The Laugh among us is the common rifus of the ancients. The Grin, by writers of antiquity, is called the Syncrufian; and was then, as it is at this time, made use of to difplay a beautiful set of teeth. The Horfe-laugh, or the Sardonic, is made ufe of with great fuccefs in all kinds of difputation. The proficients in this kind, by a well timed laugh, will baffle the most folid argument. This upon all occafions fupplies the want of reafon; is always received with great applaufe in coffeehouse-difputes; and that fide the laugh joins with, is generally obferved to gain the better of his antagonist. : The prude hath a wonderful efteem for the Chian laugh, or Dimple: fhe looks upon all the other kinds of Jaughter as exceffes of levity and is never feen upon the most extravagant jefts to diforder her countenance with the ruffle of a fmile. Her lips are compofed with a primnefs peculiar to her character; all her modesty feems collected into her face; and the but very rarely takes the freedom to fink her cheek into a dimple. The young widow is only a Chian for time. Her fmiles are confined by decorum, and she is obliged to make her face sympathize with her habit : fhe looks de mure by art; and, by the stricteft rules of decency, is never allowed the fmile till the first offer or advance towards her is over. The effeminate fop, who, by the long exercise of his countenance at the glass, hath reduced it to an exact discipline, may claim a place in this clan. You see him upon any occafion, to give spirit to his discourse, admire his own eloquence by a dimple. The Ionics are thofe ladies that take a greater liberty with their features: yet even these may be faid to fmother a laugh, as the former to stifle a smile. The beau is an Ionic out of complaifance, and practifes the fmile the better to fympathize with the fair. He will sometimes join in a laugh to humour the spleen of a lady, or applaud a piece of wit of his own; but always takes care to confine his mouth within the rules of good-breeding. He takes the laugh from the ladies, C but is never guilty of fo great an indecorum as to begin it. The Ionic laugh is of univerfal ufe to men of power at their levees; and is elteemed by judicious place-hunters a more particular mark of diftinction than the whifper. A young gentleman of my acquaintance valued himself upon his fuccefs, having obtained this favour af ter the attendance of three months only. A judicious author fome years fince published a collection of fonnets, which he very fuccefsfully called, Laugh and be fat; or, Pills to purge melancholy. I cannot fufficiently admire the facetious title of thefe volumes; and mult cenfure the world of ingratitude, while they are fo negligent in rewarding the jocofe labours of my friend Mr D'Urfey, who was fo large a contributor to this treatise, and to whofe humorous productions fo many rural 'fquires in the remoteft parts of this ifland are obliged for the dignity and ftate which corpulency gives them. The story of the fick man's breaking an impofthume by a fudden fit of laughter, is too well known to need a recital. It is my opinion, that the above pills would be extremely proper to be taken with affes milk, and mightily contribute towards the renewing and restoring decayed lungs. Democritus is generally reprefented to us as a man of the largest fize, which we may attribute to his frequent exercife of his rifible faculty. I remember Juvenal fays of him, Perpetuo rifu pulmonem agitare folebat. Sat. 10. v. 33°* He fhook his fides with a perpetual laugh. That fort of man whom a late writer has called the Butt, is a great promoter of this healthful agitation, and is generally stocked with fo much good humour, as to ftrike in with the gaiety of conversation, though fome innocent blunder of his own be the fubject of the rallery. I fhall range all old amorous dotards under the denomination of Grinners. When a young blooming wench touches their fancy, by an endeavour to recal youth into their checks, they immediately overftrain their muf cular features, and fhrivel their countenance into this frightful merriment. The wag is of the fame kind, and by the fame artifice labours to fupport his impotence of wit: but he very frequently calls in the Horfe Laugh to his affiftance. There are another kind of Grinners which the ancients call Megarics; and fome moderns have, not injudicioufly, given them the name of the Sneerers. These always indulge their mirth at the expence of their friends; and all their ridicule confifts in unfeasonable ill-nature. I could wish thefe laughers would confider, that, let them do what they can, there is no laughing away their own follies, by laughing at other people's. The mirth of the tea table is for the most part Megaric; and in vifits the ladies themselves very feldom fcruple the facrificing a friendship to a laugh of this denomination. The coquette hath a great deal of the Megaric in her; but, in short, she is a proficient in laughter, and can run through the whole exercife of the features. She subdues the formal lover with the Dimple; accofts the fop with the Smile; joins with the wit in the downright Laugh; to vary the air of her countenance, frequently rallies with the Grin; and when he has ridiculed her lover quite out of his understanding, to complete his misfortunes, ftrikes him dumb with the Horfe-Laugh. The Horfe Laugh is a diftinguishing characteristic of the rural hoyden; and it is obferved to be the last fymptom of ruflicity that forfakes her under the difcipline of the boarding-school. Punsters, I find very much contribute towards the Sardonic; and the extremes of either wit or folly feldom fail of railing this noify kind of applaufe. As the ancient phyficians held the Sardonic laugh very beneficial to the lungs; I fhould, methinks, advife all my countrymen of confumptive and hectical conftitutions, to affociate with the molt facetious punters of the age. Perfius hath very elegantly described a Sardonic laugher in the following line. Ingeminat tremulos naso crispante cachinnos. Sat. 3. v. 87. Redoubled peals of trembling laughter bursts, Laughter is a vent of any fudden joy that strikes upon the mind; which, being too volatile and strong, breaks out in this tremor of the voice. The poets make ufe of this metaphor, when they would defcribe nature in her richest drefs: for beauty is never fo lovely, as when adorned with the fmile; and converfation never fits eafier upon us, than when we now and then difcharge oufelves in a fymphony of laughter, which may not improperly be called The chorus of converfation. N° 3°. Wednesday, April 15. -Redeunt Saturna regna. Virg. Ecl. 4. v. 6. -Saturnian times Roll round again, THO Dryden. HE Italians and French being difpatched, I come now to the English: whom I fhall treat with fuch meekness as becomes a good patriot; and fhall fo far recommend this our ifland as a proper fcene for pastoral under certain regulations, as will fatisfy the courteous reader that I am in the landed interest. I must in the first place obferve, that our countrymen have fo good an opinion of the ancients, and think fo modeftly of themfelves, that the generality of pastoral writers have either stoln all from the Greeks and Romans, or fo fervilely imitated their manners and customs, as makes them very ridiculous. In looking over fome Englifh paftorals a few days ago, I perufed at least fifty lean flocks, and reckoned up an hundred left-handed ravens, befides blafted oaks, withering meadows, and weeping deities. Indeed moft of the occafional paftorals we have, are built upon one and the fame plan. A fhepherd asks his fellow, why he is fo pale, if his favourite fheep hath ftrayed, if his pipe be broken, or Phyllis unkind? He anfwers, None of these misfortunes. have befallen him; but one much greater, for Damon, or fometimes the god Pan, is dead. This immediately caufes the other to make complaints, and call upon the lofty pines and filver ftreams to join in the lamentation. While he goes on, his friend interrupts him, and tells Kim, that Damon lives, and fhows hini a track of light in the fkies to confirm it; then invites him to chefnuts and cheese. Upon this fcheme most of the noble families in Great Britain have been comforted; nor can I meet with any Right Honourable shepherd that doth not die and live again, after the manner of the aforefaid Damon. Having already informed my reader wherein the knowledge of antiquity may be ferviceable, I fhall now direct him where he may lawfully deviate from the ancients.. There are fome things of an established nature_in_pas toral, which are effental to it; fuch as a country-fcene, innocence, fimplicity. Others there are of a changeable kind; fuch as habits, customs and the like. The difference of the climate is alfo to be confidered; for what is proper in Arcadia, or even in Italy, might be very abfurd in a colder country. By the fame rule, the difference of the foil, of fruits and flowers, is to be obferved. And in fo fine a country as Britain, what occa▾ fion is there for that profufion of hyacinths and Pæftan rofes, and that cornucopia of foreign fruits, which the Britifh fhepherds never herd of! How much more pleafing is the following scene to an English reader ! This place may feem for fhepherds leisure made, Th' ambitious woodbine, how it climbs to breathe The ground with grafs of chearful green befpread, Medly'd with daifies white, and endive blue ! The theology of the ancient paftoral is fo very pret ty, that it were pity entirely to change it. But I think |