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birth, mean fortune, and no education, on a level with themselves in their amusements? Is it no reproach to them to look upon a picture of Raphael, or a Medicean Venus, with the same stupid eye of indifference, as the labourer who ground the colours, or who dug in the quarry? Yet many there are, and men of taste too, as the phrase goes, who, through a shameful neglect of their mind, have little or no relish of the fine arts: and I doubt whether, in our most splendid assemblies, the royal game of Goose would not have as many eyes fixed upon it, as the lately published curiosity of the ruins of Palmyra. I mention this work not only to inform such of your readers, as do not labour under a total loss of appetite for liberal amusements, what a sumptuous entertainment they may sit down to, but also to give it as a signal instance, how agreeably men of ingenious talents, ample fortune, and great leisure, may amuse themselves, and, laudably employing their leisure time, do honour to their country.

'Among the polite and idle, there are none whom I behold with more compassion than those meagre and half-famished souls whom I meet every day, in fine clothes, and gay equipages, going about from door to door, like common beggars: and, like beggars too, as commonly turned away; with this difference, that the porter gives the ragged stroller a surly no, and a civil dismission to the vagrant in embroidery. The former, to excuse his idleness, says, "Nobody will employ me;" the latter does as good as say, "I cannot employ myself." This in high life is called visiting; which does not imply any friendship, esteem, or the least regard towards the person who is visited, but is the effect of pure generosity in the visitor, who having more time upon his hands than he knows what to do with, prodigally bestows some of it upon those, whom he cares not

with objects of this sort; for that such naturally have recourse to public places and company may be learned from Tully's account of the idle fellows of Rome: Videmus, cùm re nullá impediantur necessaria, aut alveolum poscere, aut quærere quempiam ludum, aut sermonem aliquem requirere; cùmque non habeant ingenuas ex doctrinâ oblectationes, circulos aliquos et sessiunculas consectari. As this morsel of Latin may possibly stick with such of your readers as have had leisure enough to neglect the improvement of their school-learning, to make it go down more glibly, I will dress it for them after the English manner. The idle, as they have no occupation or business to employ them, resort either to a gaming-table, or a cricket-match, or mother Midnight's oration; and, as they have not, for want of learning, any of the amusements of a gentleman, become members of clubs and frequenters of coffeehouses. From the illustrious convention at White's down to those who assemble on birth-days at the Black; whether they rejoice in champaign and ortolans, or tripe and porter; whether they are employed at a hazard-table or a shovel-board; the mind in each fraternity seems to be alike provided for, and has little else to subsist upon than the scraps and broken pieces of knowledge picked up from the common newspaper.

'We cannot wonder, if, with such miserable fare, the mind should be impaired in its strength, and grow languid in its motions; but we may well wonder that men, who are far above the ordinary rank of life, who are proud of their abilities to distinguish themselves from the vulgar in their clothes, tables, houses, furniture, in short, in all the conveniences of mere living, even to luxury, should take up so poor a diet; should be contented with diversions, which even the lowest mechanic may aspire to. Is it no mortification to their pride to find men of low

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birth, mean fortune, and no education, on a level with themselves in their amusements? Is it no reproach to them to look upon a picture of Raphael, or a Medicean Venus, with the same stupid eye of indifference, as the labourer who ground the colours, or who dug in the quarry? Yet many there are, and men of taste too, as the phrase goes, who, through a shameful neglect of their mind, have little or no relish of the fine arts: and I doubt whether, in our most splendid assemblies, the royal game of Goose would not have as many eyes fixed upon it, as the lately published curiosity of the ruins of Palmyra. I mention this work not only to inform such of your readers, as do not labour under a total loss of appetite for liberal amusements, what a sumptuous entertainment they may sit down to, but also to give it as a signal instance, how agreeably men of ingenious talents, ample fortune, and great leisure, may amuse themselves, and, laudably employing their leisure time, do honour to their country.

'Among the polite and idle, there are none whom I behold with more compassion than those meagre and half-famished souls whom I meet every day, in fine clothes, and gay equipages, going about from door to door, like common beggars: and, like beggars too, as commonly turned away; with this difference, that the porter gives the ragged stroller a surly no, and a civil dismission to the vagrant in embroidery. The former, to excuse his idieness, says, "Nobody will employ me;" the latter does as good as say, "I cannot employ myself." Tuis in high life is called visiting; which does not impiy any friendship, esteem, or the least regard towards the person who is visited, but is the effect of pure generosity in the visitor, who having more time upor his hands than he knows what to do with, progaler bestows some of it upon those, whom he care: bo

one farthing for. I look upon visiting to be the art of squandering away time with the least loss of reputation: a very great invention indeed! and as the other ingenious arts have been produced by hungry bellies, so this owes its rise to the emptiness of the mind.

'But the hunger of the mind for the most part creates a constant restlessness, frequent indisposition, and sometimes, that worse than bodily disease, the spleen; which happens when, by low keeping, it is reduced to the necessity of gnawing and preying upon itself. Every man, who does nothing, because he has nothing to do, feels himself more or less subject to these disorders. And can his flying to places of pastime and diversion remove them? Should we not condemn a mother as unnatural, who, when her child cries for bread and butter, should carry it abroad to a puppet-show? Yet full as absurdly does every man act, who, regardless of the cravings of his mental appetite, stands gaping at vertical suns or a painted waterfall.

'I have heard that the master of Vauxhall, who so plentifully provides beef for our bodily refreshment, has, for the entertainment of those who visit him at his country-house, no less plentifully provided for the mind; where the guest may call for a skull, to chew upon the instability of human life, or sit down to a collatian of poetry, of which the hangings of his room of entertainment take up, as I am told, many yards. I wish that this grand purveyor of beef and poetry would transfer some of the latter to his gardens at Vauxhall. Odes and songs pasted on the lamp-posts, would, I believe, be much more studiously attended to than the prices of cheese-cakes and custards; and if the unpictured boxes were hung round with celebrated passages out of favourite poets, many a company would find something to

say, who would otherwise sit cramming themselves with silent stupidity. I am led to this thought by an observation I once made at a country church, where the walls were set out with several plain dishes of good wholesome doctrine. It happened that the pastor of the flock, who was round and fat, by the heaviness of his discourse, and the lazy manner of delivering it, laid to sleep three-fourths of his audience. Upon inquiry, I found that the sleepers were those only who could not read, and that the rest kept themselves awake by feeding on the walls. In the waking part of the congregation I had a proof of the advantage of reading; in the languid preacher an instance of a decayed habit of mind: which certainly would not have been in so weak a condition, if, instead of cold ham and venison-pasty, he had now and then taken for breakfast a luncheon of Barrow, or a slice of Tillotson.

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N° 64. THURSDAY, MARCH 21, 1754.

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SIR,

-Animum picturâ pascit inani.-Virg.

'To MR. FITZ-ADAM.

READILY agree with your correspondent of last week in his conclusion, that books, or more properly that learning, is the food of the mind; and as what happened to me lately was occasioned by giving my mind a meal, I beg leave to relate it to you. You must know, Sir, I labour under a misfortune, common to many in this great metropolis, which is, to have a very good appetite, and very little to eat.

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