The Rambler, Vol. II | Page 2

prevalent in other affairs 185. The prohibition of revenge justifiable by reason. The meanness of regulating our conduct by the opinions of men 186. Anningait and Ajut; a Greenland history 187. The history of Anningait and Ajut concluded 188. Favour often gained with little assistance from understanding 189. The mischiefs of falsehood. The character of Turpicula 190. The history of Abouzaid, the son of Morad 191. The busy life of a young lady 192. Love unsuccessful without riches 193. The author's art of praising himself 194. A young nobleman's progress in politeness 195. A young nobleman's introduction to the knowledge of the town 196. Human opinions mutable. The hopes of youth fallacious 197. The history of a legacy-hunter 198. The legacy-hunter's history concluded 199. The virtues of Rabbi Abraham's magnet 200. Asper's complaint of the insolence of Prospero. Unpoliteness not always the effect of pride 201. The importance of punctuality 202. The different acceptations of poverty. Cynicks and Monks not poor 203. The pleasures of life to be sought in prospects of futurity. Future fame uncertain 204. The history of ten days of Seged, emperour of Ethiopia 205. The history of Seged concluded 206. The art of living at the cost of others 207. The folly of continuing too long upon the stage 208. The Rambler's reception. His design

THE
RAMBLER.

No. 106. SATURDAY, MARCH 23, 1751.
_Opinionum commenta delet dies, natur? judicia Confirmat_. CICERO, vi. Att. 1.
Time obliterates the fictions of opinion, and confirms the decisions of nature.
It is necessary to the success of flattery, that it be accommodated to particular circumstances or characters, and enter the heart on that side where the passions stand ready to receive it. A lady seldom listens with attention to any praise but that of her beauty; a merchant always expects to hear of his influence at the bank, his importance on the exchange, the height of his credit, and the extent of his traffick: and the author will scarcely be pleased without lamentations of the neglect of learning, the conspiracies against genius, and the slow progress of merit, or some praises of the magnanimity of those who encounter poverty and contempt in the cause of knowledge, and trust for the reward of their labours to the judgment and gratitude of posterity.
An assurance of unfading laurels, and immortal reputation, is the settled reciprocation of civility between amicable writers. To raise _monuments more durable than brass, and more conspicuous than pyramids_, has been long the common boast of literature; but, among the innumerable architects that erect columns to themselves, far the greater part, either for want of durable materials, or of art to dispose them, see their edifices perish as they are towering to completion, and those few that for a while attract the eye of mankind, are generally weak in the foundation, and soon sink by the saps of time.
No place affords a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hopes, than a publick library; for who can see the wall crowded on every side by mighty volumes, the works of laborious meditation, and accurate inquiry, now scarcely known but by the catalogue, and preserved only to increase the pomp of learning, without considering how many hours have been wasted in vain endeavours, how often imagination has anticipated the praises of futurity, how many statues have risen to the eye of vanity, how many ideal converts have elevated zeal, how often wit has exulted in the eternal infamy of his antagonists, and dogmatism has delighted in the gradual advances of his authority, the immutability of his decrees, and the perpetuity of his power?
_--Non unquam dedit Documenta fors majora, quam frugili loco Starent superbi_.
Insulting chance ne'er call'd with louder voice, On swelling mortals to be proud no more.
Of the innumerable authors whose performances are thus treasured up in magnificent obscurity, most are forgotten, because they never deserved to be remembered, and owed the honours which they once obtained, not to judgment or to genius, to labour or to art, but to the prejudice of faction, the stratagem of intrigue, or the servility of adulation.
Nothing is more common than to find men whose works are now totally neglected, mentioned with praises by their contemporaries, as the oracles of their age, and the legislators of science. Curiosity is naturally excited, their volumes after long inquiry are found, but seldom reward the labour of the search. Every period of time has produced these bubbles of artificial fame, which are kept up a while by the breath of fashion, and then break at once, and are annihilated. The learned often bewail the loss of ancient writers whose characters have survived their works; but, perhaps, if we could now retrieve them, we should find them only the Granvilles, Montagues, Stepneys, and Sheffields of their time, and wonder by what infatuation or caprice