that our early introduction into polite company, and habitual knowledge of the arts of civility, had given us fuch an appearance of fuperiority to the awkward bashfulness of our relations, as naturally drew refpect and preference from every ftranger; and my aunt was forced to affert the dignity of her own children while they were fculking in corners for fear of notice, and hanging down their heads in filent confufion, by relating the indifcretion of our father, displaying her own kindness, lamenting the mifery of birth without eftate, and declaring her anxiety for our future provifion, and the expedients which he had formed to fecure us from thofe follies or crimes, to which the conjunction of pride and want often gives occafion. In a fhort time care was taken to prevent fuch vexatious mistakes; we were told, that fine clothes would only fill our heads with falfe expectations, and our drefs was therefore accommodated to our fortune.

Childhood is not eafily dejected or mortified. We felt no lafting pain from infolence or neglect; but finding that we were favoured and commended by all whose interest did not prompt them to discountenance us, preserved our vivacity and spirit to years of greater fenfibility. It then became irksome and disgusting to live without any principle of action but the will of another, and we often met privately in the garden to lament our condition, and to ease our hearts with mutual narratives of caprice, peevishness, and affront.

There are innumerable modes of infult and tokens of contempt, for which it is not eafy to find a name, which vanish to nothing in an attempt to defcribe

them,

them, and yet may, by continual repetition, make day pass after day in forrow and in terror. Phrafes of curfory compliment and established falutation may, by a different modulation of the voice, or caft of the countenance, convey contrary meanings, and be changed from indications of respect to expreffions of fcorn. The dependant who cultivates delicacy in himself very little confults his own tranquillity. My unhappy vigilance is every moment difcovering fome petulance of accent, or arrogance of mien, fome vehemence of interrogation, or quicknefs of reply, that recalls my poverty to my mind, and which I feel more acutely as I know not how to refent it.

You are not, however, to imagine, that I think myfelf discharged from the duties of gratitude, only because my relations do not adjust their looks, or tune their voices to my expectation. The infolence of benefaction terminates not in negative rudeness or obliquities of infult. I am often told in exprefs terms of the miferies from which charity has fnatched me, while multitudes are fuffered by relations equally near to devolve upon the parish; and have more than once heard it numbered among other favours, that I am admitted to the fame table with my cousins.

That I fit at the first table I must acknowledge, but I fit there only that I may feel the ftings of inferiority. My enquiries are neglected, my opinion is overborn, my affertions are controverted, and as infolence always propagates itself, the fervants overlook me, in imitation of their mafter; if I call modeftly, I am not heard; if loudly, my ufurpation of authority is checked by a general frown. I am often obliged to look uninvited upon delicacies, and fometimes defired to rife upon very flight pretences.

The incivilities to which I am expofed would give me less pain, were they not aggravated by the tears of my fifter, whom the young ladies are hourly tormenting with every art of feminine perfecution. As it is faid of the fupreme magistrate of Venice, that he is a prince in one place and a flave in another, my fifter is a fervant to her coufins in their apartments, and a companion only at the table. Her wit and beauty draw fo much regard away from them, that they never fuffer her to appear with them in any place where they folicit notice, or expect admiration; and when they are vifited by neighbouring ladies, and pass their hours in domestick amusements, fhe is fometimes called to fill a vacancy, infulted with contemptuous freedoms, and difmiffed to her needle when her place is fupplied. The heir has of late, by the inftigation of his fifters, begun to harass her with clownish jocularity; he seems inclined to make his first rude effays of waggery upon her; and by the connivance, if not encouragement of his father, treats her with fuch licentious brutality, as I cannot bear, though I cannot punish it.

I beg to be informed, Mr. RAMBLER, how much we can be fuppofed to owe to beneficence, exerted on terms like these? to beneficence which pollutes its gifts with contumely, and may be truly faid to pander to pride? I would willingly be told, whether infolence does not reward its own liberalities, and whether he that exacts fervility can with juftice at the fame time expect affection?

I am, SIR, &c.

HYPERDULUS.

NUMB. 150. SATURDAY, August 24, 1751.

O munera nondum

Intellecta Deûm !

Thou chiefeft good!

Beftow'd by Heav'n, but feldom understood.

A

LUCAN.

Rowe.

S daily experience makes it evident that misfortunes are unavoidably incident to human life, that calamity will neither be repelled by fortitude, nor escaped by flight; neither awed by greatness, nor eluded by obfcurity; philofophers have endeavoured to reconcile us to that condition which they cannot teach us to mend, by perfuading us that most of our evils are made afflictive only by ignorance or perverfeness, and that nature has annexed to every viciffitude of external circumftances, fome advantage fufficient to overbalance all its inconveniences.

This attempt may perhaps be justly fufpected of resemblance to the practice of phyficians, who, when they cannot mitigate pain, deftroy fenfibility, and endeavour to conceal by opiates the inefficacy of their other medicines. The panegyrifts of calamity have more frequently gained applaufe to their wit, than acquiefcence to their arguments; nor has it appeared that the most mufical oratory or fubtle ratiocination has been able long to overpower the anguifh of oppreffion, the tediousness of languor, or the longings of want.

Yet

Yet it may be generally remarked, that where much has been attempted, fomething has been performed; though the difcoveries or acquifitions of man are not always adequate to the expectations of his pride, they are at leaft fufficient to animate his industry. The antidotes with which philofophy has medicated the cup of life, though they cannot give it falubrity and sweetness, have at leaft allayed its bitterness, and contempered its malignity; the balm which fhe drops upon the wounds of the mind abates their pain, though it cannot heal them.

By fuffering willingly what we cannot avoid, we fecure ourselves from vain and immoderate difquiet; we preserve for better purposes that ftrength which would be unprofitably wafted in wild efforts of defperation, and maintain that circumfpection which may enable us to feize every support, and improve every alleviation. This calmness will be more eafily obtained, as the attention is more powerfully with. drawn from the contemplation of unmingled unabated evil, and diverted to thofe accidental benefits which prudence may confer on every state.

Seneca has attempted not only to pacify us in mif fortune, but almoft to allure us to it, by representing it as neceffary to the pleasures of the mind. He that never was acquainted with adverfity, says he, has seen the world but on one fide, and is ignorant of half the fcenes of nature. He invites his pupil to calamity, as the Syrens allured the paffenger to their coafts, by promifing that he fall return πλέιονα εἰδὼς, with increase of knowledge, with enlarged views, and multiplied ideas.

Curiofity