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virtue. A vice of a more lively nature were a more defirable tyrant than this ruft of the mind, which gives a tincture of its nature to every action of one's life. It were as little hazard to be toft in a storm, as to lie thus perpetually becalmed And it is te no purpofe to have within one the feeds of a thoufand good qualities, if we want the vigour and refolution neceflary for the exerting them. Death brings all perfons back to an equality; and this image of it, this flumber of the mind, leaves no difference between the greatest genius and the meaneft understanding: A faculty of doing things remarkably praife-worthy thus concealed, is of no more ufe to the owner, than a heap of gold to the man who dares not ufe it.

"To-morrow is ftill the fatal time when all is to be rectified. To-morrow comes, it goes, and still I pleafe myfelf with the fhadow, whilst I lofe the reality; unmindful that the prefent time alone is ours, the future is yet unborn, and the paft is dead, and can only live (as parents in their children) in the actions it has produced.

"The time we live ought not to be computed by the number of years, but by the ufe which has been made of it; thus 'tis not the extent of ground, but the yearly rent which gives the value to the eftate. Wretched and thoughtless creatures, in the only place where covetoufnefs were a virtue, we turn prodigals! Nothing lies upon our hands with fuch uneafinefs, nor have there been fo many devices for any one thing, as to make it flide away imperceptibly, and to no purpose. A fhilling fhall be hoarded up with care, whilft that which is above the price of an eftate, is flung away with difregard and contempt. There is nothing nowa-days fo much avoided as a folicitous improvement of every part of time; 'tis a report that must be fhunned as one tenders the name of a wit and a fine genius, and as one fears the dreadful character of a labori

ous plodder. But notwithstanding this, the greatest wits any age has produced thought far otherwife; for who can think either Socrates or Demofthenes loft any reputation, by continual pains both in overcoming

the defects and improving the gifts of nature? All are acquainted with the labour and affiduity with which Tully acquired his eloquence. Seneca in his letters to Lucilius affures him, there was not a day in which he did not either write fomething, or read and epitomife fome good author; and I remember Pliny in one of his letters, where he gives an account of the various methods he used to fill up every vacancy of time, after feveral employments which he enumerates; fometimes, fays he, I hunt; but even then I carry with me a pocket-book, that whilst my fervants are bufied in difpofing of the nets and other matters, I may be employed in fomething that may be useful to me in my ftudies; and that if I mifs of my game, I may at leaft bring home fome of my own thoughts with me, and not have the mortification of having caught nothing all day.

"Thus, Sir, you fee how many examples I recal to mind, and what arguments I ufe with myself, to regain my liberty: But as I am afraid 'tis no ordinary purfuation that will be of fervice, I fhall expect your thoughts on this fubject, with the greatest impatience, efpecially fince the good will not be confined to me alone, but will be of universal use. For there is no hope of amendment where men are pleased with their ruin, and whilft they think lazinefs is a defirable character: Whether it be that they like the ftate itself, or that they think it gives them a new luftre when they do exert themfelves, feemingly to be able to do that without labour and application, which others attain to but with the greatest diligence.

I am SIR,

Your moft obliged humble Servant..

SAMUEL SLACK. SFECTATOR, Vol. IV. No. 316.

There are two forts of perfons within the confideration of my frontispiece; the firft are the mighty body of lingerers, perfons who do not indeed employ their time criminally, but are fuch pretty innocents, who, as the poet fays,

Wafe away

In gentle inactivity the day.

The others being fomething more vivacious, are fuch as do not only omit to fpend their time well, but are in the conftant purfuit of criminal fatisfactions. Whatever the divine may think, the cafe of the first feems to be the most deplorable, as the habit of floth is more invincible than that of vice. The firft is preferred even when the man is fully poffeffed of himfelf, and fubmitted to with conftant deliberation and cool thought. The other we are driven into generally through the heat of wine, or youth, which Mr. Hobbs calls a natural drunkenness; and therefore confequently are more excufable for any errors committed during the deprivation or fufpenfion of our reafon, than the poffeflion of it. The irregular starts of vicious appetites are in time deftroyed by the gratification of them; but a well-ordered life of floth receives daily ftrength from its continuance. I went (fays Solomon) by the field of the flethful, and the vineyard of the man void of underftarding, and lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the ficne wall thereof was broken down. To raise the image of this perfon, the fame author adds, the flottful man hideth his hand in bis bojom, and it grieveth him to bring it again to his mouth. If there were no future account expected of fpending our time, the immediate inconvenience that attends a life of idleness, fhould of itfelf be perfuafion enough to the men of fense to avoid it; I fay to the men of fenfe, because there are of these who give into it, and for these chiefly is this paper defigned. Arguments drawn from future rewards and punishments, are things too remote for the confideration of ftubborn, fanguine youth: They are affected by fuch only as propofe immediate pleasure or pain; as the ftrongest perfuafive to the children of Ifrael was a land flowing with milk and honey. I believe I may fay there is more toil, fatigue, and uncafinefs in floth than can be found in any employment a man will put himself upon. When a thoughtful man is once fixed this way, fpleen is

the neceffary confequence. This directs him inftantly to the contemplation of his health or circumstances, which must ever be found extremely bad upon these melancholy inquiries. If he has any common bufinefs upon his hands, numberlefs objections arife, that make the dispatch of it impoffible; and he cries out with Solomon, there is a lion in the way, a lion in the ftreets; that is, there is fome difficulty or other, which to his imagination is as invincible as a lion really would be. The man, on the contrary, that арplies himself to books, or bufinefs, contracts a cheerful confidence in all his undertakings, from the daily improvements of knowledge or fortune, and inftead of giving himself up to

Thick-eye'd mufing, and curfed melancholy,

Shakef.

has that conftant life in his vifage and converfation, which the idle fplenetic man borrows fometimes from the fun-fhine, exercife, or an agreeable friend. A reclufe idle fobriety must be attended with more bitter remorfe, than the moft active debauchery can at any intervals be molested with. The rake, if he is a cautious manager, will allow himself very little time to examine his own conduct, and will beftow as few reflections upon himself, as the lingerer does upon any thing else, unless he has the misfortune to repent: I repeat the misfortune to repent, because I have put the great day of account out of the prefent cafe, and am now inquiring not whofe life is moft irreligious, but most inconvenient. A gentleman who has formerly been a very eminent lingerer, and fomething. fplenetic, informs me, that in one winter he drank fix hampers of fpaw water, feveral gallons of chalybeate tincture, two hogfheads of bitters at the rate of 60l. an hogshead, laid one hundred and fifty infallible fchemes, in every one of which he was difappointed, received a thousand affronts during the north-eafterly winds, and in fhort run through more mifery and expence, than the most meritorious bravo could boast of. Another tells us, that he fell into this way at the univerfity, where the youth are apt to be fulled into a VOL. II. R 2

ftate of fuch tranquility as prejudices them againft the bustle of that worldly bufinefs, for which this part of their education fhould prepare them. As he could with the utmost secrecy be idle in his own chamber, he fays he was for fome years irrecoverably funk, and immerfed in the luxury of an eafy chair, though at the fame time, in the general opinion, he pafled for a hard ftudent. During this lethargy, he had fome intervals of application to books, which rather aggravated, than fufpended the painful thoughts of a mil-fpent life. Thus his fuppofed relief became his punishment, and like the damn'd in Milton, upon their conveyance at certain revolutions from fire to ice,

--He felt by turns the bitter change

Offierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce.

When he had a mind to go out, he was fo fcrupulous as to form fome excufe or other which the idle are ever provided with, and could not fatisfy himfelf without this ridiculous appearance of juftice. Sometimes 'by his own contrivance and infinuation, the woman who looked after his chamber would convince him of the neceflity of washing his room, or any other matter of the like joyous import, to which he always fubmitted, after having decently oppofed it, and made his exit with much feeming reluctance, and inward delight. Thus did he país the noon of his life in the folitude of a monk, and the gilt of a libertine. He is fince awakened by application out of flumber, has no more fpleen than a Dutchman, who, as Sir W. Temple obferves, is not delicate or idle enough to fuffer from this enemy, but is always well pleafed when be is not ill, always pleased when he is not angry.

There is a gentleman I have seen at a coffee-house near the place of my abode, who having a pretty good eftate and a difinclination to books or bufinefs, to fecure himself from one of the above-mentioned misfortunes, employs himfelf with much alacrity in the following method: Being vehemently difpofed to loquacity, he has a perfon conftantly with him, to whom he gives an annual penfion for no other merit but