• for his civilities ever fince I faw him. I forgot to tell you that he has black eyes, and looks upon me now and then as if he had tears in them. And yet my friends are fo unreafonable that they would have me be uncivil to him. I have a good portion, which they cannot hinder me of, and I thall be fourteen on the 29th day of Auguit next, and am therefore willing to fettle in the world as foon as I ean, and fo is Mr. Shapely. But every body I advife with here is poor Mr. Shapely's enemy, I defire therefore you will give me your advice, for I know you are a wife man; and if you advife me well, I am refolved to follow it, I heartily with you could fee him dance, and am, · < Sir, AMONG my daily rapers which I beftow on the public, there are fome which are written with regularity and method, and others that run out into the wildncfs of thofe compofitions which go by the name of effays. As for the first, I have the whole fcheme of the difcourfe in my mind before I fet pen to paper, In the other kind of writing, it is futficient that I have feveral thoughts on a fubject, without troubling myfelf to range them in fuch order, that they may feem to grow out of one another, and be difpofed under the proper heads, Seneca and Montaigne are patterns for writing in this laft kind, as Tully and Aristotle excel in the other. When I read an author of genius, who writes without method, I fancy myfelf in a wood that abounds with a great many noble objects, rifing among one another in the greatest confufion and diforder. When I read methodical difcourfe, I am in a regular plantation, and can place myfelf in its feveral centers, fo as to take a view of all the lines and walks that are ftruck from them. You may ramble in the one a whole day together, and every moment discover fomething or other that is new to you; but when you have done, you will have but a confuled imperfect notion of the place in the other your eye commands the whole profpect, and gives you fuch an idea of it, as is not cafily worn out of the memory. Irregularity and want of method are only fupportable in men of great learning or genius, who are often too full to be exact, and therefore choofe to throw down their pearls in heaps before the reader, rather than be at the pains of fringing them. 17 Method is of advantage to a work both in refect to the writer and the reader. In regard to the first, it is a great help to his invention. When a man has planned his difcourfe, he finds a great many thoughts rifing out of every head, that do not offer themfelves upon the general fervey of a fubject. His thoughts are at the fame time more intelligible, and better difcover their drift and aning, when they are placed in their proper Mghts, and follow one another in a regular fer es, than when they are thrown together without order and connexion. There is always an obfcurity in confufion, and the fame fentence that would have enlightened the reader in one part of a discourse, perplexes him in another. For the fame reafon likewife every thought in a methodical difcourfe fhews itself in its greatest beauty, as the feveral figures in a piece of painting receive new grace from their difpofition in the picture. The advantages of a reader from a methodical difcourfe, are correfpondent with those of the writer. He comprehends every thing cafily, takes it in with pleafure, and retains it long. Method is not lefs requifite in ordinary conver fation than in writing, provided a man would talk to make himself understood. I, who hear a thousand coffee-houfe debates every day, am very fenfible of this want of method in the thoughts of my honest countrymen. There is not one difpute in ten which is managed in thofe fchools of politics, where, after the three first fentences, the question is not intirely loft. Our difputants put me in mind of the fcuttlefith, that when he is unable to extricate himself, blackens all the water about him until he becomes invifible. The man who does not know how to methodize his thoughts, has always, to borrow a phrase from the Difpenfary, a barren fuperfluity of words; the fruit is loft amidst "the exuberance of leaves." 66 Tom Puzzle is one of the moft eminent immethodical difputants of any that has fallen under my obfervation. Tom has read enough to make him very impertinent; his knowledge is fufficient to raife doubts, but not to clear them. It is pity that he has fo much learning, or that he has not a great deal more. With thefe qualifications Tom fets up for a free-thinker, finds a great many things to blame in the conftitution of his country, and gives threwd intimations that he does not believe another world. In short, Puzzle is an atheist as much as his parts will give him leave. He has got about half a dozen commonplace topics, into which he never fails to turn the converfation, whatever was the occafion of it; though the matter in debate be about Doway or Denain, it is ten to one but half his difcourie runs upon the unreasonablenefs of bigotry and priest-craft. This makes Mr. Puzzle the admiration of all thofe who have lefs fenfe than himfelf, and the contempt of all those who have more. There is none in town whom Tom dreads fo much as my friend Will Dry. Will, who is acquainted with Tom's logic, when he finds him running off the queftion, cuts him fhort with a What then? We allow all this to be true, but what is it to our prefent purpose ?' I have known Tom eloquent half an hour together, and triumphing, as he thought, in the fuperiority of the argument, when he has been nonpluffed on a fudden by Mr. Dry's defiring him to tell the company what it was that he endeavoured to prove. In thort, Dry is a man of a clear methodical head, but few words, and gains the fame advantage over Puzzle, that a fmall body of regular troops would gain over a numberless undifciglined militia, C No N° 477 SATURDAY, SEPT. 6. 10 E An me ludit amabilis r 1. 3.ver: 51 -Does airy fancy cheat breeze Wantons through the waving trees. Creecb. • SIR, H AVING lately read your effay on the pleafures of the imagination, I was to taken with your thoughts upon fome of our English gardens, that I cannot forbear troubling you with a letter upon that fubject. I am one, you must know, who am looked upon as a humourift in gardening. I have feveral acres about my houfe, which I call my garden, and which a fkilful gardener would not know what to call. It is a confufion of kitchen and par-illages and cafcades, are romance writers. Wife terre, orchard and flower-garden, which lie fo mixt and interwoven with one another, that if a foreigner, who had feen nothing of our country, fhould be conveyed into my garden at his firft landing, he would look upon it as a nataral wilderness, and one of the uncultivated parts of our country. My flowers grow up in and London are our herois poets; and if, as a critic, I may fingle out any paffage of their works to commend, I fhall take notice of that 6 6 part in the upper garden at Kenfington, which was at first nothing but a gravel-pit. It muft have been a fine genius for gardening, that could have thought of forming fuck an unsightly " 13 feveral parts of the garden in the greatest lux-hollow into fo beautiful an area, and to have. urianey and profufion. I am fo far from being • hedge, in a field, or a meadow, as fome of the 3 rill, and adminifters to the pleasure as well as the plenty of the place. I have fo conducted it, that it vifits most of my plantations; and have taken particular care to let it run in the fame manner as it would do in an opeis field, fo that it generally paffes through banks of violets and primrofes, plats of willow, or other plants, that feem to be of its own producing. There is ano ther circumftance in which I am very particu lar, or as my neighbours call me, very whim fical as my garden invites into it all the birds of the country, by offering them the conveniI do not fuffer any one to destroy their nefts in ency of fprings and fhades, folitude and fhelters, the fpring, or drive them from their ufual haurs in fruit-time. I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their fongs. By this means I have always the misfe of the feafon in its perfection, and am highly delighted • to fee the jay or the thrush hopping about my • walks, and shooting before my eyes across the <feveral glades and alleys that I país through. I think there are as many kinds of gardening as of poetry: your makers of parterres and flowergardens are epigrammatifts and fonneteers in this art contrivers of bowers and grottoes, trẻ hit the eye with fo uncommon and agreeable a feene, as that which it is now wrought into. To give this particular spot of ground the greater effect, they have made a very pleafing contraft; for as on one fide of the walk you fee this hollow bafon, with its feveral little plantations fo conveniently under the eye of the beholder; on the other fide of it there appears a feeming mount, made up of trees rifing one higher than another, in propertion as they approach the centre. heard this account of it, would think this chrA fpectator who has got cular mount was not only a real one, but that it had been actually fcooped out of that hollow fpace, which I have before mentionedI never yet net with any one who has walked in this garden, who was not ftruck with that part of it which I have here mentioned. As for myfelf, you will find, by the account which I have al ready given you, that my compofitions in garare after the Cart. and run into the wonderful wilderness of na ture, without affecting the nicer elegancies of What I am now going to mention, will, 'perhaps, deferve your attention more than any thing I have yet faid. I find that in the dif courie which I fpoke of in the beginning of my letter, you are against filling an English garden with ever-greens; and indeed I am fo far of · your opinion, that I can by no means think the verdure of an ever-green comparable to that ⚫ which shoots out annually, and clothes our trees in the fummer-season. But I have often wondered that thofe who are like myfelf, and love to live in gardens, have never thought of contriving a winter garden, which would confiit of fuch trees only as never caft their leaves. We " • have have very often little fnatches of funshine and fair weather in the most uncomfortable parts of the year, and have frequently feveral days in November and January that are as agreeable as any in the finest months. At fuch times, therefore, I think there could not be a greater pleasure, than to walk in such a garden as I have propofed. In the fummer-feafon the whole country blooms, and is a kind of garden, for which reafon we are not fo fenfible of those beauties that at this time may be every where met with,;; but when nature is in her defolation, and prefents us with nothing but bleak and barren profpects, there is fomething unfpeakably chearful in a spot of ground which is covered with trees that fmile amidst all the rigour of winter, and give us a view of the most gay feafon in the midft. of that which is the most dead and melancholy. I have fol far indulged myfelf in this thought, that I have fet apart a whole acre of ground for the executing of it. The walls are covered with ivy inftead of vines. The laurel, the bay-tree, and the holly, with many other trees and plants of the fame nature,tisfaction for the bargains he had made, that 'grow fo thick in it, that you cannot imagine a " more lively scene. The glowing redness of the berries with which they are huig at this time, vies with the verdure of their leaves, and are apt to infpire the heart of the beholder with that vernal delight which you have fome whereverned taken notice of in your former papers. It is very pleafant, at the fame time, to fee the feveral kinds of birds retiring into this little green fpot, and enjoying themfelves among the branches and foliage, when my great garden, which I have before mentioned to you, does not afford a fingle leaf for thelter. I fancied it must be very furprising to any one who enters into a detail of fathions, to confider how far the vanity of mankind has laid itself out in dress, what a prodigious number of people it maintains, and what a circulation of money it occafions. Providence in this cafe makes ufe of the folly which we will not give up, and it becomes inftrumental to the fupport of those who are willing to labour. Hence it is, that fringe-makers, lace-men, tire-women, and a number of other trades, which would be ufelefs in a fimple ftate of nature, draw their fubfiftence; though it is feldom feen that fuch as thefe are extremely rich, because their origi•nal fault of being founded upon vanity, keeps them poor by the light inconftancy of its nature. The variablenefs of fashion turns the stream of bufinefs, which flows from it, now into one channel, and anon into another; fo that the different fets of people fink or flourish in their turns by it. From the thops we retired to the tavern, where I found my friend exprefs fo much fa my moral reflections (if I had told them) might have pafled for a reproof; fo, I chofe rather to fallin with him, and let the difcourfe run upon the ufe of fathions. ; LI A You must know, Sir, that I look upon the pleature which we take in a garden, as one of the most innocent delights in human life garden was the habitation of our first parents ⚫ before the fall. It is naturally apt to fill the mind with calmness and tranquillityy and to lay all its turbulent paffions at reft. It gives us a great infight into the contrivance and wifdom of • Providence, and fuggefts innumerable fubjects for meditation. I cannot but think the very complacency and fatisfaction which a man takes in thefe works of nature, to be a laudable, if • not a virtuous habit of mind. For all which reasons I hope you will pardon the length of my prefent letter. + C I am, STR, &c.' Here we remembered how much man is goby his fenfes, how lively he is ftruck by the objects which appear to him in an agreeable manner, how much clothes contribute to make us agreeable objects, and how much we owe it to ourfelves that we thould appear fo. > We confidered man as belonging to focieties; -focieties as formed of different ranks; and different ranks diftinguished by habit, that all proper duty or refpect might attend their ap pearance. " We took notice of feveral advantages which are met with in the occurrences of converfation; how the bafhful man has been fometimes fo raifed, as to exprefs himself with an air of freedom, when he imagines that his habit introduces him to company with a becoming manner; and again, how a fool in fine clothes fhall be fuddenly heard with attention, till he has betrayed himfelf; whereas a man of fenfe appearing with a drefs of negligence, fhall be but coldly received, till he be proved by time, and estab lifhed in a character. Such things as thefe we could recollect to have happened to our own knowledge fo very often, that we concluded, 154 the author had his reafons, who advifes his fon to go in drefs rather above his fortune than under it. N° 478. WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 8.. Quem penes arbitrium eft, & jus & norma I At last the fubject feemed so considerable, that it was proposed to have a repofitory built for-fathions, as there are chambers for medals and other rarities. The building may be thaped as that which ftands among the pysamids, in the form of a woman's head. This may be graised upon pillars, whofe ornaments thall bear a juft relation to the defign. Thus there may be an imitation of fringe carved in the base, a fort of appearance of lace in the frieze, and a reprefentation of curling locks, with bows of ribbon floping over them, may fill up the work of the cornith. The infide may be divided into two apartments appropriated to each fex. The apartments may be filled with thelves, on which 4 boxes are te ftand as regularly as books in a library. These are to have folding-doors, which being opened, you are to behold a baby dreffed ✓ out in fome fathion which has flourished, and ftanding upon a pedestal, where the time of its reign is marked down. For its farther regulation, let it be ordered, that every one who invents a fashion, fhall bring in his box, whose front he may at pleasure have either worked or painted with fome amorous or gay device, that, like books with gilded leaves and covers, it may the fooner draw the eyes of the beholders, And to the end that these may be preferved with all due care, let there be a keeper appointed, who fhall be a gentleman qualified with a competent knowledge in clothes; fo that by this means the * place will be a comfortable fupport for fome beau who has spent his eftate in dreffing. 1 ! The reafons offered by which we expected to gain the approbation of the public, were as fol• low. Firft, That every one who is confiderable enough to be a mode, and has any imperfection of nature or chance, which it is poffible to hide by the advantage of clothes, may, by coming to this repofitory, be furnished herself, and furnish all who are under the fame misfortune, with the moft agreeable manner of concealing it; and that on the other fide, every one who has any beauty in face or fhape, may alfo be furnished with the moft agreeable manner of thewing it. 6 Secondly, That whereas fome of our young gentlemen, who travel, give us great reafon to fufpect that they only go abroad to make or improve a fancy for drefs, a project of this nature may be a means to keep them at home, which is in effect the keeping of so much money in the kingdom. And perhaps the balance of fathion in Europe, which now leans upon the fide of France, may be fo altered for the future, that it may become as common with Frenchmen to come to England for their finishing stroke of breeding, as it has been for Englishmen to go to France for it. Thirdly, Whereas feveral great fcholars, who might have been otherwife ufeful to the world, have spent their time in ftudying to defcribe the dreffes of the ancients from dark hints, which they are fain to interpret and fupport with much learning; it will from henceforth happen, that they fhall be freed from the trouble, and the world from ufelefs volumes. This project will be a registry, to which pofterity may have recourfe, for the clearing.fuch obfcure paffages as tend that way in authors; and therefore we shall not for the future fubmit ourselves to the learning of etymology, which might perfuade the age to come, that the farthingale was worn for cheapnefs, or the furbelow for warmth. ¿ Fourthly, Whereas they who are old them felves, have often a way of railing at the extravagance of youth, and the whole age in which their children live; it is hoped, that this ill humour will be much fuppreffed, when we can have recourse to the fashions of their times, produce them in our vindication, and be able to fhew that it might have been as expenfive in Queen Elizabeth's time only to wash and quill a ruff, as it is now to buy cravats or neck handkerchiefs. • We defire also to have it taken notice of, that because we would fhew a particular respect to foreigners, which may induce them to perfect their breeding here in a knowledge which is very pro'per for pretty gentlemen, we have conceived the motto for the houfe in the learned language. There is to be a picture over the door with a looking glafs and a dreffing chair in the middle of it then on one fide are to be feen, above one another, patch-boxes, pin-cufhions, and little bottles; in the other, powder-bags, puffs, combs, and brushes; beyond thefe, fwords and fine knots, whofe points are wooden, and fans almoft closed, with the handles downward, are to ftand out interchangeably from the fides, until they meet at the top, and form a femicircle over the rest of the figures: beneath all, the writing is to run in this pretty founding manner: " ·Adefte, O quotquot funt, Veneres, Gratiæ, Cupi dines, En vobis adfunt in promptu Faces, vincula, Spicula; Hinc eligite, fumite, regite. All ye Venus's, Graces, and Cupids, attend: Your weapons here chufe, and your empire extend. Your most humble Servant, · The propofal of my correfpondent I cannot but look upon as an ingenious method of placing perfons (whofe parts make them ambitious to exert themfelves in frivolous things) in a rank by themselves. In order to this, I would propose that there be a board of directors of the fafhionable fociety; and because it is a matter of too much weight for a private man to determine alone, I thould be highly obliged to my correfpondents, if they would give in lifts of perfons qualified for this truft. If the chief coffee-houses, the converfations of which places are carried on by perfons, each of whom has his little. number of fellowers and admirers, would name from among themfelves two or three to be inferted, they thould be put up with gteat faithfulness. Old beaus are to be prefented in the first place; but as that fect, with relation to drefs, is almoft extinct, it will, I fear, be abfolutely neceffary to take in all timefervers, properly fo deemed; that is, fuch as, without any conviction of confcience, or view of intereft, change with the world, and that merely from a terror of being out of fathion. Such alfo, who from facility of temper, and too much obfequioufnets, are vicious against their will, and follow leaders whom they do not approve, for want of courage to go their own way, are capable perfons for this fuperintendency. Those who are loth to grow old, or would do any thing contrary to the courfe and order of things, out of fondness to be in fashion, are proper candidates. To conclude, those who are in fashion, without apparent merit, must be supposed to have latent qualities, which would appear in a post of direction; and therefore are to be regarded in forming thefe lifts. Any who thall be pleafed according to thefe, or what farther qualifications may occur to himself, to fend a lift, is defired to do it within fourteen days after this date. N° 479. TUESDAY, SEPT. 9. He who fincerely loves his wife and family, and ftudies to improve that affection in himself, conceives pleasure from the moft indifferent things; while the married man, who has not bid adieu to the fashions and falfe gallantries of the town, is perplexed with every thing around him. In both vanity, make a fillier figure, than in repeating fuch pleasures and pains to the reft of the world; but I fpeak of them only, as they fit upon thofe who are involved in them. As I vifit all forts of people, I cannot indeed but fmile, when the good lady tells her husband what extraordinary things the child fpoke fince he went out. No longer than yesterday I was prevailed with to go home with a fond hufband; and his wife told him, that his fon, of his own head, when the clock in the parlour ftruck two, faid, papa would come home to dinner prefently. While the father has him in a rapture in his arms, and is drowning him in kiffes, the wife tells me he is but just four years old. Then they both ftruggle for him, and bring him up to me, to fay fomething; and I told the father, that this remark of the infant of his coming home, and joining the time with it, was a certain indication that he would be a great hiftorian and chronologer. They are neither of them fools, yet received my compliment with great acknowledgment of my prefcience. I fared very well at dinner, and heard many other notable things of their heir, which would have given very little entertainment to any one lefs turned to reflection than I was: but it was a pleafing fpeculation to remark on the happiness of a life, in which things of no moment gave occafion of hope, felf-fatisfaction and triumph. On the other hand, I have known an illnatured coxcomb, who has hardly improved in any thing but bulk, for want of this difpofition, filence the whole family as a fet of filly women and children, for recounting things which were really above his own capacity. When I fay all this, I cannot deny but there are perverfe jades that fall to mens lots, with whom it requires more than common proficiency in philofophy to be able to live. When thefe are join, ed to men of warm fpirits, without temper or learning, they are frequently corrected with ftripes; but one of our famous lawyers is of opinion, that this ought to be ufed fparingly; as I remember, thofe are his very words: but as it is proper to draw fome fpiritual ufe out of all afflictions, I thould rather recommend to thofe who are vifited with women of fpirit, to form themfelves for the world by patience at home. Socrates, who is by all accounts the undoubted head of the fect of the hen-pecked, owned and acknowledged that he owed great part of his virtue to the exercife, which his ufeful wife conftantly gave it. There are feveral good inftructions may be drawn from his wife anfwers to the people of lefs fortitude than himself on her fubject. A friend, with indignation, afked how fo good a man could live, with fo violent a creature? He obferved to him, "That they who learn to keep a good feat on "horfeback, mount the leaft manageable they, "can get; and when they have mastered them, "they are fure never to be difcomfited on the "backs of fteeds lefs reftive." At feveral times, to different perfons, on the fame fubject, he has faid, "My dear friend, you are beholden to "Xantippe, that I bear fo well your flying out, "into a difpute." To another, "My hen clacks very much, but the brings me chickens. They "that 66 -- -Dare jura maritis. To regulate the matrimonial life. ANY are the epiftles I every day receive pride, but above all ill-nature, in their wives. I cannot tell how it is, but I think I fee in all their letters that the caufe of their uneafinefs is in themfelves; and indeed I have hardly ever observed the married condition unhappy, but for want of judgment or temper in the man. The truth is, we generally make love in a ftile, and with fentiments very unfit for ordinary life: they are half theatrical, half romantic. By this means we raife our imaginations to what is not to be expected in human life; and because we did not beforehand think of the creature we are enamour ed of, as fubject to difhonour, age, fick nefs, impatience or fullennefs, but altogether confidered her as the object of joy, human nature itfelf is often imputed to her as her particular imperfection HOR. Ars Poet. v. 398. or defect. I take it to be a rule proper to be obferved in all occurrences of life, but more efpecially in the domestic or matrimonial part of it, to preferve always a difpofition to be pleafed. This cannot be fupported but by confidering things in their right light, and as nature has formed them, and not as our own fancies or appetites would have them. He then who took a young lady to his bed, with no other confideration than the expecta tion of fcenes of dalliance, and thought of her (as I faid before) only as fhe was to adminifter the gratification of defire; as that defire flags, will, without her fault, think her charms and her merit abated: from hence muft follow indifference, diflike, peevithnefs, and rage. But the man who brings his reafon to fupport his paffion, and beholds what he loves, as liable to all the calamities of human life both in hody and mind, and even at the best what must bring upon him new cares and new relations; fuch a lover, I fay, will form himfelf accordingly, and adapt his mind to the nature of his circumftances. This latter perfon will be prepared to be a father, a friend an advocate, a steward for people yet unborn, and has proper affections ready for every incident in the marriage ftate. Such a man can hear the cries of children with pity inftead of anger; and when they run over his head, he is not difturbed at their noife, but is glad of their mirth and health Ton Trufty has told me, that he thinks it doubles his attention to the moft intricate affair he is about, to hear his childen, for whom all his cares are applied, make a noife in the next room; on the other fide, Will Sparkifh cannot put on his perriwig, or adjust his cravat at the glafs, for the noife of thofe damrad nurses and squalling brats; and then ends with a gallant reflection upon the comforts of matrimony, runs out of the hearing, and drives to the chocolate-houfe. According as the hutband is difpofed in himfelf, every circumftance of his life is to give him torment or pleasure. When the affection is well placed, and fupported by the confiderations of duty, honour, and friendthip, which are in the highest degree engaged in this alliance, there can nothing rite in the common courfe of life, or from the blows or favours of fortune, in which a man will not find matters of fome delight unknown to a fingle condition. 6 |
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