vanced too far in the paths of licentioufnefs, can fail to find happiness in the careffes of his wife and children. It is true that this pleasure is too frequently forgotten in the company of noise and wickedness; but this is only a melancholy proof of the depravity of men whom example has ruined. The Hottentot would perhaps prefer the converfation of a cinder-girl to that of a Devonfhire or a Moira, but who, whofe heart ever felt the powers of beauty and of wit, would envy his felicity?

No. 5.

"Quem tulit ad fcenam ventofo gloria curri,
Exanimat lentus spectator, fedulus inflat

Sicleve, fic parvum eft; animum quod laudis avarum
Subruit aut reficit."

A

IMITATED.

O ye whom vanity's light bark conveys
On fame's mad voyage by the wind of praise,
With what a shifting gale your course you fly,
For ever funk too low, or rais'd too high,

POPE.

S the natural confequence of the difficulty every one

finds in the profeffion he has chofen, or in the rank of which he is poffeffed in life, we find that every man looks up to other fituations and other employments as yielding to those who poffefs them that happinefs which he has him

felf

felf in vain endeavoured to find, and as conferring upon them fome peculiar privileges, which he imagines his own fituation is not capable of procuring.

* To thofe who are engaged in the buftle of bufinefs, exposed to the dangers of war, or to any man who is diffatis fied with the road to ease and honour which he has felected, the situation of an author is calculated to draw forth envy, and excite defire; for what can raife the admiration of the brave or the bufy higher, than the confideration of men, who reap the laurels of honour, and receive praise without being exposed to hazards or difficulties; who can rife to eminence without labour, and in folitude and idleness receive those rewards, which are feldom attained by the rest of the human race without toil, or without danger?

Yet the profeffion of the author, like all other, when tried, fails to yield that fatisfaction, or that happiness, which it promifes. Those who follow it, find difficulties prefent themfelves to their eyes, and no fooner are they conquered than new ones rife to view, which ferve but as fteps by which to difcover others, till many of those who at first started grow tired of their journey, and fall down from the eminence they have in part attained, difappointed' in their wishes, and wearied with their labour.-Of thofe who have entered the republic of literature, with the hope" of admiration, and the expetation of praife, few have had their hopes gratified, or their expectations anfwered, by fuccefs; and of thofe who have acquired that apD

plaufe

}

plause they defired, it may be observed that they do nos receive the happiness they expected from it, and that they have been left to ftruggle with difcontent, and to lament the fruitlessness of their labours. He who ventures into the lifts of learning, has undertaken an enterprize, of which the reward depends, in a great measure, upon the caprices of mankind, and the fuffrage which is his due may be withheld by ignorance, and denied by fastidiousness.

The man who pants for glory in the field, if his renown be once blown by the trumpet of Fame, has little cause for the fear of lofing that renown hereafter-he may fit down, contented with the reflection, that however hazardous the means by which he has gained admiration may have been, the exploits he has performed, and the courage he has fhewn, will be confidered as heroic through every revolution of fentiment and circumstances, and that his fame will be echoed equally by favage ignorance and learned politenefs. The actions of Alexander, or of Cæfar, are not paffing in continual review before us: we are ob liged to place reliance upon the teftimony of others for their reality and for their merits; but the works of an author are always before the world; he has no hope of extenuating faults, or procuring regard by his own reprefentation, or the partiality of friends; he is not poffeffed of power to filence clamour, or repel truth; he is always exposed to the arrows of criticism, and open to the rigidness of enquiry. If the question be neglected by his contemporaries, and he receives applause undeserved, it is taken up by pofterity, and examined with feverity; his faults are commented

upon,

upon, and his weakneffes magnified.-This expofure to enquiry indeed, would be a defirable circumftance for those who have a juft right to the claim of merit which they of fer, were the examination always conducted by the hand of justice, and the openness of candour; but it is too of ten entered upon by those who are unqualified for the office; who fpy out faults rather than merits, and who love to demolish rather than fupport. Works may be pronounced dull by thofe who cannot perceive beauties, and infipid by those who are without tafte; but of cou rage, every man profeffes himself an admirer; the ignorant and the wife equally elleem it, and many who, through a deficiency of intellect, or a prejudiced opinion, wonder at the mention of the genius of Shakespear, or the wit of Addifon, fufficiently difplay the intereft they take in the relation of the victories of Marlborough and the valour of William.

L

Eventhofe who have arrived at that height of literary eminence for which they withed, are fubject to inconveniences which though they apply, in fome refpects, to thofe eminent in other profeffions, yet affect writers in a peculiar degree. The merit of a book is to fome men but a cause for its author being attacked; every effort of oppofition, and every artifice of cunning, is ufed by his enemies to decrease the estimation of that man whom they cannot help envying, and every principle of falfe criticism is em◄ ployed to cenfure that work which cannot be rivalled. He who hopes by his labours to tranfmit his name to pofterity, while he expects commendation, muft likewife fear

cenfure, and must expect that honour he wishes for, to be, in fome measure, leffened by the blasts of calumny, and the vigilance of curiofity; for by malice or inquifitivenefs, the characters of those who have become famous by the force of genius, have always been expofed to the taunts of envy and ftupidity.

An author likewife, after his merits have been confeffed by the learned of his own country, is prevented from receiving universal fame by the locality of languages; for few are qualified to read or study tongues which are not commonly fpoken, fo as to be able to relifh beauties, or diftinguish merits. The hiftory of a man who has fignalifed himself by valour and enterprife, may be translated from one language into another, without leffening his reputation; but every attempt to render the fame of a writer univerfal decreases it; no Frenchman, unacquainted with the English language, ever conceived the fublimity of Shakespear; and every Englishman, unacquainted with latin, who reads the tranflations of Horace, is astonished at the praises he has received. The example of both these authors, it is true, is an evidence that writers may poffefs fame in other nations befides their own; but it must be recollected that that fame is confined to a few, and that their names are almoft unknown by the common class of those who understand not their language; and who would not rather have his name echoed by the crowd, and known' by every man, than refpected by a few, whatever their learning or their dignity?

But