To this teft let every man bring his imaginations, before they have been too long predominant in his mind. Whatever is true will bear to be related, whatever is rational will endure to be explained; but when we delight to brood in fecret over future happinefs, and filently to employ our meditations upon fchemes of which we are confcious that the bare mention would expofe us to derifion and contempt; we should then remember, that we are cheating ourfelves by voluntary delufions; and giving up to the unreal mockeries of fancy, thofe hours in which folid advantages might be attained by fober thought and rational affiduity. There is, indeed, fo little certainty in human affairs, that the most cautious and fevere examiner may be allowed to indulge fome hopes which he cannot prove to be much favoured by probability; fince after his utmost endeavours to afcertain events, he muft often leave the iffue in the hands of chance. And fo fcanty is our present allowance of happiness, that in many fituations life could fcarcely be fupported, if hope were not allowed to relieve the prefent hour by pleasures borrowed from futurity; and re-animate the languor of dejection to new efforts, by pointing to diftant regions of felicity, which yet no refolution or perfeverance shall ever reach. But thefe, like all other cordials, though they may invigorate in a small quantity, intoxicate in a greater; these pleasures, like the reit, are lawful only in certain circumftances, and to certain degrees; they may be useful in a due fubferviency to nobler purposes, but become dangerous and deftructive when when once they gain the afcendant in the heart: to foothe the mind to tranquillity by hope, even when that hope is likely to deceive us, may be fometimes useful; but to lull our faculties in a lethargy, is poor and despicable. Vices and errors are differently modified, according to the state of the minds to which they are incident; to indulge hope beyond the warrant of reafon, is the failure alike of mean and elevated understandings; but its foundation and its effects are totally different: the man of high courage and great abilities is apt to place too much confidence in himself, and to expect from a vigorous exertion of his powers more than spirit or diligence can attain: between him and his wifh he fees obftacles indeed, but he expects to overleap or break them, his mistaken ardour hurries him forward and though perhaps he miffes his end, he nevertheless obtains fome collateral good, and performs fomething ufeful to mankind and honourable to himself. The drone of timidity prefumes likewife to hope, but without ground and without confequence; the blifs with which he folaces his hours, he always ex-. pects from others, though very often he knows not from whom he folds his arins about him, and fits in expectation of fome revolution in the ftate that shall raife him to greatnefs, or fome golden fhower that fhall load him with wealth; he dozes away the day in mufing upon the morrow; and at the end of life is rouzed from his dream only to difcover that the time of action is paft, and that he can now fhew his wifdom only by repentance. NUMB. 84. SATURDAY, August 25, 1753. Tolle periculum, Jam vaga profiliet frænis natura remotis. HOR. But take the danger and the fhame away, FRANCIS. I SIR, To the ADVENTURER. T has been obferved, I think, by Sir William Temple, and after him by alinoft every other writer, that England affords a greater variety of characters than the rest of the world. This is afcribed to the liberty prevailing amongst us, which gives every man the privilege of being wife or foolish his: own way, and preferves him from the neceffity of hypocrify or the fervility of imitation. That the pofition itself is true, I am not completely fatisfied. To be nearly acquainted with the people of different countries can happen to very few; and in life, as in every thing elfe beheld at a diftance, there appears an even uniformity: the petty difcriminations which diverfify the natural character, are not discoverable but by a clofe inspection; we, therefore, find them moft at home, because there we have moft opportunities of remarking them. Much less am I convinced, that this peculiar diverfification, if it be real, is the confequence of peculiar liberty; for where is the government to be found that fuperintends individuals with fo much vigilance, as not to leave their private conduct without restraint? Can it enter into a reasonable mind to imagine, that men of every other nation are not equally mafters of their own time or houses with ourselves, and equally at liberty to be parfimonious or profufe, frolick or fullen, abstinent or luxurious? Liberty is certainly neceffary to the full play of predominant humours; but such liberty is to be found alike under the government of the many or the few, in monarchies or in commonwealths. How readily the predominant paffion fnatches an interval of liberty, and how fast it expands itself when the weight of reftraint is taken away, I had lately an opportunity to difcover, as I took a journey into the country in a ftage-coach; which, as every journey is a kind of adventure, may be very properly related to you, though I can difplay no fuch extraordinary affembly as Cervantes has collected at Don Quixote's inn. In a ftage-coach the paffengers are for the most part wholly unknown to one another, and without expectation of ever meeting again when their journey is at an end; one fhould therefore imagine, that it was of little importance to any of them, what conjectures the reft fhould form concerning him. Yet fo it is, that as all think themselves fecure from detection, all affume that character of which they are most defirous, and on no occafion is the general ambition of fuperiority more apparently indulged. On On the day of our departure, in the twilight of the morning, I afcended the vehicle with three men and two women, my fellow-travellers. It was easy to obferve the affected elevation of mien with which every one entered, and the fupercilious civility with which they paid their compliments 'to each other. When the first ceremony was dif patched, we fat filent for a long time, all employed in collecting importance into our faces, and endeavouring to ftrike reverence and fubmiffion into our companions. It is always obfervable that filence propagates itself, and that the longer talk has been fufpended, the more difficult it is to find any thing to fay. We began now to wifh for converfation; but no one feemed inclined to defcend from his dignity, or firft propose a topick of difcourfe. At laft a corpulent gentleman, who had equipped himself for this expedition, with a fcarlet furtout and a large hat with a broad lace, drew out his watch, looked on it in filence, and then held it dangling at his finger. This was, I fuppofe, understood by all the company as an invitation to afk the time of the day, but nobody appeared to heed his overture: and his defire to be talking fo far overcame his refentment, that he let us know of his own accord that it was past five, and that in two hours we should be at breakfast. His condefcenfion was thrown away; we continued all obdurate; the ladies held up their heads; I amufed myself with watching their behaviour; and of the other two, one seemed to employ himfelf in counting the trees as we drove by them, the o:her |