The most numerous clafs of those who prefume to hope for miraculous advantages, is, that of gamesters.` But by gamefters, I do not mean the gentlemen who ftake an eftate against the cunning of thofe who have none; for I leave the cure of lunatics to the profeffors of phyfic: I mean the diffolute and indigent, who in the common phrafe put themselves in fortune's way, and expect from her bounty that which they eagerly defire, and yet believe to be too dearly purchafed by diligence and industry; tradefmen who neglect their business, quander in fashionable follies more than it can produce; and fwaggerers who rank themselves with gentlemen, merely because they have no bufinefs to purfue. The gamefter of this clafs will appear to be equally wretched, whether his hope be fulfilled or disappointed; the object of it depends upon a contingency, over which he has no influence; he purfues no purpose with gradual and perceptible fuccefs, and, therefore, cannot enjoy the pleafure which arifes from the anticipation of its accomplishment; his mind is perpetually on the rack; he is anxious in proportion to the eagerness of his defire, and his inability to effect it; to the pangs of fufpence, fucceed thofe of disappointment; and a momentary gain only embitters the loss that follows. Such is the life of him, who fhuns bufinefs because he would fecure leifure for enjoyment; except it happens against the odds of a million to one, that a run of fuccefs puts him into the poffeffion of a fum fufficient to fubfift him in idleness the remainder of his life and in this case, the idleness which made him wretched while he waited for the bounty of fortune, will neceffarily keep him wretched after it is bestowed; he will find that in the gratification of his appetites he can fill but a small portion of his time, and that these appetites themselves are weakened by every attempt to increase the enjoyment, which they were intended to fupply; he will, therefore, either dofe away life in a kind of liftlefs indolence which he defpairs to exalt into felicity, or he will imagine that the good he wants is to be obtained by an increafe of his wealth, by a larger house, a more fplendid equipage, and a more numerous retinue. If with this notion he has again recourse to the altar of fortune, he will either be undeceived by a new feries of fuccefs, or he will be reduced to his original indigence by the lofs of that which he knew not how to enjoy: if this happens, of which there is the highest degree of probability, he will inftantly become more wretched in proportion, as he was rich; though, while he was rich, he was not more happy in proportion as he had been poor. Whatever is won, is reduced by experiment to its intrinfic value: whatever is loft, is heightened by imagination to more. Wealth is no fooner diffipated, than its inanity is forgotten, and it is regretted as the means of happiness which it was not found to afford. The gamefter, therefore, of whatever clafs, plays against manifeft odds; fince that which he wins he discovers to be brass, and that which he lofes he values as gold. And it should also be remarked, that in this estimate of his life, I. have not supposed him to lose a single stake which he had not first won. But though gaming in general is wifely prohibited by the legislature, as productive not only, of private but of public evil; yet there is one fpecies to which all are fometimes invited, which equally encourages the hope of idleness, and relaxes the vigour of industry.. Ned Froth, who had been feveral years butler in a family of diftinction, having faved about four hundred pounds, took a little houfe in the fuburbs, and laid in a tock of liquors, for which he paid ready money, and which were, therefore, the best of the kind. Ned perceived his trade increafe; he purfued it with fresh alacrity, he exulted in his fuccefs, and the joy of his heart fparkled in his countenance: But, it happened that Ned, in the midft of his happinefs and profperity, was prevailed upon to buy a lottery ticket. The moment his hope was fixed upon an object which industry could not obtain, he determined to be induftrious no longer a to draw drink for a dirty and boisterous rabble, was a flavery to which he now fubmitted with reluctance, and he longed for the moment in which he fhould be free: inflead of telling his ftory, and cracking his joke for the entertainment of his cuftomers, he received them F 2 with with indifference, was observed, to be filent and fullen, and amufed himself by going three or four times a day to fearch the register of fortune for the fuccefs of his ticket. In this difpofition Ned was fitting one morning in the corner of a bench by his fire-fide, wholly abftracted in the contemplation of his future fortune; indulging this moment the hope of a mere poffibility, and the next fhuddering with the dread of lofing the felicity which his fancy had combined with the poffeffion of ten thou-fand pounds. A man well dreffed entered haftily, and enquired for him of his gueft, who many times called him aloud by his name, and curft him for his deafness and ftupidity, before Ned ftarted up as from a dream, and afked with a fretful impatience what they wanted. An affected confidence of being well received, and an air of forced jocularity in the ftranger, gave Ned fome offence; but the next moment he catched him in his arms in a tranfport of joy, upon receiving his congratulation as proprietor of the fortunate ticket, which had that morning been drawn a prize of the first class. It was not, however, long, before Ned difcovered that ten thousand pounds did not bring the felicity which he expected; a discovery, which generally produces the diffipation of fudden affluence by prodigality. Ned drank, and whored, and hired fidlers, and bought fine cloaths; he bred riots at Vauxhall, treated flatterers, and damned plays. But fomething was ftill wanting; and he refolved to ftrike a bold ftroke, and attempt to double the remainder of his prize at play, that he might live in a palace and keep an equipage; but in the execution of this project, he loft the whole produce of his lottery ticket, except five hundred pounds in Bank notes, which when he would have staked he could rot find. This fum was more than that which had established him in the trade he had left; and yet, with the power of returning to a station that was once the utmost of his ambition, and of renewing that pursuit which. alone had made him happy, fuch was the pungency of his regret, that in the despair of recovering the money which he knew had produced nothing but riot, disease, and and vexation, he threw himself from the bridge into the Thames. Fortitude founded upon the Fear of God. [Guardian, No. 117.] LOORING over the late edition of Monfieur Boileau's He works, was very much pleased with the article which he has added to his notes on the translation of Longinus. He there tells us, that the fublime in writing rifes either from the nobleness of the thought, the magnificence of the words, or the harmonious and lively turn of the phrafe, and that the perfect fublime rifes from all these three in conjunction together. produces an inftance of this perfect fublime in four verfes from the Athalia of Monfieur Racine. When Abner, one of the chief officers of the court, represents to Joad the high-prieft, that the queen was incenfed against him, the high-prieft, not in the least terrified at the news, returns this anfwer. Celui qui met un frein à la fureur des flots, Je crains Dieu, cher Abner, & n'ai point d'autr crainte. "He who ruleth the raging of the fea, knows alfo how to check the defigns of the ungodly. I fubmit my"felf with reverence to his holy will. O Abner, I fear my God, and I fear none but him." Such a thought gives no lefs a fublimity to human nature, than it does to good writing. This religious fear, when it is produced by juft apprehenfions of a divine power, naturally overlooks all human greatness that ftands in competition with it, and extinguishes every other terror that can fettle itself in the heart of man; it leffens and contracts the figure of the most exalted perfon: it difarms the tyrant and executioner, and represents to our minds the most enraged F 3 enraged and the most powerful as altogether harmless and impotent. There is no true fortitude which is not founded upon this fear, as there is no other principle of fo fettled and fixed a nature. Courage that grows from conftitution very often forfakes a man when he has occafion for it; and when it is only a kind of instinct in the foul, breaks out on all occafions without judgment or difcretion. That courage which proceeds from the fenfe of our duty, and from the fear of offending him that made us, acts always in an uniform manner, and according to the dictates of right reafon. What can the man fear, who takes care in all his actions to please a Being that is omnipotent? A Being who is able to crush all his adverfaries? A Being that can divert any misfortunes from befalling him, or turn any fuch misfortune to his advantage? The person who lives with this conftant and habitual regard to the great fuperintendant of the world, is indeed fure that no real evil can come into his lot. Bleffings may appear under the shape of pains, loffes, and difappointments, but let him have patience, and he will fee them in their proper figures. Dangers may threaten him, but he may reft fatisfied that they will either not reach him, or that, if they do, they will be the inftruments of good to him. In fhort, he may look upon all croffes and accidents, fufferings and afflictions, as means which are made use of to bring him to happiness. This is even the worit of that man's condition whofe mind is poffeffed with the habitual fear of which I am now fpeaking. But it very often happens, that thofe which appear evils in our own eyes, appear alfo as fuch to him who has human nature under his care, in which cafe they are certainly averted from the perfon who has made himself, by this virtue, an object of divine favour. Hiftories are full of inftances of this nature, where men of virtue have had extraordinary efcapes out of fuch dangers as have inclofed them, and which have seemed inevitable. There is no example of this kind in pagan hiftory which more pleases me than that which is recorded in the |