earth, may easily give delight to an unlearned fpectator. It is not neceffary that he who looks with pleasure on the colours of a flower fhould study the principles of vegetation, or that the Ptolemaick and Copernican fyftem fhould be compared before the light of the fun can gladden, or its warmth invigorate. Novelty is itself a fource of gratification; and Milton justly obferves, that to him who has been long pent up in cities, no rural object can be prefented which will not delight or refresh fome of his fenfes.

Yet even these easy pleasures are miffed by the greater part of those who waste their fummer in the country. Should any man purfue his acquaintances to their retreats, he would find few of them liftening to Philomel, loitering in woods, or plucking daisies, catching the healthy gale of the morning, or watching the gentle corufcations of declining day. Some will be discovered at a window by the road fide, rejoicing when a new cloud of duft gathers towards them, as at the approach of a momentary supply of converfation, and a fhort relief from the tediousness of unideal vacancy. Others are placed in the adjacent villages, where they look only upon houses as in the rest of the year, with no change of objects but what a remove to any new ftreet in London might have given them. The same set of acquaintances still fettle together, and the form of life is not otherwise diverfified than by doing the fame things in a different place. They pay and receive vifits in the ufual form, they frequent the walks in the morning, they deal cards at night, they attend to the fame tattle, and dance with the fame partners; nor can they, at their return to their former habitation, congratulate themselves

I

themselves on any other advantage, than that they have paffed their time like others of the fame rank; and have the fame right to talk of the happiness and beauty of the country, of happiness which they never felt, and beauty which they never regarded.

To be able to procure its own entertainments, and to fubfift upon its own ftock, is not the prerogative of every mind. There are indeed understandings fo fertile and comprehenfive, that they can always feed reflection with new fupplies, and fuffer nothing from the preclufion of adventitious amusements; as fome cities have within their own walls enclosed ground enough to feed their inhabitants in a fiege. But others live only from day to day, and must be conftantly enabled, by foreign fupplies, to keep out the encroachments of languor and stupidity. Such could not indeed be blamed for hovering within reach of their ufual pleafure, more than any other animal for not quitting its native element, were not their faculties contracted by their own fault. But let not those who go into the country, merely because they dare not be left alone at home, boaft their love of nature, or their qualifications for folitude; nor pretend that they receive inftantaneous infufions of wifdom from the Dryads, and are able, when they leave smoke and noise behind, to act, or think, or reafon for themselves.

NUMB. 136. SATURDAY, July 6, 1751.

Ἐχθρὸς γὰρ μοι κεῖνος ὁμῶς ὠνδαο πύλησιν,

Ος χ' έτερον μὲν κεύθει ἐνὶ φρεσὶν, ἄλλο δὲ βάζει.

Who dares think one thing, and another tell,
My heart detefts him as the gates of Hell,

HOMER.

POPE.

THE regard which they whofe abilities are em

ployed in the works of imagination claim from the rest of mankind, arises in a great measure from their influence on futurity. Rank may be conferred by princes, and wealth bequeathed by misers or by robbers; but the honours of a lafting name, and the veneration of diftant ages, only the fons of learn ing have the power of bestowing. While, therefore, it continues one of the characteristicks of rational nature to decline oblivion, authors never can be wholly overlooked in the fearch after happiness, nor become contemptible but by their own fault.

The man who confiders himself as conftituted the ultimate judge of disputable characters, and entrusted with the diftribution of the last terrestrial rewards of merit, ought to fummon all his fortitude to the fupport of his integrity, and refolve to discharge an office of fuch dignity with the most vigilant caution and scrupulous juftice. To deliver examples to pofterity, and to regulate the opinion of future times, is no flight or trivial undertaking; nor is it eafy to commit more atrocious treafon against the great republick of humanity, than by falfifying its records and mifguiding its decrees.

Το

To scatter praise or blame without regard to juftice, is to deftroy the diftinction of good and evil. Many have no other test of actions than general opinion; and all are fo far influenced by a fenfe of reputation, that they are often reftrained by fear of reproach, and excited by hope of honour, when other principles have loft their power; nor can any fpecies of proftitution promote general depravity more than that which destroys the force of praise, by fhewing that it may be acquired without deferving it, and which, by fetting free the active and ambitious from the dread of infamy, lets loose the rapacity of power, and weakens the only authority by which greatness is controlled.

Praife, like gold and diamonds, owes its value only to its scarcity. It becomes cheap as it becomes vulgar, and will no longer raife expectation, or animate enterprize. It is therefore not only neceffary, that wickedness, even when it is not fafe to cenfure it, be denied applaufe, but that goodness be commended only in proportion to its degree; and that the garlands due to the great benefactors of mankind, be not fuffered to fade upon the brow of him who can boaft only petty fervices and easy virtues.

Had thefe maxims been univerfally received, how much would have been added to the task of dedication, the work on which all the power of modern wit has been exhausted. How few of these initial panegyricks had appeared, if the author had been obliged firft to find a man of virtue, then to distinguifh the fpecies and degree of his defert, and at laft to pay him only the honours which he might juftly claim. It is much easier to learn the

name

name of the last man whom chance has exalted to wealth and power, to obtain by the intervention of fome of his domefticks the privilege of addreffing him, or, in confidence of the general acceptance of flattery, to venture on an addrefs without any previous folicitation; and, after having heaped upon him all the virtues to which philofophy has affigned a name, inform him how much more might be truly faid, did not the fear of giving pain to his modesty repress the raptures of wonder and the zeal of veneration.

Nothing has fo much degraded literature from its natural rank, as the practice of indecent and promifcuous dedication; for what credit can he expect who profeffes himself the hireling of vanity, however profligate, and, without fhame or fcruple, celebrates the worthlefs, dignifies the mean, and gives to the corrupt, licentious, and oppreffive, the ornaments which ought only to add grace to truth, and loveliness to innocence? Every other kind of adulation, however fhameful, however mischievous, is less deteftable than the crime of counterfeiting characters, and fixing the stamp of literary fanction upon the drofs and refufe of the world.

Yet I would not overwhelm the authors with the whole load of infamy, of which part, perhaps the greater part, ought to fall upon their patrons. If he that hires a bravo, partakes the guilt of murder, why should he who bribes a flatterer, hope to be exempted from the fhame of falsehood? The unhappy dedicator is feldom without fome motives which obftruct, though not destroy, the liberty of choice; he is oppreffed by miferies which he hopes to relieve,

or