a very idle display of
Rhetoric, to attempt the making it clearer. Every Man living would be
glad to foresee the Alterations of Weather if he could, and
consequently to most People, if not to all, these Observations,
grounded on no less than forty Years' Experience, cannot but be
acceptable.

TO make the best use of one's Talent, and to employ the Lights derived
from the Station in which Providence has placed one for the Benefit of
Mankind, is undoubtedly discharging one's Duty, answering the End of
our Creation, and corresponding with the OEconomy of Nature, which
does nothing in vain. This Proposition is equally true, let a Man's
Station be what it will. It is the Manner in which we perform, and not
the Character, that makes the Player, and in this Sense what Man is not
a Player? Here then is an Instance of one who has for many Years
studied his Part, and now communicates his Discoveries freely. In a
Physician, in a Philosopher, in a Mathematician, this would be highly
commendable, and why not in a Shepherd? We do not cast our own Parts in
the Drama of Life; no, this is performed by the great Author of Nature.
He who adjusted every Thing on Earth with such Beauty and Harmony, he
who taught the Heavenly Bodies to move; the same distributed their
several Offices to Men. May we not therefore suppose that every Man's
Part is well cast, and that our Abilities are exactly proportioned to
our Stations? If so, he who does all he can, does all that ought to be
expected from him, and merits from impartial Judges the most general
and just Applause. To be convinced of this, we need not only reflect on
the narrow and selfish Conduct of some, who either by Study or by
Chance, have acquired certain valuable Secrets, which with the utmost
Industry they conceal in order to be the more admired, or that they may
render them beneficial to themselves. How contrary the Conduct of our
Shepherd! His Pains were all his own, but the Fruit of them he thus
generously offers to the Public. Good Sense and the dictates of Nature
taught him this Maxim, _That what might benefit_ many, _should not be
concealed by_ one _from Views of_ Profit _or of_ Pride.

IN my Remarks upon the Shepherd's Rules, I have sometimes endeavoured
to support them by Authorities, which I must confess would have been of
little Use if the Author had been a Person of Learning; but when it is
considered that these Observations were purely the Effect of his own
Attention and Ex