NUMB. 161. TUESDAY, October 1, 1751. Ο ή γαρ φύλλων γενέη, τόνησε και Ανδρων, Frail as the leaves that quiver on the fprays, SIR, You Mr. RAMBLER. Hox, OU have formerly observed that curiosity often terminates in barren knowledge, and that the mind is prompted to study and enquiry rather by the uneafinefs of ignorance, than the hope of profit. Nothing can be of lefs importance to any present intereft than the fortune of those who have been long loft in the grave, and from whom nothing now can be hoped or feared, Yet to roufe the zeal of a true antiquary, little more is neceffary than to mention a name which mankind have conspired to forget; he will make his way to remote scenes of action through obfcurity and contradiction, as Tully fought amidst bufhes and brambles the tomb of Archimedes. It is not easy to difcover how it concerns him that gathers the produce, or receives the rent of an eftate, to know through what families the land has paffed, who is registered in the Conqueror's furvey as its poffeffor, how often it has been forfeited by treafon, or how often fold by prodigality. The power or wealth of the present inhabitants of a country cannot be much increased by an enquiry after after the names of those barbarians, who destroyed one another twenty centuries ago, in contefts for the fhelter of woods or convenience of pafturage, Yet we see that no man can be at rest in the enjoyment of a new purchase till he has learned the hiftory of his grounds from the ancient inhabitants of the parish, and that no nation omits to record the actions of their ancestors, however bloody, favage, and rapacious. The fame difpofition, as different opportunities call it forth, difcovers itself in great or little things. I have always thought it unworthy of a wife man to slumber in total inactivity, only because he happens to have no employment equal to his ambition or genius; it is therefore my custom to apply my attention to the objects before me, and as I cannot think any place wholly unworthy of notice that affords a habitation to a man of letters, I have collected the history and antiquities of the feveral gar¬ rets in which I have refided, Quantulacunque eftis, vos ego magna voca. How small to others, but how great to me! Many of these narratives my industry has been able to extend to a confiderable length; but the woman with whom I now lodge has lived only eighteen months in the house, and can give no account of its ancient revolutions; the plaifterer having, at her entrance, obliterated, by his white-wash, all the fmoky memorials which former tenants had left upon the ceiling, and perhaps drawn the veil of oblivion over politicians, philofophers, and poets. When When I first cheapened my lodgings, the landlady told me, that she hoped I was not an author, for the lodgers on the first floor had stipulated that the upper rooms fhould not be occupied by a noify trade. I very-readily promised to give no disturbance to her family, and foon dispatched a bargain on the ufual terms. I had not flept many nights in my new apartment before I began to enquire after my predeceffors, and found my landlady, whofe imagination is filled chiefly with her own affairs, very ready to give me information. Curiofity, like all other defires, produces pain as well as pleasure. Before fhe began her narrative, I had heated my head with expectations of adventures and discoveries, of elegance in difguife, and learning in diftrefs; and was fomewhat mortified when I heard that the first tenant was a tailor, of whom nothing was remembered but that he complained of his room for want of light; and, after having lodged in it a month, and paid only a week's rent, pawned a piece of cloth which he was trusted to cut out, and was forced to make a precipitate retreat from this quarter of the town. The next was a young woman newly arrived from the country, who lived for five weeks with great regularity, and became by frequent treats very much the favourite of the family, but at last received vifits fo frequently from a coufin in Cheapfide, that fhe brought the reputation of the house into danger, and was therefore difmiffed with good advice. The The room then stood empty for a fortnight; my landlady began to think that she had judged hardly, and often wished for fuch another lodger. At laft an elderly man of a grave aspect read the bill, and bargained for the room at the very firft price that was afked. He lived in clofe retirement, feldom went out till evening, and then returned early, fometimes cheerful, and at other times dejected. It was remarkable, that whatever he purchased, he never had small money in his pocket, and though cool and temperate on other occafions, was always vehe ment and ftormy till he received his change. He paid his rent with great exactnefs, and feldom failed once a week to requite my landlady's civility with a fupper. At last, fuch is the fate of human felicity, the house was alarmed at midnight by the conftable, who demanded to fearch the garrets. My landlady affuring him that he had miftaken the door, con+ ducted him up ftairs, where he found the tools of a coiner; but the tenant had crawled along the roof to an empty house, and escaped, much to the joy of my landlady, who declares him a very honest man, and wonders why any body fhould be hanged for making money when fuch numbers are in want of it. She however confeffes that fhe fhall for the future always queftion the character of those who take her garret without beating down the price. The bill was then placed again in the window, and the poor woman was teazed for feven weeks by innumerable paffengers, who obliged her to climb with them every hour up five ftories, and then dif liked the profpect, hated the noise of a publick street, thought the stairs narrow, objected to a low ceil ing, required the walls to be hung with fresher paper, afked questions about the neighbourhood, could not think of living fo far from their acquaintance, wifhed the windows had looked to the fouth rather than the weft, told how the door and chimney might have been better difpofed, bid her half the price that she afked, or promised to give her earneft the next day, and came no more. At last, a fhort meagre man, in a tarnished waistcoat, defired to fee the garret, and when he had ftipulated for two long shelves, and a larger table, hired it at a low rate. When the affair was completed, he looked round him with great fatisfaction, and repeated fome words which the woman did not understand. In two days he brought a great box of books, took poffeffion of his room, and lived very inoffenfively, except that he frequently disturbed the inhabitants of the next floor by unfeasonable noifes. He was generally in bed at noon, but from evening to midnight he fometimes talked aloud with great vehemence, fometimes ftamped as in rage, fometimes threw down his poker, then clattered his chairs, then fat down in deep thought, and again burst out into loud vociferations; fometimes he would figh as oppreffed with mifery, and fometimes fhake with convulfive laughter. When he encountered any of the family, he gave way or bowed, but rarely fpoke, except that as he went up ftairs he often repeated, - Οι υπέρτατα δώματα νάιει, This habitant th' aerial regions boaft, hard |