kindness would not punish nor his impartiality excufe, allowed me to escape with a flight examination, laughed at the pertnefs of my ignorance, and the fprightlinefs of my abfurdities, and could not forbear to show that he regarded me with fuch tendernefs, as genius and learning can feldom excite. From school I was difmiffed to the univerfity, where I foon drew upon me the notice of the younger ftudents, and was the conftant partner of their morning walks, and evening compotations. I was not indeed much celebrated for literature, but was looked on with indulgence as a man of parts, who wanted nothing but the dulness of a scholar, and might become eminent whenever he fhould condefcend to labour and attention. My tutor a while reproached me with negligence, and repreffed my fallies with fupercilious gravity; yet having natural good humour lurking in his heart, he could not long hold out against the power of hilarity, but after a few months began to relax the muscles of disciplinarian morofenefs, received me with fmiles after an elopement, and, that he might not betray his truft to his fondnefs, was content to fpare my diligence by increafing his own. Thus I continued to diffipate the gloom of collegiate aufterity, to wafte my own life in idleness, and lure others from their ftudies, till the happy hour arrived, when I was fent to London. I foon difcovered the town to be the proper element of youth and gaiety, and was quickly diftinguished as a wit by the ladies, a fpecies of beings only heard of at the univerfity, whom I had no fooner the happiness of approaching than I devoted all my faculties to the ambition of pleafing them. B 2 A wit, A wit, Mr. Rambler, in the dialect of ladies, is not always a man, who, by the action of a vigorous fancy upon comprehensive knowledge, brings distant ideas unexpectedly together, who by fome peculiar acutenefs discovers refemblance in objects diffimilar to common eyes, or by mixing heterogeneous notions dazzles the attention with fudden fcintillations of conceit. A lady's wit is a man who can make ladies laugh, to which, however eafy it may feem, many gifts of nature, and attainments of art, must commonly concur. He that hopes to be conceived as a wit in female affemblies, fhould have a form neither fo amiable as to ftrike with admiration, nor fo coarse as to raise disgust, with an understanding too feeble to be dreaded, and too forcible to be defpifed. The other parts of the character are more fubject to variation; it was formerly effential to a wit, that half his back fhould be covered with a snowy fleece, and at a time yet more remote no man was a wit without his boots. In the days of the Spectator a fnuffbox feems to have been indifpenfible; but in my time an embroidered coat was fufficient, without any precife regulation of the reft of his dress. But wigs and boots and fnuff-boxes are vain, without a perpetual refolution to be merry, and who can always find fupplies of mirth? Juvenal indeed, in his comparison of the two oppofite philofophers, wonders only whence an unexhaufted fountain of tears could be discharged: but had Juvenal, with all his fpirit, undertaken my province, he would have found conftant gaiety equally difficult to be fupported. Confider, Mr. Rambler, and compaffionate the condition of a man, who has taught every company to expect from him a continual feaft of laughter, an uninter 6 unintermitted ftream of jocularity. The task of every other flave has an end. The rower in time. reaches the port; the lexicographer at laft finds the conclufion of his alphabet; only the haplefs wit has his labour always to begin, the call for novelty is never fatisfied, and one jeft only raifes expectation of another. I know that among men of learning and afperity, the retainers to the female world are not much regarded; yet I cannot but hope that if you knew at how dear a rate our honours are purchased, you would look with fome gratulation on our fuccefs, and with fome pity on our miscarriages. Think on the misery of him who is condemned to cultivate barrenness and ranfack vacuity; who is obliged to continue his talk when his meaning is spent, to raise merriment without images, to harafs his imagination in queft of thoughts which he cannot ftart, and his memory in purfuit of narratives which he cannot overtake; obferve the effort with which he strains to conceal defpondency by a fimile, and the diftrefs in which he fits while the eyes of the company are fixed upon him as their last refuge from filence and dejection. It were endlefs to recount the fhifts to which I have been reduced, or to enumerate the different fpecies of artificial wit. I regularly frequented coffeehouses, and have often lived a week upon an expreffion, of which he who dropped it did not know the value. When fortune did not favour my erratick industry, I gleaned jefts at home from obfolete farces. To collect wit was indeed fafe, for I conforted with none that looked much into books, but to difperfe it was the difficulty. A feeming negligence was often ufeful, and I have very fuccessfully made a reply not to what the lady had faid, but to what it was convenient for me to hear; for very few were fo perverse as to rectify a mistake which had given occafion to a burst of merriment. Sometimes I drew the converfation up by degrees to a proper point, and produced a conceit which I had treasured up, like fportfmen who boaft of killing the foxes which they lodge in the covert. Eminence is however in fome happy moments gained at lefs expence; I have delighted a whole circle at one time with a series of quibbles, and made myself good company at another, by fcalding my fingers, or miftaking a lady's lap for my own chair. These are artful deceits and useful expedients; but expedients are at length exhaufted, and deceits detected. Time itfelf, among other injuries, diminishes the power of pleafing, and I now find in my forty-fifth year many pranks and pleasantries very coldly received, which had formerly filled a whole room with jollity and acclamation. I am under the melancholy neceffity of fupporting that character by ftudy, which I gained by levity, having learned tog late that gaiety must be recommended by higher qualities, and that mirth can never please long but as the efflorescence of a mind loved for its luxuriance, but efteemed for its usefulness. I am, &c. PAPILIUS. NUMB. 142. SATURDAY, July 27, 1751. Ενθα δ' ἀνὴρ ἐνίανε πελώριο δὲ, μέτ' ἀλλὰς Πωλεῖτ ̓ ἀλλ ̓ απάνευθεν ἐὼν ἀθεμίσια ήδη Καὶ γὰρ θαῦμ ̓ ἐτέτυκιο πλώριον, εδὲ ἐῴκει A giant fhepherd here his flock maintains SIR, HA To the RAMBLER. HOMER. POPE AVING been accustomed to retire annually from the town, I lately accepted the invitation of Eugenio, who has an estate and feat in a diftant county. As we were unwilling to travel without improvement, we turned often from the direct road to please ourselves with the view of nature or of art; we examined every wild mountain and medicinal spring, criticised every edifice, contemplated every ruin, and compared every scene of action with the narratives of hiftorians. By this fucceffion of amusements we enjoyed the exercise of a journey without fuffering the fatigue, and had nothing to regret but that, by a progrefs fo leifurely and gentle, we miffed the adventures of a poft-chaife, and the pleasure of alarming villages with the tumult A |