NUMB. 48. SATURDAY, March 17, 1759.

THE

HERE is no kind of idleness, by which we are as are so easily feduced, as that which dignifies itself by the appearance of business, and by making the loiterer imagine that he has fomething to do which must not be neglected, keeps him in perpetual agitation, and hurries him rapidly from place to place.

He that fits ftill, or reposes himself upon a couch, no more deceives himself than he deceives others; he knows that he is doing nothing, and has no other folace of his infignificance than the refolution, which the lazy hourly make, of changing his mode of life.

To do nothing, every man is afhamed; and to do much, almost every man is unwilling or afraid. Innumerable expedients have therefore been invented to produce motion without labour, and employment without folicitude. The greater part of those whom the kindness of fortune has left to their own direction, and whom want does not keep chained to the counter or the plough, play throughout life with the shadows of business, and know not at last what they have been doing.

Thefe imitators of action are of all denominations. Some are feen at every auction without intention to purchase; others appear punctually at the Exchange, though they are known there only by their faces. Some are always making parties, to vifit collections for which they have no tafte, and fome

neglect

N° 48. neglect every pleasure and every duty to hear questions, in which they have no intereft, debated in parliament.

These men never appear more ridiculous, than in the distress which they imagine themselves to feel, from fome accidental interruption of thofe empty pursuits. A tiger newly imprisoned is indeed more formidable, but not more angry, than Jack Tulip with-held from a florift's feast, or Tom Diftich hindered from seeing the first representation of a play.

As political affairs are the highest and most extenfive of temporal concerns; the mimick of a politician is more bufy and important than any other trifler. Monfieur le Noir, a man who, without property or importance in any corner of the earth, has, in the prefent confufion of the world, declared himfelf a steady adherent to the French, is made miferable by a wind that keeps back the packet-boat, and still more miferable by every account of a Malouin privateer caught in his cruize; he knows well that nothing can be done or faid by him which can produce any effect but that of laughter, that he can neither haften nor retard good or evil, that his joys and forrows have fcarcely any partakers; yet fuch is his zeal, and fuch his curiofity, that he would run barefooted to Gravefend, for the fake of knowing first that the English had lost a tender, and would ride out to meet every mail from the continent if he might be permitted to open it.

Learning is generally confeffed to be defirable, and there are fome who fancy themselves always bufy in acquiring it. Of these ambulatory students, one of the most bufy is my friend Tom Reftlefs.

Tom

Tom has long had a mind to be a man of knowledge, but he does not care to fpend much time. among authors; for he is of opinion that few books deferve the labour of perufal, that they give the mind an unfashionable caft, and deftroy that freedom of thought and eafinefs of manners indifpenfably requifite to acceptance in the world. Tom has therefore found another way to wifdom. When he rifes he goes into a coffee-house, where he creeps fo near to men whom he takes to be reafoners as to hear their difcourfe, and endeavours to remember fomething which, when it has been ftrained thro' Tom's head, 'is fo near to nothing, that what it once was cannot be difcovered. This he carries round from friend to friend through a circle of vifits, till hearing what each fays upon the queftion, he becomes able at dinner to fay a little himself, and as every great genius relaxes himfelf among his inferiors, meets with fome who wonder how fo young a man can talk fo wifely.

At night he has a new feaft prepared for his intellects; he always runs to a difputing fociety, or a speaking club, where he half hears what, if he had heard the whole, he would but half understand; goes home pleased with the consciousness of a day well spent, lies down full of ideas, and rifes in the morning empty as before.

VOL. VIII.

I

NUMB. 49. SATURDAY, March 24, 1759.

SUPPED three nights ago with my friend Will Marvel. His affairs obliged him lately to take a journey into Devonshire, from which he has juft returned. He knows me to be a very patient hearer, and was glad of my company, as it gave him an opportunity of difburthening himself by a minute relation of the cafualties of his expedition.

Will is not one of thofe who go out and return with nothing to tell. He has a story of his travels, which will ftrike a home-bred citizen with horror, and has in ten days fuffered so often the extremes of terror and joy, that he is in doubt whether he shall ever again expofe either his body or mind to fuch danger and fatigue.

When he left London the morning was bright, and a fair day was promifed. But Will is born to struggle with difficulties. That happened to him, which has fometimes, perhaps, happened to others. Before he had gone more than ten miles, it began to rain. What courfe was to be taken? His foul difdained to turn back. He did what the King of Pruffic might have done; he flapped his hat, buttoned up his cape, and went forwards, fortifying his mind by the ftoical confolation, that whatever is violent will be fhort.

His conftancy was not long tried; at the distance of about half a mile he faw an inn, which he entered wet and weary, and found civil treatment and proper

refresh

refreshment. After a respite of about two hours, he looked abroad, and feeing the fky clear, called for his horse, and paffed the firft ftage without any other memorable accident.

Will confidered, that labour must be relieved by pleasure, and that the ftrength which great undertakings require must be maintained by copious nutriment; he therefore ordered himself an elegant fupper, drank two bottles of claret, and paffed the beginning of the night in found fleep; but waking before light, was forewarned of the troubles of the next day, by a fhower beating against his windows with fuch violence as to threaten the diffolution of nature. When he arose, he found what he expected, that the country was under water. He joined himself, however, to a company that was travelling the fame way, and came fafely to the place of dinner, though every step of his horfe dafhed the mud into the air.

In the afternoon, having parted from his company, he fet forward alone, and passed many collections of water, of which it was impoffible to guess the depth, and which he now cannot review without fome cenfure of his own rafhnefs; but what a man undertakes he must perform, and Marvel hates a coward at his heart.

Few that lie warm in their beds, think what others undergo, who have perhaps been as tenderly educated, and have as acute fenfations as themselves. My friend was now to lodge the second night almost fifty miles from home; in a houfe which he never had seen before, among people to whom he was totally a stranger, not knowing whether the next man