The Works of Samuel Johnson, Volume 4 | Page 9

of libraries, enters late into the gay world
with an unpliant attention and established habits.
It is observed in the panegyrick on Fabricus the mechanist, that, though
forced by publick employments into mingled conversation, he never
lost the modesty and seriousness of the convent, nor drew ridicule upon
himself by an affected imitation of fashionable life. To the same praise
every man devoted to learning ought to aspire. If he attempts the softer
arts of pleasing, and endeavours to learn the graceful bow and the
familiar embrace, the insinuating accent and the general smile, he will
lose the respect due to the character of learning, without arriving at the
envied honour of doing any thing with elegance and facility.
Theophrastus was discovered not to be a native of Athens, by so strict
an adherence to the Attick dialect, as shewed that he had learned it not
by custom, but by rule. A man not early formed to habitual elegance,
betrays, in like manner, the effects of his education, by an unnecessary
anxiety of behaviour. It is as possible to become pedantick, by fear of
pedantry, as to be troublesome by ill-timed civility. There is no kind of
impertinence more justly censurable than his who is always labouring
to level thoughts to intellects higher than his own; who apologizes for
every word which his own narrowness of converse inclines him to
think unusual; keeps the exuberance of his faculties under visible
restraint; is solicitous to anticipate inquiries by needless explanations;
and endeavours to shade his own abilities, lest weak eyes should be
dazzled with their lustre.

No. 174. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1751
Faenum habet vn cornu, longe fuge; dummodo risum Excutiat sibi, non
hic cuiquam parcet amico.

HOR. Lib. i. Sat. iv. 34.
Yonder he drives--avoid that furious beast: If he may have his jest, he
never cares At whose expense; nor friend nor patron spares. FRANCIS.
TO THE RAMBLER.
MR. RAMBLER,
THE laws of social benevolence require, that every man should
endeavour to assist others by his experience. He that has at last escaped
into port from the fluctuations of chances and the gusts of opposition,
ought to make some improvements in the chart of life, by marking the
rocks on which he has been dashed, and the shallows where he has
been stranded.
The errour into which I was betrayed, when custom first gave me up to
my own direction, is very frequently incident to the quick, the sprightly,
the fearless, and the gay; to all whose ardour hurries them into
precipitate execution of their designs, and imprudent declaration of
their opinions; who seldom count the cost of pleasure, or examine the
distant consequences of any practice that flatters them with immediate
gratification.
I came forth into the crowded world with the usual juvenile ambition,
and desired nothing beyond the title of a wit. Money I considered as
below my care; for I saw such multitudes grow rich without
understanding, that I could not forbear to look on wealth as an
acquisition easy to industry directed by genius, and therefore threw it
aside as a secondary convenience, to be procured when my principal
wish should be satisfied, and the claim to intellectual excellence
universally acknowledged.
With this view I regulated my behaviour in publick, and exercised my
meditations in solitude. My life was divided between the care of
providing topicks for the entertainment of my company, and that of
collecting company worthy to be entertained; for I soon found, that wit,
like every other power, has its boundaries; that its success depends
upon the aptitude of others to receive impressions; and that as some
bodies, indissoluble by heat, can set the furnace and crucible at
defiance, there are minds upon which the rays of fancy may be pointed
without effect, and which no fire of sentiment can agitate or exalt.
It was, however, not long before I fitted myself with a set of
companions who knew how to laugh, and to whom no other

recommendation was necessary than the power of striking out a jest.
Among those I fixed my residence, and for a time enjoyed the felicity
of disturbing the neighbours every night with the obstreperous applause
which my sallies forced from the audience. The reputation of our club
every day increased, and as my flights and remarks were circulated by
my admirers, every day brought new solicitations for admission into
our society.
To support this perpetual fund of merriment, I frequented every place
of concourse, cultivated the acquaintance of all the fashionable race,
and passed the day in a continual succession of visits, in which I
collected a treasure of pleasantry for the expenses of the evening.
Whatever errour of conduct I could discover, whatever peculiarity of
manner I could observe, whatever weakness was betrayed by
confidence, whatever