engaged in the performance. For fuch is the inequality of our corporeal to our intellectual faculties, that we contrive in minutes what we execute in years, and the foul often ftands an idle (pectator of the labour of the hands and expedition of the feet.

For this reafon, the ancient generals often found themselves at leifure to purfue the ftudy of philofophy in the camp: and Lucan, with hiftorical veracity, makes Cæfar relate of himself, that he noted the revolutions of the stars in the midst of preparations for battle.

-Media inter prælia femper Sideribus, colique plagis, fuperisque vacavi. Amid the ftorms of war, with curious eyes I trace the planets and furvey the skies.

That the foul always exerts her peculiar powers, with greater or lefs force, is very probable, though the common occafions of our prefent condition require but a fmall part of that inceffant cogitation; and by the natural frame of our bodies, and general combination of the world, we are fo frequently condemned to inactivity, that as through all our time we are thinking, fo for a great part of our time we can only think.

Left a power fo reftlefs fhould be either unprofitably or hurtfully employed, and the fuperfluities of intellect run to wafte, it is no vain fpeculation to confider how we may govern our thoughts, reftrain them from irregular motions, or confine them from boundless diffipation. How the understanding is belt conducted to the knowledge of fcience, by what fteps it is to be led forwards in it's purfuit, how it is to be cured of it's defects, and habituated to new studies, has been the enquiry of many acute and learned men, whofe obfervations I fhall not either adopt or cenfure; my purpofe being to confider the moral difcipline of the mind, and to promote the increase of virtue rather than of learning.

This inquiry feems to have been neglected for want of remembering that all action has it's origin in the mind, and that therefore to fuffer the thoughts to be vitiated is to poifon the fountains of morality: irregular defires will produce licentious practices; what men allow themselves to wish they will foon believe, and will be at laft incited to execute what they please themselves with contriving.

For this reason the cafuifts of the Romish church, who gain, by confeffion, great opportunities of knowing human nature, have generally determined that what it is a crime to do, it is a crime to think. Since, by revolving with pleafure the facility, fafety, or advantage of a wicked deed, a man foon begins to find his conftancy relax, ard his deteftation foften; the happiness of fuccefs glittering before him, withdraws his attention from the atrocioufnefs of the guilt, and acts are at laft confidently perpetrated, of which the firft conception only crept into the mind, difguifed in pleafing complications, and permitted rather than invited.

No man has ever been drawn to crimes by love or jealoufy, envy or hatred, but he can tell how cafily he might at first have repelled the temptation, how readily his mind would have obeyed a call to any other object, and how weak his paffion has been after fome cafual avocation, till he has recalled it again to his heart, and revived the viper by too warm a fondness.

Such, therefore, is the importance of keeping reafon a conftant guard over imagination, that we have otherwife no fecurity for our own virtue, but may corrupt our hearts in the most reclufe folitude, with more pernicious and tyrannical appetites and wifhes than the commerce of the world will generally produce for we are easily fhocked by crimes which appear at once in their full magnitude; but the gradual growth of our own wickednefs, endeared by intereft, and palliated by the artifices of felf-deceit, gives us time to form diftinctions in our own favour, and reafon by degrees fubmits to abfurdity, as the eye is in time accommodated to darkness.

In this difcafe of the foul, it is of the utmost importance to apply remedies at the beginning; and therefore I fhall endeavour to fhew what thoughts are to be rejected or improved, as they regard the paft, prefent, or future; in hopes that fome may be awakened to caution and vigilance, who perhaps indulge themfelves in dangerous dreams; fo much the more dangerous, because being yet only dreams, they are concluded in

nocent.

The recollection of the paft is only ufeful by way of provifion for the fu ture; and therefore, in reviewing all occurrences that fall under a religious conC 2 fideration,

fideration, it is proper that a man stop at the first thoughts, to remark how he was led thither, and why he continues the reflection. If he is dwelling with delight upon a ftratagem of fuccessful fraud, a night of licentious riot, or an intrigue of guilty pleasure, let him fummen off his imagination as from an unlawful purfuit, expel thofe paffages from his remembrance, of which, though he cannot seriously approve them, the pleafure overpowers the guilt, and refer them to a future hour, when they may be confidered with greater fafety. Such an hour will certainly come; for the impreflions of paft pleafure are always feffening, but the fenfe of guilt, which refpe&ts futurity, continues the fame.

The ferious and impartial retrofpect of our conduct is indifputably neceffary to the confirmation or recovery of virtue, and is therefore recommended under the name of felf-examination, by divines, as the firft act previous to repentance. It is, indeed, of fo great ufe, that without it we fhould always be to begin life, be feduced for ever by the fame allurements, and milled by the fame fallacies. But in order that we may not lose the advantage of our experience, we muft endeavour to fee every thing in it's proper form, and excite in ourfelves thofe fentiments which the great Author of nature has decreed the concomitants or followers of good or bad actions.

Μηδ' ὕπνον μαλακοῖσιν ἐπ' όμμασι προσδέξασθκι,

Ηρὶν τῶν ἡμερινῶν ἔξίων τρὶς ἔκασον ἐπελθειν. Iй maρév; i d'égēža; Tíμoi déov uu ÉTEX; ̓Αρξάμενος δ ̓ ἀπὸ πρώτε ἐπέξιθι καὶ μετέ

Δειλὰ μὲν ἐκπρήξας, ἐπιπλέσσει, χρησὰ δὲ, τέραν,

Let not fleep, fays Pythagoras, fall upon thy eyes tal thou haft thrice reviewed the tranfactions of the past day. Where have 1 turned afide from rectitude? What have I been doing What have I left undone, which I ought to have done? Begin thus from the first act, and proceed; and, in conclufion, at the ill which thou hast done, be troubled, and rejoice for the good.

Our thoughts on prefent things being detcrmined by the objects before us, fall not under thofe indulgences, or exyurions, which I am now confidering. But I cannot forbear, under this head, to caution pious and tender minds, that

In futurity chiefly are the fnares lodged, by which the imagination is intangled. Futurity is the proper abode of hope and fear, with all their train and progeny of fubordinate apprehenfions and defires. In futurity, events and chances are yet floating at large, without apparent connection with their caufes; and we therefore eafily indulge the liberty of gratifying ourselves with a pleafing choice. To pick and cull among poffible advantages is, as the civil law terms it, in vacuum venire-to take what belongs to nobody: but it has this hazard in it, that we shall be unwilling to quit what we have feized, though an owner fhould be found. It is eafy to think on that which may be gained, till at laft we refolve to gain it; and to image the happiness of particular conditions, till we can be eafy in no other. We ought at least to let our defires fix upon nothing in another's power for the fake of our quiet, or in another's poffeffion for the fake of our innocence. When a man finds himfelf led, though by a train of honeft fentiments, to with for that to which he has no right, he should ftart back as from a pitfal covered with flowers. He that fancies he should benefit the publick more in a great fation than the man that fills it, will in time imagine it an act of virtue to fupplant him; and, as oppofition readily kindles into hatred, his eagerness to do that good to which he is not called will betray him to crimes which in his original scheme were never propofed.

He therefore that would govern his actions by the laws of virtue, muft regulate his thoughts by thofe of reafon: he must keep guilt from the receffes of his heart; and remember that the pleafures of fancy, and the emotions of defire, are more dangerous as they are more hidden, fince they escape the eye of obfervation, and operate equally in every fituation, without the concurrence of external opportunities.

N° IX.

MART.

ELPHINSTON.

howloever every man may complain occafionally of the hardships of his condition, he is feldom willing to change it for any other on the fame level: for whether it be that he who follows an employment made choice of it at firft on account of it's fuitableness to his inclination; or that, when accident, or the determination of others, have placed him in a particular itation, he, by endeavouring to reconcile himself to it, gets the custom of viewing it only on the faireft fide; or whether every man thinks that clafs to which he belongs the most illustrious, merely because he has honoured it with his name; it is certain that, whatever be the reafon, most men have a very strong and active prejudice in favour of their own vocation, always working upon their minds, and influencing their behaviour.

This partiality is fufficiently vifible in every rank of the human fpecies; but it exerts itself more frequently and with greater force among those who have never learned to conceal their fentiments for reafons of policy, or to model their expreffions by the laws of politenets; and therefore the chief contefts of wit among artificers and handicraftsmen arife from a mutual endeavour to exalt one trade by depreciating another.

From the fame principles are derived many confolations to alleviate the inconveniences to which every calling is peculiarly expofed. A blacksmith was lately pleafing himself at his anvil, with obferving that, though his trade was hot and footy, laborious and unhealthy, yet he had the honour of living by his hammer; he got his bread like a man; and if his fon fhould rife in the world, and keep his coach, nobody could reproach him that his father was a taylor, A man truly zealous for his fraternity, is never fo irrefiftibly flattered as when fome rival calling is mentioned with contempt. Upon this principle a linen-draper boafted that he had got a new customer whom he could fafely truft, for he could have no doubt of his

questionable authority, that he was now filing a bill in chancery to delay payment for the cloaths which he had worn the last feven years; and he himself had heard him declare, in a publick coffeehoufe, that he looked upon the whole generation of woollen-drapers to be fuch defpicable wretches that no gentleman ought to pay them.

It has been obferved that phyficians and lawyers are no friends to religion; and many conjectures have been formed to difcover the reafon of fuch a combination between men who agree in nothing elfe, and who seem lefs to be affected, in their own provinces,byreligious opinions, than any other part of the community. The truth is, very few of them have thought about religion: but they have all feen a parfon; feen him in a habit different from their own, and therefore declared war against him. A young ftudent from the inns of court, who has often attacked the curate of his father's parish with fuch arguments as his acquaintances could furnish, and returned to town without fuccefs, is now gone down with a refolution to destroy him for he has learned at last how to manage a prig, and if he pretends to hold him again to fyllogifm, he has a catch in referve, which neither logick nor metaphyficks can refist.

I laugh to think how your unfhaken Cato Will look aghaft, when unforeseen destruc

tion

Pours in upon him thus.

The malignity of foldiers and failors against each other has been often experienced at the coft of their country; and, perhaps, no orders of men have an enmity of more acrimony, or longer continuance. When, upon our late fucceffes at fea, fome new regulations were concerted for establishing the rank of the naval commanders, a captain of foot very acutely remarked, that nothing was more abfurd than to give any honorary rewards to feamen: For honour,' fays he, ought only to be won by bra

proaches, as an equal atteftation of rifing credit. The only pain which I can feel from my correfpondence, is the fear of difgufting thofe whofe letters I fhall neglect; and therefore I take this opportunity of reminding them, that, in difapproving their attempts, whenever it may happen, I only return the treatment which I often receive. Befides, many particular motives influence a writer, known only to himfelf, or his private friends; and it may be juftly concluded, that not all letters which are poftponed are rejected, nor all that are rejected critically condemned. Having thus eafed my heart of the only apprehenfion that fat heavy on it, I can pleafe myself with the candour of Benevolus, who encourages me to proceed, without finking under the anger of Flirtilla, who quarrels with me for being old and ugly, and for wanting both activity of body and fprightlinefs of mind; feeds her monkey with my lucubrations, and refufes any reconciliation till I have appeared in vindication of mafquerades. That the may not how ever imagine me without fupport, and left to reft wholly upon my own fortitude, I fhall now publifh fome letters which I have received from men as well dreffed, and as handfome, as her favourite; and others from ladies whom I fincerely believe as young, as rich, as gay, as pretty, as fashionable, and as often toasted and treated as herself.

A Set of candid readers fend their

refpects to the Rambler, and ac'knowledge his merit in fo well beginning a work that may be of publick benefit. But, fuperior as his genius is to the impertinences of a trifling age, ⚫ they cannot help a wifh, that he would ⚫ condefcend to the weakness of minds foftened by perpetual amufements, and now and then throw in, like his predeceffor, fome papers of a gay and 'humorous turn. Too fair a field now lies open, with too plentiful a harvest ' of follies! Let the chearful Thalia put in her fickle; and, finging at her work, 'deck her hair with red and blue.

a perfon now alive, and in town? If he be, fhe will do herself the honour to write to him pretty often: and hopes, from time to time, to be the better for his advice and animadverfions; for his animadverfions on her neighbours at leaft. But, if he is a mere essayist, ' and troubles not himself with the man'ners of the age, fhe is forry to tell

him, that even the genius and correct'nefs of an Addison will not fecure him from neglect.'

No man is fo much abftracted from common life, as not to feel a particular pleasure from the regard of the female world; the candid writers of the first billet will not be offended, that my hafte to fatisfy a lady has hurried their addrefs too foon out of my mind, and that I refer them for a reply to fome future paper, in order to tell this curious inquirer after my other name, the answerof a philofopher to a man who, meeting him in the street, defired to fee what he carried under his cloak- I carry it there, fays he, that you may not fee it.' But, though he is never to know my name, the may often fee my face: for I am of her opinion, that a diurnal writer ought to view the world; and that he who neglects his cotemporaries, may be, with justice, neglected by them.

It is a rule with me to receive every offer with the fame civility as it is made; and, therefore, though Lady Racket may have had fome reafon to suefs that I feldom frequent card-tables on Sundays,

which may to her appear of fo little force. My bulinefs has been to view, as opportunity was offered, every place in which mankind was to be feen: but at cardtables, however brilliant, I have always thought my vifit loft, for I could know no