his flatterers, still poorer than himself; Every dinner he gave them they rejed an equivalent in praise, and this all he wanted. The same ambition actates a monarch at the head of an yienced my father at the head of table: he told the story of the ivy-tree, & that was laughed at; he repeated the of the two scholars and one pair of seches, and the company laughed at t; but the story of Tally in the sedanair was sure to set the table in a roar: rss pleasure increased in proportion to castre he gave; he loved all the world, The fancied all the world loved him. As his fortune was but small, he lived to the very extent of it; he had no tentions of leaving his children money, that was dross; he was resolved they have learning; for learning, he used serve, was better than silver or gold. is purpose, he undertook to instruct, self; and took as much pains to ar morals as to improve our under- We were told, that universal Tease was what first cemented, : we were taught to consider all ats of mankind as our own; to rethe human face divine with affection steem; he wound us up to be mere mes of pity, and rendered us incade of withstanding the slightest immade either by real or fictitious : in a word, we were perfectly inin the art of giving away thoubefore we were taught the more necesalifications of getting a farthing. I cannot avoid imagining, that thus i by his lessons out of all my sus, and divested of even all the little g which nature had given me, I led, upon my first entrance into sy and insidious world, one of those dators who were exposed without war in the amphitheatre at Rome. My her, however, who had only seen the ron one side, seemed to triumph in my erior discernment; though my whole k of wisdom consisted in being able ak like himself upon subjects that once re useful, because they were then topics the busy world, but that now were Erly useless, because connected with busy world no longer.

"The first opportunity he had of finding his expectations disappointed was in the very middling figure I made in the university; he had flattered himself that he should soon see me rising into the foremost rank in literary reputation, but was mortified to find me utterly unnoticed and unknown. His disappointment might have been partly ascribed to his having overrated my talents, and partly to my dislike of mathematical reasonings, at a time when my imagination and memory, yet unsatisfied, were more eager after new objects than desirous of reasoning upon those I knew. This did not, however, please my tutor, who observed, indeed, that I was a little dull; but at the same time allowed, that I seemed to be very good-natured, and had no harm in me.

"After I had resided at college seven years, my father died, and left me-his blessing. Thus shoved from shore without ill-nature to protect, or cunning to guide, or proper stores to subsist me in so dangerous a voyage, I was obliged to embark in the wide world at twenty-two. But, in order to settle in life, my friends advised (for they always advise when they begin to despise us), they advised me, I say, to go into orders.

"To be obliged to wear a long wig, when I liked a short one, or a black coat, when I generally dressed in brown, I thought was such a restraint upon my liberty, that I absolutely rejected the proposal. A priest in England is not the same mortified creature with a bonze in China: with us, not he that fasts best, but eats best, is reckoned the best liver; yet I rejected a life of luxury, indolence, and ease, from no other consideration but that boyish one of dress. So that my friends were now perfectly satisfied I was undone; and yet they thought it a pity for one who had not the least harm in him and was so very good-natured.

"Poverty naturally begets dependence, and I was admitted as flatterer to a great man. At first, I was surprised that the situation of a flatterer at a great man's table could be thought disagreeable: there was no great trouble in listening attentively when his lordship spoke, and laughing when he looked round for applause. This

even good manners might have obliged me to perform. I found, however, too soon, that his lordship was a greater dunce than myself; and from that very moment my power of flattery was at an end. I now rather aimed at setting him right, than at receiving his absurdities with submission: to flatter those we do not know is an easy task; but to flatter our intimate acquaintances, ail whose foibles are strongly in our eye, is drudgery insupportable. Every time I now opened my lips in praise, my falsehood went to my conscience; his lordship soon perceived me to be unfit for service; I was therefore discharged; my patron at the same time being graciously pleased to observe, that he believed I was tolerably good-natured, and had not the least harm in me.

"Disappointed in ambition, I had recourse to love. A young lady, who lived with her aunt, and was possessed of a pretty fortune in her own disposal, had given me, as I fancied, some reason to expect success. The symptoms by which I was guided were striking. She had always laughed with me at her awkward acquaintance, and at her aunt among the number; she always observed, that a man of sense would make a better husband than a fool, and I as constantly applied the observation in my own favour. She continually talked, in my company, of friendship and the beauties of the mind, and spoke of Mr. Shrimp my rival's highheeled shoes with detestation. These were circumstances which I thought strongly in my favour; so, after resolving and resolving, I had courage enough to tell her my mind. Miss heard my proposal with serenity, seeming at the same time to study the figures of her fan. Out at last it came. There was but one small objection to complete our happiness, which was no more than that she was married three months before to Mr. Shrimp, with highheeled shoes! By way of consolation, however, she observed, that, though I was disappointed in her, my addresses to her aunt would probably kindle her into sensibility; as the old lady always allowed me to be very good-natured, and not to have the least share of harm in me.

"Yet still I had friends, numerous

H

friends, and to them I was resolv apply. O friendship! thou fond so of the human breast, to thee we 17 every calamity; to thee the wretched for succour; on thee the care-tired s misery fondly relies: from thy kind a ance the unfortunate always hopes r and may be ever sure of-disappointr-a My first application was to a city scriv who had frequently offered to lend money, when he knew I did not was I informed him, that now was the tim put his friendship to the test; the wanted to borrow a couple of hun for a certain occasion, and was resta to take it up from him. And pray, L cried my friend, do you want all money?'-'Indeed, I never wante more,' returned I.-'I am sorry for t cries the scrivener, 'with all my he for they who want money when they c: to borrow, will always want money they should come to pay.'

From him I flew, with indignation one of the best friends I had in the wo and made the same request. 'Inde Mr. Drybone,' cries my friend, ‘I alw thought it would come to this. You kn sir, I would not advise you but for y own good; but your conduct has hithe been ridiculous in the highest deg and some of your acquaintance alw thought you a very silly fellow. Let. see-you want two hundred pounds. you only want two hundred, sir, exactly

-'To confess a truth,' returned I, I sh want three hundred; but then, I ha another friend, from whom I can born the rest.'— 'Why, then,' replied my friet if you would take my advice, (and y know I should not presume to advise y but for your own good,) I would reco mend it to you to borrow the whole su from that other friend; and then one no will serve for all, you know.'

"Poverty now began to come fast up me; yet instead of growing more provide or cautious as I grew poor, I became eve day more indolent and simple. A frien was arrested for fifty pounds; I was urah to extricate him, except by becoming h bail. When at liberty, he fled from b creditors, and left me to take his place In prison I expected greater satisfactor

buting his share: he is a beast of prey, and the laws should make use of as many stratagems, and as much force, to drive the reluctant savage into the toils, as the Indians when they hunt the hyæna or the rhinoceros. The mob should be permitted after him, boys might play tricks on him with impunity, every well-bred company should laugh at him; and if, when turned of sixty, he offered to make love, his mistress might spit in his face, or, what would be perhaps a greater punishment, should fairly grant the favour.

"As for old maids," continued I, "they should not be treated with so much severity, because I suppose none would be so if they could. No lady in her senses would choose to make a subordinate figure at christenings or lyings-in, when she might be the principal herself; nor curry favour with a sister-in-law, when she might command a husband; nor toil in preparing custards, when she might lie a-bed, and give directions how they ought to be made; nor stifle all her sensations in demure formality, when she might, with matrimonial freedom, shake her acquaintance by the hand, and wink at a double entendre. No lady could be so very silly as to live single, if she could help it. Í consider an unmarried lady, declining into the vale of years, as one of those charming countries bordering on China, that lies waste for want of proper inhabitants. We are not to accuse the country, but the ignorance of its neighbours, who are insensible of its beauties, though at liberty to enter and cultivate the soil."

"Indeed, sir," replied my companion, "you are very little acquainted with the English ladies, to think they are old maids against their will. I dare venture to affirm, that you can hardly select one of them all, but has had frequent offers of marriage, which either pride or avarice has not made her reject. Instead of thinking it a disgrace, they take every occasion to boast of their former cruelty: a soldier does not exult more when he counts over the wounds he has received, than a female veteran when she relates the wounds she has formerly given: exhaustless when she begins a narrative of the former deathdealing power of her eyes. She tells of

the knight in gold lace, who died w single frown, and never rose again he was married to his maid; of the s who, being cruelly denied, in a rage fli the window, and lifting up the sash, t himself, in an agony-into his arm-cl of the parson, who, crossed in love, lutely swallowed opium, which bani the stings of despised love by-ma him sleep. In short, she talks over former losses with pleasure, and, some tradesmen, finds consolation in many bankruptcies she has suffered.

"For this reason, whenever I see a su annuated beauty still unmarried, I ta accuse her either of pride, avarice, coqu or affectation. There's Miss Jenny derbox, I once remember her to have some beauty and a moderate fort Her elder sister happened to marry a of quality, and this seemed as a statu virginity against poor Jane. Because t was one lucky hit in the family, she resolved not to disgrace it by introdu a tradesman. By thus rejecting her eqr and neglected or despised by her superi she now acts in the capacity of tuto to her sister's children, and underg the drudgery of three servants, with receiving the wages of one.

"Miss Squeeze was a pawnbrok daughter; her father had early taught that money was a very good thing, a left her a moderate fortune at his dea She was so perfectly sensible of the va of what she had got, that she was resol never to part with a farthing without equality on the part of her suitor:: thus refused several offers made her people who wanted to better themsel as the saying is, and grew old and natured, without ever considering that: should have made an abatement in } pretensions, from her face being pale, marked with the small-pox.

"Lady Betty Tempest, on the contra had beauty, with fortune and family. B fond of conquest, she passed from trium to triumph: she had read plays and mances, and there had learned, that a pd man of common sense was no better tha fool; such she refused, and sighed only the gay, giddy, inconstant, and thought After she had thus rejected hundreds

ked her, and sighed for hundreds who ised her, she found herself insensibly serted: at present she is company only or her aunts and cousins, and sometimes Lakes one in a country-dance, with only ne of the chairs for a partner, casts off od a joint-stool, and sets to a corner board. In a word, she is treated with i. contempt from every quarter, and el like a piece of old-fashioned ber, merely to fill up a corner. Bat Sophronia, the sagacious Sophro, bow shall I mention her? She was taght to love Greek and hate the men her very infancy; she has rejected gentlemen because they were not pedas, and pedants because they were not fine gentlemen; her exquisite sensibility has taught her to discover every fault in every lover, and her inflexible justice has revented her pardoning them: thus she reded several offers, till the wrinkles of had overtaken her; and now, without ve good feature in her face, she talks santly of the beauties of the mind."Frewell.

LETTER XXIX. To the same. TERE we to estimate the learning of the ash by the number of books that are ay day published among them, perhaps country, not even China itself, could al them in this particular. I have koned not less than twenty-three new eks published in one day, which, upon amputation, makes eight thousand three dred and ninety-five in one year. at of these are not confined to one gle science, but embrace the whole

History, politics, poetry, matheatics, metaphysics, and the philosophy nature, are all comprised in a manual t larger than that in which our children re taught the letters. If, then, we supose the learned of England to read but eighth part of the works which daily me from the press, (and sure none can retend to learning upon less easy terms,) this rate every scholar will read a bousand books in one year. From such calculation you may conjecture what an mazing fund of literature a man must be Possessed of, who thus reads three new

books every day, not one of which but contains all the good things that ever were said or written.

And yet I know not how it happens, but the English are not, in reality, so learned as would seem from this calculation. We meet but few who know all arts and sciences to perfection; whether it is that the generality are incapable of such extensive knowledge, or that the authors of those books are not adequate instructors. In China the emperor himself takes cognizance of all the doctors in the kingdom who profess authorship. In England every man may be an author that can write; for they have by law a liberty, not only of saying what they please, but of being also as dull as they please.

Yesterday I testified my surprise to the Man in Black, where writers could be found in sufficient number to throw off the books I daily saw crowding from the press. I at first imagined that their learned seminaries might take this method of instructing the world. But, to obviate this objection, my companion assured me, that the doctors of colleges never wrote, and that some of them had actually forgot their reading; "but if you desire, ". continued he, "to see a collection of authors, I fancy I can introduce you this evening to a club, which assembles every Saturday at seven, at the sign of the Broom, near Islington, to talk over the business of the last and the entertainment of the week ensuing." I accepted his invitation: we walked together, and entered the house some time before the usual hour for the company assembling.

My friend took this opportunity of letting me into the characters of the principal members of the club, not even the host excepted, who, it seems, was once an author himself, but preferred by a bookseller to this situation as a reward for his former services.

"The first person," said he, "of our society is Doctor Nonentity, a metaphysician. Most people think him a profound scholar; but, as he seldom speaks, I cannot be positive in that particular: he generally spreads himself before the fire, sucks his pipe, talks little, drinks much, and is reckoned very good company. I'm