younger boy fliding upon the ice. Thefe flight intimations will give you to underftand, that there are numberless little crimes, which children take no notice of while they are doing, which, upon reflection, when they fhall themselves become fathers, they will look upon with the utmost forrow and contrition, that they did not regard, before those whom they offended were to be no more feen. How many thoufand things do I remember, which would have highly pleafed my father, and I omitted for no other reafon but that I thought what he propofed the effect of humour and old age, which I am now convinced had reafon and good fenfe in it! I cannot now go into the parlour to him, and make his heart glad with an account of a matter which was of no confequence, but that I told it and acted in it. The good man and woman are long fince in their graves, who used to fit and plot the welfare of us their children, while, perhaps, we were fometimes laughing at the old folks at another end of the houfe. The truth of it is, were we merely to follow nature in thefe great duties of life, though we have a strong inftinct towards the performing of them, we fhould be on both fides very deficient. Age is fo unwelcome to the generality of mankind, and growth towards manhood fo defirable to all, that refignation to decay is too difficult a task in the father; and deference, amidst the impulse of gay defires, appears unreafonable to the fon. There are fo few who can grow old with a good grace, and yet fewer who can come flow enough into the world, that a father, were he to be actuated by his defires, and a fon, were he to confult himself only, could neither of them behave himself as he ought to the other. But when reafon interpofes againft inflinct, where it would carry either out of the interefts of the other, there arifes that happieft intercourfe of good offices between thofe deareft relations of human life. The father, according to the opportunities which are offered to him, is throwing down bleffings on the fon, and the fon endeavouring to appear the worthy offspring of fuch a father. It is after this manner that Camillus and his firft-born dwell together. Camillus enjoys a pleafing and indolent old age, in which paffion is fubdued and reafon exalted. He waits the day of his diffolution with a refignation mixed with delight, and the fon fears the acceffion of his father's fortune with diffidence, left he fhould not enjoy it or become it as well as

his predeceffor. Add to this, that the fa ther knows he leaves a friend to the children of his friends, an easy landlord to his tenants, and an agreeable companion to his acquaintance. He believes his fon's behaviour will make him frequently remembered, but never wanted. This commerce is fo well cemented, that without the pomp of faying, Son, be a friend to fuch a one when I am gone; Camillus knows, being in his favour is direction enough to the grateful youth who is to fucceed him, without the admonition of his mentioning it. Thefe gentlemen are honoured in all their neighbourhood, and the fame effect which the court has on the manners of a kingdom, their characters have on all who live within the influence of them.

My fon and I are not of fortune to communicate our good actions or intentions to fo many as thefe gentlemen do; but I will be bold to fay, my fon has, by the applause and approbation which his behaviour towards me has gained him, occafioned that many an old man, befides myself, has rejoiced. Other men's children follow the example of mine; and I have the inexpreffible happiness of overhearing our neighbours, as we ride by, point to their children, and fay, with a voice of joy, "There they go."

Spectator.

11. The Strength of parental Affection.

I went the other day to visit Eliza, who, in the perfect bloom of beauty, is the mother of feveral children. She had a little prating girl upon her lap, who was begging to be very fine, that the might go abroad; and the indulgent mother, at her little daughter's requeft, had juft taken the knots off her own head to adorn the hair of the pretty trifler. A fmiling boy was at the fame time carefing a lap-dog, which is their mother's favourite, because it pleafes the children; and fhe, with a delight in her looks, which heightened her beauty, fo divided her converfation with the two pretty prattlers, as to make them both equally chearful.

As I came in, fhe faid with a blush, Mr. Ironfide, though you are an old batchelor, you must not laugh at my tendernefs to my children.' I need not tell my reader what civil things I faid in anfwer to the lady, whofe matron-like behaviour gave me infinite fatisfaction: fince I myfelf take great pleasure in playing with

children,

children, and am feldom unprovided of plums or marbles, to make my court to fuch entertaining companions.

Whence is it, faid I to myself when I was alone, that the affection of parents is fo intense to their offspring? Is it becaufe they generally find fuch resemblances in what they have produced, as that thereby they think themfelves renewed in their children, and willing to tranfmit themselves to future times? or is it because they think themselves obliged by the dictates of humanity to nourish and rear what is placed fo immediately under their protection; and what by their means is brought into this world, the scene of mifery, of neceffity? These will not come up to it. Is it not rather, the good providence of that Being, who in a fupereminent degree protects and cherishes the whole race of mankind, his fons and creatures? How shall we, any other way, account for this natural affection, fo fignally difplayed throughout every fpecies of the animal creation, without which the course of nature would quickly fail, and every various kind be extinct? Inftances of tenderness in the moft favage brutes are fo frequent, that quotations of that kind are altogether unnecellary.

If we, who have no particular concern in them, take a fecret delight in obferving the gentle dawn of reason in babes; if our ears are foothed with their half-forming and aiming at articulate founds; if we are charmed with their pretty mimickry, and furprised at the unexpected starts of wit and cunning in these miniatures of man: what tranfport may we imagine in the breafts of zhofe, into whom natural instinct hath poured tenderness and fondness for them! how amiable is fuch a weakness of human mature! or rather, how great a weakness is it to give humanity fo reproachful a name! The bare confideration of paternal affection, should, methinks, create a more grateful tenderness in children towards their parents, than we generally fee; and the filent whispers of nature be attended to, though the laws of God and man did not call aloud.

Thefe filent whispers of nature have had a marvellous power, even when their cause hath been unknown. There are feveral examples in ftory, of tender friendships formed betwixt men, who knew not of their near relation: Such accounts confirm me in an opinion I have long entertained, that there is a fympathy betwixt

fouls, which cannot be explained by the prejudice of education, the sense of duty, or any other human motive.

The memoirs of a certain French nobleman, which now lie before me, furnish me with a very entertaining inftance of this fecret attraction, implanted by Providence in the human foul. It will be neceffary to inform the reader, that the person whose ftory I am going to relate, was one, whose roving and romantic temper, joined to a difpofition fingularly amorous, had led him through a vaft variety of gallantries and amours. He had, in his youth, attended a princefs of France into Poland, where he had been entertained by the King her hufband, and married the daughter of a grandee. Upon her death he returned into his native country; where his intrigues and other misfortunes having confumed his paternal eftate, he now went to take care of the fortune his deceased wife had left him in Poland. In his journey he was robbed before he reached Warfaw, and lay ill of a fever, when he met with the following adventure; which I fhall relate in his own words.

"I had been in this condition for four days, when the countess of Venoski paffed that way. She was informed that a ftranger of good fashion lay fick, and her charity led her to fee me. I remembered her, for I had often feen her with my wife, to whom he was nearly related; but when I found the knew me not, I thought fit to conceal my name. I told her I was a German; that I had been robbed; and that if he had the charity to fend me to Warfaw, the queen would acknowledge it, I having the honour to be known to her Majesty. The countefs had the goodness to take compaffion of me, and ordering me to be put in a litter, carried me to Warfaw, where I was lodged in her houfe until my health fhould allow me to wait on the queen.

My fever increased after my journey was over, and I was confined to my bed for fifteen days. When the countess first faw me, she had a young lady with her, about eighteen years of age, who was much taller and better fhaped than the Polish women generally are. She was very fair, her skin exceedingly fine, and her air and hape inexpreffibly beautiful. I was not fo fick as to overlook this young beauty; and I felt in my heart fuch emotions at the first view, as made me fear that all my misfortunes had not armed me lufficiently against the charms of the fair sex. C

"The

fentation of life. The morning anfwers to the fpring, and the spring to childhood and youth; the noon correfponds to the fummer, and the fummer to the ftrength of manhood, The evening is an emblem of autumn, and autumn of declining life. The night with its filence and darkness fhews the winter, in which all the powers of vegetation are benumbed; and the winter points out the time when life fhall ceafe, with its hopes and pleasures.

He that is carried forward, however fwifily, by a motion equable and easy, perceives not the change of place but by the variation of objects. If the wheel of life, which rolls thus filently along, paffed on through undistinguishable uniformity, we fhould never mark its approaches to the end of the courfe. If one hour were like another; if the paffage of the fun did not fhew that the day is wafting; if the change of feafons did not imprefs upon us the flight of the year; quantities of duration equal to days and years would glide unobferved. If the parts of time were not varioufly coloured, we should never discern their departure or fucceffion, but fhould Live thoughtless of the past, and careless of the future, without will, and perhaps withcat power to compute the periods of life, or to compare the time which is already loft with that which may probably remain.

But the courfe of time is fo vifibly marked, that it is even obferved by the paffage, and by nations who have raised their minds very little above animal inftinct: there are human beings, whofe language does not fupply them with words by which they can number five, but I have read of none that have not names for Day and Night, for Summer and Winter.

Yet it is certain that these admonitions of nature, however forcible, however importunate, are too often vain; and that many who mark with fuch accuracy the courfe of time, appear to have little fenfibility of the decline of life. Every man has fomething to do which he neglects; every man has faults to conquer which he delays to combat.

So little do we accuftom ourselves to confider the effects of time, that things neceffary and certain often furprife us like unexpected contingencies. We leave the beauty in her bloom, and, after an abfence of twenty years, wonder, at our return, to find her faded. We meet those whom we left children, and can fcarcely perfuade

The

ourselves to treat them as men. traveller vifits in age thofe countries through which he rambled in his youth, and hopes for merriment at the old place. The man of business, wearied with unfatisfactory profperity, retires to the town of his nativity, and expects to play away the last years with the companions of his childhood, and recover youth in the fields where he once was young.

From this inattention, fo general and fo mifchievous, let it be every man's study to exempt himself. Let him that defires to fee others happy, make hafte to give while his gift can be enjoyed, and remember, that every moment of delay takes away fomething from the value of his benefaction. And let him who proposes his own happiness, reflect, that while he forms his purpofe the day rolls on, and the night cometh, when no man can work.'

Idler.

§ 13. The Folly of mif Spending Time.

An ancient poet, unreafonably difcontented at the prefent ftate of things, which his fyftem of opinions obliged him to reprefent in its worst form, has observed of the earth, "That its greater part is covered by the uninhabitable ocean; that of the rest, fome is encumbered with naked mountains, and fome loft under barren fands; fome fcorched with unintermitted heat, and fome petrified with perpetual froft; fo that only a few regions remain for the production of fruits, the pasture of cattle, and the accommodation of man.”

The fame obfervation may be tranfferred to the time allotted us in our prefent ftate. When we have deducted all that is abforbed in fleep, all that is inevitably appropriated to the demands of nature, or irrefiftibly engroffed by the tyranny of custom; all that paffes in regulating the fuperficial decorations of life, or is given up in the reciprocations of civility to the difpofal of others; all that is torn from us by the violence of disease, or ftolen imperceptibly away by laffitude and languor; we fhall find that part of our duration very fmall of which we can truly call ourselves mafters, or which we can spend wholly at our own choice. Many of our hours are loft in a rotation of petty cares, in a conftant recurrence of the fame employments, many of our provifions for eafe or happiness are always exhausted by the prefent day; and a great part of our

C 2

existence

existence ferves no other purpose, than that of enabling us to enjoy the rest.

Of the few moments which are left in our difpofal, it may reasonably be expected, that we should be fo frugal, as to let none of them flip from us without fome equivalent; and perhaps it might be found, that as the earth, however fraitened by rock and waters, is capable of producing more than all its inhabitants are able to confume, our lives, tho' much contracted by incidental distraction, would yet afford us a large space vacant to the exercise of reafon and virtue; that we want nct time, but diligence, for great performances; and that we fquander much of our allowance, even while we think it fparing and infufficient,

This natural and neceffary comminution of our lives, perhaps, often makes us infenfible of the negligence with which we fuffer them to flide away. We never confider ourselves as poffeffed at once of time fufficient for any great defign, and therefore indulge ourselves in fortuitous amufements. We think it unneceffary to take an account of a few fupernumerary moments, which, however employed, could have produced little advantage, and which were expofed to a thousand chances of difturbance and interruption.

It is obfervable, that, either by nature or by habit, our faculties are fitted to images of a certain extent, to which we adjust great things by divifion, and little things by accumulation. Of extenfive furfaces we can only take a furvey, as the parts fucceed one another; and atoms we cannot perceive, till they are united into mafies. Thus we break the vaft periods of time into centuries and years; and thus, if we would know the amount of moments, we must agglomerate them into days and weeks.

The proverbial oracles of our parfimonious ancestors have informed us, that the fatal waste of fortune is by fmall expences, by the profufion of fums too little fingly to alarm our caution, and which we never fuffer ourselves to confider together. Of the fame kind is the prodigality of life; he that hopes to look back hereafter with fatisfaction upon past years, must learn to know the prefent value of fingle minutes, and endeavour to let no particle of time fall ufelefs to the ground.

It is ufual for those who are advised to the attainment of any new qualifications, to

look upon themfelves as required to change the general courfe of their conduct, to difmifs their business, and exclude pleafure, and to devote their days or nights to a particular attention. But all common degrees of excellence are attainable at a lower price; he that should fteadily and refolutely affign to any fcience or language those interftitial vacancies which intervene in the most crowded variety of diverfion or employment, would find every day new irradiations of knowledge, and discover how much more is to be hoped from frequency and perfeverance, than from violent efforts and fudden defires; efforts which are foon remitted when they encounter difficulty, and defires which, if they are indulged too often, will shake off the authority of reason, and range capriciously from one object to another.

The difpofition to defer every important defign to a time of leifure, and a state of fettled uniformity, proceeds generally from a falfe estimate of the human powers. If we except those gigantic and stupendous intelligences who are faid to grafp a sys tem by intuition, and bound forward from one feries of conclufions to another, without regular fteps through intermediate propofitions, the most fuccefsful ftudents make their advances in knowledge by fhort flights, between each of which the mind may lie at reft. For every fingle act of progreffion a fhort time is fufficient; and it is only neceffary, that whenever that time is afforded; it be well employed.

Few minds will be long confined to fevere and laborious meditation; and when a fuccefsful attack on knowledge has been made, the ftudent recreates himself with the contemplation of his conqueft, and forbears another incurfion till the new-acquired truth has become familiar, and his curiofity calls upon him for fresh gratifications. Whether the time of intermiffion is fpent in company, or in folitude, in neces fary bufinefs, or in voluntary levities, the understanding is equally abftracted from the object of enquiry; but, perhaps, if it be detained by occupations lefs pleafing, it returns again to ftudy with greater alacrity than when it is glutted with ideal pleasures, and furfeited with intemperance of application. He that will not fuffer himself to be difcouraged by fancied impoffibilities, may fometimes find his abilities invigo rated by the neceffity of exerting them in fhort intervals, as the force of a current is increafed by the contraction of its channel.

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