of turnpike-roads had deftroyed the diftinction between town and country manners, and, the maid of honour and the farmer's wife put on a cap of the latest form, almost at the fame inftant. I mention this, because it may have escaped the obfervation of many, that a new fashion pervades the whole of this our inland almost as instantaneously as a spark of fire illuminates a mass of gunpowder*.

These, it may be faid, were but foibles in the manners of the times; but there were certain notions and opinions, which having been diffeminated fubfequent

to

The town-life had alfo received great improvements, which have fince been further extended: public entertainments are now enjoyed in an immediate fucceffion: from the play the company are generally able to get away by eleven, the hour of affembling at other places of amufement; from thefe the hour of retirement is three, which gives, till noon the next day, nine hours for reft; and after that fufficient time for a ride, auctions, or fhopping, before five or fix the dinner hour. Nor is this feeming indulgence and immoderate pursuit of pleafure fo inconfiftent with the attendance on public worship as it may feem: methodiim, or fomething like it, in many inftances, makes them compatible; fo that I have known a lady of high rank enjoy the pleafures of a rout, that almoft barred access to her house, on the evening of a Sunday which fhe had begun with prayer, and a participation of the folemnities which at an early hour in that day, are conftantly celebrated at St. James's chapel.

For most of these refinements on our public diverfions we are indebted to the late Mrs. Cornelys, to whole elegant taste for pleafure the magistrates of Turin and Bruffels were fo blind, and of her worth fo infenfible, that, as I was given to understand by intelligence communicated to me in my judicial capacity, they severally drove her out of both those cities: this hofpitable country, however, afforded her an asylum; and in Westminster she was permitted to improve our manners, without any further interruption, than a prefentment of her houfe as a nuifance, by a grand jury of the

county,

to the publication of the last of the collections of effays above-mentioned, escaped their cenfure, and were now become principles that had mif-led many, and were likely to affect the moral conduct of the young and unthinking these had for their authors and propagators fuch men as Collins, Mandeville †, Morgan and Tindal; the first pair deists, and the latter infidels. And to these I might add, though I would not brand

county, which, had it been profecuted, it might have been my lot to try; but by the aid of her friends fhe found means to fmother it. Soon after, fhe became a prifoner for debts to a large amount; but in the riots in 1780 found means to escape from confinement, and has never fince been heard of.

+ Mandeville, whose chriftian name was Bernard, was a native of Dort in Holland. He came to England young, and, as he says in fome of his writings, was fo pleased with the country, that he took up his refidence in it, and made the language his study. He lived in obfcure lodgings in London, and betook himself to the profeffion of phyfic, but was never able to acquire much practice. He was the author of the book above-mentioned, as also of Free Thoughts on Religion,' and a Discourse on Hypochondriac Affections,' which Johnson would often commend; and wrote besides, fundry papers in the London Journal,' and other fuch publications, to favour the cuftom of drinking fpirituous liquors, to which employment of his pen, it is fuppofed he was hired by the diftillers. I once heard a London physician, who had married the daughter of one of that trade, mention him as a good fort of man, and one that he was acquainted with, and at the fame time affert a fact, which I suppose he had learned from Mandeville, that the children of women addicted to dram-drinking, were never troubled with the rickets. He is faid to have been coarse and overbearing in his manners where he durft be fo; yet a great flatterer of fome vulgar Dutch merchants, who allowed him a penfion. This last information comes from a clerk of a city attorney, through whofe hands the money paffed,

them with so harsh an appellation as the laft, Toland, Gordon, Trenchard, and others of that class of writers, men who having drank the lees of the Bangorian controverfy, were become fo intoxicated in their notions of civil and religious liberty, as to talk of the majefty of the people! and fhewed themselves anxious that their zeal for religion might be estimated by their jealousy of all establishments for the support of it.

The flimfy arguments contained in Collins's difcourse on Free-thinking, had been refuted with great learning and pleafantry by Bentley, before which time, as I have been informed, a clergyman in his habit, walking the streets of London, was in danger of being affronted; but the poifon of Mandeville had affected many. His favourite principle is, the title to the most noted of all his books, Private vices, public benefits,' throughout which he labours to inculcate, as a subordinate position, this other, that man is a felfifh being, and that all that we call human beneficence is to be accounted for upon principles that exclude the love of any but ourselves *

Johnfon has remarked, that malevolence to the clergy is feldom at a great diftance from irreverence for religion. He faw the features of that malevolence

Lord Macclesfield, when chief-juftice, was used often to have him at his house, and was pleased with his converfation. He once got Mr. Addifon to meet him, of whom being asked his opinion by his lordship, Mandeville anfwered, he thought him a parfon in a tye-wig. See Johnfon's life of Addison among the Lives of the Poets.

in the writings of these men, and the point at which free-thinking was likely to terminate; and taking up the defence of religion where Mr. Addison left it, he made it a part of his defign as well to adduce new arguments for its support, and to enforce the practice of virtue, as to correct those errors in the fmaller concerns and occupations of life, the ridiculing which rendered his paper an amusement.

In this fituation and ftate of public manners Johnfon formed the plan of his Rambler, and with what spirit he entered upon it may be inferred from the following folemn addrefs, which he compofed and offered up to the divine Being for a bleffing on the undertaking :

• Almighty God, the giver of all good things, without whofe help all labour is ineffectual, and without whofe grace all wifdom is folly; grant, I befeech Thee, that in this undertaking thy holy spirit may not be with-held from me, but that I may promote thy glory, and the falvation of myself and others: · grant this, O Lord, for the fake of thy fon Jefus

Chrift. Amen.'

The work was undertaken without the communication of his defign to any of his friends, and confequently without any defire of affiftance from them; it was from the ftores of his own mind alone that he hoped to be able to furnish that variety of matter which it would require; which, that it might at no time fail him, he kept up by noting in a commonplace book that he carried about him, such incidents, fentiments, and remarks on familiar life and manners as were for his purpose. This method of accumulat

ing

ing intelligence had been practised by Mr. Addison, and is humourously described in one of the Spectators, wherein he feigns to have dropped his paper of Notanda, confifting of a diverting medley of broken fentences and loose hints, which he tells us he had collected, and had meant to make ufe of. Much of the fame kind is Johnson's Adverfaria, as will appear by the following fpecimens:

• HEREDIPETA born heir prefumptive to great • fortune. Had two unkles and an aunt.- Eldeft un. fquire and fox-hunter; other a sea captain grown rich, Mother a citizen's daughter. Father an attorney, always told me of the riches to be gotten by pleafing unk.-Made a fycophant early-Hunted, found hares, caught fish, with the elder - asked ⚫ the other his adventures, foreign countries. Wifhed I was bred to fea- taken at word " no land lubber "no "fhould" [have] "his money." Went to fea. During voyage eldest fell in hunting died - Estate came to his brother - He married aunt's maid, the groffnefs of his behaviour cutting off from equals, Only aunt remains - now haunted by a half pay ' officer, or officer of the guards, a young gentleman

with a place at court, a rich widower without ⚫ children, &c. - The time spent in which I fhould have acquired the means of living-Folly of this kind of dependence - Every man fhould live by his own powers. Flattery-flavery-defeated at length by footman - chambermaid -- or peevishness or caprice of age. Ideas-hunting-cardsfailing-failors fate any manfion. Thus from 3 fortunes uncertain of any, indeed difabled from getting