distance, and which, when any irregular motive impels them towards
contact, seem to start back from each other by some invincible
repulsion. There are others which immediately cohere whenever they come
into the reach of mutual attraction, and with very little formality of
preparation mingle intimately as soon as they meet. Every man, whom
either business or curiosity has thrown at large into the world, will
recollect many instances of fondness and dislike, which have forced
themselves upon him without the intervention of his judgment; of
dispositions to court some and avoid others, when he could assign no
reason for the preference, or none adequate to the violence of his
passions; of influence that acted instantaneously upon his mind, and
which no arguments or persuasions could ever overcome.
Among those with whom time and intercourse have made us familiar, we
feel our affections divided in different proportions without much regard
to moral or intellectual merit. Every man knows some whom he cannot
induce himself to trust, though he has no reason to suspect that they
would betray him; those to whom he cannot complain, though he never
observed them to want compassion; those in whose presence he never can
be gay, though excited by invitations to mirth and freedom; and those
from whom he cannot be content to receive instruction, though they never
insulted his ignorance by contempt or ostentation.
That much regard is to be had to those instincts of kindness and
dislike, or that reason should blindly follow them, I am far from
intending to inculcate: it is very certain, that by indulgence we may
give them strength which they have not from nature, and almost every
example of ingratitude and treachery proves, that by obeying them we may
commit our happiness to those who are very unworthy of so great a trust.
But it may deserve to be remarked, that since few contend much with
their inclinations, it is generally vain to solicit the good-will of
those whom we perceive thus involuntarily alienated from us; neither
knowledge nor virtue will reconcile antipathy, and though officiousness
may be for a time admitted, and diligence applauded, they will at last
be dismissed with coldness, or discouraged by neglect.
Some have indeed an occult power of stealing upon the affections, of
exciting universal benevolence, and disposing every heart to fondness
and friendship. But this is a felicity granted only to the favourites of
nature. The greater part of mankind find a different reception from
different dispositions; they sometimes obtain unexpected caresses from
those whom they never flattered with uncommon regard, and sometimes
exhaust all their arts of pleasing without effect. To these it is
necessary to look round, and attempt every breast in which they find
virtue sufficient for the foundation of friendship; to enter into the
crowd, and try whom chance will offer to their notice, till they fix on
some temper congenial to their own, as the magnet rolled in the dust
collects the fragments of its kindred metal from a thousand particles of
other substances.
Every man must have remarked the facility with which the kindness of
others is sometimes gained by those to whom he never could have imparted
his own. We are by our occupations, education, and habits of life,
divided almost into different species, which regard one another, for the
most part, with scorn and malignity. Each of these classes of the human
race has desires, fears, and conversation, vexations and merriment
peculiar to itself; cares which another cannot feel; pleasures which he
cannot partake; and modes of expressing every sensation which he cannot
understand. That frolick which shakes one man with laughter, will
convulse another with indignation; the strain of jocularity which in one
place obtains treats and patronage, would in another be heard with
indifference, and in a third with abhorrence.
To raise esteem we must benefit others, to procure love we must please
them. Aristotle observes, that old men do not readily form friendships,
because they are not easily susceptible of pleasure. He that can
contribute to the hilarity of the vacant hour, or partake with equal
gust the favourite amusement; he whose mind is employed on the same
objects, and who therefore never harasses the understanding with
unaccustomed ideas, will be welcomed with ardour, and left with regret,
unless he destroys those recommendations by faults with which peace and
security cannot consist.
It were happy, if, in forming friendships, virtue could concur with
pleasure; but the greatest part of human gratifications approach so
nearly to vice, that few who make the delight of others their rule of
conduct, can avoid disingenuous compliances; yet certainly he that
suffers himself to be driven or allured from virtue, mistakes his own
interest, since he gains succour by means, for which his friend, if ever
he becomes wise, must scorn him, and for which at last he must scorn
himself.
No. 161. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1751.
[Greek: Oiae gar phullon geneae, toiaede kai Andron.]
HOM. Il. [Greek: T.]
Frail as the leaves that quiver on the sprays,
Like them man flourishes, like them decays.
MR. RAMBLER.
SIR,
You have formerly observed that curiosity often terminates in barren
knowledge, and that the mind is prompted to study and inquiry rather by
the uneasiness of ignorance, than the hope of profit. Nothing can be of
less importance to any present interest, than the fortune of those who
have been long lost in the grave, and from whom nothing now can be hoped
or feared. Yet, to rouse the zeal of a true antiquary, little more is
necessary than to mention a name which mankind have conspired to forget;
he will make his way to remote scenes of action through obscurity and
contradiction, as Tully sought amidst bushes and brambles the tomb of
Archimedes.
It is not easy to discover how it concerns him that gathers the produce,
or receives the rent of an estate, to know through what families the
land has passed, who is registered in the Conqueror's survey as its
possessor, how often it has been forfeited by treason, or how often sold
by prodigality. The power or wealth of the present inhabitants of a
country cannot be much increased by an inquiry after the names of those
barbarians, who destroyed one another twenty centuries ago, in contests
for the shelter of woods, or convenience of pasturage. Yet we see that
no man can be at rest in the enjoyment of a new purchase till he has
learned the history of his grounds from the ancient inhabitants of the
parish, and that no nation omits to record the actions of their
ancestors, however bloody, savage, and rapacious.
The same disposition, as different opportunities call it forth,
discovers itself in great or little things. I have always thought it
unworthy of a wise man to slumber in total inactivity, only because he
happens to have no employment equal to his ambition or genius; it is
therefore my custom to apply my attention to the objects before me, and
as I cannot think any place wholly unworthy of notice that affords a
habitation to a man of letters, I have collected the history and
antiquities of the several garrets in which I have resided.
Quantulacunque estis, vos ego magna voco.
How small to others, but how great to me!
Many of these narratives my industry has been able to extend to a
considerable length; but the woman with whom I now lodge has lived only
eighteen months in the house, and can give no account of its ancient
revolutions; the plaisterer having, at her entrance, obliterated, by his
white-wash, all the smoky memorials which former tenants had left upon
the ceiling, and perhaps drawn the veil of oblivion over politicians,
philosophers, and poets.
When I first, cheapened my lodgings, the landlady told me, that she
hoped I was not an author, for the lodgers on the first floor had
stipulated that the upper rooms should not be occupied by a noisy trade.
I very readily promised to give no disturbance to her family, and soon
despatched a bargain on the usual terms.
I had not slept many nights in my new apartment before I began to
inquire after my predecessors, and found my landlady, whose imagination
is filled chiefly with her own affairs, very ready to give me
information.
Curiosity, like all other desires, produces pain as wel as pleasure.
Before she began her narrative, I had heated my head with expectations
of adventures and discoveries, of elegance in disguise, and learning in
distress; and was somewhat mortified when I heard that the first tenant
was a tailor, of whom nothing was remembered but that he complained of
his room for want of light; and, after having lodged in it a month, and
paid only a week's rent, pawned a piece of cloth which he was trusted,
to cut out, and was forced to make a precipitate retreat from this
quarter of the town.
The next was a young woman newly arrived from the country, who lived for
five weeks with great regularity, and became by frequent treats very
much the favourite of the family, but at last received visits so
frequently from a cousin in Cheapside, that she brought the reputation
of the house into danger, and was therefore dismissed with good advice.
The room then stood empty for a fortnight; my landlady began to think
that she had judged hardly, and often wished for such another lodger. At
last, an elderly man of a grave aspect read the bill, and bargained for
the room at the very first price that was asked. He lived in close
retirement, seldom went out till evening, and then returned early,
sometimes cheerful, and at other times dejected. It was remarkable, that
whatever he purchased, he never had small money in his pocket; and,
though cool and temperate on other occasions, was always vehement and
stormy, till he received his change. He paid his rent with great
exactness, and seldom failed once a week to requite my landlady's
civility with a supper. At last, such is the fate of human felicity, the
house was alarmed at midnight by the constable, who demanded to search
the garrets. My landlady assuring him that he had mistaken the door,
conducted him up stairs, where he found the tools of a coiner; but the
tenant had crawled along the roof to an empty house, and escaped; much
to the joy of my landlady, who declares him a very honest man, and
wonders why any body should be hanged for making money when such numbers
are in want of it. She however confesses that she shall, for the future,
always question the character of those who take her garret without
beating down the price.
The bill was then placed again in the window, and the poor woman was
teased for seven weeks by innumerable passengers, who obliged her to
climb with them every hour up five stories, and then disliked the
prospect, hated the noise of a publick street, thought the stairs
narrow, objected to a low ceiling, required the walls to be hung with
fresher paper, asked questions about the neighbourhood, could not think
of living so far from their acquaintance, wished the windows had looked
to the south rather than the west, told how the door and chimney might
have been better disposed, bid her half the price that she asked, or
promised to give her earnest the next day, and came no more.
At last, a short meagre man, in a tarnished waistcoat, desired to see
the garret, and when he had stipulated for two long shelves, and a
larger table, hired it at a low rate. When the affair was completed, he
looked round him with great satisfaction, and repeated some words which
the woman did not understand. In two days he brought a great box of
books, took possession of his room, and lived very inoffensively, except
that he frequently disturbed the inhabitants of the next floor by
unseasonable noises. He was generally in bed at noon, but from evening
to midnight he sometimes talked aloud with great vehemence, sometimes
stamped as in rage, sometimes threw down his poker, then clattered his
chairs, then sat down in deep thought, and again burst out into loud
vociferations; sometimes he would sigh as oppressed with misery, and
sometimes shaked with convulsive laughter. When he encountered any of
the family, he gave way or bowed, but rarely spoke, except that as he
went up stairs he often repeated,
[Greek:--Hos hupertata domata naiei].
This habitant th' aerial regions boast;
hard words, to which his neighbours listened so often, that they learned
them without understanding them. What was his employment she did not
venture to ask him, but at last heard a printer's boy inquire for the
author.
My landlady was very often advised to beware of this strange man, who,
though he was quiet for the present, might perhaps become outrageous in
the hot months; but, as she was punctually paid, she could not find any
sufficient reason for dismissing him, till one night he convinced her,
by setting fire to his curtains, that it was not safe to have an author
for her inmate.
She had then for six weeks a succession of tenants, who left the house
on Saturday, and, instead of paying their rent, stormed at their
landlady. At last she took in two sisters, one of whom had spent her
little fortune in procuring remedies for a lingering disease, and was
now supported and attended by the other: she climbed with difficulty to
the apartment, where she languished eight weeks without impatience, or
lamentation, except for the expense and fatigue which her sister
suffered, and then calmly and contentedly expired. The sister followed
her to the grave, paid the few debts which they had contracted, wiped
away the tears of useless sorrow, and, returning to the business of
common life, resigned to me the vacant habitation.
Such, Mr. Rambler, are the changes which have happened in the narrow
space where my present fortune has fixed my residence. So true it is
that amusement and instruction are always at hand for those who have
skill and willingness to find them; and, so just is the observation of
Juvenal, that a single house will shew whatever is done or suffered in
the world.
I am, Sir, &c.
No. 162. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1751.
Orbus es, et locuples, et Bruto consule natus,
Esse tibi veras credis amicitias?
Sunt veræ: sed quas juvenis, quas pauper habebas:
Qui novus est, mortem diligit ille tuam. MART. Lib. xi. Ep. 44.
What! old, and rich, and childless too,
And yet believe your friends are true?
Truth might perhaps to those belong,
To those who lov'd you poor and young;
But, trust me, for the new you have,
They'll love you dearly--in your grave. F. LEWIS.
One of the complaints uttered by Milton's Samson, in the anguish of
blindness, is, that he shall pass his life under the direction of
others; that he cannot regulate his conduct by his own knowledge, but
must lie at the mercy of those who undertake to guide him.
There is no state more contrary to the dignity of wisdom than perpetual
and unlimited dependance, in which the understanding lies useless, and
every motion is received from external impulse. Reason is the great
distinction of human nature, the faculty by which we approach to some
degree of association with celestial intelligences; but as the
excellence of every power appears only in its operations, not to have
reason, and to have it useless and unemployed, is nearly the same.
Such is the weakness of man, that the essence of things is seldom so
much regarded as external and accidental appendages. A small variation
of trifling circumstances, a slight change of form by an artificial
dress, or a casual difference of appearance, by a new light and
situation, will conciliate affection or excite abhorrence, and determine
us to pursue or to avoid. Every man considers a necessity of compliance
with any will but his own, as the lowest state of ignominy and meanness;
few are so far lost in cowardice or negligence, as not to rouse at the
first insult of tyranny, and exert all their force against him who
usurps their property, or invades any privilege of speech or action. Yet
we see often those who never wanted spirit to repel encroachment or
oppose violence, at last, by a gradual relaxation of vigilance,
delivering up, without capitulation, the fortress which they defended
against assault, and laying down unbidden the weapons which they grasp
the harder for every attempt to wrest them from their hands. Men eminent
for spirit and wisdom often resign themselves to voluntary pupilage, and
suffer their lives to be modelled by officious ignorance, and their
choice to be regulated by presumptuous stupidity.
This unresisting acquiescence in the determination of others, may be the
consequence of application to some study remote from the beaten track of
life, some employment which does not allow leisure for sufficient
inspection of those petty affairs, by which nature has decreed a great
part of our duration to be filled. To a mind thus withdrawn from common
objects, it is more eligible to repose on the prudence of another, than
to be exposed every moment to slight interruptions. The submission which
such confidence requires, is paid without pain, because it implies no
confession of inferiority. The business from which we withdraw our
cognizance, is not above our abilities, but below our notice. We please
our pride with the effects of our influence thus weakly exerted, and
fancy ourselves placed in a higher orb, for which we regulate
subordinate agents by a slight and distant superintendance. But,
whatever vanity or abstraction may suggest, no man can safely do that by
others which might be done by himself; he that indulges negligence will
quickly become ignorant of his own affairs; and he that trusts without
reserve will at last be deceived.
It is, however, impossible but that, as the attention tends strongly
towards one thing, it must retire from another; and he that omits the
care of domestick business, because he is engrossed by inquiries of more
importance to mankind, has, at least, the merit of suffering in a good
cause. But there are many who can plead no such extenuation of their
folly; who shake off the burden of their situation, not that they may
soar with less incumbrance to the heights of knowledge or virtue, but
that they may loiter at ease and sleep in quiet; and who select for
friendship and confidence not the faithful and the virtuous, but the
soft, the civil, and compliant.
This openness to flattery is the common disgrace of declining life. When
men feel weakness increasing on them, they naturally desire to rest from
the struggles of contradiction, the fatigue of reasoning, the anxiety of
circumspection; when they are hourly tormented with pains and diseases,
they are unable to bear any new disturbance, and consider all opposition
as an addition to misery, of which they feel already more than they can
patiently endure. Thus desirous of peace, and thus fearful of pain, the
old man seldom inquires after any other qualities in those whom he
caresses, than quickness in conjecturing his desires, activity in
supplying his wants, dexterity in intercepting complaints before they
approach near enough to disturb him, flexibility to his present humour,
submission to hasty petulance, and attention to wearisome narrations. By
these arts alone many have been able to defeat the claims of kindred and
of merit, and to enrich themselves with presents and legacies.
Thrasybulus inherited a large fortune, and augmented it by the revenues
of several lucrative employments, which he discharged with honour and
dexterity. He was at last wise enough to consider, that life should not
be devoted wholly to accumulation, and therefore retiring to his estate,
applied himself to the education of his children, and the cultivation of
domestick happiness.
He passed several years in this pleasing amusement, and saw his care
amply recompensed; his daughters were celebrated for modesty and
elegance, and his sons for learning, prudence, and spirit. In time the
eagerness with which the neighbouring gentlemen courted his alliance,
obliged him to resign his daughters to other families; the vivacity and
curiosity of his sons hurried them out of rural privacy into the open
world, from whence they had not soon an inclination to return. This,
however, he had always hoped; he pleased himself with the success of his
schemes, and felt no inconvenience from solitude till an apoplexy
deprived him of his wife.
Thrasybulus had now no companion; and the maladies of increasing years
having taken from him much of the power of procuring amusement for
himself, he thought it necessary to procure some inferior friend, who
might ease him of his economical solicitudes, and divert him by cheerful
conversation. All these qualities he soon recollected in Vafer, a clerk
in one of the offices over which he had formerly presided. Vafer was
invited to visit his old patron, and being by his station acquainted
with the present modes of life, and by constant practice dexterous in
business, entertained him with so many novelties, and so readily
disentangled his affairs, that he was desired to resign his clerkship,
and accept a liberal salary in the house of Thrasybulus.
Vafer, having always lived in a state of dependance, was well versed in
the arts by which favour is obtained, and could, without repugnance or
hesitation, accommodate himself to every caprice, and echo every
opinion. He never doubted but to be convinced, nor attempted opposition
but to flatter Thrasybulus with the pleasure of a victory. By this
practice he found his way into his patron's heart, and, having first
made himself agreeable, soon became important. His insidious diligence,
by which the laziness of age was gratified, engrossed the management of
affairs; and his petty offices of civility, and occasional
intercessions, persuaded the tenants to consider him as their friend and
benefactor, and to entreat his enforcement of their representations of
hard years, and his countenance to petitions for abatement of rent.
Thrasybulus had now banqueted on flattery, till he could no longer bear
the harshness of remonstrance or the insipidity of truth. All
contrariety to his own opinion shocked him like a violation of some
natural right, and all recommendation of his affairs to his own
inspection was dreaded by him as a summons to torture. His children were
alarmed by the sudden riches of Vafer, but their complaints were heard
by their father with impatience, as the result of a conspiracy against
his quiet, and a design to condemn him, for their own advantage, to
groan out his last hours in perplexity and drudgery. The daughters
retired with tears in their eyes, but the son continued his
importunities till he found his inheritance hazarded by his obstinacy.
Vafer triumphed over all their efforts, and, continuing to confirm
himself in authority, at the death of his master, purchased an estate,
and bade defiance to inquiry and justice.
No. 163. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1751.
Mitte superba pati fastidia, spemque caducam
Despice; vive tibi, nam moriere tibi. SENECA.
Bow to no patron's insolence; rely
On no frail hopes, in freedom live and die. F. LEWIS.
None of the cruelties exercised by wealth and power upon indigence and
dependance is more mischievous in its consequences, or more frequently
practised with wanton negligence, than the encouragement of expectations
which are never to be gratified, and the elation and depression of the
heart by needless vicissitudes of hope and disappointment.
Every man is rich or poor, according to the proportion between his
desires and enjoyments; any enlargement of wishes is therefore equally
destructive to happiness with the diminution of possession; and he that
teaches another to long for what he never shall obtain, is no less an
enemy to his quiet, than if he had robbed him of part of his patrimony.