perity, and admonish him to reflect how little secure he is of being always preserved from the oppressive storms, or of enjoying the constant sunshine of fortune. And if that other objection, drawn from the supposed vanity of regarding any thing of such a short duration as the bloom of a flower, be admitted as conclusive, it must unavoidably prove a great deal too much; since it will not only hold with equal force against every temporal enjoyment, and all worldly satisfactions whatever; but (which I must confess is a very shocking consideration to me) will utterly annihilate all those engaging qualities of the fair sex, which are most essentially necessary to recommend them to our love and admiration. Let me add, moreover, that if there be that real similitude, which the frequency of the allusion seems to make unquestionable, between human life and a flower; it follows, that no man can pretend to a right of despising the one, that would be thought to place any value on the other.

Nothing ought to be reckoned good any farther than as it contributes to our happiness. The value we put upon any possession or enjoyment, is the only standard that can be properly applied to determine its real worth. Whatever therefore is best fitted to administer delight to any particular person, ought certainly to be regarded, by him at least, as the chief ingredient of that " summum bonum," which, though it be the common end of all our endeavours, has however been pursued by as many different means as there have been different men. But supposing that no allowances were to be made in favour of singular propensities; yet he that can enlarge the sphere of his enjoyments, by contracting the extent of his possessions, ought, in all reasonable construction, to be deemed a much happier man, than he who, under a foolish persuasion that he is securing to himself an

inexhaustible fund of delight, shall take incessant pains to augment those riches, and extend those territories, which, after all, will as much disqualify him for enjoyment, as an unweildy corpulency of person would incapacitate him for expedition. And one might easily produce many instances of men, who by a prudent conversion of such incumbrances into flowers, have received more satisfaction from the produce of a small parterre, than from the income of a large estate; and found themselves as completely happy as a Corycius, after they had once reduced their concerns to the easy management of a single acre.

Folly may suggest what it pleases; but that alone ought to be esteemed a trifle, which is of no consequence; whereas there is nothing in nature unworthy of a wise man's regard, because the most inferior of all her productions may, in some light or another, be made instrumental to his improvement.

Were we to reflect, in a proper manner, on the correlative importance of such objects, as may be thought useless and insignificant, when considered only with regard to themselves, we should discover a mediate sort of union between the widest links of that indefinite chain which holds together the constituents of the universe: we should perceive that all those things, which are most dissimilar in every other respect, do however agree in that common destination, whereby they become so many equally important parts of one stupendous whole: and we should find as fit a place for the discovery of truth in every flower-garden, as in the celebrated groves of Cadmus.

It has been from this school that I have procured the best part of my philosophy; and from this, too, have I learned to improve and confirm my morals. The volume of nature is so full of passages above the explication of human learning, that the best proof of our having studied it with uncommon diligence and

success, must consist, chiefly, in our being able to produce from it many uncommon instances of our ignorance; and I have the vanity, or I should rather say the modesty, to boast, that I have discovered difficulties enough in one single leaf of it, to clear up my understanding from the stupifying influence of a conceited sufficiency, and to improve my reason into a perfect diffidence of its utmost force and penetration. Nor have I a flower in my possession that is less abounding in moral instruction, than in beauty and sweetness. I cannot observe that industrious nicety with which the bee examines into every thing that comes in his way, without considering it as a reproachful admonition to myself: and if I do not collect some useful lesson, that may support me under all the ensuing revolutions of my life, from every flower that such an insect can extract provision from, against the future exigencies of his, I am ready to place it to the account of my negligence, and to think myself guilty of the most unpardonable folly, in suffering him alone to profit from that, which I assume the absurd privilege of calling my own.

In short, there is such a close affinity between a proper cultivation of a flower-garden and a right discipline of the mind, that it is almost impossible for any thoughtful person that has made any proficiency in the one, to avoid paying a due attention to the other. That industry and care which are so requisite to cleanse a garden from all sorts of weeds, will naturally suggest to him how much more expedient it would be to exert the same diligence in eradicating all sorts of prejudices, follies, and vices from the mind, where they will be as sure to prevail, without a great deal of care and correction, as common weeds in a neglected piece of ground. And as it requires more pains to extirpate some weeds than others, according as they are more naturalized to the soil; so

those faults will be found the most difficult to be suppressed, which have been of the longest growth, and taken the deepest root, which are more predominant in number, and most congenial to the constitution.

No. LXXXVII. THURSDAY, AUGUST 29.

THERE is no one subject that has given such frequent exercise to the pens of my correspondents as the behaviour of servants. Were I to have published all the letters I have received upon it (not to mention the abuses that have been sent me for refusing to make those letters public) they would almost have equalled in number the letters that have been sent me upon all other subjects. "The plague of servants" is the phrase in every body's mouth: yet how fond we are of increasing this plague, even to the destruction of our fortunes, may be seen in almost every family that has any pretensions to gentility. But I must beg pardon of these correspondents for thinking a little differently from them upon this ocçasion; or rather for taking the part of servants in opposition to their masters.

Having passed the greatest part of my life in families, and being a strict (though, I hope, not an impertinent) observer of all occurrences that happen in them, I was very early of opinion that the good or bad qualities of servants were generally to be ascribed to the conduct of their masters; and by repeated experiences since, I am become so sanguine in this opinion, that when I have a mind to study any master or mistress thoroughly, I observe with circum

spection the particular dispositions and behaviour of their servants. If I find cheerfulness in their countenances, sobriety in their manners, neatness in their persons, readiness in their attendance, and harmony among themselves, I always conclude that the master and mistress of such servants have hearts which (according to a significant expression in low life) " lie in the right places." On the contrary, wherever I see servants with sullenness or ill-nature in their looks, with slothfulness in their motions, or slovenliness in their clothes; or, above all, when I hear them quarrelling among themselves; I conclude that they are copying the manners of those they serve, and that the master and mistress of that house, whatever characters they may bear in the world, are disagreeable in themselves, and a plague to all about them.

By this rule I am generally able to judge with what degree of estimation I am received at the several tea-tables where I visit. I look only at the servant to know if I am a welcome guest to his mistress and the family: if he opens the door to me with a look of indifference, or seems slack in his attendance upon me, I shorten the time of my stay, and lessen the number of my visits at that house. But if he shews me up stairs with a good grace, or looks at me with attention while I am indulging an old man's fondness for prattling, I am as well satisfied of his mistress's regard for me, as if she had offered me her purse.

The Spectator, speaking of a family of servants, says, "That instead of flying from the parts of the house through which their master is passing, they industriously contrive to place themselves in his way.” And I am intimate in a family, where the only unpleasant hours that servants know, are those in which the master and mistress of the house are absent. I have observed with great delight, when my friend and his lady have been stepping into the coach for a