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admire his excellencies, or folicit his favours; for admiration ceases with novelty, and intereft gains its end and retires. A man whofe great qualities want the ornament of fuperficial attractions, is like a naked mountain with mines of gold, which will be frequented only till the treasure is exhausted. RAMBLER.

СНАР. VI.

ON THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE WORLD.

N

OTHING has fo much expofed men of learning to

contempt and ridicule, as their ignorance of things which are known to all but themfelves. Those who have been taught to confider the inftitutions of the schools, as giving the laft perfection to human abilities, are furprised to fee men wrinkled with study, yet wanting to be instructed in the minute circumstances of propriety, 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, fays Bacon, can never teach the ufe of 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 scholaftic profeffions, and paffed much of their time in academies, where nothing but learning confers honours, to difregard every other qualification, and to imagine that they fhall find mankind ready to pay homage to their knowledge, and to crowd about them for inftruction. They therefore step out from their cells into the open world, with all the confidence

· of

of authority and dignity of importance; they look round about them at once with ignorance and fcorn on a race of beings to whom they are equally unknown and equally contemptible, but whofe manners they must imitate, and with whose opinions they must comply, if they defire to pass their time happily among them.

To leffen that difdain with which scholars are inclined to look on the common business of the world, and the unwillingness with which they condescend to learn what is not to be found in any fyftem of philofophy, it may be necessary to confider, that though admiration is excited by abstruse researches and remote discoveries, yet pleasure is not given, nor affection conciliated, but by fofter accomplishments, and qualities more eafily communicable to those about us. He that can only converfe upon queftions, about which only a small part of mankind has knowledge fufficient to make them curious, must lose his days in unfocial filence, and live in the crowd of life without a companion. He that can only be useful in great occafions, may die without exerting his abilities, and ftand a helpless fpectator of a thousand vexations which fret away happiness, and which nothing is required to remove but a little dexterity of conduct and readinefs of expedients.

No degree of knowledge attainable by man is able to fet him above the want of hourly affistance, or to extinguish the defire of fond endearments, and tender officioufnefs; and therefore no one should think it unnecessary to learn those arts by which friendship may be gained. Kindness is preferved by a conftant reciprocation of benefits or inter change of pleasures; but fuch benefits only can be bestowed, as others are capable of receiving, and fuch pleasures only imparted, as others are qualified to enjoy.

95

By this descent from the pinnacles of art no honour will be loft; for the condefcenfions of learning are always overpaid by gratitude. An elevated genius employed in little things, appears, to use the fimile of Longinus, like the fun in his evening declination; he remits his fplendor but retains his magnitude; and pleases more though he dazzles lefs.

RAMBLER.

CHA P. VII.

ON THE ADVANTAGES OF UNITING GENTLENESS OF MANNERS WITH FIRMNESS OF MIND.

I

Mentioned to you, fome time ago, a sentence, which I would most earnestly wish you always to retain in your thoughts, and observe in your conduct; it is suavitèr in modo, fortitèr in re. I do not know any one rule fo unexceptionably useful and necessary in every part of life.

THE fuaviter in modo alone would degenerate and fink into a mean, timid complaisance, and paffiveness, if not supported and dignified by the fortitèr in re; which would alfo run into impetuofity and brutality, if not tempered and foftened by the fuavitèr in modo: however, they are seldom united. The warm choleric man, with strong animal fpirits, defpifes the fuavitèr in modo, and thinks to carry all before him by the fortitèr in re. He may poffibly, by great accident, now and then fucceed, when he has only weak and timid people to deal with; but his general fate will be, to shock, offend, be hated, and fail. On the other hand, the cunning crafty man thinks to gain all his ends by the fuavitèr in modo only: he becomes all things to all men; he seems to have no opinion of his own,and fervilely adopts the prefent opinion of the prefent per

fon;

fon; he infinuates himself only into the efteem of fools, but is foon detected, and furely despised, by every body else. The wife man (who differs as much from the cunning, as from the choleric man) alone joins the fuavitèr in modo with the fortiter in re.

If you are in authority, and have a right to command, your commands delivered fuavitèr in modo will be willingly, cheerfully, and confequently well obeyed; whereas if given. only fortitèr, that is brutally, they will rather, as Tacitus fays, be interpreted than executed. For my own part, if I bade my footman bring me a glafs of wine, in a rough infulting manner, I fhould expect, that in obeying me, he would contrive to fpill fome of it upon me; and I am fure I fhould deserve it. A cool fteady refolution should show, that where you have a right to command, you will be obeyed; but, at the fame time, a gentleness in the manner of enforcing that obedience, should make it a cheerful one, and foften, as much as poffible, the mortifying consciousness of inferiority. If you are to afk a favour, or even to folicit your due, you must do it suavitèr in modo, or you will give thofe, who have a mind to refuse you either, a pretence to do it, by refenting the manner; but, on the other hand, you muft, by a steady perfeverance and decent tenaciousness, show the fortitèr in re. In fhort, this precept is the only way I know in the world, of being loved without being despised, and feared without being hated. It conftitutes the dignity of character, which every wife man muft endeavour to establish.

IF therefore you find that you have a haftiness in your temper, which unguardedly breaks out into indifcreet fallies, or rough expreffions, to either your fuperiors, your equals, or your inferiors, watch it narrowly, check it carefully, and call the fuaviter in mode to your affiftance: at the first impulfe

pulfe of paffion be filent, till you can be foft. Labour even to get the command of your countenance fo well, that those emotions may not be read in it: a most unspeakable advantage in business! On the other hand, let no complaifance, no gentleness of temper, no weak defire of pleafing on your part, no wheedling, coaxing, nor flattery, on other people's, make you recede one jot from any point that reason and prudence have bid you pursue; but return to the charge, perfift, perfevere, and you will find most things attainable that are poffible. A yielding, timid meeknefs is always abufed and infulted by the unjust and the unfeeling; but meekness, when sustained by the fortitèr in re, is always refpected, commonly fuccefsful. In your friendships and connections, as well as in your enmities, this rule is particularly useful let your firmnefs and vigour preferve and invite attachments to you; but, at the fame time, let your manner hinder the enemies of your friends and dependents from becoming your's: let your enemies be difarmed by the gentleness of your manner, but let them feel, at the fame time, the fteadiness of your juft refentment; for there is a great difference between bearing malice, which is always ungenerous, and a refolute felf-defence, which is always prudent and justifiable.

I CONCLUDE with this obfervation, That gentleness of manners, with firmness of mind, is a fhort, but full defcription of human perfection, on this fide of religious and moral duties.

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