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 brightnefs of the weather, the chearfulness 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 spent, 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 purfuing 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 bur endeavours after greatnefs, proceed "from nothing but a defire 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 propofe 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 himfelf in this point, the world might probably have enjoyed him much longer; whereas through too great an application to his ftudies in his youth, The contracted tha ill habit of body, which, after a tedious ficknefs, carried him off in the fortieth year of his age; and the whole hiftory 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 distempers. 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 exercite to all my country friends, as the best kind of phyfic for menting a bad conftitution, and preferving a good one. I cannot do this better than in the following lines out of Mr. Dryden. "The first phyficians by debauch were made; "Excefs began, and floth fuftains the trade. By chace our long-liv'd fatliers 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 No 117. SATURDAY, JULY 14. -Ipfi fibi fomnia fingunt. Virg. Ecl. 8. v. 108. Their own imaginations they deceive. TH HERE are fome opinions in which a man fhould stand neuter, without engaging his affent to one fide or the other. Such a hovering faith as this, which refufes to fettle upon any determination, is abfolutely neceffary in a mind that is careful to avoid errors and prepoffeffions. When the arguments prefs equally on both fides in ma ters that are indifferent to us, 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 East and West-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 an infernal commerce, are people of a weak un→ derstanding and crazed imagination, and at the fame time reflect upon the many impoftures and delufions of this nature that have been detected in all ages, I endeavour to fufpend my belief until I hear more certain accounts than any which have yet come to my knowledge. In fhort, when I confider the queftion, whether there are such persons 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 lanc 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 crooked fhoulders had fhe wrapp'd "The tatter'd remnants of an old ftrip'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 wretchednefs. As 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 houfe which her neighbours did not believe had carried her feveral hundreds of miles. If the chanced to ftumble, they always found fticks or straws that lay in the figure of a crofs before her. If 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 is at the bottom of the churn. If a horfe sweats in the ftable, Moll White has been vpon his back. If a hare makes an unexpected efcape from the hounds, the huntsman curfes Moll White. Nay, fays Sir Roger, I have known the master of the pack upon fuch an occafion, fend one of his fervants to fee if Moll White had been out that morning. This account raised my curiofity fo far, that I begged my friend Sir Rager to go with me into her hovel, which flood 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 whifpered 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 herself: 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. I was fecretly concerned to fee human nature in fo much wretchedness and difgrace, but at the fame time could not forbear fmiling to hear Sir Roger, who is a little puzzled about the old woman, advising her as a juftice of peace to avoid all communication with the devil, and never to hurt any of her neighbour's cattle. We concluded our vifit with a bounty, which was very acceptable. In our return home Sir Roger told me, that old Moll had been often brought before him for making children fpit pins, and giving maids the night-mare; and that the country people would be toffing her into a pond and trying experiments with her every day, if it was not for him and his chaplain. I have fince found upon inquiry, that Sir Roger was feveral times ftaggered with the reports that had been brought him concerning this old woman, and would frequently have bound her over to the county-fetions, had not his chaplain with mach ado perfuaded him to the contrary, I have been the more particular in this ac count, becaufe I hear there is fcarce a village in England that has not a Moll White in it. When an old woman begins to dote, and grow chargeable to a parish, the is generally turned into a witch, and fills the whole country with extrava T DRYDEN, HIS agreeable feat is furrounded with fo many pleafing walks, which are ftruck out of a wood, in the midst of which the house stands, 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 raifes us above ordinary life, and is yet not ftrong enough to be inconfiftent with tranquillity. This ftate of mind was I in, ravifhed 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, still truck with new fenfe of pleasure; 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 defigns to marry, or he 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 con fcious 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 impoffi ble to offend. A man whofe thoughts are conftantly 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? Because her fuperior merit is fuch, that I cannot approach her without awe, that my heart is checked by too much esteem; I am angry that her charms are not more acceffible, that I am more inclined to worship than falute her: how often have I 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, have led a miferable life in fecret upon her account; but fancy the 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 upon confidents: they are of all people the most impertinent. What is moft pleasant to obferve in them, is, that they affume to themfelves the merit of the perfons whom they have in their custody. Oreftilla is a great fortune, and in U 2 wonderiu wonderful danger of furprises, therefore full of mifchievous wench in the neighbourhood, whe was a beauty; and makes me hope I fhall fee the perverfe widow in her condition. She was, fo flippant with her anfwers to all the honeft fellows that came near her, and so very vain of her beauty, that the has valued herself upon her charms until they are ceafed. She therefore now makes it her bufinefs 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 despised by those we "loved:" the huffy has a great deal of power wherever he comes, and has her share of cunning. ture, if thou couldeft remain there in the ab"fence of that fair creature whom you reprefent in the water, how willingly could I ftand here fatisfied for ever, without troubling my dear "Betty herself with any mention of her unfor"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 deareft Betty thou 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 fmile. It 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 ftarted up, and at the next inftant he jumped acrofs 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 huntíman, with a tendernefs 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 the loves to hear 6: 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 honest 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 worse for having loved her whenever the 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 eafily 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 imagine it has had fome whimsical effect upon my brain; for I frequently find, that in my most serious difcourfe I let fall fome comical familiarity. of fpeech or odd phrase that makes the company laugh: however, I cannot but allow the 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; she 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 he is no fool. No 119. TUESDAY, JULY 17. Urbem quam dicunt Romam, Melibœe, putavi T Virg. Ecl. 1. v. 20. Fool that I was, I thought imperial Rome Like Mantua. T DRYDEN. 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 thofe two different fcenes of life. By manners I do not mean morals, but behaviour and good-breeding, as they fhew themfelves in the town and in the country. And here, in the first place, I must observe 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 diftinguifhed themselves from the rustic 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 so encumbered with fhow and ceremony, that it flood in need of a reformation to retrench its fuperfluities, and reftore it to its natural good fenfe and beauty. At present therefore an uncontrained carriage, and a certain openness of behaviour, are the height of good-breeding. The fafhionable world is grown free and cafy; 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 leaft. 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 themfelves up to the fashion of the polite world, but the town has dropped them, and are nearer to the first state 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 serve a courtier for a week. There is in finitely more to do about place and precedency ina meeting of juftices 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. 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 conver fation 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. fure. As the two points of good-breeding, which I 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 western 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. L 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 Equidem credo, quia fit divinitus illis 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 No. 120. WEDNESDAY, JULY 18. Ingenium. Virg. Georg. I. v. 457. I think their breafts with heav'nly fouls infpir'd. DRYDEN. L drink their healths according to their refpective MY ranks and qualities. Honeft Will 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, ftopped 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. 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 feveral times fitting an hour or two together near an hen and chickens. He tells me he believes I am perfonally 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 fpcculations of nature which are to be madę in a country life; and as my reading has very There has happened another revolution in the much lain among books of natural history, I point of good-breeding, which relates to the con- cannot forbear recollecting upon this occafion verfation among men of mode, and which I can- the feveral remarks which I have met with in not but look upon as very extraordinary. It authors, and comparing them with what falls was certainly one of the firft diftinctions of a under my own obfervation: the arguments for well-bred man, to exprefs every thing that had Providence drawn from the natural hiftory of the most remote appearance of being obfcene, in animals being in my opinion demonstrative. modeft terms and diftant phrafes; whilst the clown, who had no fuch delicacy of conception and expreffion, clothed his ideas in thofe plain homely terms that are the moit 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 atheim 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 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 twift 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 It is aftonining to confider the different degrees of care that defcend from the parent to the young, fo far as is abfolutely neceffary for the leaving 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 stick, 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 propofe 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 lafts, and that it should last 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 inftance of cruelty, because there is nothing can fo effectually fhew the ftrength 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 fhould 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 nest, 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 obferved in animals to afcend from the young to the parent; which is not at all neceffary for the continuance of the fpecies; nor indeed in reasonable creatures does it rife in any proportion, as it fpreads itself downwards; for in all family affection, we find protection granted and favours bestowed, are greater motives to love and tenderness, than fafety, benefits, or life received. 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 itfelf in all occurrences of life; whereas the brute makes no discovery 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 wisdom is confined to a few particulars, and lies in a very narrow compaís. Take a brute out of his instinct, 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 he take in turning them fre quently, that all parts may partake of the vital warmth? When the leaves them, to provide for her neceffary fuflenance, 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, the 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 itfelf; nor to mention her forfaking the neft, 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 of diligence, than is feen 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 neceffary for the propagation of the species, confidered in other refpects, is without the least glimmerings of thought or common fenfe. She miftakes a piece of chalk for an egg, and fits upon it in the fame manner; the is infenfible of any increafe or diminution in the number of thofe fhe lays: fhe does not diftinguish between her own and thofe of another fpecies; and when the birth appears of never fo different a bird, will cherish it for her own. In all thefe circumftances which do not carry an immediate regard to the subfiftence of herfelf or her fpecies, the is a very idiot. There is not, in my opinion, any thing more myfterious in nature than this instinct 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, look upon it as upon the principle of gravitation in bodies, which is not |