tion of Shalum, who was reckoned one of the mildeft and wifeft of all who lived before the flood, drew into it multitudes of people, who were perpetually employed in the finking of wells, the digging of trenches, and the hollowing of trees, for the better diftribution of water through every part of this fpacious plantation. The habitations of Shalum looked every year more beautiful in the eyes of Hilpa, who, after the fpace of feventy autumns, was wonderfully pleafed with the diftant prospect of Shalum's hills, which were then covered with innumerable tufts of trees, and gloomy fcenes, that gave a magnifi, cence to the place, and converted it into one of the fineft landfcapes the eye of man could behold. The Chinese record a letter, which Shalum is faid to have written to Hilpa, in the eleventh year of her widowhood. I fhall here tranflate it without departing from that noble fimplicity of fentiments and plainnefs of manners which appear in the original. Shalum was at this time one hundred and eighty years old, and Hilpa one hundred and feventy. I Shalum, mafter of mount Tirzah, to Hilpa, miftrefs of the vallies. W In the 788th year of the creation. HAT have I not fuffered, O thou daughter of Zilpah, finçe thou gavest thyfelf away in marriage to my rival? I grew weary of the light of the fun, and have ever fince been covering myself with woods and fo refts. These threefcore and ten years have I bewailed the lofs of thee on the top of mount Tirzah, and foothed my melancholy among a thoufand gloomy thades of my own raifing. My dwellings are at prefent as the garden of God; every part of them is filled with fruits and flowers, and fountains. The whole mountain is perfumed for thy reception. Come up into it, O my beloved, and let us people this fpot of the new world with a beautiful race of mortals; let us multiply exceedingly among thefe delight. ful fhades, and fill every quarter of them with fons and daughters. Remember, O thou daugh ter of Zilpah, that the age of man is but a thousand years; that beauty is the admiration but of a few centuries. It flourishes as a moun▾ tain oak, or as a cedar on the top of Tirzah, which in three or four hundred years will fade away, and never be thought of by pofterity, unless a young wood fprings from its roots. Think well on this, and remember thy neigh, bour in the mountains,' Having here inferted this letter, which I look upon as the only antediluvian Billet-doux now extant, I fhall in my next paper give the answer to it, and the fequel of this story. N° 585. WEDNESDAY, AUG, 25. it in less than twelve months, after the following manner : C DRYDEN. The fequel of the story of Shalum and Hilpa, HE letter inferted in my laft had fo good an effect upon Hilpa, that the anfwered TH Hilpa, mistress of the vallies, to Shalum, mafter of mount Tirzah, W In the 789th year of the creation. HAT have I to do with thee, O Shalum? Thou prajfeth Hilpa's beauty, but art thou not fecretly enamoured with the verdure of her meadows? Art thou not more affected with the profpect of her green valies, than thou wouldeft be with the fight of 'her perfon? The lowings of my herds, and the bleatings of my flocks, make a pleasant echo in thy mountains, and found fweetly in thy ears. What though I am delighted with the wavings of thy forefts, and thofe breezes ' of perfumes which flow from the top of Tirzah: are thefe like the riches of the valley? 'I know thee, O Shalum; thou art more wife and happy than any of the fons of men. Thy dwellings are among the cedars; thou searchest out the diverfity of foils, thou underftandeft the influences of the stars, and markeft the change of feafons, Can a woman appear lovely in the eyes of fuch a one? Difquiet me not, O Shalum; let me alone, that I may enjoy thofe goodly poffeffions which are fallen to my lot. Win me not by thy enticing words. May thy trees increafe and multiply; mayeft thou add wood to wood, and fhade to 'fhade; but tempt not Hilpa to destroy thy folitude, and make thy retirement populous.' < The Chinese say, that a little time afterwards the accepted of a treat in one of the neighbouring hills to which Shalum had invited her. This treat lafted for two years, and is faid to have coft Shalum five hundred antelopes, two thou, fand oftṛiches, and a thousand tuns of milk; but what most of all recommended it, was that variety of delicious fruits and pot-herbs, in which no perfon then living could any way equal Shalum. He treated her in the bower which he had planted amidst the wood of nightingales. This wood was made up of fuch fruit-trees and plants as are most agreeable to the feveral kinds of finging-birds; so that it had drawn into it all the mufic of the country, and was filled from one end to the other with the most agreeable concert in feafon. He fhewed her every day fome beautiful and furprifing fcene in this new region of woodlands; and as by this means he had all the opportunities he could wish for of opening his mind to her, he fucceeded fo well, that upon her departure the made him a kind of promife, and gave him her word to return him pofitive answer in less than fifty years, She had not been long among her own peo ple in the vallies, when the received new overtures, and at the fame time a moft fplendid vifit from Mishpach, who was a mighty man of old, and had built a great city, which he called after his own name. Every houfe was made for at least a thousand years, nay there fo that the quantity of ftone and timber conwere fome that were leafed out for three lives; fumed in this building is fcarce to be imagined by those who live in the prefent age of the world. This great man entertained her with the voice of mufical inftruments which had been lately invented, and danced before her to the the found of the timbrel. He also presented her with feveral domeftic utenfils wrought in brafs and iron, which had been newly found out for the conveniency of life. In the mean time Shalum grew very uneafy with himself, and was forely difpleafed at Hilpa for the recertion which the hat given to Mishpach, infomuch that he never wrote to her or spoke of her during a whole revolution of Saturn; but finding that this intercourfe went no farther than a vifit, he again renewed his addreffes to her, who during a long filene is fa'd very often to have caft a wifhing eye upon mount Tirzah. Her mind continued wavering about twenty years longer between Shalum and Mihpach; for though her inclinations favoured the for mer her intereft pleaded very powerfully for the other. While her heart was in this unfet. tled condition, the following accident happened which determined her choice. A high tower of wood that stood in the city of Mishpach having caught fire by a flash of lightning, in a few days reduced the whole town to afhes. Mithpach refolved to rebuild the place whatever it hould cost him; and having already destroyed all the timber of the country, he was forced to have recourfe to Shalum, whofe forefts were now two hundred years old. He purchased thefe woods with fo many herds of cattle and flocks of fheep, and with fuch a vaft extent of fields and paftures, that Shalum was now grown more wealthy than Mifhpach; and therefore appeared to charming in the eyes, of Zilpah's daughter, that the no longer refused him in marriage. On the day in which he brought her up into the mountains he raised a most prodigious pile of cedar and of every fweet-smelling wood, which reached above three hundred cubits in height: he alfo caft into the pile bundles of myrrh and fheaves of spikenard, enriching it with every fpicy fhrub, and making it fat with the gums of his plantations. This was the burnt offering which Shalum offered in the day of his efpoufals: the fmoke of it afcended up to heaven, and filled the whole country with incense and perfume. ' 7 to-morrow, and what little vices were to be ⚫ prevented from flipping unawares into a habit. If I might fecond the philofopher's advice, it should be mine, that in a morning before my fcholar rofe, he should confider what he had been about that night, and with the fame ftrictness, as if the condition he has believed himself to be in, was real. Such a fcrutiny into the actions of his fancy must be of confiderable advantage, for this reason, because the circumstances which a man imagines him⚫ felf in during fleep, are generally fuch as intirely favour his inclinations good or bad, and give him imaginary opportunities of pursuing them to the utmoft; fo that his temper will lie fairly open to his view, while he confiders how it is moved when free from thofe conftraints which the accidents of real life put it under. Dreams are certainly the refult of our waking thoughts, and our daily hopes and fears are what give the mind fuch nimble relithes of pleasure, and fuch fevere touches of pain in its midnight rambles. A man that murders his enemy, or deferts his friend in a dream, had need to guard his temper against revenge and ingratitude, and take heed that he be not tempted to do a vile thing in the purfuit of falfe, or the neglect of true honour. For my part, 1 feldom receive a benèfit, but in a night or two's time I make most noble returns for it; which though my benefactor is not a whit the better for, yet it pleafes me to think that it was from a principle of gratitude in me, that my mind was fufceptible of fuch generous tranfport while I thought myself repaying the kindnefs of my friend and I have often been ready to beg pardon, instead of returning an injury, after ⚫ confidering that when the offender was in my power I had carried my refentments much too < far. · night before they flept they should examine what they had been doing that day, and fo discover what actions were worthy of pursuit < I think it has been obferved in the course of your papers, how much one's happiness or mifery may depend upon the imagination : of which truth thofe Atrange workings of fancy in fleep are no inconfiderable inftances: fo that not only the advantage a man has of 'making discoveries of himfelf, but a regard to his own ease or difquiet, may induce him to accept of my advice. Such as are willing to " I comply with it, I shall put into a way of doing it with pleasure, by observing only one maxim which I thall give them, viz. «To "6 go to bed with a mind entirely free from paf"fion, and a body clear of the leaft intempe"rance," They, indeed, who can fink into fleep with their thoughts lefs calm or innocent than they should be, do but plunge themfelves into fcenes of guilt and mifery; or they who are willing to purchase any midnight difquietudes for the fatisfaction of a full meal, or a ikin 'full of wine; thefe I have nothing to say to, 6 as not knowing how to invite them to reflec tions full of fhame and horror: but those that will obferve this rule, I promife them they fhall awake into health and chearfulness, and be capable of recounting with delight thofe glorious moments, wherein the mind has been indulging itself in fuch luxury of thought, fuch noble hurry of imagination. Suppofe a man's going fupperlefs to bed 4 fhould Du tleman, who promised me, in the laft paper, fome extracts out of his noctuary. should introduce him to the table of fome great prince or other, where he fhall be entertained with the nobleft marks of honour and plenty, and do fo much business after, that he shall rife with as good a ftomach to his breakfaft as if he had fafted all night long; C or fuppofe he fhould fee his dearest friends remain all night in great diftreffes, which he 'could inftantly have difengaged them from, could he have been content to have gone to bed without the other bottle; believe me thefe effects of fancy are no contemptible confequences of commanding or indulging one's appetite. 1 forbear recommending my advice upon many other accounts until I hear how you and your readers relish what I have already faid; among whom if there be any that may pretend it is ufelefs to them, becaufe, they never dream at all, there may be others perhaps, who do little elfe all day long. Were every one as fenfible as I am what happens to him in his fleep, it would be no difpute whether we pafs fo confiderable a portion of our... time in the condition of ftocks and ftones, or whether the foul were not perpetually at work upon the principle of thought.. However, it is an honeft endeavour of mine to perfuade my countrymen to reap some advantage from fo many unguarded hours, and as fuch you will encourage it. I fhall conclude with giving you a sketch or two of my way of proceeding. If I have any bufinefs of confequence to do to-morrow, I am fcarce dropt afleep tonight but I am in the midft of it, and when awake I confider the why le proceffion of the affair, and get the advantage of the next day's experience before the fun has rifen upon it. SIR, " Was the other day reading the life of Mahomet. Among many other extravagancies, I find it recorded of that impoftor, that in the fourth year of his age the angel Gabriel caught him up while he was among his play-fellows, and carrying him afide eut open his breaft, plucked out his heart, and wrung cut of it that black drop of blood, in which, fay the Turkish divines, is contained the Fomes Peccati, fo that he was free from fin ever after. I immediately faid to myself, though this story be a fiction, a very good moral may be drawn from it, would every man but apply it to himself, and endeavour to squeeze out of his heart whatever fins or ill qualities be finds on it, While my mind was wholly taken up with this contemplation, infenfibly fell into a moft pleafing flumber, when methought two porters entered my chamber carrying a large cheft between them. After having fet it 'down in the middle of the room they de'parted. I immediately endeavoured to open what was fent me, when a fhape, like that in which we paint our angels, appeared be'fore me, and forbad me. Inclofed, faid he, " are the hearts of several of your friends and 'acquaintance; but before you can be quali'fied to fee and animadvert on the failings of There is fcarce a great poft but what I have fome time or other been in; but my behavi-" our while I was mafter of a college, pleafes me fo well, that whenever there is a province of that nature vacant, I intend to ftep in as foon as I can, 'I have done many things that would not pafs examination, when I have had the art of 'flying or being invisible? for which reafon I ⚫ am glad I am not possessed of those extraordinary qualities. 3 Lafly, Mr. Spectator, I have been a great correfpondent of yours, and have read many of my letters in your paper which I never wrote you. If you have a mind I fhould really be fo, I have got a parcel of vifions 6 JOHN SHALLOW." · 6 others, you must be pure yourself; whereupon he drew out his incifion knife, cut me open, took out my heart and began to squeeze it. I was in a great confufion, to fee how many things, which I had always cherished as virtues, iffued out of my heart on this occafion. In short, after it had been thoroughly fqueezed, it looked like an empty bladder, when the phantom, breathing a fresh particle of divine air into it, feftored it fafe to its former repofitory; and having fewed me up, we began to examine the cheft. The The hearts were all inclofed in transparent 'phials, and preferved in liquor which looked like fpirits of wine. The firft which I caft my eye upon, I was afraid would have broke the glafs which contained it. It fhot up and down, with incredible swiftnefs, through theliquor in which it fwam, and very frequently bounced against the fide of the phial. fomes, or fpot in the middle of it, was not large but of a red fiery colour, and feemed to be the cause of thefe violent agitations. That, fays my inftructor, is the heart of Tom' Dread Nought, who behaved himself well in the late wars, but has for thefe ten years aft paft been aiming at fome poft of honour to po purpofe. He is lately retired into the country, where quite choked up with fpleen and choler, he rails at better men than himself, and will be for ever uneafy, because it is impoffible he fhould think his merits fufficiently rewarded. The next heart that I examined was remarkable for its fmallnefs; it lay ftill at the bottom. of the phial, and I could hardly perceive that it beat at all. The fomes was quite black, and had almoft diffufed itfelf over the whole heart. This, fays my interpreter, is the heart of Dick Gloomy, who never thirfted after 1 any · any thing but money. Notwithstanding all his endeavours, he is ftill poor. This has flung him into a most deplorable state of inelancholy and defpair. He is a compofition of envy and idlenefs, hates mankind, but gives them their revenge by being more un⚫eafy to himself than to any one else. The phial I looked upon next contained a large fair heart, which beat very strongly. The fomes or fpot in it was exceeding finall; but I could not help obferving, that which way foever I turned the phial it always appeared uppermoft, and in the strongest point of light. The heart you are examining, fays my companion, belongs to Will Worthy. He Here,' fays the angel, is the heart of Freelove, your intimate friend. Freelove and I,' faid I, are at prefent very cold to one another, and I do not care for looking ch the heart of a man, which I fear is overcaft ⚫ with fancour. My teacher commanded me to look upon it; I did fo, and to my unfpeakable furprife, found that a small fwelling fpot, which I at first took to be ill-will ⚫ towards me, was only paffion, and that upon my nearer infpection, it wholly disappeared; upon which the phantom told me Freelove B was one of the best-natured men alive. ་ This,' fays my teacher, is a female heart of your acquaintance. I found the fomes in it of the largest fize, and of an hundred dif. <ferent colours, which were ftill varying every moment. Upon my asking to whom it belonged, I was informed that it was the heart of Coquetilla, I fet it down, and drew out another, in ⚫ which I took the fomes at first fight to be very fmall, but was amazed to find, that as I looked ftedfaftly upon it, it grew ftill larger, **It was the heart of Meliffa, a noted prude who lives the next door to me. < I fhew you this,' fays the phantom, be caufe it is indeed a rarity, and you have the happiness to know the person to whom it belongs. He then put into my hands a large cryftal glafs, that inclofed an heart, in which though I examined it with the utmost nicety, I could not perceive any blemish. I made no fcruple to affirm that it must be the heart of *Seraphina, and was glad, but not furprised, to find that it was fo.. She is indeed, continued my guide, the ornament as well as the envy of her fex; at these laft words he * pointed to the hearts of feveral of her female acquaintance which lay in different phials, ⚫ and had very large spots in them all of a deep • blue. You are not to wonder,' fays he, •has indeed a most noble foul, and is poffeffed MAN may be confidered in two views, as of a thousand good qualities. which you difcover is vanity. The a reafonable, as fociable being i capable of being himfelf either happy or mife rable, and of contributing to the happiness or mifery of his fellow creatures. Suitably to this double capacity, the contriver of human nature hath wifely furnished it with two principles of action, felf love, and benevolence; defign ed one of them to render man wakeful to his own perfonal intereft, the other to difpofe him for giving his utmost affiftance to all engaged in the fame purfuit. This is fuch an account of our frame, fo agreeable to reason, so much for the honour of our Maker, and the credit of our fpecies, that it may appear fomewhat unaccountable what should induce men to reprefent human nature as they do under characters of difadvantage, or having drawn it with a little fordid afpect, what pleasure they can poffibly take in fuch a picture? Do they reflect that it is their own, and, if we would believe themfelves, is not more odious than the original? One of the first that talked in this lofty ftrain of our nature was Epicurus. Beneficence, would his followers fay, is all founded in weaknefs; and, whatever he pretended, the kindnefs that paffeth between men and men is by "every man directed to himself. This, it muft be confeffed, is of a piece with the rest of that hopeful philofophy, which having patched men up out of the four elements, attributes his be ing to chance, and derives all his actions from an unintelligible declination of atoms. And for thefe glorious difcoveries the poet is beyond measure tranfported in the praifes of his hero, as if he muft needs be fomething more than man, only for an endeavour to prove that many is in nothing fuperior to beasts. In this fchool was Mr. Hobbes inftructed to fpeak after the fame manner, if he did not rather draw his knowledge from an observation of his own tem per; for he fomewhere unluckily lays down this as a rule, That from the fimilitudes of thoughts and paffions of one man to the thoughts and paffions of another, whofoever looks into himself and confiders, what he deth when he thinks, hopes, fears, &c. and upon what grounds; he fhall hereby read and know what are the thoughts and paffions of all other men, upon the like occafions, Now we will allow Mr. Hobbes to know beft how he was inclined; but in earnest, I fhould be heartily out of conceit with myfelf, if I thought myself of this unamiable temper, as he affirms, and fhould have as little kindness for myself as for any body in the world. Hitherto I always imagined that kind and benevolent propenfions were the original growth 译者 that you fee no fpot in an heart, whofe inno 'cence has been proof againft all the corruptions of a depraved age. If it has any blemish, it is too fmall to be difcovered by hu• man eyes. I laid it down, and took up the hearts of other females, in all of which the fomes ' ran in feveral veins, which were twisted together, and made a very perplexed figure. I asked the meaning of it, and was told it re 'prefented deceit. + 21 whom I know to be particularly addicted to drinking, gaming, intriguing, &c. but my interpreter told me, I must let that alone until another opportunity, and flung down the cover of the cheft with fo much violence, as 'immediately awoke me.' I fhould have been glad to have examined 'the hearts of feveral of my acquaintance, No 588. WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 1. Dicitis, omnis'in imbecillitate eft & gratia, & caritas. CICERO. you pretend that all kindnefs and benevolence is founded in weakness. the earth is opposed to its annual; or its mo tion round its own centre, which might be improved as an illuftration of felf love, to that which whirls it about the common centre of the. world, answering to universal benevolence. Ís the force of felf-love abated, or its intereft prejudiced by benevolence? So far from it, that. benevolence, though a diftinct principle, is extremely ferviceable to felf-love, and then doth most fervice when it is leaft defigned. of the heart of man, and, however checked C But to defcend from reafon to matter of fact; the pity which arifes on fight of perfons in dií- + |