No. 181. Tuesday, December 10, 1751. –Neu fluitem dubue spe pendulus horae.HOR. Lib. i. Ep. xviii. 110. Nor let me float in fortune’s pow’r,Dependent on the future hour.FRANCIS. TO THE RAMBLER. SIR, As I have passed much of my life in disquiet and suspense, and lost many opportunities of advantage by a passion which I […]

No. 182. Saturday, December 14, 1751 –Dives qui fieri vult,Et cilo vult fieri.–JUV. Sat. xiv. 176 The lust of wealth can never bear delay. It has been observed in a late paper, that we are unreasonably desirous to separate the goods of life from those evils which Providence has connected with them, and to catch […]

No. 169. Tuesday, October, 1751. Nec pluteum caedit, nec demorsos sapit ungues.PER. Sat. i. 106. No blood from bitten nails those poems drew;But churn’d, like spittle, from the lips they flew.DRYDEN. Natural historians assert, that whatever is formed for long duration arrives slowly to its maturity. Thus the firmest timber is of tardy growth, and […]

No. 170. Saturday, November 2, 1751. Confiteor; si quid prodest delicta fateri.OVID. Am. Lib. i. El. iv. 3. I grant the charge; forgive the fault confess’d. TO THE RAMBLER. SIR, I am one of those beings from whom many, that melt at the sight of all other misery, think it meritorious to withhold relief; one […]

No. 171. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1751. Taedet coeli convexa tueri.VIRG. AEn. iv. 451. Dark is the sun, and loathsome is the day. TO THE RAMBLER. SIR, Misella now sits down to continue her narrative. I am convinced that nothing would more powerfully preserve youth from irregularity, or guard inexperience from seduction, than a just description […]

No. 174. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1751. Faenum habet in cornu, longe fuge; dummodo risumExcutiat 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 caresAt whose expense; nor friend nor patron spares.FRANCIS. TO THE RAMBLER. MR. RAMBLER, The laws of social […]

No. 175. Tuesday, November 19, 1751. Rari quippe boni: numerus vix est totidem quotThebarum portae, vel divitis ostia Nili.Juv. Sat. xiii. 26. Good men are scarce; the just are thinly sown:They thrive but ill, nor can they last when grown;And should we count them, and our store compile,Yet Thebes more gates could show, more mouths […]

No. 172. Saturday, November 9, 1751. Saepe rogare soles, qualis sim, Prisce, futurus,Si fiam locuples, simque repente potens.Quemquam posse putas mores narrare futuros?Die mihi, si fias tu leo, qualis eris?MART. Lib. xii. Ep. 93. Priscus, you’ve often ask’d me how I’d live,Should fate at once both wealth and honour give.What soul his future conduct can […]

No. 173. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1751. Quo virtus, quo ferat error.HOR. De Ar. Poet. 308. Now say, where virtue stops, and vice begins? As any action or posture, long continued, will distort and disfigure the limbs; so the mind likewise is crippled and contracted by perpetual application to the same set of ideas. It is […]

No. 162. Saturday, October 5, 1751. Orbus es, et locuples, et Bruto consule natus,Esse tibi veras credis amicitias?Sunt verae: sed quas juvenis, quas pauper habebas:Qui novus est, mortem diligit ille tuam.MART. Lib. xi. Ep. 44. What! old, and rich, and childless too,And yet believe your friends are true?Truth might perhaps to those belong,To those who […]

No. 163. Tueday, October 8, 1751. Mitte superba pati fastidia, spemque caducamDespice; vive tibi, nam moriere tibi.SENECA. Bow to no patron’s insolence; relyOn no frail hopes, in freedom live and die.F. LEWIS. None of the cruelties exercised by wealth and power upon indigence and dependance is more mischievous in its consequences, or more frequently practised […]

No. 164. Saturday, October 12, 1751. –Vitium, Gaure, Catonis habes.MART. Lib. ii. Ep. lxxxix. 2. Gaurus pretends to Cato’s fame;And proves–by Cato’s vice, his claim. Distinction is so pleasing to the pride of man, that a great part of the pain and pleasure of life arises from the gratification or disappointment of an incessant wish […]

No. 165. Tuesday, October 15, 1751. [Greek: Aen neos, alla penaes nun gaeron, plousios eimiO monos ek panton oiktros en amphoterois,Os tote men chraesthai dunamaen, hopot oud’ en eichon.Nun d’ opote chraesthai mae dunamai, tot echo.]ANTIPHILUS. Young was I once and poor, now rich and old;A harder case than mine was never told;Blest with the […]

No. 166. Saturday, October 19, 1751. Semper, eris pauper si pauper es, Aemiliane:Dantur opes nullis nunc nisi divitibus.MART. Lib. v. Ep. xxxi. Once poor, my friend, still poor you must remain,The rich alone have all the means of gain.EDW. CAVF. No complaint has been more frequently repeated in all ages than that of the neglect […]

No. 167. Tuesday, October 22, 1751. Candida perpetuo reside, Concordia, lecto,Tamque pari semper sit Venus aequa jugo.Diligat illa senem quondam: sed et ipsa marito,Tum quoque cum fuerit, non videatur, anus.MART. Lib, w. xii. 7. Their nuptial bed may smiling concord dress,And Venus still the happy union bless!Wrinkled with age, may mutual love and truthTo their […]

No. 158. Saturady, September 21, 1751. Grammatici certunt, et adhuc sub judice lis est.HOR. Ar. Poet. 78. –Criticks yet contend,And of their vain disputings find no end.FRANCIS. Criticism, though dignified from the earliest ages by the labours of men eminent for knowledge and sagacity, and, since the revival of polite literature, the favourite study of […]

No. 168. Saturday, October 26, 1751. –DecipitFrons prima multos: rara mens intelligit,Quod interiore condidit cura angulo.PHAEDRUS, Lib. iv. Fab. i. 5. The tinsel glitter, and the specious mien,Delude the most; few pry behind the scene. It has been observed by Boileau, that “a mean or common thought expressed in pompous diction, generally pleases more than […]

No. 156. Saturday, September 14, 1751. Nunquam aliud Natura, aliud Sapientia dicit.Juv. Sat. xiv. 321. For Wisdom ever echoes Nature’s voice. Every government, say the politicians, is perpetually degenerating towards corruption, from which it must be rescued at certain periods by the resuscitation of its first principles, and the re-establishment of its original constitution. Every […]

No. 157. Tuesday, September 17, 1751. [Greek:–Oi aidosGinetai ae t’ andras mega sinetai aed’ oninaesi.]HOM. Il. [Greek: O.] 44. Shame greatly hurts or greatly helps mankind.ELPHINSTON. TO THE RAMBLER. SIR, Though one of your correspondents has presumed to mention with some contempt that presence of attention and easiness of address, which the polite have long […]

No. 159. Tuesday, September 24, 1751. Sunt verba et voces, quibus hunc lenire doloremPossis, et magnuum morbi deponere partem.HOR. Ep. Lib. i. 34. The power of words, and soothing sounds, appeaseThe raging pain, and lessen the disease.FRANCIS. The imbecility with which Verecundulus complains that the presence of a numerous assembly freezes his faculties, is particularly […]