the 7th Chapter of the Proverbs in a poetical Drefs. If you think it worthy appearing among your Specula tions, it will be a fufficient Keward for the Trouble of

Με

Your conftant Reader,

r Son, th' Inftruction that my Words impart,
Grave on the living Tablet of thy Heart;
And all the wholfome Precepts that I give,
Obferve with strictest Reverence, and live.

Let all thy Homage be to Wisdom paid,
Seek her Protection and implore her Aid;
That she may keep thy Soul from Harm secure,
And turn thy Footsteps from the Harlot's Door,
Who with curs'd Charms lures th' Unwary in,
And fooths with Flattery their Souls to Sin.

Once from my Window as I caft mine Eye
On those that pass'd in giddy Numbers by,
A Youth among the foolish Youths I spy'd,
Who took not facred Wisdom for his Guide.

Just as the Sun withdrew his cooler Light,
And Evening foft led on the Shades of Night,
He ftole in covert Twilight to his Fate,

And pass'd the Corner near the Harlot's Gate
When, lo, a Woman comes!

Loofe her Attire, and fuch her glaring Drefs,
As aptly did the Harlot's Mind exprefs:
Subtle fhe is, and practis'd in the Arts,
By which the Wanton conquer heedlefs Hearts:
Stubborn and loud fhe is; she hates her Home,
Varying her Place and Form; she loves to roam;
Now he's within, now in the Street do's ftray.
Now at each Corner ftands, and waits her Prey.
The Youth fhe feiz'd; and laying now afide
All Modefty, the Female's jufteft Pride.
She faid, with an Embrace, Here at my Houfe
Peace-offerings are, this Day I paid my Vows.
I therefore came abroad to meet my Dear,
And, Lo, in Happy Hour I find thee here.
My Chamber I've adorn'd, and o'er my Bed
Are Cev'rings of the richest Tap'stry spread,

A. B.

With Linnen it is deck'd from Egypt broughc,
And Carvings by the Curious Artift wrought,
It wants no Glad Perfume Arabia yields
In all her Citron Groves, and spicy Fields;
Here all her store of richest Odours meets,
I'll lay thee in a Wilderness of Sweets.
Whatever to the Senfe can grateful be
I have collected there.

I want but Thee..

My Husband's gone a Journey far away,
Much Gold he took abroad, and long will stay,
He nam'd for his return a diftant Day..

Upon her Tongue did fuch smooth Mifchief dwell,
And from her Lips fuch welcome Flatt'ry fell,
Th' unguarded Youth, in Silken Fetters ty'd,
Refign'd his Reason, and with Eafe comply'd.
Thus does the Ox to his own Slaughter go,
And thus is fenfelefs of th' impending Blow..
Thus flies the fimple Bird into the Snare,
That skilful Fowlers for his Life prepare.
But let my Sons attend, Attend may they
Whom Youthful Vigour may to Sin betray;
Let them falfe Charmers fly, and guard their Hearts
Against the wily Wanton's pleafing Arts,
With Care direct their Steps, nor turn aftray
To tread the Paths of her deceitful Way;
Left they too late of Her fell Power complain,
And fall, where many mightier have been slain.

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T

N 4II.

Saturday, June 21..

Avia Pieridum peragro loca, nullius ante
Trita folo; juvat integros accedere fonteis;
Atque haurire:

O'

Lucr.'

UR Sight is the moft perfect and moft delightful of all our Senfes. It fills the Mind with the larg eft Variety of Ideas, converfes with its Objects at the greatest Distance, and continues the longeft in Action

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without

without being tired or fatiated with its proper Enjoy ments. The Senfe of Feeling can indeed give us a Notion of Extenfion, Shape, and all other Ideas that enter at the Eye, except Colours; but at the fame time it is very much freightned and confined in its Operations, to` the cumber, bulk, and diftance of its particular Objects. Our Sight feems defigned to fupply all thefe Defects, and may be confidered as a more delicate and diffufive kind of Touch, that spreads it felf over an infinite Multitude of Bodies, comprehends the largest Figures, and brings into our reach fome of the moft remote Parts of the Univerfe.

IT is this Sense which furnishes the Imagination with its Ideas; fo that by the Pleafures of the Imagination or Fancy (which I fhall ufe promifcuoufly) I here mean fuch as arife from visible Objects, either when we have them actually in our View, or when we call up their Ideas in our Minds by Paintings, Statues, Defcriptions, or any the like Occafion. We cannot indeed have a fingle Image in the Fancy that did not make its first Entrance through the Sight; but we have the Power of retaining, altering and compounding thofe Images, which we have once received, into all the varieties of Picture and Vision that are moft agreeable to the Imagination; for by this Faculty a Man in a Dungeon is capable of entertaining himself with Scenes and Landskips more beautiful than any that can be found in the whole Compafs of Nature.

THERE are few Words in the English Language which are employed in a more loofe and uncircumfcribed Senfe than thofe of the Fancy and the Imagination. I therefore thought it neceffary to fix and determine the Notion of these two Words, as I intend to make use of them in the Thread of my following Speculations, that the Reader may conceive rightly what is the Subjec which I proceed upon. I must therefore defire him to remember, that by the Pleafures of the Imagination, I mean only fuch Pleasures as arife originally from Sight, and that I divide thefe Pleasures into two Kinds: My Defign being first of all to difcourfe of thofe Primary Plea fures of the Imagination, which entirely proceed from fuch Objects as are before our Eyes; and in the next

place

place to speak of thofe fecondary Pleasures of the Imagination which flow from the Ideas of visible Objects,* when the Objects are not actually before the Eye, but are called up into our Memories, or formed into agreeable Visions of Things that are either Absent or Ficti tious.

THE Pleasures of the Imagination, taken in the full Extent, are not fo grofs as thofe of Senfe, nor fo refined as thofe of the Understanding. The last are, indeed, more preferable, because they are founded on fome new Knowledge or Improvement in the Mind of Man; yet it must be confeft, that thofe of the Imagination are as great and as tranfporting as the other. A beautiful Profpect delights the Soul, as much as a Demonftration; and a Defcription in Homer has charmed more Readers than a Chapter in Ariftotle. Befides, the Pleafures of the Imagination have this Advantage, above thofe of the Underftanding, that they are more obvious, and more eafie to be acquired. It is but opening the Eye, and the Scene enters. The Colours paint themselves on the Fancy, with very little Attention of Thought or Application of Mind in the Beholder. We are ftruck, we know not how, with the Symmetry of any thing we fee, and immediately affent to the Beauty of an Object, without enquiring into the particular Caufes and Occafions of it.

A Man of a Polite Imagination is let into a great many Pleasures, that the Vulgar are not capable of receiving. He can converfe with a Picture, and find an agreeable Companion in a Statue. He meets with a fecret Refreshment in a Defcription, and often feels a greater Satisfaction in the Profpect of Fields and Meadows, than another does in the Poffeffion. It gives him, indeed, a kind of Property in every thing he fees, and makes the most rude uncultivated Parts of Nature adminifter to his Pleafures: So that he looks upon the World, as it were in another Light, and difcovers in it a Multitude of Charms, that conceal themselves from the generality of Mankind.

THERE are, indeed, but very few who know how to be idle and innocent, or have a Relish of any Pleafures that are not Criminal; every Diverfion they take is at the Expence of fome one Virtue or another, and their

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very first Step out of Business is into Vice or Folly. A Man fhould endeavour, therefore, to make the Sphere of his innocent Pleasures as wide as poffible, that he may retire into them with Safety, and find in them fuch a Satisfaction as a wife Man would not blush to take. Of this Nature are thofe of the Imagination, which do not require fuch a Bent of Thought as is neceffary to our more ferious Employments, nor, at the fame time, fuffer the Mind to fink into that Negligence and Remiffness, which are apt to accompany our more fenfual Delights, but, like a gentle Exercife to the Faculties, awaken them from Sloth and Idleness, without putting them upon any Labour or Difficulty.

WE might here add, that the Pleasures of the Fancy are more conducive to Health, than those of the Underftanding, which are worked out by Dint of Thinking, and attended with too violent a Labour of the Brain. Delightful Scenes, whether in Nature, Painting, or Poetry, have a kindly Influence on the Body, as well as the Mind, and not only ferve to clear and brighten the Imagination, but are able to difperfe Grief and Melancholy, and to fet the Animal Spirits in pleafing and agreeable Motions. For this Reafon Sir Francis Bacon, in his Effay upon Health, has not thought it improper to prescribe to his Reader a Poem or a Profpect, where he particularly diffuades him from knotty and fubtile Difquifitions, and advifes him to purfue Studies that fill the Mind with fplendid and illuftrious Objects, as Hiftories, Fables, and Contemplations of Nature.

I have in this Paper, by way of Introduction, fettled the Notion of thofe Pleafures of the Imagination which are the Subject of my prefent Undertaking, and endeavoured, by feveral Confiderations, to recommend to my Reader the Pursuit of thofe Pleasures. I fhall, in my next Paper, examine the several Sources from whence these Pleasures are derived.

Monday,