mifchievous wench in the neighbourhood, whe was a beauty; and makes me hope I fhall fee the perverfe widow in her condition. She was, fc flippant with her anfwers to all the honeft fellows that came near her, and fo very vain of her beauty, that he has valued herself upon her charms until they are ceafed. She therefore now makes it her business to prevent other young women from being more difcreet than fhe was herfelf: however, the faucy thing faid the other day well enough, Sir Roger and I must make a "match, for we are both defpifed by those we "loved:" the huffy has a great deal of power wherever he comes, and has her fhare of cunning. wonderful danger of furprifes, therefore full of ture, if thou couldest remain there in the ab"fance of that fair creature whom you reprefent in the water, how willingly could I ftand here fatisfied for ever, without troubling my dear "Betty herfelf with any mention of her unforTec tunate William, whom he is angry with: but alas! when the pleafes to be gone, thou wilt "alfo vanish-Yet let me talk to thee while "thou doft flay. Tell my dearest Betty thou 66 66 33 doft not more depend upon her, than does her "William: her abfence will make away with << me as well as thee.. If the offers to remove "thee, I will jump into thefe waves to lay hold on thee; herself, her own dear perfon, 1 muft never embrace again.--Still do you hear "me without one fmileIt is too much to "bear He had no fooner fpoke thefe words, but he made an offer of throwing himself into the water: at which his mistress started up, and at the next inftant he jumped across the fountain and met her in an embrace. She half recovering from her fright, faid in the most charming voice imaginable, and with a tone of complaint, "I thought how well you would drown yourfelf. No, no, you will not drown yourself until you have taken leave of Sufan "Holiday." The huntsman, with a tenderness that fpoke the most paffionate love, and with his cheek clofe to hers, whispered the fofteft vows of fidelity in her ear, and cried, "Do not, my dear, "believe a word Kate Willow fays; the is fpite <ful and makes ftories, because he loves to hear "me talk to herself for your fake." Look you there, quoth Sir Roger, do you fee there, all mifchief comes from confidents! But let us not interrupt them; the maid is honeft and the man' dares not be otherwife, for he knows I loved her father; I will interpofe in this matter, and hatten the wedding, Kate Willow is a witty ?. However, when I reflect upon this woman, I do not know whether in the main I am the worfe for having loved her whenever he is recalled to my imagination my youth returns, and I feel a forgotten warmth in my views. This affliction in my life has freaked all my conduct with a foftnefs, of which I fhould otherwife have been incapable. It is owing, perhaps, to this dear image in my heart, that I am apt to refent, that I easily forgive, and that many defirable things are grown into my temper, which I fhould not have arrived at by better motives than the thought of being one day hers. I am pretty well fatisfied fuch a paffion as I have had is never well cured; and between you and me, I am often apt to imągine it has had fome whimfical effect upon my brain; for I frequently find, that in my moft ferious difcourfe I let fall fome comical familiarity. of fpeech or odd phrase that makes the company laugh: however, I cannot but allow fhe is a most excellent woman. When he is in the country I warrant fhe does not run into dairies, but reads upon the nature of plants; fhe has a glass beehive, and comes into the garden out of books to fee them work, and obferve the policies of their common-wealth. She understands every thing. I would give ten pounds to hear her argue with my friend Sir Andrew Freeport about trade. No, no, for all the looks fo innocent as it were, take my word for it fhe is no fool. T No 119. TUESDAY, JULY 17. Urbem quam dicunt Romam, Melibee, putavi Virg. Ecl. 1. v. 20. Fool that I was, I thought imperial Rome Like Mantua. DRYDEN. THE HE first and most obvious reflections which arife in a man who changes the city for the country, are upon the different manners of the people whom he meets with in those two different fcenes of life. By manners I do not mean morals, but behaviour and good-breeding, as they fhew theinfelves in the town and in the country. And here, in the first place, I must obferve a very great revolution that has happened in this article of good-breeding. Several obliging deferences, condefcenfions and fubmiffions, with many outward forms and ceremonies that accompany them, were first of all brought up among the politer part of mankind, who lived in courts and cities, and diftinguished themselves from the ruftic part of the fpecies, who on all occafions acted bluntly and naturally, by fuch a mutual mutual complaifance and intercourfe of civilities. Thefe forms of converfation by degrees multiplied and grew troublefome; the modifh world found too great a constraint in them, and have therefore thrown most of them afide. Converfation, like the Romish religion, was fo encumbered with fhow and ceremony, that it stood in need of a reformation to retrench its fuperfluities, and reftore it to its natural good fenfe and beauty. At prefent therefore an uncontrained carriage, and a certain openness of behaviour, are the height of good-breeding. The fafhionable world is grown free and eafy; our manners fit more loofe upon us: nothing is fo modifh as an agreeable negligence. In a word, good breeding thews itself moft, where to an ordinary eye it appears the least. If after this we look on the people of mode in the country, we find in them the manners of the laft age. They have no fooner fetched them felves up to the fashion of the polite world, but the town has dropped them, and are nearer to the firft ftate of nature than to thofe refinements which formerly reigned in the court, and ftill prevail in the country. One may know a man that never converfed in the world, by his excefs of good-breeding. A polite country 'fquire fhall make you as many bows in half an hour, as would ferve a courtier for a week. There is infinitely more to do about place and precedency ina meeting of justices wives, than in an affembly of ducheffes. particularly thofe who have been polished in France, make ufe of the most coarse uncivilized words in our language, and utter themselves often in fuch a manner as a clown would bluth to hear. There has happened another revolution in the point of good-breeding, which relates to the converfation among men of mode, and which I cannot but look upon as very extraordinary. It was certainly one of the firft diftinctions of a well-bred man, to exprefs every thing that had the most remote appearance of being obfcene, in modeft terms and diftant phrafes; whilft the clown, who had no fuch delicacy of conception and expreffion, clothed his ideas in thofe plain homely terms that are the moft obvious and na.. tural. This kind of good-manners was perhaps carried to an excefs, fo as to make converfation too ftiff, formal and precife; for which reafon, as hypocrify in one age is generally followed by atheifm in another, converfation is in a great meafure relapfed into the first extreme; fo that at prefent feveral of our men of the town, and This infamous piece of good-breeding, which reigns among the coxcombs of the town, has not yet made its way into the country; and as it is impoffible for fuch an irrational way of converfation to laft long among a people that make any profeflion of religion, or fhow of modefty, if the country gentlemen get into it they will certainly be left in the lurch. Their good-breeding will come too late to them, and they will be thought a parcel of lewd clowns, while they fancy themfelves talking together like men of wit and plea. furę. As the two points of good-breeding, which have hitherto infifted upon, regard behaviour and converfation, there is a third which turns upon drefs. In this too the country is very much behind-hand. The rural beaus are not yet got out of the fashion that took place at the time of the revolution, but ride about the country in red coats and laced hats, while the women in many parts are ftill trying to outvy one another in the height of their head-dreffes. But a friend of mine who is now upon the weftern circuit, having promifed to give me an account of the feveral modes and fashions that prevail in the different parts of the nation thro' which he paffes, I fhall defer the enlarging upon this laft topic until I have received a letter from him, which I expect every post. Ꮮ This rural politenefs is very troublefome to a man of my temper, who generally take the chair that is next me, and walk firft or laft, in the front or in the rear, as chance directs. I have known my friend Sir Roger's dinner almoft cold before the company could adjust the ceremonial, and be prevailed upon to fit down; and have heartily pitied my old friend, when I have feen him forced to pick and cull his guests, as they fat at the feveral parts of his table, that he might drink their healths according to their refpective MY ranks and Wimble, who I fhould have thought had been altogether uninfected with ceremony, gives me abundance of trouble in this particular. Though he has been fishing all the morning, he will not help himfelf at dinner until I am ferved. When we are going out of the hall, he runs behind me; and last night, as we were walking in the fields, stopped fhort at a tile until I came up to it, and upon my making figns to him to get over, told me, with a ferious fmile, that fure I believed they they had no manners in the country. No. 120. WEDNESDAY, JULY 18. -Equidem credo, quia fit divinitus illis Ingenium Virg. Georg. I. v. 451. I think their breafts with heav'nly fouls infpir'd. DRYDEN. "Y friend Sir Roger is very often merry with me upon my paffing fo much of my time among his poultry. He has caught me twice or thrice looking after a bird's neft, and several times fitting an hour or two together near an hen and chickens. He tells me he believes I am personally acquainted with every fowl about his house; calls fuch a particular cock my favourite, and frequently complains that his ducks and geefe have more of my company than himself. I must confefs I am infinitely delighted with thofe fpeculations of nature which are to be madę in a country life; and as my reading has very much lain among books of natural history, I cannot forbear recollecting upon this occafion the feveral remarks which I have met with in authors, and comparing them with what falls under my own obfervation: the arguments for Providence drawn from the natural hiftory of animals being in my opinion demonstrative. L The make of every kind of animal is different from that of every other kind; and yet there is pot the leaft turn in the mufcles or twist in the fibres of any one, which does not render them more proper for that particular animal's way of life than any other caft or texture of them would have been. The most violent appetites in all creatures are luft and hunger: the first is a perpetual call upon them to propagate their kind; the latter to preferve themselves, It is aftonifing to confider the different degrees of care that defcend from the parent to the young, fo far as is abfolutely neceffary for the leaping a pofterity. Some creatures caft their eggs as chance directs them, and think of them no farther, as infects and feveral kinds of fish; others, of a nicer frame, find out proper beds to depofite them in, and there leave them; as the ferpent, the crocodile, and oftrich: others hatch their eggs and tend the birth, until it is able to fhift for itself. What can we call the principle which directs every different kind of bird to obferve a particular plan in the ftructure of its neft, and direct all the fame fpecies to work after the fame model? It cannot be imitation; for though you hatch a crow under a hen, and never let it fee any of the works of its own kind, the neft it makes fhall be the fame, to the laying of a ftick, with all the other nefts of the fame fpecies. It cannot be reafon; for were animals endued with it to as great a degree as man, their buildings would be as different as ours, according to the different conveniencies that they would propose to themselves. Is it not remarkable, that the fame temper of weather, which raifes this genial warmth in animals, fhould cover the trees with leaves, and the fields with grafs, for their fecurity and concealment, and produce fuch infinite fwarms of infects for the fupport and fuftenance of their refpective broods? Is it not wonderful, that the love of the parent fhould be fo violent while it lasts, and that it should laft no longer than is neceffary for the prefervation of the young? The violence of this natural love is exempli. fied by a very barbarous experiment which I fhall quote at length, as I find it in an excellent author, and hope my readers will pardon the mentioning fuch an inítance of cruelty, because there is nothing can fo effectually fhew the strength of that principle in animals of which I am here fpeaking. "A perfon who was well fkilled in "diffections opened a bitch, and as fhe lay in the "moft exquifite tortures, offered her one of her young puppies, which the immediately fell a "licking; and for the time feemed infenfible of "her own pain; on the removal fhe kept her eye fixt on it, and began a wailing fort of cry, which feemed rather to proceed from the lofs "of her young one, than the fenfe of her own torments." But notwithstanding this natural love in brutes is much more violent and intenfe than in rational creatures, Providence has taken care that it should be no longer troublesome to the parent than it is ufeful to the young; for fo foon as the wants of the latter ceafe, the mother withdraws her fondnefs, and leaves them to provide for themfelves; and what is a very remarkable circumftance in this part of inftinét, we find that the love of the parent may be lengthened out beyond its ufual time, if the prefervation of the fpecies requires it; as we may fee in birds that drive away their young as foon as they are able to get their livelihood, but continue to feed them if they are tied to the neft, or confined within a cage, or by any other means appear to be out of a condition of fupplying their own neceflities. This natural love is not observed in animals to it rife in any proportion, as it fpreads itself downwards; for in all family affection, we find protection granted and favours beftowed, are greater motives to love and tenderness, than safety, benefits, or life received. afcend from the young to the parent; which is not at all neceifury for the continuance of the fpecies; nor indeed in reasonable creatures does One would wonder to hear fceptical men difputing for the reason of animals, and telling us it is only our pride and prejudices that will not allow them the use of that faculty.. Reafon fhews itself in all occurrences of life; whereas the brute makes no difcovery of fuch a talent, but in what immediately regards his own prefervation, or the continuance of his fpecies. Animals in their generation are wifer than the fons of men; but their wifdom is confined to a few particulars, and lies in a very narrow compaís. Take a brute out of his inftinct, and you find him wholly deprived of understanding. To ufe an, inftance that comes often under obfervation. With what caution does the hen provide herfelf a neft in places unfrequented, and free from noife and difturbance? When he has laid her eggs in fuch a manner that she can cover them, what care does the take in turning them frequently, that all parts may partake of the vital warmth? When he leaves them, to provide for her neceffary fuftenance, how punctually does fhe return before they have time to cool, and become incapable of producing an animal? In the fummer you fee her giving herself greater freedoms, and quitting her care for above two hours together; but in winter when the rigour of the feafon would chill the principles of life, and destroy the young one, fhe grows more affiduous in her attendance, and ftays away but half the time. When the birth approaches, with how much nicety and attention does the help the chick to break its prifon? Not to take notice of her covering it from the injuries of the weather, providing it proper nourishment, and teaching it to help it felf; nor to mention her forfaking the nest, if after the ufual time of reckoning the young one does not make its appearance. A chymical operation could not be followed with greater art or diligence, than is seen in the hatching of a chick; though there are many other birds that fhew an infinitely greater fagacity in all the forementioned particulars. But at the fame time the hen, that has all this feeming ingenuity, which is indeed abfolutely ne ceffary for the propagation of the fpecies, confidered in other refpects, is without the leaft glimmerings of thought or common fense. She miftakes a piece of chalk for an egg, and fits upon it in the fame manner; fhe is infenfible of any increafe or diminution in the number of thofe fhe lays: fhe does not distinguish between her own and those of another species; and when the birth appears of never so different a bird, will cherish it for her own. In all thefe circumftances which do not carry an immediate regard to the fubfiftence of herself or her fpecies, the is a very idiot. There is not, in my opinion, any thing more myfterious in nature than this inftinct in animals, which thus rifes above reason, and falls infinitely fhort of it. It cannot be accounted for by any properties in matter, and at the fame time works after fo odd a manner, that one cannot think it the faculty of an intellectual being. For my own part, I look upon it as upon the principic of gravitation in bodies, which is not ta to be explained by any known qualities inherent in the bodies themfelves, nor from any laws of mechanism, but, according to the best notions of the greatest philofophers, is an immediate impreffion from the first mover, and the divine energy acting in the creatures. L -Jovis omnia plena. No 121. THURSDAY, JUDY 19. << anima brutorum," "God himself is the foul "of brutes." Who can tell what to call that feeming fagacity in animals, which directs them to fuch food as is proper for them, and makes them naturally avoid whatever is noxious or unwholesome? Tully has obferved, that a lamb no fooner falls from its mother, but immediately and of his own accord applies itfelf to the teat. Dampier, in his travels, tells us, that when feamen are thrown upon any of the unknown coafts of America, they never venture upon the fruit of any tree, how tempting foever it may appear, unlefs they obferve that it is marked with the pecking of birds; but fall on without any fear or apprehenfion where the birds have been before them. vantage, and in which their safety and welfare is the most concerned. Nor must we here omit that great variety of arms with which nature has differently fortified the bodies of feveral kind of animals, fuch as claws, hoofs, and horns, teeth and tuiks, a tail, a fting, a trunk, or a probofcis. It is likewife obferved by naturalifts, that it must be fome hidden principle diftinct from what we call reafon, which inftructs animals in the use of these their arms, and teaches them to manage them to the best advantage; becaufe they naturally defend themselves with that part in which their But notwithstanding animals have nothing Jike the use of reason, we find in them all the lower parts of our nature, the paffions and fenfes in their greatest strength and perfection. And here it is worth our obfervation, that all beafts and birds of prey are wonderfully fubje& to anger, malice, revenge, and all the other violent paffions that may animate them in fearch of their proper food; as thofe that are "incapable of defending themfelves, or 'annoying others, or whofe fafety lies chiefly in their flight, are fufpious, fearful and apprehenfive of every thing they fee or hear; whilft others that are of affiftance and ufe to man, have their nature foftened with Tomething mild and tractable, and by that means are qualified for a domeftic life. In this cafe the paffions generally correfpond with the make of the body. We do not find the fury of a lion in fo weak and defencelefs an animal as a lamb, nor the meekness of a lamb'in a creature fo armed for battle and affault as the lion. In the fame manner, we find that particular animals have a more or lefs exquifite fharpnefs and fagacity in thofe particular fenfes which most turn to their ad as is remarkable in lambs, which tho' they are bred within doors, and never faw the actions of their own fpecies, pufh at thofe who approach, them with their foreheads, before the first budd-, ing of a horn appears. I fhall add to thefe general obfervations an in-, ftance, which Mr. Locke has given us of Pro-, vidence even in the imperfections of a creature which feems the meanest and most despicable in the whole animal world. "We may, fays he, "from the make of an oyfter, or cockle, con "clude, that it has not fo many nor fo quick "fenfes as a man, or feveral other animals: nor "if it had, would it, in that ftate and incapa"city of transferring itself from one place to "another, be bettered by them. What good. "would fight and hearing do to a creature, that cannot move itself to, or from the object, "wherein at a diftance it perceives good or evil? "And would not quicknefs of fenfation be an "inconvenience to an animal that must be ftill where chance has once placed it, and there receive the afflux of colder or warmer, clean or "foul water, as it happens to come to it ?" I fhall add to this inftance out of Mr. Locke another cut of the learned Dr. More, who cites it from Cardan, in relation to another animal which Providence has left defective, but at the fame time has fhewn its wifdom in the formation of that organ in which it feems chiefly to have failed. "What is more obvious and ordi "" 66 nary than a mole? and yet what more pal "pable argument of Providence than the? The "members of her body are fo exactly fitted to "her nature and manner of life; for her dwell"ing being under ground where nothing is to be "feen, nature has fo obfcurely fitted her with eyes, that naturalifts can hardly agree whe"ther the have any fight at all or no. But for "amends, what the is capable of for her defence "and warning of danger, fhe has very eminent"ly conferred upon her; for he is chceeding "quick of hearing. And then her fhort tail "and fhort legs, but broad fore-feet armed with "fharp claws, we fee by the event to what pur"pose they are, fhe fo fwiftly working herfelf "under ground, and making her way fo faft in "the earth as they that behold it cannot but ad mire it. Her legs therefore are fhort, that the "need dig no more than will ferve the more "thickness of her body; and her fore-feet are "broad, that she may fcoop away much earth at "C a time; and little or no tail fhe has, becaufe "fhe courfes not on the ground, like the rat " or moufe, of whofe kindred the is, but lives "under the carth, and is fain to dig herself a "dwelling there. And the making her way through fo thick an element, which will not "yield cafily, as the air or the water, it had 66 "been dangerous to have drawn fo long a train "behind her; for her enemy might fall upon "her rear, and fetch her out, before the had "completed or got full poffeffion of her works." I cannot forbear mentioning Mr. Boyle's remark upon this laft creature, who I remember fomewhere in his works obferves, that though the mole be not totally blind, as is commonly thought, the has not fight enough to diftinguish particular objects. Her eye is faid to have but one humour in it, which is fuppofed to give her the idea of light, but of nothing elfe, and is fo formed that this idea is probably painful to the animal. Whenever the comes up into broad day The might be in danger of being taken, unless the were thus affected by a light ftriking upon her eye, and immediately warning her to bury herfelf in her proper element. More fight would be ufelefs to her, as none at all might be fatal. I have only inftanced fuch animals as feem the most imperfect works of nature; and if Providence fhews itfelf even in the blemishes of thefe creatures, how much more does it difcover itfelf in the feveral endowments which it has variously bestowed upon fuch creatures as are more or lefs finished and completed, in their feveral faculties, according to the condition of life in which they are pofted. I could wifh our royal fociety would compile a body of natural hiftory, the beft that could be gathered together from books and obfervations. If the feveral writers among them took each his particular fpecies, and gave us a diftinct account of its original, birth and education; its policies, hoftilities and alliances, with the frame, and texture of its inward and outward parts, and particularly thofe that diftinguish it from all other animals, with their peculiar aptitudes for the state of being in which Providence has placed them, it would be one of the beft fervices their Audies could do mankind, and not a little redound to the glory of the all-wife contriver. It is true, fuch a Natural Hiftory, after all the difquifitions of the learned, would be infinitely fhort and defective. Seas and defarts hide millions of animals from our obfervation. Innumerable artifices and ftratagems are acted in the howling wildernefs and in the great deep, that can never come to our knowledge. Befides that there are infinitely more fpecies of creatures which are not to be feen without, nor indeed with the help of the finest glaffes, than of fuch as are bulky enough for the naked eye to take hold of. However, from the confideration of fuch animals as lie within the compafs of our knowledge, we might caly form a conclufion of the reft, that the fame variety of wisdom and goodnefs runs through the whole creation, and puts every creature in in a condition to provide for its fafety and fubiifience in its proper station. No 122. FRIDAY, JULY 20. A Man's first care fhould be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart; his next, to efcape the cenfures of the world: If the laft interferes with the former, it ought to be intirely neglected; but otherwife there cannot be a greater fatisfaction to an honeft mind, than to fee thofe approbations which it gives itfelf feconded by the applaufes of the public: a man is more fure of his conduct, when the verdict which he paffes upon his own behaviour is thus warranted and confirmed by the opinion of all that know him. My worthy friend Sir Roger is one of those who is not only at peace within himfelf, but beloved and efteemed by all about him. He receives a fuitable tribute for his univerfal benevolence to mankind, in the returns of affection and goodwill, which are paid him by every one that lives within his neighbourhood. I lately met with two or three old inftances of that general refpect which is fhewn to the good old knight. He would needs carry Will Wimble and myself with him to the country affizes: as we were upon the road Will Wimble joined a couple of plain men who rid before us, and converfed with them for fome time; during which my friend Sir Roger acquainted me with their characters. The first of them, fays he, that has a spaniel by his fide, is a yeoman of about an hundred pounds a year, an honeft man: he is juft within the Game-Act, and qualified to kill a hare or pheafant; he knocks down a dinner with his gun twice or thrice a week; and by that means lives much cheaper than thofe who have not fo good an eftate as himfelf. He would be a good neighbour if he did not deftroy fo many partridges: in fort, he is a very fenfible man; fhoots flying; and has been feveral times foreman of the pettyjury. The other that rides along with him is Tom Touchy a fellow famous for taking the law of every body. There is not one in the town where he lives that he has not sued at a quarter-feffions. The rogue had once the impudence to go to law with the widow. His head is full of cofts, damages, and ejectments; he plagued a couple of honeft gentlemen fo long for a trefpafs in breake ing one of his hedges, until he was forced to fell the ground it inclofed to defray the charges of the profecution; his father left him fourfcore pounds a year: but he has "caft" and been caft fo often, that he is not now worth thirty. I fuppofe he is going upon the old bufinefs of the willow tree. Tully has given us an admirable fketch of natural hiftory, in his fecond book concerning the nature of the gods; and that in a file fo raifed by metaphors and defcriptions, that it lifts the fubject above raillery and ridicule, which frequently fall on fuch nice obfervations when they pals through the hands of an ordinary writer. L As Sir Roger was giving me this account of Tom Touchy, Will Wimble and his two companions stopped fhort until we came up to them, After having paid their refpects to Sir Roger, Will told him that Mr. Touchy and he muft appeal to him upon a difpute that arofe between them. Will it feems had been giving his fellow traveller an account of his angling one day in fuch a hole; when Tom Touchy, instead of hearing out his ftory, told him that Mr. fuch a one, if he pleafed, might take the law of him for fishing in that part of the river. My friend Sir Roger heard them both, upon a round trot; and after having peufed |