diocefe. This was all the preferment he had, nor had he this till he was advanced in life. He did not, however, repine. Thus he fpeaks of himself. "Not "to his erudition-but to his conftant love and pursuit "of it-he owes a fituation and a ftation better than "he expected, and as good as he ought to defire."

No. CXVI.

ON THE UNION OF EXTRAVAGANCE IN TRIFLES AND VICE, WITH PARSIMONY IN ALL THE TRULY HONOURABLE, USEFUL, AND NECESSARY EXPENCES.

ferved in the fame character, of avarice with profufion, of meanness with liberality. Vanity, felfishness, and a want of ferious principles, are ftriking circumftances in the manners of the prefent age; and as vanity leads to expenfive oftentation, fo felfishnefs, and want of principle, have a natural tendency to produce covetoufnefs and rapacity. Very few reftraints are allowed to operate on the modes of acquiring or of faving money, except the fear of detection. There is fcarcely any meannefs or bafenefs to which many perfons, who make the greatest fhew in drefs, furniture, and equipage, are not ready to fubmit under the certainty of conceal

ment.

The time has been, when a great family, refiding in a great house of a village, was confidered as a blefling to all the neighbouring country. The poor were employed in adorning and improving the grounds all about it. The table in the parlour was always open for the reception of the gentlemen who refided within. ten miles of the houfe; and the kitchen afforded warmth and plenty to the poor and induftrious tenant or labourer. The rich man refided in the houfe of his fathers, and spent his money among those who earned it

for

for him by the fweat of their brows. But, according to the modern fyftem of fashionable manners, fuch a kind of life would be deemed intolerably dull, as well as antiquated and vulgar. The family, therefore, fpend as little time as poffible at the noble feat of their ancestors, but haften to the fea-fide or the wateringplaces, where they hire a little hut, or cabin, and lavish their money on ftrangers, without any returns of gratitude, or of rational fatisfaction. The farmer, who lives in their native village, returning weary from his plough, shakes his head as he paffes the cold kitchen, and turns with pity and contempt from the finokeless roof. The fervants are pinched, and even envy the comparative plenty and independence of the next cottagers. The whole country rings with reports of the meanness and poor living at the great houfe. In the mean time, the lord and lady, the baronet or efquire, with their refpective families, are figuring, as it is called, in all the profufion of emulous extravagance, at Bath, or Brighthelmftone. While they grudge the bread and cheefe which are confumed in their own house, or refuse to contribute to a brief, or any charitable inftitution among their poor neighbours at home, they subscribe moft liberally, to an infamous mafter of the ceremonies, and to every fashionable amusement; they give feafts to ftrangers whom they fhall never fee any more, and whofe principal recommendation is, that they appear, from their external fplendor, not to want any affiftance. Their vanity is gratified in feèing the great and the rich at their table; and what fignifies it, they think, if the wretches at home, whom nobody knows, ftarve and rot on the dunghills whence they originated. They grudge the poor even fmall beer in their own houses; but drench every rich guest who visits them at their lodgings with champagne and burgundy. How shall we account for fuch inconfiftency, but by fuppofing that thefe perfonages poffefs large eftates and little fouls, immenfe vanity and diminutive understandings; and that the badness is only exceeded by the meannefs of their hearts?

It is easy to obferve perfons of this defcription, who will not hesitate to expend many hundreds in drefs

alone,

alone, but who, when a book is praised in their prefence, will fpare no trouble in finding fomebody of whom they may borrow it, alleging, in excufe, that books are fo dear, it is impoffible to buy every thing that comes Out. The price of the book fhall be three fhillings, and it fhall contain amufement for three weeks, and yet they will not buy it because it would be extravagant; though they will not fcruple to expend three guineas, any night in the week, for three hours paftime

in

a party at the public places of diverfion. The milliners, the hair-dreffers, the perfumers bills, fhall amount to many hundreds a year; but five pounds expended at the bookfeller's would be downright prodigality. Guineas flow, without reftraint, in fubfcriptions to balls, concerts, affemblies; to dancing-mafters, muficmafters, and to players: but when the parish lecturer's book is brought, or the Marine Society, or the Magdalen, or the Infirmary, or the contribution for the Release of Prisoners for fmall Debts, or the fufferers in Barbadoes, or the prifoners of war, are recommended as fit objects to receive their fuperfluities, they immediately look grave, complain their taxes rife, and rents fall; and affert, with an unfeeling heart, that these are not times to adınit of any expences which are not abfolutely neceffary.

The education of their children ought certainly to conftitute one of the first cares of the rich; and no reasonable expence should be withheld in the accomplishment of it. But there are few great families, in which this is not one of the fmalleft articles of annual expenditure. From the butler and lady's maid, from the gentleman and footman, down even to the groom and the fcullion, the wages are, probably, one, two, three, or fourfcore pounds a year, with board and perquifites, according to the dignity of the refpectable perfonages; but if the fuperintendant of education is allowed only the wages of the body-coachman, though he is obliged to feed and lodge young mafter, and furnish him with many neceffaries as well as learning, he is reckoned a fortunate man, and is doubly happy, if his bill is not canvaffed and curtailed. I know a family, in which the butler annually receives juft four times the fum which

many

many perfons of fortune pay, at fchools of repute, for the board and education of the heir apparent.

Indeed, in all neceffary and laudable expences, a degree of frugality is difplayed which approaches to extreme meanness and parfimony. The poor tradefmen who fupply the ordinary articles of domeftic confump-. tion, are not only denied their price, but, after every abatement, are obliged to wait an unreasonable time for their money. So far from poffeffing an inclination to be generous, it grieves fuch perfons to be juft. But though they who furnish commodities, without which life cannot be fupported, are ill-ufed and defrauded, whoever can supply any circumftances of drefs, equipage, luxury, by which selfishness and vanity may be gratified, are profufely and immediately rewarded. Men of letters, or ingenuity in the profeffions, are kept at a diftance; but the door is always open to players, and to figniors and fignioras. Chaplains and tutors are out of fashion; but their place is abundantly supplied by fiddlers, pipers, caperers, and scaramouches. A dancing or muficmafter, who can enable the young ladies to difplay a fine finger or a fine foot, is immediately confidered as the best friend of the family, made a companion, invited to the table, paid extravagantly, and complimented with thanks and prefents; neither is it wonderful, if the young ladies fall in love with thefe fine gentlemen, and marry them; fince they appear, both in their own and their parents eyes, to poffefs the fummit of all human excellence. As to the perfon who may be employed to form their minds, he is ufually engaged from the recommendation of cheapnefs, and is, for the most part, made an object of ridicule, because he has not the air of Noverre and Gallini.

A fortune, confidered in its true light, is a facred truft, and intended to promote, not only the happiness of its poffeffor, but of all with whom he is connected, and who deferve his beneficence. The time has been, when the poor were thought to have a claim upon that fuperfluity, which is now lavished on the mean minifters to luxury, vice, and vain oftentation. We read in the tablets in our churches, and in the records of all charitable foundations, that people of the highest fashion

were

were of opinion to be good was effential to the character of true gentility. But now, if we were to afk the representative of a rich family, where he had beftowed the fuperfluities of the last year, he might answer, that he had depofited fome fhare of it in the pocket of an Italian, who had the extraordinary merit of being able to stand longer on one leg than the reft of the two-legged and unfeathered race. He might answer, that he had loft it at the gaming table; fpent it in the tavern and brothel; fported it away at Newmarket; lavished it on dogs, horfes, jockies; and left the poor and the deferving to the care of Providence.

That Providence, whofe bleffings he abuses and perverts, feldom fails to punish his ingratitude. For as all his external circumftances have more in them of fhew than of folidity, fo alfo have all his boafted enjoyments, and all that happiness, which he thinks to derive from riches, independently of their proper application.

No. CXVII. ON A TASTE FOR THE CULTIVATION OF FLOWERS, AND OF BEAUTIFUL SHRUBS AND TREES.

B

EAUTY of every kind is formed to captivate, and there is this peculiar advantage in contemplating the beauties of vegetable nature, that we may permit our hearts to be enfnared by them, without apprehenfion of a dangerous or a dishonourable fervitude. A tafte for the beauties of vegetation is the mark of a pure and innocent mind, and, at the fame time, one of the beft prefervatives of purity and innocence. It diverts the attention from the turbulent fcenes of folly, and fuperinduces a placid tranquillity, highly favourable to the gentler virtues, and to the permanency of our moft refined enjoyments.

I have often been furprised to find thofe, who poffeffed a very acute fufceptibility of artificial or literary grace, and were powerfully affected by the beauties of a poem, a piece of fculpture, or a painting, not at all

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