felves with him, we fallied out, defigning each to repair to his home; but, as it fell out, coming up in the street to a man, whofe fteel by his fide declared him a butcher, we overheard him opening an addrefs to a genteelifh fort of young Lady, whom he walked with: "Mifs, though your father is master "of a coal-lighter, and you will be a great fortune,

'tis true; yet I wish I may be cut into quarters "if it is not only love, and not lucre of gain, that

is my motive for offering terms of marriage." As this lover proceeded in his fpeech, he mified us the length of three streets, in admiration at the unlimited power of the tender paffion, that could foften even the heart of a butcher. We then adjourned to a tavern, and from thence to one of the publick gardens, where I was regaled with a moft ainufing variety of men poffeffing great talents, fo difcoloured by affectation, that they only made them eminently ridiculous; fhallow things, who, by continual diffipation, had annihilated the few ideas nature had given them, and yet were celebrated for wonderful pretty gentlemen; young ladies extolled for their wit, because they were handfome; illiterate empty women as well as men, in high life, admired for their knowledge, from their being refolutely pofitive; and women of real understanding fo far from pleafing the polite million, that they frightened them away, and were left folitary. When we quitted this entertaining fcene, Tom preffed me, irrefiftibly, to fup with him. I reached home at twelve, and then reflected, that though indeed I had, by remarking various characters, improved my infight into human nature, yet ftill I had neglected

the

the ftudies propofed, and accordingly took up my Treatife on Logick, to give it the intended revifal, but found my fpirits too much agitated, and could not forbear a few fatirical lines, under the title of The Evening's Walk.

Tuesday.] At breakfast, seeing my Ode to Aftronomy lying on my defk, I was ftruck with a train of ideas, that I thought might contribute to its improvement. I immediately rang my bell to forbid all vifitants, when my fervant opened the door, with, "Sir, Mr. Jeffery Gape." My cup dropped out of one hand, and my poem out of the other. I could scarce afk him to fit; he told me he was going to walk, but as there was a likelihood of rain, he would fit with me; he faid, he intended at first to have called at Mr. Vacant's, but as he had not seen me a great while, he did not mind coming out of his way to wait on me; I made him a bow, but thanks for the favour ftuck in my throat. I asked him if he had been to the coffee-houfe; he replied, two hours.

Under the oppreffion of this dull interruption, I fat looking wifhfully at the clock; for which, to increase my fatisfaction, I had chofen the infcription, Art is long, and life is fhort; exchanging questions and anfwers at long intervals, and not without fome hints that the weather-glafs promifed fair weather. At half an hour after three he told me he would trespass on me for a dinner, and defired me to fend to his house for a bundle of papers, about inclofing a common upon his eftate, which he would read to me in the evening. I declared myfelf bufy, and Mr. Gape went away. 6

r

Having

Having dined, to compofe my chagrin I took up Virgil, and feveral other clafficks, but could not calm my mind, or proceed in my fcheme. At about five I laid my hand on a bible that lay on my table, at first with coldnefs and infenfibility; but was imperceptibly engaged in a clofe attention to its fublime morality, and felt my heart expanded by warm philanthropy, and exalted to dignity of fentiment; I then cenfured my too great folicitude, and my difguft conceived at my acquaintance, who had been fo far from defigning to offend, that he only meant to fhew kindnefs and refpect. In this ftrain of mind I wrote An Effey on Benevolence, and An Elegy on fublunary Difappointments. When I had finifhed thefe, at eleven, I fupped, and recollected how little I had adhered to my plan, and almoft queftioned the poffibility of purfuing any fettled and uniform defign; however, I was not so far perfuaded of the truth of thefe fuggeftions, but that I refolved to try once more at my fcheme. As I obferved the moon fhining through my window, from a calm and bright fky fpangled with innumerable ftars, I indulged a pleafing meditation on the fplendid fcene, and finished my Ode to Aftronomy.

Wednesday.] Rofe at feven, and employed three hours in perufal of the fcriptures with Grotius's comment; and after breakfast fell into meditation concerning my projected epick; and being in fome doubt as to the particular lives of fome heroes, whom I propofed to celebrate, I confulted Bayle and Moreri, and was engaged two hours in examining various lives and characters, but then refolved to go to my employment. When I was feated at my defk, and

5

began

began to feel the glowing fucceffion of poetical ideas, my fervant brought me a letter from a lawyer, requiring my inftant attendance at Gray's Inn for half an hour. I went full of vexation, and was involved in business till eight at night; and then, being too much fatigued to study, fupped, and went to bed.

HERE my friend's journal concludes, which perhaps is pretty much a picture of the manner in which many profecute their ftudies. I therefore refolved to fend it you, imagining, that if you think it worthy of appearing in your paper, some of your readers may receive entertainment by recognising a refemblance between my friend's conduct and their own. It must be left to the Idler accurately to ascertain the proper methods of advancing in literature; but this one pofition, deducible from what has been faid above, may, I think, be reafonably afferted, that he who finds himself strongly attracted to any particular ftudy, though it may happen to be out of his propofed fcheme, if it is not trifling or vicious, had better continue his application to it, fince it is likely that he will, with much more ease and expedition, attain that which a warm inclination ftimulates him to pursue, than that at which a prefcribed law compels him to toil.

I am, &c.

P

NUMB. 68. SATURDAY, August 4, 1759.

A

MONG the ftudies which have exercised

the ingenious and the learned for more than three centuries, none has been more diligently or more fuccefsfully cultivated than the art of tranflation; by which the impediments which bar the way to fcience are, in fome meafure, removed, and the multiplicity of languages becomes lefs incommodious.

Of every other kind of writing the ancients have left us models which all fucceeding ages have laboured to imitate; but tranflation may juftly be claimed by the moderns as their own. In the first ages of the world inftruction was commonly oral, and learning traditional, and what was not written could not be tranflated. When alphabetical writing made the conveyance of opinions and the tranfmiffion of events more eafy and certain, literature did not flourish in more than one country at once, or diftant nations had little commerce with each other; and thofe few whom curiofity fent abroad in quest of improvement, delivered their acquifitions in their own manner, defirous perhaps to be confidered as the inventors of that which they had learned from others.

The Greeks for a time travelled into Egypt, but they tranflated no books from the Egyptian language;

and