THE RAMBLER. NUMBER LXVIII. LONDON, Saturday, November 10. 1750. Vivendum rectè, cùm propter plurima, tunc his Præcipuè caufis, ut linguas mancipiorum T Juv. HE younger Pliny has very justly obferved, that of actions which deferve our attention, the most splendid are not always the greatest. Fame, and wonder, and applaufe, are not excited but by external and adventitious VOL. III. circumstances, circumstances, often diftinct and feparate from virtue and heroifm, Eminence of station, greatness of effect, and all the favours of fortune, must concur to place excellence in public view: but fortitude, and diligence, and patience, divefted of their fhow, glide unobferved through the croud of life; and fuffer and act, though with the fame vigour and conftancy, yet without pity and without praife. This remark may be extended to all parts of life. Nothing is to be estimated by its effect upon A thousand micommon eyes and common ears. feries make filent and invifible inroads on mankind; and the heart feels innumerable throbs, which never break into complaint. Perhaps like wife our pleasures are for the most part equally fecret; and moft are born up by fome private fatiffaction, fome internal consciousness, fome latent hope, fome peculiar profpect, which they never communicate, but referve for folitary hours, and clandeftine meditation. The main of life is, indeed, compofed of small incidents and petty occurrences; of wifhes for objects not remote, and grief for disappointments of no fatal confequence; of infect vexations which fting us and fly away, impertinences which buzze a while about us, and are heard no more; of meteorous pleafures which dance before us, and are diffipated; of compliments which glide off the foul like other mufic, and are forgotten by him that gave and him that received them. Such is the general heap out of which every man is to cull his own condition. For as the chymifts tell us, that all bodies are refolvable in to to the fame elements, and that the boundless v ety of things arifes from the different proport of very few ingredients; fo a few pains, and few pleafures, are all the materials of human life; and of these the proportions are partly allotted by Providence, and partly left to the arrangement of reafon and of choice. As these are well or ill difpofed, man is for the most part happy or miferable. For very few are involved in great events, or have their thread of life entwisted with the chain of caufes on which armies or nations are fufpended. And even those who seem wholly bufied in public affairs, and elevated above low cares, or trivial pleasures, pafs the chief part of their time in familiar and domeftic fcenes. From these they came into public life, to these they are every hour recalled by paffions not to be fuppreffed, in these they have the reward of their toils, and to these at last they retire. The great end of prudence is, to give chearfulnefs to thofe hours, which splendour cannot gild, and acclamation cannot exhilarate; thofe foft intervals of unbended amusement, in which a man fhrinks to his own natural dimensions, and throws afide the ornaments or disguises, which he feels in privacy to be useless encumbrances, and to lofe all effect when they become familiar. To be happy at home, is the ultimate refult of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise and labour tends, and of which every defire prompts the prosecution. It is indeed at home that every man must be known, by those who would make a just estimate either of his virtue or felicity: for fmiles and embroidery Q 2 broidery are alike occafional; and the mind is of ten dreffed for fhow in painted honour, and fictitious benevolence. Every man must have found fome whofe lives, in every house but their own, were a continual feries of hypocrify; and who concealed, under fair appearances, bad qualities; which, whenever they thought themselves out of the reach of cenfure, broke out from their restraint, like winds imprisoned in their caverns; and whom every one had reafon to love, but they whofe love a wife man is chiefly folicitous to procure. And there are others who, without any fhow of general goodness, and without the attractions by which popularity is concilia→ ted, are received among their own families as beftowers of happiness, and reverenced as inftructors, guardians, and benefactors. The most authentic witnesses of any man's character, are those who know him in his own family, and fee him without any restraint, or rule of conduct, but fuch as he voluntarily prefcribes to himfelf. If a man carries virtue with him into his private apartments, and takes no advantage of unlimited power, or probable fecrecy; if we trace him through the round of his time, and find that his character, with those allowances which mortal frailty must always want, is uniform and regular, we have all the evidence of his fincerity that one man can have with regard to another. And indeed, as hypocrify cannot be its own reward, we may, without hesitation, determine that his heart is pure. The highest panegyric therefore that private virtue can receive, is the praise of fervants. For, however however vanity or infolence may look down with contempt on the fuffrage of men undignified by wealth, and unenlightened by education, it very feldom happens that they commend or blame with out juftice. Vice and virtue are easily distinguished. Oppreffion, according to Harrington's aphorifm, will be felt by thofe that cannot fee it; and perhaps it falls out very often, that, in moral queftions, the philofopher in the gown, and in the livery, differ not fo much in their fentiments, as in their language; and have equal power of difcerning right, though they cannot point it out to others with equal addrefs. There are very few faults to be committed in fo litude, or without fome agents, partners, confederates, or witneffes; and therefore the fervant must commonly know the fecrets of a master, who has any fecrets to entrust. And failings, merely perfonal, are fo frequently expofed by that fecurity which pride and folly generally produce, and fo in quifitively watched by that defire of reducing the inequalities of condition, which the lower orders of the world will always feel, that the testimony of a menial domeftic can feldom be confidered as defective for want of knowledge. And though its impartiality may be fometimes fufpected, it is at least as credible as that of equals, where rivalry inftigates cenfure, or friendship dictates palliations. The danger of betraying our weakness to our fervants, and the impoffibility of concealing it from them, may be justly confidered as one motive to a regular and irreproachable life. For no condition is more hateful or despicable, than his who has put himself in the power of his fervant; in the power of |