fondness, vehemence of promife, magnificence of praise, excufe of delay, and lamentation of inability, to the last chill look of final difmiffion, when the one grows weary of folliciting, and the other of hearing follicitation.

THUS copious are the materials which have been hitherto fuffered to lie neglected, while the repofitories of every family that has produced a foldier or a minifter are ranfacked, and libraries are crouded with ufelefs folios of ftate papers which will never be read, and which contribute nothing to valuable knowledge..

I HOPE the learned will be taught to know their own ftrength and their value, and inftead of devoting their lives to the honour of those who feldom thank them for their labours, refolve at laft to do juftice to themfelves.

N° 103.

N° 103. Saturday, April 5..

Refpicere ad longæ jussit spatia ultima vitæ.

Juv.

UCH of the Pain and Pleasure of mankind arifes from the conjectures which every one makes of the thoughts of others; we all enjoy praise which we do not hear, and refent contempt which we do not fee. The Idler may therefore be forgiven, if he fuffers his Imagination to represent to him what his readers will fay or think when they are informed that they have now his last paper in their hands.

VALUE is more frequently raised by fcarcity than by ufe. That which lay neglected when it was common, rises in estimation as its quantity becomes lefs. We seldom learn the true want of what we have till it is difcovered that we can have no more.

THIS effay will, perhaps, be read with care even by those who have not yet attended to any other; and he that finds this late attention recompenfed, will not forbear to wish that he had bestowed it sooner.

THOUGH the Idler and his readers have contracted no close friendship, they are perhaps both unwilling to part. There are few things not purely evil, of which we can fay, without fome emotion of uneafinefs, this is the laft. Those who never could agree together,

fhed tears when

mutual difcontent has determined them to final feparation; of a place which has been frequently visited, tho' without pleasure, the last look is taken with heaviness of heart; and the Idler, with all his chilness of tranquility, is not wholly unaffected by the thought that his last essay is now before him.

THIS fecret horrour of the laft is infeparable from a thinking being whose life is limited, and to whom death is dreadful. We always make a fecret comparison between a part and the whole; the termina

tion of any period of life reminds us that life itfelf has likewife its termination; when we have done any thing for the last time, we involuntarily reflect that a part of the days allotted us is past, and that as more is past there is less remaining.

It is very happily and kindly provided, that in every life there are certain pauses and interruptions, which force confideration upon the careless, and ferioufnefs upon the light; points of time where one courfe of action ends. and another begins and by viciffitude of fortune, or alteration of employment, by change of place, or lofs of friendship, we are forced to fay of something, this is the last.

An even and unvaried tenour of life always hides from our apprehenfion the approach of its end. Succeffion is not perceived but by variation; he that lives to day as he lived yefterday, and expects that as the present day is fuch will be the morrow, eafily conceives time as running in a circle and returning to itfelf. The uncertainty of our duration is impressed commonly by diffimilitude of condition;

it is

only

only by finding life changeable that we are reminded of its fhortnefs.

THIS Conviction, however forcible at every new impreffion, is every moment fading from the mind; and partly by the inevitable incurfion of new images, and partly by voluntary exclufion of unwelcome thoughts, we are again exposed to the univerfal fallacy; and we must do another thing for the last time, before we confider that the time is nigh when we fhall do no more.

As the laft Idler is published in that folemn week which the Chriftian world has always fet apart for the examination of the confcience, the review of life, the extinction of earthly defires and the renovation of holy purposes, I hope that my readers are already difposed to view every incident with seriousness, and improve it by meditation; and that when they see this series of trifles brought to a conclufion, they will confider that by outliving the Idler, they have paft weeks, months, and years which are now no longer in their power; that an end must in time be put to every thing great as every thing little; that to