defires will be always ranging from one object to another; but thefe motions though very powerful are not refiftlefs; nature may be regulated, and defires governed; and to contend with the predominance of fucceffive passions, to be endangered firft by one affection, and. then by another, is the condition upon which we are to pafs our time, the time of our preparation for that state which shall put an end to experiment,, to disappointment, and to change..

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NUMB. 152. SATURDAY, August 31, 1751. Triftia maftum

Vultum verba decent, iratum plena minarum.

HOR.

T was the wifdom, fays Seneca, of 66 antient times, to confider what is most "ufeful as moft illuftrious." If this rule be obferved with regard to works of genius, fcarcely any fpecies of compofition deferves more to be cultivated than the epistolary stile, fince none is of more various or frequent use, through the whole fubordination of human life..

IT has yet happened that among the numerous Writers which our nation has produced,. equal

equal perhaps always in force and genius, and of late in elegance and accuracy to those of any other country, very few have endeavoured. to distinguish themselves by the publication of letters, except fuch as were written in the difcharge of publick trufts, and during the tranfaction of great affairs, which though they afford precedents to the minifter, and memorials to the hiftorian, are of no use as examples of the familiar ftile, or models of private. correfpondence.

IF it be enquired by foreigners how this deficiency has happened in the literature of a country, where all indulge themfelves with for little danger in fpeaking and writing, may we not without either bigotry or arrogance inform them, that it must be imputed to our contempt of trifles, and our due fenfe of the dignity of the publick? We do not think it reasonable to fill the world with volumes from which nothing can be learned, nor expect that the employments of the bufy, or the amusements of the gay, fhould give way to narratives of our private affairs, complaints of abfence, expreffions of fondnefs, or declarations of fidelity.

A

A SLIGHT perufal of the innumerable letters by which the wits of France have fignalized their names, will prove that other nations need not be difcouraged from the like attempts by the conciousness of inability; for furely it is not very difficult to aggravate trifling misfortunes, to magnify familiar incidents, repeat adulatory profeffions, accumulate servile hyperboles, and produce all that can be found in the despicable remains of. Voiture and Scarron.

YET as much of life must be paffed in affairs confiderable only by their frequent Occurrence, and much of the pleasure which. our condition allows must be produced by giving elegance to trifles, it is necessary to learn how to become little without becoming mean, to maintain the neceffary intercourse of civility, and fill up the vacuities of action by agreeable appearances. It had therefore been of advantage if fuch of our writers as have excelled in the art of decorating infignificance, had fupplied us with a few fallies of innocent gaiety, effufions of honeft tendernefs, or exclamations of unimportant hurry.

PRECEPT

PRECEPT has generally been pofterior to performance. The art of compofing works of genius has never been taught but by the example of those who performed it by natural vigour of imagination, and rectitude of judgment. As we have few letters, we have likewife few criticisms upon the epiftolary stile. The observations with which Walsh has introduced his pages of inanity are fuch as give him little claim to the rank affigned him by Dryden among the criticks. Letters, fays he, are intended as refemblances of converfation, and the chief excellencies of converfation are good humour and good breeding. This remark, equally valuable for its novelty and propriety, he dilates and enforces with an appearance of compleat acquiefcence in his own discovery.

No Man was ever in doubt about the moral qualities of a letter. It has been always known that he who endeavours to please must appear pleased, and he who would not provoke rudenefs must not practise it. But the queftion among those who establish rules for an epistolary performance is how gaiety or civility may be properly expreffed, as among the criticks

in history it is not contefted whether truth ought to be preferved, but by what mode of diction it is best adorned.

As letters are written on all fubjects, in all ftates of mind, they cannot be properly reduced to fettled rules, or defcribed by any fingle characteristic; and we may fafely difentangle our minds from critical embarrafments, by determining that a letter has no peculiarity but its form, and that nothing is to be refufed admiffion which would be proper in any other method of treating the fame fubject. The qualities of the epistolary stile moft frequently required are ease and simplicity, an even flow of unlaboured diction, and an artless arrangement of obvious fentiments. But thefe directions are no fooner applied to ufe, than their fcantinefs and imperfection became evident. Letters are written to the great and to the mean, to the learned and the ignorant, at reft and in diftrefs, in fport and in paffion. Nothing can be more improper than ease and laxity of expreffion, when the importance of the fubject impreffes folicitude, or the dignity of the perfon exacts reverence.

THAT