patience of labor, or dread of miscarriage, seizes those who are most distinguished for quickness of apprehension; and that they who might with greatest reason promise themselves victory, are least willing to hazard the encounter. This diffidence, where the attention is 5 not laid asleep by laziness, or dissipated by pleasure, can arise only from confused and general views, such as negligence snatches in haste, or from the disappointment of the first hopes formed by arrogance without reflection. To expect that the intricacies of science will 10 be pierced by a careless glance, or the eminences of fame ascended without labor, is to expect a particular privilege, a power denied to the rest of mankind; but to suppose that the maze is inscrutable to diligence, or the heights inaccessible to perseverance, is to submit 15 tamely to the tyranny of fancy, and enchain the mind in voluntary shackles. It is the proper ambition of the heroes in literature to enlarge the boundaries of knowledge by discovering and conquering new regions of the intellectual world. 20 To the success of such undertakings perhaps some degree of fortuitous happiness is necessary, which no man can promise or procure to himself; and therefore doubt and irresolution may be forgiven in him that ventures into the unexplored abysses of truth, and attempts to 25 find his way through the fluctuations of uncertainty, and the conflicts of contradiction. But when nothing more is required than to pursue a path already beaten, and to trample obstacles which others have demolished, why should any man so much distrust his 30 own intellect as to imagine himself unequal to the attempt? It were to be wished that they who devote their lives to study would at once believe nothing too great for their attainment, and consider nothing as too little for 35 their regard; that they would extend their notice alike to science and to life, and unite some knowledge of the present world to their acquaintance with past ages and remote events. Nothing has so much exposed men of learning to contempt and ridicule as their ignorance of things which 5 are known to all but themselves. Those who have been taught to consider the institutions of the schools as giving the last perfection to human abilities, are surprised to see men wrinkled with study, yet wanting to be instructed in the minute circumstances of pro10 priety, or the necessary forms of daily transaction; and quickly shake off their reverence for modes of education which they find to produce no ability above the rest of mankind. 'Books,' says Bacon, 'can never teach the use of 15 books.' The student must learn by commerce with mankind to reduce his speculations to practice, and accommodate his knowledge to the purposes of life. It is too common for those who have been bred to scholastic professions, and passed much of their time 20 in academies where nothing but learning confers honors, to disregard every other qualification, and to imagine that they shall find mankind-ready to pay homage to their knowledge, and to crowd about them for instruction. They therefore step out from their cells into 25 the open world with all the confidence of authority and dignity of importance; they look round about them at once with ignorance and scorn on a race of beings to whom they are equally unknown and equally contemptible, but whose manners they must imitate, and with 30 whose opinions they must comply, if they desire to pass their time happily among them. To lessen that disdain with which scholars are inclined to look on the common business of the world, and the unwillingness with which they condescend to learn 35 what is not to be found in any system of philosophy, it may be necessary to consider, that, though admiration is excited by abstruse researches and remote discov eries, yet pleasure is not given, nor affection conciliated, but by softer accomplishments, and qualities more easily communicable to those about us. He that can only converse upon questions about which only a small part of mankind has knowledge sufficient to make them curi- 5 ous, must lose his days in unsocial silence, and live in the crowd of life without a companion. He that can only be useful on great occasions may die without exerting his abilities, and stand a helpless spectator of a thousand vexations which fret away happiness, and 10 which nothing is required to remove but a little dexterity of conduct and readiness of expedients. No degree of knowledge attainable by man is able to set him above the want of hourly assistance, or to extinguish the desire of fond endearments and tender 15 officiousness; and therefore no one should think it unnecessary to learn those arts by which friendship may be gained. Kindness is preserved by a constant reciprocation of benefits or interchange of pleasures; but such benefits only can be bestowed, as others are capable to 20 receive, and such pleasures only imparted, as others are qualified to enjoy. By this descent from the pinnacles of art no honor will be lost; for the condescensions of learning are always overpaid by gratitude. An elevated genius em-25 ployed in little things, appears, to use the simile of Longinus, like the sun in his evening declination: he remits his splendor, but retains his magnitude, and pleases more though he dazzles less. No. 145. TUESDAY, August 6, 1751 Non, si priores Mæonius tenet Sedes Homerus, Pindarica latent, Ceæque et Alcai minaces, Stesichorique graves Camana.-HOR. Od. 4. 9. 5-8. What though the Muse her Homer thrones High above all the immortal quire; Nor Pindar's raptures she disowns, Nor hides the plaintive Cean lyre; Nor yet is grave Stesichorus unread.-FRANCIS. It is allowed that vocations and employments of least dignity are of the most apparent use; that the meanest artisan or manufacturer contributes more to the accommodation of life, than the profound scholar and argu5 mentative theorist; and that the public would suffer less present inconvenience from the banishment of philosophers than from the extinction of any common trade. Some have been so forcibly struck with this observation, that they have, in the first warmth of their dis10 covery, thought it reasonable to alter the common distribution of dignity, and ventured to condemn mankind of universal ingratitude. For justice exacts that those by whom we are most benefited should be most honored. And what labor can be more useful than that which 15 procures to families and communities those necessaries which supply the wants of nature, or those conveniencies by which ease, security, and elegance are conferred? This is one of the innumerable theories which the first attempt to reduce them into practice certainly destroys. 20 If we estimate dignity by immediate usefulness, agriculture is undoubtedly the first and noblest science; yet we see the plough driven, the clod broken, the manure spread, the seeds scattered, and the harvest reaped, by men whom those that feed upon their in25 dustry will never be persuaded to admit into the same rank with heroes, or with sages; and who, after all the confessions which truth may extort in favor of their occupation, must be content to fill up the lowest class of the commonwealth, to form the base of the pyramid of subordination, and lie buried in obscurity themselves, while they support all that is splendid, conspicuous, or exalted. 5 It will be found upon a closer inspection, that this part of the conduct of mankind is by no means contrary to reason or equity. Remuneratory honors are proportioned at once to the usefulness and difficulty of performances, and are properly adjusted by compari- 10 son of the mental and corporeal abilities which they appear to employ. That work, however necessary, which is carried on only by muscular strength and manual dexterity, is not of equal esteem, in the consideration of rational beings, with the tasks that exer- 15 cise the intellectual powers, and require the active vigor of imagination, or the gradual and laborious investigations of reason. The merit of all manual occupations seems to terminate in the inventor; and surely the first ages can-20 not be charged with ingratitude; since those who civilized barbarians, and taught them how to secure themselves from cold and hunger, were numbered amongst their deities. But these arts once discovered by philosophy, and facilitated by experience, are afterwards prac- 25 tised with very little assistance from the faculties of the soul; nor is any thing necessary to the regular discharge of these inferior duties, beyond that rude observation which the most sluggish intellect may practise, and that industry which the stimulations of necessity 30 naturally enforce. Yet though the refusal of statues and panegyric to those who employ only their hands and feet in the service of mankind may be easily justified, I am far from intending to incite the petulance of pride, to jus- 35 tify the superciliousness of grandeur, or to intercept any part of that tenderness and benevolence which, by |