the infignificancy of human art, when fet in comparison with the defigns of providence. In the purfuit of this thought, confidered a comet, or, in the language of the vu'gar, a blazing flar, as a sky rocket dilcharged by an hand that is almighty. Many of my readers faw that in the year 1680: and if they are not mathematicians, will be amazed to hear, that it travelled in a much greater degree of fwifinefs than a cannon ball, and drew after it a tail of fire that was fourfcore millions of miles in length. What an amazing thought' is it, to consider this ftupendous body traverfing the immcofity of the-creation with fuch a rapidity, and at the fame time wheeling about in that line which the Almighty has prefcrib ed for it! that it should move in fuch an inconceivable fury and combuftion, and at the fame time with fuch an exact regularity! How fpacious mutt the univerfe be, that gives fuch bodies, as thefe their full play, without fuffering the leaft diforder or confufion by it! glorious fhow are thofe beings entertained with, that can lock into this great theatre of nature, and fee myriads of fuch tremendous objects wandering thro' those immeafurable depths of æther, and running their appointed courfes! Our eyes may hereafter be strong enough to command this magnificent profpect, and our underítandings able to find out the feveral ules of thefe great parts of the universe. In the mean time they are very proper objects for our imaginations to contemplate, that we may form more exalted notions of infinite wifdoni and power, and learn to think humbly of ourselves, and of all the little works of human invention. What a Friday, July 10. No 194 Quæ e longinquo magis placent. The farther fetch'da the more they please. Tacit. V Tuesday last I published two letters written by al Ogdenon is his travels. ed by my belt readers, I thall this day publish two more from the fame hand. The first of them contains a matter of fact which is very curious, and may deferve the attention of thofe who are verfed in our British antiquities. SIR, Blois, May 15. N. S. Ecaufe I am at prefent out of the road of news, I Bhall fend you a story that was lately given me by a gentleman of this country, who is defcended from one of the perfons concerned in the relation, and very inquifitive to know if there be any of the family now in England. I fhall only premife to it, that this story is preferved with great care among the writings of this gentleman's family; and that it has been given to two or three of our English nobility, when they were in three parts, who could not return any fatisfactory answer to the gen. tleman, whether there be any of that family now remaining in Great Britain. In the reign of King John there lived a nobleman call. ed John de Sigonia, lord of that place in Touraine. His brothers were Philip and Briant. Briant,when very young. was made one of the French King's pages, and ferved him in that quality when he was taken prifoner by the English. The King of England chanced to fee the youth; and be ing much pleafed with his perfon and behaviour, begged him of the King, his prifoner. It happened, fome years after this, that John, the other brother, who, in the course of the war, had raised himself to a considerable pott in the French army, was taken prifoner, by Briant, who at that time was an officer in the King of England's guards. Briant knew nothing of his brother; and being naturally of an haughty temper,treated him very infolent ly, and more like a criminal than a prifoner of war. This John refented fo highly, that he challenged him to a ingle combat. The challenge was accepted, and time and place affigned them by the King's appointment. Both appeared on the day prefixed, and entered the lifts compleatly armed, amidit a great multitude of spectators. Their first encounters were very furious, and the fuccefs équal on both fides; till after fome toil and bloodshed they were parted by their feconds to fetch breath, and prepare themfelves afresh for the combat. Briant, in the mean time, had caft his eye upon his brother's efcutche I on, which he faw agree in all points with his own. need not tell you after this with what joy and furprise the story ends. King Edward, who knew all the particulars of it, as a mark of his esteem, gave to each of them, by the king of France's confent, the following coat of arms, which I fhall fend you in the original language, not being herald enough to brazon it in English. Le Roi d'Angleterre, par permiffion du Roi de "France, pour perpetuelle memoire de leurs grands faits "d'armes & fidelite envers leurs rois, leur donna par ampliation a leurs armes en une croix d'argent cantonee de quatre coquilles d'or en champ de fable, qu'ils avoient auparavant, un endenteleuse faite en fa çons de croix de gueulle inferee au dedans de la ditte "croix d'argent, et par le milieu d'icelle, qui est par❝ticipation des deux croix que portent les dits rais en ❝ la guerre." I am afraid, by this time, you begin to wonder that I fhould fend you for news a tale of three or four hundred years old; and I dare fay never thought, when you defired me to write to you, that I fhould trouble you with a flory of King John, efpecially at a time when there is a menarch on the French throne that furnishes difcourfe for all Europe. But I confels I am the more fond of the relation, because it brings to mind the Rable exploits of our own countrymen: though, at the dame time, I must own it is not fo much the vanity of an Englishman which puts me apon writing it, as that I have of taking any occafion to fubfcribe myself, SIR, Yours, &c. I SIR, Blois, May 20. N. S. Am extremely obliged to you for your last kind letter, which was the only English that had been spoken to ine in fome months together; for I am at prefent forced to think the absence of my countrymen my good fortune, Votum in amante novum vellem quod amatur aOvid. Met. l. 3. v. 468. bélet. Strange wifh, to harbour in a lover's breaft! ན་ This is an advantage that I could not have hoped for, had I flaid near the French court; though I mult confels I would not but have feen it, because I believe it fhowed me fome of the fincft places and of the greatest perfons in the world. One cannot hear a name mentioned in it, that does not bring to mind a piece of a gazette, nor fee a man that has not figralized Limself in a battle. One would fancy one's felf to be in the inchanted palaces of a romance, one meets with fo many heroes, and finds fomething fo like fcenes of magic in the gardens, flatues, and water-works. I am afhamed, that I am not able to make a quicker progrefs through the French tongue; becaufe I believe it is impoffible for a learner of a language to find in any nation fuch · advantages as in this, where every body is fo very courteous and fo very talkative. They always take care to make a noise as long as they are in company; and are as loud, any hour in the morning, as our own countrymen at midnight. By what I have feen, there is more mirth in the French converfation, and more wit in the English. You abound more in jefts, but they in laugh ter. Their language is indeed extremely proper to tattle in, it is made up of fo much repetition and compliment. One may know a foreigner by his anfwering only No or Yes to a question, which a Frenchman ge nerally makes a fentence of. They have a fet of cere. monious phrases that run through all ranks and degrees among them. Nothing is more common, than to hear a fhopkeeper defiring his neighbour to have the goodnels to tell him what 'tis o'clock, or a couple of coblers that are extremely glad of the honour of feeing one another. The face of the whole country, where I now am, is at this feafon pleasant beyond imagination. I cannot but fancy the birds of this place, as well as the men, a great deal merrier than those of our owo nation I am fure the French year has got the start of ours, more in the works of nature than in the new ftyle. I have paffed one March in my life without being ruffled by the winds, and one April without being washed with raids. Tam, SIR, Yours, &c. N° 105. Saturday, July 11. Quod neque in Armeniis tigres fecere latebris: At tenera faciunt, fed non impune, puellæ ; Ovid. Amor. I. 2. Eleg. 14. v. 35. The tigrees that haunt th' Armenian wood, Their whelps. But women are more fierce than they, T Anon. Here was no part of the fhow on the thanksgiv ing-day that fo much pleased and affected me, as the little boys and girls who were ranged with so much order and decency in that part of the Strand which reaches from the May pole to Exeter-change. Such a numerous and innocent multitude, cloathed in the charity of their benefactors, was a spectacle pleasing both to God and man, and a more beautiful expreffion of joy and thanksgiving than could have been exhibited by all the pomps of a Roman triumph. Never did a more full and unfpotted chorus of human creatures join together in a hymn of devotion. The care and tenderness which appeared in the looks of their several instructors, who were difpofed among this little helpless people, could not forbear touching every heart that had any fentiments of humanity. I am very forry that her Majefty did not fee this affembly of objects, fo proper to excite that charity and compaffion which the bears to all who ftand in need of it, though at the fame time I question not but her Royal bounty will extend itself to them. A charity belto ed on the education of so many of her young fubjects, has |