147 153 158 164 171 176 182 188 132 The difficulty of educating a young nobleman 133 The miseries of a beauty defaced 134 Idleness an anxious and miserable state 135 The folly of annual retreats into the country 136 The meanness and mischiefs of indiscriminate de- 137 The necessity of literary courage 138 Original characters to be found in the country 139 A critical examination of Sampson Agonistes 141 The danger of attempting wit in conversation. 270 THE RAMBLER. N° 105., TUESDAY, MARCH 19. 1751. I Animorum Impulsu, et eæca magnaque cupidine ducti. JUV. Vain mán runs headlong, to caprice resign'd; DRYD. WAS lately considering, among other objects of speculation, the new attempt of an univerfal regifter; an office, in which every man may lodge an account of his superfluities and wants, of whatever he desires to purchase or to sell. My imagination soon presented to me the latitude to which this design may be extended by integrity and industry, and the advantages which may be justly hoped from a general mart of intelligence, when once its reputation shall be so established that neither reproach nor fraud shall be feared from it; when an application to it shall not be censured as the last resource of desperation, nor its informations suspected as the fortuitous suggestions of men obliged not to appear ignorant. A place where every exuberance may be discharged, and every deficiency supplied, where every lawful passion may find its gratifications, and every honest curiosity receive satisfaction, where the stock of a nation, pecuniary and intellectual, may be brought together, and where all conditions of humanity may hope to find relief, pleasure, and accommodation, must equally deserve the attention of the merchant and philosopher, of him who mingles in the tumult of business, and him who only lives to amuse him, self with the various employments and pursuits of others. Nor will it be an uninstructing school to the greatest masters of method and dispatch, if such multiplicity can be preserved from embar rassment, and such tumult from inaccuracy. While I was concerting this splendid project, and filling my thoughts with its regulation, its conveniencies, its variety, and its consequences, I sunk gradually into slumber; but the same images, though less distinct, still continued to float upon my fancy. I perceived myself at the gate of an immense edifice, where innumerable multitudes were passing without confusion; every face on which I fixed my eyes seemed settled in the contemplation of some important purpose, and every foot was hastened by eagerness and expectation. I followed the crowd without knowing whither I should be drawn, and remained a while in the unpleasing state of an idler, where all other beings. were busy giving place every moment to those who had more importance in their looks. Ashamed to stand ignorant, and afraid to ask questions, at last I saw a lady sweeping by me, whom, by the quickness of her eyes, the agility of her steps, and a mixture of levity and impatience, I knew to be my long-loved protectress CURIOSITY. "Great "goddess," said I, "may. thy votary be per"mitted to implore thy favour; if thou hast been my directress from the first dawn of reason, if I "have followed thee through the maze of life "with invariable fidelity, if I have turned to "every new call, and quitted at thy nod one pur"suit for another, if I have never stopped at the invitations of fortune, nor forgot thy autho"rity in the bowers of pleasure, inform me now "whither chance has conducted me." "Thou art now," replied the smiling power, "in the presence of JUSTICE and of TRUTH, "whom the father of gods and men has sent down "to register the demands and pretensions of man "kind, that the world may at last be reduced to "order, and that none may complain hereafter "of being doomed to tasks for which they are un"qualified, of possessing faculties for which they "cannot find employment, or virtues that languish "unobserved for want of opportunities to exert. "them, of being encumbered with superfluities "which they would willingly resign, or of wasting away in desires which ought to be satisfied. "JUSTICE is now to examine every man's wishes, " and TRUTH is to record them; let us ap"proach, and observe the progress of this great "transaction." 86 She then moved forward, and TRUTH, who knew her among the most faithful of her followers, beckoned her to advance, till we were placed near the seat of JUSTICE. The first who required the assistance of the office, came forward with a slow pace, and tumour of dignity, and shaking a weighty purse in his hand, demanded to be registered by TRUTH, as the MACENAS of the present age, the chief encourager of literary merit, to whom men of learning and wit might apply in any exigence or distress with certainty of succour. JUSTICE very mildly inquired, whether he had calculated the expence of such a declaration? whether he had been informed what number of petitioners would swarm about him? whether he could distinguish idleness and negligence from calamity, ostentation from knowledge, or vivacity from wit? To these questions he seemed not well provided with a reply, but repeated his desire to be recorded as a patron. JUSTICE then offered to register his proposal on these conditions, that he should never suffer himself to be flattered; that he should never delay an audience when he had nothing to do; and that he should never encourage followers without intending to reward them. These terms were too hard to be accepted; for what, said he, is the end of patronage, but the pleasure of reading dedications, holding multitudes in suspence, and enjoying their hopes, their fears, and their anxiety, flattering them to assiduity, and, at last, dismissing them for impatience? JUSTICE heard his confession, and ordered his name to be posted upon the gate among cheats and robbers, and publick nuisances, which all were by that notice warned to avoid. Another required to be made known as the discoverer of a new art of education, by which languages and sciences might be taught to all capacities and all inclinations, without fear of punishment, |