Page:Johnson - Rambler 4.djvu/182

 

Numb. 192. Saturday, January 18, 1752.

 

Γένος οὐδὲν εἰς Ἕρωτα· Σοφίη, τρόπος, πατεῖται· Μόνον ἄργυρον βλέπουσιν. 'Aπόλοιτο πρώτος αὑτὸς Ὁ τον ἄργυρον φιλήσας. Διὰ τοῦτον οὑκ ἁδελφὸς, Διὰ τοῦτον οὑ τοκῆες Πόλεμοι, φόνοι, δὶ' αὑτον. Τὸ δὲ χεῖρον, ολλύμεσθα Διὰ τοῦτον οἱ φιλοῦντες.	Anacreon.
Vain the noblest birth would prove, Nor worth nor wit avail in love; 'Tis gold alone succeeds—by gold The venal sex is bought and sold. Accurs'd be he who first of yore Discover'd the pernicious ore! This sets a brother's heart on fire, And arms the son against the sire; And what, alas! is worse than all, To this the lover owes his fall.	F. Lewis.

 

TotheRAMBLER

SIR,

IAM the son of a gentleman, whose ancestors, for many ages, held the first rank in the country; till at last one of them too desirous of popularity, set his house open, kept a table covered with continual profusion, and distributed his beef and ale to such as chose rather to live upon the folly of others than their own labour, with such thoughtless liberality, that he left a third part of his estate mortgaged. His successor, a man of spirit, scorned to impair his dignity by parsimonious retrenchments, or to admit, by a sale of his lands, any participation of