apt to confider it with regard to his own particular intereft and advantage. N° 404... Friday, June 13. B Non omnia poffumus omnes. VIRG. Ecl. v. 63. With different talents form'd, we variously excel. NATURE does nothing in vain; the Creator of the univerfe has appointed every thing to a certain use and purpofe, and determined it to a fettled courfe and fphere of action, from which if it in the least deviates, it becomes unfit to answer thofe ends for which it was defigned. In like manner it is in the difpofitions of fociety, the civil economy is formed in a chain as well as the natural and in either cafe the breach of but one link puts the whole in fome diforder. It is, I think, pretty plain, that most of the abfurdity and ridicule we meet with in the world, is generally owing to the impertinent affectation of excelling in characters men are not fit for, and for which Narure never designed them. Every man has one or more qualities which may make him ufeful both to himfelf and others: nature never fails of pointing them out, and while the infant continues under her guardianship, the brings him on in his way, and then offers herself for a guide in what remains, of the journey; if he proceeds in that courfe, he can hardly mifcarry nature makes good her engagements; for as she never promises what the is not able to perform, fo fhe never fails of performing what the promises. But the misfortune is, men defpife what they may be mafters of, and affect what they are not fit for; they reckon theinfelves already poffeffed of what their genius inclined them to, and fo bend all their ambition to excel in what is out of their reach. Thus they deftroy the use of their natural talents, in the fame manner as covetous men do their quiet and repofe; they can enjoy no fatisfaction in what they have, because of the abfurd inclination they are poffeffed with for what they have not. 1 Cleanthes had good fenfe, a great memory, and a conftitution capable of the clofeft application. In a word, there was no profeffion in which Cleanthes might not have made a very good figure; but this would not fatisfy him, he takes an unaccountable fondness for the character of a fine gentleman; all his thoughts are bent upon this: inftead of attending a diffection, frequenting the courts of justice, or ftudying the fathers, Cleanthes reads plays, dances, dreffes, and fpends his time in drawingrooms; inftead of being a good lawyer, divine, or phyfician, Cleanthes is a downright coxcomb, and will remain to all that know him a contemptible example of talents mifapplied. It is to this affectation the world owes its whole race of coxcombs: nature in her whole drama never drew fuch a part; fhe has fometimes made a fool, but a coxcomb is always of a man's own making, by applying his talents otherwife than nature defigned, who ever bears a high refentment for being put out of her course, and never fails of taking her revenge on those that do fo. Oppofing her tendency in the application of a man's parts, has the fame fuccefs as declining from her courfe in the production of vegetables; by the affiftance of art and an hot-bed, we may poffibly extort an unwilling plant, or an untimely fallad; but how weak, how tattelefs and infipid? Juft as infipid as the poetry of Valerio Valerio had an univerfal character, was genteel, had learning, thought juftly, fpoke correctly; it was believed there was nothing in which Valerio did not excel; and it was fo far true, that there was but one; Valerio had no genius for poetry, yet he is refolved to be a poet; he writes verfes, and takep great pains to convince the town, that Valerio is not that extraordinary perfon he was taken for. If men would be content to graft upon nature, and aflift her operations, what mighty effects might we expect? Tully would not ftand to much alone in oratory, Virgil in poetry, or Cæfar in war. To build upon nature, is laying the foundation upon a rock; every thing difpofes itself into order as it were of courfe, and the whole work is half done as foon as undertaken. Cicero's genius inclined him to oratory, Virgil's to follow the train of the Mufes; they pioufly obeyed the admonition, and were rewarded. Had Virgil attended the bar, his modeft and ingenuous virtue would furely have made but a very indifferent figure; and Tully's declamatory inclination would have been as useless in poetry. Nature, if left to herself, leads us on in the best courfe, but will do nothing by compulsion and constraint; and if we are not fatisfied to go her way, we are always the greatest fufferers by it. Wherever Nature defigns a production, fhe always difpofes feeds proper for it, which are as abfolutely neceffary to the formation of any moral or intellectual excellence, as they are to the being and growth of plants; and I know not by what fate and folly it is, that men are taught not to reckon him equally abfurd that will write verfes in spite of nature, with that gardener that should undertake to raise a jonquil or tulip without the help of their refpective feeds. As there is no good or bad quality that does not affect both fexes, fo it is not to be imagined but the fair fex must have fuffered by an affectation of this nature, at least as much as the other. The ill effect of it is in none fo confpicuous as in the two opposite characters of Celia and Iras: Celia has all the charms of perfon, together with an abundant fweetness of nature, but wants wit, and has a very ill voice; Iras is ugly and ungenteel, but has wit and good fenfe: if Cælia would be filent, her beholders won'd adore her; if Iras would talk, her hearers would admire her; but Cælia's tongue runs in'ceffantly; while Iras gives herself filent airs and foft languors, fo that it is difficult to perfuade one's felf that Calia has beauty, and Iras wit: each neglects her own excellence, and is ambitious of the other's character; Iras would be thought to have as much beauty as Cælia, and Cælia as much wit as Iras. The great misfortune of this affectation is, that men not only lofe a good quality, but also contract a bad one: they not only are unfit for what they were defigned, but they affign themfelves to what they are not fit for; and inttead of making a very good figure one way, make a very ridiculous one another. If Semanthe ་ 4 would have been fatisfied with her natural complexion, fhe might fill have been celebrated by the name of the olive beauty but Semanthe has taken up an affectation to white and red, and is now distinguished by the character of the lady that paints fo well. In a word, could the world be reformed to the obedience of that famed dictate, Follow Nature,' which the oracle of Delphos pronounced to Cicero when he confulted what courfe of ftudies he should purfue, we should see almost every man as eminent in his proper fphere as Tully was in his, and should in a very thort time find in pertinence and affectation banished from among the women, and coxcombs and falfe characters from among the men, For my part I could never confider this prepofterous repugnancy to nature any otherwife, than not only as the greateft folly, but alfo one of the moft heinous crimes, fince it is a direat oppofition to the difpofition of Providence, and (as Tully expreffes it) like the fin of the giants, an actual rebellion against heaven. N° 405. Saturday, June 14. I Οἱ δὲ πανημέριοι μολπῇ Θεὸν ἱλάσκοντο, Μέλπολες Εκάεργον· ὁ δε φρένα τέρπετ ̓ ἀκέων. 2. Hoм. Iliad. 1. v. 472. With hymns divine the joyous banquet ends; POPE. Am very forry to find, by the opera bills for this day, that we are likely to lofe the greatest performer in dramatic mufic that is now living, or that perhaps ever ap peared upon a ftage. I need not acquaint my reader, that I am fpeaking of fignior Nicolini. The town is highly obliged to that excellent artift, for having fhewn us the Italian music in its perfection, as well as for that generous approbation he lately gave to an opera of our own country, in which the composer endeavoured to do juftice to the beauty of the words, by following that noble example, which has been fet him by the greatest foreign mafters in that art. I could heartily with there was the fame application and endeavours to cultivate and improve our churchmufic, as have been lately beflowed on that of the ftage. Our compofers have one very great incitement to it: they are fure to meet with excellent words, and at, the fame time, a wonderful variety of them. There is no pallion that is not finely expreffed in those parts of the infpired writings, which are proper for divine fongs and anthems. 7. There is a certain coldness and indifference in the phrafes of our European languages, when they are compared with the oriental forms of fpeech; and it happens very luckily, that the Hebrew idioms run into the English tongue with a particular grace and beauty. Our language has received innumerabie elegancies and improvements, from that infufion of Hebraifms, which are derived to it out of the poetical paffages in holy wiit. They give a force and energy to our expreffion, warm and animate our language, and convey our thoughts in more ardent and intenfe phrafes, than that are to be any met with in our own tongue. There is fomething fo pathetic in this kind of diction, that it often fets the mind in a flame, and makes our hearts burn within us. How cold and dead does a prayer appear, that is compofed in the noft elegant and polite forms of fpeech, which are natural to our tongue, when it is not heightened by that folemnity of phrafe, which may be drawn from the facred writings? It has been faid by fome of the ancients, that if the gods were to talk with men, they would certainly fpeak in Plato's ftyle; but I think we may fay, with juftice, that when mortals converse with their Creator, they cannot do it in fo proper a style as in that of the holy fcriptures. If any one would judge of the beauties of poetry that are to be met with in the divine writings, and examine how kindly the Hebrew manners of fpeech mix and incorporate with the English language; after having |