thousand pounds fhe happened to poffefs in the Long Annuities. The husband denied the charge of deceiving her; for that fhe knew, from the beginning of their acquaintance, that he wished to marry the Long Annuities, which he faid, fmiling, he would endeavour to make fhorter. The lady on this loft temper. "Do you dare to fay fo, Sir," fhe exclaimed; " you, whom I faved from a jail; you, who, before I took compaffion on you, had not a coat to your back, ner a dinner to your belly? Do you dare to look in my face, and fay you did not deceive me?"Madam," replied the spark, with an easy impudent air," do you venture to show that face, and to say fo?" On this she broke out into such a violent paffion, and was so vehement in her outcries, that the noise awaked me.- " 'Twas but a Dream," said I, ftarting from my chair;"and yet 'tis as well I am a bachelor."

N° 39. SATURDAY, October 29. 1785.

A Fudge is juft, a Chancellor juster still,
A Gownman learn'd, a Bishop what you will,
Wife, if a Minifter, &c.

IT

POPE.

T is an old, and has been a frequent obfervation, that men of genius feldom fucceed in the common business of life. I have no where, however, found it so happily illustrated, as by a queftion of Swift's, in a letter to Lord Bolingbroke ;-"Did you never (fays he) obferve one of your clerks cutting his paper with a blunt ivory knife? Did you ever know the knife fail to go the right way? whereas, if you had used a razor or a pen-knife, you had odds against you of spoiling a whole sheet."

The very idea of genius and of fine parts, implies that they should be rare and uncommon. The ordinary course of society, therefore, has not been left to depend upon them; but it has been wifely ordered, that the business of life, almoft in all its departments, fhould admit of being carried on by fuch men, and with such talents, as are every day to be met with.

The

The unexperienced and the vulgar are apt to judge of talents from the fuccefs with which they are attended; to estimate the difficulty of fituations from their fuppofed importance, or from the attention which they draw, and the rank which they confer in society.

With them, the lawyer or the physician who has obtained high reputation, or arrived at high practice, is concluded to poffefs more than ordinary talents for his profeffion; and if a perfon has commanded an army or a fleet with fuccefs; if he has figured in either House of Parliament; if he has made himself of importance to government, and filled a high department in the ftate; the public fet no bounds to their admiration, and every one concludes the genius and talents of fuch a man to be of the highest magnitude.

When we refift, however, the glare of fuccefs, and the impreffion of public opinion, and call experience to our aid in the examination of particular inftances, we fhall find not only that all these fituations have been attained, but that they have been filled, with credit to the poffeffors, and fatisfaction to the public, by men whose talents and whose virtues were no ways extraordinary. Nay, perhaps, on a clofer investigation, we shall be convinced, that fuch perfons owed to the mediocrity of their talents, and the defects or weaknesses of their

C 2

their character, that elevation which to many has appeared the attainment of genius, and the reward of virtue.

Lelius poffeffed uncommon talents. He derived from nature a correct judgment, a found and penetrating understanding; and his natural endowments were cultivated by a liberal education, an early acquaintance with the best writers, and a familiar intercourfe with men of genius and of letters. There were few branches of public or of national bufinefs, refpecting which he was not poffeffed of ample information. His views with regard to them were always liberal, generally profound, and feldom failed of being just and well founded.

As a fpeaker, Lelius feldom addreffed himfelf to the paffions or the fancy of his audience. He had, however, an eafy, and unembarraffed elocution, a fufficient command of language to communicate his views with clearnefs and perfpicuity. His ftyle, though fimple and unadorned, was pure and correct; and his manner, though plain, was forcible and manly. He had obtained a feat in the Houfe of Commons, at a time of life when his reputation for knowledge was generally established, when his talents were in their fulleft vigour; and if at any time he offered his fentiments, he never failed of being listened to with

attention,

attention, or of finding them received with that respect to which they were fo well entitled.

The talents of Lelius, however, were of a kind which very seldom difpofed him to make that effort. Accustomed to investigate with accuracy, to view his fubject in every poffible light, and to fee the force of every difficulty which presented itself, he was not eafily fatisfied with the extent of his information, nor convinced of the juftice of his opinions; and men of more limited views and fhallower understandings, but of bolder or of rasher spirits, were generally allowed to carry away the reputation of that knowledge, and of thofe talents, the extent of which would not allow Lelius to display them.

Cornelius had obtained an education equally liberal, and had the fame opportunities to improve himself, by books and converfation; nor were his knowledge and information less extensive than that of Lelius. He was not perhaps altogether his equal in acutenefs of understanding or ftrength. of judgment; but, if he fell fhort in thefe, he no lefs furpassed him in a brilliancy of fancy and vigour of imagination, improved by an early acquaintance with whatever is beautiful or fublime in the claffical productions of ancient or of mo dern times.