back what has been digested, to its priftine and crude principles. He is a standing proof that the Mufes leave works unfinished, if they are not embellished by the Graces. ON CHEAP PLEASURES. FROM DR. AIKIN'S LETTERS TO HIS SON. DEAR SON, THE profeffion you have chofen, in a peculiar man ner forbids indulging thofe defires which are connected with the poffeffion of opulence. To be made happy it is requifite that you should be made cheaply fo; and I please myself with thinking that many fources of enjoyment will be fully acceffible to you, which will fcarcely leave you behind the moft fortunate, in the power of fecuring genuine pleafures. Taking for granted that you will feek, and will find, the higheft of all gratifications in the performance of your profeffional duty, I fhall now fuggeft to you fome of thofe voluntary objects of purfuit, which may moft happily employ your leifure. At the head of all the pleasures which offer themselves to the man of liberal education, may confidently be placed that derived from books. In variety, durability, and facility of attainment, no other can ftand in competition with it; and even in intenfity it is inferior to few. Imagine that we had it in our power to call up the shades of the greatest and wifeft men that ever exifted, and oblige them to converse with us on the most interesting topics-what an ineftimable privilege fhould we think it-how fuperior to all common enjoyments! But in a well-furnished library we, in fact, poffefs this power. We can question Xenophon and Cæfar on their campaigns, make Demofthenes and Cicero plead before us, join in the audiences of Socrates and Plato, and receive demonftrations from Euclid and Newton. In books we have have the choiceft thoughts of the ablest men in their best drefs. We can at pleasure exclude dulnefs and impertinence, and open our doors to wit and good fenfe alone. It is needlefs to repeat the high commendations that have been bestowed on the study of letters by perfons, who had free accefs to every other fource of gratification. Inftead of quoting Cicero to you, I fhall in plain terms give you the refult of my own experience on this fubject. If domeftic enjoyments have contributed in the firft degree to the happiness of my life, (and I fhould be ungrateful not to acknowledge that they have) the pleafures of reading have beyond all queftion held the fecond place. Without books I have never been able to pass a fingle day to my entire fatisfaction; with them, no day has been fo dark as not to have its pleasure. Even pain and fickness have for a time been charmed away by them. By the eafy provifion of a book in my pocket, I have frequently worn through long nights and days in the moft difagreeable parts of my profeflion, with all the difference in my feelings between calm content and fretful impatience. Such occurrences have afforded me full proof both of the poffibility of being cheaply pleafed, and of the confequence it is to the fum of human felicity, not to neglect minute attentions to make the most of life as it paffes. Reading may in every fense be called a cheap amusement. A tafle for books, indeed, may be made expenfive enough; but that is a tafte for editions, bindings, paper and type. If you are fatisfied with getting at the fenfe of an author in fome commodious way, a crown at a ftall will fupply your wants as well as a guinea at a fhop. Learn, too, to diftinguish between books to be perufed, and books to be poffeffed. Of the former you may find an ample ftore in every fubfcription library, the proper ufe of which to a fcholar is to furnish his mind, without loading his fhelves. No apparatus, no appointment of time and place, is neceffary for the en joyment of reading. From the midft of bustle and bufiHh 3 nefs nefs you may, in an inftant, by the magic of a book, plunge into fcenes of remote ages and countries, and difengage yourself from prefent care and fatigue.—— "Sweet pliability of man's fpirit, (cries Sterne, on relating an occurrence of this kind in his Sentimental Journey) that can at once furrender itfelf to illufions, which cheat expectation and forrow of their weary moments!" The next of the procurable pleasures that I fhall point out to you is that of converfation. This is a pleasure of a higher zeft than that of reading; fince in converfing we not only receive the fentiments of others, but impart our own; and from this reciprocation a spirit and intereft arife which books cannot give in an equal degree. Fitness for converfation muft depend upon the ftore of ideas laid up in the mind, and the faculty of communicating them. Thefe, in a great degree, are the refults of education and the habit of fociety, and to a certain point they are favoured by fuperiority of condition. But this is only to a certain point; for when you arrive at that clafs in which fenfuality, indolence, and diffipation, are fostered by excefs of opulence, you lofe more by diminished energy of mind, than you gain by fuperior refinement of manner and elegance of expreffion. And, indeed, there are numbers of the higher ranks among us, whofe converfation has not even the latter qualities to recommend it, but to poverty of fentiment adds the utmoft coarfenefs of language and behaviour. There is a radical meannefs in debauchery, which even in the most elevated conditions of all communicates the taint of vulgarity. To hear the highbred party loudly contending in the praifes of their dogs and horfes, and difcuffing gambling queftions, intermixed with groffer topics, you could not poffibly difcover by the ftyle and matter, whether you were liftening to the mafters above, or the grooms below. It is by no means unfrequent to find the best company, the worst converfation. Should your character and fituation for ever exclude you from fuch focieties, you need not repine at your lofs. It will be amply compenfated by the opportunities you are likely to enjoy of free intercourse with the moft cultivated and rational of both fexes, among whom decency of manners and variety of knowledge will always be valued, though very moderately decorated with the advantages of fortune. I would not, however, inculcate too faftidious a taste with refpect to the fubject and ftyle of converfation, provided it poffefs the effentials of found fenfe and ufeful knowledge. Among thofe who have enjoyed little of the benefit of education, you will often find persons of natural fagacity and a turn for remark, who are capable of affording both entertainment and inftruction. Who would not wish to have been acquainted with Franklin when a journeyman printer, even though he had never rifen to be one of the most diftinguished characters of the age? Information, indeed, may be procured from almost any man in affairs belonging to his particular way of life; and when we fall into company from which little is to be expected with regard to general topics, it is beft to give the converfation a turn towards the technical matters with which they may be acquainted, whence fome profit may be made out of the moft unpromifing materials. Man, too, in every condition, is a fubject well worthy of examination; and the fpeculatift may derive much entertainment from obferving the manners and fentiments of all the various claffes of mankind in their feveral occupations and amufements. Another fource of cheap pleasure is the ftudy of nature. So many advantages with refpect to health, tranquillity of mind, ufeful knowledge and inexhaustible amusement, are united in this ftudy, that I fhould not fail moft warmly to recommend it to your notice, had you not already acquired a decided tafte for its purfuits. Here, again, I can fpeak from my own experience; for the study of English botany caufed feveral fummers to glide away with me in more pure and active delight than almost any other fingle object ever afforded me. It rendered every ride and walk interefting, and converted the plodding rounds of business into excurfions of pleasure. From the impreffion of thefe feelings, I have ever regarded as perfectly fuperfluous the pains taken by fome of the friends of natural hiftory, to fhew its utility in reference to the common purposes of life. Many of their obfervations, indeed, are true, and may ferve to gain patrons for the study among those who measure every thing by the ftandard of economical value; but is it not enough to open a fource of copious and cheap amufement, which tends to harmonize the mind, and elevate it to worthy conceptions of nature and its author! If I offer a man happiness at an eafy rate, unalloyed by any debafing mixture, can I confer on him a greater bleffing? Nothing is more favourable to enjoyment than the combination of bodily exertion and ardour of mind. This, the refearches of natural hiftory afford in great perfection; and fuch is the immenfe variety of its objects, that the labours of the longeft life cannot exhauft them. The ftudy of nature is in itself a cheap ftudy; yet it may be purfued in a very expenfive manner, by all the apparatus of cabinets, purchased collections, prints and drawings. But if you will content yourfelf with the great book of nature and a few of its ableft expofitors, together with the riches your own induftry may accumulate, you will find enough of it within your compafs to answer all reasonable purposes of instruction and amusement. We are both acquainted with an excellent naturalift*, who, by a proper application of the time and money he has been able to fpare out of a common writing fchool, has made himself the poffeffor of more curious and accurate knowledge than falls to the lot of many owners of the moft coftly treafures. The recollection of his modeft merit and fcientific content will * Mr. Wigg of Yarmouth. |