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fteer, it is no harm to fet out all our fail: If the ftorms and tempefts of adverfity fhould rife upon us, and not fuffer us to make the haven where we would be, it will however prove no fmall confolation to us in the fe circumftances, that we have neither miftaken our courfe, nor fallen into calamities of our own procuring.

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On the Knowledge of the World.

[OTHING has fo much expofed men of learning to contempt and ridicule, as their ignorance of things which are known to all but themselves. Thofe who have been taught to confider the inftitutions of the schools as giving the laft perfection to human abilities, are surprised to see men wrinkled with study, yet wanting to be inftructed in the minute circumftances of propriety, or the neceffary forms of daily transaction; and quickly fhake off their reverence for modes of education, which they find to produce no ability above the reft of mankind.

Books, fays Bacon, can never teach the ufe of books. The student must learn, by commerce with mankind, to reduce his fpeculations to practice, and accommodate his knowledge to the purposes of life.

It is too common for those who have been bred to fcholaftic profeffions, and paffed much of their time in academies, where nothing but learning confers honours, to difregard every other qualification, and to imagine that they fhall find mankind ready to pay homage to their knowledge, and to crowd about them for inftruction. They therefore step out from their cells into the open world, with all the confidence of authority and dignity of importance; they look round about them at once with ignorance and fcorn on a race of beings to whom they are equally unknown and equally contemptible, but whofe manners they must imitate, and with whofe opinions they must comply, if they defire to pass their time happily among them.

To leffen that difdain with which fcholars are inclined to look on the common business of the world, and the unwillingness with which they condescend to learn what is not to be found in any fyftem of philofophy, it may be neceffary to confider, that though admiration is excited by abftrufe researches and remote difcoveries,

yet

yet pleasure is not given, nor affection conciliated, but by fofter accomplishments, and qualities more easily communicable to those about us. He that can only converfe upon questions, about which only a small part of mankind has knowledge fufficient to make them curious, must lofe his days in unfocial filence, and live in the crowd of life without a companion. He that can only be useful on great occafions, may die without exerting his abilities, and stand a helpless fpectator of a thousand vexations which fret away happiness, and which nothing is required to remove but a little dexterity of conduct and readiness of expedient.

No degree of knowledge attainable by man is able to fet him above the want of hourly affiftance, or to extinguish the defire of fond endearments and tender officiousness; and, therefore, no one fhould think it unneceffary to learn thofe arts by which friendship may be gained. Kindness is preserved by a conftant reciprocation of benefits or interchange of pleasures: But fuch benefits only can be bestowed as others are capable of receiving, and fuch pleasures only imparted as others are qualified to enjoy.

By this defcent from the pinnacle of art, no honour will be loft; for the condefcenfions of learning are always overpaid by gratitude. An elevated genius employed in little things, appears, to use the fimile of Longinus, like the fun in his evening declination: He remits his fplendour, but retains his magnitude; and pleases more, though he dazzles lefs.

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The Story of Le Fevre.

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T was fome time in the fummer of that year in which Dendermond was taken by the allies, which was about seven before years father came into the country, and about as many, after the time, that my uncle Toby and Trim had privately decamped from my father's houfe in town, in order to lay fome of the fineft fieges to fome of the fineft fortified cities, in Europe-when my uncle Toby was one evening getting his fupper, with Trim fitting behind him at a fmall fideboard;-the landlord of a little inn in the village came into the parlour with an empty phial in his hand to beg a glafs or two of fack: 'Tis for a poor gentleman,-I think of the army, faid the landlord, who was taken ill at my house four days ago, and has never held up his head fince, or had a defire to taste any thing, till juft now, that he has a fancy for a glafs of fack and a thin toast, -I think, fays he, taking his hand from

his forehead, it would comfort me.

If

-If I could neither beg, borrow, nor buy such a thing, added the landlord,-I could almoft steal it for the poor gentleman, he is fo ill.I hope in God he will still mend, continued he-we are all of us concerned for him.

Thou art a good-natured foul, I will answer for thee, cried my uncle Toby; and thou fhalt drink the poor gentleman's health in a glass of sack thyself,—and take a couple of bottles with my fervice, and tell him he is heartily welcome to them, and to a dozen more, if they will do him good.

Though I am perfuaded, said my uncle Toby, as, the landlord fhut the door, he is a very compaffionate fellow -Trim, yet I cannot help entertaining a high opinion of his guest too; there must be fomething more than common in him, that in so short a time should win fo much upon the affections of his hoft;And of his whole family, added the corporal, for they are all concerned for him.-Step after him, faid my uncle Toby, -do Trim,—and ask if he knows his name.

I have quite forgot it, truly, faid the landlord, coming back into the parlour, with the corporal,—but I can afk his fon again :-Has he a fon with him then? faid my uncle Toby.-A boy, replied the landlord, of about eleven or twelve years of age;-but the poor creature has tasted almost as little as his father; he does nothing but mourn and lament for him night and day: -He has not stirred from the bed-fide these two days.

My uncle Toby laid down his knife and fork, and thruft his plate down before him, as the landlord gave him the account; and Trim, without being ordered, took away without faying one word, and in a few minutes after brought him his pipe and tobacco.

-Stay in the room a little, faid my uncle Toby. -Trim! faid my uncle Toby, after he had lighted his pipe and fmoaked about a dozen whiffsTrim came in front of his mafter and made his bow;

-my uncle Toby smoaked on, and faid no more.

Corporal !

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