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270

THE RAMBLER.

N° 100.

than of principles; and might therefore commonly be avoided by innocent conformity, which if it was not at first the motive, ought always to be the consequence of indissoluble union.

Numb. 100.⁠ Saturday, March 2, 1751.

Omne vafer vitium ridenti Flaccus amico
 Tangit, et admissus circum præcordia, ludit.

Persius.

 Horace, with sly insinuating grace,
 Laugh'd at his friend, and look'd him in the face;
 Would raise a blush where secret vice he found,
 And tickle while he gently prob'd the wound.
 With seeming innocence the crowd beguil'd;
 But made the desp'rate passes, when he smil'd.

Dryden.
To the RAMBLER
SIR,

AS very many well-disposed persons, by the unavoidable necessity of their affairs, are so unfortunate as to be totally buried in the country, where they labour under the most deplorable ignorance of what is transacting among the polite part of mankind, I cannot help thinking, that, as a publick writer, you should take the case of these truly compassionable objects under your consideration.

These unhappy languishers in obscurity should be furnished with such accounts of the employments of people of the world, as may engage them in their several remote corners to a laudable imitation; or, at least, so far inform and prepare them, that if by any joyful change of situation they should be suddenly transported into the gay

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