"there is likewife a pity due to the country." If we owe regard to the memory of the dead, there is yet more refpect to be paid to knowledge, to virtue, and to truth. NUMB. 61. TUESDAY, October 16, 1750. Falfus honor juvat, et mendax infamia terret Falfe praife can charm, unreal shame controul Whom but a vicious or a fickly foul? SIR, To the RAMBLER. HOR FRANCIS. IT is extremely vexatious to a man of eager and thirsty curiofity to be placed at a great distance from the fountain of intelligence, and not only never to receive the current of report till it has fatiated the greateft part of the nation, but at last to find it mudded in its course, and corrupted with taints or mixtures from every channel through which it flowed. One of the chief pleasures of my life is to hear. what paffes in the world, to know what are the fchemes of the politick, the aims of the bufy, and. the hopes of the ambitious; what changes of pub-. lick measures are approaching; who is likely to be crushed in the collifion of parties; who is climbing to the top of power, and who is tottering on the precipice of difgrace. But as it is very common for us to defire moft what we are leaft qualified to obtain, E. have fuffered this appetite of news to outgrow all the gratifications which my prefent fituation can afford it; for being placed in a remote country, I am condemned demned always to confound the future with the paft, to form prognoftications of events no longer doubtful, and to confider the expediency of fchemes already executed or defeated. I am perplexed with a perpetual deception in my profpects, like a man pointing his telescope at a remote star, which before the light reaches his eye has forfaken the place from which it was emitted. The mortification of being thus always behind'the active world in my reflections and discoveries, is ex-ceedingly aggravated by the petulance of those whofe health, or business, or pleasure, brings them hither from London. For, without confidering the infuperable disadvantages of my condition, and the unavoidable ignorance which abfence muft produce, they often treat me with the utmost fuperciliousness of contempt, for not knowing what no human fagacity can discover; and fometimes feem to confider me as a wretch scarcely worthy of human converse, when I happen to talk of the fortune of a bankrupt, or propofe the healths of the dead, when I warn them of mifchiefs already incurred, or wifh for measures that have been lately taken. They seem to attribute to the fuperiority of their intellects what they only owe to the accident of their condition, and think themselves indifputably intitled to. airs of infolence and authority, when they find' another ignorant of facts, which because they echoed in the streets of London, they suppose equally publick in all other places, and known where they could neither be feen, related, nor conjectured. To this haughtiness they are indeed too much encouraged by the respect which they receive amongst us, for no other reason than that they come from London. For no fooner is the arrival of one of thefe thefe diffeminators of knowledge known in the country, than we crowd about him from every quarter,. and by innumerable enquiries flatter him into an opinion of his own importance. He fees himself furrounded by multitudes, who propofe their doubts, and refer their controverfies, to him, as to a being defcended from fome nobler region, and he grows on a fudden oraculous and infallible, folves all difficulties, and fets all objections at defiance. There is, in my opinion, great reason for suspect→ ing, that they sometimes take advantage of this reverential modefty, and impose upon ruftick underftandings with a falfe fhow of univerfal intelligence; for I do not find that they are willing to own themfelves ignorant of any thing, or that they dismiss any enquirer with a pofitive and decifive anfwer. The court, the city, the park, and exchange, are to those men of unbounded obfervation equally familiar, and they are alike ready to tell the hour at which stocks will rife, or the miniftry be changed. A fhort refidence at London entitles a man to knowledge, to wit, to politenefs, and to a defpotick and dictatorial power of prefcribing to the rude multitude, whom he condefcends to honour with a biennial vifit; yet, I know not well upon what motives I have lately found myself inclined to cavil. at this prescription, and to doubt whether it be not, on fome occasions, proper to withhold our veneration, till we are more authentically convinced of the merits of the claimant. It is well remembered here, that, about feven years ago, one Frolick, a tall boy, with lank hair, remarkable for stealing eggs, and fucking them, was taken from the fchool in this parifh, and fent up to London to ftudy the law. As he had given amongst us us no proofs of a genius defigned by nature for extraordinary performances, he was, from the time of his departure, totally forgotten, nor was there any talk of his vices or virtues, his good or his ill fortune, till last summer a report burft upon us, that Mr. Frolick was come down in the first post-chaife which this village had feen, having travelled with fuch rapidity that one of his poftilions had broke his leg, and another narrowly escaped fuffocation in a quickfand. But that Mr. Frolick feemed totally unconcerned, for such things were never heeded at London.. Mr. Frolick next day appeared among the gentlemen at their weekly meeting on the bowlinggreen, and now were feen the effects of a London education. His drefs, his language, his ideas, were all new, and he did not much endeavour to conceal his contempt of every thing that differed from the opinions, or practice of the modif world.. He fhewed us the deformity of our skirts and fleeves, informed us where hats of the proper fize were to be fold, and recommended. to us the reformation of a thousand abfurdities in our clothes, our cookery, and our conversation.. When any of his phrafes were unintelligible, he could not fupprefs the joy of con-feffed fuperiority, but frequently delayed the expla-nation, that he might enjoy his triumph over our barbarity. When he is pleased to entertain us with a story, he takes care to croud into it names of streets,, fquares, and buildings, with which he knows we are unacquainted. The favourite topicks of his dif course are the pranks of drunkards, and the tricks put upon country gentlemen by porters and linkboys. When he is with ladies he tells them of the. innumerable. innumerable pleasures to which he can introduce them; but never fails to hint, how much they will be deficient, at their first arrival, in the knowledge of the town. What it is to know the town he has not indeed hitherto informed us, though there is no phrafe fo frequent in his mouth, nor any science which he appears to think of fo great a value, or fo difficult attainment. But my curiofity has been moft engaged by the recital of his own adventures and atchievements. I have heard of the union of various characters in fingle perfons, but never met with fuch a conftellation of great qualities as this man's narrative affords. Whatever has diftinguished the hero; whatever has elevated the wit; whatever has endeared the lover, are all concentered in Mr. Frolick, whofe life has, for seven years, 'been a regular interchange of intrigues, dangers, and waggeries, and who has diftinguished himself in every character that can be feared, envied, or admired. I question whether all the officers of the royal navy can bring together from all their journals, a collection of fo many wonderful efcapes as this man has known upon the Thames, on which he has been a thousand and a thousand times on the point of perifhing, fometimes by the terrors of foolish women in the fame boat, fometimes by his own acknow ledg. imprudence in paffing the river in the dark, and fon. times by fhooting the bridge, under which he has rencountered mountainous waves and dreadful cataracts. Nor lefs has been his temerity by land, nor fewer his hazards. He has reeled with giddinefs on the top of the monument; he has croffed the ftreet |