While the flow pencil's di continued pace Repeats the stroke, but cannot snatchi the grace."

In fine, when we take into the pen man's province the art of firiking jutt -mentioned, and confider the eminent beauties which may be produced by a due inter mixture of the various ornamental hands now in ufe, tet off with fcrawls (or flourishes) well formed and judiciouily placed, we thall find (as has frequently been the cafe of late), that a

capital piece of writing deferves to appear among the productions of the polite arts; that the principles of Penmanship are more numerous, and better founded on true talte, than may in common be imagined; that the graceful and eafy flow of its touches will be often found fuperior to any thing produced in its imitation by the engraver and the rolling-prefs; and that it has truly merited the golden and filver pens hich have fometimes been given by the public for its encouragement.:

Hs who poffeffes abilities, without

fuficient exertion to bring thole abilities into action, poffeffes what is of no benefit to himleif or to fociety; for concealed abilities, like concealed gold, have only imaginary value.

In proot of this obfervation, I fhall offer for the perufal of my readers the following letter, which I have written to perfuade a friend to return from voluntary obfcurity, and refume an active part in fociety, for which his former conduct had hewn him peculiarly formed. I am well aware the fubject of it has been often difcuffed, and that probably all the remarks may not be entirely new; for that would be more than I could expect. when a Johnson has employed his unequalled powers of ridicule and argument on the fame topic.

All the alterations I have made from the original, in the copy I here prefent to the public, are to fubititute fictitious for real names, and to retrench all paragraphs of a private, and confequently uninterefting nature.

London, Auguft 13th, 1803.

you will altogether lay it afide? Until

that time arrives, however, it shall be my bulinels to comply, as far as in my power, with your requeit; perfuaded that my utmost endeavours will not make your folitude fuferable; for if it had that effect, I am too felf-interefted, and know too well the benefits ariling from your converfation, to have troubled you with this letter.

Since your departure, I affure you, my mind has often been employed in confidering what inducement you could have to take a step fo unexpected, and fo contrary to your former conduct. I know it has not been uncommon for men ambitious of power to resign that courfe of life in which they find it impofible to have their unruly withes gratified; but for Palamedes in the prime of life, with no ambition but the laudable one of benefiting his fellowcreatures, to embrace a life of obícurity, and by that means voluntarily leffen the opportunities of gratifying that praiseworthy ambition, feems a change not eally to be accounted for on rational principles.

I can attribute this fudden alteration to no other caule but a too implicit belief in the poetical and, falfe defcriptions of the pleatures of retirement, with which fome authors have thought proper to amute themfelves. Like the renowned hero of Cervantes, who by reading romances in which the heroic actions of chivalry were related, determined to imitate thofe actions, you have, by reading another fpecies of authors, become an enthufiaftic admirer of the equally imaginary (cenes they defcribe. But you fhould have remem

P 2

bered,

bered, the best of authors are but men, and from that principle in human nature to be discontented with their own lot, have often praised that of another, only because they are unacquainted with its difadvantages.

Perhaps you would enquire what reafon I have for fuppofing you incapable of enjoying retirement? This query I can very easily anfwer. You have to overcome a habit occafioned by living an active life. To overcome that habit requires great resolution; and that refolution, I think, you do not poffefs. But I am far from thinking this want of refolution in the least depreciates your character; for how many perfons diftinguished for talents and virtue, have, like yourself, formed plans of retirement; yet how few have put these in execution, even when in their power!

But other circumstances give me reafon to hope your retirement will not be very obftinate. I think, on maturely confidering the fubject, you will be convinced that your conduct does not become the title of a good member of fociety, which you have hitherto fo meritoriously deferved. If I can perfuade you of the truth of this remark, I am certain you will not be long in correcting your error.

That every man should benefit his fellow-mortals according to his abili. ties, and not defift until age or bodily infirmity compels him, I think, is a maxim founded on the unalterable laws of nature. That man cannot, then, be called a good member of fociety, who is fatisfied with the negative virtue of doing no mischief, but he must employ his talents in doing good. Mankind were not bleft with faculties to permit those faculties to lie dormant, but to act as far approaching perfection as

thofe faculties will enable them. Tell me, my friend, whether you think it proper, abilities formed to direct the affairs of a great nation, or defend it against the attacks of an enemy, should be employed in keeping caterpillars from a favourite fruit-tree, or in varying the tints of a tulip? Was Cincinnatus at the plough fo valuable, or so commendable, as when commanding an army, or in the Senate? No! my friend, the post of honour is always that in which we are able to do molt good to fociety. Pope, in his Sapphic Ode, has given us a picture of retirement; but is the felfifh inactivity he there describes fo confonant with philanthropy as the virtuous exertions of the Man of Rofs? Inactivity, if we have the powers of action, is certainly ignoble; and I am very fure, in whatever situation you are fettled, it will not be one of your faults. I know you must be employed in acts of benevolence; but imagine you will not have fufficient fcope for your abilities in the folitary walk of life you have lately chofen.

I have now given you my fentiments on this fubject, and have fome hopes, if they do not convince, they will at leaft ferve to bring the fubject again under your confideration. Give it but ferious attention, and I am almost confident of your conviction. If, however, you still continue firm in your determination, your reply to the arguments I have offered will give me much pleas fure; for although your return to this metropolis is what I earnestly with, yet, whatever be your place of res. dence,

I am,

MY DEAR SIR,

Your fincere friend and admirer, HERANIO

LETTER VII. To the SAME. Amfterdam, May. THE HE next object which caught our attention in this city was the Surgeons' Hall, which we vifited chiefly on account of the paintings.

If the building ftood on the frontiers of the town, it might be mistaken for a fort or tower; the basement floor of which is appropriated to the purposes of a weigh-house. Having afcended, by a narrow, dirty staircase, to the apart ments of the Museum, I could not but

admire a torpidity of feeling in the refident guide and his family, who were deliberately drinking coffee amidst a groupe of ikeletons! Could you have avoided fmiling at a fcene like this? The filent horror which creeps o'er the foul, on viewing the awful relics of frail mortality, was relieved by the fang froid with which the old Skeletonmonger drank his coffee, at every interval fpinning out his thread of narrative with anecdotes of thofe once animated bones!!-Query, Whether fuch a familiarity with the dry bones is not the firmeft barrier against the fhocks of mortality? Those who can view a fkeleton with fo much compofure, are, probably, fortified more strongly against the fears of death than those who have beheld it only at a distance. Perhaps you can tell me, whether the idea of a keleton is always affociated in the mind with that of a diffolution of the frame of nature? I am of opinion, that they may, and frequently do, exift entirely independent of each other; though they are fo firmly united in me, that I could as foon accomplish an impoffibility as feparate them in my own mind; if the effect occur to the imagination, the caufe must go along with it; yet I am fatisfied that our old man felt no fenfations of the kind.

Having finished his coffee and skele. tonian converfation, he conducted us into a mean apartment, filled with dried fkeletons, monftrous births, diftorted fpines, and all the long et cetera which belong to the ftudy of anatomy; but we turned with pleasure from a scene where there was nothing to amufe, but at the expence of our feelings, to an eminent picture by Vandyke, wherein he has grouped feveral heads of the moft eminent in the profeffions of furgery and anatomy. Rembrandt's piece is a chef d'œuvre. It represents a diffection, and is fo nearly animated, that a mind unaccustomed to fuch operations feels a convulfive fhock at this well-executed counterfeit of reality. There are feveral portraits, two of which are attributed to Rubens; but the admirers of this great matter will not be eafily perfuaded to allow them fo much merit; it is certain that they are vaftly inferior to the other works of that divine painter.

The Anatomy Hall is circular, with a table in the centre, round which are benches for the Profeffors; and the Students are feated round on ranges

of benches, which rise gradually above each other.

In the vacant spaces under the higher circles of benches, are crowded, in a confufed manner, feveral fubjects of natural history, connected with the ftudies of phyfic and anatomy; here alfo, mixed with the filent throng of fishes, animals, &c. are preferved the fkeleton remains of those who were once the terror of mankind, robbers and murderers, diftinguished from the common herd of delinquents by their hardy defiance and contempt of the laws: one lank fkeleton is exhibited without a morfel of flesh, and faid to be clad in the habiliments which witneffed the depredations which the owner committed. Another is in the fame ftate, who (it is faid) leaped over a canal eighteen feet wide, with a woman in his arms; he is mounted upon the horse that he ufually rode, and wears now as venerable an afpect as any Ghoft of Monk Lewis or Mrs. Radcliffe. In contemplating fuch objects, the mind feels a fecret horror and deteftation of vice; they appeal more powerfully to the feelings than the tame declamation of a world of moralifts, and incline the heart more effectually to the fide of virtue than the most impreffive leffons of a divine: on feeing these, we are ready to exclaim

To gain a deathlefs name, however base The arts you might employ to purchafe it? He fir'd a temple, and thus incurr'd The hot relentment of its worshippers. No! to court fuch fame was never your intent. [ure, You hoped to fave your lives from forfeitAnd teal unknown to dark oblivion's cell. [juftice would, Yes! you never dreamt, perhaps, that With iron vengeance, overtake your crimes,

Hold you up a dread fpectacle to man, And give to fame the record of your

Having, in my lait, finished an account of the Stadthoufe and the Surgeons' Hall, you will undoubtedly expect this packer to contain fome defcription of the Rafp and Spin Houles. So far you are right. It is generally my firit object on entering a town to vifit the public edifices, as it is there we are to learn the outlines of the taste and manners of the people. When this outline is carefully traced, the features may be gradually and correctly obtained, if we affimilate with the manners of the natives, and attend them through every vary ing fcene; mark their political and religious fentiments, their ideas of the focial compact, their thoughts and fentiments on the commonwealths of Greece and Rome. If we vifit them in their commercial tranfactions, in all their amufements, and the minutiae of domeftic economy, we fhall hardly fail

of forming a true eftimate of the ftate of manners and fociety wherever we are proceeding on fuch a plan, we fhall perceive, that thofe feveral actions and propenfities which appear inconfitent at first view are parts of a whole, and may be referred indifcriminately to one fource, from which every thought and perception emanates.

A national character every where exits: the people may make some pro. grefs in refinement, luxury may ener vate, and science enlighten them, but they only fotten the figure, and thade it agreeably; the character, the phyfiognomy, and phyfiology, fill bear the marks of originality, are till unique. It is true, the texture of the mind is often very difficult to afcertain, even in the most fyftematical mode of investigation; yet this difficulty is confiderably increafed by the falfe method of conducting our reasoning on the fubject; from cafes we infer principles, and on thofe principles erect a fyitem as fallacious as the firit point of our reafoning. It is the fame in the phyfiology of the mind as in geometry, the book of Nature must be itudied closely, it furnishes us with the roots or radical principles of the human heart. He who has well digefted the elements of Euclid has laid in a ftock of conclufive principles, with which he can regularly proceed in the more abftrufe fciences, the properties and relations of unknown lines are inferred, obtained, and demonstrated, from the properties of lines that are known. If the geometrician wish to discover the relations of two lines to each other, or to a third line in a figure, he calls in his elementary principles, draws a circle, erects or lets fall a perpendicular, draws a line parallel, or in a given angle to another line, &c.; and thus, from the relations of the known lines, he discovers that of the unknown ones.

And he who has ftudied the book of Nature is in poffeffion of a fund equally rich and extentive. He can know nothing of mathematics who has not fixed in his memory a competent knowledge of Euclid, at every step feeling involved in new difficulties; and he will be ever liable to misconceptions who has the trouble of fearching for a caufe when an effect is produced: ftudy the human heart; there lies the chain of caufes to which every action in life is correfpondent.

The Rafp House, or House of Cor rection,