who, though less dogmatical and supercilious, are not less impertinent. These are the com municative and shining pedants, who adorn their conversation, even with women, by happy quotations of Greek and Latin; and who have contracted such a familiarity with the Greek and Roman authors, that they call them by certain names or epithets denoting intimacy: as, old Homer; that sly rogue Horace; Maro, instead of Virgil; and Naso, instead of Ovid. These are often imitated by coxcombs, who have no learning at all, but who have got some names, and some scraps of ancient authors by heart, which they improperly and impertinently retail in all companies, in hopes of passing for scholars. If, therefore, you would avoid the accusation of pedantry on one hand, or the suspicion of ignorance on the other, abstain from learned ostentation. Speak the language of the company you are in; speak it purely, and unlarded with any other. Never seem wiser, nor more learned, than the people you are with. Wear your learning, like your watch, in a private pocket; and do not pull it out, and strike it, merely to show that you have one. If you are asked what o'clock it is, tell it; but do not proclaim it hourly and unasked, like the watchman.

Upon the whole, remember that learning (I mean Greek and Roman learning) is a most seful and necessary ornament, which it is hameful not to be master of; but, at the same

time, most carefully avoid those errors and abuses which I have mentioned, and which too often attend it. Remember, too, that great modern knowledge is still more necessary than ancient; and that you had better know perfectly the present, than the old state of Europe; though I would have you well acquainted with both.

SATIRE ON PENSIONED PEERS.

To the King's most Excellent Majesty, The humble Petition of Philip Earl of Chesterfield, Knight of the most Noble Order of the Garter,

Showeth,-That your petitioner, being rer dered by deafness as useless and insignifican as most of his equals and contemporaries are by nature, hopes, in common with them, to share your majesty's royal favour and bounty; whereby he may be enabled either to save or spend, as he shall think proper, more than he can do at present.

That your petitioner, having had the honour of serving your majesty in several very lucra tive employments, seems thereby entitled to a lucrative retreat from business, and to enjoy ohum cum dignitate; that is, leisure and a large pension.

Your petitioner humbly presumes, that he has, at least, a common claim to such a pension;

he has a vote in the most august assembly in the world; he has, at the saine time, (though he says it,) an elevation of sentiment, that makes him not only desire, but (pardon, dread sir, an expression you are used to) insist upon it.

That your petitioner is little apt, and always unwilling, to speak advantageously of himself: but as, after all, some justice is due to one's self, as well as to others, he begs leave to represent, that his loyalty to your majesty has always been unshaken, even in the worst of times, that particularly, in the late unnatural rebellion, when the Pretender advanced as far as Derby, at the head of at least three thousand undisciplined men, the flower of the Scottish nobility and gentry, your petitioner did not join him, as unquestionably he might have done, had he been so inclined: but, on the contrary, raised sixteen companies of one hundred men each, at the public expense, in support of your majesty's undoubted right to the imperial crown of these realms, which distinguished proof of his loyalty is, to this hour, unrewarded.

Your majesty's petitioner is well aware, that your civil list must necessarily be in a low and languid state, after the various, frequent, and profuse evacuations which it has of late years undergone; but, at the same time, he presumes to hope, that this argument, which seems not to have been made use of against any other person whatsoever, shall not, in this single case, be urged against him; and the less so, as he

has good reason to believe, that the deficiencies of the pension-fund are by no means the last that will be made good by parliament.

Your petitioner begs leave to observe, that a small pension is disgraceful and opprobrious, as it intimates a shameful necessity on one part, and a degrading sort of charity on the other; but that a great one implies dignity and affluence on one side, on the other regard and esteem; which, doubtless, your majesty must entertain, in the highest degree, for those great personages whose respectable names stand upon your eleemosynary list. Your petitioner, therefore, humbly persuades himself, upon this principle, that less than three thousand pounds a year will not be proposed to him; if made up gold, the more agreeable ;* if for life, the more marketable.

Your petitioner persuades himself, that your majesty will not suspect this his humble application to proceed from any mean, interested motive, of which he has always had the utmost abhorrence. No, sir; he confesses his own weakness; honour alone is his object; honour is his passion; honour is dearer to him than life. To honour he has always sacrificed all other considerations; and upon this generous principle, singly, he now solicits that honour, which in the most shining times distinguished the greatest men of Greece, who were fed at the expense of the public.

Upon this honour, so sacred to him as a peer, so tender to him as a man, he most solemnly assures your majesty, that, in case you shall be pleased to grant him this his humble request, he will gratefully and honourably support, and promote with zeal and vigour the worst measure that the worst minister can ever suggest to your majesty: but, on the other hand, should he be singled out, marked, and branded by a refusal, he thinks himself obliged ithhonour to declare, that he will, to the utmost of his power, oppose the best and wisest measures that your majesty yourself can ever dictate.

And your majesty's petitioner shall ever pray.

PERFECTION TO BE AIMED AT.

Aim at perfection in every thing, though in most things it is unattainable; however, they who aim at it, and persevere, will come much nearer to it, than those whose laziness and despondency make them give it up as unattainable. Magnis tamen excidit ausis, is a degree of praise which will always attend a noble and shining temerity, and a much better sign in a young fellow than serpere humi, tutus nimium timidusque procellæ. For men as well as

women,

-born to be controll'd,

Stoop to the forward and the bold.