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observer, who had looked on the transactions of the medical world for half a century, a very curious book might be written on the fortune of physicians.

Life of Akenfide.

PERIODICAL PUBLICATIONS.

Nothing is so proper as the frequent publications of short papers (like the Tatlers, Spectators, &c.) which we read, not as a study, but amusement. If the subject be slight, the treatise is likewise short. The busy may find time, and the idle may find patience.

Life of Addison.

He that condemns himself to compose on a stated day, will often bring to his task an attention dissipated, a memory embarrassed, an imagination overwhelmed, a mind distracted with anxieties, a body languishing with disease. He will labour on a barren topic, till it is too late to change it; or in the ardour of invention, diffuse his thoughts into wild exuberance, which the pressing hour of publication cannot suffer judgment to examine or reduce.

Rambler, vol. 4, p. 262.

LITERARY PUBLICATIONS.

If nothing may be published but what civil authority shall have previously approved, power must always be the standard of truth; if every dreamer of innovations may propagate his projects, there can be no settlement; if every murmurer at government may diffuse discontent, there can be no peace; and if every sceptic in theology may teach his follies, there can be no religion. The remedy against these evils is to

punish the authors; for it is yet allowed, that every society may punish, though not prevent, the publication of opinions which that society shall think pernicious. But this punishment, though it may crush the author, promotes the book; and it seems not more reasonable to leave the right of printing unrestrained because writers may be afterwards censured, than it would be to sleep with doors unbolted, because by our laws we can hang a thief.

Life of Milton.

OCCASSIONAL PUBLICATIONS.

There is, perhaps, no nation in which it is so necessary as in our own, to assemble, from time to time, the small tracts, and fugitive pieces, which are occasionally published; for, beside the general subjects of enquiry which are cultivated by us in common with every other learned nation, our constitution in church and state, naturally gives birth to a multitude of performances, which would either not have been written, or could not have been made public, in any other place.

Origin and Importance of Fugitive Pieces, p. 1.

PLAYER.

A public performer is so much in the power of spectators, that all unnecessary severity is restrained by that general law of humanity which forbids us to be cruel where there is nothing to be feared..

Idler, vol. 1, p. 138. .

In every new performer, something must be pardoned. No man can, by any force of resolution, secure to himself the full possession of his powers, under the eye of a large assembly. Va

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riation

riation of gesture, and flexion of voice, are to be obtained only by experience.

PAINTING.

Ibid.

An historical painter must have an action not successive, but instantaneous; for the time of a picture is a single moment. Tbid. p. 252.

Though genius is chiefly exerted in historical pictures, and the art of the painter of portraits is often lost in the obscurity of his subject; yet it is in painting as in life, what is greatest is not always best. I should grieve to see Reynolds transfer to heroes and to goddesses, to empty splendour and to airy fiction, that art which is now employed in diffusing friendship, in reviving tenderness, in quickening the affections of the absent, and continuing the presence of the dead.

Ibid p. 251.

PROVIDENCE.

If the extent of the human view could comprehend the whole frame of the universe, perhaps it would be found invariably true, that Providence · has given that in greatest plenty which the condition of life makes of the greatest use; and that nothing is penuriously imparted, or placed far from the reach of men, of which a more liberal distribution, or more easy acquisition, would increase real and rational felicity.

Ibid. p. 207.

PUBLIC

Whatever is found to gratify the public, will be multiplied by the emulation of venders beyond

necessity

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necessity or use. This plenty, indeed, produces cheapness; but cheapness always ends in negli gence and depravation.

Idler, vol. 1, p. 36.

Every man is taught to consider his own happiness as combined with the public prosperity, and to think himself great and powerful in pròportion to the greatness and power of his country. Taxation no Tyranny, p. 19.

POLITENESS.

Politeness is one of those advantages which we never estimate rightly, but by the inconvenience of its loss. Its influence upon the manners is constant and uniform, so that, like an equal motion, it escapes perception. The circumstances of every action are so adjusted to each other, that we do not see where any error could have been committed, and rather acquiesce in its propriety, than admire its exactness.

-Rambler, vol. 2, p. 261.

The true effect of 'genuine politeness seems to be rather ease than pleasure. The power of delighting must be conferred by nature, and cannot be delivered by precept, nor obtained by imitation; but though it be the privilege of a very small number to ravish and to charm, every man may hope by rules and caution not to give pain, and may, therefore, by the help of good breeding, enjoy the kindness of mankind, though he should have no claim to higher distinctions.

Ibid.

When

When the pale of ceremony is once broken, rudeness and insult soon enter the breach. Ibid. vol. 4, p. 23.

PRECIPITANCY.

He that too early aspires to honours must resolve to encounter not only the opposition of interest, but the malignity of envy. He that is too eager to be rich, generally endangers his fortune in wild adventures and uncertain projects; and he that hastens too speedily to reputation, often raises his character by artifices and fallacies, decks himself in colours which quickly fade, or in plumes which accident may shake off, or competition pluck away.

Rambler, vol. 3, P. 33.

PLAGIARISM.

When the excellence of a new composition can no longer be contested, and malice is compelled to give way to the unanimity of applause, there is yet this one expedient to be tried-the charge of plagiarism. By this, the author may be degraded, though his work be reverenced; and the excellence which we cannot obscure,、 may be set at such a distance as not to overpower our fainter lustre.

Ibid. p. 224.

The author who imitates his predecessors, only by furnishing himself with thoughts and elegancies out of the same general magazine of literature, can with little more propriety be reproached as a plagiary, than the architect can be censured as a mean copier of Angelo, or Wren, because he digs his marble from the same

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