appearance, and perfect neatness, is all I require. I must at dinner be treated with a temperate, but cheerful social meal; both the neighbours and the poor should be the better for me. Some time I must have a tête-à-tête with my kind entertainers, and the rest of my visit should be spent in pleasant walks and airings among sets of agreeable people, in such discourse as I shall naturally dictate, or in reading some few selected out of those numberless books that are dedicated to me, and go by my name. A name that, alas! as the world stands at present, makes them oftener thrown aside than taken up. As those conversations and books should be both well-chosen, to give some advice on that head may possibly furnish you with a future paper, and any thing you shall offer on my behalf will be of great service to,
Good Mr. Rambler,
Your faithful Friend and Servant,
SUNDAY.
Numb. 31. Tuesday, July 3, 1750.
Non ego mendosos ausim defendere mores,
Falsaque pro vitiis arma tenere meis. Ovid.
Corrupted manners I shall ne'er defend,
Nor, falsely witty, for my faults contend. Elphinston.
Though the fallibility of man's reason, and the narrowness of his knowledge, are very liberally confessed, yet the conduct of those who so willingly admit the weakness of human nature, seems to discern that this acknowledgment is
