to poff, invoices to fend, or bills to negociate. Thefe had been the employment of my former life; and, deprived of them, I had nothing upon which I could learn to fix my at tention. It was very fingular, you will fay, that all this never occurred to me before. Yet nothing is more certain, than that no fuch idea ever entered my head, till I had leisure to look my fituation in the face, and contemplate myself as a folitary, helplefs, and ufelefs being.

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It was now fuggefted to me, that however true this might be, yet it was no more than had happened to others. Gentlemen who retire are no longer to think of bufinefs they are to partake of such sports and pleafures as the country affords, and lay up a flock of good health and fpirits, prepare a vigorous old age, and bid defiance to care and time. This was bewitching language, and I liftened to it with conviction. I entered with fpirit into the views of my neighbours; but I foon found that the fports of the country are learned with difficulty, and followed with a very bad grace by a mere man of London bufinefs, who has reached his grand climacteric. I had been all my life, even from my boyish days, an induftrious plodder behind the counter and the desk. It could not, confequently, be very eafy to transform one of my habits into a man of pleafure and a keen fportfman. The firft leffons I took were miferably unfuccefsful, and attended by confequences more of a painful than pleafurable nature. My attempt to follow the hounds was attended by a dislocation of the shoulder, which laid me up for fix weeks; and, in my first attack upon a covey of partridges, I put out my fhoulder again by the recoil of my piece. Thefe violent amusements, in fhort, were not fuited to my taste or capacity, and too evidently interfered with my fafety to be followed longer, Fishing, therefore, was recommended as a more eafy and fecare diverfion, and I was foon instructed in all the

myfteries of baits, and hooks, and bites, and worms; but, as before I had too much exercise, here I had too little, and had very nearly fallen into the river fait afleep; when I gave up this purfuit alio.

It now came into my head, efpecially as winter approached, that reading would fill up my hours agreeably. I never had an averfion to reading, as far as I can remember of my early likings and diflikings; but I had always found fo much employment in bufinefs apparently, and perhaps really, more urgent, that, for many years, my reading was confined entirely to a newspaper, with an occafional peep into the London Directory, or the Red Book; and fuch a chain of reafoning, or narrative, as other books contain was not familiar to me. I imputed this, however, merely to want of time; and that obftacle being now removed, I fattered myfelf that I fhould be able to increase the advantages of retirement, by ftoring my mind with food for reflection. Books were accordingly provided: bu: here, as in hunting, fishing, and fowling, all was new and untrod ground. When I had completed my library, I difcovered that my bookfeller had not, and indeed could not, send me what I most wanted, a tafte and habit of reading. My fleepy fits came on again, and there are few of the eminent writers of the prefent day (whatever they may think of their genius) whom I have not honoured with the approbation of a nod.

One refource was yet left. I now began to think that company would ferve to divert me, and kill the heavy hours. For that purpose I cultivated the acquaintance of an extenfive neigh bourhood. My wealth, and I hope my manners, which were, at least inoffenfive, procured me an eafy introduction into many agreeable families. But here, too, I was doomed to experience the misfortune of having gone through life with one ftock of ideas, and that a very small one, ⚫ of no ufe to any perfon but the owner.

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The converfation of my friends turned upon fubjects with which I was totally unacquainted. Now and then, when the newspaper came in, I could expatiate upon London politics, and the comparative merits of many great London politicians. But this could not laft long; my ftock of politics was the smallest of all my property, and I was too far from Gundhall, or St. Stephen's chapel, to procure a fresh fupply. During the greater part of my visits, I was condemned to hear long debates on fubjects foreign to my understanding. The flate of wheat, barley, and oats; the modes of rearing and feeding cattle; the farm-yard and the dairy; the cutting down of timber, and the planting of potatoes, were often difcuffed with great warmth, and at great length; but all was unintelligible to me; nor could I find a man in the whole parish who understood any thing about nainfooks, and bandannoes, foofayes and taffeties, callimancoes, mulinets or dimities. I began to have a very indifferent opinion of their capacities; I believe they had none of mine, and it was more than once whispered in my hearing, that your Londoners know nothing out of the found of Bow bells.'

In this uncomfortable fituation I remained for nearly two years; my

health became affected from the lownefs of my fpirits and the indolence of my habit; and I know not what might have been the confequence, if I had not, at length, taken the refolution to revifit fociety again. I am now mot happily and comfortably placed as a partner in that very house, to which I once bade adieu, as I thought, for ever. I trust I am now cured of a paffion for retirement; but as I perceive many of my acquaintances liftening to the reprefentations which once deceived me, I am defirous, by your infertion of this letter, to warn them against the error. Few men of any defcription are qualified to enjoy retirement, or to render it falutary. Men of mere business are the leaft of all fo. Their habits, tempers, and talents, are all difqualifications of an infuperable kind. Active employments, connected with fair and honeft advantages, may prolong their days in health and comfort; but to exchange bustle for idleness, without the power to render idleness harmless, is a defperate attempt; and it is extreme folly, at the decline of life, to barter that which may be depended upon for that which is uncertain in the higheft poffible degree. I am, fir, your humble fervant, THOMAS KERSEYMERE. Strand, Dec. 26, 1794.

IN pursuing this fubject, we are often furprised at the coincidence of little circumstances in the manners of ancient and modern times, and it will appear very ftriking in the intance I am now to bring. Were one to read the following verfes without knowing whence they are taken, it would not be unnatural to fuppofe that fome perfon had ufed the quaint language of our Bible tranflation, to exprefs the little petty arts by which men of narrow and contracted minds evade the payment of just debts, and

especially thofe which they have contracted in an emergency of diftrefs, and which, confequently, ought to be paid with the utmoft regularity.

Many, when a thing was lent them, reckoned it to be found, and put them to trouble that helped them. Till he hath received, he will kifs a man's hand; and for his neighbour's money he will fpeak fubmiffively; but when he fhould repay, he will prolong the time, and return words of grief, and complain of the time. If he prevail, he fhall hardly receive the half, and

he will count as if he had found it; if not, he hath deprived him of his money, and he hath gotten him an enemy without caufe: he payeth him with curings and railings; and for honour he will pay him difgrace. Many, therefore, have refufed to lend for other men's ill dealing, fearing to be defrauded. Yet have thou patience with a man in poor eftate, and delay not to show him mercy.'

There are few men more popular, as far as the circle of their acquaintance extends, than those who give good dinners.' Such men are never without friends to grace their hofpitality; and the oppofité character is as much out of favour. If we know nothing of a man's wealth, probity, or talents, we are always fure to be made acquainted with the properties of his table. The two reputations of liberality and fordid nefs fly fafter than perhaps any others. Whofo is liberal of his meat, men fhall fpeak well of him; and the report of his good houfe-keeping will be believed: But against him that is a niggard of his meat, the whole city hall murmur; and the teftimonies of his niggardness fhall not be doubted of."

As a mere matter of curiofity, I may here take notice, that the old motto in ancient churchyards, bolie mihi, eras tibi,' is nearly a Latin tranflation from a verfe in Ecclefiafticus, Remember my judgment; for thine alfo fhall be fo; yefterday for me, and to-day for thee.'

a juft remark. Ifa remark or obfervation be once juft, it never dies. The wisdom of a learned man cometh by opportunity of leisure: and he that hath little bulinefs, fhall become wife. How can he get wisdom that holdeth the plough, and that glorieth in the goad, that driveth oxen, and is occupied in their labours, and whofe talk is of bullocks' The whole of this chapter, the thirty-eighth, is worthy of perufal. It is fuppofed, but unjustly, to favour defpotic principles; it only diftinguishes between the merits of cultivated and uncultivated minds to the happiness of civil fociety.

That wisdom is the attribute of men of learning is perhaps not juft, if we are too nice in confidering many of their actions; but that fuch men only have the means of acquiring and extending wisdom cannot be doubted. It is also as certain that perfons employed in businesses of drudgery have neither the means, nor the tafte for intellectual improvement. What I am about to quote has, if I mistake not, been lately applied to a political purpose. My bufinefs is only with the antiquity of manners, and the immortality, if I may ufe the expreffion, of

There are a fet of beings in the world, who having fome agreeable qualities of little value but in company, affect to defpife every honeft and induftrious mode of earning a fubfiftence, and live by going from place to place, and from table to table, where they pay a certain quantity of flattery for a good dinner. Thefe are fometimes called danglers, hangerson, or led-captains, and fometimes toad-eaters. Every good-natured gen tleman, who keeps a plentiful table, receives frequent vifits from these freebooters; and, when they are once encouraged, it is not cafy to get rid of them, without ufing methods more harth than a meekly-difpofed mind relifhes. They are above taking hints, and by no means over-nice in punetlios, fo that a small affront will not difguft them, and they are always much more inclined to pocket an infult, than to refent it. The former is easy; the latter they cannot fo well afford. They are not, however, a new fpecies of beings, the production of modern tables and modern idleness. Our author characterizes them with great justice and equal feverity: The life of him that dependeth on another man's table is not to be counted for a life; for he polluteth himself with other men's meat: but a wife man, well-nurtured, will beware thereof. Begging is fweet in the mouth of the fhameless'

These extracts may be extended by

the curious reader to a far greater length than it is propofed to carry them in this paper. Enough, probably, has been faid to direct the reader's attention to this book, and to the Proverbs and Wisdom of Solomon, two pieces in which the most admirable precepts are blended with remarks upon life and manners, which cannot fail to ftrike an intelligent reader. We perceive how very near the refemblance is between the manners of ancient and modern times, and how little we can boat of novelty in thofe cuftoms upon which we are moft apt to pride ourselves. We fee that there is nothing in modern manners, either good or bad, nothing in the modes of active life, in the purfuit of bufinefs or of pleafure, which can be termed new. Precedents may be found in ancient times for all the va, rious modifications of human action, whether arising from ignorance, wick ednefs, or temper, or from the peculiarity of fituation in life, with refpect to rank or wealth. We fee, too, how nearly the manners of ancient and modern ages approximate in the way of tranfacting bufinefs between men in trades all the various cafes of fraud, dithonefty, debt, furetifhip, bankruptcy, are recorded in one fhape or other in the books above mentioned, and indeed, might be traced to a much higher fource by any perfon who will read ancient books with an eye chiefy to the manners they occafionally mention. Thefe are direct proofs of the existence of fuch manners, because where a precept is given to avoid any folly or crime, it follows that fuch folly or crime was then in existence; and we may farther judge of its being common or uncommon, from the precept being more or less frequently repeated, or more or lefs ftrengthened by various collateral confiderations. A few hours may be very pleafingly employed by perufing the works quoted with this view.

From a perufal of thefe works, and of the Greek and Roman authors, we may be affured that there exifted in

the world, at the time of their original publication, a much higher degree of civilization in fociety, than we fhould be apt to suppose, were we to imagine that mankind had been in a ftate of uninterrupted progreffion from the creation to the prefent time. On the contrary, we know that civilization has been, as it were, travelling over the globe, and refiding a greater or lefs portion of time in a nation, according to the operation of certain circumftances. This may be underfood by reflecting upon and comparing the fate of ancient Rome, in the days of her glory, profperity and virtue, and in that of modern Rome, in her prefent effeminacy, darkness, and degeneracy. The flourishing cities of Greece may be reviewed with the fame intention; and we may then infpect the rising ftates in the new world. In the new world, the manners of the old do not go on in progreffion; colonization is the birth of fociety, and men live for a time as the first of mankind may be fuppofed to have lived, in a ftate of intantive innocence. Hiftory fhows what are the caufes that lead, in the cafe of nations, to either a premature, or a debauched old age. But manners, we fee, are in certain refpects the fame in all. Polifhed fociety has its advantages; but all polished focieties, every people who have acquired refinement, wealth, commercial or political importance, prefent the fame manners, the fame virtues and vices, follies and imperfections. In this refpect, nothing can be more true than the faying of the wife man, Is there any thing whereof it may be faid, fee this is new. It hath been already of old time,'

Kingdoms, or nations, have been compared with individuals. The comparifon is beautifully juft, and it were to be wished that the virtues of a nation could be as eafily brought into ac tion as thofe of an individual.

But

imperfection hangs to all our actions when in a combination. The miserable devastations of war, great and ex