There are, indeed, many conveniencies almoft peculiar to this method of publication, which may naturally flatter the author, whether he be confident or timorous. The man to whom the extent of his knowledge, or the fprightlinefs of his imagination, has, in his own opinion, already fecured the praises of the world, willingly takes that way of difplaying his abilities which will fooneft give him an opportunity of hearing the voice of fame; it heightens his alacrity to think in how many places he fhall hear what he is now writing, read with extafies to-morrow. He will often please himself, with reflecting, that the author of a large treatise must proceed with anxiety, left, before the completion of his work, the attention of the publick may have changed its object; but that he who is confined to no fingle topick, may follow the national tafte through all its variations, and catch the Aura popularis, the gale of favour, from what point foever it fhall blow. Nor is the profpect lefs likely to eafe the doubts of the cautious, and the terrours of the fearful, for to fuch the fhortnefs of every fingle paper is a powerful encouragement. He that questions his abilities to arrange the diffimilar parts of an extenfive plan, or fears to be loft in a complicated fyftem, may yet hope to adjust a few pages without perplexity; and if, when he turns over the repofitories of his memory, he finds his collection too fmall for a volume, he may yet have enough to furnish out an effay. He that would fear to lay out too much time upon an experiment of which he knows not the event, perfuades himself that a few a few days will fhew him what he is to expect from his learning and his genius. If he thinks his own judgment not fufficiently enlightened, he may, by attending the remarks which every paper will produce, rectify his opinions. If he fhould with too little premeditation encumber himself by an unwieldy fubject, he can quit it without confeffing his ignorance, and pafs to other topicks more tractable. lefs dangerous, or And if he finds, with all his induftry, and all his artifices, that he cannot deserve regard, or cannot attain it, he may let the defign fall at once, and, without injury to others or himself, retire to amusements of greater pleasure, or to ftudies of better prospect. NUMB. 2. SATURDAY, March 24, 1750. Stare loco nefcit, pereunt veftigia mille Ante fugam, abfentemque ferit gravis ungula campum. Th' impatient courfer pants in every vein, STATIUS. POPE. HAT the mind of man is never fatisfied with THA the objects immediately before it, but is always breaking away from the prefent moment, and lofing itself in schemes of future felicity; and that we forget the proper ufe of the time now in our power, to provide for the enjoyment of that which, perhaps, may never be granted us, has been frequently remarked; and as this practice is a commodious fubject of raillery to the gay, and of declamation to the ferious, it has been ridiculed, with all the pleasantry of wit, and exaggerated with all the amplifications of rhetorick. Every inftance, by which its abfurdity might appear most flagrant, has been ftudiously collected; it has been marked with every epithet of contempt, and all the tropes and figures have been called forth against it. Cenfure is willingly indulged, because it always implies fome fuperiority; men please themselves with imagining that they have made a deeper fearch, or wider furvey, than others, and detected faults and follies, which efcape vulgar observation. And the pleasure of wantoning in common topicks is fo tempting to a writer, that he cannot easily refign it; a train of fentiments generally received enables him to fhine without labour, and to conquer without a conteft. It is fo eafy to laugh at the folly of him who lives only in idea, refuses immediate ease for distant pleasures, and, instead of enjoying the bleffings of life, lets life glide away in preparations to enjoy them; it affords fuch opportunities of triumphant exultation, to exemplify the uncertainty of the human ftate, to roufe mortals from their dream, and inform them of the filent celerity of time, that we may believe authors willing rather to tranfmit than examine fo advantageous a principle, and more inclined to pursue a track fo fmooth and fo flowery, than attentively to confider whether it leads to truth. This quality of looking forward into futurity feems the unavoidable condition of a being, whose motions are gradual, and whofe life is progreffive: as his powers are limited, he muft ufe means for the attainment of his ends, and intend first what he performs laft; as by continual advances from his first stage of existence, he is perpetually varying the horizon of his prospects, he must always discover new motives of action, new excitements of fear, and allurements of defire. The end therefore which at prefent calls forth our efforts, will be found, when it is once gained, to be only one of the means to fome remoter end. The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope. He that directs his fteps to a certain point, must frequently turn his eyes to that place which he strives to reach; he that undergoes the fatigue of labour, must folace his wearinefs with the contemplation of its reward. In agriculture, one of the moft fimple and neceffary employments, no man turns up the ground but because he thinks of the harvest, that harveft which blights may intercept, which inundations may sweep away, or which death or calamity may hinder him from reaping. Yet as few maxims are widely received or long retained but for fome conformity with truth and nature, it must be confeffed, that this caution against keeping our view too intent upon remote advantages is not without its propriety or usefulness, though it may have been recited with too much levity, levity, or enforced with too little diftinction: for, not to fpeak of that vehemence of defire which preffes through right and wrong to its gratification, or that anxious inquietude which is justly chargeable with diftruft of heaven, fubjects too folemn for my prefent purpofe; it frequently happens that, by indulging early the raptures of fuccefs, we forget the measures neceffary to fecure it, and fuffer the imagination to riot in the fruition of fome poffible good, till the time of obtaining it has flipped away. There would however be few enterprizes of great labour or hazard undertaken, if we had not the power of magnifying the advantages which we perfuade ourselves to expect from them. When the knight of La Mancha gravely recounts to his companion the adventures by which he is to fignalize himself in fuch a manner that he fhall be fummoned to the fupport of empires, folicited to accept the heirefs of the crown which he has preferved, have honours and riches to fcatter about him, and an inland to bestow on his worthy fquire, very few readers, amidst their mirth or pity, can deny that they have admitted vifions of the fame kind; though they have not, perhaps, expected events equally ftrange, or by means equally inadequate, When we pity him, we reflect on our own difappointments; and when we laugh, our hearts inform us that he is not more ridiculous than ourselves, except that he tells what we have only thought. The understanding of a man, naturally fanguine, may, indeed, be eafily vitiated by the luxurious indulgence of hope, however neceffary to the pro duction |