perfuade him that you receive pleafure from him, to encourage him to freedom and confidence, and to avoid any fuch appearance of fuperiority as may overbear and deprefs him. We fee many that by this art only spend their days in the midst of careffes, invitations, and civilities; and without any extraordinary qualities or attainments, are the univerfal favourites of both fexes, and certainly find a friend in every place. The darlings of the world will, indeed, be generally found fuch as excite neither jealoufy nor fear, and are not confidered as candidates for any eminent degree of reputation, but content themselves with common accomplishments, and endeavour rather to folicit kindness than to raise efteem; therefore in affemblies and places of resort it seldom fails to happen, that though at the entrance of fome particular perion every face brightens with gladness, and every hand is extended in falutation, yet if you purfue him beyond the first exchange of civilities, you will find him of very small importance, and only welcome to the company as one by whom all conceive themfelves admired, and with whom any one is at liberty to amufe himself, when he can find no other auditor or companion, as one with whom all are at eafe, who will hear a jelt without criticifin, and a narrative without contradiction, who laughs with every wit, and yields to every difputer.

There are many whofe vanity always inclines them to affociate with thofe from whom they have no reason to fear mortification; and there are times in which the wife and the knowing are willing to receive praife without the labour of deferving it, in which the most elevated mind is willing to defcend, and the most active to be at reft. All therefore are at fome hour or another fond of companions whom they can entertain upon eafy terms, and who will relieve them from folitude, without condemning them to vigilance and caution. We are most inclined to love when we have nothing to fear, and he that encourages us to please ourselves will not be long with out preference in our affection to thofe whofe learning holds us at the diftance of pupils, or whofe wit calls all attention from us, and leaves us without importance and without regard.

It is remarked by Prince Henry, when he fees Falstaff lying on the ground, that be could have better spared a better man.

He was well acquainted with the vices and follies of him whom he lamented; but while his conviction compelled him to do juftice to fuperior qualities, his tenderness ftill broke out at the remembrance of Falstaff, of the cheerful companion, the loud buffoon, with whom he had paffed his time in all the luxury of idlenefs, who had gladded him with unenvied merriment, and whom he could at once enjoy and defpife.

You may perhaps think this account of those who are diftinguished for their good-humour, not very confiftent with the praifes which I have bestowed upon it. But furely nothing can more evidently fhew the value of this quality, than that it recommends thofe who are deftitute of all other excellencies, and procures regard to the trifling, friendhip to the worthlefs, and affection to the dull.

Good-humour is indeed generally degraded by the characters in which it is found; for being confidered as a cheap and vulgar quality, we find it often neglected by thofe that having excellencies of higher reputation and brighter fplendour, perhaps imagine that they have fome right to gratify themselves at the expence of others, and are to demand compliance, rather than to practise it. It is by fome unfortunate miftake that almoft all thofe who have any claim to efteem or love, prefs their pretentions with too little confideration of others. This miftake my own intereft, as well as my zeal for general happiness, makes me defirous to rectify, for I have a friend who, because he knows his own fidelity and usefulness, is never willing to fink into a companion: I have a wife whole beauty firft fubdued me, and whofe wit confirined her conqueft, but whose beauty now ferves no other purpose than to entitle her to tyranny, and whose wit is only used to justify perverfenefs.

Surely nothing can be more unreafonable than to lofe the will to please, when we are confcious of the power, or fhow more cruelty than to chufe any kind of influence before that of kindnefs. He that regards the welfare of others, fhould make his virtue approachable, that it may be loved and copied; and he that confiders the wants which every feels, or will feel, of external affiftance, muft rather wifh to be furrounded by thofe that love him, than by thofe that admire his excellencies, or folicit his fa

man

vours; for admiration ceafes with novelty, and interest gains it's end and reA man whofe great qualities want the ornament of fuperficial attrac

tires.

tions, is like a naked mountain with mines of gold, which will be frequented only till the treasure is exhausted. I am, &c. PHILOMIDES.

SIR,

PUERILIBUS OPTAS

OVID.

TO THE RAMBLER.

F you feel any of that compaffion which you recommend to others, you will not difregard a cafe which I have reafon from obfervation to believe very common, and which I know by experience to be very miferable. And though the querulous are feldom received with great ardour of kindness, I hope to ef cape the mortification of finding that my lamentations fpread the contagion of impatience, and produce anger rather than tenderness. I write not merely to vent the fwelling of my heart, but to enquire by what means I may recover my tranquillity; and fhall endeavour at brevity in my narrative, having long known that complaint quickly tires, however elegant, or however juft.

I was born in a remote county, of a family that boafts alliances with the greateft names in English hiftory, and extends it's claims of affinity to the Tudors and Plantagenets. My ancestors, by little and little, wafted their patrimony, till my father had not enough left for the fupport of a family, without defcending to the cultivation of his own grounds, being condemned to pay three lifters the fortunes allotted them by my grandfather, who is fufpected to have made his will when he was incapable of adjusting properly the claims of his children, and who, perhaps without defign, enriched his daughters by beggaring his fon. My aunts being, at the death of their father, neither young nor beautiful, nor very eminent for foftnefs of behaviour, were fuffered to live unfolicited, and by accumulating the intereft of their portions grew every day richer and prouder. My father pleafed himself with foreseeing that the poffeffions of

ELPHINSTON.

thofe ladies muft revert at last to the hereditary eftate, and that his family might lofe none of it's dignity, refolved to keep me untainted with a lucrative employ ment; whenever therefore I difcovered any inclination to the improvement of my condition, my mother never failed to put me in mind of my birth, and charged me to do nothing with which I might be reproached when I fhould come to my aunts eftate.

In all the perplexities or vexations which want of money brought upon us, it was our conftant practice to have recourfe to futurity. If any of our neighbours furpaffed us in appearance, we went home and contrived an equipage, with which the death of my aunts was to fupply us. If any purfe-proud upftart was deficient in refpect, vengeance was referred to the time in which our eftate was to be repaired. We registered every act of civility and rudenefs, enquired the number of dishes at every feaft, and minuted the furniture of every houfe, that we might, when the hour of affluence fhould come, be able to eclipfe all their fplendor, and furpafs all their magnificence.

Upon plans of elegance and fchemes of pleasure the day rofe and fet, and the year went round unregarded, while we were bufied in laying out plantations on ground not yet our own, and deliberating whether the manor-houfe fhould be rebuilt or repaired. This was the amufement of our leifure, and the folace of our exigencies; we met together only to contrive how our approaching fortune fhould be enjoyed; for in this our converfation always ended, on whatever fubject it began. We had none of the collateral interefts which diverfify the life of others with joys and hopes,

but

his mind at the first paffages that are opened, and to let his paffions boil over upon those whom accident throws in his way. A painful and tedious courfe of ficknefs frequently produces fuch an alarming appichenfion of the leaft increafe of unealineis, as keeps the foul perpetually on the watch, fuch a reftlefs and in cefant folicitude, as no care or tendernefs can appeafe, and can only be pacified by the cure of the diftemper, and the removal of that pain by which it is excited.

Nearly approaching to this weakness is the captioufnefs of old age. When the ftrength is crushed, the fenfes dulled, and the common pleasures of life become infipid by repetition, we are willing to impute our uneafiness to causes not wholly out of our power, and please ourfelves with fancying that we fuffer by neglect, unkindnets, or any evil which admits a remedy, rather than by the decays of nature, which cannot be prevented or repaired. We therefore revenge our pains upon thofe on whom we refolve to charge thein; and too often drive mankind away at the time we have the greatest need of tenderness and affiftance.

But though peeviflinefs may sometimes claim our compaffion, as the confequence or concomitant of mifery, it is very often found where nothing can justify or excue it's admiffion. It is frequently one of the attendants on the profperous, and is employed by- infolence in exacting homage, or by tyranny in haraffing fubjection. It is the offspring of idleness or pride; of idleness anxious for trifles; or pride, unwilling to endure the leaft obítruction of her wishes. Those who have long lived in folitude indeed naturally contract this unfocial quality, becaufe, having long hud only themselves to pleafe, they do not readily depart from their own inclinations; their fingularities therefore are only blameable when they have imprudently or morofely withdrawn themselves from the world; but there are others, who have, without any neceflity, nurfed up this habit in their minds, by making implicit fubmiffivenets the condition of their favour, and fuffering none to approach them, but thofe who never speak but to applaud, or move but to obey.

He that gives himself up to his own fancy, and converfs with none but fuch

as he hires to lull him on the down of abfolute authority, to footh him with obfequiouinefs, and regale him with flattery, foon grows too flothful for the labour of conteft, too tender for the afperity of contradiction, and too delicate for the coarieness of truth; a little oppofition offends, a little reftraint enrages, and a little difficulty perplexes him; having been accustomed to fee every thing give way to his humour, he foon forgets his own littleness, and expects to find the world rolling at his beck, and all mankind employed to accommodate and delight him.

Tetrica had a large fortune bequeathed to her by an aunt, which made her very early independent, and placed her in a ftate of fuperiority to all about her. Having no fuperfluity of understanding, fhe was foon intoxicated by the flatteries of her maid, who informed her that ladies, fuch as fhe, had nothing to do but take pleasure their own way; that fhe wanted nothing from others, and had therefore no reafon to value their opinion; that money was every thing; and that they who thought themselves ill-treated, fhould look for better usage among their equals.

Warm with thefe generous fentiments, Tetrica came forth into the world, in which the endeavoured to force refpect by haughtiness of micn and vehemence of language; but having neither birth, beauty, nor wit, in any uncommon degree, the fuffered fuch mortifications from thofe who thought themselves at liberty to return her infults, as reduced her turbulence to cooler malignity, and taught her to practise her arts of vexation only where the might hope to tyrannize without refiftance. She continued from her twentieth to her fifty-fifth year to torment all her inferiors with fo much diligence, that the has formed a principle of difapprobation, and finds in every place fomething to grate her mind, and disturb her quiet.

If he takes the air, fhe is offended with the heat or cold, the glare of the fun, or the gloom of the clouds; if the makes a vifit, the room in which the is to be received, is too light or too dark, or furnished with fomething which the cannot fee without averfion. Her tea is never of the right fort; the figures on the china give her difguft. Where there are children, the hates the gabble of

brats;