no other effect than that it continues them long in impotence and anguish.

These gifts of nature are, however, always bleffings in themselves, and to be acknowledged with gratitude to him that gives them; fince they are, in their regular and legitimate effects, productive of happiness, and prove pernicious only by voluntary corruption or idle negligence. And as there is little danger of pursuing them with too much ardour or anxiety, because no fkill or diligence can hope to procure them, the uncertainty of their influence upon our lives is mentioned, not to depreciate their real value, but to reprefs the difcontent and envy to which the want of them often gives occafion in those who do not enough fufpect their own frailty, nor confider how much less is the calamity of not poffeffing great powers, than of not using them aright.

Of all those things that make us fuperior to others, there is none fo much within the reach of our endeavours as riches, nor any thing more eagerly or conftantly defired. Poverty is an evil always in our view, an evil complicated with fo many circumftances of uneafinefs and vexation, that every man is ftudious to avoid it. Some degree of riches is therefore required, that we may be exempt from the gripe of neceffity; when this purpofe is once attained, we naturally wifh for more, that the evil which is regarded with fo much horror, may be yet at a greater diftance from us; as he that has once felt or dreaded the paw of a favage, will not be at reft till they are parted by fome barrier, which may take away all poffibility of a fecond attack.

To this point, if fear be not unreasonably indulged, Cleobulus would, perhaps, not refuse to extend his mediocrity. But it almost always happens, that the man who grows rich, changes his notions of poverty, ftates his wants by fome new measure, and from flying the enemy that purfued him, bends his endeavours to overtake those whom he fees before him. The power of gratifying his appetites encreases their demands; a thousand wishes crowd in upon him, importunate to be fatisfied, and vanity and ambition open profpects to defire, which ftill grow wider, as they are more contemplated.

Thus in time want is enlarged without bounds; an eagerness for increase of poffeffions deluges the foul, and we fink into the gulphs of infatiability, only because we do not fufficiently confider, that all real need is very foon fupplied, and all real danger of its invafion easily precluded; that the claims of vanity, being without limits, must be denied at last; and that the pain of repreffing them is lefs pungent before they have been long accustomed to compliance.

Whofoever shall look heedfully upon thofe who are eminent for their riches, will not think their condition fuch as that he fhould hazard his quiet, and much lefs his virtue, to obtain it. For all that great wealth generally gives above a moderate fortune, is more room for the freaks of caprice, and more privilege for ignorance and vice, a quicker fucceffion of flatteries, and a larger circle of voluptuoufnefs.

There is one reason feldom remarked which makes riches lefs defirable. Too much wealth is very frequently the occafion of poverty. He whom the wantonnefs of abundance has once foftened,

eafily finks into neglect of his affairs; and he that thinks he can afford to be negligent, is not far from being poor. He will foon be involved in perplexities, which his inexperience will render unfurmountable; he will fly for help to those whofe intereft it is that he should be more distreffed, and will be at last torn to pieces by the vultures that always hover over fortunes in decay.

When the plains of India were burnt up by a long continuance of drought, Hamet and Rafchid, two neighbouring fhepherds, faint with thirft, ftood at the common boundary of their grounds, with their flocks and herds panting round them, and in extremity of distress prayed for water. On a fudden the air was becalmed, the birds ceafed to chirp, and the flocks to bleat. They turned their eyes every way, and faw a being of mighty stature advancing through the valley, whom they knew upon his nearer approach to be the Genius of diftribution. In one hand he held the sheaves of plenty, and in the other the fabre of deftruction. The fhepherds ftood trembling, and would have retired before him; but he called to them with a voice gentle as the breeze that plays in the evening among the fpices of Sabæa; "Fly not from your benefactor, children of the "duft! I am come to offer you gifts, which only "your own folly can make vain. You here pray "for water, and water I will bestow; let me know "with how much you will be fatisfied: fpeak not " rafhly; confider, that of whatever can be enjoyed "by the body, excefs is no lefs dangerous than fcarcity. When you remember the pain of thirst, "do not forget the danger of fuffocation. Now, Hamet, tell me your request,"

"O Being,

"O Being, kind and beneficent," fays Hamet, "let thine eye pardon my confufion. I entreat a « little brook, which in fummer fhall never be dry, << and in winter never overflow." "It is granted," replies the Genius; and immediately he opened the ground with his fabre, and a fountain bubbling up under their feet scattered its rills over the meadows; the flowers renewed their fragrance, the trees spread a greener foliage, and the flocks and herds quenched their thirst.

Then turning to Rafchid, the Genius invited him likewife to offer his petition. "I requeft," fays Rafchid, "that thou wilt turn the Ganges through "my grounds, with all his waters, and all their in"habitants." Hamet was ftruck with the greatnefs of his neighbour's fentiments, and fecretly repined in his heart, that he had not made the fame petition before him; when the Genius fpoke, "Rafh << man, be not infatiable! remember, to thee that " is nothing which thou canst not use; and how are "thy wants greater than the wants of Hamet ?" Rafchid repeated his defire, and pleased himself with the mean appearance that Hamet would make in the prefence of the proprietor of the Ganges. The Genius then retired towards the river, and the two fhepherds stood waiting the event. As Rafchid was looking with contempt upon his neighbour, on a fudden was heard the roar of torrents, and they found by the mighty stream that the mounds of the Ganges were broken. The flood rolled forward into the lands of Rafchid, his plantations were torn up, his flocks overwhelmed, he was fwept away before it, and a crocodile devoured him.

NUMB. 39. TUESDAY, July 31, 1750.

Infelix nulli bene nupta marito.

Unbleft, ftill doom'd to wed with misery.

THE

AUSONIUS.

HE condition of the female fex has been frequently the fubject of compaffion to medical writers, because their conftitution of body is fuch, that every state of life brings its peculiar difeafes : they are placed according to the proverb between Scylla and Charybdis, with no other choice than of dangers equally formidable; and whether they embrace marriage, or determine upon a fingle life, are exposed, in confequence of their choice, to sickness, mifery, and death.

It were to be wifhed that fo great a degree of natural infelicity might not be increased by adventitious and artificial miferies; and that beings whose beauty we cannot behold without admiration, and whose delicacy we cannot contemplate without tenderness, might be fuffered to enjoy every alleviation of their forrows. But, however it has happened, the custom of the world seems to have been formed in a kind of confpiracy against them, though it does not appear but they had themselves an equal fhare in its establishment; and prefcriptions which by whomsoever they were begun, are now of long continuance, and by confequence of great authority, feem to have almost excluded them from content, in whatsoever condition they fhall pass their lives.