CRITO.

'Tis true; 'mongst fools no more shall genius

shine;

Ye learned, mine be your applause,

Q. and X.

DAVUS.

And mine.

No. IX.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1816.

Great Heaven! how frail the creature man is made,
How by himself insensibly betrayed.

PRIOR.

OF all the evils which can befal a man through life, indecision is assuredly one of the most dreadful: it usually obtains the name of folly; but surely this parent of all vices deserves a stronger epithet.—It is madness.

To examine the actions of a man who has passed his life under the influence of indecision, would probably be the occasion of beholding a perpetual scene of unhappiness and vice; such as you would have supposed could never have proceeded but from the total absence of every good

feeling, and must have been engendered in a mind, which nature had formed for the habitation of the lowest and most detestable of passions, and upon which the light of education and religion had never dawned.

Whoever would deny that this evil power is capable of producing the effects I have mentioned, and affirm that a natural good disposition, seconded by education, could never be so far influenced by that power, as to suffer itself to act inconsistently with itself, and contrary to its inherent and instilled principles, let him attend to the history of Eumenes.

Eumenes was the son of a respectable country Gentleman, and had four brothers, all of whom were older than himself: their father, although possessed of no very considerable income, was intent upon giving them a gentlemanlike education, and accordingly after having instructed each in his turn in the rudiments of Latin and Greek, till they were fit for the Upper School, he

sent them at different times in respect to their different ages, to Westminster.

Of the four elder brothers I shall say nothing more, but that they passed through the school in a manner equally creditable to themselves and the precepts of their father. Eumenes had the advantage of heir examples and directions, one of the principal of which was, to avoid running into debt: the wisdom of this direction, those who have not been prudent enough to follow it, will readily acknowledge; and those who have followed it, will find ample reason to congratulate themselves upon having done so, when they see the numerous shifts to which their more unfortunate comrades are reduced in order to avoid their creditors, and the numerous inconveniences which they are obliged to undergo to satisfy them.

But to return to my subject; for a long time Eumenes implicitly obeyed this advice: one day however, as he was passing by the Confectioner's, a companion, who had

done him some little kindness, and laid him under a sort of obligation, expressed a wish for some fruit that was in the window, but unluckily had no money in his pocket, and being a new boy had no credit at the Confectioner's; Eumenes, who made it a point never to lose an opportunity of repaying an obligation, instantly went into the shop and desired to have the wished for fruit; but putting his hand into his pocket found no money there; the good woman who had known his brothers well, pressed him to take what he wanted, and to pay when it was convenient : but although a good deal disappointed, he resolved to adhere to the advice he had received, and relinquishing his prize, rejoined his friend, and made known his tale of sorrow. friend was not so easily satisfied, he represented to him that it could do no possible harm to be in debt for a few days, that he would be able to pay it on Monday, which is allowance day, and he added many other reasons of the like kind: Eu

His