pofition of a man of pleafure, and accordingly I plunged into it without defire, at firft; facrificed a thoufand real pleasures to it, and made myself folidly uneafy by it, for thirty the beft years of my life.

I was even abfurd enough, for a little while, to fwear, by way of adorning and completing the fhining character, which I affected; but this folly I foon laid afide, upon finding both the guilt and the indecency of it.

Thus feduced by fashion, and blindly adopting nominal pleasures, I loft real ones; and my fortune impaired, and my conftitution fhattered, are, I must confefs, the just punishment of my errors.

Take warning then by them; chufe your pleasures for yourself, and do not let them be impofed upon you.. Weigh the prefent enjoyment of your pleafures against the neceffary confequences of them, and then let your own common fenfe determine your choice.

Were I to begin the world again, with the experience which I now have of it, I would lead a life of real, not of imaginary pleafure. I would enjoy the pleafures of the table, and of wine; but ftop fhort of the pains infeparably annexed to an excefs in either. I would not, at twenty years, be a preaching miffionary of abftemioufnefs and fobriety; and I fhould let other people do as they wonld, without formally and fententioully rebuking them for it; but I would be moft firmly refolved not to deftroy my own faculties and conftitution, in complaifance to those who have no regard to their own. I would play to give me pleasure, but not to give me pain; that is, I would play for trifles, in mixed companies, to amufe myfelf, and conform to custom; but I would take care not to venture for fums, which, if I won, I fhould not be the better for; but, if I loft, fhould be under a difficulty to pay; and, when paid, would oblige me to retrench in feveral other articles: not to mention the quarrels which deep play commonly occafions.

I would pafs fome of my time in reading, and the rest in the company of people of fenfe and learning, and chiefly thofe above me and I would frequent the mixed companies of men and women of fashion, which,

though often frivolous, yet they unbend and refresh the mind, not ufelefsly, becaufé they certainly polish and foften the manners.

Thefe would be my pleafures and amufements, if I was to live the last thirty years over again; they are rational ones; and morcover I will tell you they are really the fashionable ones; for the others are not, in truth, the pleafures of what I call people of fashion, but of thofe who only call themfelves fo. Does good company care to have a man reeling drunk among them? Or to fee another tearing his hair, and blafpheming, for having loft, at play, more than he is able to pay? Or a whore-mafter with half a nofe, and crippled by coarfe and infamous debauchery? No: thofe who practice, and much more thofe who brag of them, make no part of good company; and are moft unwillingly, if ever,

admitted into it.

I have not mentioned the pleafures of the mind (which are the folid and permanent ones) becaufe they do not come under the head of what people commonly call pleasures; which they feem to confine to the fenfes. The pleasure of piety, of virtue, of charity, and of learning, is true and lafting pleafure; with which I hope you will be well and long acquainted. - Adieu!

DEAR BOY,

LETTER XLIV.

Attention to one Thing at a Time.

London, April the 14th.

IF you feel half the pleafure from the confcioufnefs of

doing well, that I do from the information I have lately received in your favour from Mr. Harte, I fhall have little occafion to exhort or admonifh you any more, to do what your own fatisfaction and felf-love will fufficiently prompt you to. Mr. Harte tells me that you attend, that you apply to your ftudies, and that, beginning to understand, you begin to tafte them. Thi pleafure will increafe, and keep pace with your at tion; fo that the balance will be greatly to your ad

tage. You may remember, that I have always earneftly recommended to you, to do what you are about, be that what it will; and to do nothing elfe at the fame time. Do not imagine, that I mean by this, that you fhould attend to and plod at your book all day long; far from it: I mean that you fhould have your pleafures too; and that you fhould attend to them, for the time, as much as to your ftudies; and, if you do not attend equally to both, you will neither have improvement nor fatisfaction from either. A man is fit for neither business nor pleasure, who either cannot or does not, command and direct his attention to the prefent object, and, in fome degree, banish, for that time, all other objects from his thoughts. If, at a party of pleasure, a man were to be folving, in his own mind, a problem in Euclid, he would be a very bad companion, and make a very poor figure in that company; or if, in ftudying a problem in his clofet, he were to think of a minuet, I am apt to believe that he would make a very poor mathematician. There is time enough for every thing, in the courfe of the day, if you do but one thing at once; but there is not time enough in the year, you will do two things at a time. The penfionary de Witt, who was torn to pieces in the year 1672, did the whole bufinefs of the republic, and yet had time left to go to affemblies in the evening, and fup in company. . Being asked, How he could poffibly find time to go through fo much bufinefs, and yet amufe himself in the evenings as he did he answered, There was nothing fo eafy; for that it was only doing one thing at a time, and never putting off any thing till to-morrow that could be done to day. This iteady and undiffipated attention to one object is a fure mark of a fuperior genius; as hurry, buttle, and agitation, are the never-failing fymptoms of a weak and frivolous mind. When you read Horace, attend to the juftnefs of his thoughts, the happiness of his diction, and the beauty of hispoetry; and do not think of Puffendorf De Homine et Cive§: end when you are reading Puffendorf, do not think of Mad

Of the man and the citizen.

if

ame de St. Germain ; nor of Puffendorf, when are talking to Madame de St. Germain.

you

Mr. Harte informis me, that he has reimbursed you part of your loffes in Germany; and I confent to his reimburfing you the whole, now that I know you deferve it. I fhall grudge you nothing, nor fhall you want any thing, that you delire, provided you deferve it: fo that, you fee, it is in your own power to have whatever you pleafe.

There is a little book which you read here with Monfieur Coderc, entitled Maniere de bien penjer dans les ouvrages d'efprit, written by Père Bouhours. I wish you would read this book again, at your leifure hours; for it will not only divert you, but likewife form your tafte, and give you a juft manner of thinking.- Adieu!

DEAR BOY,

LETTER XLV.

Directions to a Young Traveller.

London, June the 30th

IWAS extremely pleafed with the account, which you gave me in your laft, of the civilities that you received in your Swifs progrefs; and I have wrote, by this poft, to Mr. Burnaby, and to the A-voyer, to thank them for their parts. If the attention you met with pleafed you, as I dare fay it did, you will, I hepe, draw this general conclufion from it, that attention and civility please all thofe to whom they are paid; and that you will pleafe others, in proportion as you are attentive and civil to them.

Bishop Burnet wrote his travels through Switzerland; and Mr. Stanyan, from a long refidence there, has written the beft account, yet extant, of the Thirteen Cantons; but thofe books will be read no more, I prefume, after you fhall have published your account of that country. I hope you will favour me with one of the first copies. To be ferious; though I do not de

The manner of forming a good judgment concerning works of po

te literature.

go,

fire that you fhould immediately turn author, and oblige the world with your travels; yet, wherever you I would have you as curious and inquifitive as if you did intend to write them. I do not mean, that you fhould give yourself fo much trouble to know the number of houfes, inhabitants, fign-pofts, tomb-ftones of every town you go through; but that you should inform yourself, as well as your ftay will permit you, whether the town is free, or to whom it belongs, or in what manner; whether it has any peculiar privileges or cuftoms; what trade or manufactures; and fuch other particulars as people of fenfe defire to know. And there would be no manner of harm, if you were to take memorandums of fuch things in a paper book, to help your memory. The only way of knowing all thefe things is, to keep the beft company, who can best inform you of them.

I am just now called away; fo good-night!

DEAR BOY,

LETTER XLVI.

Superftition...Lying.

London, September the zift.

I RECEIVED by the laft poft your letter of the 8th,

and I do not wonder that you were surprised at the credulity and fuperftition of the papifts at Eidfieldlen, and at their abfurd ftories of their chapel. But remember, at the fame time, that errors and mistakes, however grofs, in matters of opinion, if they are finçere, are to be pitied; but not punifhed, nor laughed at. The blindnefs of the understanding is as much to be pitied as the blindness of the eyes; and there is neither jeft nor guilt in a man's lofing his way in either cafe. Charity bids us fet him right, if we can, by arguments and perfuafions; but Charity, at the fame time, forbids either to punish or ridicule his misfortune. Every man's reafon is, and must be his guide; and I may as well expect, that every man fhould be of my

and complexion, as that he fhould reafon juft as I