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NUMB. 2. SATURDAY, April 22, 1758.

MAN

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ANY pofitions are often on the tongue, and feldom in the mind; there are many truths which every human being acknowledges and forgets. It is generally known, that he who expects much will be often difappointed; yet difappointment feldom çures us of expectation, or has any other effect, than that of producing a moral fentence, or peevish exclamation. He that embarks in the voyage of life, will always wish to advance rather by the impulfe of the wind, than the ftrokes of the oar; and many founder in the paffage, while they lie waiting for the gale that is to waft them to their wish.

It will naturally be fufpected that the Idler has lately fuffered fome difappointment, and that he does not talk thus gravely for nothing. No man is required to betray his own fecrets. I will, however, confefs, that I have now been a writer almost a week, and have not yet heard a fingle word of praife, nor received one hint from any correfpondent.

Whence this negligence proceeds I am not able to difcover. Many of my predeceffors have thought themselves obliged to return their acknowledgments in the fecond paper, for the kind reception of the first; and in a fhort time, apologies have become neceffary to thofe ingenious gentlemen and ladies, whofe performances, though in the highest degree

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elegant and learned, have been unavoidably delayed.

What then will be thought of me, who, having experienced no kindness, have no thanks to return; whom no gentleman or lady has yet enabled to give any cause of difcontent, and who have therefore no opportunity of fhewing how fkilfully I can pacify refentment, extenuate negligence, or palliate rejection?

I have long known that fplendor of reputation is not to be counted among the neceffaries of life, and therefore fhall not much repine if praife be withheld till it is better deferved. But furely I may be allowed to complain that, in a nation of authors, not one has thought me worthy of notice after fo fair an invitation.

At the time when the rage of writing has feized the old and young, when the cook warbles her lyricks in the kitchen, and the thrasher vociferates his heroicks in the barn; when our traders deal out knowledge in bulky volumes, and our girls forfake their famplers to teach kingdoms wifdom; it may feem very unneceffary to draw any more from their proper occupations, by affording new opportunities of literary fame.

I should be indeed unwilling to find that, for the fake of correfponding with the Idler, the fmith's iron had cooled on the anvil, or the fpinfter's diftaff ftood unemployed. I folicit only the contributions of thofe who have already devoted themfelves to literature, or, without any determinate attention, wander at large through the expanfe of life, and wear out the day in hearing at one place, what they? utter at another.

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Of thefe, a great part are already writers. One has a friend in the country upon whom he exercises his powers; whofe paffions he raises and depreffes; whofe understanding he perplexes with paradoxes, or ftrengthens by argument; whofe admiration he courts, whofe praifes he enjoys; and who ferves him inftead of a fenate or a theatre; as the young foldiers in the Roman camp learned the ufe of their weapons by fencing against a poft in the place of an

enemy.

Another has his pockets filled with effays and epigrams, which he reads, from houfe to house, to felect parties; and which his acquaintances are daily entreating him to withhold no longer from the impatience of the publick.

If among these any one is perfuaded that, by fuch preludes of compofition, he has qualified himself to appear in the open world, and is yet afraid of those cenfures which they who have already written, and they who cannot write, are equally ready to fulminate against publick pretenders to fame, he may, by tranfmitting his performances to the Idler, make a cheap experiment of his abilities, and enjoy the pleasure of fuccefs, without the hazard of mifcarriage.

Many advantages not generally known arife from this method of ftealing on the publick. The flanding author of the paper is always the object of critical malignity. Whatever is mean will be imputed to him, and whatever is excellent be afcribed to his affiftants. It does not much alter the event, that the author and his correfpondents are equally unknown; for the author, whoever he be, is an individual,

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vidual, of whom every reader has fome fixed idea, and whom he is therefore unwilling to gratify with applaufe; but the praifes given to his correspondents are scattered in the air, none can tell on whom they will light, and therefore none are unwilling to bestow them.

He that is known to contribute to a periodical work, needs no other caution than not to tell what particular pieces are his own: fuch fecrecy is indeed very difficult; but if it can be maintained, it is fcarcely to be imagined at how small an expence he may grow confiderable.

A perfon of quality, by a single paper, may engrofs the honour of a volume. Fame is indeed dealt with a hand lefs and lefs bounteous through. the fubordinate ranks, till it defcends to the profeffed author, who will find it very difficult to get more than he deserves; but every man who does not want it, or who needs not value it, may have liberal allowances; and, for five letters in the year fent to the Idler, of which perhaps only two are printed, will be promoted to the first rank of writers by those who are weary of the prefent race of wits, and wish to fink them into obfcurity before the luftre of a name not yet known enough to be detefted.

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NUMB. 3. SATURDAY, April 29, 1758.

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T has long been the complaint of those who frequent the theatres, that all the dramatick art has been long exhausted, and that the viciffitudes of fortune, and accidents of life, have been fhewn in every poffible combination, till the first scene informs us of the laft, and the play no fooner opens, than every auditor knows how it will conclude, When a confpiracy is formed in a tragedy, we guess by whom it will be detected; when a letter is dropt in a comedy, we can tell by whom it will be found. Nothing is now left for the poet but character and fentiment, which are to make their way as they can, without the foft anxiety of fufpence, or the enlivening agitation of furprize.

A new paper lies under the fame disadvantages as a new play. There is danger left it be new without novelty. My earlier predeceffors had their choice of vices and follies, and felected fuch as were moft likely to raise merriment or attract attention; they had the whole field of life before them, untrodden and unfurveyed; characters of every kind fhot up in their way, and thofe of the most luxu-, riant growth, or moft confpicuous colours, were naturally cropt by the firft fickle. They that follow are forced to peep into neglected corners, to

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