upon him to excufe others; fince he came into the bufinels of the world, he has been arrested twice or thrice a year for debts he had nothing to do with, but as furety for others; and I remember when a friend of his had fuffered in the voice of the town, all the phyfic his friend took was conveyed to him by Jack, and inscribed, “A "bolus or an electuary for Mr. Truepenny." Jack had a good eftate left him, which came to nothing; because he believed all who pretended to demands upon it. This eafinefs and credulity destroy all the other merit he has; and he has all his life been a facrifice to others, without ever receiving thanks, or doing one good action, I will end this difcourfe with a speech which I heard Jack make to one of his creditors, of whom he deserved gentler ufage, after laying a whole night in custody at his fuit. SIR, Y done you, fhall not make me unthankful for the OUR ingratitude for the many kindneffes I have good you have done me, in letting me fee there is fuch a man as you in the world. I am obliged to you for the diffidence I fhall have all the reft of my life: "I fhall hereafter truft no man fo far as to be in his "debt." No. LXXXIII. TUESDAY, JUNE 5. Animum picturâ pafcit inani. R. VIRG. Æn. 1. v. 468. DRYDEN. And with an empty picture feeds his mind. HEN the weather hinders me from taking my W diverfions without doors, I frequently make a little party with two or three felect friends, to vifit any thing curious that may be feen under covert. My principal entertainments of this nature are pictures, infomuch that when I have found the weather fet in to be very bad, I have taken a whole day's journey to fee a gallery that is furnished by the hands of great mafters. By this means, when the heavens are filled with clouds, when the earth fwims in rain, and all nature wears a lowering countenance, I withdraw myself from these uncomfortable scenes into the vifionary worlds of art; where I meet with fhining landskips, gilded triumphs, beautiful faces, and all those other objects that fill the mind with gay ideas, and difperfe that gloominefs which is apt to hang upon it in thofe dark difconfolate feafons. I was fome weeks ago in a courfe of thofe diverfions which had taken fuch an intire poffeffion of my imagination, that they formed in it a thort morning's dream, which I fhall communicate to my reader, rather as the first sketch and out-lines of a vifion, than as a finifhed piece. I dreamed that I was admitted. into a long spacious gallery, which had one fide covered with pieces of all the famous painters who are now living, and the other with the works of the greatest masters that are dead. On the fide of the living, I faw feveral perfons bufy in drawing, colouring, and defigning; on the fide of the dead painters, I could not difcover more than one person at work, who was exceeding flow in his motions, and wonderfully nice in his touches. I was refolved to examine the feveral artists, that stood before me, and accordingly applied myself to the fide of the living. The first I obferved at work in this part of the gallery was Vanity, with his hair tied behind him in a ribbon, and dreffed like a Frenchman. All the faces he drew were very remarkable for their smiles, and a certain fmirking air which he bestowed indifferently on every age and degree of either fex. The toujours gai appeared even in his judges, bishops, and privy-counfellors: in a word, all his men were petits maitres, and all his women coquets. The drapery of his figures was extremely well fuited to his faces, and was made up of all the glaring colours that could be mixed together; every part of the drefs was in a flutter, and endeavoured to diftinguish itfelf above the reft. On the left hand of Vanity stood a laborious workman, who I found was his humble admirer, and copied after him. He was dressed like a German, and had a very hard name that founded fomething like Stupidity. The third artift that I looked over was Fantasque, dreffed like a Venetian fcaramouch. He had an excellent hand at a chimera, and dealt very much in distortions and grimaces. He would fometimes affright himself with the phantoms that flowed from his pencil. In short the most elaborate of his pieces was at beft but a terrifying dream; any one could fay nothing more of his fineft figures, than that they were agreeable monsters. The fourth perfon I examined, was very remarkable for his hasty hand, which left his pictures fo unfinished, that the beauty in the picture, which was defigned to continue as a monument of it to posterity, faded sooner than in the perfon after whom it was drawn. He made fo much hafte to dispatch his business, that he, neither gave himself time to clean his pencils, nor mix his colours. The name of this expeditious workman was Avarice. Not far from this artist I faw another of a quite different nature, who was dreffed in the habit of a Dutchman, and known by the name of Industry. His figures were wonderfully laboured: if he drew the portraiture of a man, he did not omit a fingle hair in his face; if the figure of a fhip, there was not a rope among the tackle that escaped him. He had likewife hung a great part of the wall with night-pieces, that feemed to fhew themfelves by the candles which were lighted up in feveral parts of them and were fo inflamed by the fun-fhine, which accidentally fell upon them, that at firft fight I could fcarce forbear crying out, Fire. : The five foregoing artists were the most considerable on this fide the gallery; there were indeed feveral others whom I had not time to look into. One of them, however, I could not forbear obferving, who was very busy in retouching the finest pieces, though he produced no originals of his own. His pencil aggravated every feature that was before overcharged, loaded every defect, and poifoned every colour it touched. Though this work man did fo much mischief on the fide of the living, he never turned his eye towards that of the dead. His name was Envy. Having taken a curfory view of one fide of the gallery, I turned myfelf to that which was filled by the works of thofe great mafters that were dead: when immediately I fancied myself standing before a multitude of fpectators, and thousands of eyes looking upon me at once; for all before me appeared fo like men and women, that I almost forgot they were pictures. Raphael's figures ftood in one row, Titian's in another, Guido Rheni's in a third. One part of the wall was peopled by Hannibal Carrache, another by Corregio, and another by Rubens. To be fhort, there was not a great mafter among the dead who had not contributed to the embellishment of this fide of the gallery. The perfons that owed their being to these feveral mafters, appeared all of them to be real and alive, and differed among one another only in the variety of their fhapes, complexions, and clothes; fo that they looked Jike different nations of the fame fpecies. Obferving an old man, who was the fame perfon I before mentioned, as the only artift that was at work on this fide of the gallery, creeping up and down from one picture to another, and retouching all the fine pieces that ftood before me, I could not but be very attentive to all his motions. I found his pencil was fo very light, that it worked imperceptibly, and after a thousand touches, fcarce produced any vifible effect in the picture on which he was employed. However, as he bufied himself inceffantly, and repeated touch after touch without reft or intermiffion, he wore off infenfibly every little difagreeable glofs that hung upon a figure. He alfo added fuch a beautiful brown to the fhades, and mellowness to the colours, that he made every picture appear more perfect than when it came fresh from the mafter's pencil. I could not forbear looking upon the face of this ancient workman, and immediately, by the long lock of hair upon his forehead, difcovered him to be Time." Whether it were because the thread of my dream was at an end I cannot tell, but upon my taking a furvey of this imaginary old man, my sleep left me. C No. No. LXXXIV. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 6. Quis talio fando Myrmidonum, Dolopumve, ant duri miles Ulyffei, VIRG. N. 2. v. 6. Who can fuch woes relate, without a tear, L OOKING over the old manufcript wherein the pri vate actions of Pharamond are fet down by way of table-book, I found many things which gave me great delight; and as human life turns upon the fame principles and paffions in all ages, I thought it very proper to take minutes of what paffed in that age, for the inftruction of this. The antiquary, who lent me thefe papers, gave me a character of Eucrate, the favourite of Pharamond, extracted from an author who lived in that court. The account he gives both of the prince and this his faithful friend, will not be improper to infert here, becaufe I may have occafion to mention many of their conver fations, into which thefe memorials of them may give light. Pharamond, when he had a mind to retire for an hour or two from the hurry of business and fatigue of ceremony, made a fignal to Eucrate, by putting his hand to his face, placing his arm negligently on a window, or fome fuch action as appeared indifferent to all the rest of the company. Upon fuch notice, unob. ⚫ ferved by others, for their intire intimacy was always a fecret, Eucrate repaired to his own apartment to receive the king. There was a fecret access to this part of the • court, at which Eucrate used to admit many whofe mean appearance in the eyes of the ordinary waiters and doorkeepers made them be repulfed from other parts of the palace. Such as thefe were let in here by crder of Eucrate, and had audiences of Pharamond. This entrance ♦ Pharamond called "the Gate of the Unhappy," and the tears of the afflicted who came before him, he would fay. |