provide hay and corn at difcretion, took his houfekeeper's word for the expences of the kitchen, allowed all his fervants to do their work by deputies, permitted his domefticks to keep his houfe open to their relations and acquaintance, and in ten years was conveyed hither, without having purchafed by the lofs of his patrimony either honour or pleasure, or obtained any other gratification than that of having corrupted the neighbouring villagers by luxury and idlenefs.

Dick Serge was a draper in Cornhill, and paffed eight years in profperous diligence, without any care but to keep his books, or any ambition but to be in time an alderman: but then, by fome unaccountable revolution in his underftanding, he became enamoured of wit and humour, defpifed the converfation of pedlars and ftockjobbers, and rambled every night to the regions of gaiety, in queft of company fuited to his tafte. The wits at firft flocked about him for fport, and afterwards for intereft; fome found their way into his books, and fome into his pockets; the man of adventure was equipped from his fhop for the pursuit of a fortune; and he had fometimes the honour to have his fecurity accepted when his friends were in diftrefs. Elated with thefe affociations, he foon learned to neglect his fhop;

and having drawn his money out of the funds, to avoid the neceffity of teizing men of honour for trifling debts, he has been forced at laft to retire hither, till his friends can procure him a poft at

court.

Another that joins in the fame mefs is Bob Cornice, whofe life has been fpent in fitting up a house.

About ten years ago Bob purchased the country ha bitation of a bankrupt: the mere shell of a building; Bob holds no great matter; the infide is the test of elegance. Of this houfe he was no fooner master than he fummoned twenty workmen to his affiftance, tore up the floors and laid them anew, ftripped off the wainscot, drew the windows from their frames, altered the difpofition of doors and fire-places, and caft the whole fabrick into a new form: his next care was to have his ceilings painted, his pannels gilt, and his chimney-pieces carved: every thing was executed by the ableft hands: Bob's business was to follow the workmen with a microfcope, and call upon them to retouch their performances, and heighten excellence to perfection. The reputation of his houfe now brings round him a daily confluencę of vifitants, and every one tells him of fome elegance which he has hitherto overlooked, fome convenience not yet procured, or fome new mode in ornament or furniture. Bob, who had no with but to be admired, nor any guide but the fashion, thought every thing beautiful in proportion as it was new, and confidered his work as unfinished, while any obferver could fuggest an addition; fome alteration was therefore every day made, without any other motive than the charms of novelty. A traveller at laft fuggefted to him the convenience of a grotto: Bob immediately ordered the mount of his garden to be excavated; and having laid out a large fun in fhells and minerals, was bufy in regulating the difpofition of the colours and luftres, when two gentlemen, who had asked permiffion to fee his gardens, prefented him a writ, and led him off to lefs elegant apartments,

Į know

I know not, Sir, whether among this fraternity of forrow you will think any much to be pitied; nor indeed do many of them appear to folicit compaffion, for they generally applaud their own conduct, and defpife those whom want of taste or spirit suffers to grow rich. It were happy if the prifons of the kingdom were filled only with characters like these, men whom profperity could not make useful, and whom ruin cannot make wife: but there are among us many who raise different fenfations, many that owe their prefent mifery to the feductions of treachery, the ftrokes of casualty, or the tenderness of pity; many whofe fufferings difgrace fociety, and whofe virtues would adorn it of thefe, when familiarity fhall have enabled me to recount their ftories without horror, you may expect another narrative from,

SIR,

Your most humble fervant,

MYSARGYRUS.

E

NUMB. 58. SATURDAY, May 25, 1753,

Damnant quod non intelligunt.

CIC.

They condemn what they do not understand.

URIPIDES, having prefented Socrates with the writings of Heraclitus, a philofopher famed for involution and obfcurity, inquired afterwards his opinion of their merit. "What I understand," faid Socrates, "I find to be excellent; and, therefore, be"lieve that to be of equal value which I cannot "underftand."

The reflection of every man who reads this paffage will fuggeft to him the difference between the practice of Socrates, and that of modern criticks: Socrates, who had, by long obfervation upon himself and others, difcovered the weakness of the ftrongeft, and the dimnefs of the moft enlightened intellect, was afraid to decide haftily in his own favour, or to conclude that an author had written without meaning, because he could not immediately catch his ideas; he knew that the faults of books are often more justly imputable to the reader, who fometimes wants attention, and fometimes penetration; whose understanding is often obftructed by prejudice, and often diffipated by remiffness; who comes fometimes to a new ftudy, unfurnished with knowledge previously neceffary; and finds difficulties infuper

able,

able, for want of ardour fufficient to encounter them.

Obfcurity and clearness are relative terms: to fome readers fcarce any book is eafy, to others not many are difficult: and furely they, whom neither any exuberant praife beftowed by others, nor any eminent conquefts over ftubborn problems, have entitled to exalt themselves above the common orders of mankind, might condefcend to imitate the candour of Socrates; and where they find inconteftible proofs of fuperior genius, be content to think that there is juftness in the connection which they cannot trace, and cogency in the reafoning which they cannot comprehend.

This diffidence is never more reasonable than in the perufal of the authors of antiquity; of thofe whofe works have been the delight of ages, and tranfmitted as the great inheritance of mankind from one generation to another: furely, no man can, without the utmost arrogance, imagine that he brings any fuperiority of understanding to the perufal of thefe books which have been preferved in the devastation of cities, and fnatched up from the wreck of nations; which those who fled before barbarians have been careful to carry off in the hurry of migration, and of which barbarians have repented the deftruction. If in books thus made venerable by the uniform atteftation of fucceffive ages, any paffages thall appear unworthy of that praise which they have formerly received, let us not immediately determine, that they owed their reputation to dullness or bigotry; But fufpect at least that our ancestors had fome reafons for their opinions,

and