those who have skill and willingness to find them; and fo juft is the obfervation of Juvenal, that a fingle house will shew whatever is done or suffered in the world. I am, SIR, &c. NUMB. 162. TUESDAY, October 5, 1751. Orbus es, locuples, & Bruto confule natus, Efe tibi veras credis amicitias? Sunt vera; fed quas Juvenis, quas pauper habebas, What! old, and rich, and childless too, And yet believe your friends are true? MART. F. LEW19. NE of the complaints uttered by Milton's ONE Samfon, in the anguifh of blindness, is, that he fhall pass his life under the direction of others; that he cannot regulate his conduct by his own knowledge, but muft lie at the mercy of thofe who undertake to guide him. There is no state more contrary to the dignity of wisdom than perpetual and unlimited dependance, in which the understanding lies ufelefs, and every motion is received from external impulfe. Reason is the great distinction of human nature, the faculty by which we approach to fome degree of affociation VOL. VI. K with with celeftial intelligences; but as the excellence of every power appears only in its operations, not to have reason, and to have it useless and unemployed, is nearly the fame. Such is the weakness of man, that the effence of things is feldom fo much regarded as external and accidental appendages. A fmall variation of trifling circumstances, a flight change of form by an artificial drefs, or a casual difference of appearance, by a new light and fituation, will conciliate affection or excite abhorrence, and determine us to purfue or to avoid. Every man confiders a neceffity of compliance with any will but his own, as the lowest state of ignominy and meannefs; few are fo far loft in cowardice or negligence, as not to roufe at the firft infult of tyranny, and exert all their force against him who ufurps their property, or invades any privilege of speech or action. Yet we fee often those who never wanted spirit to repel encroachment or oppofe violence, at last, by a gradual relaxation of vigilance, delivering up, without capitulation, the fortrefs which they defended against affault, and laying down unbidden the weapons which they grasped the harder for every attempt to wreft them from their hands. Men eminent for fpirit and wisdom often refign themselves to voluntary pupilage, and suffer their lives to be modelled by officious ignorance, and their choice to be regulated by prefumptuous stupidity. This unrefifting acquiefcence in the determination of others, may be the confequence of application to fome ftudy remote from the beaten track of life, fome employment which does not allow leifure for fufficient inspection of thofe petty affairs, by which na 3 ture ture has decreed a great part of our duration to be filled. To a mind thus withdrawn from common objects, it is more eligible to repofe on the prudence of another, than to be expofed every moment to flight interruptions. The fubmiffion which fuch confidence requires, is paid without pain, because it implies no confeffion of inferiority. The business from which we withdraw our cognizance, is not above our abilities, but below our notice. We please our pride with the effects of our influence thus weakly exerted, and fancy ourselves placed in a higher orb, from which we regulate fubordinate agents by a flight and distant fuperintendence. But whatever vanity or abItraction may fuggeft, no man can fafely do that by others which might be done by himself; he that indulges negligence will quickly become ignorant of his own affairs; and he that trufts without referve will at last be deceived. It is however impoffible but that, as the attention. tends ftrongly towards one thing, it must retire from another; and he that omits the care of domestick business, because he is engroffed by enquiries of more importance to mankind, has at least the merit of fuffering in a good caufe. But there are many who can plead no fuch extenuation of their folly; who shake off the burthen of their station, not that they may foar with lefs incumbrance to the heights of knowledge or virtue, but that they may loiter at eafe and fleep in quiet; and who felect for friendship and confidence not the faithful and the virtuous, but the foft, the civil, and compliant. This openness to flattery is the common difgrace of declining life. When men feel weakness increaf ing on them, they naturally defire to reft from the struggles of contradiction, the fatigue of reafoning, the anxiety of circumfpection; when they are hourly tormented with pains and diseases, they are unable to bear any new disturbance, and confider all oppofition as an addition to mifery, of which they feel already more than they can patiently endure. Thus defirous of peace, and thus fearful of pain, the old man feldom enquires after any other qualities in those whom he careffes, than quicknefs in conjecturing his defires, activity in supplying his wants, dexterity in intercepting complaints before they approach near enough to disturb him, flexibility to his prefent humour, fubmiffion to hafty petulance, and attention to wearisome narrations. By these arts alone many have been able to defeat the claims of kindred and of merit, and to enrich themselves with prefents and legacies. Thrafybulus inherited a large fortune, and augmented it by the revenues of feveral lucrative employments, which he difcharged with honour and dexterity. He was at last wise enough to consider, that life should not be devoted wholly to accumulation, and therefore retiring to his eftate, applied himfelf to the education of his children, and the cultivation of domestick happiness. He paffed several years in this pleasing amusement, and faw his care amply recompenfed; his daughters were celebrated for modefty and elegance, and his fons for learning, prudence, and spirit. In time the eagerness with which the neighbouring gentlemen courted his alliance, obliged him to refign his daughters to other families; the vivacity and curiofity of his his fons hurried them out of rural privacy into the open world, from whence they had not foon an inclination to return. This however he had always hoped; he pleafed himself with the fuccefs of his fchemes, and felt no inconvenience from folitude till an apoplexy deprived him of his wife. All Thrafybulus had now no companion; and the maladies of increafing years having taken from him much of the power of procuring amusement for himfelf, he thought it neceffary to procure fome inferior friend who might eafe him of his economical, folicitudes, and divert him by cheerful converfation. thefe qualities he foon recollected in Vafer, a clerk in one of the offices over which he had formerly prefided. Vafer was invited to vifit his old patron, and being by his station acquainted with the prefent modes of life, and by conftant practice dextrous in bufinefs, entertained him with fo many novelties, and fo readily disentangled his affairs, that he was defired to refign his clerkship, and accept a liberal falary in the houfe of Thrafybulus. Vafer having always lived in a state of dependance, was well verfed in the arts by which favour is obtained, and could without repugnance or hesitation accommodate himself to every caprice, and echo every opinion. He never doubted but to be convinced, nor attempted oppofition but to flatter Thrafybulus with the pleasure of a victory. By this practice he found his way into his patron's heart, and having first made himself agreeable, foon became important. His infidious diligence, by which the lazinefs of age was gratified, engroffed the management of affairs; and his petty offices of civility, and occafional inter |