into difgrace. For the fame reafon it may be prudent for a writer, who apprehends that he fhall not inforce his own maxims by his domeftick character, to conceal his name, that he may not injure them.

There are, indeed, a great number whofe curiofity to gain a more familiar knowledge of fucceffful writers, is not fo much prompted by an opinion of their power to improve as to delight, and who expect from them not arguments against vice, or differtations on temperance or juftice, but flights of wit, and fallies of pleafantry, or, at leaft, acute re marks, nice distinctions, justness of fentiment, and elegance of diction.

This expectation is, indeed, fpecious and probable, and yet, fuch is the fate of all human hopes, that it is very often fruftrated, and those who raise admiration by their books, difguft by their com-, pany. A man of letters for the most part spends in the privacies of ftudy, that feafon of life in which the manners are to be foftened into eafe, and polished into elegance; and, when he has gained knowledge enough to be refpected, has neglected the minuter acts by which he might have pleafed. When he enters life, if his temper be foft and timorous, he is diffident and bafhful, from the knowledge of his defects; or if he was born with spirit and refolution, he is ferocious and arrogant, from the confcioufness of his merit: he is either diffipated by the awe of company, and unable to recollect his reading, and arrange his arguments; or he is hot and dogmatical, quick in oppofition, and tenacious in defence, disabled by his own violence, and confused by his hafte to triumph.

The

ཆོ།

The graces of writing and converfation are of different kinds, and though he who excels in one might have been with opportunities and application equally fuccefsful in the other, yet as many please by extemporary talk, though utterly unacquainted with the more accurate method, and more laboured beauties, which compofition requires; fo it is very poffible that men, wholly accuftomed to works of study, may be without that readiness of conception, and affluence of language, always neceffary to colloquial entertainment. They may want addrefs to watch the hints which converfation offers for the display of their particular attainments, or they may be fo much unfurnished with matter on common fubjects, that discourse not profeffedly literary glides over them as heterogeneous bodies, without admitting their conceptions to mix in the circulation.

A tranfition from an author's book to his converfation, is too often like an entrance into a large city, after a diftant profpect. Remotely, we fee nothing but spires of temples, and turrets of palaces, and imagine it the refidence of fplendor, grandeur, and magnificence; but, when we have paffed the gates, we find it perplexed with narrow paffages, difgraced with defpicable cottages, embarraffed with obftructions, and clouded with smoke.

NUMB. 15. TUESDAY, May 8, 1750.

Et quando uberior vitiorum copia? Quando
Major avaritia patuit finus? Alea quando
Hos animos?

What age fo large a crop of vices bore,

Or when was avarice extended more?

When were the dice with more profufion thrown?

Juv.

DRYDEN.

HERE is no grievance, publick or private,

TH

of which, fince I took upon me the office of a periodical monitor, I have received fo many, or so earnest complaints, as of the predominance of play; of a fatal paffion for cards and dice, which feems to have overturned, not only the ambition of excellence, but the defire of pleasure; to have extinguished the flames of the lover, as well as of the patriot; and threatens, in its further progrefs, to destroy all distinctions, both of rank and sex, to crufh all emulation but that of fraud, to corrupt all thofe claffes of our people, whofe ancestors have, by their virtue, their industry, or their parfimony, given them the power of living in extravagance, idleness, and vice, and to leave them without knowledge, but of the modifh games, and without wifhes, but for lucky hands.

I have found by long experience, that there are few enterprises fo hopeless as contests with the fashion, in which the opponents are not only made confident by their numbers, and ftrong by their

union, but are hardened by contempt of their antagonist, whom they always look upon as a wretch of low notions, contracted views, mean conver. fation, and narrow fortune, who envies the elevations which he cannot reach, who would gladly imbitter the happiness which his inelegance or indigence deny him to partake, and who has no other end in his advice, than to revenge his own mortification by hindering those whom their birth and taste have set above him, from the enjoyment of their fuperiority, and bringing them down to a level with himself.

Though I have never found myself much affected by this formidable cenfure, which I have incurred often enough to be acquainted with its full force, yet I fhall, in fome measure, obviate it on this occafion, by offering very little in my own name, either of argument or intreaty, fince those who fuffer by this general infatuation may be fuppofed best able to relate its effects.

SIR,

THERE feems to be fo little knowledge left

in the world, and fo little of that reflection practifed, by which knowledge is to be gained, that I am in doubt, whether I fhall be underftood, when I complain of want of opportunity for thinking; or whether a condemnation, which at present seems irreversible, to perpetual ignorance, will raife any compaffion, either in you, or your readers: yet I will venture to lay my state before you, because, I believe, it is natural, to moft minds, to take fome pleasure in complain

ing of evils, of which they have no reafon to be áfhamed.

I am the daughter of a man of great fortune, whofe diffidence of mankind, and, perhaps, the pleasure of continual accumulation, incline him to refide upon his own eftate, and to educate his children in his own house, where I was bred, if not with the moft brilliant examples of virtue before my eyes, at least remote enough from any incitements to vice; and wanting neither leisure nor books, nor the acquaintance of some perfons of learning in the neighbourhood, I endeavoured to acquire fuch knowledge as might moft recommend me to esteem, and thought myself able to fupport a conversation upon most of the fubjects, which my fex and condition made it proper for me to understand.

I had, befides my knowledge, as my mamma and my maid told me, a very fine face, and elegant fhape, and with all these advantages had been seventeen months the reigning toaft for twelve miles round, and never came to the monthly affembly, but I heard the old ladies that fat by wishing that it might end well, and their daughters criticifing my air, my features, or my drefs.

You know, Mr. Rambler, that ambition is natural to youth, and curiofity to understanding, and therefore will hear, without wonder, that I was defirous to extend my victories over those who might give more honour to the conqueror; and that I found in a country life a continual reVOL. IV.

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petition