Dr Johnson:his Life & Times

No, CLX SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1751.

  -------Inter se convenit ursis. Juv.

  Beasts of each kind their fellows spare;

  Bear lives in amity with bear.

"The world," says Locke, "has people of all sorts."

  As in the general hurry produced by the superfluities of some and necessities of others, no man needs to stand still for want of employment, so in the innumerable gradations of ability and endless varieties of study and inclination, no employment can be vacant for want of a man qualified to discharge it.

  Such is probably the natural state of the universe; but it is so much deformed by interest and passion, that the benefit of this adaption of men to things is not always perceived. The folly of those who set their services for sale, inclines them to boast of qualifications which they do not possess, and attempt business which they do not understand; and they who have the power of assigning to others the task of life, are seldom honest or seldom happy in their nominations. Patrons are corrupted by avarice, cheated by credulity, or overpowered by resistless solicitation. They are sometimes too strongly influenced by honest prejudices of friendship, or the prevalence of virtuous compassion. For whatever cool reason may direct, it is not easy for a man of tender and scrupulous goodness to overlook the immediate effect of his own actions, by turning his eyes upon remoter consequences, and to do that which must, and to do that which must give present pain, for the sake of obviating evil yet unfelt, or securing advantage in time to come. What is distant is in itself obscure, and, when we have no wish to see it, easily escapes our notice, or takes such form as desire or imagination bestows upon it.

  Every man might with the same reason, in the multitudes that swarm about him, find some kindred mind with which he could unit in confidence and friendship; yet we see many straggling single about the world, unhappy for want of an associate, and pining with the necessity of confining their sentiments to their own bosoms.

  This inconvenience arises in like manner from struggles of the will against the understanding. It is not often difficullt to find a suitable companion, if every man would be content with such as he is qualified to please. But if vanity tempts him to forsake his rank, and posts himself among those with whom no common interest or mutual pleasure can ever unite him, he must always live in a state of unsocial separation, without tenderness and without trust.