It is not so with every one who labours under the afflicting hand of time. When I had got a little further on my accustomed walk, I was catched in a shower, and took shelter in the house of an acquaintance in Prince's-street. As I passed the coffee-house and confectioner's shop, I was struck with compassion at the sight of the many vacant and melancholy faces which appeared at the doors and windows. It was but a little after mid-day, and consequently the gentlemen to whom these faces belonged had a great while to look forward to the hour when they could with propriety pull off their boots, and dress for the business of the table. The weather did not permit of their getting rid of this interval by a gallop, which is one of the happiest expedients for the purpose in the world, as it removes the head-ach of yesterday's dinner, gets through the time till the dinner of to-day, and gives an appetite for enjoying that meal when it comes. But my poor friends in Prince's-street had no hope of getting through the tedious interval in the society of their horses; they had before them the dismal prospect of spending three long hours in their own company, or in the company of their fellow-sufferers; and, after all, of sitting down to dinner with muddy heads and squea

mish stomachs.

'Mentem, mortalia tangunt,' says the Poet. The distresses incident to humanity are the great nourishers of moral speculation. The mortals of Prince'sstreet touched my mind, and I could not think, without a great degree of commisseration, of the difficulty they would find in passing the time till the arrival of that important æra in the history of the day-the hour of dinner. The more I reflected, the more I was distressed on their account: for I suspect that it is not only when the morning is rainy that our gentlemen of fashion find their time heavy. The languor and restlessness

which are so frequently to be observed united in their looks and behaviour, are too evident symptoms of this quotidian disorder, this malady of time, under which they have the misfortune to labour.

To say the truth, in spite of our complaints of the shortness of life, yet four-and-twenty hours returning every day are by far too much for persons who have no other object but amusement. It is almost impossible to continue longer in bed than eleven hours; few people are able to lie more than eight or nine. Here, then, upon the most moderate calculation, we have at least thirteen hours to be filled up every day. by people who have nothing to do but to be amused. Now, although a chace, a bottle of wine, a dance, and some other expedients, to which these gentlemen have recourse, may give occasional fillips to their spirits, yet it is not in man, not even in a man of fashion, to be both idle and comfortable for thirteen hours together, day after day.

There seems to be here an incongruity which is not observable any where else in the works of Nature. All the other animals have their duration pretty well adjusted to the purposes to which they seem to have been intended, or to their capacity for filling up the time allotted to them with tolerable satisfaction. The gay fluttering tribe of butterflies, who have no other business under the sun but pleasure, do not live long enough to have any languid intervals, or fits of the vapours. Geese, on the other hand, are very long lived: but then it is to be observed, that geese undertake the important and laborious task of rearing a family every season-they have likewise many enterprising excursions to make both by land and water in search of their food; and besides, they can fill up their leisure hours agreeably by means of two very fortunate circumstances, their power of commanding sleep when they please, and their

VOL. XXXVII.

talent for conversation. By these means, geese, when they are saved from the hand of the poulterer, are able to go on to a respectable old age, without ever being at a loss how to kill the time.

But men of fashion are an anomaly in the creation. Indeed, to adjust matters, one of two things is necessary; either to abridge the duration of their life, or else to improve their means of enjoying it.

With regard to the first method of abridgement, I humbly conceive, that if, from the time when our men of fashion break loose from their parents and preceptors, with the full command of money or credit, they were to sink quietly to rest in the course of nature at the end of a twelve-month, their life would be pretty nearly sufficient for all they have to do. They would not fail within that space to run round the whole circle of pleasure again and again, which is evidently what they consider as the chief end of man. At the same time, they would be seasonably delivered from the insipidity of pleasure, when it becomes too familiar, from the unhappy devices which they fall upon to diversify their amusements, and to saunter away a tedious lifetime. Many of our young men of fashion seem to be sensible of the justness of this observation; for they do what they can to get the better of their constitution, and to abridge their life to a duration more suitable to the use which they make of it.

In this attempt, however, they are not always sufficiently expeditious; and, at any rate, it is always extremely unpleasant; most men of fashion, like. most other men, however disagreeable or useless they may find their lives, not chusing to die as long as they can easily avoid it. It would therefore be more acceptable, if it were possible to supply them with some means of passing more tolerably the thir

teen or fourteen hours which they cannot lose in sleeping.

Here to be sure a moralist might assume a high tone of declamation, and call on those gentlemen to remember the duties which their country requires. He might tell them, that the eyes of mankind were directed to their conduct, and expected, from their station and fortune, examples of active and disinterested patriotism. He might tell them, that if they were unwilling to take a share in the legislature, or if the happy season of peace gave them no oppor tunity to display their martial talents and gallantry in the field, yet they could not be at a loss for occasions to display their activity and enterprise, by employing their wealth and influence to diffuse civilization and comfort, industry and good morals, among all ranks of their fellow-citizens. He might tell them, that from such occupations they would dérive the most honourable, heartfelt, and lasting pleasures, and be followed with the gratitude, the blessings of thousands. He might likewise entreat them to consider the opportunities which their riches and leisure afforded them of extending their researches into science, and encourage them with the prospect of utility and reputation united with the most interesting and endless amusement. He might also point out the delightful relaxation from their labours and solace to their cares which literature would afford them he might tell them how much it would contribute at once to polish and elevate the character, and how admirably it would supersede those frivolous or pernicious entertainments in which they waste their hours.

But it would be cruel to harass the poor gentlemen with these school-declamations. The employments here pointed out require not only temporary exertions, but also continued industry, which we can

scarcely expect from them. All that can be attempted with any reasonable hope of success, is to find some occupations which are more innocent, but which require no greater labour than the bottle or the gaming-table, than low profligacy or treacherous intrigue.

Now, I have known several idle persons who contrived to amuse the vacant intervals between breakfast and dinner, and between dinner and supper, in a very inoffensive manner. According as the weather and season permitted, they employed all the first part of the day either in angling, shooting, hunting, or skaiting. When they could not go abroad with comfort, they always contrived work at home; such as weaving nets, plaiting lines, dressing fishing-flies, cleaning guns, looking after the horses, and playing on the fiddle. In this manner, with the help of the newspaper, dressing for dinner, and now and then a game at whist or back-gammon for a trifle in the evening, I have known some persons of no great fortune, who spent their time in the country from year's end to year's end, without much extraordinary sleeping, without much extraordinary yawning, without much extraordinary drinking, without doing any harm, and even without thinking on the amusements of the town.

I should therefore imagine, that the men of fashion, considering the accurate attention which it is proper for them to pay to their dress, and the superior advantages which they enjoy from the amusements of the town, excursions to watering-places, and trips to the Continent, might contrive to occupy their time without hanging out their melancholy faces at coffee-house doors or confectioners shops, without exposing their own fortunes to be pilfered, or trying to pilfer others at the gamingtable, without weakening their constitutions, or in