were allotted to purchase tea, fome to buy fnuff, and I myself was immediately trucked away at the door for the Sweethearts Delight.

"It is not my defign to enumerate every little accident that has befallen me, or to dwell upon trivial and indifferent circumftances, as is the practice of thofe important egotists, who write narratives, memoirs, and travels. As ufelefs to community as my fingle felf may appear to be, I have been the inftrument of much good and evil in the intercourfe of mankind: I have contributed no small sum to the revenues of the crown, by my fhare in each news-paper; and in the confumption of tobacco, fpirituous liquors, and other taxable commodities. If I have encouraged debauchery, or fupported extravagance; I have also rewarded the labours of induftry, and relieved the neceflities of indigence. The poor acknowledge me as their conftant friend; and the rich, though they affect to flight me, and treat me with contempt, are often reduced by their follies to diftreffes, which it is even in my power to relieve.

"The prefent exa& fcrutiny into our conftitution has, indeed, very much obftructed and embarraffed my travels; tho' I could not but rejoice in my condition laft Tuesday, as I was debarred having any fhare in maiming, bruifing, and deftroying the innocent victims of vulgar barbarity: I was happy in being confined to the mock encounters with feathers and stuffed leather; a childish fport, rightly calculated to initiate tender minds in acts of cruelty, and prepare them for the exercife of inhumanity on helpless animals.

"I fhall conclude, Sir, with informing you by what means I came to you in the condition you fee. A choice fpirit, a member of the kill-care-club, broke a linkboy's pate with me last night, as a reward for lighting him across the channel; the lad wafted half his tar flambeau in looking for me, but I escaped his fearch, being lodged fnugly against a poft. This morning a parish girl picked me up, and carried me with raptures to the next baker's fhop to purchafe a roll. The mafter, who was churchwarden, examined me with great attention, and then gruffly threatening her with Bridewell for putting off bad money, knocked a nail through my middle, and fastened me to the counter: but the moment the poor hungry child was gone, he whipt me up again, and fending me away with others in

change to the next cuftomer, gave me this opportunity of relating my adventures to you." Adventurer.

§ 65.

Hiftory, our natural Fondness for it, and its true Ufe.

The love of history feems infeparable from human nature, because it seems infeparable from felf-love. The same principle in this inftance carries us forward and backward, to future and to paft ages. We imagine that the things which affect us, mult affect pofterity: this fentiment runs through mankind, from Cæfar-down to the parish-clerk in Pope's Mifcellany. We are fond of preferving, as far as it is in our frail power, the memory of our own adventures, of thofe of our own time, and of thofe that preceded it. Rude heaps of ftones have been raised, and ruder hymns have been compofed, for this purpose, by nations who had not yet the use of arts and letters. To go no further back, the triumphs of Odin were celebrated in Runic fongs, and the feats of our British ancestors were recorded in those of their bards. The favages of America have the fame cuftom at this day and long historical ballads of their hunting and wars are fung at all their feftivals. There is no need of faying how this paffion grows among all civilized nations, in proportion to the means of grati fying it: but let us obferve, that the fame principle of nature directs us as ftrongly, and more generally as well as more early, to indulge our own curiofity, instead of preparing to gratify that of others. The child hearkens with delight to the tales of his nurfe; he learns to read, and he devours with eagernefs fabulous legends and novels. In riper years he applies to hiftory, or to that which he takes for history, to authorized romance: and even in age, the defire of knowing what has happened to other men, yields to the defire alone of relating what has happened to ourselves. Thus hiftory, true or falfe, fpeaks to our paffions always. What pity is it, that even the beft fhould fpeak to our understandings fo feldom! That it does fo, we have none to blame but ourfelves. Nature has done her part. She has opened this study to every man who can read and think: and what he has made the most agreeable, reafon can make the moft useful application of to our minds. But if we confult our reafon, we fhall be far from following the examples of our fellow-creatures, in this as in moft other cafes, who are fo proud of

fecting each other. Their operations indeed are entirely different. Whether the immortal fpirit that enlivens this machine is originally of a fuperior nature in various bodies (which, I own, feems most confiftent and agreeable to the fcale and order of beings), or, whether the difference depends on a fymmetry, or peculiar ftructure of the organs combined with it, is beyond my reach to determine. It is evidently certain, that the body is curiously formed with proper organs to delight, and fuch as are adapted to all the neceffary ufes of life. The fpirit animates the whole; it guides the natural appetites, and confines them within juft limits. But the natural force of this fpirit is often immersed in matter; and the mind becomes fubfervient to paffions, which it ought to govern and direct. Your friend Horace, although of the Epicurean doctrine, acknowledges this truth, where he fays,

Atque affigit humo divinæ particulam auræ.

It is no lefs evident, that this immortal fpirit has an independent power of acting, and, when cultivated in a proper manner, feemingly quits the corporeal frame within which it is imprifoned, and foars into higher, and more fpacious regions; where, with an energy which I had almost faid was divine, it ranges among thofe heavenly bodies that in this lower world are fcarce visible to our eyes; and we can at once explain the distance, magnitude, and velocity of the planets, and can foretel, even to a degree of minutenefs, the particular time when a comet will return, and when the fun will be eclipfed in the next century. Thefe powers certainly evince the dignity of human nature, and the furprifing effects of the immaterial fpirit within us, which in fo confined a state can thus difengage itfelf from the fetters of matter. It is from this pre-eminence of the foul over the body, that we are enabled to view the exact order and curious variety of different beings; to confider and cultivate the natural productions of the earth; and to admire and imitate the wife benevolence which reigns throughout the fole fyftem of the univerfe. It is from hence, that we form moral laws for our conduct. From hence we delight in copying that great original, who in his effence is utterly incomprehenfible, but in his influence is powerfully apparent to every degree of his creation. From hence too we perceive a real beauty in virtue, and a diftinction between good and evil. Virtue

The indigence of authors, and particularly of poets, has long been the object of lamentation and ridicule, of compaffion and contempt.

It has been observed, that not one fa vourite of the Mufes has ever been able to build a houfe fince the days of Amphion, whofe art it would be fortunate for them if they poffeffed; and that the greatest punifhment that can poffibly be inflicted on them, is to oblige them to fup in their own lodgings,

-Molles ubi reddunt ova columbæ,
Where pigeons lay their eggs.

Boileau introduces Damon, whose writings entertained and inftructed the city and the court, as having paffed the fummer without a fhirt, and the winter without a cloak; and refolving at laft to forfake Paris,

-où la vertu n'a plus ni feu ni liru, Where fhiv'ring worth no longer finds a home, and to find out a retreat in fome distant grotto,

D'où jamais ni l'Haifier, ni le Sergent n'approche,
Safe, where no critics damn, no duns moleft.
POPE

The rich comedian, fays Bruyere, " lolling in his gilt chariot, befpatters the face of Corneille walking afoot:" and Juvenal remarks, that his cotemporary bards generally qualified themfelves by their diet, to make excellent buftos; that they were compelled fometimes to hire lodgings at a baker's, in order to warm themselves for nothing; and that it was the common fate of the fraternity,

Pallere & vinum toto nefcire Decembri,
-to pine,
Look pale, and all December tafte no wine.
DRYDENA

Virgil himself is ftrongly fufpected to have lain in the streets, or on fome Roman bulk, when he fpeaks fo feelingly of a rainy and tempeftuous night in his well-known epigram.

"There ought to be an hofpital founded for decayed wits," faid a lively French

man

man," and it might be called the Hofpital

of Incurables."

Few, perhaps, wander among the laurels of Parnaffus, but who have reafon ardently to wifh and to exclaim with Aneas, tho' without that hero's good fortune,

Si nunc fe nobis ille aureus arbore ramus,
Oftendat nemore in tanta!

O! in this ample grove could I behold
The tree that blooms with vegetable gold!

PITT.

The patronage of Lælius and Scipio did not enable Terence to rent a houfe. Taffo, in a humorous fonnet addreffed to his favourite cat, earneftly entreats her to lend him the light of her eyes during his midnight ftudies, not being himself able to purchase a candle to write by. Dante, the Homer of Italy, and Camoens of Portugal, were both banished and imprifoned. Cervantes, perhaps the moft original genius the world ever beheld, perifhed by want in the ftreets of Madrid, as did our own Spenfer at Dublin. And a writer little inferior to the Spaniard in the exquifitenefs of his humour and raillery, I mean Erafmus, after tedious wanderings of many years from city to city, and from patron to patron, praised, and promifed, and deceived by all, obtained no fettlement but with his printer. "At laft," fays he in one of his epiftles, "I fhould have been advanced to a cardinalfhip, if there had not been a decree in my way, by which thofe are excluded from this honour, whofe income amounts not to three thousand ducats."

I remember to have read a fatire in Latin profe, entitled, "A poet hath bought a houfe." The poet having purchafed a houfe, the matter was immediately laid before the parliament of poets affembled on that important occafion, as a thing unheardof, as a very bad precedent, and of moft pernicious confequence; and accordingly a very fevere fentence was pronounced against the buyer. When the members came to give their votes, it appeared there was not a fingle perfon in the affembly, who, through the favour of powerful patrons, or their own happy genius, was worth so much as to be proprietor of a house, either by inheritance or purchase: all of them neglecting their private fortunes, confeffed and boafted that they lived in lodgings. The poet was, therefore, ordered to fell his houfe immediately, to buy wine with the money for their entertainment, in order to make fome

expiation for his enormous crime, and to teach him to live unfettled, and without care, like a true poet,

Such are the ridiculous, and fuch the pitiable stories related, to expose the poverty of poets in different ages and nations; but which, I am inclined to think, are rather boundless exaggerations of fatire and fancy, than the fober refult of experience, and the determination of truth and judgment; for the general pofition may be contradicted by numerous examples; and it may, perhaps, appear on reflection and examination, that the art is not chargeable with the faults and failings of its particular profeffors; that it has no peculiar tendency to make them either rakes or fpendthrifts; and that those who are indigent poets would have been indigent merchants and mechanics.

The neglect of economy, in which great geniufes are fuppofed to have indulged themfelves, has unfortunately given fo much authority and juftification to careleffnefs and extravagance, that many a minute rhymer has fallen into diffipation and drunkennefs, becaufe Butler and Otway lived and died in an alehouse. As a certain blockhead wore his gown on one shoulder to mimic the negligence of Sir Thomas More, fo thefe fervile imitators follow their mafters in all that difgraced them; contract immoderate debts, becaufe Dryden died infolvent; and neglect to change their linen, becaufe Smith was a floven." If I fhould happen to look pale," fays Horace, "all the hackney writers in Rome would immediately drink cummin to gain the fame. complexion." And I myself am acquainted with a witling who ufes a glafs only becaufe Pope was near-fighted.

Adventurer.

$69. Operas ridiculed, in a Perfian Letter

The first objects of a ftranger's curiofity are the public fpectacles. I was carried laft night to one they call an Opera, which is a concert of mufic brought from Italy, and in every respect foreign to this country. It was performed in a chamber as magnificent as the refplendent palace of our emperor, and as full of handsome women as his feraglio. They had no eunuchs among them; but there was one who fung upon the ftage, and, by the luxurious tendernefs of his airs, feemed fitter to make them wanton, than keep them chafte.

Inftead of the habit propert of h crea

tures,

tures, he wore a suit of armour, and called himself Julius Cæfar.

I asked who Julius Cæfar was, and whether he had been famous for finging? They told me he was a warrior that had conquered all the world, and debauched half the women in Rome.

I was going to exprefs my admiration at feeing him fo represented, when I heard two ladies, who fat nigh me, cry out, as it were in ecftafy, "O that dear creature! I am dying for love of him."

At the fame time I heard a gentleman fay aloud, that both the mufic and finging were deteftable.

"You must not mind him," faid my friend," he is of the other party, and comes here only as a spy."

“How! faid I, have you parties in mufic?" "Yes," replied he," it is a rule with us to judge of nothing by our fenfes and understanding, but to hear and fee, and think, only as we chance to be diffe. rently engaged."

"I hope," faid I, "that a ftranger may be neutral in thefe divifions; and, to fay the truth, your mufic is very far from inflaming me to a fpirit of faction; it is much more likely to lay me afleep. Ours in Perfia fets us all a-dancing; but I am quite unmoved with this."

"Do but fancy it moving," returned my friend," and you will foon be moved as much as others. It is a trick you may learn when you will, with a little pains: we have most of us learnt it in our turns."

Lord Lyttleton.

$70. Patience recommended. The darts of adverse fortune are always levelled at our heads. Some reach us, and fome fly to wound our neighbours. Let us therefore impose an equal temper on our minds, and pay without murmuring the tribute which we owe to humanity. The winter brings cold, and we must freeze. The fummer returns with heat, and we muft melt. The inclemency of the air diforders our health, and we must be fick. Here we are expofed to wild beafts, and there to men more favage than the beafts: and if we escape the inconveniences and dangers of the air and the earth, there are perils by water and perils by fire. This eftablished course of things it is not in our power to change; but it is in our power to affume fuch a greatnefs of mind as becomes wife and virtuous men, as may enable us to encounter the accidents of life

with fortitude, and to conform ourselves to the order of Nature, who governs her great kingdom, the world, by continual mutations. Let us fubmit to this order; let us be perfuaded that whatever does happen ought to happen, and never be fo foolish as to expoftulate with nature. The beft resolution we can take is to fuffer what we cannot alter, and to purfue without repining the road which Providence, who directs every thing, has marked to us: for it is enough to follow; and he is but a bad foldier who fighs, and marches with reluctancy. We must receive the orders with spirit and chearfulness, and not endeavour to flink out of the post which is affigned us in this beautiful disposition of things, whereof even fufferings make a neceffary part. Let us address ourselves to God who governs all, as Cleanthes did in thofe admirable verses,

Parent of nature! Master of the world!
Where'er thy providence directs, behold
My steps with chearful refignation turn.
Fate leads the willing, drags the backward on.
Why should I grieve, when grieving I muft
bear;

Or take with guilt, what guiltless I might share?

Thus let us fpeak, and thus let us act. Refignation to the will of God is true magnanimity. But the fure mark of a pul lanimous and bafe fpirit, is to ftruggle againft, to cenfure the order of Providence, and, instead of mending our own conduct, to fet up for correcting that of our Maker. Bolingbroke.

$71. Patience exemplified in the Story of an Ajs.

I was just receiving the dernier compliments of Monfieur Le Blanc, for a pleafant voyage down the Rhône——when I was ftopped at the gate-

'Twas by a poor afs, who had juft turned in with a couple of large panniers upon his back, to collect eleemofinary tur nip-tops and cabbage-leaves; and flood dubious, with his two fore-feet on the infide of the threshold, and with his two hinder feet towards the street, as not knowing very well whether he was to go in or no.

Now, 'tis an animal (be in what hurry I may) I cannot bear to ftrike--there is a patient endurance of sufferings, wrote fo unaffectedly in his looks and carriage, which pleads fo mightily for him, that it always difarms me; and to that degree, that I do not like to speak unkindly to him: on the contrary, meet him where I