Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

my reach to determine. It is evidently certain, that the body is curiously formed with proper organs to delight, and fuch as are adapted to all the neceffary ufes of life. The fpirit ani. mates the whole; it guides the natural appetites, and confines them within juft limits. But, the natural force of this fpirit is often immerfed in matter; and the mind becomes fubfervient to paffions, which it ought to govern and direct. Your friend Horace, although of the Epicurean doctrine, acknowledges this truth, where he says,

Atque affigit humo divinæ particulam auræ. It is no lefs evident, that this immortal spirit has an independent power of acting, and, when cultivated in a proper manner, feemingly quits the corporeal frame within which it is imprifoned, and foars into higher, and more fpacious regions; where, with which I had almost faid was an energy divine, it ranges among those heavenly bodies that in this lower world are fcarce vifible to our eyes; and we can at once explain the distance, magnitude, and velocity of the planets, and can foretel, even to a degree of minuteness, the particular time when at comet will return, and when the fun will be eclipfed in the next century. These powers certainly evince the dignity of human nature, and the furprifing effects of the immaterial spirit within us, which in fo confined a state can thus difengage itself from the fetters of matter. It is from this pre-eminence of the foul over the body, that we are enabled to view the exact order and curious variety of different beings; to confider and cultivate the natural productions of the earth; and to ad. mire and imitate the wife benevolence which reigns throughout the fole fyf. tem of the univerfe. It is from hence,

that we form moral laws for our conduct. From hence we delight in copying that great original, who in his effence is utterly incomprehenfible, but in his influence is powerfully apparent to every degree of his creation. From hence too we perceive a real beauty in virtue, and a diftinction be

tween good and evil. Virtue acts with the utmost generofity, and with no view to her own advantage: while Vice, like a glutton, feeds herfelf enormously, and then is willing to difgorge the nauseous Orrery. offals of her feaft.

$71. Oeconomy, Want of it no Mark of

Genius.

The indigence of authors, and particularly of poets, has long been the object of lamentation and ridicule, of compaffion and contempt.

It has been obferved, that not one favourite of the Mufes has ever been able to build a houfe fince the days of Amphion, whofe art it would be fortunate for them if they poffeffed; and that the greatest punishment that can poffibly be inflicted on them, is to oblige them to fup in their own lodgings,

-Molles ubi reddunt ova columbæ,
Where pigeons lay their eggs.

Boileau introduces Damon, whose writings entertained and inftructed the city and the court, as having paffed the fummer without a fhirt, and the winter without a cloak; and refolving at last to forfake Paris,

-où la vertu n'a plus ni fèu ni lieu, Where fhiv'ring worth no longer finds a home, and to find out a retreat in some distant grotto,

D'où jamais ni l'Huifier, ni le Sergent n'ap-
proche,

Safe, where no critics damn, no duns molest.
POPE.

The rich comedian, fays Bruyere,

lolling in his gilt chariot, befpatters the face of Corneille walking afoot:" and Juvenal remarks, that his cotemporary bards generally qualified themfelves by their diet to make excellent times to hire lodgings at a baker's, in buftos; that they were compelled fomeorder to warm themselves for nothing; and that it was the common fate of the fraternity,

Pallere & vinum toto nefcire Decembri,

[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors]

Virgil himself is ftrongly fufpected to have lain in the streets, or on fome Roman bulk, when he fpeaks fo feelingly of a rainy and tempeftuous night in his well known epigram.

"There ought to be an hofpital founded for decayed wits," faid a lively Frenchman, and it might be called the Hofpital of Incurables."

Few, perhaps, wander among the laurels of Parnaffus, but who have reafon ardently to with and to exclaim with Eneas, tho' without that hero's good fortune,

Si nunc fe nobis ille aureus arbore ramus,
Oftendat nemore in tanto!

O! in this ample grove could I behold
The tree that blooms with vegetable gold!

PITT.

The patronage of Lælius and Scipio did not enable Terence to rent a houfe. Taffo, in a humorous fonnet addreffed to his favourite cat, earneftly entreats her to lend him the light of her eyes during his midnight ftudies, not being himself able to purchafe a candle to write by. Dante, the Homer of Italy, and Camoens of Portugal, were both banifhed and imprisoned. Cervantes, perhaps the most original genius the world ever beheld, perished by want in the ftreets of Madrid, as did our own Spenfer at Dublin. And a writer little inferior to the Spaniard in the exquifitenefs of his humour and raillery, I mean Erafmus, after tedious wanderings of many years from city to city, and from patron to patron, praifed, and promised, and deceived by all, obtained no fettlement but with his printer. "At laft," fays he in one of his epiftles, "I fhould have been advanced to a cardinalfhip, if there had not been a decree in my way, by which those are excluded from this honour, whofe income amounts not to three thousand ducats."

I remember to have read a fatire in Latin profe, entitled, "A Poet hath bought a houfe." The poet having purchafed a house, the matter was imme. mediately laid before the parliament of poets, affembled on that important occafion, as a thing unheard-of, as a very bad precedent, and of moft pernicious confequence; and accordingly a very

fevere fentence was pronauced against the buyer. When the members came to give their votes, it appeared there was not a fingle perfon in the affembly, who, through the favour of powerful patrons, or their own happy genius, was worth fo much as to be proprietor of a houfe, either by inheritance or purchafe all of them neglecting their private fortunes, confeffed and boafted, that they lived in lodgings. The poet was, therefore, ordered to fell his houfe immediately, to buy wine with the money for their entertainment, in order to make fome expiation for his enormous crime, and to teach him to live unfettled, and without care, like a true poet.

Such are the ridiculous, and fuch the pitiable ftories related, to expose the poverty of poets in different ages and nations; but which, I am inclined to think, are rather boundlefs exaggerations of fatire and fancy, than the fober refult of experience, and the determination of truth and judgment: for the general pofition may be contradicted by numerous examples; and it may, perhaps, appear on reflection and examination, that the art is not chargeable with the faults and failings of its particular profeffors; that it has no peculiar tendency to make men either rakes or fpendthrifts; and that thofe who are indigent poets would have been indigent merchants and mechanics.

The neglect of economy, in which great geniufes are fuppofed to have indulged themfelves, has unfortunately given fo much authority and juftification to careleffnefs and extravagance, that many a minute rhymer has fallen into diffipation and drunkennefs, becaufe Butler and Otway lived and died in an alehoufe. As a certain blockhead wore his gown on one fhoulder to mimic the negligence of Sir Thomas More, fo thefe fervile imitators follow their masters in all that difgraced them; contract immoderate debts, becaufe Dryden died infolvent; and neglect to change their linen, becaufe Smith was a floven. "If I fhould happen to look pale," fays Horace," all the hackney writers in Rome would immediately drink cummin to gain the fame complexion."

[blocks in formation]

The first objects of a ftranger's curiofity are the public fpectacles. I was carried last night to one they call an Opera, which is a concert of mufic brought from Italy, and in every refpect foreign to this country. It was performed in a chamber as magnificent as the refplendent palace of our emperor, and as full of handsome women as his feraglio. They had no eunuchs among them; but there was one who fung upon the stage, and, by the luxurious tenderness of his airs, feemed fitter to make them wanton, than keep them chafte.

Inftead of the habit proper to fuch creatures, he wore a fuit of armour, and called himself Julius Cæfar.

I asked who Julius Cæfar was, and whether he had been famous for finging? They told me he was a warrior that had conquered all the world, and debauched half the women in Rome.

I was going to exprefs my admiration at feeing him fo reprefented, when I heard two ladies, who fat nigh me, cry out, as it were in an ecftafy, "O that dear creature! I am dying for love of him."

At the fame time I heard a gentleman fay aloud, that both the mufic and finging were deteftable.

You must not mind him," faid my friend," he is of the other party, and comes here only as a spy."

"How! faid I, have you parties in mufic?" "Yes," replied he," it is a rule with us to judge of nothing by our fenfes and understanding, but to hear, and fee, and think, only as we chance to be differently engaged.

"I hope," faid I," that a ftranger may be neutral in thefe divifions; and, to fay the truth, your mufic is very far from inflaming me to a fpirit of faction; it is much more likely to lay me afleep. Ours in Perfia fets us all adancing; but I am quite unmoved with this."

"Do but fancy it moving," returned my friend," and you will foon be moved as much as others. It is a trick you may learn when you will, with a little pains: we have most of us learnt it in our turns." Lord Lyttelton.

$73. Patience recommended.

The darts of adverse fortune are always levelled at our heads. Some reach us, and fome fly to wound our neighbours. Let us therefore impofe an equal temper on our minds, and pay without murmuring the tribute which we owe to humanity. The winter brings cold, and we must freeze. The fummer returns with heat, and we must melt. The inclemency of the air diforders our health, and we must be fick. Here we are expofed to wild beasts, and there to men more favage than the beafts: and if we efcape the inconveniences and dangers of the air and the earth, there are perils by water and perils by fire. This eftablished courfe of things it is not in our power to change; but it is in our power to affume fuch a greatness of mind as becomes wife and virtuous men, as may enable us to encounter the accidents of life with fortitude, and to conform ourselves to the order of Nature, who governs her great kingdom, the world, by continual mutations. Let us fubmit to this order; let us be perfuaded that whatever does happen ought to happen, and never be fo foolish as to expoftulate with Nature. The best refolution we can take is to fuffer what we cannot alter, and to purfue without repining the road which Providence, who directs every thing, has marked to us: for it is enough to follow; and he is but a bad foldier who fighs, and marches with reluctancy. We must receive the orders with spirit and chearfulness, and not endeavour to flink out of the poft which is affigned us in this beautiful difpofition of things, whereof even sufferings make a neceffary part. Let us addrefs ourselves to God who governs all, as Cleanthes did in those admirable verses,

Parent of nature! Mafter of the world!
Where'er thy providence directs, behold

My

My fteps with chearful refignation turn.
Fate leads the willing, drags the backward on.
Why should I grieve, when grieving I must bear;
Or take with guilt, what guiltless I might share!

Thus let us fpeak, and thus let us act. Refignation to the will of God is true magnanimity. But the fure mark of a pufillanimous and bafe fpirit, is to ftruggle against, to cenfure the order of Providence, and, inftead of mending our own conduct, to fet up for correct ing that of our Maker. Bolingbroke.

$74. Patience exemplified in the Story of an Afs.

I was just receiving the dernier compliments of Monfieur Le Blanc, for a pleafant voyage down the Rhône when I was stopped at the gate.

"Twas by a poor afs, who had just turned in with a couple of large panniers upon his back, to collect eleemofinary turnip-tops and cabbage-leaves; and flood dubious, with his two forefeet on the infide of the threshold, and with his two hinder feet towards the ftreet, as not knowing very well whether he was to go in or no.

Now, 'tis an animal (be in what hurry I may) I cannot bear to ftrike-there is a patient endurance of fufferings, wrote fo unaffectedly in his looks and carriage, which pleads fo mightily for him, that it always difarms me; and to that degree, that I do not like to fpeak unkindly to him: on the contrary, meet him where I will-whether in town or country-in cart or under panniers whether in liberty or bondage I have ever fomething civil to fay to him on my part; and as one word begets another (if he has as little to do as 1)I generally fall into converfation with him; and furely never is my imagination fo bufy as in framing his refponfes from the etchings of his countenance and where thofe carry me not deep enough-in flying from my own heart into his, and teeing what is natural for an afs to think-as well as a man, upon the occafion. In truth, it is the only creature of all the claffes of beings below me, with whom I can do this for parrots, jackdaws, &c.--I never exchange a word with them-

nor with the apes, &c. for pretty near
the fame reafon; they act by rote, as
the others fpeak by it, and equally
make me filent: nay my dog and my
cat, though I value them both.
(and for my dog, he would fpeak if he
could)-yet, fomehow or other, they
neither of them poffefs the talents for
converfation-I can make nothing of a
difcourfe with them, beyond the pro-
pofition, the reply, and rejoinder, which
terminated my father's and my mother's
converfations, in his beds of justice-
and those uttered-there's an end of the
dialogue

for ever.

But with an afs, I can commune

[ocr errors]

Come, Honefty! faid I-feeing it was impracticable to pafs betwixt him and the gate-art thou for coming in, or going out?

The afs twifted his head round to look up the streetWell-replied I-we'll wait a minute for thy driver.

He turned his head thoughtful about, and looked wififully the oppofite way

I understand thee perfectly, anfwered I-if thou taket a wrong itep in this affair, he will cudgel thee to death --Well! a minute is but a minute, and if it faves a fellow-creature a drubbing, it fhall not be fet down as illfpent.

He was eating the ftem of an artichoke as this difcourfe went on, and in the litle peevish contentions of nature betwixt hunger and unfavouriness, had dropt it out of his mouth half a dozen times, and pick'd it up again-God help thee, Jack! faid I, thou hast a bitter breakfast on't-and many a bitter day's labour-and many a bitter blow, I fear, for its wages-'tis all-all bitternefs to thee, whatever life is to others.

And now thy mouth, if one knew the truth of it, is as bitter, I dare fay, as foot-(for he had cast afide the ftem) and thou haft not a friend perhaps in all this world, that will give thee a macaroon

-In faying this,

I pulled out a paper of them, which I had juft purchafed, and gave him one and at this moment that I am tell ing it, my heart fmites me, that there 3 A

was

was more of pleafantry in the conceit, of feeing how an afs would eat a macathan of benevolence in giving him one, which prefided in the act.

roon

When the afs had eaten his macaroon, I prefs'd him to come in-the poor beat was heavy loaded-his legs feem'd to tremble under him-he hung rather backwards, and, as I pull'd at his halter, it broke fhort in my hand-he look'd up penfive in my face-" Don't thrash me with it—but if you will, you may”—If I do, faid I, I'll be dd.

The word was but one half of it pronounced, like the abbefs of Andouillet's -(fo there was no fin in it)-when a perfon coming in, let fall a thundering baftinado upon the poor devil's crupper, which put an end to the cere. mony.

Out upon it!

cried I--but the interjection was equivocal and, I think, wrong placed too for the end of an ofer, which had started out from the contexture of the afs's pannier, had caught hold of my breeches pocket as he ruhed by me, and rent it in the most difaftrous direction you can imagine-fo that the Out upon it! in my opinion, fhould have come in here.

Sterne.

has performed with great fuccefs the Apothecary in Romeo and Juliet.

The performers at our ruftic theatre are far beyond thofe paltry ftrollers, who run about the country, and exhibit in a barn or a cow-houfe: for (as their bills declare) they are a company of Comedians from the Theatre Royal; and I affure you they are as much applauded by our country critics, as any of your capital actors. The fhops of our tradesmen have been almost desert, ed, and a croud of weavers and hardwaremen have elbowed each other two hours before the opening of the doors, when the bills have informed us, in enormous red letters, that the part of George Barnwell was to be performed by Mr. at the particular defire of feveral ladies of diftin&tion. 'Tis true, indeed, that our principal actors have most of them had their education at Covent-garden or Drury-lane; but they have been employed in the bufinefs of the drama in a degree but juft above a fcene-fhifter. An heroine, to whom your managers in town (in envy to her rifing merit) fcarce allotted the humble part of a confidante, now blabbers out Andromache or Belvidera; the attendants on a monarch ftrut monarchs themfelves, mutes find their voices, and meffage-bearers rife into

$75. Players, in a Country Town, de heroes. The humour of our best co

fcribed.

The players, you must know, finding this a good town, had taken a leafe the laft fummer of an old fynagogue deferted by the Jews; but the mayor, being a prefbyterian, refufed to licence their exhibitions: however, when they were in the utmoft defpair, the ladies of the place joined in a petition to Mrs. Mayorefs, who prevailed on her hufband to wink at their performances. The company immediately opened their fynagogue theatre with the Merchant of Venice; and finding a quack doctor's zany, a droll fellow, they decoyed him into their fervice; and he has fince performed the part of the Mock Doctor with univerfal applaufe. Upon his revolt the doctor himself found it abfolutely neceffary to enter of the com-pany; and, having a talent for tragedy,

median confifis in fhrugs and grimaces; he jokes in a wry mouth, and repartees in a grin; in thort, he practifes on Congreve and Vanbrugh all those dif tortions which gained him fo much applaufe from the galleries, in the drubs which he was condemned to undergo in pantomimes. I was vastly diverted at feeing a fellow in the character of Sir Harry Wildair, whofe chief action was a continual preffing together of the thumb and fore-finger, which, had he lifted them to his nofe, I fhould have thought he defigned as an imitation of taking fnuff: but I could easily account for the caufe of this fingle gefture, when I difcovered that Sir Harry was no less a perfon than the dextrous Mr. Clippit the candle-fnuffer.

You would laugh to fee how ftrange. ly the parts of a play are caft. They played Cato: and their Marcia was such

an

« ZurückWeiter »