NUMB. 147. TUESDAY, August 13, 1751.

Tu nibil invita dices faciefve Minervá.

You are of too quick a fight,

HOR.

Not to discern which way your talent lies. ROSCOMMON.

SIR,

As

To the RAMBLER.

S little things grow great by continual accumulation, I hope you will not think the dignity of your character impaired by an account of a ludicrous perfecution, which, though it produces no fcenes of horror or of ruin, yet, by inceffant importunity of vexation, wears away my happinefs, and confumes thofe years which nature feems particularly to have affigned to cheerfulness, in filent anxiety and helpless refentment.

I am the eldest fon of a gentleman, who having inherited a large estate from his ancestors, and feeling no defire either to increafe or leffen it, has from the time of his marriage generally refided at his own feat; where, by dividing his time among the duties of a father, a master, and a magiftrate, the study of literature, and the offices of civility, he finds means to rid himself of the day, without any of those amufements, which all thofe with whom my refidence in this place has made me acquainted, think neceffary to lighten the burthen of existence.

When my age made me capable of inftruction, my father prevailed upon a gentleman, long known at Oxford for the extent of his learning and purity of his manners, to undertake my education. The regard with which I faw him treated difpofed me to confider his inftructions as important, and I therefore foon formed a habit of attention, by which I made very quick advances in different kinds of learning, and heard, perhaps too often, very flattering comparisons of my own proficiency with that of others, either lefs docile by nature, or lefs happily forwarded by inftruction. I was careffed by all that exchanged vifits with my father; and as young men are with little difficulty taught to judge favourably of themselves, began to think that clofe application was no longer neceffary, and that the time was now come when I was at liberty to read only for amusement, and was to receive the reward of my fatigues in praise and admiration.

While I was thus banqueting upon my own perfections, and longing in fecret to escape from tutorage, my father's brother came from London to pafs a fummer at his native place. A lucrative employment which he poffeffed, and a fondness for the converfation and diverfions of the gay part of mankind, had fo long kept him from rural excurfions, that I had never feen him fince my infancy. My curiofity was therefore strongly excited by the hope of obferving a character more nearly, which I had hitherto reverenced only at a distance.

From all private and intimate converfation I was long withheld by the perpetual confluence of vifitants with whom the firft news of my uncle's

arrival

arrival crowded the houfe; but was amply recompensed by seeing an exact and punctilious practice of the arts of a courtier, in all the ftratagems of endearment, the gradations of refpect, and variations of courtesy. I remarked with what justice of distribution he divided his talk to a wide circle; with what addrefs he offered to every man an occafion of indulging fome favourite topick, or displaying some particular attainment; the judgment with which he regulated his enquiries after the abfent; and the care with which he fhewed all the companions of his early years how ftrongly they were infixed in his memory, by the mention of paft incidents, and the recital of puerile kindneffes, dangers, and frolicks. I foon discovered that he poffeffed fome fcience of gracioufnefs and attraction which books had not taught, and of which neither I nor my father had any knowledge; that he had the power of obliging thofe whom he did not benefit; that he diffused, upon his curfory behaviour and most trifling actions, a gloss of softness and delicacy by which every one was dazzled; and that by fome occult method of captivation, he animated the timorous, foftened the fupercilious, and opened the reserved. I could not but repine at the inelegance of my own manners which left me no hopes but not to offend, and at the inefficacy of ruftick benevolence which gained no friends but by real service.

My uncle faw the veneration with which I caught every accent of his voice, and watched every motion of his hand; and the awkward diligence with which I endeavoured to imitate his embrace of fondnefs, and his bow of respect. He was, like others, eafily

flattered

flattered by an imitator by whom he could not fear ever to be rivalled, and repaid my affiduities with compliments and profeffions. Our fondness was fo increased by a mutual endeavour to pleafe each other, that when he returned to London, he declared himself unable to leave a nephew fo amiable and fo accomplished behind him; and obtained my father's permiffion to enjoy my company for a few months, by a promise to initiate me in the arts of politeness, and introduce me into publick life.

The courtier had little inclination to fatigue, and therefore, by travelling very flowly, afforded me time for more loose and familiar converfation; but I foon found, that by a few enquiries which he was not well prepared to fatisfy, I had made him weary of his young companion. His element was a mixed affembly, where ceremony and healths, compliments and common topicks, kept the tongue employed with very little affiftance from memory or reflexion; but in the chariot, where he was neceffitated to fupport a regular tenour of conversation, without any relief from a new comer, or any power of starting into gay digreffions, or destroying argument by a jest, he foon discovered that poverty of ideas which had been hitherto concealed under the tinfel of politenefs. The first day he entertained me with the novelties and wonders with which I fhould be aftonished at my entrance into London, and cautioned me with apparent admiration of his own wifdom against the arts by which rufticity is frequently deluded. The fame detail and the fame advice he would have repeated on the second day; but as I every moment diverted the discourse to the history of the towns by which we

paffed,

paffed, or fome other fubject of learning or of rea fon, he foon loft his vivacity, grew peevish and filent, wrapped his cloke about him, compofed himself to flumber, and reserved his gaiety for fitter auditors. ›

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At length I entered London, and my uncle was reinftated in his fuperiority. He awaked at once to loquacity as foon as our wheels rattled on the pavement, and told me the name of every street as we croffed it, and owner of every house as we paffed by. He presented me to my aunt, a lady of great eminence for the number of her acquaintances, and fplendor of her affemblies, and either in kindness or revenge confulted with her, in my prefence, how I might be most advantageously dreffed for my first appearance, and moft expeditiously difencumbered from my villatick bafhfulnefs. My indignation at familiarity thus contemptuous flushed in my face; they mistook anger for fhame, and alternately exerted their eloquence upon the benefits of publick education, and the happiness of an affurance early acquired.

Affurance is indeed the only qualification to which they seem to have annexed merit, and affurance therefore is perpetually recommended to me as the fupply of every defect, and the ornament of every excellence. I never fit filent in company when fecret history is circulating, but I am reproached for want of affurance. If I fail to return the ftated answer to a compliment; if I am difconcerted by unexpected raillery; if I blush when I am difcovered gazing on a beauty, or hefitate when I find myself embarraffed in an argument; if I am unwilling to talk of what I do not understand, or timorous in un

dertaking