4t ON THE ART OF IDLENESS. May l8, 



lelTon of the rudiments, and confult their genius, before 

 they cater into their academical career. 



The fpccimen I mean now to offer, is from a gentleman 

 whv fe father was rich and powerful, and placed him 

 in a fituatlon of opulence in the early part of his life, 

 fending him to vifit foreign nations, with a companion 

 of the mod enlightened undcrilanding, and elegant 

 tafte. 



He returned from his travels, after having ftored his 

 mind- with ufeful knowledge, and his imagination with 

 the beautiful objeds of refined fpeculation. He went 

 abroad, not to alTociate with fox-hunting or lounging 

 Engliflimen, to keep the moft fafliionable opera girls at 

 Paris or Naples, and to gallop over Europe, that he 

 might take a feat in pai^liament, and begin his career 

 at home with being prefented at court on his return 

 from the grand tour of the continent ; but to render 

 himfelf wifer and better, like the king of Ithaca, by 

 feeing many cities, and ftudying the laws, manners 

 and improvements of fociety in foreign countries. 



This gentleman, my moft excellent friend, in whofe 

 converfation and correfpondence I have delighted for 

 more than five and twenty years paft, in fpite of the in- 

 firmities of old age, and the enervating as well as excruci- 

 ating pains of the gout, has retained the relifli of life, by 

 being well acquainted with its materials, and knowing, 

 hov/, like a ikilful cook, to mix what are nourilhing with 

 what are palatable, and to ferve up the dainties of it for 

 his daily ufe and enjoyment, and the enjoyment of his 

 friends. 



Living in a venal country, debafed by political cor- 

 ruption, and dillracied by faction, he allociated himfelf 

 with thofe who were fuperior to the firft, becaufe they 

 wpuld not fuffer themfelves to be entangled by the latter. 

 Full of rational curiofity himfelf, he gathered together 

 around him, by a moral power of attraftion, thofe who- 

 were under the influence, of this divine energy, which,. 



