he is now contending for eminence; and we feldom require more to the happiness of the present hour, than to furpass him that ftands next before us. As the greater part of human kind speak and act wholly by imitation, moft of those who aspire to honour and applause propose to themselves fome example which ferves as the model of their conduct, and the limit of their hopes. Almoft every man, if closely examined, will be found to have enlifted himself under fome leader whom he expects to conduct him to renown; to have fome hero or other, living or dead, in his view, whofe character he endeavours to affume, and whofe performances he labours to equal. When the original is well chofen and judiciously copied, the imitator often arrives at excellence, which he could never have attained without direction; for few are formed with abilities to discover new poffibilities of excellence, and to diftinguish themselves by means never tried before. But folly and idleness often contrive to gratify pride at a cheaper rate: not the qualities which are most illustrious, but those which are of eafieft attainment, are felected for imitation; and the honours and rewards which publick gratitude has paid to the bene factors of mankind, are expected by wretches who can only imitate them in their vices and defects, or adopt fome petty fingularities, of which thofe from whom they are borrowed, were fecretly ashamed. No man rifes to fuch a height as to become confpicuous, but he is on one fide cenfured by undif cerning malice, which reproaches him for his best actions, and flanders his apparent and incontestable excellencies; and idolized on the other by ignorant admiration, which exalts his faults and follies into virtues. It may be obferved, that he by whofe intimacy his acquaintances imagine themselves dignified, generally diffuses among them his mien and his habits; and indeed without more vigilance than is generally applied to the regulation of the minuter parts of behaviour, it is not eafy when we converse much with one whofe general character excites our veneration, to escape all contagion of his peculiarities, even when we do not deliberately think them worthy of our notice, and when they would have excited laughter or difguft had they not been protected by their alliance to nobler qualities, and accidentally conforted with knowledge or with virtue. The faults of a man loved or honoured, fometimes fteal fecretly and imperceptibly upon the wife and virtuous, but by injudicious fondness or thoughtless vanity are adopted with defign. There is fcarce any failing of mind or body, any error of opinion, or depravity of practice, which, instead of producing fhame and difcontent, its natural effects, has not at one time or other gladdened vanity with the hopes of praife, and been difplayed with oftentatious industry by those who fought kindred minds among the wits or heroes, and could prove their relation only by fimilitude of deformity. In confequence of this perverfe ambition, every habit which reafon condemns may be indulged and avowed. When a man is upbraided with his faults, he may indeed be pardoned if he endeavours to run for fhelter to fome celebrated name; but it is not to be fuffered that, from the retreats to which he fled from from infamy, he should iffue again with the confidence of conquefts, and call upon mankind for praise. Yet we see men that waste their patrimony in luxury, destroy their health with debauchery; and enervate their minds with idleness, because there have been fome whom luxury never could fink into contempt, nor idleness hinder from the praise of genius. This general inclination of mankind to copy characters in the grofs, and the force which the recommendation of illuftrious examples adds to the allurements of vice, ought to be confidered by all whose character excludes them from the fhades of fecrecy, as incitements to fcrupulous caution and univerfal purity of manners. No man, however enslaved to his appetites, or hurried by his paffions, can, while he preserves his intellects unimpaired, please himself with promoting the corruption of others. He whose merit has enlarged his influence, would furely wish to exert it for the benefit of mankind. Yet fuch will be the effect of his reputation, while he suffers himself to indulge any favourite fault, that they who have no hope to reach his excellence will catch at his failings, and his virtues will be cited to justify the copiers of his vices. It is particularly the duty of those who confign illustrious names to posterity, to take care left their readers be misled by ambiguous examples. That writer may be justly condemned as an enemy to goodness, who fuffers fondness or interest to confound right with wrong, or to shelter the faults which even the wifeft and the best have committed from that ignominy which guilt ought always to fuffer, and VOL. VII. with t with which it should be more deeply ftigmatized when dignified by its neighbourhood to uncommon worth, fince we shall be in danger of beholding it without abhorrence, unless its turpitude be laid open, and the eye fecured from the deception of furrounding splendour. NUMB. 165. TUESDAY, October 15, 1751. Ην νέος, ἀλλὰ πένης; νῦν γηρῶν, πλέσιος εἴμι. ANTIPHILUS Young was I once and poor, now rich and old; SIR, TH To the RAMBLER. F. LEWIS. HE writers who have undertaken the unpromifing task of moderating defire, exert all the power of their eloquence, to fhew that happiness is not the lot of man, and have by many arguments and examples proved the inftability of every condition by which envy or ambition are excited. They have fet before our eyes all the calamities to which we are expofed from the frailty of nature, the influence of accident, or the ftratagems of malice; they have terrified greatness with confpiracies, and riches with anxieties, wit with criticism, and beauty with disease. All the force of reason, and all the charms of language, are indeed neceffary to fupport pofitions which every man hears with a wish to confute them. Truth finds an eafy entrance into the mind when he is introduced by defire, and attended by pleasure; but when she intrudes uncalled, and brings only fear and forrow in her train, the paffes of the intellect are barred against her by prejudice and paffion; if fhe fometimes forces her way by the batteries of argument, fhe feldom long keeps poffeffion of her conquests, but is ejected by some favoured enemy, or at beft obtains only a nominal fovereignty, without inAluence and without authority. That life is fhort we are all convinced, and yet fuffer not that conviction to reprefs our projects or limit our expectations; that life is miferable we all feel, and yet we believe that the time is near when we shall feel it no longer. But to hope happiness and immortality is equally vain. Our state may indeed be more or lefs imbittered, as our duration may be more or lefs contracted; yet the utmost felicity which we can ever attain will be little better than alleviation of mifery, and we fhall always feel more pain from our wants than pleasure from our enjoyments. The incident which I am going to relate will fhew, that to destroy the effect of all our succefs, it is not neceffary that any fignal calamity should fall upon us, that we fhould be haraffed by implacable perfecution, or excruciated by irremedi able pains; the brightest hours of prosperity have their L 2 |