fioned a diflike to thofe modes of life which were not made amiable to him by freedom and affability. We may promife ourselves that no fuch excrefcence will appear in the family of the Cornelii, where the father lives with his fons like their eldest brother, and the fons converfe with him as if they did it for no other reafon but that he is the wifest man of their acquaintance. As the Cornelii are eminent traders, their good correfpondence with each other is ufeful to all that know them, as well as to themfelves: And their friendship, good-will and kind offices, are difpofed of jointly as well as their fortune, fo that no one ever obliged one of them, who had not, the obligation multiplied in returns from them all. It is the most beautiful object the eyes of man can behold, to fee a man of worth and his fon live in an intire unreferved correfpondence. The mutual kindness and affection between them give an inexpreffible fatisfaction to all who know them. It is a fublime pleafure which increafes by the participation. It is as facred as friendship, as pleafureable as love, and as joyful as religion. This. ftate of mind does not only diffipate forrow, which would be extreme without it, but enlarges pleasures. which would otherwise be contemptible. The most indifferent thing has its force and beauty when it is fpoke by a kind father, and an infignificant trifle has its weight when offered by a dutiful child. I know not how to exprefs it, but I think I may call it a transplanted felf-love. All the enjoyments and fufferings which a man meets with are regarded only as they concern him in the relation he has to another. A man's very honour receives a new value to him, when he thinks that when he is in his grave, it will be had in remembrance that fuch an action was done by fuch a one's father. Such confiderations fweeten the old man's evening, and his foliloquy little time much beneath them; or, as the Italian proverb runs, The man who lives by hope will die by hunger. It should be an indifpenfible rule in life, to contract our defires to our prefent condition, and whatever may be our expectations; to live within the compafs of what we actually poffefs. It will be time enough to enjoy an estate when it comes into our hands; but if we anticipate our good-fortune, we fhall lofe the pleasure of it when it arrives, and may poffibly never poffefs what we have fo foolishly counted upon. No 192. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 10. -Uno ore omnes omnia Bona dicere, et laudare fortunas meas, Qui gnatum haberem tali ingenio praditum. L TER. Andr. A&t. 1. Sc. I All men agreed in complimenting me, and applauded my good fortune in being the father of fo towardly a fon. STOOD the other day, and beheld a father fitting in the middle of a room with a large family of children about him; and methought I could obferve in his countenance different motions of delight, as he turned his eye towards the one and the other of them. The man is a perfon moderate in his defigns for their preferment and welfare; and as he has an cafy fortune, he is not folicitous to make a great one. His eldeft fon is a child of a very towardly difpofition, and as much as the father loves him, I dare fay he will never be a knave to improve his fortune. I do not know any man who has a jufter relifh of life than the perfon I am Speaking of, or keeps a better guard against the terFors of want or the hopes of gain. It is ufual in I 3 a crowd a croud of children, for the parent to name out of his own flock all the great officers of the kingdom. There is fomething fo very furprifing in the parts of a child of a man's own, that there is nothing too great to be expected from his endowments. I know a good woman who has but three fons, and there is, fhe fays, nothing fhe expects with more certainty, than that fhe fhall fee one of them a bishop, the other a judge, and the third a court-phyfician. The humour is, that any thing which can happen to any man's child, is expected by every man for his own. But my friend, whom I was going to fpeak of, does not flatter himself with fuch vain expectations, but has his eye more upon the virtue and difpofition of his children, than their advancement or wealth. Good habits are what will certainly improve a man's fortune and reputation; but on the other fide, affluence of fortune will not as probably produce good affections of the mind. It is very natural for a man of a kind difpofition, to amufe himself with the promifes his imagination makes to him of the future condition of his children, and to reprefent to himself the figure they shall bear in the world after he has left it. When his profpects of this kind are agreeable, his fondness gives as it were a longer date to his own life; and the furvivorship of a worthy man in his fon is a pleafure fçarce inferior to the hopes of the continuance of his own life. That man is happy who can believe of his fon, that he will efcape the follies and indifcretions of which he himself was guilty, and purfue and improve every thing that was valuable in him. The continuance of his virtue is much more to be regarded than that of his life; but it is the moft lamentable of all reflections, to think that the heir of a man's fortune is fuch a one as will be a ftranger to his friends, alienated from the fame interefts, and a promoter of every thing which he himself difapproved. An eftate in poffeffion of fuch foliloquy delights him when he can fay to himself, no man can tell my child his father was either unmerciful or unjuft: My fon fhall meet many a man who fhall fay to him, I was obliged to thy father, and be my child a friend to his child for ever. It is not in the power of all men to leave illuftrious names or great fortunes to their pofterity, but they can very much conduce to their having induftry, probity, valour and justice: It is in every man's power to leave his fon the honour of defcending from a virtuous man, and add the bleffings of heaven to whatever he leaves him. I fhall end this rhapfody with a letter to an excellent young man of my acquaintance, who has lately lost a worthy father. 6 I DEAR SIR, Know no part of life more impertinent than the office of adminiftring confolation: I will not enter into it, for I cannot but applaud your grief. The virtuous principles you had from that 'excellent man, whom you have loft, have wrought in you as they ought, to make a youth of three and twenty incapable of comfort upon coming • into poffeffion of a great fortune. I doubt not • but you will honour his memory by a modeft enjoyment of his eftate; and fcorn to triumph over his grave, by employing in riot, excess, and debauchery, what he purchafed with fo much induftry, prudence, and wifdom. This is the true < way to fhew the fenfe you have of your lofs, and to take away the distress of others upon the oc'cafion. You cannot recal your father by your grief, but you may revive him to his friends by 'your conduct.' THURSDAY, No 193. THURSDAY, OCTOBER II. Ingentem foribus domus alta fuperbis Mane falutantum totis vomit ædibus undam. VIRG. Georg. ii. ver. 461. His Lordship's palace, from its stately doors, WHEN HEN we look round us, and behold the ftrange variety of faces and perfons which fill the ftreets with business and hurry, it is no unpleasant amufement to make guefles at their different purfuits, and judge by their countenances what it is that fo anxioufly engages their present attention. Of all this bufy croud, there are none who would give a man inclined to fuch inquiries better diverfion for his thoughts, than thofe whom we call good courtiers, and fuch as are affiduous ar the levees of great men. Thefe worthies are got into an habit of being fervile with an air, and enjoy a certain vanity in being known for underftanding how the world paffes. In the pleasure of this they can rife early, go abroad fleek and well-dreffed, with no other hope or purpose, but to make a bow to a man in court-favour, and be thought, by fome infignificant fmile of his, not a little engaged in his interefts and fortunes. It is wondrous, that a man can get over the natural existence and poffeffion of his own mind fo far, as to take delight either in paying or receiving fuch cold and repeated civilities. But what maintains the humour is, that outward fhow is what most men purfue, rather than real happiness. Thus both the idol and idolater equally impofe upon themselves in pleafing their imaginations this way. But as there are very many of her Majefty's good fubjects, who are extremely uneafy at their own feats in the country, where |