the expence, have circulated joy) to be productive of little good, and great mifery? As to the good you have done, it is, as far as I can learn, in no degree proportioned to the money used to procure it; the very effence of it is loft, by being indifcriminate. If, this hour, you have comforted the difconfolate bofom of humble merit in the fhade; you have in the next, lavished as large a bounty on a knave, a gambler, or a coxcomb. Into what innumerable temptations have you thrown yourfelf, by the indulgence of a fatal curiofity! it is only by flying from temptation, that youth and fpirits can poffibly avoid them. Believe not the cant of fchoolmen, when they tell you that virtue is the unmoved rock, against which the waves of paffion beat ineffectually. Virtue, indeed, is in the well-difpofed mind, a powerful principle; but alas! when it comes to be affailed in the hey-day of the fpirits, follicited by opportunity when a thousand softening circumftances, treacherously meet together, confederating as it were to urge the heart into voluptuous conceffions, where, Benignus, is the young man, where the young woman, who can long boaft the unfubdued fuperiority of virtue. As there is a temptation fuited to every conftitution, fo is there I fear an hour, when every conftitution muft either precipitately retreat, or be vanquifhed. To retreat therefore in time, is the greatest effort, both of prudence, wisdom, and philosophy: when the paffions have only exhibited to us their profpects, when the eye sparkles to behold them, and the heart throbs to enjoy them, it is an hundred to one, if either reafon, virtue, or principles of any kind, are at your age fufficient to fave you. And are you ftill a generous vagabond, Benignus? Are you still rambling about the streets of the metropolis, a benevolent ftroller-a prey to impofture, an anguish to your friends, and a diftrefs to yourself? Do you call this "going about doing good!" No fir, it is going about doing nothing. By chance, indeed, the most scattering liberality may blunder into an act of benevolence; but when a few, a very few of these are excepted, you might juft as well have jerked your money from London-bridge into the Thames, as have thrown it about fo promifcuously. I write warmly, Benignus, because I write feelingly, and because I love you. I love you, fir, for the naturally noble excellencies of your difpofition, but not for the extravagant abufe of them. There are, perhaps, few men in this kingdom, who might have more fplendidly figured in it: your talents, fortune, and turn of mind, might have done honour to yourfelf, to your fociety, to your connections, and to human na nature. Inftead of which, by rufhing madly upon the world, the dreadful history of your fituation is, that you belong to nobody, are known to nobody, and are nobody. What, Benignus, will be the ultimate event of it? I tremble at the profpect. In the name of common sense, ftop, ftop your career. It may not yet be too late. I do not perceive you have, in all your wanderings, purchased a fingle friend who would give you a dinner, fhould it (which God forbid) ever be wanting. I fee you have violent paffions, which, though they might have lain dormant in a village, have been called out in London: paffions always tyrannise in proportion as they are indulged; and I much fear-you will pardon me-you are not quite the fame Benignus you were, in point of delicacy. Be that as it may, your cafe is to be compaffionated. How applicable to Benignus is the language of honeft Apemantus. "Oh ye Gods, what a number of men eat Timon, and he fees them not!" Let me charge you to beware of becoming as it were a bankrupt, in London. I know that I appear to you very rude, and indeed I am doing a great violence to myself; but if this ftrength of colouring, if this picture faithfully drawn by the hand of a friend, ferves to wean you from an attachment to the place you are now in, and can bring you to the quiet fpot whence this is dated, I fhall rejoice in the fortitude of having been fincere. you reach us, will be our fruit-trees are in • Every thing about us, by the time in their fummer fuits to invite you: bloffom; our rofe trees are budded; there are fish in the ponds, and birds build fecure within our hedges. Almeria is goddess of the flower-garden, and the, fmilingly, bids me tell you, how much she wants an affiftant to tie up the ten drils, and to hand the watering-pot from the well. I am, my dear Benignus, WILLIAM GREAVES. 1 P. S. Finding my felf too apt to diffipate in the earlier part of my life, I bound myself as it were an apprentice to difcretion, by an obfervance of certain rules, which for more than twice feven years have now been the guide of my pe cuniary conduct. They are now, my dear friend, more neceffary for your practice than mine; and I have fet Almeria down to her writing-defk to tranfcribe and inclose them. Adieua • Golden * Golden Rules of Oeconomy, in order to make a Man live, all the Days of his Life. 1. The prefent pleasures, produced by a large expence of money, by no means balance the future miferies of a wafted patrimony, diffipated fortunes, and a decayed constitution. 2. There is great reason for us to make a reserve of property against the day of decrepitude; because in old age, we want chiefly thofe comforts which only money can procure : a comfortable house-a warm fire-delicate living, and a little fhare of authority, which, in the laft ftage of life, is exceedingly foothing and acceptable. 3. Perhaps fociety cannot fhew a more pitiable figure, than either a very old man or woman, who having spent their fubftance in the flattering gaieties of youth, are reduced (in the most helpless fituation) to live upon accidental ftrokes of generofity, and to be at once ridiculed and relieved. 4. If an old perfon expects to receive the leaft degree of attention from the world in general, or even from his relations in particular, it must be by the force of happy circumftances in his favour; fuch, for inftance, as arife out of a fortune ac. cumulated by the induftry or ingenuity of youth. This will render the veteran respectable amongst his domestics, and make even his utmost infirmities fupportable. Whereas, if an old man has no teftimonies of his economy to fhew, he will crawl contemptibly about the world; be upbraided for his former prodigality, even by his own children, who, having no hopes, will confider him as an incumbrance: and wanting the various attentions which are neceffary to the accommodation of the laft fcene, his continuance in the family will be irkfome, his life must be supported by the contribution of the charitable, and he muft die unmourned. Keep the staff in thine hand. 5. The fame principle of prudence which makes it neceffary for a man to provide against the wants and infirmities of age, fhould prevail with a man to provide against the wants and infirmities of diftemper. Let the fick man rather depend on the panacea of his purfe, than on the pity of his phyficián. A very healthy person is very foon reduced to his chamber, and we are all liable to the most noisome diforders: it often happens that a ftout young man in the very vigour of existence, is brought to fuch a ftate as to depend on the fervitude of another for affiftance in thofe very points, which, in a ftate of health, he would bluth to make known to a fecond per: perfon. If these feebleneffes continue for any length of time, nothing but the power of paying our attendants well, can make them be done chearfully, if at all. A fick fpendthrift is therefore a horrid fpectacle; his nurfe becomes negligent, his physician gives him now aud then a call upon the score of humanity- he wants the ftrengthening and restoring comforts both of the kitchen and the arm chair, and, what is worse than all, he rebukes himself for having fquandered, in the hour of fuperfluity, what should have been referved for the moment of exigence. 6. Art thou rich? Place then circumfpection as a centinel over thy paffions; left that which thou poffeffeft, becometh a prey to artifice! Art thou poor? Be industry thy guard, left thou shouldst want the bread of life, and in wanting that, the path of dif grace is not remote, and that path will lead thee, peradventure, to the pits of mifery and destruction. Condefcend not to be the object either of pity or charity, whilft thou haft limbs to toil, imagination to fuggeft, or health to perform. Liberty is independence, and flavery is a state of pecuniary obligation. Get honestly, and give cautioufly. Whofo putteth in practice these rules, fhall certainly live all the days of his life.' We cannot difmifs the Hiftory of Benignus without remarking the propriety of drawing the moral of the work by a perfon different from the hero. For had the author followed the oppofite condu&t, either Benignus must have been gradually deviating from the character which he was intended to fupport, or rendered fenfible of his error by a revolution of temper, too fudden and violent to be confiftent with the laws of probability. The Pupil of Pleasure: or, New Syftem illuftrated. By Courtney Melmoth. 2 vols. 12mo. 55. ferved. Bew. Several Everal of the precepts contained in Lord Chesterfield's Letters have been repeatedly cenfured in all the forms of animadverfion; but it was referved for the author of the production now before us to expofe the dangerous tendency of thofe celebrated compofitions, by a fpecies of criterion to which they had not as yet been fubjected. Forfakingthe beaten path of moral examination, Mr. Melmoth has delineated the natural effects of the Letters in queftion, upon the fuppofition that his lordship's injunctions were reduced to practice by a youth of congenial talents. The hero of the prefent work, therefore, 7 fore, is reprefented as conducting himself according to lord Chesterfield's maxims. An unlimited indulgence in ples fure he regards as the greateft happiness; to the attainment of which he facrifices truth, fincerity, virtue, confcience, and every moral confideration. The name of the libertine here defcribed is Sedley, who figures at Buxton as a young gentleman of the most politc and amiable accomplishments; univerfally attracting not only the esteem of his own fex, but the affection of the ladies, whom he privately feduces by every art to the gratification of his criminal defires. The narrative confifts of a series of Letters, written by different perfons, but chiefly by Sedley, and Thornton, who is his particular friend and confidant. The following Letter gives a lively idea of their correfpondence. • Dull Thornton !-circumfpe& citizen! at what art thou alarmed, and "why is thy fpirit troubled within thee?" How canft thou entertain fo contemptible a notion of thy Sedley? Imitation! Curfe thee for the thought. Haft thou, in the course of seven enterprizing years, ever known me ftoop from the originality of felf to the flavery of another? 'Tis true, I admire the lord of Chesterfield: his Epiftles are, in the reading hour, always in my hand; at night they repofe behind my pillow, and they at prefent conftitute all my travelling library. But I fcorn to be fettered, either in body or foul. The liberty of the understanding is as dear to me as the liberty of the perfon; and I have too much pride, too much dignity, to become a plagiary. No, Thornton, the earl is, as it were, my tutor; his fentiments are fuch as I have long felt, but fuch as, till, now, I was cautious of avowing. Hitherto I have been reftrained in my actions, and loft half the joy of voluptuoufnefs, because, forfooth, nobody had either reputation or ingenuity enough to keep me in countenance. I fwam the ftream of pleasure, but was always afraid of going out of my depth. For the herd of men are contented to be libertines in the ordinary fhallow way, and, before the appearance of thefe enchanting Letters, we wanted the imprimatur of a man of celebrity, to give credit to the efforts of an enterprizing fpirit. But now the impediment is removed, -the avenue is opened, and the profpect of pleasure is palpable. The repofitory of Stanhope, the cabinet of Chefterfield, the earl's arcanum, are all difclofed ;-Eugenia-bear, bear the name, ye rofy-winged deities of joy, in gratitude to hea |