is ftruggling to escape from the remembrance of a lofs, the fear of a calamity, or fome other thought of greater horrour. Those whom forrow incapacitates to enjoy the pleafures of contemplation, may properly apply to fuch diversions, provided they are innocent, as lay strong hold on the attention; and thofe, whom fear of any future affliction chains down to misery, must endeavour to obviate the danger. My confiderations fhall, on this occafion, be turned on fuch as are burdenfome to themselves merely because they want fubjects for reflection, and to whom the volume of nature is thrown open without affording them pleasure or inftruction, because they never learned to read the characters. A French author has advanced this feeming paradox, that very few men know how to take a walk; and, indeed, it is true, that few know how to take a walk with a prospect of any other pleasure, than the fame. company would have afforded them at home. There are animals that borrow their colour from the neighbouring body, and confequently vary their hue as they happen to change their place. In like manner it ought to be the endeavour of every man to derive his reflections from the objects about him; for it is to no purpose that he alters his pofition, if his attention continues fixed to the fame point. The mind should be kept open to the accefs of every new idea, and fo far difengaged from the predominance of particular thoughts, as eafily to accommodate itself to occafional entertainment. A man that has formed this habit of turning every new object to his entertainment, finds in the produc I tions tions of nature an inexhaustible stock of materials upon which he can employ himself, without any temptations to envy or malevolence; faults, perhaps, feldom totally avoided by thofe, whofe judgment is much exercised upon the works of art. He has always a certain profpect of discovering new reasons for adoring the fovereign Author of the univerfe, and probable hopes of making some discovery of benefit to others, or of profit to himself. There is no doubt but many vegetables and animals have qualities that might be of great use, to the knowledge of which there is not required much force of penetration, or fatigue of study, but only frequent experiments, and close attention. What is faid by the chemists of their darling mercury, is, perhaps, true of every body through the whole creation, that if a thousand lives fhould be spent upon it, all its properties would not be found out. Mankind must neceffarily be diverfified by various tastes, fince life affords and requires fuch multipli- · city of employments, and a nation of naturalifts is neither to be hoped, or defired; but it is furely not improper to point out a fresh amusement to those who languish in health, and repine in plenty, for want of fome source of diverfion that may be lefs easily exhausted, and to inform the multitudes of both fexes, who are burdened with every new day, that there are many fhows which they have not feen. He that enlarges his curiofity after the works of nature, demonflrably multiplies the inlets to happiness; and, therefore, the younger part of my readers, to whom I dedicate this vernal fpeculation, muft excufe me for calling upon them, to make ufe at once of the fpring spring of the year, and the spring of life; to acquire, while their minds may be yet impreffed with new images, a love of innocent pleasures, and an ardour for useful knowledge; and to remember, that a blighted fpring makes a barren year, and that the vernal flowers, however beautiful and gay, are only intended by nature as preparatives to autumnal fruits. NUMB. 6. SATURDAY, April 7, 1750. Stremua nos exercet inertia, navibus atque Quadrigis petimus bene vivere: quod petis, hic eft ; HOR. Active in indolence, abroad we roam In queft of happiness which dwells at home: ELPHINSTON. THAT man fhould never fuffer his happiness to depend upon external circumftances, is one of the chief precepts of the Stoical philosophy; a precept, indeed, which that lofty fect has extended beyond the condition of human life, and in which some of them feem to have comprised an utter exclufion of all corporal pain and pleasure from the regard or attention of a wife man. Such fapieniia infaniens, as Horace calls the doctrine of another fect, fuch extravagance of philosophy, can want neither authority nor argument for its confutation: it is overthrown by the experience of every hour, and the powers of nature rife up against it. But we may very properly inquire, how near to this exalted ftate it is in our power to approach, how far we can exempt ourselves from outward influences, and fecure to our minds a state of tranquillity: for, though the boaft of abfolute independence is ridiculous and vain, yet a mean flexibility to every impulfe, and a patient VOL. IV. fubmiffion D fubmiffion to the tyranny of cafual troubles, is below the dignity of that mind, which, however depraved or weakened, boasts its derivation from a celeftial original, and hopes for an union with infinite goodness, and unvariable felicity. Ni vitiis pejora fovens Proprium deferat ortum. Unless the foul, to vice a thrall, The neceffity of erecting ourselves to fome degree of intellectual dignity, and of preferving refources of pleasure, which may not be wholly at the mercy of accident, is never more apparent than when we turn our eyes upon thofe whom fortune has let loofe to their own conduct; who, not being chained down by their condition to a regular and ftated allotment of their hours, are obliged to find themfelves bufinefs or diverfion, and having nothing within that can entertain or employ them, are compelled to try all the arts of deftroying time. The numberless expedients practifed by this clafs of mortals to alleviate the burthen of life, is not lefs fhameful, nor, perhaps, much lefs pitiable, than those to which a trader on the edge of bankruptcy is reduced. I have feen melancholy overfpread a whole family at the difappointment of a party for cards; and when, after the propofal of a thousand schemes, and the dif patch of the footmen upon a hundred meffages, they have fubmitted, with gloomy refignation, to the miffortune of paffing one evening in converfation with |