The purpose for which letters are written when no intelligence is communicated, or business transacted, is to preferve in the minds of the abfent either love or efteem; to excite love we muft impart pleasure, and to raise esteem we must discover abilities. Plea fure will generally be given, as abilities are difplayed by fcenes of imagery, points of conceit, unexpected fallies, and artful compliments. Trifles always require exuberance of ornament; the building which has no strength can be valued only for the grace of its decorations. The pebble must be polished with care, which hopes to be valued as a diamond; and words ought furely to be laboured, when they are intended to stand for things. NUMB. 153. TUESDAY, September 3, 1751. Turba Remi fequitur fortunam, ut femper, et odit The fickle crowd with fortune comes and goes; SIR, To the RAMBLER. Juv. HERE are occafions on which all apology Tis rudeners. He that has an unwelcome mer fage to deliver, may give fome proof of tenderness and delicacy, by a ceremonial introduction and gradual discovery, because the mind, upon which the weight of forrow is to fall, gains time for the collection of its powers; but nothing is more abfurd than to delay the communication of pleasure, to torment curiofity by impatience, and to delude hope by anticipation. I fhall therefore forbear the arts by which correfpondents generally fecure admiffion, for I have too long remarked the power of vanity, to doubt that I fhall be read by you with a difpofition to approve, when I declare that my narrative has no other tendency than to illuftrate and corroborate your own obfervations. I was the second son of a gentleman, whose patrimony had been wafted by a long fucceffion of fquanderers, derers, till he was unable to fupport any of his children, except his heir, in the hereditary dignity of idlenefs. Being therefore obliged to employ that part of life in study which my progenitors had devoted to the hawk and hound, I was in my eighteenth year dispatched to the univerfity, without any rural honours. I had never killed a fingle woodcock, nor partaken one triumph over a conquered fox. At the university I continued to enlarge my acquifitions with little envy of the noisy happiness which my elder brother had the fortune to enjoy, and having obtained my degree, retired to confider at leifure to what profeffion I fhould confine that application which had hitherto been diffipated in general knowledge. To deliberate upon a choice which cuftom and honour forbid to be retracted, is certainly reasonable, yet to let loose the attention equally to the advantages and inconveniencies of every employment is not without danger; new motives are every moment operating on every fide; and mechanicks have long ago discovered, that contrariety of equal attractions is equivalent to reft. While I was thus trifling in uncertainty, an old adventurer, who had been once the intimate friend of my father, arrived from the Indies with a large fortune; which he had fo much harraffed himself in obtaining, that fickness and infirmity left him no other defire than to die in his native country. His wealth eafily procured him an invitation to pafs his life with us, and being incapable of any amusement but converfation, he neceffarily became familiarifed to me, whom he found ftudious and domeftick. Pleafed with with an opportunity of imparting my knowledge, and eager of any intelligence that might increase it, I delighted his curiofity with hiftorical narratives and explications of nature, and gratified his vanity by enquiries after the products of diftant countries, and the customs of their inhabitants. My brother faw how much I advanced in the favour of our gueft, who being without heirs, was naturally expected to enrich the family of his friend, but neither attempted to alienate me, nor to ingratiate himself. He was indeed little qualified to solicit the affection of a traveller, for the remiffness of his education had left him without any rule of action but his present humour. He often forfook the old gentleman in the midst of an adventure, because the horn founded in the court-yard, and would have lost an opportunity, not only of knowing the hiftory, but fharing the wealth of the mogul, for the trial of a new pointer, or the fight of a horse-race. It was therefore not long before our new friend declared his intention of bequeathing to me the profits of his commerce, as the only man in the family by whom he could expect them to be rationally enjoyed. This diftinction drew upon me the envy not only of my brother but my father. As no man is willing to believe that he suffers by his own fault, they imputed the preference which I had obtained to adulatory compliances, or malignant calumnies. To no purpose did I call upon my pa. tron to atteft my innocence, for who will believe what he wishes to be falfe? In the heat of difappointment they forced their inmate by repeated infults to depart depart from the house, and I was foon, by the fame treatment, obliged to follow him. He chofe his refidence in the confines of London, where reft, tranquillity, and medicine, restored him to part of the health which he had loft. I pleased myself with perceiving that I was not likely to obtain the immediate poffeffion of wealth which no labour of mine had contributed to acquire; and that he, who had thus diftinguished me, might hope to end his life without a total fruftration of those bleffings, which, whatever be their real value, he had fought with fo much diligence, and purchased with fo so many viciffitudes of danger and fatigue. He indeed left me no reason to repine at his recovery, for he was willing to accuftom me early to the ufe of money, and fet apart for my expences such a revenue as I had scarcely dared to image. I can yet congratulate myself that fortune has feen her golden cup once tafted without inebriation. Neither my modesty nor prudence were overwhelmed by affluence; my elevation was without infolence, and my expence without profufion. Employing the influence which money always confers to the improvement of my understanding, I mingled in parties of gaiety, and in conferences of learning, appeared in every place where instruction was to be found, and imagined that by ranging through all the diverfities of life, I had acquainted myself fully with human nature, and learned all that was to be known of the ways of men. It happened, however, that I foon difcovered how much was wanted to the completion of my know ledge, |