N° LXVII. TUESDAY, JUNE 26, 1753. THEY POLISH LIFE BY USEFUL ARTS. HAT familiarity produces neg effect of all external objects, however great or fplendid, ceafes with the novelty: the courtier ftands without emotion in the royal prefence; the ruftick tramples under his foot the beauties of the ipring, with little attention to their colour or their fragrance; and the inhabitant of the coaft darts his eye upon the immenfe diffufion of waters, without awe, wonder, or terror. Those who have paffed much of their lives in this great city, look upon it's opulence and it's multitudes, it's extent and variety, with cold indifference; but an inhabitant of the remoter parts of the kingdom is immediately diftinguifhed by a kind of diffipated curiofity, a bufy endeavour to divide his attention amongft a thousand objects, and a wild confufion of astonishment and alarm. The attention of a new-comer is generally first struck by the multiplicity of cries that itun him in the ftreets, and the variety of merchandise and manufactures which the fhopkeepers expofe on every hand; and he is apt, by unwary burts of admiration, to excite the merriment and contempt of thofe, who mistake the fe of their eyes for effects of their understanding, and confound accidental knowledge with just reasoning. But, furely, thefe are fubjects on which any man may without reproach employ his meditations: the innumerable occupations among which the thoufands that fwann in the streets of London are diftribute, may furnish employment to minds of every caft, and capacities of every degree. He that contemplates the extent of this wonderful city, finds it difficult to conceive, by what method plenty is maintained in our markets, and how the inhabitants are regularly fupplied with the neceffaries of life; but when he examines the fhops and warehoufes, fees the immenfe stores of every kind of merchandize piled up for fale, and runs over all the manufactures of art and products of nature, which are every where attracting his eye and folliciting his purfe, he VIRG. will be inclined to conclude, that fuch quantities and that part of mankind muft soon stand ftill for want of employment, till the wares already provided fhall be worn out and destroyed. 6 As Socrates was paffing through the fair at Athens, and cafting his eyes over the fhops and cuftomers; How many things are here,' fays he, that I do not want!' The fame fentiment is every moment rifing in the mind of him that walks the streets of London, however inferior in philofophy to Socrates; he beholds a thousand shops crowded with goods, of which he can scarcely tell the uie, and which therefore he is apt to confider as of no value; and, indeed, many of the arts by which families are fupported, and wealth is heaped together, are of that minute and fuperfluous kind, which nothing but experience could evince poffible to be profecuted with advantage, and which, as the world might eafily want, it could scarcely be expected to encourage. But fo it is, that custom, curiofity, or wantonnefs, fupplies every art with patrons, and finds purchafers for every manufacture. The world is fo adjusted, that not only bread, but riches, may be obtained without great abilities, or arduous performances: the moft unfkilful hand and unenlightened mind have fufficient incitements to induftry; for he that is refolutely bufy, can fcarcely be in want. There is, indeed, no employment, however despicable, from which a man may not promife himself more than competence, when he fees thoufands and myriads raifed to dignity by no other merit than that of contributing to fupply their neighbours with the means of fucking finoke through a tube of clay; and others raifing contributions upon those whole elegance difdains the groffness of fmoky luxury, by grinding the fame materials into a powder that may at once gratify and impair the fmell. Not only by these popular and modifh trifles, but by a thousand unheeded and evanefcent kinds of bufinefs, are the Y 2 multitudes THE ADVENTURER. 172 When I look round upon those who Contempt and admiration are equally incident to narrow minds: he whofe comprchenfion can take in the whole fubordination of mankind, and whofe perfpicacity can pierce to the real state of things through the thin veils of fortune or of fashion, will difcover meannefs in the highest stations, and dignity in the meaneft; and find that no man can become venerable but by virtue, or contemptible but by wickedness. In the midst of this univerfal hurry, no man ought to be fo little influenced by example, or fo void of honeft emulation, as to stand a lazy fpectator of inceffant Jabour; or please himself with the mean happiness of a drone, while the active fwarms are buzzing about him: no man is without fome quality, by the due application of which he might deferve well of the world; and whoever he be that has but little in his power, fhould be in hafte to do that little, left he be confounded with him that can do nothing. By this general concurrence of endeavours, arts of every kind have been fo long cultivated, that all the wants of man may be immediately fupplied; idle nefs can scarcely form a with which the Happiness is enjoyed only in propor- per city. But that, the happiness of man may ftill remain imperfect, as wants in this place are eafily fupplied, new wants likewife are easily created; every man, in furveying the fhops of London, fees numberiefs inftruments and conveniences, of which, while he did not know them, he never feit the need; and yet, ders how life could be fupported withwhen ufe has made them familiar, wonout them. Thus it comes to pafs, that feffions; the knowledge that fomething our defires always increafe with our pofremains yet unenjoyed, impairs our enjoyment of the good before us. They who have been accustomed to cations of contrivance, foon lofe their the refinement of fcience, and multipliconfidence in the unaflifted powers of nature, forget the paucity of our real neceffities, and overlook the eafy methods by which they may be fupplied. It were a fpeculation worthy of a philo taken away from our native abilities, as fophical mind, to examine how much is well as added to them by artificial expeand receive affiftance, that each of us dients. We are fo accustomed to give contracted fingly can do little for himself; and there is fcarce any one among us, however contracted may be his form of life, who does not enjoy the labour of a thousand artists. But a furvey of the various nations that inhabit the earth will inform us, that life may be fupported with lefs affiftance; and that the dexterity which practice enforced by neceffity produces, is able to effect much by very fcanty means. The nations of Mexico and Peru erected cities and temples without the ufe of iron; and at this day the rude Indian fupplies himself with all the neceffaries of life: fent, like the rest of mankind, naked into the world, as foon as his parents have nurfed him up to trength, he is to provide by his own labour for his own fupport. His first care is to find a fharp flint among the rocks; with this he undertakes to fell the trees of the foreft; he fhapes his bow, heads his arrows, builds his cottage, and hollows his canoe, and from that time lives in a state of plenty and profperity; he is sheltered from the storms, he is fortified against beafts of prey, he is enabled to purfue the fish of the sea, and the deer of the mountains; and as he does not know, does not envy the happiness of polished nations, where gold can fupply the want of fortitude and skill, and he whofe laborious ancestors have made him rich, may lie ftretched upon a couch, and fee all the treasures of all the elements poured down before him. This picture of a favage life, if it fhews how much individuals may perform, fhews likewife how much fociety is to be defired. Though the perfeverance and addrefs of the Indian excite our admiration, they neverthelefs cannot procure him the conveniences which are enjoyed by the vagrant beggar of a civilized country: he hunts like a wild beaft to fatisfy his hunger; and when he lies down to rest after a fuccefsful chace, cannot pronounce himfelf fecure against the danger of perithing in a few days; he is, perhaps, content with his condition, because he knows not that a better is attainable by man; as he that is born blind does not long for the perception of light, because he cannot conceive the advantages which light would afford him: but hunger, wounds, and weari、 nefs, are real evils, though he believes them equally incident to all his fellow creatures; and when a tempeft compels him to lie ftarving in his hut, he cannot juftly be concluded equally happy with thofe whom art has exempted from the power of chance, and who make the foregoing year provide for the following. To receive and to communicate affiftance, conftitutes the happinefs of human life: man may indeed preserve his existence in folitude, but can enjoy it only in fociety: the greatest understanding of an individual, doomed to procure food and cloathing for himself, will barely fupply him with expedients to keep off death from day to day; but as one of a larger community, performing only his fhare to the common bufinefs, he gains leifure for intellectual pleafures, and enjoys the happiness of reafon and reflection. N° LXVIII. SATURDAY, JUNE 30, 1753. HOW VAIN THE JOY FOR WHICH OUR PAIN MUST PAY. IT has been remarked, that the play of brutes is always a mock fight; and, perhaps, this is equally true of all the fports that have been invented by reafon for the amusement of mankind. The celebrated games of antiquity were fomething more; the conflict was often fatal, and the pleasure of the fpectators feems to have been proportioned to the danger of the combatants: nor does it appear that any sport has been fince contrived, which can gratify pure benevolence, or entertain without producing an oppofi tion of il servant reservare, indeed, many external advantages which it has never been thought immoral to acquire, though an oppofition of intereft is neceffarily implied; advantages which, like a stake at cards, one party can only gain by the lofs of the other; for wealth and poverty, obfcurity and diftinction, command and fervitude, are mutually relative, and the existence of each is by each reciprocally derived and given. Play, therefore, is not unlawful, mere ly as a conteft; nor can the pleasure of them them that win, be imputed to a criminal want of benevolence in this state of imperfection, merely because it is enjoyed at the expence of thofe who lofe. But .as in bufinefs, it has never been held lawful to circumvent thofe whom we defire to excel; fo in play, the chance of lofs and gain ought to be always equal; at leaft, each party fhould be apprized of the force employed against him; and if then he plays against odds, no man has a right to enquire his motive, though a good man would decline to engage him. There is, however, one fpecies of diverfion which has not been generally condemned, though it is produced by an attack upon thofe who have not voJuntarily entered the lifts; who find themfelves buffeted in the dark, and have neither means of defence nor poffibility of advantage. Thefe feats are atchieved by the knights errant of mirth, and known by the name of Frolics under this name, indeed, many fpecies of wanton cruelty have been practifed, without incurring the infamy, or railing the indignation, which they deferve; and it is extremely difficult to fix upon any certain criterion, by which frolics may be diftinguished into criminal and innocent. If we could difcern effects while they are involved in their caufes, and afcertain every remote confequence of our own actions, perhaps thefe fallies might be allowed under the fame reftrictions as raillery: the falfe alarms and ridiculous diftrefs into which others are betrayed to make us fport, fhould be fuch only as will be fubjects of merriment even to the fufferer when they are paft, and remembered neither with refentment nor regret: but as every action may produce effects over which human power has no influence, and which human fagacity cannot forefee; we should not lightly venture to the verge of evil, nor frike at others, though with a reed, left, like the rod of Mcles, it become a ferpent in our hands. During the hard froft in the year MDCCXL, four young gentlemen ofconfiderable rank rode into an inn, near one of the principal avenues to this city, at eleven o'clock at night, without any attendant; and having expreffed uncommon concern about their horfes, and overlooked the provision that was made for them, called for a room; ordering wine and tobacco to be brought in, and declaring, that as they were to set out very early in the morning, it was not worth while to go to bed. Before the waiter returned, each of them had laid a pocket piftol upon the table, which when he entered they appeared to be very follicitous to conceal, and shewed fome confufion at the furprize. They perceived with great fatisfaction, that the fellow was alarmed at his difcovery; and having upon various pretences called him often into the room, one of them contrived to pull out a mask with his handkerchief from the pocket of a horfeman's coat. They difcourfed in dark and ambiguous terms, affected a bufy and anxious circumfpection, urged the man often to drink, and feemed defirous to render him fubfervient to fome purpofe which they were unwilling to difcover. They endeavoured to conciliate his good will, by extravagant commendations of his dexterity and diligence, and encouraged him to familiarity by afking him many questions: he was, however, ftill cautious and referved; one of them, therefore, pretending to have known his mother, put a crown into his hand, and foon after took an opportunity to ask him at what hour a ftage coach, the paffengers of which they intended to HUMBUG, fet out in the morning, whether it was full, and if it was attended with a guard. The man was now confirmed in his fufpicions; and though he had accepted the bribe, refolved to difcover the fecret. Having evaded the queftions with as much art as he could, he went to his matter, Mr. Spiggot, who was then in bed, and acquainted him with what he had obièrved. Mr. Spiggot immediately got up, and held a confultation with his wife what was to be done. She advited him immediately to fend for the constable with proper afftants, and fecure them: but he confidered, that as this would probably prevent a robbery, it would deprive him of an opportunity to gain a very confiderable fum, which he would become intitled to upon their conviction, if he could apprehend them after the fat, he therefore very prudently called up four or five of the oftlers that helonged to the yard, and having communicated his fufpicions and defign, engaged them to enlist under his coinman as an efcort to the coach, and to watch the motions of the highwaymien as |