But this tedious interval how shall I endure? Cannot you alleviate the misery of delay by some pleasing description of the entertainments of the town? I can read, I can talk, I can think of nothing else; and if you will not sooth my impatience, heighten my ideas, and animate my hopes, you may write for those who have more leisure, but are not to expect any longer the honour of being read by those eyes which are now intent only on conquest and destruction. RHODOCLIA. No. 63. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1750. _----Habebat sæpe ducentos,_ _Sæpe decem servos: modo Reges, atque Tetrarchus,_ _Omnia magna loquens; modo, Sit mihi mensa tripes, et_ _Concha salis puri, et toga, quæ defendere frigus,_ _Quamvis crassa, queat._ HOR. Lib. i. Sat. iii. 11. Now with two hundred slaves he crowds his train; Now walks with ten. In high and haughty strain At morn, of kings and governors he prates; At night--"A frugal table, O ye fates, "A little shell the sacred salt to hold, "And clothes, tho' coarse, to keep me from the cold." FRANCIS. It has been remarked, perhaps, by every writer who has left behind him observations upon life, that no man is pleased with his present state; which proves equally unsatisfactory, says Horace, whether fallen upon by chance, or chosen with deliberation; we are always disgusted with some circumstance or other of our situation, and imagine the condition of others more abundant in blessings, or less exposed to calamities. This universal discontent has been generally mentioned with great severity of censure, as unreasonable in itself, since of two, equally envious of each other, both cannot have the larger share of happiness, and as tending to darken life with unnecessary gloom, by withdrawing our minds from the contemplation and enjoyment of that happiness which our state affords us, and fixing our attention upon foreign objects, which we only behold to depress ourselves, and increase our misery by injurious comparisons. When this opinion of the felicity of others predominates in the heart, so as to excite resolutions of obtaining, at whatever price, the condition to which such transcendent privileges are supposed to be annexed; when it bursts into action, and produces fraud, violence, and injustice, it is to be pursued with all the rigour of legal punishments. But while operating only upon the thoughts it disturbs none but him who has happened to admit it, and, however it may interrupt content, makes no attack on piety or virtue, I cannot think it so far criminal or ridiculous, but that it may deserve some pity, and admit some excuse.