Page:Johnson - Rambler 2.djvu/177

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N° 84.
THE RAMBLER.
169

sary to the architect. But to dig the quarry or to search the field, requires not much of any quality, beyond stubborn perseverance; and though genius must often lie unactive without this humble assistance, yet this can claim little praise, because every man can afford it.

To mean understandings, it is sufficient honour to be numbered amongst the lowest labourers of learning; but different abilities must find different tasks. To hew stone, would have been unworthy of Palladio; and to have rambled in search of shells and flowers, had but ill suited with the capacity of Newton.



Numb. 84. Saturday, January 5, 1751.

Cunarum fueras motor, Charideme, mearum;
Et pueri custos, assiduusque comes.
Jam mihi nigrescunt tonsa sudaria barba,———
Sed tibi non crevi: te noster villicus horret:
Te dispensator, te domus ipsa pavet.
Corripis, observas, quereris, suspiria ducis;
Et vix a ferulis abstinet ira manum.

Mart.

 You rock'd my cradle, were my guide,
 In youth, still tending at my side:
 But now, dear sir, my beard is grown,
 Still I'm a child to thee alone.
 Our steward, butler, cook, and all
 You fright, nay e'en the very wall;
 You pry, and frown, and growl, and chide,
 And scarce will lay the rod aside.

F. Lewis.
To the RAMBLER
SIR,

YOU seem in all your papers to be an enemy to tyranny, and to look with impartiality upon the world; I shall therefore lay my case be-