The cafe is the fame with orators, philofophers, critics, or any author, who fpeaks in his own perfon, without introducing other speakers or actors. If his language be not elegant, his obfervations uncommon, his fense strong and mafculine, he will in vain boaft his nature and fimplicity. He may be correct; but he never will be agreeable. 'Tis the unhappiness of fuch authors, that they are never blamed nor cenfured. The good fortune of a book, and that of a man, are not the fame. The fecret deceiving path of life, which Horace talks of, fallentis femita vite, may be the happieft lot of the one; but is the greatest misfortune that the other can poffibly fall into. On the other hand, productions which are merely furprifing, without being natural, can never give any lafting entertainment to the mind. To draw chimeras is not, properly fpeaking, to copy or imitate. The juftnefs of the reprefentation is loft, and the mind is displeased to find a picture, which bears no refemblance to any original. Nor are fuch exceffive refinements more agreeable in the epiftolary or philofophic ftyle than in the epic or tragic. Too much ornament is a fault in every kind of production. Uncommon expreffions, trong flashes of wit, pointed fimilies, and epigrammatic turns, efpecially when laid too thick, are a disfigurement rather than any embellishment of difcourfe. As the eye, in furveying a Gothic building, is diftracted by the multiplicity of ornaments, and lofes the whole by its minute attention to the parts; fo the mind, in perufing a work overstocked with wit, is fatigued and difgufted with the conftant endeavour to fhine and furprife. This is the cafe where a writer overabounds in wit, even though that wit fhould be juft and agreeable. But it commonly happens to fuch writers, that they feek for their favourite ornaments, even where the fubject affords them not; and by that means, have twenty infipid conceits for one thought that is really beautiful. There is no fubject in critical learning more copious than this of the just mixture of fimplicity and refinement in writing; and therefore, not to wander in too large a field, I fhall confine myself to a few general observations on that head. First, I observe, That though exceffes of both kinds are to be avoided, and though a proper medium ought to be ftudied in all productions; yet this' medium lies not in a point, but admits of a very confiderable latitude.' Confider the wide distance, in this refpect, betwixt Mr. Pope and Lucretius. Thefe feem to lie in the two greatest extremes of refinement and fimplicity, which a poet can indulge himself in, without being guilty of any blameable excefs. All this interval may be filled with poets, who may differ from each other, but may be equally admirable, each in his peculiar ftyle and manner. Corneille and Congreve, who carry their wit and refinement fomewhat farther than Mr. Pope (if poets of fo different a kind can be compared together) and Sophocles and Terence, who are more fimple than 'Lucretius, feem to have gone out of that medium, wherein the most perfect productions are to be found, and are guilty of fome excefs in thefe oppofite characters. Of all the great poets, Virgil and Racine, in my opinion, lie nearest the center, and are the fartheft removed from both the extremi ties. My fecond obfervation on this head is, That it is very difficult, if not impoffible, to explain, by words, wherein the juft medium betwixt the exceffes of fimplicity and refinement confifts, or to give any rule, by which we can know precifely the bounds betwixt the fault and the beauty.' A critic may not only difcourfe very judiciously on this head, without inftructing his readers, but even without understanding the matter perfectly himself. There is not in the world a finer piece of criticifm than Fontenelle's Differtation on Paftorals; wherein, by a number of reflections and philofophical reafonings, he endeavours to fix the juft medium which is fuitable to that fpecies of writing. But let any one read the pastorals of that author, and he will be convinced, that this judicious critic, notwithstanding his fine reafonings, had a falfe tafte, and fixed the point of perfection much nearer the extreme of refinement, than paftoral poetry will admit of. The fentiments of his fhepherds are better fuited to the toilets of Paris, than to the forefts of Arcadia. But this it is impoffible to difcover from his critical reasonings. He blames all exceffive painting and ornament as much as Virgil could have done, had he wrote a differtation on this fpecies of poetry. However dif. ferent the tastes of men may be, their general difcourfes on thefe fubjects are commonly the fame. No criticifm can be very instructive, which defcends not to particulars, and is not full of examples and illuftrations. 'Tis allowed on all hands, that beauty, as well as virtue, lies always in a medium; but where this medium is placed, is the great queftion, and can never be fufficiently explained by general reafonings. I fhall deliver it as a third obfervation on this fubject, That we ought to be more on our guard against the excess of refinement than that of fimplicity; and that because the former excefs is both lefs beautiful and more dangerous than the latter.' It is a certain rule, that wit and paffion are intirely inconfiftent. When the affections are moved, there is no place for the imagination. The mind of man being naturally limited, it is impoffible all its faculties can operate at once: and the more any one predominates, the less room is there for the others to exert their vigour. For this reafon, a greater degree of fimplicity is required in all compofitions, where men, and actions, and paffions are painted, than in fuch as confift of reflections and obfervations. And as the former species of writing is the more engaging and beautiful, one may fafely, upon this account, give the preference to the extreme of fimplicity above that of refinement. We may also observe, that thofe compofitions, which we read the ofteneft, and which every man of tafte has got by heart, have the recommendation of fimplicity, and have nothing furprising in the thought, when divested of that elegance of expreffion, and harmony of numbers, with which it is cloathed. If the merit of the compofition lies in a point of wit, it may ftrike at first but the mind anticipates the thought in the fecond perufal, and is no longer affected by it. When I read an epigram of Martial, the first line recalls the whole; and I have no pleasure in repeating to myself what I know already. But each line, each word in Catullus has its merit; and I am never tired with the perufal of him. It is fufficient to run over Cowley once: but Parnel, after the fiftieth reading, is as fresh as at the first. Befides, it is with books as with women, where a certain plainnefs of manner and of drefs is more engaging than that glare of paint and airs and apparel, which may dazzle the eye, but reaches not the affections. Terence is a modest and bashful beauty, to whom we grant every thing, because he affumes nothing, and whofe purity and nature make a durable, though not a violent, impreffion upon us. But refinement, as it is the lefs beautiful, fo it is the more dangerous extreme, and what we are the apteft to fall into. Simplicity paffes for dullness, when it is not accompanied with great elegance and propriety. On the contrary, there is fomething furprising in a blaze of wit and conceit. Ordinary readers are mightily ftruck with it, and falfely imagine it to be the most difficult, as well as moft excellent way of writing. Seneca abounds with agreeable faults, fays Quinctilian, abundat dulcibus vitiis; and for that reafon is the more dangerous, and the more apt to pervert the taste of the young and inconfiderate. I fhall add, that the excefs of refinement is now more to be guarded against than ever; because it is the extreme, which men are the most apt to fall into, after learning has made great progrefs, and after eminent writers have appeared in every fpecies of compofition. The endeavour to pleafe by novelty, leads men wide of fimplicity and nature, and fills their writings with affectation and 3 B 2 conceit. conceit. It was thus the age of Claudius and Nero became fo much inferior to that of Auguftus in taste and genius: and perhaps there are, at prefent, fome fymptoms of a like degeneracy of tafte, in France as well as in England. Hume. $ 90. An Efay on Suicide. The last feffions deprived us of the only furviving member of a fociety, which (during its fhort existence) was equal both in principles and practice to the Mohocks and Hell-fire club of tremendous memory. This fociety was compofed of a few broken gamefters and defperate young rakes, who threw the fmall remains of their bankrupt fortunes into one common ftock, and thence affumed the name of the Laft Guinea Club. A fhort life and a merry one was their favourite maxim; and they determined, when their finances fhould be exhaufted, to die as they had lived, like gentlemen. Some of their members had the luck to get a reprieve by a good run at cards, and others by fnapping up a rich heiress or a dowager; while the reft, who were not cut off in the natural way by duels or the gallows, very refolutely made their quietus with laudanum or the piftol. The laft that remained of this fociety had very calmly prepared for his own execution: he had cocked his pistol, deliberately placed the muzzle of it to his temple, and was just going to pull the trigger, when he bethought himfelf that he could employ it to better purpose upon Hounflow heath. This brave man, however, had but a very fhort refpite, and was obliged to fuffer the ignominy of going out of the world in the vulgar way, by an halter. The enemies of play will perhaps confider thofe gentlemen, who boldly take their whole fortunes at the gaming table, in the fame view with thefe defperadoes; and they may even go fo far as to regard the polite and honourable affembly at White's as a kind of Laft Guinea Club. Nothing, they will fay, is fo fluctuating as the property of a gamefter, who (when luck runs against him) throws away whole acres at every cast of the dice, and whofe houfes are as unfure a poffeffion, as if they were built with cards. Many, indeed, have been reduced to their laft guinea at this genteel gaming-house; but the most inveterate enemies to White's must allow, that it is but now and then, that a gamefter of quality, who looks upon it as an even bet whether there is another world, takes his chance, and difpatches himself, when the odds are against him in this. But however free the gentlemen of White's may be from any imputation of this kind, it must be confeffed, that fuicide begins to prevail fo generally, that it is the most gallant exploit, by which our modern heroes chufe to fig nalize themselves; and in this, indeed, they behave with uncommon prowess. From the days of Plato down to thefe, a fuicide has always been compared to a foldier on guard deferting his poft: but I fhould rather confider a fet of thefe defperate men, who rush on certain death, as a body of troops fent out on the forlorn hope. They meet every face of death, however horrible, with the utmost refolution: fome blow their brains out with a piftol; fome expire, like Socrates, by poison; fome fall, like Cato, on the point of their own (words; and others, who have lived like Nero, affect to die like Seneca, and bleed to death. The most exalted geniuses I ever remember to have heard of were a party of reduced gamefters, who brave. ly refolved to pledge each other in a bowl of laudanum. I was lately informed of a gentleman, who went among his ufual companions at the gaming-table the day before he made away with himself, and coolly queftioned them, which they thought the eafieft and genteeleft method of going out of the world: for there is as much difference between a mean perfon and a man of quality in their manner of deftroying themfelves, as in their manner of living. The poor fneaking wretch, ftarving in a garret, tucks himself up in his lift garters; a fecond, croft in love, drowns himself like a blind puppy in Rofamond's pond; and a third cuts his throat with his own razor. But the man of fashion almost always dies by a pistol; and even the cobler of any Spirit goes off by a dose or two extraordinary of gin. But this falfe notion of courage, however noble it may appear to the defperate and abandoned, in reality amounts to no more than the refolution of the highwayman, who fhoots himfelf with his own piftol, when he finds it impoffible to avoid being taken. All practicable means, therefore, fhould be devifed to extirpate fuch abfurd bravery, and to make it appear every way horrible, odious, contemptible, and ridiculous. From reading the public prints, á foreigner might be naturally led to imagine, that we are the most Junatic people in the whole world. Almost every day informs us, that the coroner's inqueft has fat on the body of me miferable fuicide, and brought in their verdict lunacy; but it is very well known, that the enquiry has not been made into the ftate of mind of the deceased, but into his fortune and family. The law has indeed provided, the deliberate felf-murderer fhould be treated like a brute, and denied the rites of burial: but among hundreds of lunatics by purchase, I never knew this fentence executed but on one poor cobler, who hanged himself in his own ftall. A pennylefs poor wretch, who has not left enough to defray the funeral charges, may perhaps be excluded the church-yard; but felf-murder by a piftol qualifies the polite owner for a fudden death, and entitles him to a pompous burial, and a monument fetting forth his virtues in Weftmintter Abbey. Every man in his fober fenfes muft wish, that the most severe laws that could poffibly be contrived were enacted against fuicides. This fhocking bra vado never did (and I am confident never will) prevail among the more delicate and tender fex in our own nation though hiftory informs us, that the Roman ladies were once fo infatuated as to throw off the foftnefs of their nature, and commit violence on them felves, till the madness was curbed by the expofing their naked bodies in the public ftreets. This, I think, would afford an hint for fixing the like mark of ignominy on our male fuicides; and I would have every lower wretch of this fort dragged at the cart's tail, and afterwards hung in chains at his own door, or have his quarters put up in terrorem in the most public places, as a rebel to his Maker. But, that the fuicide of quality might be treated with more refpect, he should be indulged in having his wounded corpfe and shattered brains laid (as it were) in ftate for fome days; of which dreadful spectacle we may conceive the horror from the following picture drawn by Dryden : The flayer of himself too saw I there; And grim as when he breath'd his fullen foul away. The common murderer has his skeleton preferved at Surgeons-Hall, in order to deter others from being guilty of the fame crime; and I think it would not be improper to have a charnelhoufe fet apart to receive the bones of thefe more unnatural felf-murderers, in which monuments fhould be erected, giving an account of their deaths, and adorned with the glorious ensigns of their rafhnefs, the rope, the knife, the fword, or the piftol. The cause of these frequent felfmurders among us has been generally imputed to the peculiar temperature of our climate. Thus a dull day is looked upon as a natural order of execution, and Englishmen must neceffarily fhoot, hang, and drown themfelves in November. That our fpirits are in fome meafure influenced by the air cannot be denied; but we are not fuch mere barometers as to be driven to despair and death by the fmall degree of gloom that our winter brings with it. If we have not fo much funshine as fome countries in the world, we have infinitely more than many others; and I do not hear that men difpatch themselves by dozens in Ruffia or Sweden, or that they are unable to keep up their fpirits even in the total darkness of Greenland. Our climate exempts us from many diseases, to which other more fouthern nations are naturally fubject; and I can never be perfuaded, that being born near the north pole is a phyfical caufe for felf-murder. 3 B 3 Despair, (742) Defpair, indeed, is the natural caufe Another principal caufe of the fre- The cou am just returned from a vifit of a fort night to an old aunt in the North; where I was mightily diverted with the traditional fuperftitions, which are moft religioufly preferved in the family, as they have been delivered down (time out of mind) from their fagacious grandmothers. of the house very bufily employed, with made a thoufand apologies for not put- Red Sea. I had not been here long, when an |