TO THE AUTHOR OF THE RAMBLER. MR. RAMBLER, You have often endeavoured to impress upon your readers an observation of more truth than novelty, that life passes for the most part, in petty transactions; that our hours glide away in trifling amusements and slight gratifications; and that there very seldom emerges any occasion that can call forth great virtue or great abilities. It very commonly happens that speculation has no influence on conduct. Just conclusions, and cogent arguments, formed by laborious study, and diligent inquiry, are often reposited in the treasuries of memory, as gold in the miser's chest, useless alike to others and himself. As some are not richer for the extent of their possessions, others are not wiser for the multitude of their ideas. You have truly described the state of human beings, but it may be doubted whether you have accommodated your precepts to your description; whether you have not generally considered your readers as influenced by the tragic passions, and susceptible of pain or pleasure only from powerful agents, and from great events. To an author who writes not for the improvement of a single art, or the establishment of a controverted doctrine, but equally intends the advantage, and equally courts the perusal of all the classes of mankind, nothing can justly seem unworthy of regard, by which the pleasure of conversation may be increased, and the daily satisfaction of familiar life secured from interruption and disgust. For this reason you would not have injured your reputation, if you had sometimes descended to the minuter duties of social beings, and enforced the observance of those little civilities and ceremonious delicacies, which, inconsiderable as they may appear to the man of science, and difficult as they may prove to be detailed with dignity, yet contribute to the regulation of the world, by facilitating the intercourse between one man and another, and of which the French have sufficiently testified their esteem, by terming the knowledge and practice of them Scavoir vivre, the art of living. Politeness is one of those advantages which we never estimate rightly but by the inconvenience of its loss. Its influence upon the manners is constant and uniform, so that, like an equal motion, it escapes perception. The circumstances of every action are so adjusted to each other, that we do not see where any error could have been committed, and rather acquiesce in its propriety than admire its exactness. But as sickness shows us the value of ease, a little familiarity with those who were never taught to endeavour the gratification of others, but regulate their behaviour merely by their own will, will soon evince the necessity of established modes and formalities to the happiness and quiet of common life. Wisdom and virtue are by no means sufficient, without the supplemental laws of good breeding, to secure treedom from degenerating to rudeness, or self-esteem from swelling into insolence; a thousand incivilities may be committed, and a thousand offices neglected, without any remorse of conscience, or reproach from reason. The true effect of genuine politeness seems to be rather ease than pleasure. The power of delighting must be conferred by nature, and cannot be delivered by precept, or obtained by imitation: but though it be the privilege of a very small number to ravage and to charm, every man may hope by rules and caution not to give pain, and may, therefore, by the help of goodbreeding, enjoy the kindness of mankind, though he should have no claim to higher distinctions. The universal axiom in which all complaisance is included, and from which flow all the formalities which custom has established in civilized nations is, That no man shall give any preference to himself. A rule so comprehensive and certain, that, perhaps, it is not easy for the mind to imagine an incivility, without supposing it to be broken. There are, indeed, in every place, some particular modes of the ceremonial part of goodbreeding, which being arbitrary and accidental, can be learned only by habitude and conversation; such are the forms of salutation, the different gradations of reverence, and all the adjustments of place and precedence. These, however, may be often violated without offence, if it be sufficiently evident, that neither malice nor pride contributed to the failure; but will not atone, however rigidly observed, for the tumour of in solence, or petulance of contempt. I have, indeed, not found among any part of mankind, less real and rational complaisance, than among those who have passed their time in paying and receiving visits, in frequenting public entertainments, in studying the exact measures of ceremony, and in watching all the variations of fashionable courtesy. They know, indeed, at what hour they may beat the door of an acquaintance, how many steps they must attend him towards the gate, and what interval should pass before his visit is returned; but seldom extend their care beyond the exterior and unessential parts of civility, nor refuse their own vanity any gratification, however expensive to the quiet of another. Trypherus is a man remarkable for splendour and expense; a man, that having been originally placed by his fortune and rank in the first class of the community, has acquired that air of dig nity, and that readiness in the exchange of com pliments, which courts, balls, and levees, easily confer. t But Trypherus, without any settled purposes of malignity, partly by his ignorance of human nature, and partly by the habit of contemplating with great satisfaction his own grandeur and riches, is hourly giving disgust to those whom chance or expectation subject to his vanity. To a man whose fortune confines him to a small house, he declaims upon the pleasure of spacious apartments, and the convenience of changing his lodging-room in different parts of the year; tells him that he hates confinement; and concludes, that if his chamber was less, he should never wake without thinking of a prison To Eucretas, a man of birth equal to himself. but of much less estate he showed his services of plate, and remarked that such things were, indeed, nothing better than costly trifles, but that no man must pretend to the rank of a gentleman without them; and that for his part, if his estate was smaller, he should not think of enjoying but increasing it, and would inquire out a trade for his eldest son. He has, in imitation of some more acute observer than himself, collected a great many shifts and artifices by which poverty is concealed; and among the ladies of small fortune, never fails to talk of frippery and slight silks, and the convenience of a general mourning. should be led to suitable companions by particular influence; and, among many beings of the same nature with himself, he may select some for intimacy and tenderness, and improve the condition of his existence, by superadding friendship to humanity, and the love of individuals to that of the species. Other animals are so formed that they seem to contribute very little to the happiness of each other, and know neither joy, nor grief, nor love, nor hatred, but as they are urged by some desire immediately subservient either to the support of their own lives, or to the continuation of their race; they therefore seldom appear to regard any of the minuter discriminations which distinguish creatures of the same kind from one ano I have been insulted a thousand times with a catalogue of his pictures, his jewels, and his rarities, which, though he knows the humble neat-ther. ness of my habitation, he seldom fails to conclude by a declaration, that wherever he sees a house meanly furnished, he despises the owner's taste, or pities his poverty. This, Mr. Rambler, is the practice of Trypherus, by which he has become the terror of all who are less wealthy than himself, and has raised innumerable enemies without rivalry, and without malevolence. Yet though all are not equally culpable with Trypherus, it is scarcely possible to find any man who does not frequently, like him, indulge his own pride by forcing others into a comparison with himself when he knows the advantage is on his side, without considering that unnecessarily to obtrude unpleasing ideas, is a species of oppression; and that it is little more criminal to deprive another of some real advantage, than to interrupt that forgetfulness of its absence which is the next happiness to actual possession. I am, &c. No. 99.] EUTROPIUS. TUESDAY, FEB. 26, 1751. Scilicet ingeniis aliqua est concordia junctis, Congenial passions souls together bind, OVID. F. LEWIS. IT has been ordained by Providence, for the conservation of order in the immense variety of nature, and for the regular propagation of the several classes of life with which the elements are peopled, that every creature should be drawn by some secret attraction to those of his own kind; and that not only the gentle and domestic animals which naturally unite into companies, or cohabit by pairs, should continue faithful to their species; but even those ravenous and ferocious savages which Aristotle observes never to be gregarious, should range mountains and deserts in search of one another, rather than pollute the world with a monstrous birth. As the perpetuity and distinction of the lower tribes of the creation require that they should be determined to proper mates by some uniform motive of choice, or some cogent principle of instinct; it is necessary, likewise, that man, whose wider capacity demands more gratifications, and who feels in himself innumerable wants, which a life of solitude cannot supply, and innumerable powers to which it cannot give employment, But if man were to feel no incentives to kindness, more than his general tendency to congenial nature, Babylon or London, with all their multitudes, would have to him the desolation of a wilderness, his affections, not compressed into a narrower compass, would vanish, like elemental fire in boundless evaporation; he would languish in perpetual insensibility; and though he might, perhaps, in the first vigour of youth, amuse himself with the fresh enjoyments of life, yet, when curiosity should cease, and alacrity subside, he would abandon himself to the fluctuations of chance, without expecting help against any calamity, or feeling any wish for the happiness of others. To love all men is our duty,, so far as it in cludes a general habit of benevolence, and readiness of occasional kindness; but to love all equally is impossible; at least impossible without the extinction of those passions which now produce all our pains and all our pleasures; without the disuse, if not the abolition, of some of our faculties, and the suppression of all our hopes and fears in apathy and indifference. The necessities of our condition require a thousand offices of tenderness, which mere regard for the species will never dictate. Every man has frequent grievances which only the solicitude of friendship will discover and remedy, and which would remain for ever unheeded in the mighty heap of human calamity, were it only surveyed by the eye of general benevolence, equally attentive to every misery. The great community of mankind is, therefore necessarily broken into smaller independent societies; these form distinct interests, which are too frequently opposed to each other, and which they who have entered into the league of particular governments falsely think it virtue to promote, however destructive to the happiness of the rest of the world. Such unions are again separated into subordinate classes and combinations, and social life is perpetually branched out into minuter subdivisions, till it terminates in the last ramifications of private friendship. That friendship may at once be fond and lasting, it has been already observed in these papers, that a conformity of inclinations is necessary. No man can have much kindness for him by whom he does not believe himself esteemed, and nothing so evidently proves esteem as imitation. That benevolence is always strongest which arises from participation of the same pleasures, since we are naturally most willing to revive in our minds the memory of persons, with whom the idea of enjoyment is connected. It has been justly observed, that discord generally operates in little things; it is inflamed to its utmost vehemence by contrariety of taste, oftener than of principles; and might therefore commonly be avoided by innocent conformity, which, if it was not at first the motive, ought always to be the consequence, of indissoluble It is commonly, therefore, to little purpose that any one endeavours to ingratiate himself with such as he cannot accompany in their amusements and diversions. Men have been known to rise to favour and to fortune, only by being skilful in the sports with which their patron hap-union. pened to be delighted, by concurring with his taste for some particular species of curiosities, by relishing the same wine, or applauding the same No. 100.] SATURDAY, March 2, 1751. cookery. Even those whom wisdom or virtue have placed above regard to such petty recommendations, must nevertheless be gained by similitude of manners. The highest and noblest enjoyment of familiar life, the communication of knowledge and reciprocation of sentiments, must always presuppose a disposition to the same inquiry, and delight in the same discoveries. Omne vafer vitium ridenti Flaccus amico PERSIUS Horace, with sly insinuating grace, SIR, TO THE RAMBLER. DRYDEN With what satisfaction could the politician lay his schemes for the reformation of laws, or his comparison of different forms of government, before the chymist, who has never accustomed his thoughts to any other object than salt and sul- As very many well-disposed persons, by the un phur? or how could the astronomer, in explain- avoidable necessity of their affairs, are so unforing his calculations and conjectures, endure the tunate as to be totally buried in the country, coldness of a grammarian, who would lose sight where they labour under the most deplorable ig of Jupiter and all his satellites, for a happy ety-norance of what is transacting among the polite mology of an obscure word, or a better explication of a controverted line? Every man loves merit of the same kind with his own, when it is not likely to hinder his advancement or his reputation; for he not only best understands the worth of those qualities which ne labours to cultivate, or the usefulness of the art which he practises with success, but always feels a reflected pleasure from the praises which, though given to another, belong equally to himself. There is indeed no need of research and refinement to discover that men must generally select their companions from their own state of life, since there are not many minds furnished for great variety of conversation, or adapted to multiplicity of intellectual entertainments. part of mankind, I cannot help thinking, that, as a public writer, you should take the case of these truly compassionable objects under your consideration. These unhappy languishers in obscurity should be furnished with such accounts of the employments of people of the world, as may engage them in their several remote corners to a lauda ble imitation; or, at least so far inform and pre pare them, that if by any joyful change of situation they should be suddenly transported into the gay scene, they may not gape, and wonder, and stare, and be utterly at a loss how to behave and make a proper appearance in it. It is inconceivable how much the welfare of all the country towns in the kingdom might be promoted, if you would use your charitable enThe sailor, the academic, the lawyer, the me-deavours to raise in them a noble emulation of chanic, and the courtier, have all a cast or look the manners and customs of higher life. peculiar to their own fraternity, have fixed their attention upon the same events, have been engaged in affairs of the same sort, and make use of allusions and illustrations which themselves only can understand. To be infected with the jargon of a particular profession, and to know only the language of a single rank of mortals, is indeed sufficiently despicable. But as limits must be always set to the excursions of the human mind, there will be some study which every man more zealously prosecutes, some darling subject on which he is principally pleased to converse; and he that can most inform or best understand him, will certainly be welcomed with particular regard. Such partiality is not wholly to be avoided, nor is it culpable, unless suffered so far to predominate as to produce aversion from every other kind of excellence, and to shade the lustre of dissimilar virtues. Those, therefore, whom the lot of life has conjoined, should endeavour constantly to approach towards the inclination of each other, invigorate every motion of concurrent desire, and fan every spark of kindred curiosity. For this purpose you should give a very clear and ample description of the whole set of polite acquirements; a complete history of forms, fa shions, frolics, of routs, drums, hurricanes, balls, assemblies, ridottos, masquerades, auc tions, plays, operas, puppet-shows, and bear gardens; of all those delights which profitably engage the attention of the most sublime characters, and by which they have brought to such amazing perfection the whole art and mystery of passing day after day, week after week, and year after year, without the heavy assistance of any one thing that formal creatures are pleased to call useful and necessary. In giving due instructions through what steps to attain this summit of human excellence, you may add such irresistible arguments in its fayour, as must convince numbers, who in other instances do not seem to want natural under standing, of the unaccountable error of supposing they were sent into the world for any other pur pose but to flutter, sport, and shine. For, after all, nothing can be clearer than that an everlasting round of diversion, and the more lively and hurrying the better, is the most important | spend some part of it in reading or receiving inend of human life. struction in a family way, and the rest in mere friendly conversation, the poor wretches would infallibly take it into their heads, that they were obliged to be sober, modest, diligent, and faithful to their masters and mistresses. Now surely no one of common prudence or humanity would wish their domestics infected with such strange and primitive notions, or laid under such unmerciful restraints: all which may, It is time enough surely to think of consequences when they come; and as for the anti-in a great measure, be prevented by the prevaquated notions of duty, they are not to be met with in any French Novel, or any book one ever looks into, but derived almost wholly from the writings of authors, who lived a vast many ages ago; and who, as they were totally without any idea of those accomplishments, which now characterise people of distinction, have been for some time sinking apace into utter contempt. It does not appear that even their most zealous admirers, for some partisans of his own sort every writer will have, can pretend to say they were ever at one ridotto. In the important article of diversions, the ceremonial of visits, the ecstatic delight of unfriendly intimacies, and unmeaning civilities, they are absolutely silent. Blunt truth, and downright honesty, plain clothes, staying at home, hard work, few words, and those unenlivened with censure or double meaning, are what they recommend as the ornaments and pleasures of life. Little oaths, polite dissimulation, tea-table scandal, delightful indolence, the glitter of finery, the triumph of precedence, the enchantments of flattery, they seem to have had no notion of, and I cannot but laugh to think what a figure they would have made in a drawing-room, and how frighted they would have looked at a gaming-table. The noble zeal of patriotism that disdains authority, and tramples on laws for sport, was absolutely the aversion of these tame wretches. Indeed one cannot discover any one thing they pretend to teach people, but to be wise and good; acquirements infinitely below the consideration of persons of taste and spirit, who know how to spend their time to so much better purpose. Among other admirable improvements, pray, Mr. Rambler, do not forget to enlarge on the very extensive benefit of playing at cards on Sundays; a practice of such infinite use, that we may modestly expect to see it prevail universally in all parts of this kingdom. lence of the good-humoured fashion, that I would have you recommend. For when the lower kind of people see their betters, with a truly laudable spirit, insulting and flying in the face of those rude, ill-bred dictators, piety and the laws, they are thereby excited and admonished, as far as actions can admonish and excite, and taught that they too have an equal right of setting them at defiance in such instances as their particular necessities and inclinations may require; and thus is the liberty of the whole human species mightily improved and enlarged. In short, Mr. Rambler, by a faithful representation of the numberless benefits of a modish life, you will have done your part in promoting what every body seems to confess the true purpose of human existence, perpetual dissipation. By encouraging people to employ their whole attention on trifles, and make amusement their sole study, you will teach them how to avoid many very uneasy reflections. All the soft feelings of humanity, the sympathies of friendship, all natural temptations to the care of a family, and solicitude about the good or ill of others, with the whole train of domestic and social affections, which create such daily anxieties and embarrassments, will be happily stifled and suppressed in a round of perpetual delights; and all serious thoughts, but particularly that of hereafter, be banished out of the world; a most perplexing apprehension, but luckily a most groundless one too, as it is so very clear a case, that nobody ever dies. I am, &c. No. 101.] TUESDAY, MARch 5, 1751. Mella jubes Hyblæa tibi vel Hymettia nasci, SIR, Alas! dear Sir, you try in vain, No bee from Corsica's rank juice, TO THE RAMBLER. MAAT. F. LEWIS To persons of fashion, the advantage is obvious; because, as for some strange reason or other, which no fine gentleman or fine lady has yet been able to penetrate, there is neither play, nor masquerade, nor bottled conjurer, nor any other thing worth living for, to be had on a Sunday; if it were not for the charitable assistance of whist or bragg, the genteel part of mankind must, one day in seven, necessarily suffer a total extinction of being. Nor are the persons of high rank the only gain-ples and ideas, and obtained by frequent exers by so salutary a custom, which extends its good influence, in some degree, to the lower orders of people; but were it quite general, how much better and happier would the world be than it is even now? It is hard upon poor creatures, be they ever so mean, to deny them those enjoyments and liberties which are equally open for all. Yet if servants were taught to go to church on this day, HAVING by several years of continual study treasured in my mind a great number of princi ercise the power of applying them with proresolved to quit the university, where I considerpriety, and combining them with readiness, I ed myself as a gem hidden in the mine, and to mingle in the crowd of public life. I was naturally attracted by the company of those who * Written by Mrs. Carter of Deal, the only survivor of the writers of that age.-C. were of the same age with myself; and, finding | a man whose abilities were so generally allowed. that my academical gravity contributed very little The report presently spread through half the to my reputation, applied my faculties to jocula- country that Demochares was arrived, and had rity and burlesque. Thus, in a short time, I had brought with him the celebrated Hilarius, by heated my imagination to such a state of activity whom such merriment would be excited, as had and ebullition, that upon every occasion it fumed never been enjoyed or conceived before. I knew, away in bursts of wit, and evaporations of gaye- indeed, the purpose for which I was invited, ty. I became on a sudden the idol of the coffee- and, as men do not look diligently out for poshouse, was in one winter solicited to accept the sibie miscarriages, was pleased to find myself presidentship of five clubs, was dragged by vio-courted upon principles of interest, and consilence to every new play, and quoted in every dered as capable of reconciling factions, comcontroversy upon theatrical merit; was in every posing feuds, and uniting a whole province in public place surrounded by a multitude of hum-social happiness. ble auditors, who retailed in other places of resort my maxims and my jests, and was boasted as their intimate and companien by many, who had no other pretensions to my acquaintance, than that they had drank chocolate in the same room. After a few days spent in adjusting his domestic regulations, Demochares invited all the_gentlemen of his neighbourhood to dinner, and did not forget to hint how much my presence was expected to heighten the pleasure of the feast. He informed me what prejudices my reputation had raised in my favour, and represented the satisfaction with which he should see me kindle up the blaze of merriment, and should remark the various effects that my fire would have upon such diversity of matter. You will not wonder, Mr. Rambler, that I mention my success with some appearance of triumph and elevation. Perhaps no kind of superiority is more flattering or alluring than that which is conferred by the powers of conversation, by extemporaneous sprightliness of fancy, This declaration, by which he intended to copiousness of language, and fertility of senti- quicken my vivacity, filled me with solicitude. I ment. In other exertions of genius, the greater felt an ambition of shining which I never knew part of the praise is unknown and unenjoyed; before; and was therefore embarrassed with an the writer, indeed, spreads his reputation to a unusual fear of disgrace. I passed the night in wider extent, but receives little pleasure or ad- planning out to myself the conversation of the vantage from the diffusion of his name, and only coming day; recollected all my topics of raillery, obtains a kind of nominal sovereignty over re- proposed proper subjects of ridicule, prepared gions which pay no tribute. The colloquial wit smart replies to a thousand questions, accommohas always his own radiance reflected on him-dated answers to imaginary repartees, and formself, and enjoys all the pleasure which he be-ed a magazine of remarks, apophthegms, tales, stows; he finds his power confessed by every and illustrations. one that approaches him, sees friendship kindling with rapture, and attention swelling into praise. The desire which every man feels of importance and esteem, is so much gratified by finding an assembly, at his entrance, brightened with gladness and hushed with expectation, that the recollection of such distinctions can scarcely fail to be pleasing whensoever it is innocent. And my conscience does not reproach me with any mean or criminal effects of vanity; since I always employed my influence on the side of virtue, and never sacrificed my understanding or my religion to the pleasure of applause. The morning broke at last in the midst of these busy meditations. I rose with the palpitations of a champion on the day of combat; and, notwithstanding all my efforts, found my spirits sunk under the weight of expectation. The company soon after began to drop in, and every one, at his entrance, was introduced to Hilarius. What conception the inhabitants of this region had formed of a wit, I cannot yet discover; but observed that they all seemed, after the regular exchange of compliments, to turn away disappointed; and that while we waited for dinner, they cast their eyes first upon me and then upon each other, like a theatrical assembly waiting for a show. From the uneasiness of this situation, I was relieved by the dinner; and as every attention was taken up by the business of the hour, 1 sunk quietly to a level with the rest of the company. But no sooner were the dishes removed, than, instead of cheerful confidence and familiar prattle, a universal silence again showed their expectation of some unusual performance. My friend endeavoured to rouse them by healths and questions, but they answered him with great brevity, and immediately relapsed into their former taciturnity. There were many whom either the desire of enjoying my pleasantry, or the pride of being thought to enjoy it, brought often into my company: but I was caressed in a particular manner by Demochares, a gentleman of large estate, and a liberal disposition. My fortune being by no means exuberant, inclined me to be pleased with a friend who was willing to be entertained at his own charge. I became by daily invitations habituated to his table, and, as he believed my acquaintance necessary to the character of elegance, which he was desirous of establishing, I lived in all the luxury of affluence, without expense, or dependence, and passed my life in a I had waited in hope of some opportunity to perpetual reciprocation of pleasure, with men divert them, but could find no pass opened for a brought together by similitude of accomplish-single sally; and who can be merry without an ments, or desire of improvement. But all power has its sphere of activity, beyond which it produces no effect. Demochares being called by his affairs into the country, imagined that he should increase his popularity by coming among his neighbours accompanied by object of mirth? After a few faint efforts, which produced neither applause nor opposition, I was content to mingle with the mass, to put round the glass in silence, and solace myself with my own contemplations. My friend looked round him: the guests |