future evil is confeffed to be an increafe of mifery, the hope which magnifies future good cannot be denied to be an acceffion of happiness.

none;

The most numerous clafs of thofe who prefume to hope for miraculous advantages, is that of gamefters. But by gamefters I do not mean the gentlemen who ftake an estate, against the cunning of thofe who have for I leave the cure of lunatics to the profeffors of phyfic: I mean the diffolute and indigent, who in the common phrafe put themfelves in fortune's way, and expect from her bounty that which they eagerly defire, and yet believe to be too dearly purchased by dili gence and industry; tradefmen who neglect their bufinefs, to fquander in fashionable follies more than it can produce; and fwaggerers, who rank themselves with gentlemen, merely because they have no business to pursue.

The gamefter of this clafs will appear to be equally wretched, whether his hope be fulfilled or disappointed; the object of it depends upon a contingency, over which he has no influence; he purfues no purpose with gradual and perceptible fuccefs, and, therefore, cannot enjoy the pleasure which arifes from the anticipation of its accomplishment; his mind is perpetually on the rack; he is anxious in proportion to the eagerness of his defire, and his inability to effect it; to the pangs of fufpence, fucceed thofe of disappointment; and a momentary gain only embitters the lofs that follows. Such is the life of him, who shuns business because he would fecure leifure for enjoyment; except it happens, against the odds of a million to one, that a run of fuccefs puts him into the poffeffion of a fum fufficient to fubfift him in idlenefs the remainder of his life: and in this cafe,

the idleness which made him wretched while he waited for the bounty of fortune, will neceffarily keep him wretched after it is bestowed: he will find, that, in the gratification of his appetites, he can fill but a small portion of his time, and that thefe appetites themfelves are weakened by every attempt to increase the enjoyment which they were intended to fupply; he will, therefore, either doze away life in a kind of listless indolence, which he defpairs to exalt into felicity, or he will imagine that the good he wants is to be obtained by an increase of his wealth, by a larger house, a more fplendid equipage, and a more numerous retinue. If with this notion he has again recourfe to the altar of fortune, he will either be undeceived by a new series of fuccefs, or he will be reduced to his original indigence by the lofs of that which he knew not how to enjoy if this happens, of which there is the highest degree of probability, he will instantly become more wretched in proportion as he was rich; though, while he was rich, he was not more happy in proportion as he had been poor. Whatever is won, is reduced by experiment to its intrinfic value; whatever is loft, is heightened by imagination to more. Wealth is no fooner diffipated, than its inanity is forgotten, and it is regretted as the means of happiness which it was not found to afford. The gamefter, therefore, of whatever clafs, plays against manifeft odds; fince that which he wins he difcovers to be brafs, and that which he lofes he values as gold. And it fhould alfo be remarked, that in this estimate of his life, I have not fuppofed him to lose a single stake which he had not first won.

But though gaming in general is wifely prohibited by the legislature, as productive not only of private

but.

but of public evil; yet there is one fpecies to which all are fometimes invited, which equally encourages the hope of idlenefs, and relaxes the vigour of induftry.

Ned Froth, who had been several years butler in a family of diftinction, having faved about four hundredpounds, took a little house in the fuburbs, and laid in a flock of liquors for which he paid ready money, and which were, therefore, the best of the kind. Ned perceived his trade increase; he pursued it with fresh alacrity, he exulted in his fuccefs, and the joy of his heart fparkled in his countenance : but it happened that Ned, in the midst of his happiness and profperity, was prevailed upon to buy a lottery ticket. The moment his hope was fixed upon an object which induftry could not obtain, he determined to be industrious no longer :to draw drink for a dirty and boisterous rabble, was a flavery to which he now fubmitted with reluctance, and he longed for the moment in which he should be free instead of telling his story and cracking his joke for the entertainment of his customers, he received. them with indifference, was obferved to be filent and. fullen, and amufed himself by going three or four times a day to fearch the register of fortune for the fuc cefs of his ticket.

:

In this difpofition Ned was fitting one morning in. the corner of a bench by his fire-fide, wholly abstracted in the contemplation of his future fortune; indulging. this moment the hope of a mere poffibility, and the next fhuddering with the dread of lofing the felicity which his fancy had combined with the poffeffion of ten thousand pounds. A man well dreffed entered haftily

H 4

No. XCIV. haftily, and inquired for him of his guests, who many times called him aloud by his name, and curst him for deafness and ftupidity, before Ned ftarted up as from a dream, and asked with a fretful impatience what they wanted. An affected confidence of being well received, and an air of forced jocularity in the ftranger, gave Ned fome offence; but the next moment, he catched him in his arms in a transport of joy, upon receiving his congratulation as proprietor of the fortunate ticket, which had that morning been drawn a prize of the firft clafs.

It was not, however, long before Ned difcovered that ten thousand pounds did not bring the felicity which he expected; a difcovery which generally produces the diffipation of fudden affluence by prodigality. Ned drank, and whored, and hired fiddlers, and bought fine clothes; he bred riots at Vauxhall, treated flatterers, and damned plays. But fomething was ftill wanting; and he refolved to ftrike a bold stroke, and attempt to double the remainder of his prize at play, that he might live in a palace and keep an equipage but in the execution of this project, he loft the whole produce of his lottery ticket, except five hundred pounds in Bank notes, which when he would have ftaked he could not find. This fum was more than that which had established him in the trade he had left; and yet, with the power of returning to a ftation that was once the utmoft of his ambition, and of renewing that purfuit which alone had made him happy, fuch was the pungency of his regret, that in the defpair of recoverng the money which he knew had produced nothing

but

but riot, disease, and vexation, he threw himself from the Bridge into the Thames.

Ir is often charged upon writers, that with all their pretenfions to genius and difcoveries, they do little more than copy one another; and that compofitionsobtruded upon the world with the pomp of novelty, contain only tedious repetitions of common fentiments, or at best exhibit a tranfpofition of known images, and give a new appearance to truth only by fome flight difference of drefs and decoration.