not
improper to point out a fresh Amusement to those who langush in Health,
and repine in Plenty, for want of some Source of Diversion that may be
less easily exhausted, and to inform the Multitudes of both Sexes, who are
burthened with every new Day, that there are many Shews which they have
not seen.

He that enlarges his Curiosity after the Works of Nature, demonstrably
multiplies the Inlets to Happiness, and, therefore, the younger Part of my
Readers, to whom I dedicate this vernal Speculation, must excuse me for
calling upon them to make use at once of the Spring of the Year, and the
Spring of Life; to acquire, while their Minds may be yet impressed with
new Images, a Love of innocent Pleasures, and an ardour for useful
Knowledge; and to remember, that a blighted Spring makes a barren Year,
and that the vernal Flowers, however beautiful and gay, are only intended
by Nature as Preparatives to Autumnal Fruits.

_LONDON_:
Printed for J. PAYNE, and J. BOUQUET, in Pater-noster-Row;
where Letters for the RAMBLER are received, and the preceding
Numbers may be had.

THE RAMBLER.

NUMB. 60. Price 2 _d._

_To be continued on_ TUESDAYS _and_ SATURDAYS.

SATURDAY, _October_ 13, 1750.

--_Quid fit pulchrum, quid turpe, quid utile, quid non,
Plenius et melius_ Chrysippo _et_ Crantore _dicit_. HOR.

All Joy or Sorrow for the Happiness or Calamities of others is produced by
an Act of the Imagination, that realises the Event however fictitious, or
approximates it however remote, by placing us, for a Time, in the
Condition of him whose Fortune we contemplate; so that we feel, while the
Deception lasts, whatever Motions would be excited by the same Good or
Evil happening to ourselves.

Our Passions are therefore more strongly moved, in proportion as we can
more readily adopt the Pains or Pleasures proposed to our Minds, by
recognising them as once our own, or considering them as naturally
incident to our State of Life. It is not easy for the most artful Writer
to give us an Interest in Happiness or Misery, which we think ourselves
never likely to feel, and with which we have never yet been made
acquainted. Histories of the Downfall of Kingdoms, and Revolutions of
Empires are read with great Tranquillity; the imperial Tragedy pleases
common Auditors only by its Pomp of Ornament, and Grandeur of Ideas; and
the Man whose Faculties have been engrossed by Business, and whose Heart
never fluttered but at the Ri