away their latter years in discontented compe tence. None enter the regions of luxury with higher expectations than men of wit, who imagine that they shall never want a welcome to that company whose ideas they can enlarge, or whose imaginations they can elevate, and believe themselves able to pay for their wine with the mirth which it qualifies them to produce. Full of this opinion, they crowd with little invitation whereever the smell of a feast allures them, but are seldom encouraged to repeat their visits, being dreaded by the pert as rivals, and hated by the dull as disturbers of the company. Gulosulus was never embarrassed but when he was required to declare his sentiments before he had been able to discover to which side the master of the house inclined; for it was his invariable rule to adopt the notions of those that invited him. It will sometimes happen that the insolence of wealth breaks into contemptuousness, or the turbulence of wine requires a vent; and Gulosulus seldom fails of being singled out on such emergencies, as one on whom any experiment of ribaldry may be safely tried. Sometimes his lordship finds himself inclined to exhibit a specimen of raillery, for the diversion of his No man has been so happy in gaining and guests, and Gulosulus always supplies him keeping the privilege of living at luxurious with a subject of merriment. But he has houses as Gulosulus, who, after thirty years of learned to consider rudeness and indignities as continual revelry, has now established, by un- familiarities that entitle him to greater freecontroverted prescription, his claim to partake dom: he comforts himself that those who treat of every entertainnient, and whose presence and insult him pay for their laughter, and they who aspire to the praise of a sumptuous that he keeps his money while they enjoy their table are careful to procure on a day of importance, by sending the invitation a fortnight before. Gulosulus entered the world without any eminent degree of merit; but was careful to frequent houses where persons of rank resorted. By being often seen, he became in time known; and, from sitting in the same room, was suffered to mix in idle conversation, or assisted to fill up a vacant hour, when better amusement was not readily to be had. From the coffee-house he was sometimes taken away to dinner; and, as no man refuses the acquaintance of him whom he sees admitted to familiarity by others of equal dignity, when he had been met at a few tables, he with less difficulty found the way to more, till at last he was regularly expected to appear wherever preparations are made for a feast, within the circuit of his acquaintance. jest. His chief policy consists in selecting some dish from every course, and recommending it to the company, with an air so decisive, that no one ventures to contradict him. By this practice he acquires at a feast a kind of dictatorial authority; his taste becomes the standard of pickles and seasoning, and he is venerated by the professors of epicurism, as the only man who understands the niceties of cookery. Whenever a new sauce is imported, or any innovation made in the culinary system, he procures the earliest intelligence, and the most authentic receipt; and, by communicating his knowledge under proper injunctions of secrecy, gains a right of tasting his own dish whenever it is prepared, that he may tell whether his directions have been fully understood. By this method of life Gulosulus has so im When he was thus by accident initiated in pressed on his imagination the dignity of feastluxury, he felt in himself no inclination to re-ing, that he has no other topic of talk or subtire from a life of so much pleasure, and there-ject of meditation. His calendar is a bill of fore very seriously considered how he might continue it. Great qualities or uncommon accomplishments he did not find necessary; for he had already seen that merit rather enforces respect than attracts fondness; and as he thought no folly greater than that of losing a dinner for any other gratification, he often congratulated himself, that he had none of that disgusting excellence which impresses awe upon greatness, and condemns its possessors to the society of those who are wise or brave, and indigent as themselves. fare; he measures the year by successive dainties. The only common places of his me mory are his meals; and if you ask him at what time an event happened, he considers whether he heard it after a dinner of turbot or venison. He knows, indeed, that those who value themselves upon sense, learning, or piety, speak of him with contempt; but he considers them as wretches, envious or ignorant, who do not know his happiness, or wish to supplant him; and declares to his friends, that he is fully satisfied with his own conduct, since he has fed every day on twenty dishes, and yet doubled his estate. Solve senescentem mature sanus equum, ne Gulosulus, having never allotted much of his time to books or meditation, had no opinion in philosophy or politics, and was not in danger of injuring his interest by dogmatical positions, or violent contradiction. If a dispute arose, he took No. 207.] TUESDAY, MARCH 10, 1752. care to listen with earnest attention; and, when either speaker grew vehement and loud, turned towards him with eager quickness, and uttered a short phrase of admiration, as if surprised by such cogency of argument as he had never known before. By this silent concession, he generally preserved in either controvertist such a conviction of his own superiority, as inclined him rather to pity than irritate his adversary, and prevented those outrages which are sometimes produced by the rage of defeat or petulance of triumph. HOR. The voice of reason cries with winning force, SUCH is the emptiness of human enjoyment, that we are always impatient of the present. Attainment is followed by neglect, and possession by disgust; and the malicious remark of No. 207.] THE RAMBLER. sal theatre, and enjoy the pleasure of distinction the Greek' epigrammatist on marriage may be applied to every other course of life, that its Every desire, however innocent, grows dantwo days of happiness are the first and the last. Few moments are more pleasing than those gerous, as by long indulgence it becomes ascendant in the mind. When we have been much In which the mind is concerting measures for a new undertaking. From the first hint that accustomed to consider any thing as capable of wakens the fancy till the hour of actual execu- giving happiness, it is not easy to restrain our tion, all is improvement and progress, triumph ardour, or to forbear some precipitation in our and felicity. Every hour brings additions to advances, and irregularity in our pursuits. He the original scheme, suggests some new expedi- that has cultivated the tree, watched the swellent to secure success, or discovers consequential ing bud and opening blossom, and pleased himadvantages not hitherto foreseen. While pre-self with computing how much every sun and parations are made, and materials accumulated, shower add to its growth, scarcely stays till day glides after day through elysian prospects, the fruit has obtained its maturity, but defeats his own cares by eagerness to reward them. and the heart dances to the song of hope. Such is the pleasure of projecting, that many When we have diligently laboured for any purcontent themselves with a succession of vision-pose, we are willing to believe that we have atary schemes, and wear out their allotted time in the calm amusement of contriving what they never attempt or hope to execute. Others, not able to feast their imagination with pure ideas, advance somewhat nearer to the grossness of action, with great diligence collect whatever is requisite to their design, and, after a thousand researches and consultations, are snatched away by death, as they stand in procinctu waiting for a proper opportunity to begin. If there were no other end of life, than to find some adequate solace for every day, I know not whether any condition could be preferred to that of the man who involves himself in his own thoughts, and never suffers experience to show him the vanity of speculation; for no sooner are notions reduced to practice, than tranquillity and confidence forsake the breast; every day brings its task, and often without bringing abilities to perform it; difficulties embarrass, uncertainty perplexes, opposition retards, censure exasperates, or neglect depresses. We proceed because we have begun; we complete our design that the labour already spent may not be vain; but, as expectation gradually dies away, the gay smile of alacrity disappears, we are compelled to implore severer powers, and trust the event to patience and constancy. tained it, and because we have already done much, too suddenly conclude that no more is to be done. All attraction is increased by the approach of the attracting body. We never find ourselves so desirous to finish, as in the latter part of our work, or so impatient of delay, as when we know that delay cannot be long. This unseasonable importunity of discontent may be partly imputed to languor and weariness, which must always oppress those more whose toil has been longer continued; but the greater part usually proceeds from frequent contemplation of that case which is now considered as within reach, and which, when it has once flattered our hopes, we cannot suffer to be withheld. In some of the noblest compositions of wit, the conclusion falls below the vigour and spirit of the first books; and as a genius is not to be degraded by the imputation of human failings, the cause of this declension is commonly sought in the structure of the work, and plausible reasons are given why in the defective part less ornament was necessary, or less could be admitted. But, perhaps, the author would have confessed, that his fancy was tired, and his perseverance broken; that he knew his design to be unfinished, but that, when he saw the end so near, he could no longer refuse to be at rest. Against the instillations of this frigid opiate, When once our labour has begun, the comfort that enables us to endure it is the prospect of its the heart should be secured by all the consideraWhatever motive first incited end; for though in every long work there are tions which once concurred to kindle the ardour some joyous intervals of self-applause, when the of enterprise. attention is recreated by unexpected facility, and action, has still greater force to stimulate perthe imagination scothed by incidental excel-severance; since he that might have lain still at lences; yet the toil with which performance struggles after idea is so irksome and disgusting, and so frequent is the necessity of resting below that perfection which we imagined within our reach, that seldom any man obtains more painful conviction from his endeavours than of his defects, and a continual resuscitation of desires which he feels himself unable to gratify. first in blameless obscurity, cannot afterwards desist but with infamy and reproach. He whom a doubtful promise of distant good could encourage to set difficulties at defiance, ought not to remit his vigour when he has almost obtained his recompense. To faint or loiter, when only the last efforts are required, is to steer the ship through tempests, and abandon it to the winds in sight of land; it is to break the ground and scatter the seed, and at last to neglect the harvest. So certainly is weariness the concomitant of our undertakings, that every man, in whatThe masters of rhetoric direct, that the most ever he is engaged, consoles himself with the hope of change; if he has made his way by as-forcible arguments be produced in the latter part siduity to public employment, he talks among his friends of the delight of retreat; if, by the necessity of solitary application, he is secluded from the world, he listens with a beating heart to distant noises, longs to mingle with living beings, and resolves to take hereafter his fill of diversions, or display his abilities on the univer of an oration, lest they should be effaced or perplexed by supervenient images. This precept may be justly extended to the series of life: nothing is ended with honour, which does not conclude better than it began. It is not sufficient to maintain the first vigour; for excellence loses its effect upon the mind by custom, as light after a time ceases to dazzle. Admiration must | liberal, the caresses of the great, or the praises be continued by that novelty which first pro- of the eminent. duced it, and how much soever is given, there But I have no design to gratify pride by submust always be reason to imagine that more re-mission, or malice by lamentation; nor think it mains. reasonable to complain of neglect from those We not only are most sensible of the last im- whose regard I never solicited. If I have not pressions; but such is the unwillingness of man- been distinguished by the distributors of literary kind to admit transcendant merit, that though it honours, I have seldom descended to the arts by be difficult to obliterate the reproach of miscar- which favour is obtained. I have seen the me riages by any subsequent achievement, however teors of fashion rise and fall, without any atillustrious, yet the reputation raised by a long tempt to add a moment to their duration. I have train of success may be finally ruined by a single never complied with temporary curiosity, nor failure; for weakness or error will be always re-enabled my readers to discuss the topic of the membered by that malice and envy which it gratifies. day; I have rarely exemplified my assertions by living characters: in my papers, no man could look for censures of his enemies, or praises of himself; and they only were expected to peruse them, whose passions left them leisure for ab stracted truth, and whom virtue could please by For the prevention of that disgrace, which lassitude and negligence may bring at last upon the greatest performances, it is necessary to proportion carefully our labour to our strength. If the design comprises many parts, equally essen-its naked dignity. tial, and therefore not to be separated, the only time for caution is before we engage; the powers of the mind must be then impartially estimated, and it must be remembered, that not to complete the plan is not to have begun it; and that nothing is done, while any thing is omitted. But if the task consists in the repetition of single acts, no one of which derives its efficacy from the rest, it may be attempted with less scruple, because there is always opportunity to retreat with honour. The danger is only, lest we expect from the world the indulgence with which most are disposed to treat themselves; and in the hour of listlessness imagine that the diligence of one day will atone for the idleness of another, and that applause begun by approbation will be continued by habit. He that is himself weary will soon weary the public. Let him therefore lay down his employment, whatever it be, who can no longer exert his former activity or attention; let him not endeavour to struggle with censure, or obstinately infest the stage till a general hiss commands him to depart. No. 208.] SATUrday, March 14, 1752. DIOG. LAERT. Begone, ye blockheads, Heraclitus cries, TIME, which puts an end to all human pleasures and sorrows, has likewise concluded the labours of the Rambler. Having supported, for two years, the anxious employment of a periodical writer, and multiplied my essays to upwards of two hundred, I have now determined to desist. To some, however, I am indebted for encouragement, and to others for assistance. The number of my friends was never great, but they have been such as would not suffer me to think that I was writing in vain, and I did not feel much dejection from the want of popularity. My obligations having not been frequent, my acknowledgments may be soon despatched. I can restore to all my correspondents their productions, with little diminution of the bulk of my volumes, though not without the loss of some pieces to which particular honours have been paid. The parts from which I claim no other praise than that of having given them an opportunity of appearing, are the four billets in the tenth paper, the second letter in the fifteenth, the thirtieth, the forty-fourth, the ninety-seventh, and the hundredth papers, and the second letter in the hundred and seventh. Having thus deprived myself of many excuses which candour might have admitted for the inequality of my compositions, being no longer able to allege the necessity of gratifying corre spondents, the importunity with which publica tion was solicited, or obstinacy with which correction was rejected, I must remain accountable for all my faults, and submit, without subterfuge, to the censures of criticism, which, however, I shall not endeavour to soften by a formal deprecation, or to overbear by the influence of a patron. The supplications of an author never yet reprieved him a moment from oblivion; and, though greatness has sometimes sheltered guilt, it can afford no protection to ignorance or dulness. Having hitherto attempted only the propagation of truth, I will not at last violate it by the confession of terrors which I do not feel; having laboured to maintain the dignity of virtue, I will not now degrade it by the meanness of dedication. The seeming vanity with which I have sometimes spoken of myself, would perhaps require an apology, were it not extenuated by the examThe reasons of this resolution it is of little ple of those who have published essays before importance to declare, since justification is un- me, and by the privilege which every nameless necessary when no objection is made. I am writer has been hitherto allowed. "A mask," far from supposing that the cessation of my per- says Castiglione, "confers a right of acting and formances will raise any inquiry, for I have speaking with less restraint, even when the never been much a favourite of the public, nor wearer happens to be known." He that is dis can boast that, in the progress of my undertak-covered without his own consent, may claim ng I have been animated by the rewards of the some indulgence, and cannot be rigorously called to justify those sadies or frolics which his disguise must prove him desirous to conceal. But I have been cautious lest this offence should be frequently or grossly committed; for, as one of the philosophers directs us to live with a friend, as with one that is some time to become an enemy. I have always thought it the duty of an anonymous author to write, as if he expected to be hereafter known. I am willing to flatter myself with hopes that, by collecting these papers I am not preparing, for my future life, either shame or repentance. That all are happily imagined, or accurately polished, that the same sentiments have not sometimes recurred, or the same expressions been too frequently repeated, I have not confidence in my abilities sufficient to warrant. He that condemns himself to compose on a stated day, will often bring to his task an attention dissipated, a memory embarrassed, an imagination overwhelmed, a nind distracted with anxieties, a body languishing with disease: he will labour on a barren topic, till it is too late to change it; or, in the ardour of invention, diffuse his thoughts into wild exuberance, which the pressing hour of publication cannot suffer judgment to examine or reduce. may be found, of which the highest excellence is harmless merriment, but scarcely any man is so steadily serious as not to complain, that the severity of dictatorial instruction has been too seldom relieved, and that he is driven by the sternness of the Rambler's philosophy to more cheerful and airy companions. Next to the excursions of fancy are the disquisitions of criticism, which, in my opinion, is only to be ranked among the subordinate and instrumental arts. Arbitrary decision and general exclamation I have carefully avoided, by asserting nothing without a reason, and establishing all my principles of judgment on unalterable and evident truth. In the pictures of life I have never been so studious of novelty or surprise, as to depart wholly from all resemblance; a fault which writers deservedly celebrated frequently commit, that they may raise, as the occasion requires, either mirth or abhorrence. Some enlargement may be allowed to declamation, and some exaggeration to burlesque; but as they deviate further from reality, they become less useful, because their lessons will fail of application. The mind of the reader is carried away from the contemplation of his own manners; he finds in himself no likeness to the phantom before him; and, though he laughs or rages, is not reformed. The essays professedly serious, if I have been able to execute my own intentions, will be found exactly conformable to the precepts of Christian Whatever shall be the final sentence of mankind, I have at least endeavoured to deserve their kindness. I have laboured to refine our language to grammatical purity, and to clear it from colloquial barbarisms, licentious idioms, and irregular combinations. Something, per-ity, without any accommodation to the licenhaps, I have added to the elegance of its con- tiousness and levity of the present age. I therestruction, and something to the harmony of its fore look back on this part of my work with cadence. When common words were less pleasure, which no blame or praise of man can pleasing to the ear, or less distinct in their signi- diminish or augment. I shall never envy the fication, I have familiarised the terms of philo-honours which wit and learning obtain in any sophy, by applying them to popular ideas, but have rarely admitted any word not authorised by former writers; for I believe that whoever knows the English tongue in its present extent, will be able to express his thoughts without farther help from other nations. As it has been my principal design to inculcate wisdom or piety, I have allotted a few papers to the idle sports of imagination. Some, perhaps, other cause, if I can be numbered among the writers, who have given ardour to virtue, and confidence to truth. Αὑτῶν ἐκ μακάρων ἀνταξιος εἴη ἀμοιβή. Celestial powers; that piety regard, END OF THE RAMBLER. PAPERS IN THE ADVENTURER. No. 34.] SATURDAY, MARCH 3, 1753. SIR, Has toties optata exegit gloria panas. JUV. Fleet Prison, Feb. 24. As I entered into the world very young, with an elegant person and a large estate, it was not long before I disentangled myself from the shackles of religion; for I was determined to the pursuit of pleasure, which, according to my notions, consisted in the unrestrained and unlimited gratifications of every passion and every ap petite; and as this could not be obtained under the frowns of a perpetual dictator, I considered her with contempt and derision, was not a little religion as my enemy; and proceeding to treat delighted, that the unfashionableness of her appearance, and the unanimated uniformity of her sallies of my imagination. motions, afforded frequent opportunities for the To a benevolent disposition, every state of life will afford some opportunities of contributing to the welfare of mankind. Opulence and splendour are enabled to dispel the cloud of adversity, to dry up the tears of the widow and the orphan, and to increase the felicity of all around them; their example will animate virtue, and retard fied to laugh away scruples, I imparted my reConceiving now that I was sufficiently qualithe progress of vice. And even indigence and marks to those among my female favourites, obscurity, though without power to confer hap-whose virtue I intended to attack; for I was piness, may at least prevent misery, and apprize those who are blinded by their passions, that they are on the brink of irremediable calamity. Pleased, therefore, with the thought of recovering others from that folly which has embittered my own days, I have presumed to address the Adventurer from the dreary mansions of wretchedness and despair, of which the gates are so wonderfully constructed as to fly open for the reception of strangers, though they are impervious as a rock of adamant to such as are within them: Suffer me to acquaint you, Sir, that I have glittered at the ball, and sparkled in the circle; that I have had the happiness to be the unknown favourite of an unknown lady at the masquerade, have been the delight of tables of the first fashion, and envy of my brother beaux; and to descend a little lower, it is, I believe, still remembered, that Messrs. Velours and d'Espagne stand indebted for a great part of their present influence at Guildhall, to the elegance of my shape, and the graceful freedom of my carriage. Sed quæ præclara et prospera tanti, Ut rebus latis par sit mensura malorum ! JUV. well assured, that pride would be able to make but a weak defence, when religion was subvertthe love of pleasure is too strongly implanted in ed; nor was my success below my expectation: the female breast, to suffer them scrupulously to examine the validity of arguments designed to weaken restraint; all are easily led to believe, that whatever thwarts their inclination must be wrong; little more, therefore, was required, than by the addition of some circumstances, and the exaggeration of others, to make merriment supply the place of demonstration; nor was I so senseless as to offer arguments to such as could not attend to them, and with whom a repartee or catch would more effectually answer the same purpose. This being effected, there remained only "the dread of the world;" but Roxana soared too high, to think the opinion of others worthy her notice; Lætitia seemed to think of it only to declare, that "if all her hairs were worlds," she should reckon them "well lost for love;" and Pastorella fondly conceived, that she could dwell for ever by the side of a bubbling fountain, content with her swain and fleecy care; without considering that stillness and solitude can afford satisfaction only to innocence. It is not the desire of new acquisitions, but the glory of conquests, that fires the soldier's breast; as indeed the town is seldom worth much, when it has suffered the devastations of a siege; so that though I did not openly declare the effects of my own prowess, which is forbidden by the laws of honour, it cannot be supposed that I was very solicitous to bury my reputation, or to hinder accidental discoveries. have gained one victory, is an inducement to To |