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Thus has the folly of my parents condemned me to spend in flattery and attendance those years in which I might have been qualified to place myself above hope or fear. I am arrived at manhood without any useful art or generous sentiment; and, if the old woman should likewise at last deceive me, am in danger at once of beggary and ignorance.

 

I am, &c.

Captator.

 

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Numb. 199. Tuesday, February 11, 1752.

 

Decolor, obscurus, cilis, non ille repexam Cæsariem regum, nec candida virginis ornat Colla, nec insigni splendet per cingula morsu; Sed nova si nigri videas miracula saxi, Tunc superat pulchros cultus, et quicquid Eois Indus littoribus rubra scrutatur in alga	Claudianus.
Obscure, unpriz'd, and dark, the magnet lies, Nor lures the search of avaricious eyes, Nor binds the neck, nor sparkles in the hair, Nor dignifies the great, nor decks the fair. But search the wonders of the dusky stone, And own all glories of the mine outdone, Each grace of form, each ornament of state, That decks the fair, or dignifies the great.

 

TotheRAMBLER

SIR,

THOUGH you have seldom digressed from moral subjects, I suppose you are not so rigorous or cynical as to deny the value or usefulness of natural philosophy; or to have lived in