determine against their own inclinations, and secure themselves from deficiency, by doing more than they believe strictly necessary. For of this every man may be certain, that if he were to exchange conditions with his dependent, he should expect more than, with the utmost exertion of his ardour, he now will prevail upon himself to perform; and when reason has no settled rule, and our passions are striving to mislead us, it is surely the part of a wise man to err on the side of safety. It will not be necessary to solicit your good-will by any formal preface, when I have informed you, that I have long been known as the most laborious and zealous virtuoso that the present age has had the honour of producing, and that inconveniences have been brought upon me by an unextinguishable ardour of curiosity, and an unshaken perseverance in the acquisition of the productions of art and nature. hear me offering for the sting of a hornet, though Being now left wholly to my own inclinations, I very soon enlarged the bounds of my curiosity, and contented myself no longer with such rarities as required only judgment and industry, and when once found, might be had for nothing. I now turned my thoughts to exotics and antiques, and became so well known for my generous patronage of ingenious men, that my levee was crowded with visitants; some to see my museum, and others to increase its treasures, by selling me whatever they had brought from other countries I had always a contempt for that narrowness of conception, which contents itself with culti vating some single corner of the field of science, I took the whole region into my view, and wished it of yet greater extent. But no man's power can be equal to his will. I was forced to proceed by slow degrees, and to purchase what chance or kindness happened to present. I did not however proceed without some design, or imitate the indiscretion of those who begin a thousand collections, and finish none. Having been always a lover of geography, I determined to collect the maps drawn in the rude and barbarous timės, before any regular surveys, or just observations; and have, at a great expense, brought together a volume, in which, perhaps, not a single country is laid down according to its true situation, and by which, he that desires to know the errors of the ancient geographers may be amply informed. It was observed, from my entrance into the world, that I had something uncommon in my disposition, and that there appeared in me very early tokens of superior genius. I was always an enemy to trifles; the playthings which my mother bestowed upon me I immediately broke, that I might discover the method of their structure, and the causes of their motions: of all the toys with which children are delighted I valued only my coral, and as soon as I could speak, asked like Pieresc, innumerable questions, which the maids about me could not resolve. As I grew older I was more thoughtful and serious, and instead of amusing myself with puerile diversions, made collections of natural rarities, and But my ruling passion is patriotism: my chief never walked in the fields without bringing care has been to procure the products of our own home stones of remarkable forms, or insects of country; and as Alfred received the tribute of some uncommon species. I never entered an the Welsh in wolves' heads, I allowed my teold house, from which I did not take away the nants to pay their rents in butterflies, till I had painted glass, and often lamented that I was not exhausted the papilionaceous tribe. I then dione of that happy generation who demolished rected them to the pursuit of other animals, and the convents and monasteries, and broke win-obtained, by this easy method, most of the grubs dows by law. Being thus early possessed by a taste for solid knowledge, I passed my youth with very little disturbance from passions and appetites; and having no pleasure in the company of boys and girls, who talked of plays, politics, fashions, or love, I carried on my inquiries with incessant diligence, and had amassed more stones, mosses, and shells, than are to be found in many celebrated collections, at an age in which the greatest part of young men are studying under tutors, or endeavouring to recommend themselves to notice by their dress, their air, and their levities. When I was two-and-twenty years old, I became, by the death of my father, possessed of a small estate in land, with a very large sum of money in the public funds, and must confess that I did not much lament him, for he was a man of mean parts, bent rather upon growing rich than wise. He once fretted at the expense of only ten shillings, which he happened to over and insects, which land, air, or water, can supply. I have three species of earth-worms not known to the naturalists, have discovered a new ephe mera, and can show four wasps that were taken torpid in their winter quarters. I have, from my own ground, the longest blade of grass upon record, and once accepted, as a half year's rent for a field of wheat, an ear containing more grains than had been seen before upon a single stem. One of my tenants so much neglected his own interest, as to supply me, in a whole summer, with only two horse-flies, and those of little more than the common size; and I was upon the brink of seizing for arrears, when his good fortune threw a white mole in his way, for which he was not only forgiven, but rewarded. These, however, were petty acquisitions, and made at small expense; nor should I have ven tured to rank myself among the virtuosi without better claims. I have suffered nothing worthy the regard of a wise man to escape my notice: I have ransacked the old and the new world, and closet: here I was inclined to stop, and live been equally attentive to past ages and the pre- upon my estate in literary leisure, but the sale of sent. For the illustration of ancient history, I the Harleian Collection shook my resolution; I can show a marble, of which the inscription, mortgaged my land, and purchased thirty methough it is not now legible, appears from some dals, which I could never find before. I have at broken remains of the letters, to have been Tus-length bought till I can buy no longer, and the can, and therefore probably engraved before the cruelty of my creditors has seized my repository foundation of Rome. I have two pieces of por- I am therefore condemned to disperse what the phyry found among the ruins of Ephesus, and labour of an age will not reassemble. I submit three letters broken off by a learned traveller to that which cannot be opposed, and shall, in a from the monuments of Persepolis; a piece of short time, declare a sale. I have, while it is yet stone which paved the Areopagus of Athens, in my power, sent you a pebble, picked up by and a plate without figures or characters, which Tavernier on the banks of the Ganges; for which was found at Corinth, and which I therefore be I desire no other recompense than that you will fieve to be that metal which was once valued be- recommend my catalogue to the public. Core gold. I have sand gathered out of the GraQUISQUILIUS. nicus; a fragment of Trajan's bridge over the Danube; some of the mortar which cemented the watercourse of Tarquin; a horse-shoe broken on the Flaminian way; and a turf with five daisies dug from the field of Pharsalia. I do not wish to raise the envy of unsuccessful collectors, by too pompous a display of my scientific wealth, but cannot forbear to observe, that there are few regions of the globe which are not honoured with some memorial in my cabinets. The Persian monarchs are said to have boasted the greatness of their empire, by being served at their tables with drink from the Ganges and the Danube; I can show one vial, of which the water was formerly an icicle on the crags of Caucasus, and another that contains what once was snow on the top of Atlas; in a third is dew brushed from a banana in the gardens of Ispahan; and, in another, brine that has rolled in the Pacific ocean. I flatter myself that I am writing to a man who will rejoice at the honour which my labours have procured to my country; and therefore I shall tell you that Britain can, by my care, boast of a snail that has crawled upon the wall of China; a humming bird which an American princess wore in her ear; the tooth of an elephant who carried the Queen of Siam; the skin of an ape that was kept in the palace of the great Mogul; a riband that adorned one of the maids of a Turkish sultana; and a scimitar once wielded by a soldier of Abas the Great. In collecting antiquities of every country, I have been careful to choose only by intrinsic worth, and real usefulness, without regard to party or opinions. I have therefore a lock of Cromwell's hair in a box turned from a piece of the royal oak; and keep in the same drawers, sand scraped from the coffin of King Richard, and a commission signed by Henry the Seventh. I have equal veneration for the ruff of Elizabeth, and the shoe of Mary of Scotland; and should lose, with like regret, a tobacco-pipe of Raleigh, and a stirrup of King James. I have paid the same price for the glove of Lewis, and a thimble of Queen Mary; for a fur cap of the Czar, and, a boot of Charles of Sweden. No. 83.] TUESDAY, JAN. 1, 1751. Nisi utile est quod facias, stulta est gloria. PHÆD. THE publication of the letter in my last paper has Learning confers so much superiority on those who possess it, that they might probably have escaped all censures had they been able to agree among themselves; but as envy and competition have divided the republic of letters into factions, they have neglected the common interest; each has called in foreign aid, and endeavoured to strengthen his own cause by the frown of power, the hiss of ignorance, and the clamour of popularity. They have all engaged in feuds, till by mutual hostilities they demolished those outworks which veneration had raised for their security, and exposed themselves to barbarians, by whom every region of science is equally laid waste. Between men of different studies and professions, may be observed a constant reciprocation of reproaches. The collector of shells and stones derides the folly of him who pastes leaves and flowers upon paper, pleases himself with colours that are perceptibly fading, and amasses with care what cannot be preserved. The hunter of insects stands amazed that any man can waste his short time upon lifeless matter, while many tribes of animals yet want their history. Every one is inclined not only to promote his own study, but to exclude all others from regard, and having heated his imagination with some favourite pursuit, wonders that the rest of mankind are not seized with same passion. You will easily imagine that these accumula- There are, indeed, many subjects of study tions were not made without some diminution of which seem but remotely allied to useful knowmy fortune; for I was so well known to spare ledge, and of little importance to happiness or no cost, that at every sale some bid against me virtue; nor is it easy to forbear some sallies of for hire, some for sport, and some for malice; merriment, or expressions of pity, when we see a and if I asked the price of any thing, it was suf-man wrinkled with attention, and emaciated with ficient to double the demand. For curiosity, traflicing thus with avarice, the wealth of India had not been enough; and I, by little and little, transferred all my money from the funds to my solicitude, in the investigation of questions, of which, without visible inconvenience, the world may expire in ignorance. Yet it is dangerous to discourage well-intended labours or innocent cu riosity; for he who is employed in searches, the knowledge of the natural commodities of the which by any deduction of consequences tend to country, or of the genius and customs of its in the benefit of life, is surely laudable, in compari-habitants. son of those who spend their time in counteract- Rarities there are of yet a lower rank, which ing happiness, and filling the world with wrong owe their worth merely to accident, and which and danger, confusion and remorse. No man can convey no information, nor satisfy any racan perform so little as not to have reason to tional desire. Such are many fragments of anticongratulate himself on his merits, when he be-quity, as urns and pieces of pavement; and things holds the multitudes that live in total idleness, held in veneration only for having been once the and have never yet endeavoured to be useful. property of some eminent person, as the armour It is impossible to determine the limits of in- of King Henry; or for having been used on some quiry, or to foresee what consequences a new remarkable occasion, as the lantern of Guy Faux. discovery may produce. He who suffers not his The loss or preservation of these seems to be a faculties to lie torpid, has a chance, whatever be thing indifferent, nor can I perceive why the poshis employment, of doing good to his fellow-crea- session of them should be coveted. Yet, pertures. The man that first ranged the woods in haps, even this curiosity is implanted by nature; search of medicinal springs, or climbed the moun- and, when I find Tully confessing of himself, tains for salutary plants, has undoubtedly merit- that he could not forbear at Athens to visit the ed the gratitude of posterity, how much soever walks and houses which the old philosophers had his frequent miscarriages might excite the scorn frequented or inhabited, and recollect the reveof his contemporaries. If what appears little berence which every nation, civil and barbarous, universally despised, nothing greater can be attained; for all that is great was at first little, and rose to its present bulk by gradual accessions, and accumulated labours. Those who lay out time or money in assembling matter for contemplation, are doubtless entitled to some degree of respect, though in a flight of gayety, it be easy to ridicule their treasure, or in a fit of sullenness to despise it. A man who thinks only on the particular object before him, goes not away much illuminated by having enjoyed the privilege of handling the tooth of a shark, or the paw of a white bear; yet there is nothing more worthy of admiration to a philosophical eye than the structure of animals, by which they are qualified to support life in the elements or climates to which they are appropriated; and of all natural bodies, it must be generally confessed that they exhibit evidences of infinite wisdom, bear their testimony to the supreme reason, and excite in the mind new raptures of gratitude and new incentives to piety. has paid to the ground where merit has been buried,* I am afraid to declare against the general voice of mankind, and am inclined to believe, that this regard, which we involuntarily pay to the meanest relic of a man great and illustrious, is intended as an incitement to labour, and an encouragement to expect the same renown, if it be sought by the same virtues. The virtuoso, therefore, cannot be said to be wholly useless; but perhaps he may be sometimes culpable, for confining himself to business below his genius, and losing, in petty speculations, those hours by which, if he had spent them in nobler studies, he might have given new light to the intellectual world. It is never without grief that I find a man capable of ratiocination or invention enlisting himself in this secondary class of learning; for when he has once discovered a method of gratifying his desire of eminence by expense rather than by labour, and known the sweets of a life blessed at once with the ease of idleness, and the reputation of knowledge, he To collect the productions of art, and exam- will not easily be brought to undergo again the ples of mechanical science or manual ability, is toil of thinking, or leave his toys and trinkets for unquestionably useful, even when the things arguments and principles; arguments which rethemselves are of small importance, because it is quire circumspection and vigilance, and princialways advantageous to know how far the hu- ples which cannot be obtained but by the drudg man powers have proceeded, and how much ex-ery of meditation. He will gladly shut himself perience has found to be within the reach of diligence. Idleness and timidity often despair with out being overcome, and forbear attempts for fear of being defeated; and we may promote the invigoration of faint endeavours, by showing what has been already performed. It may sometimes happen that the greatest efforts of ingenuity have been exerted in trifles; yet the same principles and expedients may be applied to more valuable purposes, and the movements, which put into action machines of no use but to raise the wonder of ignorance, may be employed to drain fens, or manufacture metals, to assist the architect, or preserve the sailor. up for ever with his shells and metals, like the ̓Αλλ ̓ αὐτοῦ βούλοντο μετ' ἄνδρασι Λωτοφάγοισι, POPE. perseverance; and Collections of this kind are of use to the learnFor the utensils, arms, or dresses of foreign na-ed, as heaps of stones and piles of timber are netions, which make the greatest part of many col-cessary to the architect. But to dig the quarry lections, I have little regard, when they are valu- or to search the field, requires not much of ed only because they are foreign, and can suggest any quality beyond stubborn no improvement of our own practice. Yet they are not all equally useless, nor can it be always safely determined which should be rejected or retamed: for they may sometimes unexpectedly contribute to the illustration of history, and to * See this sentiment illustrated by a most splendid pas sage in Dr. Johnson's "Journey to the Western Islands, vol. viii. p. 395-6.-C. SIR, You seem in all your papers to be an enemy to tyranny, and to look with impartiality upon the world; I shall therefore lay my case before you, and hope by your decision to be set free from unreasonable restraints, and enabled to justify myself against the accusations which spite and peevishness produce against me. At the age of five years I lost my mother, and my father, being not qualified to superintend the education of a girl, committed me to the care of his sister, who instructed me with the authority, and, not to deny her what she may justly claim, with the affection of a parent. She had not very elevated sentiments or extensive views, but her principles were good and her intentions pure; and though some may practise more virtues, scarce any commit fewer faults. Under this good lady, I learned all the common rules of decent behaviour, and standing maxims of domestic prudence; and might have grown up by degrees to a country gentlewoman, without any thoughts of ranging beyond the neighbourhood, had not Flavia come down, last summer, to visit her relations in the next village. I was taken, of course, to compliment the stranger, and was, at the first sight, surprised at the unconcern with which she saw herself gazed at by the company whom she had never known before; at the carelessness with which she received compliments, and the readiness with which she returned them. I found she had something which I perceived myself to want, and could not but wish to be like her, at once easy and officious, attentive and unembarrassed. I went home, and for four days could think and talk of nothing but Miss Flavia: though my aunt told me that she was a forward flirt, and thought herself wise before her time. In a little time she repaid my visit, and raised in my heart a new confusion of love and admiration. I soon saw her again, and still found new charms in her air, conversation, and behaviour. You, who have perhaps seen the world, may have observed, that formality soon ceases between young persons. I know not how others are affected on such occasions, but I found myself irresistibly allured to friendship and intimacy, by the familiar complaisance and airy gayety of Flavia; so that in a few weeks I became her favourite, and all the time was passed with me, that she could gain from ceremony and visit. As she came often to me, she necessarily spent some hours with my aunt, to whom she paid great respect by low courtesies, submissive compliance, and soft acquiescence; but as I became gradually more accustomed to her manners, I discovered that her civility was general; that there was a certain degree of deference shown by her to circumstances and appearances; that many went away flattered by her humility, whom she despised in her heart; that the influence of far the greatest part of those with whom she conversed, ceased with their presence; and that sometimes she did not remember the names of them, whom, without any intentional insincerity or false commendation, her habitual civility had sent away with very high thoughts of their own importance. It was not long before I perceived, that my aunt's opinion was not of much weight in Flavia's deliberations, and that she was looked upon by her as a woman of narrow sentiments, without knowledge of books, or observations on mankind. I had hitherto considered my aunt, as entitled by her wisdom and experience to the highest reverence, and could not forbear to wonder that any one so much younger should venture to suspect her of error or ignorance; but my surprise was without uneasiness, and being now ac customed to think Flavia always in the right, I readily learned from her to trust my own reason, and to believe it possible, that they who had lived longer might be mistaken. Flavia had read much, and used so often to converse on subjects of learning, that she put all the men in the country to flight, except the old parson, who declared himself much delighted with her company, because she gave him opportunities to recollect the studies of his younger years, and, by some mention of ancient story, had made him rub the dust off his Homer, which had laid unregarded in his closet. With Homer, and a thousand other names familiar to Flavia, I had no acquaintance, but began by comparing her accomplishments with my own, to repine at my education, and wish that I had not been so long confined to the company of those from whom nothing but housewifery was to be learned. I then set myself to peruse such books as Flavia recommended, and heard her opinion of their beauties and defects. I saw new worlds hourly bursting upon my mind, and was enraptured at the prospect of diversifying life with endless entertainment. The old lady finding that a large screen, which I had undertaken to adorn with Turkey-work against winter, made very slow advances, and that I had added in two months but three leaves to a flowered apron then in the frame, took the alarm, and with all the zeal of honest folly exclaimed against my new acquaintance, who had filled me with idle notions, and turned my head with books. But she had now lost her authority for I began to find innumerable mistakes in her opinions, and improprieties in her language; and therefore thought myself no longer bound to pay much regard to one who knew little beyond her needle and her dairy, and who professed to think that nothing more is required of a woman than to see that the house is clean, and that the maids go to bed, and rise at a certain hour. She seemed however to look upon Flavia as seducing me, and to imagine that when her influence was withdrawn, I should return to my allegiance, she therefore contented herself with remote hints, and gentle admonitions, intermixed with sage histories of the miscarriages of wit, and disappointments of pride. But since she has found, that though Flavia is departed, I still persist in my new scheme, she has at length, lost her patience, she snatches my book out of my hand, tears my paper if she finds me writing, burns Flavia's letters before my face when she can seize them, and threatens to lock me up, and to complain to my father of my perverseness. If women, she says, would but know their duty and their interest, they would be careful to acquaint themselves with family affairs, and many a penny might be saved; for while the mistress of the house is scribbling and reading, servants are junketing, and linen is wearing out. She then takes me round the rooms, shows me the worked hangings, and chairs of tent-stitch, and asks, whether all this was done with a pen and a book? I cannot deny that I sometimes laugh and sometimes am sullen; but she has not delicacy enough to be much moved either with my mirth or my gloom, if she did not think the interest of the family endangered by this change of my manners. She had for some years marked out young Mr. Surly, an heir in the neighbourhood, remarkable for his love of fighting-cocks, as an advantageous match; and was extremely pleased with the civilities which he used to pay me, till under Flavia's tuition I learned to talk of subjects which he could not understand. This, she says, is the consequence of female study; girls grow too wise to be advised, and too stubborn to be commanded; but she is resolved to try who shall govern, and will thwart my humour till she breaks my spirit. These menaces, Mr. Rambler, sometimes make me quite angry; for I have been sixteen these ten weeks, and think myself exempted from the dominion of a governess, who has no pretensions to more sense or knowledge than myself. I am resolved, since I am as tall and as wise as other women, to be no longer treated like a girl. Miss Flavia has often told me, that ladies of my age go to assemblies and routes, without their mothers and their aunts; I shall, therefore, from this time, leave asking advice, and refuse to give accounts. I wish you would state the time at which young ladies may judge for themselves, which I am sure you cannot but think ought to begin before sixteen; if you are inclined to delay it longer, I shall have very little regard to your opinion. My aunt often tells me of the advantages of experience, and of the deference due to seniority; and both she and all the antiquated part of the world, talk of the unreserved obedience which they paid to the commands of their parents, and the undoubting confidence with which they listened to their precepts; of the terrors which they felt at a frown, and the humility with which they supplicated forgiveness whenever they had of fended. I cannot but fancy that this boast is too general to be true, and that the young and old were always at variance. I have, however, told my aunt, that I will mend whatever she will prove to be wrong; but she replies that she has reasons of her own, and that she is sorry to live in an age when girls have the impudence to ask for proofs. I beg once again, Mr. Rambler, to know whe ther I am not as wise as my aunt, and whether, when she presumes to check me as a baby, may not pluck up a spirit and return her inso lence? I shall not proceed to extremities without your advice, which is therefore impatiently expected by MYRTILLA. P.S. Remember I am past sixteen. No. 85.] TUESDAY, JAN. 8, 1751. Olia si tollas periere Cupidinis arcus MANY writers of eminence in physic have laid out their diligence upon the consideration of those distempers to which men are exposed by particular states of life, and very learned treatises have been produced upon the maladies of the camp, the sea, and the mines. There are, indeed, few employments which a man accustomed to anatomical inquiries, and medical refinements, would not find reasons for declining as dangerous to health, did not his learning or experience inform him, that almost every occupation, however inconvenient or formidable, is happier and safer than a life of sloth. The necessity of action is not only demonstra ble from the fabric of the body, but evident from observation of the universal practice of mankind, who, for the preservation of health, in those whose rank or wealth exempts them from the necessity of lucrative labour, have invented sports and diversions, though not of equal use to the world with manual trades, yet of equal fatigue to those who practise them, and differing only from the drudgery of the husbandman or manufacturer, as they are acts of choice, and therefore performed without the painful sense of compulsion. The huntsman rises early; pursues his game through all the dangers and obstructions of the chase, swims rivers, and scales precipices, till he returns home no less harassed than the soldier, and has perhaps sometimes incurred as great hazard of wounds or death; yet he has no motive to incite his ardour; he is neither subject to the commands of a general, nor dreads any penalties for neglect and disobedience; he has neither profit nor honour to expect from his perils and his conquests, but toils without the hope of mural or civic garlands, and must content himself with the praise of his tenants and companions. But such is the constitution of man, that labour may be styled its own reward; nor will any external incitements be requisite, if it be considered how much happiness is gained, and how much |