The battle join, and, in a moment's flight, FRANCIS The question concerning the merit of the day is foon decided, and we are not condemned to toil through half a folio, to be convinced that the writer has broke his promise. It is one among many reasons for which I purpose to endeavour the entertainment of my countrymen by a short effay on Tuesday and Saturday, that I hope not much to tire those whom I fhall not happen to please; and if I am not commended for the beauty of my works, to be at least pardoned for their brevity. But whether my expectations are most fixed on pardon or praise, I think it not neceffary to discover; for having accurately weighed the reafons for arrogance and fubmiffion, 1 find them fo nearly equiponderant, that my impatience to try the event of my first performance will not fuffer me to attend any longer the trepidations of the balance. There are, indeed, many conveniencies almost peculiar to this method of publication, which may naturally flatter the author, whether he be confident or timorous. The man to whom the extent of his knowledge, or the sprightliness of his imagination, has, in his own opinion, already fecured the praises of the world, willingly takes that way of difplaying his abilities which will fooneft give him an opportunity of hearing the voice of fame; it heightens his alacrity to think in how many places he fhall hear what he is now writing, read with extafies to-morrow. He will often pleafe himfelf with reflecting, that the author of a large treatise must proceed with anxiety, left, before the completion of his work, the attention of the publick may have changed B 3 changed its object; but that he who is confined to no fingle topick, may follow the national tafte through all its variations, and catch the Aura popularis, the gale of favour, from what point foever it fhall blow. Nor is the prospect lefs likely to ease the doubts of the cautious, and the terrours of the fearful, for to fuch the fhortnefs of every fingle paper is a powerful encouragement. He that questions his abilities to arrange the diffimilar parts of an extenfive plan, or fears to be loft in a complicated fyftem, may yet hope to adjust a few pages without perplexity; and if, when he turns over the repofitories of his memory, he finds his collection too fmall for a volume, he may yet have enough to furnish out an effay. He that would fear to lay out too much time upon an experiment of which he knows not the event, perfuades himself that a few days will fhew him what he is to expect from his learning and his genius. If he thinks his own judgment not fufficiently enlightened, he may, by attending the remarks which every paper will produce, rectify his opinions. If he fhould with too little premeditation encumber himself by an unwieldy fubject, he can quit it without confefling his ignorance, and pass to other topicks lefs dangerous, or more tractable. And if he finds, with all his industry, and all his artifices, that he cannot deferve regard, or cannot attain it, he may let the design fall at once, and, without injury to others or himself, retire to amusements of greater pleasure, or to ftudies of better profpect. NUMB. 2. SATURDAY, March 24, 1750. Stare loco nefcit, pereunt veftigia mille Ante fugam, abfentemque ferit gravis ungula campum. Th' impatient courfer pants in every vein, STATIUS POPE. HAT the mind of man is never fatisfied with the objects immediately before it, but is always breaking away from the prefent moment, and lofing itself in fchemes of future felicity; and that we forget the proper use of the time now in our power, to provide for the enjoyment of that which, perhaps, may never be granted us, has been frequently remarked; and as this practice is a commodious fubject of raillery to the gay, and of declamation to the serious, it has been ridiculed with all the pleasantry of wit, and exaggerated with all the amplifications of rhetorick. Every inftance, by which its abfurdity might appear moft flagrant, has been ftudioufly collected; it has been marked with every epithet of contempt, and all the tropes and figures have been called forth against it. Cenfure is willingly indulged, because it always implies fome fuperiority; men please themselves with imagining that they have made a deeper fearch, or wider furvey, than others, and detected faults and follies, which escape vulgar obfervation.. And the pleasure of wantoning in common topicks is fo tempting to a writer, that he cannot eafily refign it; a train of fentiments generally received: enables him to fhine without labour, and to conquer B 4 quer without a conteft. It is so easy to laugh at the folly of him who lives only in idea, refufes immediate eafe for diftant pleasures, and, instead of enjoying the bleffings of life, lets life glide away in preparations to enjoy them; it affords fuch opportunities of triumphant exultation, to exemplify the uncertainty of the human ftate, to roufe mortals from their dream, and inform them of the filent celerity of time, that we may believe authors willing rather to tranfmit than examine fo advantageous a principle, and more inclined to pursue a track fo fmooth and fo flowery, than attentively to confider whether it leads to truth. This quality of looking forward into futurity feems the unavoidable condition of a being, whofe motions are gradual, and whose life is progreffive: as his powers are limited, he must use means for the attainment of his ends, and intend first what he performs laft; as by continual advances from his first stage of exiftence, he is perpetually varying the horizon of his profpects, he must always difcoyer new motives of action, new excitements of fear, and allurements of defire. The end therefore which at present calls forth our efforts, will be found, when it is once gained, to be only one of the means to fome remoter end. The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope. He that directs his fteps to a certain point, must frequently turn his eyes to that place which he ftrives to reach; he that undergoes the fatigue of labour, muft folace his wearinefs with the contemplation of its reward. In agriculture, one of the moft fimple and neceffary employments, no man turns up the ground but because he thinks of the harveft, harvest, that harvest which blights may intercept, which inundations may fweep away, or which death or calamity may hinder him from reaping. Yet as few maxims are widely received or long. retained but for fome conformity with truth and nature, it must be confeffed, that this caution against keeping our view too intent upon remote advantages is not without its propriety or usefulness, though it may have been recited with too much levity, or enforced with too little diftinction: for, not to speak of that vehemence of defire which preffes through right and wrong to its gratification, or that anxious inquietude which is juftly chargeable with diftruft of heaven, fubjects too folemn for my present purpofe; it frequently happens that, by indulging early the raptures of fuccefs, we forget the measures neceffary to fecure it, and fuffer the imagination to riot in the fruition of fome poffible good, till the time of obtaining it has flipped away. There would however be few enterprises of great labour or hazard undertaken, if we had not the power of magnifying the advantages which we perfuade ourselves to expect from them. When the knight of La Mancha gravely recounts to his companion the adventures by which he is to fignalize himself in such a manner that he shall be fummoned to the support of empires, folicited to accept the heirefs of the crown which he has preferved, have honours and riches to scatter about him, and an ifland to bestow on his worthy fquire, very few readers, amidit their mirth or pity, can deny that they have admitted vifions of the fame kind; though they have not, perhaps, expected events equally strange, or by means equally inadequate. When B 5 |