enjoyment of folitary or retired leisure. To the politenefs of form and the ease of manner, businefs is naturally unfavourable, because business looks to the ufe, not to the decoration of things. But the man of bufinefs who has cultivated letters, will commonly have foftened his feelings, if he has not smoothed his manner or polifhed his addrefs. He may be awkward, but will feldom be rude; may trefpafs in the ignorance of ceremonial, but will not offend against the fubftantial rules of civility. In conversation, the pedantry of profeffion unavoidably infinuates itself among men of every calling. The lawyer, the merchant, and the foldier, (this laft perhaps, from obvious enough causes, the most of the three,) naturally flide into the accustomed train of thinking and the accustomed style of converfation. The pedantry of the man of learning is generally the most tolerable and the least tiresome of any; and he who has mixed a certain portion of learning with his ordinary profeffion, has generally corrected, in a confiderable degree, the abstraction of the one and the coarseness of the other.

In the more important relations of society, in the clofer intercourfe of friend, of hufband, and of father, that fuperior delicacy and refinement of feeling which the cultivation of the mind beftows, heighten affection into fentiment,

and

and mingle with such connections a dignity and tenderness which give its dearest value to our existence. In fortunate circumftances thofe feelings enhance profperity; but in the decline of fortune, as in the decline of life, their influence and importance are chiefly felt. They fmooth the harfhnefs of adverfity, and on the brow of misfortune print that languid smile, which their votaries would often not exchange for the broadeft mirth of those unfeelingly profperous men, who poffefs good fortune, but have not a heart for happiness.

N° 101. SATURDAY, January 6, 1787.

Forfan et hac clim meminiffe juvabit. VIRG.

MY lateft predeceffor has compared the opening Paper of a periodical publication, to the first entry of a ftranger into a room full of company. I think I may borrow his idea, and not unaptly liken the concluding Paper of fuch a work to a person's going out of such a room. The fame doubt whether he shall go or remain a little longer, the fame reflections on what he may have faid in the openness of his heart during his stay in the company, the fame folicitude about what people will think of him. when he is gone, attend the periodical author and the guest. And though the ease of modern manners has relieved us in a great measure from the ceremonial of fuch a fituation; yet ftill an author, like a perfon of confequence, cannot with propriety take what is called a French leave of his company, but must formally announce his departure as an event in which the perfons he is about to quit are confiderably interested.

The

The author of à periodical performance has indeed a claim to the attention and regard of his readers, more interesting than that of any other writer. Other writers fubmit their fentiments to their readers, with the reserve and circumspection of him who has had time to prepare for a public appearance. He who has followed Horace's rule, of keeping his book nine years in his study, must have withdrawn many an idea which in the warmth of compofition he had conceived, and altered many an expreffion which in the hurry of writing he had fet down. But the periodical Effayift commits to his readers the feelings of the day, in the language which those feelings have prompted. As he has delivered himself with the freedom of intimacy and the cordiality of friendship, he will naturally look for the indulgence which thofe relations may claim; and when he bids his readers adieu, will hope, as well as feel, the regrets of an acquaintance and the tendernefs of a friend.

There is fomewhat of this regret, and fomewhat of this tenderness, in the laft farewell we take of any thing. That place must have been very unpleasant, that companion very disagreeable indeed, whom, after a long fojourn or fociety, we can leave without fome degree of melancholy in thinking that we fhall fee them no more. Even that abode, or that fociety, with

which we have been for months or years difgufted and diftreffed, long habit and acquaintance fo ally to our minds, that we often wonder why we are fo little rejoiced at the arrival of a period for which we have frequently wifhed; that our parting fhould rather be fad than gay, and bring us, amidst the reflections of relief, an involuntary feeling of regret.

But as the Lounger flatters himself that he has not been altogether an unentertaining, or at least not a disagreeable companion to his readers, he may hope for a parting on more favourable terms: that on the morning of next Saturday, they will miss his company at the accustomed time, as fomething which used to be expected with pleasure; and think of the papers which on that day of so many past weeks they have read, as the correfpondence of one who wifhed their happiness and contributed to their amufe

ment.

If he may judge from what himself has experienced in fimilar circumftances, they will be apt to indulge a perfonification of the author of thefe fheets, and give him a local habita

tion and a name," according to the ideas they may have formed in the course of his performance. When fuch a writer has withdrawn himself from that fort of authority which he claimed for his opinions, that fort of credit