NUMB. Left, in the race derided, left behind, FRANCIS 208 Be gone ye blackheads, Heraclitus cries, Celestial pow'rs! that piety regard, Lately Publifhed, Printed for J. PAYNE, at Pope's Head, in Pater-nofter Row. I. A TREATISE on VIRTUE and HAPPINESS. By Thomas Nettleton, M. D. and F. R. S.. •Rectius boc eft: Hoc faciens vivam melius ; fic dulcis amicis Occurram. HOR. The Third Edition, printed from a Copy in the Poffeffion of the Author's Widow, prepared for the Prefs by himself. THE RAMBLER. NUMB. 173. TUESDAY, Nov. 12, 1751. Quo Virtus, quo ferat Error. HOR. S any action or posture long continued, will distort and disfigure the limbs; fo the mind likewife is crip pled and contracted by perpetual application to the fame fet of ideas. It is easy to guefs the trade of an artizan by his knees, his fingers, or his fhoulders; and there are few among men of the more liberal profeffions, whofe minds do not carry the brand of their calling, or whose conversation does not quickly discover to what clafs of the community they belong. THESE peculiarities have been of great ufe, in the general hoftility which every part of mankind exercises against the rest, to furVOL. VI. B nish hearers, is commonly cenfured as arrogant or overbearing, and eager to extend the reputation of his own accomplishments, in contempt of the convenience of society, and the laws of converfation. ALL difcourfe of which others cannot partake, is not only an irksome ufurpation of the time devoted to pleasure and entertainment, but, what never fails to excite very keen refentment, an infolent affertion of superiority, and a triumph over lefs enlightened underflandings. The pedant is, therefore, not only heard with wearinefs, but malignity; and those who conceive themselves infulted by his knowledge, never fail to tell with acrimony how injudiciously it was exerted. ᎥᎥ . To avoid this dangerous imputation, and recommend themselves more effectually to the gay world, fcholars fometimes diveft themfelves with too much hafte of their academical formality, and in their endeavours to accommodate their notions and their ftile to Common conceptions, talk rather of any thing than of that which they understand, and fink 1 into infipidity of fentiment and meanness of expreffion. par THERE prevails among men of letters an opinion, that all appearance of science is ticularly hateful to women; and that therefore whoever defires to be well received in female affemblies, muft qualify himself by a total rejection of all that is ferious, rational, or important; muft confider argument or criticifm as perpetually interdicted; and devote all his attention to trifles, and all his eloquence to compliment. STUDENTS often form their notions of the prefent generation from the writings of the past, and are not very early informed of thofe changes which the gradual diffufion of knowledge, or the fudden caprice of fashion produces in the world. Whatever might be the state of female literature in the last century, there is now no longer any danger left the scholar fhould want an adequate audience at the tea-table, and whoever thinks it neceffary to regulate his converfation by antiquated |
