company. Every one would be ftruck with the unpoliteness of that person's behaviour, who fhould help himself to a whole plate of peafe or ftrawberries which fome friend had fent him for a rarity in the beginning of the feafon. Now, Converfation is one of thofe good things of which our guests or companions are equally intitled to a fhare, as of any other conftituent part of the entertainment; and it is as effential a want of politeness to engrofs the one, as to monopolize the other.

Besides, it unfortunately happens, that we are very inadequate judges of the value of our own discourse, or the rate at which the dispo fitions of our company will incline them to hold it. The reflections we make, and the ftories we tell, are to be judged of by others, who may hold a very different opinion of their acutenefs or their humour. It will be prudent, therefore, to confider, that the dish we bring to this entertainment, however pleasing to our own taste, may prove but moderately palatable to those we mean to treat with it; and that, to every man, as well as ourselves (except a few. very humble ones), his own converfation is the plate of peafe or ftrawberries.

V

N° 6. SATURDAY, February 13, 1779+

Nec excitatur claffico miles truci,
Nec horret iratum mare ;

Forumque vitat, et fuperba civium

Potentiorum limina.

HORT.

REAT talents are ufually attended with a proportional defire of exerting them; and, indeed, were it otherwife, they would be, in a great measure, useless to those who poffefs them, as well as to fociety.

But, while this difpofition generally leads men of high parts and high fpirit to take a share in active life, by engaging in the pursuits of business or ambition, there are, amidst the variety of human character, fome instances,, in which persons eminently poffeffed of those qualities give way to a contrary difpofition.

A man of an aspiring mind and nice fenfibility may, from a wrong direction, or a romantic excess of fpirit, find it difficult to fubmit to the ordinary pursuits of life. Filled with enthufiaftic ideas of the glory of a general, a fenator, or a statesman, he may look with indifference, or even with disgust, on the.

lefs brilliant, though, perhaps, not lefs useful occupations, of the phyfician, the lawyer, or the trader.

My friend Mr. Umphraville is a remarkable inftance of great talents thus loft to himself and to fociety. The fingular opinions, which have influenced his conduct, I have often. heard him attempt, with great warmth, to defend.

"In the pursuit of an ordinary profeffion," would he fay," a man of fpirit and fenfibility, "while he is fubjected to disgusting occupa-. "tions, finds it neceflary to fubmit with pa ἐσ tience, nay, often with the appearance of

fatisfaction, to what he will be apt to efteem "dullness, folly, or impertinence, in those "from whofe countenance, or opinion, he "hopes to derive fuccefs; and, while he

pines in fecret at fo irkfome a fituation, per-. "haps, amidst the crowds with whom he con"verfes, he may not find a friend to whom " he can communicate his forrows.

"If, on the other hand," he would add, "he betakes himself to retirement, it is true. "he cannot hope for an opportunity of performing fplendid actions, or of gratifying a "paffion for glory; but if he attain not all

❝ that

that he wishes, he avoids much of what he "hates. Within a certain range he will be "mafter of his occupations and his company;

his books will, in part, fupply the want of "fociety; and, in contemplation at least, he "may often enjoy thofe pleasures from which ❝ fortune has precluded him.

"If the country, as will generally happen, "be the place of his retirement, it will afford ❝a variety of objects agreeable to his temper. "In the profpect of a lofty mountain, an ex"tenfive plain, or the unbounded ocean, he

66

may gratify his tafte for the fublime; while. "the lonely vale, the hollow bank, or the "shady wood, will prefent him a retreat fuit❝ed to the thoughtfulness of his difpofition."

Such are the fentiments which have formed the character of Mr. Umphraville, which have regulated the choice and tenor of his life.

His father, a man of generofity and expence beyond his fortune, though that had once been. confiderable, left him, at the age of twentyfive, full of the high fentiments natural, at thefe years, to a young gentleman brought up as the heir of an ancient family, and a large eftate, with a very inconfiderable income to fupport them; for though the remaining part

of

of the family-fortune ftill afforded him a rentroll of 1000%. a-year, his clear revenue could fcarcely be estimated at 3007.

Mr. Umphraville, though he wanted not a relish for polite company and elegant amusements, was more diftinguished for an ardent defire of knowledge; in confequence of which he had made an uncommon progress in several branches of fcience.. The claffical writers of ancient and modern times, but especially the former, were those from whofe works he felt the highest pleasure; yet he had, among other branches of learning, obtained a confiderable knowledge of jurisprudence, and was a tole-rable proficient in mathematics.

On these last circumftances his friends found-ed their hopes of his rifing in the world. One part of them argued, from the progrefs he had made in jurisprudence, that he would prove an excellent lawyer; the other, that his turn for mathematics would be a useful qualification in a military life; and all agreed in the neceffity of his following fome profeffion in which he might have an opportunity of repairing his fortune.

Mr. Umphraville, however, had very differ ent fentiments. Though he had studied the:

fciences