I am fo well verfed in the hiftory of the gay world, that I can relate, with great punctuality, the lives of all the laft race of wits and beauties; can enumerate, with exact chronology, the whole fucceflion of celebrated fingers, muficians, tragedians, comedians, and harlequins; can tell to the laft twenty years all the changes of fashions; and am, indeed, a complete antiquary with refpect to head-dreffes, dances, and operas. You will eafily imagine, Mr. Rambler, that I could not hear these narratives, for fixteen years together, without fuffering fome impreffion, and wifhing myfelf nearer to thofe places where every hour brings fome new pleasure, and life is diverfified with an unexhaufted fucceffion of felicity. I indeed often afked my mother why she left a place which the recollected with so much delight, and why she did not vifit London once a year, like fome other ladies, and initiate me in the world by fhewing me its amufements, its grandeur, and its variety. But he always told me that the days which he had feen were fuch as will never come again; that all diverfion is now degenerated, that the converfation of the prefent age is infipid, that their fashions are unbecoming, their customs abfurd, and their morals corrupt; that there is no ray left of the genius which enlightened the times that he remembers; that no one who had seen, or heard, the ancient performers, would be able to bear the bunglers of this defpicable age; and that there is now neither politenefs, nor pleasure, nor virtue, in the world. She therefore affures me that the confults my happinefs by keeping me at home, for I fhould now find nothing but vexation. ˇand disgust, and she should be ashamed to see me D 2 pleased pleafed with fuch fopperies and trifles, as take up the thoughts of the present set of young people. With this answer I was kept quiet for feveral years, and thought it no great inconvenience to be confined to the country, till laft fummer a young gentleman and his fifter came down to pass a few months with one of our neighbours. They had generally no great regard for the country ladies, but diftinguished me by a particular complaifance, and as we grew intimate, gave me fuch a detail of the elegance, the fplendour, the mirth, the happiness of the town, that I am refolved to be no longer buried in ignorance and obfcurity, but to share with other wits the joy of being admired, and divide with other beauties the empire of the world. I do not find, Mr. Rambler, upon a deliberate and impartial comparison, that I am excelled by Belinda in beauty, in wit, in judgment, in knowledge, or in any thing, but a kind of gay, lively familiarity, by which fhe mingles with ftrangers as with perfons long acquainted, and which enables her to difplay her powers without any obftruction, hefitation, or confufion. Yet fhe can relate a thousand civilities paid to her in publick, can produce, from a hundred lovers, letters filled with praifes, proteftations, ecftafies, and despair; has been handed by dukes to her chair; has been the occafion of innumerable quarrels; has paid twenty vifits in an afternoon; been invited to fix balls in an evening, and been forced to retire to lodgings in the country from the importunity of courtship and the fatigue of pleasure. I tell you, Mr. Rambler, I will stay here no longer. I have at laft prevailed upon my mother to to fend me to town, and fhall fet out in three weeks on the grand expedition. I intend to live in publick, and to crowd into the winter every pleasure which money can purchase, and every honour which beauty can obtain. But this tedious interval how fhall I endure? Cannot you alleviate the misery of delay by fome pleafing description of the entertainments of the town? I can read, I can talk, I can think of nothing else; and if you will not foothe my impatience, heighten my ideas, and animate my hopes, you may write for those who have more leifure, but are not to expect any longer the honour of being read by thofe eyes which are now intent only on conqueft and deftruction. RHODOCLIA. IT NUMB. 63. TUESDAY, October 22, 1750. Habebat fæpe ducentos, Sape decem fervos; modò reges atque tetrarchas, Now with two hundred slaves he crowds his train; At night," A frugal table, O ye fates, "A little fhell the facred falt to hold, "And cloaths, tho' coarse, to keep me from the cold." HOR. FRANCIS. T has been remarked, perhaps, by every writer, who has left behind him obfervations upon life, that no man is pleased with his present state, D 3 which which proves equally unfatisfactory, fays Horace, whether fallen upon by chance, or chofen with deliberation; we are always difgufted with fome circumftance or other of our fituation, and imagine the condition of others more abundant in bleffings, or lefs expofed to calamities. This univerfal discontent has been generally mentioned with great severity of cenfure, as unreafonable in itself, fince of two, equally envious of each other, both cannot have the larger fhare of happinefs, and as tending to darken life with unneceffary gloom, by withdrawing our minds from the contemplation and enjoyment of that happiness which our state affords us, and fixing our attention upon foreign objects, which we only behold to deprefs ourfelves, and increase our misery by injurious comparisons. When this opinion of the felicity of others predominates in the heart, fo as to excite refolutions of obtaining, at whatever price, the condition to which fuch tranfcendent privileges are fupposed to be annexed; when it bursts into action, and produces fraud, violence, and injuftice, it is to be purfued with all the rigour of legal punishments. But while operating only upon the thoughts, it difturbs none but him who has happened to admit it, and, however it may interrupt content, makes no attack on piety or virtue, I cannot think it fo far criminal or ridiculous, but that it may deserve some pity, and admit fome excufe. That all are equally happy, or miserable, I suppofe none is fufficiently enthufiaftical to maintain; because though we cannot judge of the condition of others, yet every man has found frequent viciffitudes in his own state, and must therefore be con vinced that life is fufceptible of more or lefs felicity. What then fhall forbid us to endeavour the alteration of that which is capable of being improved, and to grasp at augmentations of good, when we know it poffible to be encreased, and believe that any particular change of fituation will increase it. If he that finds himself uneafy may reasonably make efforts to rid himself from vexation, all mankind have a fufficient plea for fome degree of restleffness, and the fault feems to be little more than too much temerity of conclufion in favour of fomething not yet experienced, and too much readiness to believe, that the mifery which our own paffions and appetites produce, is brought upon us by accidental caufes and external efficients. It is, indeed, frequently difcovered by us, that we complained too haftily of peculiar hardships, and imagined ourselves diftinguished by embarrassments, in which other claffes of men are equally entangled. We often change a lighter for a greater evil, and wish ourselves restored again to the state from which we thought it defirable to be delivered. But this knowledge, though it is easily gained by the trial, is not always attainable any other way; and that error cannot justly be reproached which reafon could not obviate, nor prudence avoid. To take a view at once diftinct and comprehenfive of human life, with all its intricacies of combinations and varieties of connection, is beyond the power of mortal intelligences. Of the state with which practice has not acquainted us, we fnatch a glimpfe, we difcern a point, and regulate the rest by paffion, and by fancy. In this enquiry every favourite prejudice, every innate defire, is busy to D 4 deceive |