[No. LXVll.j rHE TABLE T. No. LXVII. / «* Triflers not e'en in triflei can excell;" THERE is no better way to eltimate the un derftandlng of a man, than by hearing him converse on what lie has discovered in his travels. Many men, who adventure abroad, ne ver get rid of their prejudices ; and whatever falls within their notice, i 9 viewed under such an eye of prepofl'eSlidn, that it eludes a fair exami nation. A traveller of this call may add to the number of his ideas, but he does not diminish his errors, nor really add to his flock of truth. It had been better for him, upon the whole, to have tarried at home ; for he would then have spent left money, and acquired fewer habits of vexing his friends by his pertneft, or deluding them by hismiftakes. If he attempts ro relate any inci dent, he generally forgets the most material cir cuwftances, and always gives it a falfe coloring, or draws from it wrong inferences. We can, however, bear with the mere errors that are im posed on us by a traveller ; because, as we have not the power of detecting the fallacy, we feel no dilpofition to complain of the deception. But there is a description of travellers whofc conversation soon becomes irksome, if not intol erable. I allude to tliofe frivolous characters, whose minds are only occupied upon trifles ; and who, wherever They go, or whatever they fee, car never acquire or communicate theleaft degree oi ufeful information. The habitual levity of de portment, these triflers discover, soon renders their mirth insipid, and their observations iiuinte refting. There is no force of talents to invigorate their remarks. If they afFed: tofhewwit, noper fon perceives the edge of it ; and if they relate anecdotes, it is impofiible to find the pith of theii Story. In Short, a man of this trifling turn mufl continue of that character, whether he travels 01 Stays at home. He can never arrive at excellence even in tliofe habits, which peculiarly belong ta him. Thetruth is, the more expert any one js, in displaying frivolous aecomplilhments, thelefs excellent does he appear. We can never aflo ciate ahy idfcas of merit with qualifications that produce no advantage, and indicate no capacity. However ostentatious a man maybe, if he has not folic! attainments, he is soon penetrated, and his companions determine at once, that he does not trifieforthe fake of being pleasant, but because he does not know how to be serious, and can ne ver be wife. Men of good sense and gravity some times relax their uluai tone of demeanor, andean ainufe themselves with trifles without being con temptible. It can be perceived that the part they have taken, is aflumed only for thcmoiiient. But noted triflers so flagrantly deviate from dignity of manners, that 110 person will mistrust, they act from a character they have taken up, but from one, they cannot lay aside. My young acquaintance Garrulus has late ly returned from his education and his travels. His friends imagine he has made great improve ments ; but he is much more indebted to their partiality than ro his own acquirements, for the eftiir>ation in which he is viewed. It was easily supposed that so pert a boy mutt, if well-educated, make a smart man. He early discovered Symptoms of vanity, and these were mistaken for indica tions of genius. Full offlattering hopes, his par ents conceived the idea, that he mult be sent tc Europe for an education. He has completed it and once more resides in his native country, i 'wiil not pretend to fay, what he would havebeen 3iad he coMinucd at home ; but he has, by 110 means, loft his pertnefs or his vanity, by going abroad. Garßulus well remembers the tium hers of years be has confiuned atfchools andtfni ■verfities, and has not yet forgot the names ofthe authors he was compelled to read. It diverts children and servants to hear him recount the tricks and frolics of li*s academical life ; aYid 1 believe thisisthe only am n feme lit, his education is cal culated to aflrbrd. The reader w ill expert to be entertained with ail account oft Tie travels of this afpiringyouth. But here I find myfelf at a loi's how to gratify such an expectation. Though I am frequently in company with him; I have yet to learn, whether he has gained one uses ul idea,from traveling two years throngh the most celebrated countries in Europe. He has often boasted to 111 c, tha£ ' ,e dined with fixyonngnoblemen, at an ho tel in France ; complained that he found bad inns in Italy ; and declared that he eat failed cabbage 111 Germany. But he fee 111s to dwell with peculiar delight in relating how rapidly the stages drive through England, and howcomplaifantly he was treated athoufes of entertainment. He mentions fucli cireumftances witlian air of triumph,becaufe he alledges that in these respeCts, the English are, beyond companion, superior to his own country men. Nothingfills liim with more rapture, than to bobble to point out any particular, in which WEDNESDAY, December. 2, 1739. the Americans have not arrived at equal perfec tion with the Europeans. It happens fortunately for us, that Cj.arrui.us has extended his obser vations to nothing, of so much importance in it felf, as to render it a point worth contending, in which country it holds a pre-eminence. These trifling characters, however, find easy admillion into the belt circles of company, the world affords. This may seem the more extraor dinary, as a person of thisftamp so soon becomes tedious in private conversation, where only a so cial interview is intended; We can easily find a folutiom to this diiliculty. A talkative, imperti nent bo dy way be called a bon companion by all men, th ough iio man views him with any refpedt or friend/hip. There is a convenience in having iuch an aflbciate. We feel free, and unembar rafled in his presence, can learn front him the news and fafhions of'the day, and fend meflages by him to any part of the town. B«t there is yet a greater advantage, one findsin.fuch an acquain tance : It is well known, that in mixed compan ies, few people have a turn for general conversa tion ; and uulefs some person is present, who has agood {hare of impudent pra,ttle, there will be too much dullness and reserve. Every modest man of the party feels relieved, when any of his companions will take his {hare of the conversa tion. In this way, men of bold, afluming man ners, how ever ignorant they may be,endear them -I'clves, as companions, to all denominations of society. I have observed that in rnoft clubs or parties, fenfiblc men are fond of admitting fonie persons 'of levity,merely tomakediverfion for the reft oftlie company. It is tobe regretted that some worthy youth are beguile d into an opinion that impudence is de- Arable, because it meets with attention. They draw this conclufion.from the notice thatis taken of fnch characters as I have been describing.— Could ;it bedifcerned, from what motives, men of a forward, ostentatious deportment are received info company ; or cotild it be known in what light they are generally estimated, they would no lon ger be regarded as objedls of envy, or as patterns for imitation. Every young manfhould conclude with refpecft to liimfelf ; that, if his talents and accomplifhinents are not so coufpicuous as to at tract esteem and admiration tinfolicited, he can never acquire any real influence of character by pertnefs and felf importance. It is true he may gain a uumerous acquaintance, but he will find few friends : People wijl entertain him kindly ; but they will place in him no confidence ; they will trust him with no property. Upon the whole, his life will be neither honorable to liimfelf, 1101 lerviceable to society. x THE OBSERVER. No. VII. The fiufltiating value of Paper in circulation oppres sive to the poor. E' VERY public measure, wliich fubjccls needy i citizens to the imposition of the rich, is repug nant tojuftice. Great numbers of the rich are alio generous tothepoor, but it is not the character of all to whom a wife Providence hath distributed wealth. One rtutn of great opulence and a hard heart h'ath power to oppress a whole vicinity of needy people. Among the present means of oppref fronin the United StateS, none is greater tliana cir culating paper of unsteady and deceitful value; and yet there are thole who with a confident face will nflerr,' that the measures which lead to this aredefigned as an easement to the necessitous mem bers of society. Those who are poor and in back ward circtini fiances unwarily are taken by the fait pretences--they are told and believe that it is sot their benefit, and bless the measures which sap the vigor of their industry. The wealthy can make their choice between several mediums in circula tion, and if there be a bad kind of money, we {hall always find it in the hands of those who have least policy and riches : thus the indigent lie un der a double disadvantage, the quantity of their money is small, and it is of the Worst kind, not being in demand to procure the neceflaries of life. It is a maxim forever true that the worst kind of circulating rttoney will in the end fall in to the hands of those who are least able to bear a loss. Those States which have partially funded their debts pay the inrereft in paper certificates or indents, which pnfs into circulation for the pay ment of taxes—these certificates are ifl'ued as an equivalent for gold and silver coin, and in every riew or the fadl they are a depreciated paper mo ney, of very different value at several times of the year and in different diftritfis—they may be purchased in large sums through uioft of the States from one hundred to one hundred and fifty per cent, discount. Taxes iflne by authority on the fnppofition that it it is their real value, and it is their real value to those who can purchase at the right time of sale-; it is also their value to a greater rFubliflied on JVedntfday and Saturday .j part of the public creditors, whose diftrefled situ ation obliges tliem to fell on any terms, the firll moment they can obtain the interelfc from the pub lic. Still it is fact that one half the taxable inha bitants purchase them nearly at par with gold and silver. The poor man and those of little enter prife,l>ut industrious, delay purchasing untilfhejr are driven by the hour of payment, and then make the belt bargain they can, either with some neigh bor, or public officer, prepared for the btnev'o/:nl purpose of accommodating all such as could not purchase in time for themielves. In this way pro vision is made for this poor, and those whose cir cumltances are decaying ; some of tliefe make pay ment in hard labor, and some by promifory bonds, induced by a snort credit they fall into the snare and are effectually ruined. Take the following fart as proof of my afTertion. In Marcii, I 787, one hundred pounds fperfe was lent to B jfton to purchase State paper, then re ceivable 111 taxes, which paper was put into the hands of a person in one of the weflern counties of Maftachufetts, who returned the principal in November of the fame year, with a net profit to the owner of the hundred pounds, offixty pounds fix /hillings and one penny. It is to be remember ed this agent charged very high for his service and expence3, so that it is certain, those who paid the taxes, paid atleaft forty shillings for every twenty which the State received. These were the very people, who a little before had been scourged into obedience by a'military force. For infurgertcy they wfere criminal, and government was right to check their phrenzy by the molt coercive means ; but to palliate dieir conduct which we wish to bury in oblivion let it be remembered that oppression will sometimes make wife men mad. It is but a few articles the pool planter has for sale, and these perhaps not in demand at the rime neceflity objiges him to fell, so that he can exchange them only for the worst kind of circulating money, and thAt at its highest price. The fame neceflity obliges him to fell at the lowest price, and between buy ing and felling, he makes a loss of one third. I could mention athoufand wayx & depre ciated circulating medium is opprefiive to man kind, but especially to such as have small proper ty ; and nature admits not of a poflibility of reme dying the evil,but by wholly removing the cause. No fac r ts can be more fully proved than those I have mentioned, but there is foftrongapropenfity in some people to have n cheap kind of money, that tliev will think die writer hath mischievous schemes in his brains, and that everything is en dangered, until the parish Priest, or town peda gogue, or the incendiary of the neighborhood, foine of whom may chance to remember a phrafc of school Latin, lliall have founded the alarm. With wasps and flics the Observer promises great patience, and will only drive them gently, 110 c aiming at their life, for it is the nature of those infects to buzz round the scent of liojiey, though they can make none thcmfelves ; but ftiould any of the higher da's of peculators, who have grown rich on spoil, under the appearance of much honesty and concern, unwisely throw themselves in his way, he pledges himfelf to disclose things concer ning thein, which the heart of the public hath not conceivcd. The old man honest, he made payment in the current money of the mer chant, it is the money of the merchant which the poor ought to receive, and 110 other kind of circu lating medium will do justice in the community. Whether this money be gold, silver or paper, it is a matter of littleconfequence, for a fixed value and general demand constitutes its worth. At present 11 is not poffiblefor the State governments to give this ralueto their certificates or indents ,- but the United States, if the whole debt could be brought into one fund might easily effedl it by a connexion, with the great mercantile banks within the Em pire. Bank money is the money of the and the whole commercial influence of the coun try will preserve its value. Suppose the sums of a rich and poor man's taxes to be apportioned accor ding to their real wealth and ability ; the rich man by purchasing the depreciated medium in proper time and a small price, makes art easy payment; the poor man purchasing at almost double price, finds the demand intolerable ; and if to this there be added fees for travel, and others which have no legal name, he finks in ruin, These, ye poor and embarrailed citizens, are the blessing of a cheap paper money, for which too many of yoil have been advocates. [,American Mercury.] HERALDRY. A SANGUINE frenchman had so high an o pinion of the pleasures to be enjoyed in the study of Heraldry, that be used to lament, as we are informed by Men age, the hard cafe of our forefather Adam, who could not polfibly ajnnfe himfelf by investigating that fcietice, nor that of genealogy.
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