lefs rich. If you go to his houfe you fee great plenty; but ferved in a manner that fhews it is all unnatural, and that the mafter's mind is not at home. There is a certain wafte and careleffnefs in the air of every thing, and the whole appears but a covered indigence, a magnificent poverty. That neatnefs and chearfulnefs which attends the table of him who lives within compafs, is wanting, and exchanged for a libertine way of fervice in all about him. ¿ This gentleman's conduct, though a very common way of management, is as ridiculous as that officer's would be, who had but few men under his command, and fhould take the charge of an extent of country rather than of a small pafs. To pay for, perfonate, and keep in a man's hands, a greater eftate than he really has, is of all others the most unpardonable vanity, and muft in the end reduce the man who is guilty of it to difhonour. Yet if we look round us in any county of Great Britain, we fall fee many in this fatal error; if that may be called by so soft a name, which proceeds from a falfe fhame of appearing what they really are, when the contrary behaviour would in a fhort time advance them to the condition which they pretend to. Laertes has fifteen hundred pounds a year, which is mortgaged for fix thousand pounds; but it is impoffible to convince him that if he fold as much as would pay off that debt, he would fave four fhillings in the pound, which he gives for the vanity of being the reputed mafter of it. Yet if Laertes did this, he would, perhaps, be caner in his own fortune; but then Irus, a fellow of yesterday, who has but twelve hundred a year, would be his equal. Rather than this fhall be, Laertes goes on to bring well-born beggars into the world, and every twelvemonth charges his eftate with at least one year's rent more by the birth of a child. These different motives produce the exceffes which men are guilty of in the negligence of and provifion for themfelves. Ufury, ftock-jobbing, extortion and oppreffion, have their feed in the dread of want; and vanity, riot, and prodigality, from the fhame of it: but both these exceffes are infinitely below the pursuit of a reasonable creatüre. After we have taken care to command fo much as is necessary for maintaining ourselves in the order of men fuitable to our character, the care or fuperfluities is a vice no lefs extravagant, than the neglect of neceffaries would have been before. * Laertes and Irus are neighbours, whofe way of living are an abomination to each other. Irus is moved by the fear of poverty, and Laertes by the fhame of it. Though the motive of action is of fo near affinity in both, and may be refolved into this, "that to each of them poverty is the great"eft of all evils," yet are their manners very widely different, Shame of poverty makes Laertes launch into unneceffary equipage, vain expence, and lavish entertainments; fear of poverty makes Irus allow himfelf only plain necef faries, appear without a fervant, fell his own No 115. THURSDAY, JULY 12. corn, attend his labourers, and be himself à labourer. Shame of poverty makes Laertes go every day a ftep nearer to it; and fear of poverty ftirs up Trus to make every day fome further progrefs from it. * Certain it is, that they are both out of nature, when the is followed with reafon and good fenfe, It is from this reflection that I always read Mr. Cowley with the greatest pleasure; his magnanimity is as much above that of other confiderable men, as his understanding; and it is a true diftinguifhing fpirit in the elegant author who pub. lifhed his works, to dwell fo much upon the temper of his mind and the moderation of his defires by this means he has rendered his friend as amiable as famous. That ftate of life which bears the face of poverty with Mr. Cowley's great Vulgar, is admirably defcribed; and it is no fmall fatisfaction to those of the fame turn of de. fire, that he produces the authority of the wifeft men of the best age of the world, to ftrengthen his opinion of the ordinary pursuits of mankind. " It would methinks be no ill maxim of life, if according to that ancestor of Sir Roger, whom I lately mentioned, every man would point to himfelf what fum he would refolve not to exceed. He might by this means cheat himself into a tranquillity on this fide of that expectation, or convert what he fhould get above it to nobler uses than his own pleafures or neceffities. This temper of mind would exempt a man from an ignorant envy of restless men above him, and a more inexcufable contempt of happy men below him. This would be failing by fome compass, living with fome design, but to be eternally be wildered in profpects of future gain, and putting on unnecessary armour against improbable blows of fortune, is a mechanic being which has not good fenfe for its direction, but is carried on by a fort of acquired instinct towards things below our confideration and unworthy our esteem. It is poffible that the tranquillity I now enjoy at Sir Roger's may have created in me this way of thinking, which is fo abftracted from the common relifh of the world; but as I am now in a pleafing arbour furrounded with a beautiful landscape, I find no inclination fe ftrong as to continue in thefe manfions, fo remote from the oftentatious fcenes of life; and am at this prefent writing ph lofopher enough to conclude with Mr. Cowley; "If e'er ambition did my fancy cheat, Continue, Heav'n, ftill from me to remove "The humble bleffings of that life I love. -Ut fit mens fana in corpore fano. A healthy body and a mind at ease. B ODILY labour is of two kinds, either that which a man fubmits to for his livelihood or that which he undergoes for his pleasure. The latter of them generally changes the name of labour for that of exercife, but differs only from ordinary labour as it rifes from another motive. A country life abounds in both these kinds of labour, and for that reafon gives a man a greater stock of health, and coníequently a more perfect enjoyment of himself, than any other way of life. I confider the body as a fyftem of tubes and glands, or to ufe a more ruftic phrafe, a bundle of pipes and ftrainers, fitted to one another after fo wonderful a manner as to make a proper engine for the foul to work with. This defcription does not only comprehend the bowels, bones, tendons, veins, nerves and arteries, but every muscle and every ligature, which is a compofition of fibres, that are fo many imperceptible tubes or pipes interwoven on all fides with invifible glands or #trainers. This general idea of a human body, without confidering it in its niceties of anatomy, lets us fce how abfolutely neceffary labour is for the right prefervation of it. There must be frequent motions and agitations, to mix, digeft, and feparate the juices contained in it, as well as to clear and cleanfe that infinitude of pipes and strainers of which it is compofed, and to give their folid parts a more firm and lafting tone. Labour or exercife ferments the humours, cafts them into their proper channels, throws off redundancies, and helps nature in thofe fecret diftributions, without which the body cannot subsist in its vigour, nor the foul act with chearfulness. I might here mention the effects which this has upon all the faculties of the mind, by keep ing the understanding clear, the imagination untroubled, and refining thofe fpirits that are neceffary for the proper exertion of our intellectual faculties, during the prefent laws of uuion between foul and body. It is to a neglect in this particular that we muft afcribe the fpleen, which is fo frequent in men of ftudious and fedentary tempers, as well as the vapours to which thofe of the other fex are so often fubjock. Had not exercife been abfolutely neceffary for our well-being, nature would not have made the body fo proper for it, by giving fuch an activity to the limbs, and fuch a pliancy to every part as neceffarily produce thofe compreffions, extenfions, contortions, dilatations, and all other kinds of motions that are neceffary for the prefervaof fuch a fyftem of tubes and glands as has been before mentioned. And that we might not want inducements to engage us in fuch an exercife of the body as is proper for its welfare, it is fo ordered that nothing valuable can be produced without it. Not to mention riches and honour, even food and raiment are not to be come at without the toil of the hands and fweat of the brows. Providence furnishes materials, but expeats that we fhould work them up ourselves. The earth must be laboured before it gives its increase, and when it is forced into its feveral products, how many hands muft they pafs through before they are fit for ufe? Manufactures, trade, and agriculture, naturally employ more than nineteen parts of the fpecies in twenty; and as for those who are not obliged to labour, by the condition in which they are born, they are more miferable than the reft of mankind, unless they indulge themfelves in that voluntary labour which goes by the name of exercife. years old when his dog killed him. A little room adjoining to the hall is a kind of arsenal filled with guns of feveral fizes and inventions, with which the knight has made great havock in the woods, and deftroyed many thousands of pheasants, partridges, and woodcocks. His ftable doors are patched with nofes that belonged to foxes of the knight's own hunting down, Sir Roger fhewed me one of them that for diftinction fake has a brafs nail struck through it, which coft him about fifteen hours riding, carried him through half a dozen counties, killed him a brace of geldings, and loft above half his dogs. This the knight looks upon as one of the greatest exploits of his life. The perverse widow, whom I have given fome account of, was the death of feveral foxes; for Sir Roger has told me, that in the courfe of his amours he patched the western door of his ftable. Whenever the widow was cruel, the foxes were fure to pay for it. In proportion as his paffion for the widow abated and old age came on, he left off fox-hunting; but a hare is not yet fafe that fits within ten miles of his houfe. My friend Sir Roger has been an indefatigable man of bufinefs of this kind, and has hung feveral parts of his houfe with the trophies of his former labours. The walls of his great hall are covered with the horns of feveral kinds of deer that he has killed in the chace, which he thinks the most valuable furniture of his houfe, as they afford him frequent topics of difcourfe, and fhew that he has not been idle. At the lower end of the hall is a large otter's skin stuffed with hay, which his mother ordered to be hung up in that manner, and the knight looks upon with great fatisfaction, because it fems he was but nine There is no kind of exercife which I would fo recommend to my readers of both fexes as this of riding, as there is none which fo much conduces to health, and is every way accommodated to the body, according to the idea which I have given of it. Doctor Sydenham is very lavish in its praifes; and if the English reader will fee the mechanical effects of it defcribed at length, he may find them in a book published not many years ince, under the title of Medicina Gymnaftica. For my own part, when I am in town, for want of thefe opportunities, I exercise myself an hour every morning upon a dumb bell that is placed in a corner of my room, and pleafes me the more, becaufe it does every thing I require of it in the moft profound filence. My landlady and her daughters are fo well acquainted with my hours of exercise, that they never come into my room to disturb me whilst I am ringing. When I was fome years younger than I am at prefent, I used to employ myfelf in a more laborious diverfion, which I learned from a Latin treatise of exercises, that is written with great erudition: it is there called the exquaxia, or the fighting with a man's own fhadow, and confifts in the brandishing two fhort fticks grafped in each hand, and loaden with plugs of lead at either end. This opens the cheft, exercises the limbs, and gives a man all the pleasure of boxing without the blows. I could wish that feveral learned men would lay out that time which they employ in controverfies and disputes about nothing, in this method of fighting with their own fhadows. It might conduce very much to evaporate the fpleen, which makes them uneafy to the public as well as to themselves. To conclude, as I am a compound of foul and body, I confider myself as obliged to a double fcheme of duties; and think I have not fulfilled the business of the day when I do not thus employ the one in labour and exercife, as well as the other in study and contemplation. L No. No 116. FRIDAY, JULY 13. T -Vocat ingenti clamore Citharon, Taygetique canes Virg. Georg, 3. V. 43. The echoing hills and chiding hounds invite. HOSE who have fearched into human nature obferve that nothing fo much thews the noblencfs of the foul, as that its felicity confifts in action. Every man has fuch an active principle in him, that he will find out fomething to employ himself upon, in whatever place or ftate of life he is pofted. I have heard of a gentleman who was under clofe confinement in the Baftile feven years; during which time he amufed himself in fcattering a few fmall pins about his chamber, gathering them up again, and placing them in different figures on the arm of a great chair. He often told his friends afterwards, that unless he had found out this piece of exercife, he verily believed he should have loft his fenfes. 1 After what has been faid, I need not inform my readers, that Sir Roger, with whofe character I hope they are all pretty well acquainted, has in his youth gone through the whole courfe of thofe rural diverfions with which the country abounds here in a far greater degree than in towns and citics. I have before hinted at feme of my friend's exploits: he has in his youthful days taken forty coveys of partridges in a feafon ; and tired many a falmon with a line confifting but of a fingle hair. The conftant thanks and good wishes of the neighbourhood always attended him, on account of his remarkable enmity towards foxes, having deftroyed more of thofe vermin in one year, than it was thought the whole country could have produced. Indeed the knight does not fcruple to own among his intimate friends,, that in order to establish his reputation this way, he has fecretly fent for great numbers of them out of other counties, which he used to turn loose about the country by night, that he might the better fignalize himself in their deftruction the next day. His hunting-horfes were the fineft and best managed in all these parts: his tenants are ftill full of the praises of a grey stone-horse that unhappily staked himself feveral years fince, and was buried with great folemnity in the orchard. Sir Roger, being at prefent too old for foxhunting, to keep himself in action, has disposed of his beagles and got a pack of Stop-Hounds. What these want in fpeed, he endeavours to make amends for by the deepness of their mouths and the variety of their notes, which are fuited in fuch a manner to each other, that the whole cry makes a complete confort. He is fo nice in this particular, that a gentleman having made im a prefent of a very fine hound the other day, the knight returned it by the fervant with a great many expreffions of civility; but defired him to tell his mafter, that the dog he had fent was indeed a moft excellent bafs, but that at prefent he only wanted a counter-tenor, Could I believe my friend had read over Shakespear, I fhould certainly conclude he had taken the hint from Thefeus in the Midfummer Night's Dream. "With ears that sweep away the morning dew. "Crook-knee'd and dew-lap'd, like Theffalian "bulls, My hounds are bred of the Spartan kind, "Slow in purfuit, but match'd in mouths like bells, "Each under each: a cry more tunable Sir Roger is fo keen at this fport, that he has been out almcft every day fince I came down; and upon the chaplain's offering to lend me his eafy pad, I was prevailed on yesterday morning to make one of the company. I was extremely pleased, as we rid along, to obferve the general benevolence of all the neighbourhood towards my friend. The farmers fons thought themfelves, happy if they could open a gate for the good old knight as he paffed by; which he generally requited with a nod or a file, and a kind enquiry after their fathers and uncics. After we had rid about a mile from home, we came upon a large heath, and the fportfmen be gan to beat. They had done fo for fome time, when, as I was at a little diRance from the reft of the company, I faw a hare pop out from a Imall furze-brake almoft under my horfe's feet. I marked the way the took, which I endeavoured to make the company fenfible of by extending my arm; but to no purpose, until Sir Roger, wh knows that none of my exraordinary motions are infignificant, rode up to me, and afked me if puis was gone that way?" Upon my answering "Yes," he immediately called in the dogs, and put them upon the scent. As they were going off, I heard one of the country-fellows mattering to his companion, "that it was a wonder "they had not loft all their sport, for want of "the filent gentleman's crying fole away." This, with my averfion to leaping hedges, made me withdraw to a rifing ground, from whence I could have the pleature of the whole chace, without the fatigue of keeping in with the hounds. The hare immediately threw them above a mile behind her; but I was pleafed to find, that instead of running ftraight forwards, or in hunter's language, "flying the country, as I was afraid fhe might have done, the wheeled about, and defcribed a fort of circle round the hill where I had taken my station, in fuch manner as gave me a very diftinct view of the sport, I could fee her firft pafs by, and the dogs fons time afterwards unravelling the whole track fle had made,, and following her through all her doubles. I was at the fame time delighted in obferving that deference which the reft of the pack paid to each particular hound, according to the character he had acquired amongst them: If they were at a fault, and an old hound of reputation opened but once, he was immediately followed by the whole cry; while a raw dog, or one who was a noted liar, might have yelped his heart out, without being taken notice of The hare now, after having fquatted two or three times, and been put up again as often, came ftill nearer to the place where he was at first started. The dogs purfued her, and thefe were followed by the jolly knight, whe rode upon a white gelding, encompatted by his tenant and fervants, and cheering his hounds with all the gaiety of five and twenty. One of the sports men rode up to me, and told me, that he was fure the chace was almost at an end, because the old dogs, which had hitherto lain behind, now headed U headed the pack. The fellow was in the right. Our hare took a large field juft under us, followed by the full cry in view. I must confefs the brightness of the weather, the clearfulnefs of every thing around me, the chiding of the hounds, which was returned upon us in a double echo from two neighbouring hills, with the hallooing of the sportsman, and the founding of the horn, lifted my fpirits into a moft lively pleasure, which I freely indulged because I was fure it was innocent. If I was under any concern, it was on account of the poor hare, that was now quite fpent, and almoft within the reach of her enemies; when the huntfman getting forward threw down his pole before the dogs. They were now within eight yards of that game which they had been pursuing for almost as many hours; yet on the fignal before-mentioned they all made a fudden ftand, and though they continued opening as much as before, durft not once attempt to pafs beyond the pole. At the fame time Sir Roger rode forward, and alighting, took up the hare in his arms; which he foon delivered up to one of his fervants with an order, if the could be kept alive, to let her go in his great orchard; where it feems he has feveral of thefe prifoners of war, who live together in a very comfortable captivity. I was highly pleafed to fee the difcipline of the pack, and the good-nature of the knight, who could not find in his heart to murder a creature that had given him fo much diversion. As we were returning home, I remembered that Monfieur Pafchal, in his moft excellent difcourfe on the Mifery of Man, tells us, "That "all our endeavours after greatnefs, proceed "from nothing but a desire of being furrounded "by a multitude of perfons and affairs that may hinder as from looking into ourfelves, which is a view we cannot bear." He afterwards goes to fhew that our love of fports comes from the fame reafon, and is particularly fevere upon Hunting. "What," fays he, unless it be to drown thought, can make them throw away fo much time and pains tipon a filly animal, which "they might buy cheaper in the market ?" The foregoing reflection is certainly juft, when a man fuffers his whole mind to be drawn into his fports, and altogether lofes himself in the woods; but does not affect thofe who propose a far more laudable end for this exercife, I mean the prefervation of health, and keeping all the organs of the foul in a condition to execute their orders. Had that incomparable perfon, whom I last quoted, been a little more indulgent to himself in this point, the world might probably have enjoyed him much longer; whereas through too great an application to his ftudies in his youth, he contracted tha ill habit of body, which, after a tedious ficknefs, carried him off in the fortieth year of his age; and the whole history we have of his life until that time, is but one continued account of the behaviour of a noble foul fruggling under innumerable pains and diftempers. For my own part, I intend to hunt twice a week during my ftay with Sir Roger; and thall prefcribe the moderate ufe of this exercife to all my country friends, as the best kind of phyfic for mending a bád conftitution, and preferving a good one. I cannot do this better than in the following lines out of Mr. Dryden. "The firft phyficians by debauch were made; "Excefs began, and floth fuftains the trade. "C By chace our long-liv'd fathers earn'd their food "Toil ftrung the nerves, and purify'd the blood;" "But we their fons, a pamper'd race of men, "Are dwindled down to threefcore years and ten. "Eetter to hunt in fields for health unbought, "Than fee the doctor for a naufeous draught. "The wife for cure on exercife depend; "God never made his work for man to mend.". X T HERE are fome opinions in which a man fhould ftand neuter, without engaging his affent to oné fide or the other. Such a hovering faith as this, which refufes to fettle upon any determination, is abfolutely necessary in a mind When the arguments prefs equally on both fides that is careful to avoid errors and prepoffeffions. in ma ters that are indifferent to as, the fafeft method is to give up ourselves to neither.~ It is with this temper of mind that I confider the fubject of witchcraft.. When I hear the relations that are made from all parts of the world, not only from Norway and Lapland, from the Eat and Weft-Indies, but from every particular nation in Europe, I cannot forbear thinking that there is fuch an intercourfe and commerce with evil fpirits, as that which we exprefs by the name of witchcraft. But when I confider that the ignorant and credulous parts of the world abound moft in thefe relations, and that the perfons among us, who are supposed to engage in fuch derstanding and crazed imagination, and at the an înfernal commerce, are people of a weak un→ fame time reflect upon the many impoftures and delufions of this nature that have been detected until I hear more certain accounts than any in all ages, I endeavour to fufpend my belief which have yet come to my knowledge. In fhort, when I confider the queftion, whether there are fuch perfons in the world as thofe we call witches, my mind is divided between the two oppofite opinions; or rather, to speak my thoughts freely, I believe in general that there is, and has been fuch a thing as witchcraft; but at the fame time can give no credit to any particular inftance of it. I am engaged in this fpeculation, by fome occurrences that I met with yesterday, which I fhall give my reader an account of at large. As I was walking with my friend Sir Roger by the fide of one of his woods, an old woman applied herself in mind of the following defcription in Otway. to me for my charity. Her drefs and figure put me "In a clofe lane as I purfu'd my journey, "Ifpy'd a wrinkled Hag, with age grown double "Picking dry fticks, and mumbling to herfelf. "Her eyes with fcalding rheum were gall'd and "red; "Cold pally thook her head; her hands feem'd withered; "And on her crobked fhoulders had fhe wrapp' p'ď "The tatter'd remnants of an old strip'd hanging, "Which ferv'd to keep her carcafe from the cold; "So there was nothing of a piece about her. "Her lower weeds were all o'er coarfly patch'd "With diff'rent colour'd rags, black, red, white, "yellow, "And feem'd to speak variety of wretchedness. As If As I was mufing on this defcription, and comparing it with the object before me, the knight told me, that this very old woman had the reputation of a witch all over the country, that her lips were obferved to be always in motion, and that there was not a fwitch about her house which her neighbours did not believe had carried her feveral hundreds of miles. If the chanced to ftumble, they always found fticks or ftraws that lay in the figure of a crofs before her. The made any mistake at church, and cryed Amen in a wrong place, they never failed to conclude that he was faying her prayers backwards. There was not a maid in the parish that would take a pin of her, though the fhould offer a bag of money with it. She goes by the name of Moll White, and has made the country ring with feveral imaginary exploits which are palmed upon her. If the dairy-maid does not make her butter come fo foon as she should have it, Moll White Sticks in his fide, and rankles in his heart. -The fatal dart is at the bottom of the churn. If a horse sweats in the ftable, Moil White has been vpon his back. If a hare makes an unexpected efcape from the hounds, the huntfman curfes Moll White. Nay, fays Sir Roger, I have known the mafter of the pack upon fuch an occafion, fend one of his fervants to fee if Moll White had been out that morning. C This account raised my curiosity fo far, that I begged my friend Sir Rager to go with me into her hovel, which stood in a folitary corner under the fide of the wood. Upon our first entering Sir Roger winked to me, and pointed at fomething that stood behind the door, which, upon looking that way, I found to be an old broomstaff, At the fame time he whispered me in the ear to take notice of a tabby cat that fat in the chimney-corner, which, as the old knight told me, lay under as bad a report as Moll White herfelf: for befides that Moll is faid often to accompany her in the fame fhape, the cat is reported, to have fpoken twice or thrice in her life, and to have played feyeral pranks above the capacity of an ordinary cat. gant fancies, imaginary diftempers and terrifying dreams. In the mean time, the poor wretch that is the innocent occafion of fo many evils begins to be frighted at herself, and fometimes confeffes fecret commerce and familiarities that her ima gination forms in a delirious old age. This frequently cuts off charity from the greatest objects of compaffion, and inspires people with a malevolence towards those poor decrepid parts of our fpecies, in whom human nature is defaced by infirmity and dotage, L No 18. - Hæret lateri lethalis, arurdo. MONDAY, JULY 16, 'Virg. Æn. 4. v. 73. DRYDEN. T HIS agreeable feat is furrounded with fo many picafing walks, which are ftruck out of a wood, in the midft of which the houfe ftands, that one can hardly ever be weary of rambling from one labyrinth of delight to another. To one fed to live in a city the charms of the country are fo exquifite, that the mind is loft in a certain tranfport which raises us above ordinary life, and is yet not ftrong enough to be inconfiftent with tranquillity- This ftate of mind was I in, ravithed with the murmur of waters, the whisper of breezes, the finging of birds; and whether I looked up to the heavens, down on the earth, or turned on the profpects around me, ftill truck with new fenfe of pleafure; when I found by the voice of my friend, who walked by me, that we had infenfibly strolled into the grove facred to the widow. This woman, fays he, is of all others the most unintelligible; the either designs to marry, or fhe does not. What is the most perplexing of all, is, that the doth not either fay to her lovers fhe has any refolution against that condition of life in general, or that the banishes them; but confcious of her own merit, fhe permits their addreffes, without fear of any ill confequence, or want of refpect, from their rage or defpair. She has that in her afpect, against which it is impoffible to offend. A man whofe thoughts are constantly bent upon fo agreeable an object, must be excufed if the ordinary occurrences in converfation are below his attention. I call her indeed perverfe, but, alas! why do I call her fo? Becaufe her fuperior merit is fuch, that I cannot approach her without awe, that my heart is checked by too much efteem; I am angry that her charms are not more acceffible, that I am more inclined to worship than falute her: how often have 1 wished her unhappy that I might have an opportunity of ferving her? and how often troubled in that very imagination, at giving her the pain of being obliged? Well, I have led a miferable life in fecret upon her account; but fancy fhe would have condefcended to have fome regard for me, if it had not been for that watchfol animal her confident. Of all perfons under the fun, continued he, calling me by my name, be fure to fet a mark upón confidents: they are of all people the moft impertinent. What is moft pleasant to obferve in item, fis, that they affume to themfelves the merit of the perfons whom they have in their cuftody. Oreftilla is a great fortune, and in wonderic U 2 |