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"Nevertheless, however admirable this work appears, it is not the individuals that are the most wonderful, but the whole under which these individuals are in perpetual fluctuation.-It is in the succession, reproduction, and duration of species, that nature becomes inconceivable. This mysterious faculty of reproduction which resides alone in animals and vegetables-this kind of unity in diversity, always subsisting, and seemingly eternalthis procreative power, which perpetually exercises itself, without being destroyed-is a secret, the depth of which we are unable to fathom."

BUFFON, Nat. Hist. Anim.

Ergo ipsas quamvis angusti terminus ævi Excipiat (neque enim plus septima ducitur æstas) Sed genus immortale manet, multosque per annos Stat fortuna domûs, et avi numerantur avorum.

VIRGIL, GEORG. iv. 206.

I am sorry that my limits allow me to say no more on this head of imitation, as I am persuaded of its importance to the general objects of literature. To suspect it everywhere, and on insufficient grounds, or on the other hand to be dupes to its artifices, are extremes that tend equally to betray our judgements.

No. 41. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 16.

Round him much embryo, much abortion lay.

POPE.

IN revolving the general cast and spirit of such of my lucubrations as have been committed to the world, I cannot help secretly accusing myself of treating the votaries of fashion with too little indulgence. So much has this lain upon my conscience, that I determined, a few days ago, upon making them some reparation; and accordingly wrote with great urgency to my friend the Projector, to turn the course of his labours, as far as possible, into a channel that might produce some advantages to fashionable life. He has accordingly exerted himself with his usual vigour and alacrity, and has sent me several draughts and plans designed for the ease and benefit of the world of fashion. The first produce of his lucubrations is a system of economy, by which the Great will be enabled at once to abridge their expense of time, of pocket, and of study. His conceptions are given to me almost in the following words:

"To persons whose lives are full of business, and of great concern to themselves and their fellowcreatures, as is undoubtedly the case with people of fashion, no gift is so worthy of being cherished as time :-to economise and preserve which, I propose the following rules:

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"1st. No time to be expended on thought, as no thing comes of it among men of fashion. 2dly. The wear and tear of time, by constant use, to be avoided, as so precious an article ought to be employed sparingly.

"3dly. Time often to be protracted by long and wearisome lounges, by way of making the most of it.

4thly. When time is heavy with lassitude, and dull with inoccupation, be tender of using it in this torpid and vapourish condition, and endeavour to refresh it by the slumbers of inanity. "5thly. Make up your mind at once and irrevocably on every question: by these means you save the time that would otherwise be lost in choosing, and need never after waste a moment in hearing what another man has to say. "6thly. Avoid the acquisition of too many new ideas, which will demand considerable time to arrange in your minds. The fewer your ideas, the more speedily will your measures be taken, and your resolutions formed; it being a mach shorter process to determine with two ideas than with half a score.

"7thly. Dispossess yourself as much as possible of all feeling for other men; sorrow for others is a double consumer, and lights at both ends the torch of existence. We lose to ourselves the present moment, and quicken the approach of gray hairs and the grave. "Sthly. Rob other men of as much of their time as possible, by way of saving your own. This is a golden rule, and a most ingenious economy. 9thly. Study your own gratification in every concern of life, and waste no time in thinking of

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the sacrifices you make to them, or of their consequences to other men. 10thly. Let all your time be spent upon yourself, on the farmer's principle of spending his manure on his own grounds; and let your constant admiration of your own perfections absorb all the praise that is due from you to others.

11thly. Fill up your time as much as possible with pleasures that exclude participation. "12thly. The last and greatest rule is this:-Allow no time for praying, or for works of charity for this is giving up a portion of our time to eternity, which is a greater absurdity than sending presents to Croesus, or pouring water into the ocean.'

So much for my friend's rules for the economy of time, designed for the benefit of the fashionable world. He next considers the various articles in which money may be saved, so that a sufficiency may be preserved for the uses of gaming, and the business of dissipation.

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1st. All expensive feelings and sensations to be subdued; such as compassion, generosity, patriotism, and public spirit.

2dly. The money bestowed on horses to be saved out of the education of our children; they are, therefore, to be sent to school where the cheapest bargain can be made for them. "3dly. To banish hospitality from our bosoms," and to ask the company of our friends for the sake of pillaging them at play, and in a view to the douceurs which they in course leave behind them, and which we divide with our ser

vants.

"4thly. To sacrifice comfort to ostentation in every article of life; to go without substantial conveniences, for the sake of shining superfluities; to be misers at home, that we may look like prodigals in public; and to live like beggars in secret, to glitter like princes abroad.

"5thly. To abandon all poor relations, and to be charitable only to those who are much richer than ourselves-this is pious usury.

"6thly. To be loud against the ingratitude of the poor, which we have never experienced; and to reserve our charity for deserving objects, which we are determined never to acknowledge.

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7thly. To be active and forward in speculative schemes of charity, which we are well assured can never take place; while we are silently raising our rents, to the ruin of distressed families.

"8thly. To pass by the door of Famine, with our money glued to our pockets; while, to see a new dancer at the Opera in the evening, we draw our purse-strings as generously as princes. 9thly. To repair to the house of Distress, not to dissipate our money in common-place acts of compassion and generosity, but to extort good bargains from hunger and necessity, and to purchase at cheap rates the last valuable relics of perishing fortunes.

"10thly. To be lavish of kind speeches, which cost nothing; and to lament, when death has come in relief to misery, that the circumstances of so melancholy a case were not known to us in time to afford us the luxury of exercising our humanity."

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