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CONVERSATION

OF A

COMPANY OF EPHEMERÆ;

WITH THE SOLILOQUÝ OF ONE ADVANCED IN AGE

TO MADAME BRILLIANT.

You may remember, my dear friend, that when we lately spent that happy day, in the delightful garden and fweet fociety of the Moulin Joly, I ftopt a little in one of our walks, and staid fome time behind the company. We had been fhewn numberless skeletons of a kind of little fly, called an Ephemera, whofe fucceffive generations, we were told, were bred and expired within the day. I happened to see a living company of them on a leaf, who appeared to be engaged in converfation. You know I understand all the inferior animal tongues: my too great application to the study of them, is the best excuse I can give for the little progrefs I have made in your charming language. I liftened through curiosity to the difcourfe of these little creatures; but as they, in their national vivacity, fpoke three or four together, I could make but little of their conversation. I found, however, by fome expreffions that I heard now and then, they were difputing warmly on the merit of two foreign muficians, one a coufin,

the

the other a mufcheto; in which difpute they spent their time, feemingly as regardless of the fhortnefs of life as if they had been fure of living a month. Happy people! thought I, you live certainly under a wife, juft, and mild government, fince you have no public grievances to complain of, nor any fubject of contention, but the perfections or imperfections of foreign mufic. I turned my head from them to an old grey-headed one, who was fingle on another leaf, and talking to himself. Being amufed with his foliloquy, I put it down in writing, in hopes it will likewife amufe her to whom I am fo much indebted for the most pleasing of all amufements, her delicious company, and heavenly harmony.

"It was," fays he, " the opinion of learned philofophers of our race, who lived and flou"rifhed long before my time, that this vaft "world the Moulin Joly could not itself fubfift "more than eighteen hours: and I think there "was fome foundation for that opinion; fince, "by the apparent motion of the great luminary, "that gives life to all nature, and which in my "time has evidently declined towards the ocean "at the end of our earth, it must then finish its "course, be extinguished in the waters that fur"round us, and leave the world in cold and "darkness, neceffarily producing univerfal death " and deftruction. I have lived feven of those "hours; a great age, being no less than 420 mi"nutes of time. How very few of us continue "fo long? I have feen generations born, flourish, "and expire. My prefent friends are the chil"dren and grand-children of the friends of my

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youth, who are now, alas, no more! And I "muft foon follow them; for, by the course of "nature, though ftill in health, I cannot expect "to live above feven or eight minutes longer.

"What

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"What now avails all my toil and labour, in "amaffing honey-dew on this leaf, which I cannot live to enjoy! What the political struggles "I have been engaged in, for the good of my "compatriot inhabitants of this bufh, or my phi"lofophical ftudies, for the benefit of our race "in general! for in politics (what can law's do " without morals?) our prefent race of ephemera " will in a courfe of minutes become corrupt, "like thofe of other and older bufhies, and con"fequently as wretched: And in philofophy how "fmall our progrefs! Alas! art is long, and life "is fhort! My friend would comfort me with "the idea of a name, they fay, I fhall leave be"hind me; and they tell me I have lived long "enough to nature and to glory. But what "will fame be to an ephemera who no longer "exifts? and what will become of all hiftory in "the eighteenth hour, when the world itself, " even the whole Moulin Joly, fhall come to its "end, and be buried in univerfal ruin ?"

To me, after all my eager pursuits, no folid pleasures now remain, but the reflection of a long life spent in meaning well, the fenfible converfation of a few good lady ephemera, and now and then a kind fmile and a tune from the ever ami. able Brilliant.

B. FRANKLIN.

ON

MORALS OF CHESS.

PLAYING at chefs is the most ancient and most universal game known among men; for its original is beyond the memory of hiflory, and it has, for numberlefs ages, been the amufement of all the civilized nations of Afia, the Perfians, the Indians, and the Chinese. Europe has had it above a thousand years; the Spaniards have spread it over their part of America, and it begins lately to make its appearance in these States. It is fo interefting in itself, as not to need the view of gain to induce engaging in it; and thence it is never played for money. Thofe therefore, who have leifure for fuch diverfions, cannot find one that is more innocent; and the following piece, written with a view to correct (among a few young friends) fome little improprieties in the practice of it, fhews, at the fame time, that it may, in its effects on the mind, be not merely innocent, but advantageous, to the vanquished as well as the victor.

THE game of chefs is not merely an idle amusement. Several very valuable qualities of the mind, useful in the course of human life, are to be acquired or ftrengthened by it, fo as to become habits, ready on all occafions. For life is a kind of chefs, in which we have often points to gain, and competitors or adverfaries to contend with, and in which there is a vast variety of good and ill events, that are, in fome degree, the effects of prudence or the want of it. By playing at chefs, then, we may learn,

I. Forefight, which looks a little into futurity, and confiders the confequences that may attend

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an action for it is continually occurring to the player, "If I move this piece, what will be the "advantage of my new fituation? what use "can my adversary make of it to annoy me? "What other moves can I make to fupport it, and to defend myself from his attacks?"

II. Circumfpection, which furveys the whole chefs-board, or fcene of action, the relations of the feveral pieces and fituations, the dangers they are refpectively expofed to, the feveral poffibilities of their aiding each other, the probabilities that the adversary may take this or that move, and attack this or the other piece, and what different means can be used to avoid his ftroke, or turn its confequences against him.

III. Caution, not to make our moves too haftily. This habit is beft acquired by observing strictly the laws of the game, fuch as, "If you touch "a piece, you must move it fomewhere, if you "fet it down, you must let it stand :" and it is therefore beft that thefe rules fhould be obferved, as the game thereby becomes more the image of human life, and particularly of war; in which, if you have incautiously put yourself into a bad and dangerous pofition, you cannot obtain your enemy's leave to withdraw your troops, and place them more fecurely, but you inuft abide all the confequences of your your rafhnefs.

And, laftly, we learn by chefs the habit of not being difcouraged by prefent bad appearances in the ftate of our affairs, the habit of hoping for a favourable change, and that of perfevering in the fearch of refources. The game is fo full of events there is fuch a variety of turns in it, the fortune of it is fo fubject to fudden viciffitudes, and one fo frequently, after long contemplation, difcovers the means of extricating onefelf from a fuppofed infurmountable difficulty, that one is encouraged

to

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