The Rambler.: [pt.5]

NUMB. 145. TUESDAY, August 6, 1751.

Non si priores Moeonius tenet Sedes Homerus, Pindaricae latent, Ceaeque & Alcaei minaces Stesichorique graves Camoenae.

HOR.

IT is allowed by those who have consider∣ed the constitution of society, that vo∣cations and employments of least dignity are of the most apparent use; that the mean∣est artisan or manufacturer contributes more to the accommodation of life, than the pro∣found scholar and argumentative theorist; and that the publick would suffer less immediate inconvenience from the banishment of philo∣sophers, than from the extinction of any common trade.

SOME have been so forcibly struck with this observation, that they have in the first warmth of their discovery thought it reason∣able to alter the common distribution of dignity, and have ventured to condemn man∣kind of universal ingratitude. For if justice exacts that those by whom we are most be∣nefited should be most honoured, what better title can be produced to praise and veneration than successful labour for the good of others? And what labour can be more useful than that which procures to families and Communities those necessaries which supply the wants of nature, or those conveniencies by which ease, security, and elegance are conferred?

THIS is one of the innumerable theories which the first attempt to reduce them into practice certainly destroys. If we estimate dignity by immediate usefulness, agriculture is undoubtedly the first and noblest science; yet we see the plow driven, the clod broken, the manure spread, the seeds ••••…••••…ered, and the harvest reaped, by men whom those that feed upon their industry will never be persua∣ded to admire for their wisdom, or admit

into the same rank with heroes, or with sa∣ges; and who, after all the confessions which truth may extort in favour of their occupa∣tion, must be content to fill up the lowest class of the common-wealth, to form the base of the pyramid of subordination, and lie buried in obscurity themselves while they support all that is splendid, conspicu∣ous, or exalted.

IT will be found upon a closer inspection, that this part of the conduct of mankind is by no means contrary to reason or equity. Remuneratory honours are proportioned at once to the usefulness and difficulty of per∣formances, and are properly adjusted by com∣parison of the mental and corporeal abilities, which they appear to employ. That work, however necessary, which is carried on only by muscular strength and manual dexterity, is not of equal esteem in the consideration of rational beings, with the tasks that exercise the intellectual powers, and require the active vigour of imagination, or the gradual and laborious investigations of reason.

THE merit of all manual occupations seems to terminate in the inventor; and surely

the first ages cannot be charged with ingra∣titude; since those who civilized barbarians, and taught them how to secure themselves from cold and hunger were numbered a∣mongst their deities. But these arts once discovered by philosophy, and facilitated by experience, are afterwards practised with very little assistance from the faculties of the soul; nor is any thing necessary to the regular dis∣charge of these inferior duties, beyond that rude observation which the most sluggish in∣tellect may practise, and that industry which the stimulations of necessity naturally enforce.

YET, though the refusal of statues and panegyrics to those who employ only their hands and feet in the service of man∣kind may be easily justified, I am far from intending to incite the petulance of pride, to justify the superciliousness of grandeur, or to intercept any part of that tenderness and be∣nevolence which by the privilege of their common nature one man may claim from another.

THAT it would be neither wise nor equi∣table to discourage the husbandman, the la∣bourer,

the miner, or the smith, is easily discovered and generally granted; but there is another race of beings equally obscure and equally indigent, who because their useful∣ness is somewhat less obvious to vulgar ap∣prehensions, live unrewarded and die unpiti∣ed, and who have been long exposed to insult without a defender, and to censure without an apologist.

THE authors of London were formerly com∣puted by Swift at several thousands, and there is not any reason for suspecting that their number has decreased. Of these only a very few can be said to produce, or endea∣vour to produce new ideas, to extend any principle of science, or gratify the imagina∣tion with any uncommon train of images or contexture of events; the rest, however labo∣rious, however arrogant, can only be con∣sidered as the drudges of the pen, the manu∣facturers of literature, who have set up for authors, either with or without a regular ini∣tiation, and like other artificers have no o∣ther care than to deliver their tale of wares at the stated time.

IT has been formerly imagined, that he who intends the entertainment or instruction of others, must feel in himself some pecu∣liar impulse of genius; that he must watch the happy minute in which this natural fire is excited, in which his mind is eleva∣ted with nobler sentiments, enlightened with clearer views, and invigorated with stronger comprehension; that he must care∣fully select his thoughts and polish his ex∣pressions; and animate his efforts with the hope of raising a monument of learning, which neither time nor envy shall be able to destroy.

BUT the authors whom I am now endea∣vouring to recommend have been too long hackneyed in the ways of men to in∣dulge the chimerical ambition of praise or immortality; they have seldom any claim to the trade of writing but that they have tried some other without success; they per∣ceive no particular summons to composition, except the sound of the clock; they have no other rule than the law or the fashion for ad∣mitting their thoughts or rejecting them; and about the opinion of posterity they have little solicitude, for their productions are sel∣dom

intended to remain in the world lon∣ger than a week.

THAT such authors are not to be reward∣ed with praise is evident, since nothing can be admired when it ceases to exist; but surely though they cannot aspire to honour, they may be exempted from ignominy, and a∣dopted into that order of men which deserves our kindness though not our reverence. These papers of the day, the Ephemerae of learning, have uses often more adequate to the purposes of common life than more pom∣pous and durable volumes. If it is necessary for every man to be more acquainted with his contemporaries than with past generations, and to know the events which may imme∣diately affect his fortune or his quiet, rather than the revolutions of antient kingdoms, in which he has neither possessions nor ex∣pectations; if it be pleasing to hear of the preferment and dismission of statesmen, the birth of heirs, and the marriage of beauties, the humble author of journals and gazettes, must be considered as a liberal dispenser of beneficial knowledge.

EVEN the abridger, compiler and translator, though their labours cannot be ranked with those of the diurnal historiographer, yet must not be rashly doomed to annihilation. Every size of readers requires a genius correspondent to their capacity; some delight in abstracts and epitomes because they want room in their memory for long details, and content themselves with effects, without enquiry af∣ter causes; some minds are overpowered by splendor of sentiment, as some eyes are of∣fended by a glaring light, and will gladly contemplate an author in an humble imi∣tation, as we look without pain upon the sun in the water.

AS every writer has his use, every writer ought to have his patrons; and since no man, however high he may now stand, can be certain that he shall not be soon thrown down from his elevation by criticism or ca∣price, the common interest of learning re∣quires that her sons should cease from intestine hostilities, and instead of sacrificing each o∣ther to malice and contempt, endeavour to

avert persecution from the meanest of their fraternity.