falle fteps in the conduct of life, which are often irretrievable. Delicacy of Tafte defirable. There is a delicacy of taste obfervable in fome men, which very much refembles this delicacy of paffion, and produces the fame fenfibility to beauty and deformity of every kind, as that does to profperity and adverfity, obligations and injuries. When you prefent a poem or a picture to a man poffeffed of this talent, the delicacy of his feelings makes him to be touched very fenfibly with every part of it; nor are the masterly ftrokes perceived with more exquifite relish and fatisfaction, than the negligences or abfurdities with difguft and uneafinefs. A polite and judicious converfation affords him the highest entertainment; rudeness or impertinence is as great a punishment to him. In short, delicacy of taste has the fame effect as delicacy of paffion: it enlarges the sphere both of our happiness and mifery, and makes us fenfible to pains as well as pleafures which efcape the rest of mankind. I believe, however, there is no one, who will not agree with me, that, notwithstanding this refemblance, a delicacy of taste is as much to be defired and cultivated as a delicacy of paffion is to be lamented, and to be remedied if poffible. The good or ill accidents of life are very little at our difpofal; but we are pretty much mafters what books we fhall read, what diverfions we fhall partake of, and what company we fhall keep. Philofophers have endeavoured to render happiness entirely independent of every thing external that is impoffible to be attained: but every wife man will endeavour to place his happiness on fuch objects as depend moft upon himself; and that is not to be attained fo much by any other means, as by this delicacy of fentiment. When a man is poffeffed of that talent, he is more happy by what pleases his tafte, than by what gratifies his appetites; and receives more enjoyment from a poem or a piece of reafoning, than the most expensive luxury can afford, That it teaches us to felet our Company. Delicacy of tafte is favourable to love and friendship, by confining our choice to few people, and making us indifferent to the company and converfation of the greateft part of men. You will very feldom find that mere men of the world, whatever ftrong fenfe they may be endowed with, are very nice in diftinguishing of characters, or in marking thofe infenfible differences and gradations which make one man preferable to another. Any one that has competent fenfe, is fufficient for their entertainment: they talk to him of their plea fures and affairs with the fame, franknefs as they would to any other; and finding many who are fit to fupply his place, they never feel any vacancy or want in his abfence. But, to make use of the allufion of a famous French author, the judgment may be compared to a clock or watch, where the most ordinary machine is fufficient to tell the hours; but the most elaborate and artificial can only point the minutes and feconds, and diftinguish the fmallest differences of time. One who has well digefted his knowledge both of books and men, has little enjoyment but in the company of a few felect companions. He feels too fenfibly how much all the reft of mankind fall fhort of the notions which he has entertained; and his af fections being thus confined within a narrow circle, no wonder he carries them farther than if they were more general and undiftinguished. The gaiety and frolic of a bottle - companion improves with him into a folid friend fhip; and the ardours of a youthful appetite into an elegant paffion. Hume's Effays. and brightened with enjoyments peculiar to rational and focial beings. Detraction is among thofe vices which the moft languid virtue has fufficient force to prevent; because by detraction that is not gained which is taken away. "He who filches from me my good name," fays Shakespeare, enriches not himself, but makes me poor indeed." As nothing therefore degrades human nature more than detraction, nothing more difgraces converfation. The detractor, as he is the lowest moral character, reflects greater dishonour upon his company, than the hangman; and he whofe difpofition is a fcandal to his fpecies, fhould be more diligently avoided, than he who is fcan. dalous only by his offence. But for this practice, however vile, fome have dared to apologize, by contending the report, by which they injured an abfent character, was true: this, however, amounts to no more than that they have not complicated malice with fallhood, and that there is fome difference between detraction and flander. To relate all the ill that is true of the best man in the world, would probably render him the object of fufpicion and distrust; and was this practice univerfal, mutual confidence and efteem, the comforts of fociety, and the endearments of friendship, would be at an end. There is fomething unspeakably more hateful in thofe fpecies of villainy by which the law is evaded, than thofe by which it is violated and defiled. Courage has fometimes preferved rapacity from abhorrence, as beauty has been thought to apologize for proftitution; but the injuftice of cowardice is univerfally abborred, and, like the lewdnefs of deformity, has no advocate. Thus hateful are the wretches who detract with caution, and while they perpetrate the wrong, are folicitous to avoid the reproach. They do not fay, that Chloe forfeited her honour to Lyfander; but they fay, that fuch a report has been spread, they know not how true. Those who propagate these reports, frequently invent them; and it is no breach of charity to fuppofe this to be always the cafe; because no man who fpreads detraction would have fcrupled to produce it: and he who thould diffufe poifon in a brook, would fcarce be acquitted of a malicious defign, though he should alledge, that he received it of another who is doing the fame elsewhere. Whatever is incompatible with the highest dignity of our nature, fhould indeed be excluded from our converfation: as companions, not only that which we owe to ourselves but to others, is required of us; and they who can indulge any vice in the prefence of each other, are become obdurate in guilt, and infenfible to infamy. Rambler. 58. Learning fhould be fometimes applied to cultivate our Morals. Envy, curiofity, and our fense of the imperfection of our prefent ftate, inclines us always to estimate the advantages which are in the poffeffion of others above their real value. Every one muft have remarked what powers and prerogatives the vulgar imagine to be con ferred by learning. A man of science is expected to excel the unlettered and unenlightened, even on occafions where literature is of no ufe, and among weak minds lofes part of his reverence by difcovering no fuperiority in those parts of life, in which all are unavoidably equal; as when a monarch makes a progress to the remoter provinces, the rufticks are faid fometimes to wonder that they find him of the fame fize with themselves. Yet These demands of prejudice and folly can never be fatisfied, and therefore many of the imputations which learning fuffers from difappointed ignorance, are without reproach. it cannot be denied, that there are fome failures to which men of study are peculiarly expofed. Every condition has its difadvantages. The circle of knowledge is too wide for the most active and diligent intellect, and while science is purfued with ardour, other accomplithments of equal ufe are neceffarily neglected; as a fmall garrifon must leave one part of an extensive fortress naked, when an alarm calls them to another. The learned, however, might generally fupport their dignity with more fuccefs, fuccefs, if they fuffered not themselves to be misled by fuperfluous attainments of qualification which few can underftand or value, and by fkill which they may fink into the grave without any confpicuous opportunities of exerting. Raphael, in return to Adam's enquiries into the courfes of the ftars and the revolutions of heaven, counfels him to withdraw his mind from idle fpeculations, and inftead of watching motions which he has no power to regulate, to employ his faculties upon nearer and more interefting objects, the furvey of his own life, the fubjection of his paffions, the knowledge of duties which muft daily be performed, and the detection of dangers which must daily be incurred. This angelic counsel every man of letters fhould always have before him. He that devotes himself wholly to retired ftudy, naturally finks from omiffion to forgetfulness of focial duties, and from which he must be fometimes awakened, and recalled to the general condition of mankind. Its Progrefs. Rambler. It had been obferved by the ancients, That all the arts and fciences arofe among free nations; and that the PerLans and Egyptians, notwithstanding all their eafe, opulence, and luxury, made but faint efforts towards thofe finer pleafures, which were carried to fuch perfection by the Greeks, amidft continual wars, attended with poverty, and the greatest fimplicity of life and manners. It had alfo been obferved, that as foon as the Greeks loft their liberty, though they encreafed mightily in riches, by the means of the conquefts of Alexander; yet the arts, from that moment, declined among them, and have never fince been able to raife their head in that climate. Learning was tranfplanted to Rome, the only free nation at that time in the univerfe; and having met with fo favourable a foil, it made prodigious fhoots for above a century; 'till the decay of liberty produced alfo a decay of letters, and fpread a total barbarifm over the world. From thefe two experiments, of which each was double in its kind, and fhewed the fall of learning in defpotic governments, as well as its rife in popular ones, Longinus thought himfelf fufficiently juftified in afferting, that the arts and fciences could never flourish but in a free government and in this opinion he has been followed by feveral eminent writers in our country, who either confined their view merely to ancient facts, or entertained too great a partiality in favour of that form of government which is eftablished among tt us. But what would thefe writers have faid to the inftances of modern Rome and Florence? Of which the former carried to perfection all the finer arts of fculpture, painting, and mufic, as well as poetry, though they groaned under flavery, and under the flavery of priests; while the latter made the greatest progrefs in the arts and fciences, after they began to lofe their liberty by the ufurpations of the family of Medicis. Ariofto, Taflo, Galilæo, no more than Raphael and Michael Angelo, were not born in republics. And though the Lombard fchool was famous as well as the Roman, yet the Venetians have had the fmalleft share in its honours, and feem rather inferior to the Italians in their genius for the arts and fciences. Rubens eftablifhed his fchool at Antwerp, not at Amfterdam; Drefden, not Hamburgh, is the centre of politenefs in Germany, But the most eminent inftance of the flourishing ftate of learning in defpotic governments, is that of France, which fcarce ever enjoyed an established li berty, and yet has carried the arts and fciences as near perfection as any other nation. The English are, perhaps, better philofophers; the Italians better painters and musicians; the Romans were better orators; but the French are the only people, except the Greeks, who have been at onee philofophers, poets, orators, hiftorians, painters, architects, fculptors, and musicians. With regard to the ftage, they have excelled even the Greeks, who have far excelled the English; and in common life, they have in a great measure perfected that art, the most useful and agreeable of any, l'art de vivre, the art of fociety and converfation. If we confider the ftate of fciences and polite arts in our country, Horace's obfervation with regard to the Romans, may, in a great meafure, be applied to the British, mar. fed in longum tamen ævum Manferunt, hodieque manent veftigia ruris. The elegance and propriety of flile have been very much neglected among us. We have no dictionary of our language, and fcarce a tolerable gramThe first polite profe we have, was wrote by a man who is fill alive. As to Sprat, Locke, and even Temple, they knew too little of the rules of art to be efteemed very elegant writers. The profe of Bacon, Harrington, and Milton, is altogether stiff and pedantic; though their fenfe be excellent. Men, in this country, have been fo much occupied in the great difputes of religion, politics, and philofophy, that they had no relish for the minute obfervations of grammar and criticism. And though this turn of thinking mult have confiderably improved our fenfe and our talent of reafoning beyond thofe of other nations, it must be confeft, that even in thofe fciences above mentioned, we have not any standard book which we can tranfmit to pofte rity and the utmost we have to boat of, are a few eflays towards a more juft philofophy; which, indeed, promife very much, but have not, as yet, reached any degree of perfection. Ufeless without Tafte. A man may know exactly all the circles and ellipfes of the Copernican fyftem, and all the irregular fpirals of the Ptolemaic, without perceiving that the former is more beautiful than the latter. Euclid has very fully explained every quality of the circle, but has not, in any propofition, faid a word of its beauty. The reafon is evident. Beauty is not a quality of the circle. It lies not in any part of the line, whofe parts are all equally diftant from a common centre. It is only the effect which that figure operates upon the mind, whofe particular fabric or ftructure renders it fufceptible of fuch fenti ments. In vain would you look for it in the circle, or feek it, either by your fenfes, or by mathematical reafonings, in all the properties of that figure. The mathematician, who took no other pleafure in reading Virgil but that of examining Eneas's voyage by the meaning of every Latin word emthe map, might understand perfectly ployed by that divine author, and confequently might have a diftinct idea of the whole narration; he would even have a more diftinct idea of it, than they could have who had not ftudied fo exactly the geography of the poem. He knew, therefore, every thing in the poem. But he was ignorant of its beauty; becaufe the beauty, properly fpeaking, lies not in the poem, but the fentiment or tafte of the reader. And where a man has no fuch delicacy of temper as to make him feel this fentiment, he must be ignorant of the beauty, though poffeffed of the fcience and understanding of an angel. Hame's Effays. So many Its Obstructions. hindrances may obftru&t the acquifition of knowledge, that there is little reafon for wondering that it is in a few hands. To the greater part of filtent with much ftudy, and the hours mankind the duties of life are inconmust be stolen from their occupations which they would fpend upon letters and their families. Many fuffer themfelves to be lured by more fprightly and luxurious pleafures from the fhades of contemplation, where they find feldom more than a calm delight, fuch as, though greater than all others, if its certainty and its duration be reckoned with its power of gratification, is yet eafily quitted for fome extemporary joy, which the prefent moment offers, and another perhaps will put out of reach. It is the great excellence of learning that it borrows very little from time or place; it is not confined to feafon or to climate, to cities or to the country, but may be cultivated and enjoyed where no other pleasure can be obtained. But this quality, which conftitutes much of its value, is one occafion of neglect; what may be done at all times with equal propriety, is deferred from day to day, till the mind is gradually recon siled ciled to the omiffion, and the attention is turned to other objects, Thus habitual idleness gains too much power to be conquered, and the foul fhrinks from the idea of intellectual labour and intenfenefs of meditation, That those who profefs to advance learning fometimes obftruct it, cannot be denied; the continual multiplication of books not only distracts choice, but difappoints enquiry. To him that has moderately ftored his mind with images, few writers afford any novelty; or what little they have to add to the common stock of learning is fo buried in the mafs of general notions, that, like filver mingled with the ore of lead, it is too little to pay for the labour of feparation; and he that has often been deceived by the promife of a title, at Iaft grows weary of examining, and is temped to confider all as equally fallaIdler. cious. Behold a fecond, under a fhew of piety hiding the impurities of a debauched life:- -he is jult entering the houfe of God:- would he was more pure or lefs pious!-but then he could not gain his point. But here comes GENEROSITY; giving-not to a decayed artist-but to the arts and fciences themselves. See, he builds not a chamber in the wall apart for the prophets; but whole schools and colleges for thofe who come after, LORD! how they will magnify his name!-'tis in capitals already; the first-the higheft, in the gilded rent-roll of every hospital and asy lum. One honeft tear fhed in private over the unfortunate, is worth it all. What a problematic fet of creatures does fimulation make us! Who would divine that all the anxiety and concern fo vifible in the airs of one half of that great affembly should arife from nothing elfe, but that the other half of it may think them to be men of confequence, penetration, parts, and conduct? What a noife amongst the claim-. ants about it? Behold humility, out of mere pride-and honefty almost out of knavery: :- Chastity, never once in harm's way; and courage, like a Spanish foldier upon an Italian ftage a bladder full of wind. Hark! that, the found of that trumpet,let not my foldier run, 'tis fome good Chriftian giving alms. O PITY, thou gentleft of human paffions! foft and tender are thy notes, and ill accord they with fo loud an inftrument. Sterne's Sermons. and Services. Obferve a third going almost in the $60. Manors; their Origin, Nature, fame track, with what an inflexible fanctity of deportment he fulains himself as he advances!-every line in his face writes abftinence;--every ftride looks like a check upon his defires: fee, I Manors are in fubftance as ancient as the Saxon conftitution, though perhaps differing a little, in fome immaterial circumstances, from thofe that exift at |