fluctuating circumftances of custom and of fashion. But the creed of Custom is not always that of Right; and it is the privilege of fuch a work, as well as one of its chief uses, to attack the entrenchments of Fashion, whenever fhe is at war with Modesty or Virtue.

Of this study of Manners, the Lounger had early difcovered the ufe and the neceflity. He who feldom quits the walk of a particular science or occupation, has a determined object in his view, the pursuit of which leaves little time for scattering attentions around him, and always affords. fome apology for the neglect of them. But for fuch neglect, the man of no profeffion cannot fo eafily be excufed, who has neither the hurry of bufinefs to occupy his time, nor its embarraffments to distract his thought. It is not, however, by the etiquette of a court, or the ceremonial of a drawing room, that this virtue is to be regulated. Genuine excellence here, as every where elfe, fprings from nature, and is to be cultivated only, not created, by artificial instruction. There is more complacency in the negligence of fome men, than in what is called the good breeding of others; and the little abfences of the heart are often more interefting and engaging than the punctilious attention of a thousand profeffed facrificers to the Graces.

Idlenefs,

Idleness, or that fpecies of little occupations which is attached to no particular business or profeffion, is a state more difficult to support than is generally imagined. Even the perfect idler, like fome other harmless and infignificant animals whom naturalifts are acquainted with, though he can live on air, cannot fubfift in vacuo: And the Idler of a higher fort needs perhaps more ideas, more ftore of mind about him, than would go to the furnishing of twenty brains of mere plodding men of bufinefs.

The Lounger feels for the family of the idle in all its branches, however diftant their relation to that of which he owns himself defcended. To them, therefore, his lucubrations will in a particular manner be adapted. To those in whom the want of active employment has not relaxed the power of thought, they may afford fome opportunity for fpeculation; and even to that prodigal of mind as well as time, who has forgotten how to think, the few moments required for the perusal of them, will be at least a small portion of life harmlessly spent, and, it may be, faved from lefs innocent employments.

V

N° 3. SATURDAY, February 19, 1785.

Quid refert quantum habeas? multo illud plus eft quod non babes.

IT

SEN.

T is an old and a common observation, that men are more defirous to be thought to poffefs talents and qualities to which in truth they have no pretenfions, than those in which they excel in an eminent degree. Of this, Cicero was in ancient times a remarkable example; and the observation of every one must have furnished instances as striking in our own days. We fee grave and profound ftatesmen wishing to pass for fine gentlemen, and fine gentlemen valuing themselves upon their knowledge of things of which they are moft ignorant. If you wish to compliment the gay, the elegant Lothario, you must not mention his tafte in drefs, his fine figure, or the lively elegance of his conversation: You must dwell upon his knowledge of the interefts of the different ftates. of Europe, his extenfive political information, and his talents for bufinefs. Camillus is a barrifter of the first eminence, poffeffed of great knowledge in his profeffion, an acute reafoner, and a powerful pleader. In external appearance nature has been lefs bountiful to Camillus: His figure is

meam

mean and ungraceful; and from his air and manner a stranger would be apt to take him for any thing rather than a gentleman. With all this, Camillus fancies that there is an uncommon degree of elegance in his form, and cannot conceal his ambition to be confidered as a man of fashion.

But the most amusing inftance of this fort I have met with was that of the late Duke of

His Grace was undoubtedly poffeffed of found judgment, a cultivated understanding, a greater portion of knowledge than ufually falls to the fhare of those of his rank; and though not perhaps calculated to make a brilliant figure in the fenate, his talents were admirably adapted for bufinefs, and must in any age have intitled their poffeffor to refpect and confideration. Amidst his other ftudies, the Duke had happened to look into fome books of phyfic; from that moment he commenced a most skilful phyfician, and, compared to himself, confidered the whole faculty as a fet of ignorant blunderers. An artful courtier, well acquainted with this whimfey of his Grace's, contrived to let it be known, that he was affected with a par ticular diforder, in the cure of which the Duke thought himself more than commonly expert. He kindly offered his affiftance, which was received with becoming gratitude; and

from

from time to time he was acquainted with the progrefs of the cure, and the effects of the medicine fuppofed to have been administered in confequence of his prescriptions. At the end of fix weeks, the wily patient had to thank his noble physician, both for a complete cure, and a confiderable employment which he had long in vain folicited.

Among the other fex, though, from their fituation, and the narrower circle of their acquirements, this weakness has less room to difplay itself, yet it is not unfrequently to be found. Elizabeth might be quoted as a counterpart to Cicero, were it not that the claim to beauty is fo natural to a woman, that we do not wonder when we find even a Queen not fuperior to that pretenfion. But there are, in our own times, ladies who forget the certain empire of their beauty, and aspire to the doubtful reputation of knowledge. Mirtilla has of late turned her fine eyes from terrestrial objects to the study of aftronomy; and you cannot flatter her fo much as by asking her opinion of the last new meteor, or the Georgium Sidus. And Euanthe, fince fhe read Reaumur, has left her fociety of beaux for a curious collection of butterflies..

But while people are thus ambitious of being thought to poffefs talents and qualities to which they have no pretenfion, it does not thence fol