will on one fide or the other always be an avenue to error and miscarriage.

There feem to be fome fouls fuited to great,' and others to little employments; fome formed to foar aloft, and take in wide views, and others to grovel on the ground, and confine their regard to a narrow sphere. Of these the one is always in danger of becoming useless by a daring negligence, the other by a fcrupulous folicitude; the one collects many ideas, but confused and indiftinct ; the other is bufied in minute accuracy, but without compass and without dignity.

The general error of those who poffefs powerful and elevated understandings, is, that they form schemes of too great extent, and flatter themfelves too haftily with fuccefs; they feel their own force to be great, and, by the complacency with which every man furveys himself, imagine it ftill greater they therefore look out for undertakings worthy of their abilities, and engage in them with very little precaution, for they imagine that, without premeditated measures, they fhall be able to find expedients in all difficulties. They are naturally apt to confider all prudential maxims as below their regard, to treat with contempt those securities and refources which others know themselves obliged to provide, and difdain to accomplish their purposes by established means, and common gradations.

Precipitation thus incited by the pride of intellectual fuperiority, is very fatal to great defigns. The refolution of the combat is feldom equal to the vehemence of the charge. He that meets with an oppofition which he did not expect, lofes. his courage. The violence of his firft onfet is fuc

ceeded

L

ceeded by a lafting and unconquerable languor; miscarriage makes him fearful of giving way to new hopes; and the contemplation of an attempt, in which he has fallen below his own expectations, is painful and vexatious; he therefore naturally turns his attention to more pleasing objects, and habituates his imagination to other entertainments, till, by flow degrees, he quits his firft purfuit, and fuffers fome other project to take poffeffion of his thoughts, in which the fame ardour of mind promises him again certain success, and which difappointments of the fame kind compel him to abandon.

Thus too much vigour in the beginning of an undertaking, often intercepts and prevents the steadinefs and perfeverance always neceffary in the conduct of a complicated fcheme, where many interefts are to be connected, many movements to be adjusted, and the joint effort of distinct and independent powers to be directed to a single point. In all important events which have been fuddenly brought to pafs, chance has been the agent rather than reason; and, therefore, however those, who seemed to prefide in the transaction, may have been celebrated by fuch as loved or feared them, fucceeding times have commonly confidered them as fortunate rather than prudent. Every defign in which the connexion is regularly traced from the firft motion to the last, must be formed and executed by calm intrepidity, and requires not only courage which danger cannot turn afide, but conftancy which fatigues cannot weary, and contrivance which impediments cannot exhauft.

All the performances of human art, at which wwe look with praife or wonder, are inftances of

the

the refiftless force of perfeverance: it is by this that the quarry becomes a pyramid, and that diftant countries are united with canals. If a man was to compare the effect of a single stroke of the pick-ax, or of one impreffion of the spade, with the general defign and last result, he would be overwhelmed by the fenfe of their difproportion; yet those petty operations, inceffantly continued, a in time furmount the greatest difficulties, and mountains are levelled, and oceans bounded, by the flender force of human beings.

It is therefore of the utmost importance that those who have any intention of deviating from the beaten roads of life, and acquiring a reputation fuperior to names hourly fwept away by time among the refuse of fame, should add to their reafon, and their spirit, the power of perfifting in their purposes; acquire the art of fapping what they cannot batter, and the habit of vanquishing obftinate refistance by obftinate attacks.

The ftudent who would build his knowledge on folid foundations, and proceed by juft degrees to the pinacles of truth, is directed by the great philofopher of France to begin by doubting of his own existence. In like manner, whoever would complete any arduous and intricate enterprise, fhould, as foon as his imagination can cool after a the first blaze of hope, place before his own eyes every poffible embarraffment that may retard or defeat him. He should first question the probability of fuccefs, and then endeavour to remove the objections that he has raised. It is proper, fays old Markham, to exercise your horfe on the more inconvenient fide of the course, that if he should, in the race, be forced upon it, he may not be discou

raged;

raged; and Horace advifes his poetical friend to confider every day as the laft which he fhall enjoy, because that will always give pleasure which we receive beyond our hopes. If we alarm ourselves beforehand with more difficulties than we really find, we shall be animated by unexpected facility with double spirit; and if we find our cautions and fears juftified by the confequence, there will however happen nothing against which provifion has not been made, no fudden fhock will be received, nor will the main scheme be disconcerted.

There is, indeed, fome danger left he that too fcrupulously balances probabilities, and too perfpicacioufly foresees obftacles, fhould remain always in a state of inaction, without venturing upon attempts on which he may perhaps spend his labour without advantage. But previous defpondence is not the fault of thofe for whom this effay is defigned; they who require to be warned against precipitation, will not suffer more fear to intrude into their contemplations than is necessary to allay the effervescence of an agitated fancy. As Des Cartes has kindly fhewn how a man may prove to himfelf his own exiftence, if once he can be prevailed upon to question it, fo the ardent and adventurous will not be long without finding fome plaufible extenuation of the greatest difficulties. Such, indeed, is the uncertainty of all human affairs, that fecurity and despair are equal follies, and as it is presumption and arrogance to anticipate triumphs, it is weakness and cowardice to prognofticate mifcarriages. The numbers that have been stopped in their career of happiness are fufficient to fhew the uncertainty of human forefight; but there are not wanting contrary inftances of fuch fuccefs ob

tained against all appearances, as may warrant the boldest flights of genius, if they are fupported by unfhaken perfeverance.

NUMB. 44. SATURDAY, August 18, 1750.

Ονας ἐκ Διός ἐςι.

HOMER.

-Dreams defcend from Jove.

POP E

To the RAMBLER,

I

SIR,

Had lately a very remarkable dream, which made fo ftrong an impreffion on me, that I remember it every word; and if you are not better employed, you may read the relation of it as follows:

Methought I was in the midst of a very entertaining fet of company, and extremely delighted in attending to a lively conversation, when on a fudden I perceived one of the moft fhocking figures imagination can frame, advancing towards me. She was dreft in black, her skin was contracted into a thousand wrinkles, her eyes deep funk in her head, and her complexion pale and livid as the countenance of death. Her looks were filled with terror and unrelenting severity, and her hands armed with whips and scorpions. As foon as she came near, with a horrid frown, and a voice that chilled my very blood, fhe bid me follow her. I obeyed, and the led me through rugged paths, belet with briars and thorns, into a deep folitary valley. Wherever the passed the fading verdure

withered

h