quelled by fome nameless power which I found impoffible to be refifted. My fight was dazzled, my cheeks glowed, my perceptions were confounded; I was haraffed by the multitude of eager falutations, and returned the common civilities with hesitation and impropriety; the fenfe of my own blunders increafed my confufion, and before the exchange of ceremonies allowed me to fit down, I was ready to fink under the oppreffion of furprize; my voice grew weak, and my knees trembled.

The affembly then refumed their places, and I fat with my eyes fixed upon the ground. To the queftions of curiofity, or the appeals of complaisance, I could feldom anfwer but with negative monofyllables, or profeffions of ignorance; for the fubjects on which they converfed were fuch as are feldom difcuffed in books, and were therefore out of my range of knowledge. At length an old clergyman, who rightly conjectured the reafon of my concifenefs, relieved me by fome questions about the prefent state of natural knowledge, and engaged me, by an appearance of doubt and oppofition, in the explication and defence of the Newtonian philofophy.

The confcioufnefs of my own abilities roufed me from depreffion, and long familiarity with my fubject enabled me to difcourfe with eafe and volubility; but however I might please myself, I found very little added by my demonftrations to the fatisfaction of the company and my antagonist, who knew the laws of converfation too well to detain their attention long upon an unpleafing topick, after he had commended my acuteness and comprehenfion, difmiffed the controverfy, and refigned me to my former infignificance and perplexity.

After dinner, I received from the ladies, who had heard that I was a wit, an invitation to the tea-table. I congratulated myfelf upon an opportunity to efcape from the company, whofe gaiety began to be tumultuous, and among whom several hints had been dropped of the ufeleffnefs of univerfities, the folly of book-learning, and the awkwardness of fcholars. To the ladies therefore I flew, as to a refuge from clamour, infult, and rufticity; but found my heart funk as I approached their apartment, and was again difconcerted by the ceremonies of entrance, and confounded by

the neceffity of encountering so many eyes at once.

When I fat down I confidered that fomething pretty was always faid to ladies, and refolved to recover my credit by fome elegant obfervation or graceful compliment. I applied myself to the recollection of all that I had read or heard in praife of beauty, and endeavoured to accommodate some classical compliment to the present occafion. I funk into profound meditation, revolved the characters of the heroines of old, confidered whatever the poets have fung in their praife, and after having borrowed and invented, chofen and rejected a thousand fentiments, which, if I had uttered them, would not have been understood, I was awakened from my dream of learned gallantry by the servant who distributed

the tea.

There are not many fituations more inceffantly uneafy than that in which the man is placed who is watching an opportunity to fpeak, without courage to take it when it is offered, and who, though he refolves to give a fpecimen of his abilities, always finds some reason or other for delaying it to the next minute. I was afhamed of filence, yet could find nothing to fay of elegance or importance equal to my wishes. The ladies, afraid of my learning, thought themfelves not qualified to propose any fubject of prattle to a man so fainous for difpute, and there was nothing on either fide but impatience and vexation.

In this conflict of fhame, as I was reaffembling my scattered fentiments, and refolving to force my imagination to fome fprightly fally, had just found a very happy compliment, by too much attention to my own meditations, I fuffered the faucer to drop from my hand. The cup was broken, the lap-dog was fcalded, a brocaded petticoat was itained, and the whole affembly was thrown into diforder. I now confidered all hopes of reputation as at an end, and while they were confoling and affifting one another, ftole away in filence.

The mifadventures of this unhappy day are not yet at an end; I am afraid of meeting the meanest of them that triumphed over me in this ftate of itupidity and contempt, and feel the fame teriors encroaching upon my heart at the fight of those who once impreffed then. Shame, above any other paffion, pro

pagates

pagates itfelf. Before thofe who have feen me confused, I can never appear without new confusion, and the remembrance of the weakness which I formerly difcovered, hinders me from acting or Speaking with my natural force.

But is this mifery, Mr. Rambler, never to cease? Have I spent my life in ftudy only to become the fport of the ignorant, and debarred myself from all the common enjoyments of youth to collect ideas which muft fleep in filence,

and form opinions which I muft not di vulge? Inform me, dear Sir, by what means I may rescue my faculties from thefe fhackles of cowardice, how I may rife to a level with my fellow-beings, recal myself from the languor of involuntary fubjection to the free exertion of my intellects, and add to the power of reafoning the liberty of speech. I am, Sir, &c.

VERECUNDULUS.

men eminent for knowledge and fagacity, and, fince the revival of polite literature, the favourite ftudy of European fcholars, has not yet attained the certainty and ftability of fcience. The rules hitherto received are feldom drawn from any fettled principle or felf-evident poftulate, or adapted to the natural and invariable conftitution of things; but will be found upon examination the arbitrary edicts of legiflators, authorifed only by themfelves, who, out of various means by which the fame end may be attained, felected fuch as happened to occur to their own reflexion, and then, by a law which idlenefs and timidity were too willing to obey, prohibited new experiments of wit, reftrained fancy from the indulgence of her innate inclination to hazard and adventure, and condemned all future flights of genius to purfue the path of the Meonian eagle.

This authority may be more juftly oppofed, as it is apparently derived from them whom they endeavour to controul; for we owe few of the rules of writing to the acuteness of criticks, who have generally no other merit than that, having read the works of great authors with attention, they have obferved the arrangement of their matter, or the graces of their expreffion, and then expected honour and reverence for precepts which they never could have invented: fo that practice has introduced rules, rather than rules have directed practice.

For this reafon the laws of every fpe

HOR.

FRANCIS.

ideas of him who first raised it to repu

cies of writing have been fettled by the

tation, without enquiry whether his performances were not yet susceptible of improvement. The excellencies and faults of celebrated writers have been equally recommended to posterity; and fo far has blind reverence prevailed, that even the number of their books has been thought worthy of imitation.

The imagination of the first authors of lyrick poetry was vehement and rapid, and their knowledge various and extenfive. Living in an age when fcience has been little cultivated, and when the minds of their auditors, not being accustomed to accurate inspection, were eafily dazzled by glaring ideas, they applied themselves to inftruct, rather by fhort fentences and ftriking thoughts, than by regular argumentation; and finding attention more fuccessfully excited by fudden fallies and unexpected exclamations, than by the more artful and placid beauties of methodical deduction, they loofed their genius to it's own courfe, pafled from one sentiment to another without expreffing the intermediate ideas, and roved at large over the ideal world with fuch lightness and agility, that their footsteps are scarcely to be traced.

From this accidental peculiarity of the ancient writers the criticks deduce the rules of lyrick poetry, which they have fet free from all the laws by which other compofitions are confined, and allow to neglect the niceties of tranfition, to start into remote digreffions

unknown, may properly recommend himself by the grace of his language.

The first verfes of the Iliad are in like manner particularly fplendid, and the propofition of the neid clofes with a dignity and magnificence not often to be found even in the poetry of Virgil.

The intent of the introduction is to raife expectation, and fufpend it; fome thing therefore must be difcovered, and fomething concealed; and the poet, while the fertility of his invention is yet

He that reveals too much, or promifes too little; he that never irritates the intellectual appetite, or that immediately fatiates it, equally defeats his own purpofe. It is neceffary to the pleasure of the reader, that the events fhould not be anticipated; and how then can his attention be invited, but by grandeur of expreffion? »

HOR.

HE imbecility with which Verecomplains that the pre

fence of a numerous affembly freezes his faculties, is particularly incident to the ftudious part of mankind, whofe education neceffarily fecludes them in their early years from mingled converfe; till at their difimiffion from fchools and academies they plunge at once into the tumult of the world, and coming forth from the gloom of folitude, are overpowered by the blaze of publick life.

It is perhaps kindly provided by nature, that, as the feathers and ftrength of a bird grow together, and her wings are not completed till fhe is able to fly, fo fome proportion fhould be preferved in the human kind between judgment and courage; the precipitation of inexperience is therefore reftrained by fhame, and we remain thackled by timidity, till we have learned to speak and act with propriety.

I believe few can review the days of their youth, without recollecting temptations, which fhame, rather than virtue, enabled them to refift; and opinions which, however erroneous in their principles, and dangerous in their confequences, they have panted to advance at the hazard of contempt and hatred, when they found themselves irrefiftibly depreffed by a languid anxiety, which feized them at the moment of utterance, and still gathered strength from their endeavours to refift it.

It generally happens that affurance

first attempts, is gradually diffipated as our skill advances towards certainty of fuccefs. That bafhfulness therefore which prevents difgrace, that short and temporary fhame which fecures us from the danger of lafting reproach, cannot be properly counted among our misfor, tunes.

Bathfulness, however it may incommode for a moment, fcarcely ever produces evils of long continuance; it may flush the cheek, flutter in the heart, deject the eyes, and enchain the tongue, but it's mifchiefs foon pass off without remembrance. It may fometimes exclude pleature, but feldom opens any avenue to forrow or remorse.

It is obferved fomewhere, that fere have repented of having forborne to speak.

To excite oppofition, and inflame malevolence, is the unhappy privilege of courage made arrogant by consciousnefs of itrength. No man finds in himfelf any inclination to attack or oppose him who confefles his fuperiority by bluthing in his prefence. Qualities exerted with apparent fearfulness, receive applaufe from every voice, and support from every hand. Diffidence may check refolution, and obftruct performance, but compenfates it's embarraffments by more important advantages; it conciliates the proud, and foftens the fevere, averts envy from excellence, and cen fure from miscarriage.

It may indeed happen that knowledge and virtue remain too long congealed by this frigorifick power, as the principles of vegetation are fometimes obftructed by lingering frofts. He that enters late into a publick station, though with all the abilities requifite to the difcharge of his duty, will find his powers at firft impeded by a timidity which he himself knows to be vicious, and must struggle long against dejection and reluctance, before he obtains the full command of his own attention, and adds the gracefulness of cafe to the dignity of merit.

For this disease of the mind I know not whether any remedies of much efficacy can be found. To advise a man unaccustomed to the eyes of multitudes to mount a tribunal without perturbation, to tell him whofe life has paffed in the fhades of contemplation, that he must not be difconcerted or perplexed in receiving and returning the compliments of a fplendid affembly, is to advise an inhabitant of Brafil or Sumatra not to fhiver at an English winter, or him who has always lived upon a plain to look from a precipice without emotion. It is to fuppofe cuftom inftantaneously controllable by reason, and to endeavour to communicate by precept that which only time and habit can bestow.

He that hopes by philofophy and contemplation alone to fortify himself against that awe which all, at their first appearance on the ftage of life, muft feel from the fpectators, will, at the hour of need, be mocked by his refolution; and I doubt whether the prefervatives which Plato relates Alcibiades to have received from Socrates, when he was about to speak in publick, proved fufficient to fecure him from the powerful fafcination.

Yet as the effects of time may by art and industry be accelerated or retarded, it cannot be improper to confider how this troublesome instinct may be oppofed when it exceeds it's juft proportion, and instead of repreffing petulance and

temerity, filences eloquence, and debilitates force; fince, though it cannot be hoped that anxiety fhould be immediately diffipated, it may be at least somewhat abated; and the paffions will operate with less violence, when reason rifes against them, than while the either flumbers in neutrality, or, mistaking her intereft, lends them her affiftance.

No caufe more frequently produces bashfulness than too high an opinion of our own importance. He that imagines an affembly filled with his merit, panting with expectation, and hufhed with attention, easily terrifies himself with the dread of difappointing them, and strains his imagination in purfuit of fomething that may vindicate the veracity of fame, and fhew that his reputation was not gained by chance. He confiders, that what he fhall fay or do will never be forgotten; that renown or infamy are fufpended upon every fyllable, and that nothing ought to fall from him which will not bear the teft of time. Under fuch folicitude, who can wonder that the mind is overwhelmed, and by struggling with attempts above her ftrength, quickly finks into languishment and defpondency?

The most useful medicines are often unpleafing to the tafte. Those who are oppreffed by their own reputation, will perhaps not be comforted by hearing that their cares are unneceflary. But the truth is, that no man is much regarded by the reft of the world. He that confiders how little he dwells upon the condition of others, will learn how little the attention of others is attracted by himself. While we fee multitudes paffing before us, of whom perhaps not one appears to deserve our notice, or excite our fympathy, we fhould remenber, that we likewife are loft in the fame throng; that the eye which happens to glance upon us is turned in a moment on him that follows us, and that the utmoft which we can reasonably hope or fear, is to fill a vacant hour with prat tle, and be forgotten.