another's disadvantage is true: if all the failings which are true of the best of us were to be told to our dearest friend, perhaps all our virtues could scarce fecure his esteem. But this rule muft not extend to the concealing any thing by which another may be injured in his property or character, if by revealing it the evil may be prevented; and this is the only inftance in which you are allowed to speak of the faults of others. Be always punctual in returning what the world calls civilities. The failing in this, however trifling, is often taken for contempt, or at least for want of efteem; and I have known the omitting to return a visit, or to answer a letter in due time, attended with coldnefs, indifference, and worfe confequences. That perfons ought not to fet fuch a value on thefe trifles is true; but if they do, it behoves us to act as if they ought: however, as the refenting a breach of thefe punctilios is really a fault, take care that you are not betrayed into it. Let it be a rule with you never to refent any thing that was not intended as an affront; mere negligences fhould be below your refentment; though, for the fake of the infirmities of others, you should guard against them in your felf. but to guard against th and exceffive inftances of favour and zeal to serve you. But the conftant steady esteem and friendship of a perfon, long tried and well known, who has obtained a reputation for virtue and fincerity, is an invaluable treafure: if you find it, preferve it with a religious care, and return it with fidelity and zeal. It In this place I would caution you never to be trufted with the secrets of others, if you can by any means avoid it with decency; reject it as an enemy to your peace, and as a fnare for your good name. Whoever tells you a secret, tells it as a fecret to twenty more; at length it is betrayed; and as this breach of faith is always denied by the guilty, the innocent are always fufpected. has been thought good advice not to reveal your own fecrets, but I would rather advise you to have none; do nothing that if known would wound your reputation, or fill your own bofom with fhame and regret. To lie at the mercy of accident; to be obliged constantly to watch over our words and actions, lest what we wish to hide should be discovered; is the life of a flave, full of fear, fufpicion, and anxiety: those who have nothing to fear but falfhood and detraction enjoy their own innocence, have an open look, a noble confidence, native cheerfulness, and perpetual peace. There are two ways of gaining the good-will of the world, which weak people practise because they know no If, upon any difference, you fhould other; one is flattery, the other is lavifh happen to lose an intimate acquaintance, profeffions of friendship, which begin don't be eager to relate the circumftanand end on the lips. Never ftoop to ces of the quarrel, in order to justify either of thefe low and infamous arts; your conduct and condemn their's: whatever is thus gained is bought too thofe ftories, which a thousand little dear. To refrain from this fault is eafy, circumftances make of importance to ill effects of it you, and warm your mind in the recital, in others difficult; it is not however are infipid to every other perfon; and more difficult than neceffary. Always while you think you amufe them, and fufpect that a perfon who commends are rifing into a perfon of confequence you to your face endeavours to gain a by a detail of your own prudent manageconfidence that he intends to betray. ment, you will become tirefome, imRemember, that whoever makes pro- pertinent, and ridiculous. If the party feffions of friendship v which are not merited is an hypocrite, and beware that yo own vanity does not encourage you to think that you have merited uncommon " with whom you have differed fhould purfue this method, the wifer part of mankind will rather conclude them to be in fault, from their zeal to defend them themselves, than you from your filence; for it is a confcioufnefs that others will condemn us which makes us fo eager to anticipate their judgment. This rule extends to the talking of yourself and of your private affairs on every other occafion, except when it has fome per tinent relation to the difcourfe of the company, or when it is neceffary to obtain fome valuable purpose. ration, and give orders to the maid rather in her name than your own; you will then be beyond, without feeming to affume a command, or to value yourself upon it. If your papa or mamma fhould at any time exprefs a difapprobation of your conduct, immediately refolve to amend it, apologize for the paft, and promise for the future; never feem in hafte to As to your behaviour at home, keep justify yourself; and though you should yourself always above the fervants : your think their difpleafure unmerited, in ftation is above them as their mafter's which it is a thoufand to one but you daughter, while they are your father's will be mistaken, yet be fure to avoid fervants; and every one fhould act fuit- all pert and felf-fufficient replies on the ably to their station. But do not think one hand, and on the other fullen looks I mean that you should treat them haugh and dumb refentment. If it should hap tily, or look upon the meanest of them pen that an harfh expreffion efcapes with contempt; that you fhould put on them, when their temper is ruffled by a commanding air, or fpeak to them in the perplexing accidents and difappoint a peremptory tone: this would be moft ments of bufinefs, as it would be the effectually to lofe the fuperiority of your highest ingratitude and indecency in you ftation, and to become defpifed and to exprefs impatience and difcontent, fo, hated by those who ought to regard as the reward of a contrary conduct, you with refpect and esteem. My mean- their own reflections upon what is past ing is, that you should treat them cour- when the mind is calm will be in your teously, but permit no familiarity. Ne- favour, and their affection will feek an ver fuffer yourself to be made their con- opportunity of compenfating your un fidant in any thing that they would con- eafinefs. You fhould regard thefe acceal from their mafter or mistress; never cidents as opportunities endearing make yourself a party in their difcourfe; yourself to them, and as tefts of your and if they should addrefs themselves prudence, duty, and affection. to you, decline the converfation with as What may not children expect from much addrefs as you can, not to incur a father who is a friend to the whole the imputation of pride, or ill nature, circle of his acquaintance! It is your by frowning looks and harsh language. happiness to have fuch a father; think Avoid alfo the oppofite extreme do yourfelf fecure of every thing that is fit not watch their most trivial actions as a for you in his affection, and do not anfpy, nor report every little mifdemeanor ticipate his bounty by requests: the which falls under your observation with pleasure of both will be leffened if the low pleasure and petty officioufnefs receive because you afk, and he gives of an informer: never fteal the know- because he cannot deny you. How very ledge of what paffes between them fhameful, then, is the common triumph when they think they are alone, by fe- of favourites for having gained by imcretly liftening with a vain or malevo- portunity what is denied to merit, and lent curiofity; what you over hear by withheld by prudence! Whatever is fuch means may probably do you more thus gained from the hand is loft in the harm, than any thing which may be heart. I have feen with grief and rethus discovered can do you good. If fentment every tender moment watched, your fhould delegate part of her to urge a request, and wreft a promife, authority to you in the management of from the generous weakness of unguardthe household affairs, ufe it with mode ed affection. How mean and felfish is mamma you fucha fuch a practice! Remember that a noble If there is no time to come that we can mind will difpofe a person to suffer anticipate with pleafure, we regret much, rather than afk a favour which every moment that paffes; we fee that he knows cannot be refused, if he thinks that his friend may, notwithstanding, have reafon to wifh it had not been afked. I fhall finish this long letter with a note of yet higher importance. If you fucceed in every defign which you form, and the world gives you till its utmost bounty is exhaufted, your happiness will be ftill imperfect, you Will find fome defire unfatisfied, and your poffeffion will never fill your wifhes. But do not fuffer the prefent hour to pafs away unenjoyed by an earnest and anxious defire of fome future good; for, if this weaknefs is indulged, your happinefs will still fly from you as you purfue it, and there will be the fame distance between you and the object of your wishes, till all the vifions of imagination fhall vanish, and your progréfs to further degrees of temporal advantage fhall be ftopped by the grave. It is notwithstanding true, that the expectation of future good, if the object is worthy of a rational defire, pleases more than any prefent enjoyment. You will therefore find that a well-grounded hope of Heaven will give a relish to whatever you will poffefs upon earth. time is flying away with all our enjoyments; that youth is thort, health precarious, and age approaching, loaded with infirmities to which death only can put an end for this reafon endeavour to fecure an intereft in the favour of God, which will infure to you an everlafting life of uninterrupted and inconceivable felicity. Nor is this a difficult or an unpleafing attempt: no real prefent happinefs need to be forfeited to purchafe the future; for virtue and piety, at once fecure every good of body and mind both in time and eternity. As many of these hints as may be of immediate ufe I think you cannot fail to understand now; and I would recommend the frequent perufal of this letter, that you may at length comprehend the whole; for as the world opens to you, you will fee the reafon and the use of other parts; and if they affift you in any degree to pafs through life with fafety and reputation, I fhall think my labour well bestowed. I am, dear Mifs, Your affectionate friend, JNO. HAWKESWORTH. Bromley, Kent, 14th Dec. 1748. AN IDLER'S ACCOUNT OF HIMSELF. I TOOK up, I know not by what accident, a book, the other day, in which I found the following fentiments. That I fhould take the trouble to read them would appear very extraordinary to you, If you knew my character, and that I should take the much greater trouble of copying them, will yet appear more extraordinary when you confider what I am doing, and compare it with my general principle, which is to do nothing. But to come to the fentiments; for long to finifi them : An indolent man is a carcafe; and if he does not take care, the birds of prey, (the ministers of vengeance) will be at him. In Romney mafh, when the ravens, hovering on high, and keeping a fharp look-out, fee a fheep turned on his back, fo fat and unwieldy that he cannot recover himfelf, they instantly foufe down upon him, pick out his eyes, and then devour the body, carrying it away piece-meal, as they are able. Perfons are therefore set to watch, on purpofe to prevent this catastrophe." "The bufy man, fay the Turks, is troubled with one devil; but the idle man is tormented with a thousand. Idlenefs is the most painful fituation of I mind, as ftanding till, according to Galen, is of the body. The irksomeness of being idle is humouroufly hit off, by Voltaire's Voltaire's old woman in Candidus, who puts it to the philofophers, "Which is wort, to experience all the miferies through which every one of us hath paffed, or to remain here doing nothing Bishop Cumberland being told by fome of his friends, that he would weary him. felf out by intenfe application, replied, It is better to wear out, than to ruft out. In the mind, as well the body natural and politic, ftagnation is followed by putrefaction. A want of proper motion does not breed reft and stabili ty; but a motion of another kind; a motion unfeen and intestine, which does not preferve, but destroy." It is a wonder to myself, Mr Editor, that I have been able to transcribe all this ftuff, every line of which is a perfonal reflection and I know not whether I fhall be able to get on with my ftory. Know, then, that I am one of those earcafes, and putrefactions def cribed above, and have been fo all my life. Laziness with me is a habit, and I may fay a science, which by long experience I have learned to reduce to certain rules. My father was a rich man in his way, and left me amply provided for, totally independent of all bufinefs, but the great bulinefs of pleasure. 1 muft do myself the justice to fay, that I have not greatly impaired my patrimony, which is a lucky circumstance, for I am pofitively too lazy to work at any bufinefs, nor could I ever get through the fatigue of afking favours-a fatigue fo great, that I am affured fome very wor thy men have funk under it at the doors of great men, and have had their carcafes pufhed into the kennels, by fel lows with lace upon their coats, money in their pockets, and no brains in their heads. But you may form fome judgment of my way of life, from knowing the history of one day or two, just as well as if you lived with me for a twelvemonth or more. In the morning 1 rife, just when I pleafe, and that I may find every thing ready for me in the house, I never rife VOL. LVIII. before every body elfe has been up for two or three hours. My breakfast is brought into my bed-room, that I may have as little trouble as poffible in going to it; and with the affitance of two or three newspapers, I make a fhift to divert myself for the next two hours. If one of the papers drops out of my hand, there it lies on the floor, unless the fervant comes into the room by chance, and picks it up. By chance he must come, if he comes at all, for I abominate the fatigue and noife of ringing bells. About one o'clock, my frizur attends, but he must wait in my dreffing-room for fome time, until I have fummoned up fufficient resolution to go to him. During this operation 1 frequentiy fall asleep, and when it is finish ed, walk with great deliberation to my toilet, where, if I can keep my eyes open, I drefs myself by flow and int perceptible degrees for the day. This being done, if I happen not to fit down again, I walk out, no matter where, in the ftreets, the park, the common highway, or any where. The cravings of appetite only call me to dinner, but as they, though occafionally keen, are not always regular, it would not be eafy to find out which is my dinner hour. If I have an engagement, it is a thousand to one I remember it; and if I dine at home, the dinner is fpoiled by being kept back for me, Thefe difficulties, however, being furmounted in fome way or other, the dinner employs me until fix or feven o'clock, and I generally enjoy a very comfortable nap during that time. Although I live within a street or two of both theatres, I fend for a coach, and by mere force of violent exertion, which is very unusual to me, throw myself in and out of it. The play being over, I ftumble into fome coffee-houfe, always the first I can meet with, where I enjoy the fupreme luxury of a most comfortable lounge. The waiters like much to fee me enter, as I give them very little trouble. After I have given my orders for tupper, they may obey them 3 S inft juft when they pleafe, and how they I keep little or no company. I pofition. I live very fnugly and com- In a word, Sir, for I feel myself monftroufly fatigued with writing this letter, I am confidered by every body once, indeed, had a numerous acquaint- as a quiet inoffenfive man, of a serious ance, but they plagued me fo much with and fober turn, very regular in all my invitations and engagements, that I was motions, and the best lodger a landlord quite fatigued to death in complying can have, and the best customer a tavern with them. To breakfaft with one, ever had. The few acquaintances who dine with a fecond, and fup with a third, have not forfaken me (and they are very was enough to kill a perfon of Hercu- few,) comply with all my humours, and Jean ftrength, It is true, they did not carry on their converfation without any make me drink too much, as the Irish attention to me. Sometimes they think and Scotch hofpitality enjoins, but what I am crazy, and indeed have gone fo is drinking when compared to the fatigue far as to forget that I am in the room, of going from place to place, and being and wink to one another pointing to their obliged to anfwer a number of imperti- heads. In this manner, Sir, I live. nent queftions which they call conver. His Majefty has not a quieter subject fation? They afked me if it was a cold in his dominions, for I never could day, when they faw me fhivering: if fuffer the fatigue of politics, and take hot, when I was in a general perfpiration; if it fhowed, when my coat was all over white; or if it rained, when I was wet to the skin. In fhort, I got rid of them all one way or other, and now I have the fatisfaction to think that they care as little for me as I do for them, b things just as they run. How I have been able to write fo long a letter is to me aftonishing. I have not done fuch a thing these twenty years. Perhaps I might endeavour to account for it, but it would be troublefome. Whether you are pleased to print, or burn it, you have no chance of ever hearing from me, while I am, SAMUEL SLOTH. 2 |