considering the insuperable disadvantages of my of a volatile and evanescent kind, such as soon condition, and the unavoidable ignorance which escape the memory, and are rarely transmitted absence must produce, they often treat me with by tradition. We know how few can portray the utmost superciliousness of contempt, for not a living acquaintance, except by his most promi- knowing what no human sagacity can discover; nent and observable particularities, and the grosser and sometimes seem to consider me as a wretch features of his mind; and it may be easily ima- scarcely worthy of human converse, when I hapgined how much of this little knowledge may be pen to talk of the fortune of a bankrupt, or prolost in imparting it, and how soon a succession pose the healths of the dead, when I warn them of copies will lose all resemblance of the original. of mischiefs already incurred, or wish for meaIf the biographer writes from personal know-sures that have been lately taken. They seem ledge, and makes haste to gratify the public curiosity, there is danger least his interest, his fear, his gratitude, or his tenderness, overpower his fidelity, and tempt him to conceal, if not to invent. There are many who think it an act of piety to hide the faults or failings of their friends, even when they can no longer suffer by their detection; we therefore see whole ranks of characters adorned with uniform panegyric, and not to be known from one another, but by extrinsic and casual circumstances. "Let me remember," says Hale, "when I find myself inclined to pity a criminal, that there is likewise a pity due to the country."

to attribute to the superiority of their intellects what they only owe to the accident of their conditions, and think themselves indisputably entitled to airs of insolence and authority, when they find another ignorant of facts, which, because they echoed in the streets of London, they suppose equally public in all other places, and known where they could neither be seen, related, nor conjectured.

To this haughtiness they are indeed too much encouraged by the respect which, they receive amongst us, for no other reason than that they come from London. For no sooner is the ar

of the innumerable pleasures to which he can introduce them; but never fails to hint how much they will be deficient, at their first arrival, in the knowledge of the town. What it is to know the town, he has not indeed hitherto informed us, though there is no phrase so frequent in his of so great a value, or so difficult attainment.

rival of one of these disseminators of knowledge | link-boys. When he is with ladies, he tells them known in the country, than we crowd about him from every quarter, and by innumerable inquiries flatter him into an opinion of his own importance. He sees himself surrounded by multitudes, who propose their doubts, and refer their controversies, to him, as to a being descended from some nobler region, and he grows on a sudden oracu-mouth, nor any science which he appears to think lous and infallible, solves all difficulties, and sets all objections at defiance.

But my curiosity has been most engaged by There is, in my opinion, great reason for sus- the recital of his own adventures and achievepecting, that they sometimes take advantage of ments. I have heard of the union of various chathis reverential modesty, and impose upon rustic racters in single persons, but never met with such understandings, with a false show of universal a constellation of great qualities as this man's intelligence; for I do not find that they are will-narrative affords. Whatever has distinguished ing to own themselves ignorant of any thing, or the hero; whatever has elevated the wit; what that they dismiss any inquirer with a positive and ever has endeared the lover, are all concentrated decisive answer. The court, the city, the park, in Mr. Frolic, whose life has, for seven years, and exchange, are to those men of unbounded been a regular interchange of intrigues, dangers, observation equally familiar, and they are alike and waggeries, and who has distinguished himready to tell the hour at which stocks will rise, or self in every character that can be feared, envied, the ministry be changed. or admired.

A short residence at London entitles a man to knowledge, to wit, to politeness, and to a despotic and dictatorial power of prescribing to the rude multitude, whom he condescends to honour with a biennial visit; yet, I know not well upon what motives, I have lately found myself inclined to cavil at this prescription, and to doubt whether it be not, on some occasions, proper to withhold our veneration, till we are more authentically convinced of the merits of the claimant.

It is well remembered here, that, about seven years ago, one Frolic, a tall boy, with lank hair, remarkable for stealing eggs, and sucking them, was taken from the school in this parish, und sent up to London to study the law. As he had given amongst us no proofs of a genius designed by nature for extraordinary performances, he was, from the time of his departure, totally forgotten, nor was there any talk of his vices or virtues, his good or his ill fortune, till last summer a report burst upon us, that Mr. Frolic was come down in the first post-chaise which this village had seen, having travelled with such rapidity that one of his postilions had broken his leg, and another narrowly escaped suffocation in a quicksand; but that Mr. Frolic seemed totally unconcerned, for such things were never heeded at London.

I question whether all the officers of the royal navy can bring together, from all their journais, a collection of so many wonderful escapes as this man has known upon the Thames, on which he has been a thousand and a thousand times on the point of perishing, sometimes by the terrors of foolish women in the same boat, sometimes by his own acknowledged imprudence in passing the river in the dark, and sometimes by shooting the bridge under which he has rencountered mountainous waves and dreadful cataracts.

Nor less has been his temerity by land, nor fewer his hazards. He has reeled with giddiness on the top of the monument; he has crossed the street amidst the rush of coaches; he has been surrounded by robbers without number; he has headed parties at the playhouse; he has scaled the windows of every toast, of whatever condition; he has been hunted for whole winters by his rivals; he has slept upon bulks, he has cut chairs, he has bilked coachmen; he has rescued his friends from the bailiffs; has knocked down the constable, has bullied the justice, and performed many other exploits, that have filled the town with wonder and with merriment.

But yet greater is the fame of his understanding than his bravery; for he informs us, that he Mr. Frolic next day appeared among the gen- is, at London, the established arbitrator of all tlemen at their weekly meeting on the bowling-points of honour, and the decisive judge of all green, and now were seen the effects of a Lon-performances of genius; that no musical perdon education. His dress, his language, his ideas, were all new, and he did not much endeavour to conceal his contempt of every thing that differed from the opinions, or practice of the modish world. He showed us the deformity of our skirts and sleeves, informed us where hats of the proper size were to be sold, and recommended to us the reformation of a thousand absurdities in our clothes, our cookery, and our conversation. When any of his phrases were unintelligible, he could not suppress the joy of confessed superiority, but frequently delayed the explanation, that he might enjoy his triumph over our barbarity.

When he is pleased to entertain us with a story, he takes care to crowd into it names of streets, squares, and buildings, with which he knows we are unacquainted. The favourite topics of his discourse are the pranks of drunkards, and the tricks put upon country gentlemen by porters and

former is in reputation till the opinion of Frolic has ratified his pretensions; that the theatres suspend their sentence till he begins the clap or hiss, in which all are proud to concur; that no public entertainment has failed or succeeded, but because he opposed or favoured it; that all controversies at the gaming-table are referred to his determination; that he adjusts the ceremonial at every assembly, and prescribes every fashion of pleasure or of dress.

With every man whose name occurs in the papers of the day, he is intimately acquainted; and there are very few posts, either in the state or army, of which he has not more or less influenced the disposal. He has been very frequently consulted both upon war and peace; but the time is not yet come when the nation shall know how much it is indebted to the genius of Frolic.

Yet, notwithstanding all these declarations, I cannot hitherto persuade myself to see that Mr

Frolic has more wit, or knowledge, or courage, She was, however, still rich, and not yet wrinthan the rest of mankind, or that any uncommon kled; my father was too distressfully embarrassenlargement of his faculties has happened in the ed to think much on any thing but the means of time of his absence. For when he talks on sub-extrication, and though it is not likely that he jects known to the rest of the company, he has wanted the delicacy which polite conversation no advantage over us, but by catches of inter-will always produce in understandings not reruption, briskness of interrogation, and pertness markably defective, yet he was contented with a of contempt; and therefore if he has stunned the inatch, by which he might be set free from inconworld with his name, and gained a place in the veniences that would have destroyed all the pleafirst ranks of humanity, I cannot but conclude, sures of imagination, and taken from softness and that either a little understanding confers emi- beauty the power of delighting. nence at London, or that Mr. Frolic thinks us unworthy of the exertion of his powers, or that his faculties are benumbed by rural stupidity, as the magnetic needle loses its animation in the polar climes.

I would not, however, like many hasty philosophers, search after the cause till I am certain of the effect; and therefore I desire to be informed, whether you have yet heard the great name of Mr. Frolic. If he is celebrated by other tongues than his own, I shall willingly propagate his praise; but if he has swelled amongst us with empty boasts, and honours conferred only by himself, I shall treat him with rustic sincerity, and drive him as an impostor from this part of the kingdom to some region of more credulity. I am, &c.

As they were both somewhat disgusted with their treatment in the world, and married, though without any dislike of each other, yet principally for the sake of setting themselves free from dependence on caprice or fashion, they soon retired into the country, and devoted their lives to rural business and diversions.

They had not much reason to regret the change of their situation; for their vanity, which had so long been tormented by neglect and disappointment, was here gratified with every honour that could be paid them. Their long familiarity with public life, made them the oracles of all those who aspired to intelligence or politeness. My father dictated politics, my mother prescribed the mode, and it was sufficient to entitle any family to some consideration, that they were known to visit at Mrs. Courtly's.

In this state they were, to speak in the style of novelists, made happy by the birth of your correspondent. My parents had no other child, I was therefore not brow-beaten by a saucy brother, or lost in a multitude of co-heiresses, whose fortunes being equal, would probably have conferred equal merit, and procured equal regard; and as my mother was now old, my understanding and my person had fair play, my inquiries were not checked, my advances towards importance were not repressed, and I was soon suffered to tell my own opinions, and early accustomed to hear my own praises.

By these accidental advantages I was much exalted above the young ladies with whom I conversed, and was treated by them with great deference. I saw none who did not seem to confess my superiority, and to be held in awe by the splendour of my appearance; for the fondness of iny father made him pleased to see me dressed, and my mother had no vanity nor expenses to hinder her from concurring with his inclination.

SIR, I AM a young woman of a very large fortune, which, if my parents would have been persuaded to comply with the rules and customs of the polite part of mankind, might long since have raised me to the highest honours of the female world; but so strangely have they hitherto contrived to waste my life, that I am now on the borders of twenty, without having ever danced but at our monthly assembly, or been toasted but among a few gentlemen of the neighbourhood, or seen any company in which it was worth a wish to be dis-other, immediately transport themselves to Lontinguished.

My father having impaired his patrimony in soliciting a place at court, at last grew wise enough to cease his pursuit; and, to repair the consequences of expensive attendance and negligence of his affairs, married a lady much older than himself, who had lived in the fashionable world till she was considered as an incumbrance upon parties of pleasure, and as I can collect from incidental informations, retired from gay asseinblies just time enough to escape the mortification of universal neglect.

Thus, Mr. Rambler, I lived without much desire after any thing beyond the circle of our visits; and here I should have quietly continued to portion out my time among my books and my needle, and my company, had not my curiosity been every moment excited by the conversation of my parents, who, whenever they sit down to familiar prattle, and endeavour the entertainment of each

don, and relate some adventure in a hackney coach, some frolic at a masquerade, some conversation in the Park, or some quarrel at an assembly, display the magnificence of a birth-night, relate the conquests of maids of honour, or give a history of diversions, shows, and entertainments, which I had never known but from their accounts.

I am so well versed in the history of the gay world, that I can relate, with great punctuality, the lives of all the last race of wits and beauties; can enumerate, with exact chronology, the whole

succession of celebrated singers, musicians, tragedians, comedians, and harlequins; can tell to the last twenty years all the changes of fashions; and am, indeed, a complete antiquary with respect to head-dresses, dances, and operas.

You will easily imagine, Mr. Rambler, that I could not hear these narratives, for sixteen years together, without suffering some impressions, and wishing myself nearer to those places where every hour brings some new pleasure, and life is diversified with an inexhausted succession of felicity.

But this tedious interval how shall I endure? Cannot you alleviate the misery of delay by some pleasing description of the entertainments of the town? I can read, I can talk, I can think of nothing else; and if you will not soothe my impatience, heighten my ideas, and animate my hopes, you may write for those who have more leisure, but are not to expect any longer the honour of being read by those eyes which are now intent only on conquest and destruction.

Habebat sæpe ducentos,

RHODOCLIA.

I indeed often asked my mother why she left a
place which she recollected with so much delight,
and why she did not visit London once a year, No. 63.] TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1750.
like some other ladies, and initiate me in the
world by showing me its amusements, its gran-
deur, and its variety. But she always told me
that the days which she had seen were such as
will never come again, that all diversion is now
degenerated, that the conversation of the present
age is insipid, that their fashions are unbecoming,
their customs absurd, and their morals corrupt;
that there is no ray left of the genius which en-
lightened the times that she remembers; that no
one who had seen, or heard, the ancient perform-
ers, would be able to bear the bunglers of this
despicable age: and that there is now neither
politeness, nor pleasure, nor virtue, in the world.
She therefore assures me that she consults my
happiness by keeping me at home, for I should
now find nothing but vexation and disgust, and
she should be ashamed to see me pleased with
such fopperies and trifles, as take up the thoughts
of the present set of young people.

Sæpe decem servos; modo reges atque tetrarchas,
Omnia magna loquens: modo, sit mihi mensa tripes, d
Concha salis puri, et toga, que defendere frigus,
Quamvis crassa queat.

With this answer I was kept quiet for several years, and thought it no great inconvenience to be confined to the country, till last summer a young gentleman and his sister came down to pass a few months with one of our neighbours. They had generally no great regard for the country ladies, but distinguished me by a particular complaisance, and as we grew intimate gave me such a detail of the elegance, the splendour, the mirth, the happiness of the town, that I am resolved to be no longer buried in ignorance and obscurity, but to share with other wits the joy of being admired, and divide with other beauties the empire of the world.

I do not find, Mr. Rambler, upon a deliberate and impartial comparison, that I am excelled by Belinda in beauty, in wit, in judgment, in knowledge, or in any thing, but a kind of gay, lively familiarity, by which she mingles with strangers as with persons long acquainted, and which enables her to display her powers without any obstruction, hesitation, or confusion. Yet she can relate a thousand civilities paid to her in public, can produce, from a hundred lovers, letters filled with praises, protestations, ecstacies, and despair; has been handed by dukes to her chair; has been the occasion of innumerable quarrels; has paid twenty visits in an afternoon; been invited to six balls in an evening, and been forced to retire to lodgings in the country from the importunity of courtship, and the fatigue of pleasure.

I tell you, Mr. Rambler, I will stay here no longer. I have at last prevailed upon my mother to send me to town, and shall set out in three weeks on the grand expedition. I intend to live in public, and to crowd into the winter every pleasure which money can purchase, and every honour which beauty can obtain.

HOR.

Now with two hundred slaves he crowds his train;
Now walks with ten. In high and haughty strain
At morn, of kings and governors he prates;
At night," A frugal table, O ye fates,
And clothes, though coarse, to keep me from the cold."
A little shell the sacred salt to hold,

FRANCIS

It has been remarked, perhaps, by every writet who has left behind him observations upon life, that no man is pleased with his present state; which proves equally unsatisfactory, says Ho race, whether fallen upon by chance or chosen with deliberation; we are always disgusted with some circumstance or other of our situation, and imagine the condition of others more abundant in blessings, or less exposed to calamities.

This universal discontent has been generally mentioned with great severity of censure, as un reasonable in itself, since of two, equally envious of each other, both cannot have the larger share of happiness, and as tending to darken life with unnecessary gloom, by withdrawing our minds from the contemplation and enjoyment of that happiness which our state affords us, and fixing our attention upon foreign objects, which we only behold to depress ourselves, and increase our misery by injurious comparisons.

When this opinion of the felicity of others predominates in the heart, so as to excite resolutions of obtaining, at whatever price, the condition to which such transcendent privileges are supposed to be annexed; when it bursts into action, and produces fraud, violence, and injustice, it is to be pursued with all the rigour of legal punishments. But while operating only upon the thoughts, it disturbs none but him who has happened to admit it, and however it may interrupt content, makes no attack on piety or virtue, I cannot think it so far criminal or ridiculous, but that it may deserve some pity, and admit some excuse.

That all are equally happy, or miserable, I sup pose none is sufficiently enthusiastical to maintain; because though we cannot judge of the condition of others, yet every man has found frequent vicissitudes in his own state, and must therefore be convinced that life is susceptible of more or less felicity. What then shall forbid us to endea vour the alteration of that which is capable of being improved, and to grasp at augmentations of good, when we know it possible to be increas ed, and believe that any particular change of situation will increase it?

by necessity, we have always the art of fixing our regard upon the more pleasing images, and suffer hope to dispose the lights by which we look upon futurity.

If he that finds himself uneasy may reasonably make efforts to rid himself from vexation, all mankind have a sufficient plea for some degree of restlessness, and the fault seems to be little more than too much temerity of conclusion, in The good and ill of different modes of life are favour of something not yet experienced, and too sometimes so cqually opposed, that perhaps no much readiness to believe, that the misery which man ever yet made his choice between them upon our own passions and appetites produce, is a full conviction and adequate knowledge; and brought upon us by accidental causes and ex-therefore fluctuation of will is not more wonderternal efficients.

Eumenes, a young man of great abilities, inhe

ful, when they are proposed to the election, than It is, indeed, frequently discovered by us, that oscillations of a beam charged with equal weights. we complained too hastily of peculiar hardships, The mind no sooner imagines itself determined and imagined ourselves distinguished by embar-by some prevalent advantage, than some converassments, in which other classes of men are nience of equal weight is discovered on the other equally entangled. We often change a lighter side, and the resolutions which are suggested by for a greater evil, and wish ourselves restored the nicest examination, are often repented as soon again to the state from which we thought it de-as they are taken. sirable to be delivered. But this knowledge though it is easily gained by the trial, is not al-rited a large estate from a father long eminent in ways attainable any other way; and that error conspicuous employments. His father harassed cannot justly be reproached which reason could with competitions, and perplexed with multiplinot obviate, nor prudence avoid. city of business, recommended the quiet of a priTo take a view at once distinct and compre-vate station with so much force, that Eumenes hensive of human life, with all its intricacies of combination, and varieties of connexion, is beyond the power of mortal intelligences. Of the state with which practice has not acquainted us we snatch a glimpse, we discern a point, and regulate the rest by passion and by fancy. In this inquiry every favourite prejudice, every innate desire, is busy to deceive us. We are unhappy, at least less happy than our nature seems to admit; we necessarily desire the melioration of our lot; what we desire we very reasonably seek, and what we seek we are naturally eager to believe that we have found. Our confidence is often disappointed, but our reason is not convinced, and there is no man who does not hope for something which he has not, though perhaps his wishes lie inactive, because he foresees the difficulty of attainment. As among the numerous students of Hermetic philosophy, not one appears to have desisted from the task of transmutation, from conviction of its impossibility, but from weariness of toil, or impatience of delay, a broken body, or exhausted fortune.

for some years resisted every motion of ambitious wishes; but being once provoked by the sight of oppression, which he could not redress, he began to think it the duty of an honest man to enable himself to protect others, and gradually felt a desire of greatness, excited by a thousand projects of advantage to his country. His fortune placed him in the senate, his knowledge and eloquence advanced him at court, and he possessed that authority and influence which he had resolved to exert for the happiness of mankind.

He now became acquainted with greatness, and was in a short time convinced, that in proportion as the power of doing well is enlarged, the temptations to do ill are multiplied and enforced. He felt himself every moment in dan ger of being either seduced or driven from his honest purposes. Sometimes a friend was to be gratified, and sometimes a rival to be crushed, by means which his conscience could not approve. Sometimes he was forced to comply with the prejudices of the public, and sometimes with the schemes of the ministry. He was by degrees wearied with perpetual struggles to unite policy and virtue, and went back to retirement as the shelter of innocence, persuaded that he could only hope to benefit mankind, by a blameless example of private virtue. Here he spent some years in tranquillity and beneficence; but finding that corruption increased and false opinions in government prevailed, he thought himself again summoned to posts of public trust, from which new evidence of his own weakness

Irresolution and immutability are often the faults of men whose views are wide and whose imagination is vigorous and excursive because they cannot contine their thoughts within their own boundaries of action, but are continually ranging over all the scenes of human existence, and consequently are often apt to conceive that they fall upon new regions of pleasure, and start new possibilities of happiness. Thus they are busied with a perpetual succession of schemes, and pass their lives in alternate elation and sorrow, for want of that calm and immoveable ac-again determined him to retire. quiescence in their condition, by which men of slower understandings are fixed for ever to a certain point, or led or in the plain beaten track which their fathers and grandsires have trodden

before them.

Thus men may be made inconstant by virtue and by vice, by too much or too little thought; yet inconstancy, however dignified by its mo tives, is always to be avoided, because life allows us but a small time for inquiry and experiment, Of two conditions of life equally inviting to and he that steadily endeavours at excellence, in the prospect, that will always have the disadvan-whatever employment, will more benefit mantage which we have already tried; because the kind than he that hesitates in choosing his part evils which we have felt we cannot extenuate; till he is called to the performance. The traveland though we have, perhaps from nature, the ler that resolutely follows a rough and winding power as well of aggravating the calamity which path, will sooner reach the end of his journey we fear, as of heightening the blessing we ex-than he that is always changing his direction, pect, yet in those meditations which we indulge and wastes the hours of day-light in looking for by choice, and which are not forced upon the mind smoother ground and shorter passages.