felves complain that they are given up a prey to pretenfions without merit, and to importunity without shame.

The truth is, that the inconveniencies of attendance are more lamented than felt. To the greater number folicitation is it's own reward. To be feen in good company, to talk of familiarities with men of power, to be able to tell the fretheft news, to gratify an inferior circle with predictions of increase or decline of favour, and to be regarded as a candidate for high offices, are compenfations more than equivalent to the delay of favours, which perhaps he that begs them has hardly confidence to expe&t.

A man confpicuous in a high station, who multiplies hopes that he may multiply dependants, may be confidered as a beat of prey, juftly dreaded, but easily avoided; his den is known, and they who would not be devoured, need not approach it. The great danger of the wafte of time is from caterpillars and moths, who are not refifted, because they are not feared, and who work on with unheeded mifchiefs, and invifible encroachments.

He, whofe rank or merit procures him the notice of mankind, muit give up himfelf, in a great measure, to the convenience or humour of thofe who furround him. Every man, who is fick of himself, will fly to him for relief; he that wants to speak will require him to hear; and he that wants to hear will expect him to speak. Hour paffes after hour, the Roon fucceeds to morning, and the even

I

SIR,

ing to noon, while a thousand objects are forced upon his attention, which he rejects as fast as they are offered, but which the cuftom of the world requires to be received with appearance of regard.

If we will have the kindness of others, we must endure their follies. He, who cannot perfuade himself to withdraw from fociety, must be content to pay a tribute of his time to a multitude of tyrants; to the loiterer, who makes appointments which he never keeps; to the confulter, who afks advice which he never takes; to the boatter, who blufters only to be praifed; to the complainer, who whines only to be pitied; to the projector, whote happinets is to entertain his friends with expectations which all but himfeif know to be vain; to the conomist, who tells of bargains and settlements; to the politician, who predicts the fate of battles and breach of alliances; to the ufurer, who compares the different funds; and to the talker, who talks only because he loves to be talking.

To put every man in poffeffion of his own time, and refcue the day from this fucceffion of ufurpers, is beyond my power and beyond my hope. Yet, perhaps, fome ftop might be put to this unmerciful periecution, if all would ferioufly reflect, that whoever pays a visit that is not defired, or talks longer than the hearer is willing to attend, is guilty of an injury which he cannot repair, and takes away that which he cannot give.

TO THE IDLER.

Have the misfortune to be a man of bufinefs; that, you will fay, is a moft grievous one: but what makes it the more fo to me, is, that my wife has nothing to do; at least the had too good an education, and the profpect of too good a fortune in reverfion when I married her, to think of employing herfelf either in my shop affairs, or the management of my family.

Her time, you know, as well as my own, must be filled up fome way or other. For my part, I have enough to mind, in weighing my goods out,

and waiting on my cuftomers: but my wife, though she could be of as much ufe as a fhopman to me, if the would put her hand to it, is now only in my way. She walks all the morning fauntering about the fhop with her arms through her pocket-holes, or ftands gaping at the door-fill, and looking at every perfon that palles by. She is continually aiking me a thoufand frivolous queltions about every customer that comes in and goes out; and all the while that I am entering any thing in my day-book, the is lolling over the counter, and staring at it, as if I was only fcribbling or drawing figures for her amufement. Some

times, indeed, the will take a needle: but as the always works at the door, or in the middle of the fhop, the has fo many interruptions, that the is longer hemming a towel, or darning a stock ing, than I am in breaking forty loaves of tugar, and making it up into pounds. In the afternoon I am fure likewife to have her company, except the is called upon by fome of her acquaintance: and then, as we let out all the upper part of our houfe, and have only a little room backwards for ourselves, they either keep fuch a chattering, or elfe are calling out every moment to me, that I cannot mind my business for them.

My wife, I am fure, might do all the little matters our family requires; and I could wish that he would employ herfef in them; but, instead of that, we have a girl to do the work, and look after a little boy about two years old, which I may fairly fay is the mother's own child. The brat must he humoured in every thing: he is therefore fuffered conftantly to play in the fhop, pull all the goods about, and clamber up the thelves to get at the plumbs and fugar. I dare not correct him; because, if I did, I should have wife and maid both upon me at once: As to the latter, the is as lazy and fluttish as her mistress; and because the complains the has too much work, we can icarce get her to do any thing at all: nay, what is worse than that, I am afraid fhe is hardly honest; and as he is entrusted to buy in all our provifions, the jade, I am fure, makes a market-penny out of every article.

But to return to my deary.-The evenings are the only time, when it is fine weather, that I am left to myself; for then the generally takes the child out to give it milk in the Park. When she

comes home again, fhe is fo fatigued with walking, that the cannot ftir from her chair: and it is an hour, after hop is fhut, before I can get a bit of fupper, while the maid is taken up in undreffing and putting the child to bed.

It is well if the

But you will pity me much more, when I tell you the manner in which we generally pafs our Sundays. In the morning fhe is commonly too ill to dress herself to go to church, the therefore never gets up till noon; and, what is still more vexatious, keeps me in bed with her, when I ought to be bufily engaged in better employment. can get her things on by dinner-time; and when that is over, I am fure to be dragged out by her either to Georgia, or Hornfey Wood, or the White Conduit Houfe. Yet even thefe near excurfions are fo very fatiguing to her, that, befides what it colts me in tea and hot rolls, and fyllabubs, and cakes for the boy, I am frequently forced to take a hackney-coach, or drive them out in a one-horfe chair. At other times, as my wife is rather of the fatteft, and a very poor walker, befides bearing her whole weight upon my arm, I am obliged to carry the child myfelf.

Thus, Sir, does the conftantly drawl out her time, without either profit or fatisfaction; and, while I fee my neigh bours wives helping in the shop, and almoft earning as much as their huf bands, I have the mortification to find, that mine is nothing but a dead weight upon me. In fhort, I do not know any greater misfortune can happen to a plain hard-working tradesman, as I am, than to be joined to fuch a woman, who is rather a clog than an helpmate to him. I am, Sir, your humble fervant,

ZACHARY TREACLE.

Paid a visit yesterday to my old friend Ned Drugget, at his country lodg. ings. Ned began trade with a very fmall fortune; he took a small house in an obfcure street, and for fome years dealt only in remnants. Knowing that light gains make a heavy purfe, he was Content with moderate profit; having obferved or heard the effects of civility, he bowed down to the counter edge at the entrance and departure of every cuf

tomer, liftened without impatience to the objections of the ignorant, and refufed without refentment the offers of the penurious. His only recreation was to ftand at his own door and look into the street. His dinner was fent him from a neighbouring alehouse, and he opened and fhut the fhop at a certain hour with his own hands.

His reputation foon extended from one end of the street to the other; and D 1 Mr.

Mr. Drugget's exemplary conduct was recommended by every mafter to his apprentice, and by every father to his fon. Ned was not only confidered as a thriving trader, but as a man of elegance and politeness, for he was remarkably neat in his drefs, and would wear his coat thread-bare without fpotting it; his hat was always brushed, his fhoes gloffy, his wig nicely curled, and his ftockings without a wrinkle. With fuch qualifications it was not very difficult for him to gain the heart of Mifs Comfit, the only daughter of Mr. Comfit the confectioner.

Ned is one of those whofe happiness marriage has encreased. His wife had the fame difpofition with himself, and his method of life was very little changed, except that he difmiffed the lodgers from the first floor, and took the whole house into his own hands.

He had already, by his parfimony, accumulated a confiderable fum, to which the fortune of his wife was now added. From this time he began to grafp at greater acquifitions; and was always ready, with money in his hand, to pick up the refufe of a fale, or to buy the flock of a trader who retired' from business. He foon added his parlour to his fhop, and was obliged, a few months afterwards, to hire a warehouse.

He had now a fhop fplendidly and copioufly furnished with every thing that time had injured, or fashion had degraded, with fragments of tiffues, odd yards of brocade, vaft bales of faded filk, and innumerable boxes of antiquated ribbands. His fhop was foon celebrated through all quarters of the town, and frequented by every form of oftentatious poverty. Every maid, whofe misfortune it was to be taller than her lady, matched her gown at Mr. Drugget's; and many a maiden who had paffed a winter with her aunt in Lon. don, dazzled the ruftics at her return, with cheap finery which Drugget had fupplied. His fhop was often vifited in a morning by ladies who left their coaches in the next freet, and crept through the alley in linen gowns. Drugget knows the rank of his customers by their bathfulnef; and when he finds them unwilling to be feen, invites them up ftairs, or retires with them to the back window,

I rejoiced at the increasing profperity of my friend, and imagined that as he

grew rich, he was growing happy. His mind has partaken the enlargement of his fortune. When I ftepped in for the first five years, I was welcomed only with a fhake of the hand; in the next period of his life, he beckoned across the way for a pot of beer; but, for six years patt, he invites me to dinner; and, if he befpeaks me the day before, never fails to regale me with a fillet of veal.

His riches neither made him uncivil nor negligent: he rofe at the fame hour, attended with the fame affiduity, and bowed with the fame gentleness. But for fome years he has been much inclined to talk of the fatigues of bulinefs, and the confinement of a shop, and to wish that he had been fo happy as to have renewed his uncle's leafe of a farm, that he might have lived without noife and hurry, in a pure air, in the artless fociety of honeft villagers, and the contemplation of the works of nature.

I foon discovered the caufe of my friend's philofophy. He thought himfelf grown rich enough to have a lodging in the country, like the mercers on Ludgate Hill, and was refolved to enjoy himself in the decline of life. This was a revolution not to be made fuddenly. He talked three years of the pleafures of the country, but paffed every night over his own fhop. But at last he refolved to be happy, and hired a lodging in the country, that he may steal fome hours in the week from business;

For,' fays he, when a man advances in life, he loves to entertain himself sometimes with his own thoughts."

I was invited to this feat of quiet and contemplation among thofe whom Mr. Drugget confiders as his most reputable friends, and defires to make the first witneffes of his elevation to the highest dignities of a fhopkeeper. I found him at Iflington, in a room which overlooked the high road, amufing himself with looking through the window, which the clouds of duft would not fuffer him to open. He embraced me, told me I was welcome into the country, and asked me, if I did not feel myfelf refreshed. He then defired that dinner might be haftened, for fresh air always fharpened his appetite, and ordered me a toast and a glass of wine after my walk. He told me much of the pleasure he found in retirement, and wondered what had kept him fo long out of the country. After dinner, company came in, and Mr.

Drugget