the French have fufficiently teftified their efteem, by terming the knowledge and practice of them Sçavoir vivre, the art of living. Politenefs is one of thofe advantages which we never estimate rightly but by the inconvenience of its lofs. Its influence upon the manners is conftant and uniform, fo that, like an equal motion, it efcapes perception. The circumstances of every action are fo adjufted to each other, that we do not fee where any error could have been committed, and rather acquiefce in its propriety, than admire its exactnefs. But as fickness fhews us the value of ease, a little familiarity with those who were never taught to endeavour the gratification of others, but regulate their behaviour merely by their own will, will foon evince the neceffity of established modes and formalities to the happiness and quiet of common life. Wisdom and virtue are by no means fufficient, without the fupplemental laws of good-breeding, to fecure freedom from degenerating to rudeness, or felf-esteem from fwelling into infolence; a thousand incivilities may be committed, and a thousand offices neglected, without any remorse of conscience, or reproach from reason. The true effect of genuine politeness seems to be rather ease than pleasure. The power of delighting must be conferred by nature, and cannot be delivered by precept, or obtained by imitation; but though it be the privilege of a very small number to ravish and to charm, every man may hope by rules and caution not to give pain, and may, therefore, by the help of good-breeding,enjoy the kindness of mankind,though he should have no claim to higher distinctions. The univerfal axiom in which all complaifance is included, and from which flow all the formalities > which custom has established in civilifed nations, is, That no man fhould give any preference to himself. A rule fo comprehensive and certain, that, perhaps, it is not eafy for the mind to image an incivility, without fuppofing it to be broken. There are, indeed, in every place fome particular modes of the ceremonial part of good-breeding, which, being arbitrary and accidental, can be learned only by habitude and converfation; fuch are the forms of falutation, the different gradations of reverence, and all the adjustments of place and precedence. These, however, may be often violated without offence, if it be fufficiently evident, that neither malice nor pride contributed to the failure; but will not atone, however rigidly obferved, for the tumour of infolence, or petulance of contempt. I have, indeed, not found among any part of mankind, lefs real and rational complaisance, than among those who have pafled their time in paying and receiving vifits, in frequenting publick entertainments, in ftudying the exact measures of ceremony, and in watching all the variations of fashionable courtesy. They know, indeed, at what hour they may beat the door of an acquaintance, how many fteps they must attend him towards the gate, and what interval fhould pafs before his vifit is returned; but feldom extend their care beyond the exterior and uneffential parts of civility, nor refuse their own vanity any gratifications, however expensive, to the quiet of another. Trypherus is a man remarkable for fplendour and expense; a man, that having been originally placed by his fortune and rank in the first class of the com munity, munity, has acquired that air of dignity and that readiness in the exchange of compliments, which courts, balls, and levees, eafily confer. But Trypherus, without any fettled purposes of malignity, partly by his ignorance of human nature, and partly by the habit of contemplating with great fatisfaction his own grandeur and riches, is hourly giving difguft to thofe whom chance or expectation fubject to his vanity. To a man whofe fortune confines him to a small house, he declaims upon the pleasure of spacious apartments, and the convenience of changing his lodging-room in different parts of the year; tells him, that he hates confinement; and concludes that if his chamber was lefs, he fhould never wake without thinking of a prison. To Eucretas, a man of birth equal to himself, but of much lefs eftate, he fhewed his fervices of plate, and remarked that fuch things were, indeed, nothing better than coftly trifles, but that no man muft pretend to the rank of a gentleman without them; and that for his part, if his eftate was fmaller, he fhould not think of enjoying but encreafing it, and would enquire out a trade for his eldest fon. He has, in imitation of fome more acute observer than himself, collected a great many fhifts and artifices by which poverty is concealed; and among the ladies of fmall fortune, never fails to talk of frippery and flight filks, and the convenience of a general mourning. I have been infulted a thoufand times with a catalogue of his pictures, his jewels, and his rarities, which, though he knows the humble neatness of ノ my habitation, he feldom fails to conclude by a declaration, claration, that wherever he fees a house meanly furnished, he despises the owner's taste, or pities his poverty. This, Mr. Rambler, is the practice of Trypherus, by which he is become the terror of all who are less wealthy than himself, and has raised innumerable enemies without rivalry, and without malevolence. Yet though all are not equally culpable with Trypherus, it is fcarcely poffible to find any man who does not frequently, like him, indulge his own pride by forcing others into a comparison with himself, when he knows the advantage is on his fide, without confidering that unneceffarily to obtrude unpleafing ideas, is a fpecies of oppreffion; and that it is little more criminal to deprive another of fome real advantage, than to interrupt that forgetfulness of its abfence which is the next happiness to actual poffeffion. I am, &c. EUTROPIUS. NUMB. 99. TUESDAY, February 26, 1751. Scilicet ingeniis aliqua eft concordia junctis, Et fervat ftudii fœdera quifque fui, Congenial paffions fouls together bind, OVIN F. LEWIS. IT has been ordained by Providence, for the confervation of order in the immenfe variety of nature, and for the regular propagation of the feveral claffes of life with which the elements are peopled, that every creature fhould be drawn by fome fecret attraction to thofe of his own kind' ; and that not only the gentle and domestick animals which naturally unite into companies, or cohabit by pairs, fhould continue faithful to their fpecies; but even those ravenous and ferocious favages which Ariftotle obferves never to be gregarious, fhould range mountains and deferts in fearch of one another, rather than pollute the world with a monftrous birth. As the perpetuity and diftinction of the lower tribes of the creation require that they should be determined to proper mates by fome uniform motive of choice, or fome cogent principle of instinct; it is neceffary likewife, that man, whofe wider capacity demands more gratifications, and who feels in himself innumerable wants, which a life of folitude cannot fupply, and innumerable powers to which it cannot give employment, fhould be led to fuitable companions by particular influence; VOL. II. N and |