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and who feem lefs to be affected, in their own provinces, by religious opinions, than any other part of the community. The truth is, very few of them have thought about religion; but they have all feen a parfon feen him in a habit different from their own, and therefore declared war against him, A young student from the inns of court, who has often attacked the curate of his father's parifh with fuch arguments as his acquaintances could furnish, and returned to town without fuccefs, is now gone down with a refolution to deftroy him; for he has learned at laft how to manage a prig, and if he pretends to hold him again to fyllogifm, he has a catch in referve, which peither logick nor metaphyficks can refift.

I laugh to think how your unfhaken Cato
Will look aghaft, when unforeseen destruction
Pours in upon him thus,

The malignity of foldiers and failors against each other has been often experienced at the coft of their country; and, perhaps, no orders of men have an enmity of more acrimony, or longer continuance. When, upon our late fucceffes at fea, fome new regulations were concerted for eftablishing the rank of the naval commanders, a captain of foot very acutely remarked, that nothing was more abfurd than to give any honorary rewards to feamen, "for honour," fays he, "ought only to be won by bravery, and all the world "knows that in a fea-fight there is no danger, and "therefore no evidence of courage.'

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But although this general defire of aggrandizing

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themselves, by raifing their profeffion, betrays men to a thousand ridiculous and mifchievous acts of fupplantation and detraction, yet as almost all paffions have their good as well as bad effects, it likewise excites ingenuity, and fometimes raises an honeft and ufeful emulation of diligence. It may be obferved in general, that no trade had ever reached the excellence to which it is now improved, had its profeffors looked upon it with the eyes of indifferent fpectators; the advances, from the first rude effays, must have been made by men who valued themselves for performances, for which scarce any other would be perfuaded to esteem them.

It is pleafing to contemplate a manufacture rifing gradually from its firft mean ftate by the fucceffive labours of innumerable minds; to confider the first hollow trunk of an oak, in which, perhaps, the thepherd could fcarce venture to crofs a brook fwelled with a fhower, enlarged at laft into a fhip of war, attacking fortreffes, terrifying nations, fetting ftorms and billows at defiance, and vifiting the remoteft parts of the globe. And it might contribute to dispose us to a kinder regard for the labours of one another, if we were to confider from what unpromifing beginnings the most useful productions of art have probably arifen. Who, when he faw the firft fand or ashes, by a casual intenseness of heat melted into a metalline form, rugged with excrefcences, and clouded with impurities, would have imagined, that in this fhapeless lump lay concealed fo many conveniencies of life, as would in time conftitute a great part of the happiness of the world? Yet by fome fuch for

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tuitous liquefaction was mankind taught to procure a body at once in a high degree folid and transparent, which might admit the light of the fun, and exclude the violence of the wind; which might extend the fight of the philofopher to new ranges of existence, and charm him at one time with the unbounded extent of the material creation, and at another with the endless fubordination of animal life; and, what is yet of more importance, might supply the decays of nature, and fuccour old age with fubfidiary fight. Thus was the first artificer in glass employed, though without his own knowledge or expectation. He was facilitating and prolonging the enjoyment of light, enlarging the avenues of science, and conferring the highest and most lafting pleasures; he was enabling the student to contemplate nature, and the beauty to behold herself.

This paffion for the honour of a profeffion, like that for the grandeur of our own country, is to be regulated, not extinguished. Every man, from the highest to the lowest station, ought to warm his heart, and animate his endeavours with the hopes of being useful to the world, by advancing the art which it is his lot to exercife, and for that end he must neceffarily confider the whole extent of its application, and the whole weight of its importance. But let him not too readily imagine that another is ill employed, because, for want of fuller knowledge of his bufinefs, he is not able to comprehend its dignity. Every man ought to endeayour at eminence, not by pulling others down, but by raifing himself, and enjoy the pleasure of his own fuperiority, whether imaginary or real, without interrupting

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rupting others in the fame felicity. The philofopher may very justly be delighted with the extent of his views, and the artificer with the readiness of his hands; but let the one remember, that without mechanical performances, refined fpeculation is an empty dream, and the other, that, without theoretical reasoning, dexterity is little more than a brute instinct.

NUMB. IO. SATURDAY, April 21, 1750.

Pofthabui tamen illorum mea feria ludo.

VIRG

For trifling fports I quitted grave affairs.

THE number of correfpondents which increases every day upon me, fhews that my paper is at leaft diftinguished from the common productions of the prefs. It is no lefs a proof of eminence to have many enemies than many friends, and I look upon every letter, whether it contains encomiums or reproaches, as an equal atteftation of rifing credit. The only pain, which I can feel from my correfpondence, is the fear of difgufting thofe, whofe letters I fhall neglect; and therefore I take this opportunity of reminding them, that in difapproving their attempts, whenever it may happen, I only return

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the

Befides, many

the treatment which I often receive. particular motives influence a writer known only to himfelf, or his private friends; and it may be justly concluded, that not all letters which are postponed are rejected, nor all that are rejected, critically condemned.

Having thus eafed my heart of the only apprehenfion that fat heavy on it, I can pleafe myfelf with the candour of Benevolus, who encourages me to proceed, without finking under the anger of Flirtilla, who quarrels with me for being old and ugly, and for wanting both activity of body, and fprightlinefs of mind; feeds her monkey with my lucubrations, and refuses any reconciliation till I have appeared in vindication of masquerades. That she may not however imagine me without fupport, and left to reft wholly upon my own fortitude, I fhall now publish fome letters which I have received from men as well dreffed, and as handfome, as her favourite; and others from ladies, whom I fincerely believe as young, as rich, as gay, as pretty, as fashionable, and as often toasted and treated as herself.

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ASET of candid readers fend their respects to the Rambler, and acknowledge his merit in "fo well beginning a work that may be of publick "benefit. But, fuperior as his genius is to the im"pertinences of a trifling age, they cannot help a.with, "that he would condefcend to the weakness of minds "foftened by perpetual amufements, and now and "then throw in, like his predeceffor, fome papers

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