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rules, will be rather defpifed for his futility than careffed for his politeness.

To talk intentionally in a manner above the comprehenfion of thofe whom we address, is unquestionable pedantry; but furely complaifance requires, that no man fhould, without proof, conclude his company incapable of following him to the highest elevation of his fancy, or the utmost extent of his knowledge. It is always fafer to err in favour of others than of ourselves, and therefore we seldom hazard much by endeavouring to excel.

IT ought at least to be the care of learning when the quits her exaltation, to descend with dignity. Nothing is more despicable than the airiness and jocularity of a man bred to fevere fcience, and folitary meditation. To trifle agreeably, is a fecret which fchools cannot impart; that gay negligence and vivacious levity, which charm down refistance wherever they appear, are never attainable by him who having spent his first years among the dust of libraries, enters late into the living world with an unpliant attention and established habits.

It is obferved in the panegyrick on Fabricius the mechanift, that, though forced by publick employments into mingled converfation, he never loft the modefty and seriousness of the convent, nor drew ridicule upon himfelf by an affected imitation of fashionable life. To the fame praife every man devoted to learning ought to afpire. If he attempts the fofter arts of pleafing, and endeavours to learn the graceful bow and the familiar embrace, the infinuating accent and the general fmile, he will lose the respect due to the character of learning, without arriving at the envied honour of doing nothing with elegance and facility.

THEOPHRASTUS was discovered not to be a native of Athens, by so strict an adherence to the Attic dialect as fhewed that he had learned it not by cuftom but by rule. A man not early formed to habitual elegance, betrays in like manner the defects of his education, by an unnecessary anxiety of behaviour. It is poffible to become pedantick by fear of pedantry, as to be troublesome by illB 4 timed

timed civility. There is no kind of impertinence more justly cenfurable, than his who is always labouring to level his thoughts to intellects higher than his own; who apologizes for every word which his own narrowness of converse inclines him to think unusual; keeps the exuberance of his faculties under visible reftraint; is folicitous to anticipate enquiries by needless explanations; and endeavours to shade his own abilities, left weak eyes should be dazzled with their luftre.

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Νου.

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NUMB. 174. SATURDAY, Nov. 15, 1751.

Fænum habet in cornu, longe fuge, dummodo

rifum

Excutiat fibi, non hic cuiquam parcet amico.

To the RAMBLER.

Mr. RAMBLER,

THE

HOR.

HE laws of focial benevolence require, that every man fhould endeavour to aflift others by his experience. He that has

at

at last escaped into port from the fluctuations of chance, and the gufts of oppofition, ought to make some improvements in the chart of life, by marking the rocks on which he has been dashed, and the fhallows where he has been stranded.

THE error into which I was betrayed, when custom first gave me up to my own direction, is very frequently incident to the quick, the fprightly, the fearless and the gay; to all whofe ardour hurries them into precipitate execution of their defigns, and imprudent declaration of their opinions; who feldom count the coft of pleasure, or examine the diftant' confequences of any practice that flatters them with immediate gratification. ¡

I CAME forth into the crouded world with the ufual juvenile ambition, and desired nothing beyond the title of a wit, Money Iconfidered as below my care; for I faw fuch for I faw fuch multitudes grow rich without understanding, that I could not forbear to look on wealth as an acquifition easy to industry directed by genius, and therefore threw it afide as a fecondary convenience, to be procured when my principal

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principal wifh fhould be fatisfied, and my claim to intellectual excellence univerfally acknowledged.

WITH this view, I regulated my behaviour in publick, and exercised my meditations in folitude. My life was divided between the care of providing topicks for the entertainment of my company, and that of collecting company worthy to be entertained; for I foon found, that wit like every other power, has its boundaries; that its fuccefs depends upon the aptitude of others to receive impreffions; and that as some bodies, indiffoluble by heat, can fet the furnace and crucible at defiance, there are minds upon which the rays of fancy may be pointed without effect, and which no fire of fentiment can agitate or exalt.

Ir was, however, not long before I fitted myfelf with a fet of companions, who knew how to laugh, and to whom no other recommendation was neceflary than the power of ftriking out a jeft. Among thofe, I fixed my refidence, and for a time enjoyed the felicity of disturbing the neighbours every night, with

the