N° 27. Saturday, March 31, 1711.

Ut nox longa quibus mentitur amica, diesque
Longa videtur opus debentibus, ut piger annus
Pupillis, quos dura premit cuftodia matrum;
Sic mihi tarda fluunt ingrataque tempora, quæ fpem.
Confiliumque morantur agendi gnaviter, id quod
Æquè pauperibus prodeft, locupletibus æquè,
Aquè neglectum pueris fenibufque nocebit.

IMITATED.

HOR. I Ep. i. 20.

Long as to him, who works for debt, the day
Long as the night to her, whofe love's away;
Long as the year's dull circle feems to run,
When the brifk minor pants for twenty-one:
So flow th' unprofitable moments roll,
That lock up all the functions of my foul;
That keep me from myself, and still delay
Life's inftant bufinefs to a future day:
That task, which as we follow, or defpife,
The eldeft is a fool, the youngest wife:
Which done, the pooreft can no wants endure,
And which not done, the richest must be poor.

TH

POPE.

HERE is fcarce a thinking man in the world, who is involved in the bufinefs of it, but lives under a fecret impatience of the hurry and fatigue he fuffers, and has formed a refolution to fix himself, one time or other, in such a state as is fuitable to the end of his being. You hear men every day in converfation profefs,

that

that all the honour, power, and riches, which they propose to themselves, cannot give fatisfaction enough to reward them for half the anxiety they undergo in the pursuit or poffeffion of them. While men are in this temper, (which happens very frequently) how inconfiftent are they with themselves? They are wearied with the toil they bear, but cannot find in their hearts to relinquish it; retirement is what they want, but they cannot betake themselves to it. While they pant after shade and covert, they still affect to appear in the most glittering fcenes of life. Sure this is but juft as reafonable as if a man should call for more light, when he has a mind to go to fleep.

Since then it is certain that our own hearts deceive us in the love of the world, and that we cannot command ourselves enough to refign it, though we every day wish ourselves difengaged from its allurements; let us not stand upon a formal taking of leave, but wean ourselves from them while we are in the midft of them.

It is certainly the general intention of the greater part of mankind to accomplish this work, and live according to their own approbation, as soon as they poffibly can. But fince

the duration of life is fo uncertain, and that has been a common topic of discourse ever fince there was such a thing as life itself, how is it poffible that we should defer a moment the beginning to live according to the rules of reaSon?

The man of business has ever some one point

to

to carry, and then he tells himself he will bid adieu to all the vanity of ambition. The man of pleasure refolves to take his leave at least, and part civilly with his mistress; but the ambitious man is entangled every moment in a fresh pursuit, and the lover fees new charms in the object he fancied he could abandon. It is therefore a fantastical way of thinking, when we promise ourselves an alteration in our conduct from change of place, and difference of circumftances; the fame paffions will attend us whereever we are, till they are conquered; and we can never live to our fatisfaction in the deepest retirement, unless we are capable of living fo, in fome measure, amidst the noise and business of the world.

I have ever thought men were better known by what could be obferved of them from a perufal of their private letters, than any other way. My friend the clergyman*, the other day, upon ferious discourse with him concerning the danger of procrastination, gave me the following letters from perfons with whom he lives in great friendship and intimacy, according to the good breeding and good fenfe of his character. The firft is from a man of bufinefs, who is his convert the fecond from one of whom he conceives good hopes: the third from one who is in no state at all, but carried one way and another by starts.

See TAT. N° 112, &c. Notes on Mr. R. Parker; and GUARDIAN, N° 103, Note on Mr. Deane Bartelett, of Merton College, &c.

'SIR,

I

KNOW not with what words to exprefs

to you the sense I have of the high obligation you have laid upon me, in the penance you enjoined me of doing fome good or other 'to a person of worth every day I live. The ftation I am in furnishes me with daily op'portunities of this kind: and the noble principle with which you have inspired me, of benevolence to all I have to deal with, quickens my application in every thing I undertake. When I relieve merit from difcountenance, 'when I affift a friendless perfon, when I pro'duce concealed worth, I am difpleased with myfelf, for having defigned to leave the world in order to be virtuous. I am sorry you de'cline the occafions which the condition I am in might afford me of enlarging your fortunes; 'but know I contribute more to your fatisfac'tion, when I acknowledge I am the better man, from the influence and authority you have

over,

'SIR,

Your most obliged and

Moft humble fervant,

'R. O.'

'SIR,

I

AM entirely convinced of the truth of what you were pleased to say to me, when I was last with you alone. You told me then of the filly way I was in; but you told me so,

'as

' as I faw you loved me, otherwise I could not obey your commands in letting you know my thoughts fo fincerely as I do at present. I 'know the creature, for whom I refign fo much of my character, is all that you faid of her; but then the trifler has fomething in her fo undefigning and harmless, that her guilt in one kind difappears by the comparison of her inno'cence in another. Will you, virtuous men, 'allow no alteration of offences? Must dear • Chloe be called by the hard name you pious people give to common women? I keep the folemn promife I made you, in writing to you the state of my mind, after your kind admonition; and will endeavour to get the better of 'this fondness, which makes me fo much her humble fervant, that I am almost ashamed to • fubfcribe myself yours,

'SIR,

"T"

T. D.'

HERE is no state of life fo anxious as that of a man who does not live according to the dictates of his own reason. It ' will feem odd to you, when I affure you that my love of retirement first of all brought me to 'court; but this will be no riddle, when I acquaint you that I placed myfelf here with a defign of getting fo much money as might enable me to purchase a handsome retreat in the 'country. At prefent my circumstances enable me, and my duty prompts me, to pafs away the remaining part of my life in fuch a retire'ment as I at firft propofed to myself; but to