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NUMB. 75. TUESDAY, December 4, 1750.

Diligitur nemo, nifi cui Fortuna fecunda eft,
Que, fimul intonuit, proxima quæque fugat.

When fmiling Fortune spreads her golden ray,
All crowd around to flatter and obey :
But when she thunders from an angry sky,
Our friends, our flatterers, our lovers fly.

SIR,

THE

To the RAMBLER.

OVID.

Mifs A. W. *

HE diligence with which you endeavour to cultivate the knowledge of nature, manners, and life, will perhaps incline you to pay fome regard to the observations of one who has been taught to know mankind by unwelcome information, and whose opinions are the result, not of folitary conjectures, but of practice and experience.

I was born to a large fortune, and bred to the knowledge of thofe arts which are fuppofed to accomplish the mind, and adorn the perfon of a woman. To these attainments, which custom and education almost forced upon me, I added fome voluntary acquifitions by the ufe of books, and the converfation of that species of men whom the ladies generally mention with terrour and averfion under the name of fcholars, but whom I have found a harmlefs and inoffenfive order of beings, not fo much

Anna Williams, of whom an account is given in the Life of Dr. Johnson, prefixed to this edition.

C.

wifer than ourselves, but that they may receive as well as communicate knowledge, and more inclined to degrade their own character by cowardly fubmiffion, than to overbear or opprefs us with their learning or their wit.

From these men, however, if they are by kind treatment encouraged to talk, fomething may be gained, which, embellished with elegancy, and softened by modefty, will always add dignity and value to female converfation; and from my acquaintance with the bookish part of the world I derived many principles of judgment and maxims of prudence, by which I was enabled to draw upon myself the general regard in every place of concourse or pleasure. My opinion was the great rule of approbation, my remarks were remembered by thofe who defired the second degree of fame, my mien was studied, my dress was imitated, my letters were handed from one family to another, and read by those who copied them as fent to themselves; my vifits were folicited as honours, and multitudes boasted of an intimacy with Meliffa, who had only seen me by accident, and whose familiarity had never proceeded beyond the exchange of a compliment, or return of a courtesy.

I fhall make no fcruple of confeffing that I was pleafed with this univerfal veneration, because I always confidered it as paid to my intrinfick qualities and infeparable merit, and very eafily perfuaded myfelf that fortune had no part in my fuperiority. When I looked upon my glass, I saw youth and beauty, with health that might give me reason to hope their continuance;

continuance; when I examined my mind, I found fome ftrength of judgment, and fertility of fancy; and was told that every action was grace, and that every accent was perfuafion.

In this manner my life paffed like a continual triumph amidst acclamations, and envy, and courtfhip, and careffes: to please Meliffa was the general ambition, and every ftratagem of artful flattery was practifed upon me. To be flattered is grateful, even when we know that our praises are not believed by thofe who pronounce them; for they prove, at leaft, our power, and fhew that our favour is valued, fince it is purchased by the meannefs of falfehood. But, perhaps, the flatterer is not often detected, for an honeft mind is not apt to fufpect, and no one exerts the power of difcernment with much vigour when felf-love favours the deceit.

The number of adorers, and the perpetual diftraction of my thoughts by new schemes of pleafure, prevented me from listening to any of those who crowd in multitudes to give girls advice, and kept me unmarried and unengaged to my twenty-feventh year, when, as I was towering in all the pride of uncontested excellency, with a face yet little impaired, and a mind hourly improving, the failure of a fund, in which my money was placed, reduced me to a frugal competency, which allowed little beyond neat, nefs and independence.

I bore the diminution of my riches without any outrages of forrow, or pufillanimity of dejection. Indeed I did not know how much I had loft, for, having always heard and thought more of my wit and beauty,

beauty, than of my fortune, it did not fuddenly enter my imagination, that Meliffa could fink beneath her established rank, while her form and her mind continued the fame; that he could cease to raise admiration but by ceafing to deferve it, or feel any ftroke but from the hand of time.

It was in my power to have concealed the lofs, and to have married, by continuing the fame appearance, with all the credit of my original fortune; but I was not fo far funk in my own efteem, as to fubmit to the baseness of fraud, or to defire any other recommendation than fenfe and virtue. I therefore dif miffed my equipage, fold thofe ornaments which were become unfuitable to my new condition, and appeared among those with whom I used to converse with lefs glitter, but with equal fpirit.

I found myself received at every vifit, with forrow beyond what is naturally felt for calamities in which we have no part, and was entertained with condolence and confolation fo frequently repeated, that my friends plainly confulted rather their own gratification, than my relief. Some from that time refused my acquaintance, and forbore, without any provocation, to repay my vifits; fome vifited me, but after a longer interval than usual, and every return was still with more delay; nor did any of my female acquaintances fail to introduce the mention of my misfortunes, to compare my present and former condition, to tell me how much it must trouble me to want the splendor which I became fo well, to look at pleasures which I had formerly enjoyed, and to fink to a level with those by whom I had been con

fidered

fidered as moving in a higher sphere, and who had hitherto approached me with reverence and fubmiffion, which I was now no longer to expect.

Obfervations like thefe, are commonly nothing better than covert infults, which ferve to give vent to the flatulence of pride, but they are now and then imprudently uttered by honefty and benevolence, and inflict pain where kindnefs is intended; I will, therefore, fo far maintain my antiquated claim to politenefs, as to venture the establishment of this rule, that no one ought to remind another of miffortunes of which the fufferer does not complain, and which there are no means propofed of alleviating. You have no right to excite thoughts which neceffarily give pain whenever they return, and which perhaps might not have revived but by abfurd and unfeafonable compaffion.

My endless train of lovers immediately withdrew, without raising any emotions. The greater part had indeed always profeffed to court, as it is termed, upon the fquare, had enquired my fortune, and offered fettlements; thefe had undoubtedly a right to retire without cenfure, fince they had openly treated for money, as neceffary to their happinefs, and who can tell how little they wanted any other portion? I have always thought the clamours of women unreafonable, who imagine themselves injured because the men who followed them upon the fuppofition of a greater fortune, reject them when they are difcovered to have lefs. I have never known any lady, who did not think wealth a title to fome ftipulations in her favour and furely what is claimed by the pof

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