him without getting out of my chair; that is a fufficient reafon for my not affixing any.-And being obliged to fit upright to ring the bell for my fervant to convey this to the penny-poft, if I flip the opportunity of his being now in the room, makes me break off abruptly.

THIS Correfpondent, whoever he be, is not to be difmiffed without fome tokens of regard. There is no mark more certain of a genuine Idler, than uneafinefs without moleftation, and complaint without a grievance.

Yet my gratitude to the contributor of half a paper shall not wholly overpower my fincerity. I must inform you, that, with all his pretenfions, he that calls for directions to be idle, is yet but in the rudiments of idleness, and has attained neither the practice nor theory of wafting life. The true nature of idlenefs he will know in time, by continuing to be idle. Virgil tells us of an impetuous and rapid being, that acquires ftrength by motion. The Idler acquires weight by lying ftill.

The vis inertia, the quality of refifting all external impulfe, is hourly increafing; the restlefs and troublesome faculties of attention and diftinction, reflection on the past, and folicitude for the future, by a long indulgence of idlenefs, will, like tapers in unelastic air, be gradually extinguished; and the officious lover, the vigilant foldier, the busy trader, may, by a judicious compofure of his mind, fink into a ftate approaching to that of brute matter; in which he shall retain the consciousness of his own

existence, only by an obtufe languor, and drowsy dif

content.

This is the loweft ftage to which the favourites of idleness can defcend; thefe regions of undelighted quiet can be entered by few. Of thofe that are preparing to fink down into their fhade, some are roused into action by avarice or ambition, fome are awakened by the voice of fame, fome allured by the smile of beauty, and many withheld by the importunities of want. Of all the enemies of idlenefs, want is the most formidable. Fame is foon found to be a found, and love a dream; avarice and ambition may be justly fufpected of privy confederacies with idlenefs; for when they have for a while protected their votaries, they often deliver them up to end their lives under her dominion. Want always struggles against idlenefs, but want herfelf is often overcome; and every hour fhews the careful obferver, thofe who had rather live in eafe than in plenty.

So wide is the reign of idlerefs, and fo powerful her influence. But fhe does not immediately confer all her gifts. My correfpondent, who feems, with all his errors, worthy of advice, must be told, that he is calling too haftily for the laft effufion of total infenfibility. Whatever he may have been taught by unfkilful Idlers to believe, labour is neceffary in his initiation to idlenefs. He that never labours may know the pains of idlenefs, but not the pleasure. The comfort is, that if he devotes himself to infenfibility, he will daily lengthen the intervals of idleness, and fhorten thofe of labour, till at last he will lie down to reft, and no longer difturb the world or himfelf by bustle or competition.

Thus

Thus I have endeavoured to give him that information which, perhaps, after all, he did not want; for a true Idler often calls for that which he knows is never to be had, and afks questions which be does not defire ever to be answered.

NUMB. IO. SATURDAY, June 17, 1758.

CR

REDULITY, or confidence of opinion too great for the evidence from which opinion is derived, we find to be a general weaknefs imputed by every fect and party to all others, and indeed by every man to every other man,

Of all kinds of credulity, the moft obftinate and wonderful is that of political zealots; of men, who being numbered, they know not how or why, in any of the parties that divide a state, refign the use of their own eyes and ears, and refolve to believe nothing that does not favour those whom they profefs to follow.

The bigot of philosophy is seduced by authorities which he has not always opportunities to examine, is intangled in fyftems by which truth and falfehood are inextricably complicated, or undertakes to talk on fubjects which nature did not form him able to comprehend.

The Cartefian, who denies that his horfe feels the fpur, or that the hare is afraid when the hounds approach her; the difciple of Malbranche, who maintains that the man was not hurt by the bullet, which,

according to vulgar apprehenfion, fwept away his legs; the follower of Berkeley, who, while he fits writing at his table, declares that he has neither table, paper, nor fingers; have all the honour at least of being deceived by fallacies not easily detected,, and may plead that they did not forfake truth, but for appearances which they were not able to diftinguifh from it.

But the man who engages in a party has feldom to do with any thing remote or abftrufe. The prefent ftate of things is before his eyes; and, if he cannot be fatisfied without retrofpection, yet he feldom extends his views beyond the hiftorical events of the laft century. All the knowledge that he can want is within his attainment, and most of the arguments which he can hear are within his capacity.

Yet fo it is that an Idler meets every hour of his life with men who have different opinions upon every thing paft, prefent, and future; who deny the most notorious facts, contradict the moft cogent truths, and persist in afferting to-day what they afferted yesterday, in defiance of evidence, and contempt of confutation.

Two of my companions, who are grown old in idlenefs, are Tom Tempeft and Jack Sneaker. Both of them confider themfelves as neglected by their parties, and therefore intitled to credit, for why fhould they favour ingratitude? They are both men of integrity, where no factious intereft is to be promoted, and both lovers of truth, when they are not heated with political debate.

Tom Tempest is a steady friend to the house of Stuart. He can recount the prodigies that have ap

peared

peared in the sky, and the calamities that have afflicted the nation every year from the revolution, and is of opinion, that if the exiled family had continued to reign, there would have neither been worms in our fhips nor caterpillars on our trees. He wonders that the nation was not awakened by the hard froft to a revocation of the true king, and is hourly afraid that the whole island will be loft in the fea. He believes that king William burned Whitehall that he might steal the furniture, and that Tillotson died an atheist. Of queen Anne he speaks with more tenderness, owns that fhe meant well, and can tell by whom and why fhe was poifoned. In the fucceeding reigns all has been corruption, malice, and defign. S He believes that nothing ill has ever happened

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for these forty years by chance or error; he holds S that the battle of Dettingen was won by mistake, and that of Fontenoy loft by contract; that the Victory was funk by a private order; that Cornbill was fired by emiffaries from the council; and the arch of Westminfter-bridge was fo contrived as to fink on purpose that the nation might be put to charge. He confiders the new road to Ilington as an encroachment on liberty, and often afferts that broad wheels will be the ruin of England.

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Tom is generally vehement and noify, but nevertheless has fome fecrets which he always communicates in a whisper. Many and many a time has Tom told me, in a corner, that our miferies were almost at an end, and that we fhould fee, in a month, another monarch on the throne; the time elapfes without a revolution; Tom meets me again with new D 4 intel