ceffions, perfuaded the tenants to confider him as their friend and benefactor, and to entreat his enforcement of their representations of hard years, and his countenance to petitions for abatement of rent. torture. Thrafybulus had now banquetted on flattery, till he could no longer bear the harshness of remonstrance, or the infipidity of truth. All contrariety to his own opinion fhocked him like a violation of fome natural right, and all recommendation of his affairs to his own infpection was dreaded by him as a fummons to His children were alarmed by the fudden riches of Vafer, but their complaints were heard by their father with impatience, as the result of a confpiracy against his quiet, and a defign to condemn him, for their own advantage, to groan out his last hours in perplexity and drudgery. The daughters retired with tears in their eyes, but the fon continued his importunities till he found his inheritance hazarded by his obftinacy. Vafer triumphed over all their efforts, and continuing to confirm himself in authority, at the death of his mafter purchased an eftate, and bade defiance to inquiry and justice. NUMB. 163. TUESDAY, October 8, 1751. Mitte fuperba pati faftidia, fpemque caducam Bow to no patron's infolence; rely SENECA. F. LEWIS. ONE of the cruelties exercised by wealth and NON power upon indigence and dependance is more mischievous in its confequences, or more frequently practifed with wanton negligence, than the encouragement of expectations which are never to be gratified, and the elation and depreffion of the heart by needlefs viciffitudes of hope and disappointment. Every man is rich or poor, according to the proportion between his defires and enjoyments; any enlargement of wishes is therefore equally deftructive to happiness with the diminution of poffeffion, and he that teaches another to long for what he never fhall obtain, is no less an enemy to his quiet, than if he had robbed him of part of his patrimony. But representations thus refined exhibit no adequate idea of the guilt of pretended friendship; of artifices by which followers are attracted only to decorate the retinue of pomp, and fwell the fhout of popularity, and to be difmiffed with contempt and ignominy, when their leader has fucceeded or mifcarried, when he is fick of fhow, and weary of noife, While a man, infatuated with the promifes of greatnefs, waftes his hours and days in attendance and folicitation, K. 4 licitation, the honeft opportunities of improving his condition pafs by without his notice; he neglects to cultivate his own barren foil, because he expects every moment to be placed in regions of fpontaneous fertility, and is feldom roufed from his delufion, but by the gripe of distress which he cannot refift, and the fenfe of evils which cannot be remedied. The punishment of Tantalus in the infernal regions affords a juft image of hungry fervility, flattered with the approach of advantage, doomed to lofe it before it comes into his reach, always within a few days of felicity, and always finking back to his former wants. Καὶ μὲν Τάνταλον ἐισεῖδεν χαλὶπ ̓ ἄλγι ἔχοντα Οσσάκι γας κόψει ὁ γέρων ποιέειν μενεαινων, Τοσσαχ ίδως αχολέσκετ αναβροχθὲν ἀμφὶ δὲ ποσσὶ " I saw,” says Homer's Ulyffes," the fevere punish« ment of Tantalus. In a lake whofe waters ap"proached to his lips, he stood burning with thirst, « without the power to drink. Whenever he in« clined his head to the ftream, fome deity com"manded it to be dry, and the dark earth appeared at his feet. Around him lofty trees fpread their « fruits to view; the pear, the pomegranate, and σε the "the apple, the green olive, and the lufcious fig quivered before him, which, whenever he extended "his hand to feize them, were fnatched by the winds "into clouds and obfcurity." This image of mifery was perhaps originally fuggested to fome poet by the conduct of his patron, by the daily contemplation of fplendor which he never muft partake, by fruitless attempts to catch at interdicted happiness, and by the fudden evanefcence of his reward, when he thought his labours almost at an end. To groan with poverty, when all about him was opulence, riot, and fuperfluity, and to find the favours which he had long been encouraged to hope, and had long endeavoured to deferve, fquandered at laft on nameless ignorance, was to thirst with water flowing before him, and to fee the fruits to which his hunger was haftening, fcattered by the wind. Nor can my correfpondent, whatever he may have fuffered, express with more juftness or force the vexations of dependance. SIR, To the RAMBLER. IAM one of thofe mortals who have been courted and envied as the favourites of the great. Having often gained the prize of compofition at the university, I began to hope that I should obtain the fame diftinction in every other place, and determined to forfake the profeffion to which I was deftined by my parents, and in which the intereft of my family would have procured me a very advantageous fettlement. The The pride of wit fluttered in my heart, and when I prepared to leave the college, nothing entered my imagination but honours, careffes, and rewards, riches without labour, and luxury without expence. I however delayed my departure for a time, to finish the performance by which I was to draw the first notice of mankind upon me. When it was completed I hurried to London, and confidered every moment that paffed before its publication, as loft in a kind of neutral existence, and cut off from the golden hours of happiness and fame. The piece was at last printed and diffeminated by a rapid fale; I wandered from one place of concourse to another, feafted from morning to night on the repetition of my own praises, and enjoyed the various conjectures of criticks, the mistaken candour of my friends, and the impotent malice of my enemies. Some had read the manufcript, and rectified its inaccuracies; others had feen it in a state so imperfect, that they could not forbear to wonder at its prefent excellence; fome had converfed with the author at the coffee-house; and others gave hints that they had lent him money. I knew that no performance is fo favourably read as that of a writer who fuppreffes his name, and therefore refolved to remain concealed, till those by whom literary reputation is established had given their fuffrages too publickly to retract them. At length my bookfeller informed me that Aurantius, the ftanding patron of merit, had fent enquiries after me, and invited me to his acquaintance. The time which I had long expected was now arrived. I went to Aurantius with a beating heart, for I looked upon our interview as the critical moment of my |