and salutary, seems to be equally confessed on having received, from the concurrent opinion of all hands; since even those that reject it, allow all mankind, a notion that to be rich was to be for the most part that rejection to be wrong, but great and happy, I thought I had obtained my charge the fault upon the unskilful manner in advantages at an easy rate, and resolved to conwhich it is given: they admit the efficacy of the tinue the same passive attention, since I found medicine, but abhor the nauseousness of the ve-myself so powerfully recommended by it to kindhicle. Thus mankind have gone on from century to century: some have been advising others how to act, and some have been teaching the advisers how to advise; yet very little alteration has been made in the world. As we must all by the law of nature enter life in ignorance, we must all make our way through it by the light of our own experience; and for any security that advice has been yet able to afford, must endeavour after success at the hazard of miscarriage, and learn to do right by venturing to do wrong. ness and esteem. The desire of advising has a very extensive prevalence; and since advice cannot be given but to those that will hear it, a patient listener is necessary to the accommodation of all those who desire to be confirmed in the opinion of their own wisdom: a patient listener, however, is not always to be had; the present age, whatever age is present, is so vitiated and disordered, that young people are readier to talk than to at tend, and good counsel is only thrown away upon those who are full of their own perfec tions. By advice I would not be understood to mean, the everlasting and invariable principles of moral I was, therefore, in this scarcity of good sense, and religious truth, from which no change of ex- a general favourite; and seldom saw a day in ternal circumstances can justify any deviation; which some sober matron did not invite me to but such directions as respect merely the pru- her house, or take me out in her chariot, for the dential part of conduct, and which may be fol- sake of instructing me how to keep my charac lowed or neglected without any violation of es-ter in this censorious age, how to conduct my sential duties. self in the time of courtship, how to stipulate for a settlement, how to manage a husband of every character, regulate my family, and educate my children. It is, indeed, not so frequently to make us good as to make us wise, that our friends employ the officiousness of counsel; and among the rejecters of advice, who are mentioned by the grave and sententious with so much acrimony, you will not so often find the vicious and abandoned, as the pert and the petulant, the vivacious and the giddy. As the great end of female education is to get a husband, this likewise is the general subject of female advice; and the dreadful denunciation against those volatile girls, who will not listen patiently to the lectures of wrinkled wisdom, is, that they will die unmarried, or throw themselves away upon some worthless fellow, who will never be able to keep them a coach. We are all naturally credulous in our own fa vour. Having been so often caressed and ap plauded for docility, I was willing to believe myself really enlightened by instruction, and completely qualified for the task of life. I did not doubt but I was entering the world with a mind furnished against all exigencies, with expedients to extricate myself from every difficulty, and sagacity to provide against every danger, I was therefore, in haste to give some specimen of my prudence, and to show that this liberality of instruction had not been idly lavished upon a mind incapable of improvement. I being naturally of a ductile and easy temper, My purpose, for why should I deny it? was without strong desires or quick resentments, was like that of other women, to obtain a husband cf always a favourite amongst the elderly ladies, rank and fortune superior to my own; and in because I never rebelled against seniority, nor this I had the concurrence of all those that had could be charged with thinking myself wise be- assumed the province of directing me. That fore my time; but heard every opinion with sub- the woman was undone who married below her missive silence, professed myself ready to learn self, was universally agreed: and though some from all who seemed inclined to teach me, paid ventured to assert, that the richer man ought inthe same grateful acknowledgments for precepts variably to be preferred, and that money was a contradictory to each other, and if any contro-sufficient compensation for a defective ancestry; versy arose, was careful to side with her who presided in the company. Of this compliance I very early found the advantage; for my aunt Matilda left me a very large addition to my fortune, for this reason chiefly, as she herself declared, because I was not above hearing good counsel, but would sit from morning till night to be instructed, while my sister Sukey, who was a year younger than myself, and was, therefore, in greater want of information, was so much conceited of her own knowledge, that whenever the good lady in the ardour of benevolence reproved or instructed her, she would pout or titter, interrupt her with questions, or embarrass her with objections. I had no design to supplant my sister by this complaisant attention; nor, when the consequence of my obsequiousness came to be known, did Sukey so much envy as despise me: I was, nowever, very well pleased with my success; and yet the majority declared warmly for a gentleman, and were of opinion that upstarts should not be encouraged. With regard to other qualifications, I had an irreconcilable variety of instructions. I was sometimes told that deformity was no defect in a man; and that he who was not encouraged to intrigue by an opinion of his person, was more likely to value the tenderness of his wife: but a grave widow directed me to choose a man who might imagine himself agreeable to me, for that the deformed were always insupportably vigilant and apt to sink into sullenness, or burst into rage, if they found their wife's eye wandering for a moment to a good face or a handsome shape. They were, however, all unanimous in warning me, with repeated cautions, against all thoughts of union with a wit, as a being with whom no happiness could possibly be enjoyed 1 men of every other kind I was taught to govern, but a wit was an animal for whom no arts of taming had been yet discovered: the woman whom he could once get within his power, was considered as lost to all hope of dominion or of quiet: for he would detect artifice and defeat allurement; and if once he discovered any failure of conduct, would believe his own eyes, in defiance of tears, caresses, and protestations. In pursuance of these sage principles, I proceeded to form my schemes; and while I was yet in the first bloom of youth, was taken out at an assembly by Mr. Frisk. I am afraid my checks glowed, and my eyes sparkled; for I observed the looks of all my superintendents fixed anxiously upon me; and I was next day cautioned against him from all hands, as a man of the most dangerous and formidable kind, who had writ verses to one lady, and then forsaken her only because she could not read them, and had lampooned another for no other fault than defaming his sister. Having been hitherto accustomed to obey, I ventured to dismiss Mr. Frisk, who happily did not think me worth the labour of a lampoon. I was then addressed by Mr. Sturdy, and congratulated by all my friends on the manors of which I was shortly to be lady: but Sturdy's conversation was so gross, that after the third visit I could endure him no longer; and incurred, by dismissing him, the censure of all my friends, who declared that my nicety was greater than my prudence, and that they feared it would be my fate at last to be wretched with a wit. that he should think rightly; but since a fallible being will always make some deviations from exact rectitude, it is not wholly useless to inquire towards which side it is safer to decline. The prejudices of mankind seem to favour him who errs by underrating his own powers: he is considered as a modest and harmless member of society, not likely to break the peace by competition, to endeavour after such splendour of reputation as may dim the lustre of others, or to interrupt any in the enjoyment of themselves; he is no man's rival, and, therefore, may be eve ry man's friend. The opinion which a man entertains of himself ought to be distinguished, in order to an accurate discussion of this question, as it relates to persons or to things. To think highly of ourselves in comparison with others, to assume by our own authority that precedence which none is willing to grant, must be always invidious and offensive; but to rate our powers high in proportion to things, and imagine ourselves equal to great undertakings, while we leave others in possession of the same abilities, cannot with equal justice provoke censure. It must be confessed, that self-love may dispose us to decide too hastily in our own favour: but who is hurt by the mistake? If we are incited by this vain opinion to attempt more than we can perform, ours is the labour, and ours is the disgrace. that succeeds him; and even though he should wholly fail, he will fail with honour. But he that dares to think well of himself, will not always prove to be mistaken; and the good effects of his confidence will then appear in great By a wit, however, I was never afterwards at- attempts and great performances: if he should tacked, but lovers of every other class, or pre- not fully complete his design, he will at least adtended lovers, I have often had; and notwith-vance it so far as to leave an easier task for him standing the advice constantly given me, to have no regard in my choice to my own inclinations, I could not forbear to discard some for vice, and some for rudeness. I was once loudly censured for refusing an old gentleman who offered an enormous jointure, and died of the phthisic a year after; and was so baited with incessant importunities, that I should have given my hand to Drone the stock-jobber, had not the reduction of interest made him afraid of the expenses of matrimony. Some indeed, I was permitted to encourage; but miscarried of the main end, by treating them according to the rules of art which had been prescribed me. Altilis, an old maid, infused into me so much haughtiness and reserve, that some of my lovers withdrew themselves from my frown, and returned no more, others were driven away, by the demands of settlement which the widow Trapland directed me to make; and I have learned, by many experiments, that to ask advice is to lose opportunity. I am sir, your humble servant, No. 81.] TUESDAY, AUG. 14, 1753. PERDITA. HOR. But from the opposite error, from torpid despondency, can come no advantage; it is the frost of the soul, which binds up all its powers, and congeals life in perpetual sterility. He that has no hopes of success, will make no attempts; and where nothing is attempted, nothing can be done. Every man should, therefore, endeavour to maintain in himself a favourable opinion of the powers of the human mind; which are, perhaps, in every man, greater than they appear, and might, by diligent cultivation, be exalted to a degree beyond what their possessor presumes to believe. There is scarce any man but has found himself able, at the instigation of necessity, to do what in a state of leisure and deliberation he would have concluded impossible; and some of our species have signalized themselves by such achievements, as prove that there are few things above human hope. It has been the policy of all nations to preserve, by some public monuments, the memory of those who have served their country by great exploits: there is the same reason for continuing or reviving the names of those, whose extensive abilities have dignified humanity. An honest emulation may be alike excited; and the philosopher's curiosity may be inflamed by a catalogue of the works of Boyle or Bacon, as TheI HAVE Sometimes heard it disputed in conver-mistocles was kept awake by the trophies of sation, whether it be more laudable or desirable, that a man should think too highly or too meanly of himself: it is on all hands agreed to be best, Nil desperandum. Avaunt despair. Miltiades. Among the favourites of nature that have from time to time appeared in the world, enrich ed with various endowments and contrarieties of excellence, none seems to have been more exalted above the common rate of humanity, than the man known about two centuries ago by the appellation of the Admirable Crichton; of whose history, whatever we may suppress as surpassing credibility, yet we shall, upon incontestable authority, relate enough to rank him among prodigies. 66 Virtue," says Virgil, "is better accepted when it comes in a pleasing form:" the person of Crichton was eminently beautiful; but his beauty was consistent with such activity and strength, that in fencing he would spring at one bound the length of twenty feet upon his antagonist; and he used the sword in either hand with such force and dexterity, that scarce any one had courage to engage him. Having studied at St. Andrew's in Scotland, he went to Paris in his twenty-first year, and affixed on the gate of the college of Navarre a kind of challenge to the learned of that university to dispute with him on a certain day: offering to his opponents, whoever they should be the choice of ten languages, and of all the faculties and sciences. On the day appointed three thousand auditors assembled, when four doctors of the church and fifty masters appeared against him; and one of his antagonists confesses, that the doctors were defeated; that he gave proofs of knowledge above the reach of man; and that a hundred years passed without food or sleep, would not be sufficient for the attainment of his learning. After a disputation of nine hours, he was presented by the president and professors with a diamond and a purse of gold, and dismissed with repeated acclamations. From Paris he went away to Rome, where he made the same challenge, and had in the presence of the Pope and cardinals the same success. Afterwards he contracted at Venice an acquaintance with Aldus Manutius, by whom he was introduced to the learned of that city: then visited Padua, where he engaged in another public disputation, beginning his performance with an extemporal poem in praise of the city and the assembly then present, and concluding with an oration equally unpremeditated in commendation of ignorance. He afterwards published another challenge, in which he declared himself ready to detect the errors of Aristotle and all his commentators, either in the common forms of logic, or in any which his antagonists should propose of a hundred different kinds of verse. tennis, that a lainpoon was fixed upon the gate of the Sorbonne, directing those that would see this monster of erudition, to look for him at the tavern. So extensive was his acquaintance with life and manners, that in an Italian comedy composed by himself, and exhibited before the court of Mantua, he is said to have personated fifteen different characters: in all of which he might succeed without great difficulty, since he had such power of retention, that once hearing an oration of an hour, he would repeat it exactly, and in the recital follow the speaker through all his variety of tone and gesticulation. Nor was his skill in arms less than in learn ing, or his courage inferior to his skill: there was a prize-fighter at Mantua, who travelling about the world, according to the barbarous custom of that age, as a general challenger, had defeated the most celebrated masters in many parts of Europe; and in Mantua, where he then resided, had killed three that appeared against him. The duke repented that he had granted him his protection; when Crichton, looking on his sanguinary success with indignation, offered to stake fifteen hundred pistoles, and mount the stage against him. The duke, with some reluctance, consented, and on the day fixed, the combatants appeared: their weapon seems to have been single rapier, which was then newly introduced in Italy. The prize-fighter advanced with great violence and fierceness, and Crichton contented himself calmly to ward his passes, and suffered him to exhaust his vigour by his own fury. Crichton then became the assailant; and press ed upon him with such force and agility, that he thrust him thrice through the body, and saw him expire; he then divided the prize he had won among the widows whose husbands had been killed. The death of this wonderful man I should be willing to conceal, did I not know that every reader will inquire curiously after that fatal hour, which is common to all human beings, however distinguished from each other by nature or by fortune. The duke of Mantua having received so many proofs of his various merit, made him tutor to his son Vicentio di Gozaga, a prince of loose manners and turbulent disposition. On this occasion it was, that he composed the comedy in which he exhibited so many different characters with exact propriety. But his honour was of short continuance: for as he was one night in the time of Carnival rambling about the streets, with his guitar in his hand, he was attacked by six These acquisitions of learning, however stu- men masked. Neither his courage nor skill in pendous, were not gained at the expense of any this exigence deserted him: he opposed them pleasure which youth generally indulges, or by with such activity and spirit, that he soon disthe omission of any accomplishment in which it persed them, and disarmed their leader, who becomes a gentleman to excel. He practised in throwing off his mask, discovered himself to be great perfection the arts of drawing and paint- the prince his pupil. Crichton, falling on his ing, he was an eminent performer in both vocal knees, took his own sword by the point, and and instrumental music, he danced with uncom- presented it to the prince; who immediately mon gracefulness, and on the day after his dis- seized it, and instigated, as some say, by jea putation at Paris exhibited his skill in horseman-lousy, according to others only by drunken fury ship before the court of France, where at a pub- and brutal resentment, thrust him through the Ic match of tilting, he bore away the ring upon heart. his lance fifteen times together. He excelled likewise in domestic games of less dignity and reputation: and, in the interval between his challenge and disputation at Paris, be spent so much of his time at cards, dice, and Thus was the admirable Crichton brought into that state, in which he could excel the meanest of mankind only by a few empty honours paid to his memory: the court of Mantua testified their esteem by a public mourning, the contem porary wits were profuse of their encomiums, | was easy to observe the affected elevation of and the palaces of Italy were adorned with pictures, representing him on horseback, with a lance in one hand and a book in the other. mien with which every one entered, and the supercilious civility with which they paid their compliments to each other. When the first ceremony was despatched, we sat silent for a long time, all employed in collecting importance into our faces, and endeavouring to strike reverence and submission into our companions. It is always observable, that silence propagates itself, and that the longer talk has been suspended, the more difficult it is to find any thing to say. We began now to wish for conversation; but no one seemed inclined to descend from his dignity, or first propose a topic of discourse. At last a corpulent gentleman, who had equipped himself for this expedition with a scarlet surtout and a large hat with a broad lace, drew out his watch, looking on it in silence, and then held it dangling at his finger. This was, I suppose, understood by all the company as an invitation to ask the time of the day, but nobody appeared to heed his overture; and his desire to be talking so far overcame his resentment, that he let us know of his own accord that it was past five, and that in two hours we should be at breakfast. employ himself in counting the trees as we drove by them, the other drew his hat over his eyes, and counterfeited a slumber. The man of benevolence, to show that he was not depressed by our neglect, hummed a tune, and beat time upon his snuff-box. That the position itself is true, I am not completely satisfied. To be nearly acquainted with His condescension was thrown away; we the people of different countries can happen to continued all obdurate; the ladies held up their very few; and in life, as in every thing else be- heads; I amused myself with watching their beheld at a distance, there appears an even uni-haviour; and of the other two, one seemed to formity: the petty discriminations which diversify the natural character, are not discoverable but by a close inspection; we, therefore, find them most at home, because there we have most opportunities of remarking them. Much less am I convinced, that this peculiar diversification, if it be real, is the consequence of peculiar liberty; for where is the government to be found that superintends individuals with so much vigilance, as not to leave their private conduct without restraint? Can it enter into a reasonable mind to imagine, that men of every other nation are not equally masters of their own time or houses with ourselves; and equally at liberty to be parsimonious or profuse, frolic or sullen, abstinent or luxurious? Liberty is certainly necessary to the full play of predominant humours; but such liberty is to be found alike under the government of the many or the few, in monarchies or in commonwealths. Thus universally displeased with one another, and not much delighted with ourselves, we came at last to the little inn appointed for our repast; and all began at once to recompense themselves for the constraint of silence, by innumerable questions and orders to the people that attended us. At last, what every one had called for was got, or declared impossible to be got at that time, and we were persuaded to sit round the same table; when the gentleman in the red surtout looked again upon his watch, told us that we had half an hour to spare, but he was sorry to see so little merriment among us; that all fellowtravellers were for the time upon the level, and that it was always his way to make himself one of the company. "I remember," says he, "it was on just such a morning as this, that I and my Lord Mumble and the duke of Tenterden were out upon a ramble: we called at a little house, as it might be this; and my landlady, I warrant you, not suspecting to whom she was talk How readily the predominant passion snatches an interval of liberty, and how fast it expands itself when the weight of restraint is taken away, I had lately an opportunity to discover, as I took a journey into the country in a stage coach, which, as every journey is a kind of adventure, may be very properly related to you, though I can display no such extraordinary assembly as Cer-ing, was so jocular and facetious, and made so vantes has collected at Don Quixote's inn. In a stage coach, the passengers are for the most part wholly unknown to one another, and without expectation of ever meeting again when their journey is at an end; one should therefore imagine, that it was of little importance to any of them, what conjectures the rest should form concerning him. Yet so it is that as all think themselves secure from detection, all assume that character of which they are most desirous, and on no occasion is the general ambition of superiority more apparently indulged. On the day of our departure, in the twilight of the morning, I ascended the vehicle with three men and two women, my fellow-travellers. It many merry answers to our questions, that we were all ready to burst with laughter. At last the good woman happening to overhear me whisper the duke, and call him by this title, was so surprised and confounded, that we could scarcely get a word from her; and the duke never met me from that day to this, but he talks of the little house, and quarrels with me for terrifying the landlady." He had scarcely time to congratulate himself on the veneration which this narrative must have procured him from the company, when one of the ladies having reached out for a plate on a distant part of the table, began to remark “the inconveniences of travelling, and the difficulty which they who never sat at home without a great number of attendants, found in performing for themselves such offices as the road required; but that people of quality often travelled in disguise, and might be generally known from the vulgar by their condescension to poor innkeepers, and the allowance which they made for any defect in their entertainment; that for her part, while people were civil and meant well, it was never her custom to find fault, for one was not to expect upon a journey all that one enjoyed at one's own house." could make no disadvantageous detection, be- A general emulation now seemed to be excited. But, Mr. Adventurer, let not those who laugh One of the men who had hitherto said nothing, at me and my companions, think this folly con called for the last newspaper; and having pe-fined to a stage coach. Every man in the jour rused it a while with deep pensiveness, "It isney of life takes the same advantage of the igno impossible," says he, "for any man to guess rance of his fellow travellers, disguises himself in how to act with regard to the stocks; last week counterfeit merit, and hears those praises with it was the general opinion that they would fall; complacency, which his conscience reproaches and I sold out twenty thousand pounds in order him for accepting. Every man deceives himself, to a purchase; they have now risen unexpect- while he thinks he is deceiving others; and for edly; and I make no doubt but at my return to gets that the time is at hand when every illusion London I shall risk thirty thousand pounds shall cease, when fictitious excellence shall be among them again." torn away, and all must be shown to all in their real estate. I am, Sir, your humble servant, TUESDAY, AUG. 28, 1753. VIATOR. Qui cupit optatam cursu contingere metam, A young man, who had hitherto distinguished himself only by the vivacity of his looks, and a frequent diversion of his eyes from one object to another, upon this closed his snuff box, and told us that "he had a hundred times talked with the chancellor and the judges on the subject of No. 85.] the stocks; that for his part he did not pretend to be well acquainted with the principles on which they were established, but had always heard them reckoned pernicious to trade, uncertain in their produce, and unsolid in their foundation; and that he had been advised by three judges, his most intimate friends, never to venture his money in the funds, but to put it out upon land security, till he could light upon an estate in his own country." It might be expected, that upon these glimpses of latent dignity, we should all have begun to look round us with veneration; and have behaved like the princes of romance, when the enchantment that disguises them is dissolved, and they discover the dignity of each other; yet it happened, that none of these hints made much impression on the company; every one was apparently suspected of endeavouring to impose false appearances upon the rest; all continued their haughtiness in hopes to enforce their claims; and all grew every hour more sullen, because they found their representations of themselves without effect. Thus we travelled on four days with malevolence perpetually increasing, and without any endeavour but to outvie each other in superciliousness and neglect; and when any two of us could separate ourselves for a moment, we vented our indignation at the sauciness of the rest. At length the journey was at an end; and time and chance, that strip off all disguises, have discovered that the intimate of lords and dukes is a nobleman's butler, who has furnished a shop with the money he has saved; the man who deals so largely in the funds, is the clerk of a broker in 'Change-alley; the lady who so carefully concealed her quality, keeps a cookshop behind the Exchange; and the young man who is so happy in the friendship of the judges, engrosses and transcribes for bread in a garret of the Temple. Of one of the women only I The youth, who hopes th' Olympic prize to gain, HOR FRANCIS IT is observed by Bacon, that "reading makes a full man, conversation a ready man, and writing an exact man." As Bacon attained to degrees of knowledge scarcely ever reached by any other man, the directions which he gives for study have certainly a just claim to our regard; for who can teach an art with so great authority, as he that has practised it with undisputed success? Under the protection of so great a name, I shall, therefore, venture to inculcate to my ingenious contemporaries, the necessity of reading, the fitness of consulting other understandings than their own, and of considering the sentiments and opinions of those who, however neglected in the present age, had in their own times, and many of them a long time afterwards, such reputation for knowledge and acuteness as will scarcely ever be attained by those that despise them. An opinion has of late been, I know not how, propagated among us, that libraries are filled only with useless lumber; that men of parts stand in need of no assistance; and that to spend life in poring upon books, is only to imbibe prejudices, to obstruct and embarrass the powers of nature, to cultivate memory at the expense of judgment, and to bury reason under a chaos of indigested learning. Such is the talk of many who think themselves wise,and of some who are thought wise by others; of whom part probably believe their own tenets, and part may be justly suspected of endeavouring to shelter their ignorance in multitudes, and of wishing to destroy that reputation which they have no hopes to share. It will, I believe, be |