been always the greatest enemies to their own beauty, and feem to have a defign against their own faces. At one time the whole countenance was eclipf ed in a black velvet mafk; at another it was blotted with patches; and at prefent it is crufted over with plaifter of Paris. In those battered belles who ftill aim at conquest, this practice is in fome fort excufable; but it is furely as ridiculous in a young lady to give up beauty for paint, as it would be to draw a good fet of teeth merely to fill their places with a row of ivory. Indeed fo common is this fafhion among the young as well as the old, that when I am in a groupe of beauties, I confider them as fo many pretty pic tures; looking about me with as little emotion as I do at Hudfon's: and if any thing fills me with admiration, it is the judicious arrangement of the tints, and delicate touches of the pain ter. Art very often seems almoft to vie with nature but my attention is too frequently diverted by confidering the texture and hue of the fkin beneath; and the picture fails to charm, while my thoughts are engroffed by the wood and canvafs. Connoiffeur. § 104. Advantages of well-directed Satire pointed out. A fatirift of true genius, who is warmed by a generous indignation of vice, and whofe cenfures are conducted by candour and truth, merits the applaufe of every friend to virtue. He may be confidered as a fort of fupplement to the legislative authority of his country; as aflifting the unavoidable defects of all legal inftitutions for regulating of manners, and ftriking terfor even where the divine prohibitions themselves are held in contempt. The ftrongest defence, perhaps, against the inroads of vice, among the more cultivated part of our fpecies, is well-di rected ridicule they who fear nothing elfe dread to be marked out to the contempt and indignation of the world. There is no fucceeding in the fecret purposes of difhonefty, without preferving fome fort of credit among mankind; as there cannot exilt a more impotent creature than a knave convict. To expofe, therefore, the false pretenfions of counterfeit virtue, is to difarm it at once of all power of mifchief, and to perform a public fervice of the most advantageous kind, in which any man can employ his time and his talents. The voice, indeed, of an honest satirist is not only beneficial to the world, as giving an alarm against the defigns of an enemy fo dangerous to all focial intercourfe; but as proving likewife the moft efficacious preventive to others, of affuming the fame character of distinguifhed infamy. Few are fo totally vi tiated, as to have abandoned all fentiments of fhame; and when every other principle of integrity is furrendered, we generally find the conflict is ftill maintained in this laft poft of retreating virtue. In this view, therefore, it fhould feem, the function of a fatirist may be justified, notwithstanding it fhould be true (what an excellent mo ralift has afferted) that his chaftife. ments rather exafperate, than reclaim thofe on whom they fall. Perhaps no human penalties are of any moral advantage to the criminal himfelf: and the principal benefit that feems to be derived from civil punishments of any kind, is their restraining influence upon the conduct of others. It is not every man, however, that is qualified to manage this formidable bow. The arrows of fatire, when they are pointed by virtue, as well as wit, recoil upon the hand that directs them, and wound none but him from whom they proceed. Accordingly, Horace refts the whole fuccefs of writings of this fort upon the poet's being integer ipfe; free himself from those immoral ftains which he points out in others. There cannot, indeed, be a more odious, nor at the fame time a more contemptible character, than that of a vicious fatirist : Quis cælum terris non mifceat & mare cœlo, Juv. on others, which he has already merited himself. But the truth of it is, he is not qualified even for fo wretched an office; and there is nothing to be dreaded from the fatirift of known difhonesty, but his applaufe. Fitzefborne's Letters. 105. Juvenal and Horace compared as Satirifts. I would willingly divide the palm betwixt thefe poets upon the two heads of profit and delight, which are the two ends of poetry in general. It must be granted by the favourers of Juvenal, that Horace is the more copious and profitable in his inftructions of human life but in my particular opinion, which I fet not up for a standard to better judgments, Juvenal is the more delightful author. I am profited by both, I am pleafed with both; but I owe more to Horace for my inftruction, and more to Juvenal for my pleafare. This, as I faid, is my particular tafte of thefe two authors: they who will have either of them to excel the other in both qualities, can fcarce give better reafons for their opinion, than I for mine; but all unbiaffed readers will conclude, that my moderation is not to be condemned. To fuch impartial men I must appeal; for they who have already formed their judgment, may juftly ftand fufpected of prejudice and though all who are my readers will fet up to be my judges, I enter my caveat against them, that they ought not fo much as to be of my jury; ori f they be admitted, 'tis but reafon that they fhould first hear what I have to urge in the defence of my opinion. cutioner, who inflicts the punishment ftructions, makes them to fewer people, and on fewer occafions, than the other. I may be pardoned for ufing an old faying, fince it is true, and to the purpose, Bonum quo communius eo melius. Juvenal, excepting only his firft fatire, is in all the rest confined to the expofing fome particular vice; that he lashes, and there he flicks. His fentences are truly fhining and inftructive; but they are fprinkled here and there. Horace is teaching us in every line, and is perpetually moral; he had found out the kill of Virgil, to hide his fentences; to give you the virtue of them, without fhewing them in their full extent: which is the oftentation of a poet, and not his art. And this Petronius charges on the authors of his time, as a vice of writing, which was then growing on the age: Ne fententia extra corpus orationis emineant. He would have them weaved into the body of the work, and not appear emboffed upon it, and ftriking directly on the reader's view. Folly was the proper quarry of Horace, and not vice: and as there are but few notoriously wicked men, in comparison with a fhoal of fools and fops; fo 'tis a harder thing to make a man wife, than to make him honeft: for the will is only to be reclaimed in the one; but the understanding is to be informed in the other. There are blind fides and follies, even in the profeffors of moral philofophy; and there is not any one fet of them that Horace has not expofed. Which, as it was not the defign of Juvenal, who was wholly employed in lafhing vices, fome of them the most enormous that can be imagined; fo, perhaps, it was not fo much his talent. Omne vafer vitium ridenti Flaccus amico, tangit, & admiffus circum præcordia ludit. This was the commendation that Perfius gave him; where by vitium, he means thofe little vices which we call follies, the defects of human understanding, or at most the peccadillos of life, rather than the tragical vices, to which men are hurried by their unruly paffions and exorbitant defires. But on the word omne, which is univerfal, he concludes with me, that the divine wit of Horace left nothing untouched; that he entered into the in3 C4 That Horace is fomewhat the better inftructor of the two, is proved hence, that his inftructions are more general, Juvenal's more limited : fo that, grant. ing that the counfels which they give are equally good for moral ufe, Horace, who gives the most various advice, and most applicable to all occafions which can occur to us in the courfe of our lives; as including in his difcourfes not only all the rules of morality, but alfo of civil converfation; is undoubtedly to be preferred to him, who is more circumfcribed in his in moft moft receffes of nature; found out the imperfections even of the most wife and grave, as well as of the common people; difcovering even in the great Trebatius, to whom he addreffes the first fatire, his hunting after bufinefs, and following the court; as well as in the perfecutor Crifpinus, his impertinence and importunity. 'Tis true, he exposes Crifpinus openly as a common nuifance; but he rallies the other as a friend, more finely. The exhortations of Perfius are confined to noblemen; and the ftoick philofophy is that alone which he recommends to them: Juvenal exhorts to particular virtues, as they are opposed to thofe vices against which he declaims; but Horace laughs to fhame all follies, and infinuates virtue rather by familiar examples than by the feverity of precepts. This laft confideration feems to incline the balance on the fide of Horace, and to give him the preference to Juvenal, not only in profit, but in pleafure. But, after all, I must confefs that the delight which Horace gives me, is but languishing. Be pleafed ftill to understand, that I fpeak of my own tafte only: he may ravish other men; but I am too ftupid and infenfible to be tickled. Where he barely grins himself, and, as Scaliger fays, only fhews his white teeth, he cannot provoke me to any laughter. His urbanity, that is, his good-manners, are to be commended, but his wit is faint; and his falt, if I may dare to fay fo, almoft infipid. Juvenal is of a more vigorous and mafculine wit; he gives me as much pleafure as I can bear: he fully fatisfies my expectation: he treats his fubject home: his fpleen is raifed, and he raises mine: I have the pleasure of concernment in all he fays: he drives his reader along with him and when he is at the end of his way, I willingly ftop with him. If he went another ftage, it would be too far, it would make a journey of a progrefs, and turn the delight into fatigue. When he gives over, 'tis a fign the Tubject is exhaufted, and the wit of man can carry it no farther. If a fault can be jufly found in him, 'tis that he is fometimes too luxuriant, too redundant; fays more than he needs, like my friend the Plain Dealer, but never more than pleafes. Add to this, that his thoughts are as just as thofe of Horace, and much more elevated. His expreffions are fonorous and more noble, his verse more numerous, and his words are fuitable to his thoughts, fublime and lofty. All these contribute to the pleafure of the reader; and the greater the foul of him who reads, his transports are the greater. Horace is always on the amble, Juvenal on the gallop; but his way is perpetually on carpetground. He goes with more impetuofity than Horace, but as fecurely; and the fwiftnefs adds more lively agitation to the fpirits. Dryden. § 106. Delicate Satire not easily bit off. How easy is it to call rogue and villain, and that wittily! but how hard to make a man appear a fool, a blockhead, or a knave, without using any of those opprobrious terms! To fpare the groffnefs of the names, and to do the thing yet more feverely, is to draw a full face, and to make the nofe and cheeks ftand out, and yet not to employ any depth of fhadowing. This is the mystery of that noble trade, which yet no mafter can teach to his apprentice: he may give the rules, but the fcholar is never the nearer in his practice. Neither is it true, that this finenefs of raillery is offenfive. A witty man is tickled while he is hurt in this manner; and a fool feels it not. The occafion of an offence may posibly be given, but he cannot take it, if it be granted, that in effect this way does more mifchief; that a man is fecretly wounded; and though he be not fenfible himself, yet the malicious world will find it out for him: yet there is ftill a vaft difference betwixt the flovenly butchering of a man, and the fineness of a ftroke that feparates the head from the body, and leaves it ftanding in its place. A man may be capable, as Jack Ketch's wife faid of her fervant, of a plain piece of work, a bare hanging: but to make a malefactor die fweetly, was only belonging to her husband. I wish I could apply it to myfelf, if the reader would be kind enough enough to think it belongs to me. The character of Zimri in my Abfalom, is, in my opinion, worth the whole poem: tis not bloody, but 'tis ridiculous enough: and he for whom it was intended, was too witty to refent it as an injury. If I had railed, I might have fuffered for it juftly; but I managed mine own works more hap pily, perhaps more dexterously. avoided the mention of great crimes, and applied myfelf to the reprefenting of blind fides, and little extravagancies, to which, the wittier a man is, he is generally the more obnoxious. It fucceeded as I wished; the jeft went round, and he was out in his turn who began the frolic. Dryden. $107. The Works of Art defective in entertaining the Imagination. I If we confider the works of nature and art, as they are qualified to entertain the imagination, we fhall find the laft very defective, in comparison of the former; for though they may fometimes appear as beautiful or ftrange, they can have nothing in them of that vaftness and immenfity, which afford fo great an entertainment to the mind of the beholder. The one may be as polite and delicate as the other, but can never fhew herself fo auguft and magnificent in the defign. There is fomething more bold and mafterly in the rough careless ftrokes of nature, than in the nice touches and embellishments of art. The beauties of the most ftate ly garden or palace lie in a narrow compafs, the imagination immediately runs them over, and requires fomething elfe to gratify her; but, in the wide fields of nature, the fight wanders up and down without confinement, and is fed with an infinite variety of images, without any certain ftint or number. For this reafon we always find the poet in love with a country-life, where nature appears in the greatest perfection, and furnishes out all thofe fcenes that are most apt to delight the imagina tion. Hic fecura quies, et nefcia fallere vita. But though there are feveral of these wild fcenes, that are more delightful than any artificial flows; yet we find the more they refemble thofe of art: the works of nature ftill more pleasant, for in this cafe our pleasure rifes from nefs of the objects to the eye, and from a double principle; from the agreeabletheir fimilitude to other objects: we are their fimilitude to other objects: we are pleafed as well with comparing their beauties, as with furveying them, and can reprefent them to our minds either as copies or origials. Hence it is that we take delight in a profpcét which is well laid out, and diversified with fields and meadows, woods and rivers; in thofe accidental landfkips of trees, clouds, and cities, that are sometimes found in the veins of marble; in the curious fret-work of rocks and grottos; and, in a word, in any thing that hath fuch a variety or regularity as may feem the effects of defign, in what we call the works of chance. Advantage from their Similarity to thofe of Nature.. If the products of nature rife in value, according as they more or less refemble thofe of art, we may be fure that artificial works receive a greater advantage from their refemblance to fuch as are natural; because here the fimilitude is not only pleafant, but the pattern more perfect. pattern more perfect. The prettiest landfkip I ever faw, was one drawn on the walls of a dark room, which flood oppofite on one fide to a navigable river, and on the other to a park. The experiment is very common in optics. Here you might difcover the waves and fluctuations of the water in ftrong and proper colours, with the picture of a fhip entering at one end, and failing by degrees through the whole piece. On another there appeared the green fhadow of trees, waving to and fro with the wind, the herds of deer among them in miniature, leaping about upon the wall. I must confefs, the novelty of fuch fuch a fight may be one occafion of its pleafantnefs to the imagination, but certainly the chief reafon is its near refemblance to nature, as it does not on ly, like other pictures, give the colour and figure, but the motion of the things it reprefents. We have before obferved, that there is generally in nature fomething more grand and auguft, than what we meet with in the curiofities of art. When, therefore, we see this imitated in any measure, it gives us a nobler and more exalted kind of pleasure than what we receive from the nicer and more accurate productions of art. On this account our English gardens are not fo entertaining to the fancy as thofe in France and Italy, where we fee a large extent of ground covered over with an agreeable mixture of garden and foreft, which reprefent every where an artificial rudeness, much more charming than that neatnefs and elegance which we meet with in thofe of our own country. It might, indeed, be of ill confequence to the public, as well as unprofitable to private perfons, to alienate fo much ground from pafturage and the plow, in many parts of a country that is fo well peopled, and cultivated to a far greater advantage. But why may not a whole eftate be thrown into a kind of garden by frequent plantations, that may turn as much to the profit, as the pleasure of the owner? A marth overgrown with willows, or a mountain fhaded with oaks, are not only more beautiful but more beneficial, than when they lie bare and unadorned. Fields of corn make a pleasant profpect, and if the walks were a little taken care of that lie between them, if the natural embroidery of the meadows were helped and improved by fome fmall additions of art, and the several rows of hedges fet off by trees and flowers that the foil was capable of receiving, a man might make a pretty landkip of his own poffeffions. Spectator. $108. On the Progrefs of the Arts. The natural progrefs of the works of men is from rudenefs to convenience, 4 from convenience to elegance, and from elegance to nicety. The first labour is enforced by neceffity. The favage finds himself incommoded by heat and cold, by rain and wind; he shelters himself in the hollow of a rock, and learns to dig a cave where there was none before. He finds the fun and the wind excluded by the thicket, and when the accidents of the chace, or the convenience of pafturage leads him into more open places, he forms a thicket for himself, by planting takes at proper distances, and laying branches from one to another. The next gradation of skill and induftry produces a houfe, closed with doors, and divided by partitions; and apartments are multiplied and difpofed according to the various degrees of power or invention; improvement fucceeds improvement, as he that is freed from a greater evil grows impatient of a lefs, till eafe in time is advanced to pleafure. The mind, fet free from the importunities of natural want, gains leisure to go in fearch of fuperfluous gratifications, and adds to the ufes of habitation the delights of profpect. Then begins the reign of fymmetry; orders of architecture are invented, and one part of the edifice is conformed to another, without any other reason than that the eye may not be offended. The paffage is very fhort from elegance to luxury. Ionic and Corinthian columns are foon fucceeded by gilt cornices, inlaid floors, and petty ornaments, which fhew rather the wealth than the taste of the poffeffor. Idler. $109. The Study of Aftronomy peculiarly delightful. In fair weather, when my heart is cheared, and I feel that exaltation of fpirits which refults from light and warmth, joined with a beautiful profpect of nature, I regard myfelf as one placed by the hand of God in the midft of an ample theatre, in which the fun, moon, and fars, the fruits alfo and vegetables of the earth, perpetually changing their pofitions or their afpects, exhibit |