The known shortness of life, as it ought to moderate our passions, may likewise, with equal propriety, contract our designs. There is not time for the most forcible genius, and most active industry, to extend its effects beyond a certain sphere. To project the conquest of the world, is the madness of mighty princes; to hope for excellence in every science, has been the folly of literary heroes; and both have found at last, that they have panted for a height of eminence denied to humanity, and have lost many opportunities of making themselves useful and happy, by a vain ambition of obtaining a species of honour, which the eternal laws of Providence have placed beyond the reach of man. The miscarriages of the great designs of princes are recorded in the histories of the world, but are of little use to the bulk of mankind, who seem very little interested in admonitions against errours which they cannot commit. But the fate of learned ambition is a proper subject for every scholar to consider; for who has not had occasion to regret the dissipation of great abilities in a boundless multiplicity of pursuits, to lament the sudden desertion of excellent designs, upon the offer of some other subject made inviting by its novelty, and to observe the inaccuracy and deficiencies of works left unfinished by too great an extension of the plan? It is always pleasing to observe, how much more our minds can conceive, than our bodies can perform; yet it is our duty, while we continue in this complicated state, to regulate one part of our composition by some regard to the other. We are not to indulge our corporeal appetites with pleasures that impair our intellectual vigour, nor gratify our minds with schemes which we know our lives must fail in attempting to execute. The uncertainty of our duration ought at once to set bounds to our designs, and add incitements to our industry; and when we find ourselves inclined either to immensity in our schemes, or sluggishness in our endeavours, we may either check, or animate, ourselves, by recollecting, with the father of physick, _that art is long, and life is short_. No. 18. SATURDAY, MAY 19, 1750. _Illic matre carentibus,_ _Privignis mulier temperat innocens,_ _Nec dotata regit virum_ _Conjux, nec nitido fidit adultero:_ _Dos est magna parentium_ _Virtus, et metuens alterius viri_ _Certo fœdere castitas._ HOR. lib. iii. Ode xxiv. 17. Not there the guiltless step-dame knows The baleful draught for orphans to compose; No wife high portion'd rules her spouse, Or trusts her essenc'd lover's faithless vows: The lovers there for dow'ry claim The father's virtue, and the spotless fame, Which dares not break the nuptial tie. FRANCIS.