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NUMB. 137. TUESDAY, February 26, 1754.

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What have I been doing?

S man is a being very fparingly furnished with the power of prefcience, he can provide for the future only by confidering the paft; and as futurity is all in which he has any real intereft, he ought very diligently to use the only means by which he can be enabled to enjoy it, and frequently to revolve the experiments which he has hitherto made upon life, that he may gain wisdom from his mistakes, and caution from his miscarriages.

Though I do not fo exactly conform to the precepts of Pythagoras, as to practise every night this folemn recollection, yet I am not fo loft in diffipation as wholly to omit it; nor can I forebear fometimes to enquire of myself, in what employment my life has paffed away. Much of my time has funk into nothing, and left no trace by which it can be diftinguished; and of this I now only know, that it was once in my power, and might once have been im. proved.

Of other parts of life, memory can give fome account; at fome hours I have been gay, and at others ferious; I have fometimes mingled in conversation, and fometimes meditated in folitude; one day has

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been spent in confulting the ancient fages, and another in writing Adventurers.

At the conclufion of any undertaking, it is ufual to compute the lofs and profit. As I fhall foon cease to write Adventurers, I could not forbear lately to confider what has been the confequence of my labours; and whether I am to reckon the hours laid out in these compofitions, as applied to a good and laudable purpose, or fuffered to fume away in useless evaporations.

That I have intended well, I have the atteftation of my own heart but good intentions may be fruftrated when they are executed without fuitable fkill, or directed to an end unattainable in itself.

Some there are, who leave writers very little room for felf-congratulation; fome who affirm, that books have no influence upon the publick, that no age was ever made better by its authors, and that to call upon mankind to correct their manners, is like Xerxes, to fcourge the wind, or fhackle the torrent.

This opinion they pretend to fupport by unfailing experience. The world is full of fraud and corruption, rapine or malignity; intereft is the ruling motive of mankind, and every one is endeavouring to increase his own ftores of happiness by perpetual accumulation, without reflecting upon the numbers whom his fuperfluity condemns to want: in this ftate of things a book of morality is published, in which charity and benevolence are strongly enforced; and it is proved beyond oppofition, that men are happy in proportion as they are virtuous, and rich as they are liberal. The book is applauded, and the au

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thor is preferred; he imagines his applause deserved, and receives lefs pleasure from the acquifition of reward than the consciousness of merit. Let us look again upon mankind intereft is ftill the ruling motive, and the world is yet full of fraud and corruption, malevolence and rapine.

The difficulty of confuting this affertion, arifes merely from its generality and comprehenfion: to overthrow it by a detail of diftinct facts, requires a wider furvey of the world than human eyes can take; the progrefs of reformation is gradual and filent, as the extension of evening fhadows; we know that they were short at noon, and are long at fun-fet, but our fenfes were not able to difcern their increase: we know of every civil nation, that it was once favage, and how was it reclaimed but by a precept and admonition ?

Mankind are univerfally corrupt, but corrupt in different degrees; as they are univerfally ignorant, yet with greater or lefs irradiations of knowledge. How has knowledge or virtue been increafed and preferved in one place beyond another; but by diligent inculcation and rational inforcement?

Books of morality are daily written, yet its influ ence is ftill little in the world; fo the ground is annually ploughed, and yet multitudes are in want of bread. But, furely, neither the labours of the moralift nor of the hufbandman are vain: let them for a while neglect their tafks, and their ufefulnefs will be known; the wickednefs that is now frequent would become univerfal, the bread that is now. fcarce would wholly fail.

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The power, indeed, of every individual is small, and the confequence of his endeavours imperceptible in a general profpect of the world.

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dence has given no man ability to do much, that fomething might be left for every man to do. The bufinefs of life is carried on by a general co-operation; in which the part of any fingle man can be no more diftinguished, than the effect of a particular drop when the meadows are floated by a fummer fhower: yet every drop increases the inundation, and every hand adds to the happiness or misery of mankind.

That a writer, however zealous or eloquent, feldom works a visible effect upon cities or nations, will readily be granted. The book which is read moft, is read by few, compared with thofe that read it not; and of thofe few, the greater part perufe it with difpofitions that very little favour their own improvement.

It is difficult to enumerate the feveral inotives which procure to books the honour of perufal: fpite, vanity, and curiofity, hope and fear, love and hatred, every paffion which incites to any other action, ferves at one time or other to ftimulate a reader.

Some are fond to take a celebrated volume into their hands, becaufe they hope to diftinguish their penetration, by finding faults which have escaped the publick; others eagerly buy it in the first bloom of reputation, that they may join the chorus of praife, and not lag, as Falstaff terms it, in "the "rearward of the fashion."

Some read for ftyle, and fome for argument: one has little care about the fentiment, he obferves only

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how it is expreffed; another regards not the conclufion, but is diligent to mark how it is inferred: they read for other purposes than the attainment of practical knowledge; and are no more likely to grow wife by an examination of a treatife of moral prudence, than an architect to inflame his devotion by confidering attentively the proportions of a temple.

Some read that they may embellifh their conversation, or thine in difpute; fome that they may not be detected in ignorance, or want the reputation of literary accomplishments: but the most general and prevalent reafon of ftudy is the impoffibility of finding another amufement equally cheap or conftant, equally independent on the hour or the weather. He that wants money to follow the chafe of pleasure through her yearly circuit, and is left at home when the gay world rolls to Bath or Tunbridge; he whofe gout compels him to hear from his chamber the rattle of chariots tranfporting happier beings to plays and affemblies, will be forced to feek in books a refuge from himself.

The author is not wholly ufelefs, who provides innocent amusements for minds like thefe. There are, in the present state of things, fo many more inftigations to evil, than incitements to good, that he who keeps men in a neutral state, may be justly confidered as a benefactor to life.

But, perhaps, it feldom happens, that ftudy terminates in mere paftime. Books have always a fecret influence on the understanding; we cannot at pleafure obliterate ideas: he that reads books of fcience, VOL. III. though

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