poetry. In like manner, almost all the fictions of the last age will vanifh, if you deprive them of a hermit and a wood, a battle and a fhipwreck.

Why this wild train of imagination found reception fo long, in polite and learned ages, it is not eafy to conceive; but we cannot wonder that while readers could be procured, the authors were willing to continue it; for when a man had by practice gained fome fluency of Janguage, he had no further care than to retire to his clofet, let loofe his invention, and heat his mind with incredibilities: a book was thus produced: without fear of criticifm, without the foil of ftudy, without knowledge of nature, or acquaintance with life.

The task of our prefent writers is very different; it requires, together with that learning which is to be gained from books, that experience which can never be attained by folitary diligence, but must arise from general converse and accurate obfervation of the living world. Their performances have, as Horace expreffes it Plus oneris quantum venie minus-little indulgence, and there⚫fore more difficulty. They are engaged in portraits of which every one knows the original, and can detect any deviation from exactness of refemblance. Other writings are fafe, except from the malice of learning; but these are in danger from every common reader: as the flipper i executed was cenfured by a fhoemaker who happened to ftop in his way at the Venus of Apelles.

But the fear of not being approved as juft copiers of human manners, is not the most important concern that an author of this fort ought to have before him. Thefe books are written chiefly to the young, the ignorant, and the idle, to whom they ferve as lectures of conduct, and introductions into life. They are the entertainment of minds unfurnified with ideas, and therefore easily fufceptible of impreffions; not fixed by principles, and therefore cafily following the current of fancy; not informed by experience, and confequently open to every falfe fuggeftion and partial ac

count.

That the highest degree of reverence fhould be paid to youth, and that nothing indecent fhould be fuffered to approach their eyes or ears, are precepts extorted by fenfe and virtue from an ancient writer by no means eminent for

chastity of thought. The fame kind, though not the faine degree of caution, is required in every thing which is laid before them, to fecure them from unjust prejudices, perverfe opinions, and incongruous combinations of images.

In the romances formerly written, every tranfaction and fentiment was fo remote from all that paffes among men, that the reader was in very little danger of making any applications to himself; the virtues and crimes were equally beyond his fphere of activity; and he amufed himself with heroes and with traitors, deliverers and perfecutors, as with beings of another fpecies, whofe actions were regulated upon motives of their own, and who had neither faults nor excellences in common with himfelf.

But when an adventurer is levelled with the rett of the world, and acts in fuch fcenes of the univerfal drama as may be the lot of any other man, young fpectators fix their eyes upon him with clofer attention, and hope, by obferving his behaviour and fuccefs, to regulate their own practices when they shall be engaged in the like part.

For this reafon thefe familiar histories. may perhaps be made of greater use than the folemnities of profefted morality, and convey the knowledge of vice and virtue with more efficacy than axioms and definitions. But if the power of example is fo great as to take poffeffion of the memory by a kind of violence, and produce effects almost without the intervention of the will, care ought to be taken that, when the choice is unreftrained, the best examples only fhould be exhibited; and that which is likely to operate fo ftrongly, fhould not be mifchievous or uncertain in it's effects.

The chief advantage which these fictions have overreal life is, that their authors are at liberty, though not to invent, yet to select objects, and to culk from the mafs of mankind thofe individuals upon which the attention ought moft to be employed; as a diamond, though it cannot be made, may be polifhed by art, and placed in fuch a fituation as to difplay that luftre which before was buried among common ftones.

It is justly confidered as the greatest excellency of art, to imitate nature; but it is neceffary to diftinguifh thofe parts of nature which are moft proper for imitation: greater care is ftill required in re

pre

prefenting life, which is fo often difcoloured by paffion, or deformed by wickedness. If the world be promifcuously defcribed, I cannot fee of what ufe it can be to read the account; or why it may not be as fafe to turn the eye immediately upon mankind as upon a mirror, which fhews all that prefents itfelf without difcrimination.

It is therefore not a fufficient vindication of a character, that it is drawn as it appears, for many characters ought never to be drawn; nor of a narrative, that the train of events is agreeable to obfervation and experience, for that obfervation which is called knowledge of the world will be found much more frequently to make men cunning than good. The purpose of thefe writings is furely not only to fhew mankind, but to provide that they may be feen hereafter with lefs hazard; to teach the means of avoiding the fnares which are laid by Treachery for Innocence, without infufing any with for that fuperiority with which the betrayer flatters his vanity; to give the power of counteracting fraud, without the temptation to practife it; to initiate youth by mock encounters in the art of neceffary defence, and to increase prudence without impairing virtue.

Many writers, for the fake of following nature, fo mingle good and bad qualities in their principal perfonages, that they are both equally confpicuous; and as we accompany them through their adventures with delight, and are led by degrees to intereft ourselves in their favour, we lofe the abhorrence of their Faults, because they do not hinder our pleafure, or perhaps regard them with fome kindness for being united with fo much merit.

There have been men, indeed, fplendidly wicked, whofe endowments threw a brightness on their crimes, and whom fearce any villainy made perfectly deteftable, because they never could be wholly divefted of their excellences: but fuch have been in all ages the great corrupters of the world; and their refemblance ought no more to be preferved, than the art of murdering without pain.

Some have advanced, without due attention to the confequences of this notion, that certain virtues have their correfpondent faults; and, therefore, that to exhibit either apart is to deviate from probability. Thus men are obferved by

Swift to be grateful in the fame degree as they are refentful.' This principle, with others of the fame kind, fuppofes man to act from a brute impulie, and purfue a certain degree of inclination, without any choice of the object; for, otherwife, though it fhould be allowed that gratitude and refentment arife from the fame conflitution of the paffions, it follows not that they will be equally indulged when reafon is confulted; yet unlefs that confequence be admitted, this fagacious maxim becomes an empty found, without any relation to practice or to life.

Nor is it evident, that even the first motions to these effects are always in the fame proportion. For pride, which produces quickness of refentment, will obftruct gratitude, by unwillingness to admit that inferiority which obligation implies; and it is very unlikely that he who cannot think he receives a favour, will acknowledge or repay it.

It is of the utmost importance to mankind, that pofitions of this tendency fhould be laid open and confuted; for while men confider good and evil as fpringing from the fame root, they will fpare the one for the fake of the other; and, in judging, if not of others, at least of themfelves, will be apt to estimate their virtues by their vices. To this fatal error all thofe will contribute who confound the colours of right and wrong; and, instead of helping to fettle their boundaries, mix them with fo much art, that no common mind is able to disunite them.

In narratives, where historical veracity has no place, I cannot difcover why there should not be exhibited the most perfect idea of virtue; of virtue not angelical, nor above probability, for what we cannot credit we shall never imitate, but the highest and pureft that humanity can reach, which, exercifed in fuch trials as the various revolutions of things fhall bring upon it, may, by conquering fome calamities, and enduring others, teach us what we may hope, and what we can perform. Vice, for vice is neceflary to be fhewn, fhould always difguft; nor fhould the graces of gaiety, or the dignity of courage, be fo united with it as to reconcile it to the mind. Where

ever it appears, it should raise hatred by the malignity of it's practices, and contempt by the meannefs of it's stratagems; for while it is fupported by either parts

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as to be vacant to calm amufements, almat every thing that our prefent ftate makes us capable of enjoying. The varegated verdure of the fields and woods, the fucceffion of grateful odours, the voice of pleafure pouring out it's notes on every fide, with the gladnefs apparently conceived by every animal, from the growth of his food, and the clemency of the weather, throw over the whole earth an air of gaiety, fignificantly expreffed by the mile of nature.

Yet there are men to whom these scones are able to give no delight, and who hurry away from all the varieties of rural beauty, to lose their hours and divert their thoughts by cards or allemblies, a tavern dinner, or the prattle of the day.

It may be laid down as a position which will feldom deceive, that when a man cannot bear his own company there is fonething wrong. He muit fly from himself, either because he feels a tedioufnet's in life from the equipoife of an empty mind, which, having no tendency to ene motion more than another but as it is impelled by fome external power, muft always have recourfe to foreign objects; or he must be afraid of the intrusion of fone unpleafing ideas, and perhaps is fruggling to elcape from the remembrance of a lofs, the fear of a calamity, or fome other thought of greater horror. Thofe whom forrow incapacitates to enjoy the pleasures of contemplation, may properly apply to fuch diverfions, provided they are innocent, as lay ftrong bold on the attention; and thofe whom fear of any future affliction chains down to misery must endeavour to obviate the danger.

My confiderations fhall, on this occation, be turned on fuch as are burdenfome to themselves merely because they want fubjects for reflection, and to whom the volume of nature is thrown open without affording them pleafure or inftruction, because they never learned to read the characters.

A French author has advanced this ferming paradox-that very few men know how to take a walk; and, indeed, it is true, that few know how to take a walk with a profpect of any other pleasure than the fame company would have afforded them at home.

There are animals that borrow their colour from the neighbouring body, and confequently vary their hue as they hap

pen to change their place. In like manner it ought to be the endeavour of every man to derive his reflections from the objects about him; for it is to no purpofe that he alters his pofition, if his attention continues fixed to the fame point. The mind fhould be kept open to the accefs of every new idea, and fo far difengaged from the predominance of particular thoughts as easily to accommodate itfelf to occafional entertainment.

A man that has formed this habit of turning every new object to his entertainment, finds in the productions of nature an inexhaustible stock of materials upon which he can employ himself without any temptations to envy or malevolence; faults, perhaps, feldom totally avoided by thofe whofe judgment is much exercifed upon the works of art. He has always a certain profpect of difcovering new reafons for adoring the fovereign Author of the univerfe, and probable hopes of making fome difcovery of benefit to others, or of profit to himfelf. There is no doubt but many vegetables and animals have qualities that might be of great ufe, to the knowledge of which there is not required much force of penetration, or fatigue of ftudy, but only frequent experiments and clofe attention. What is faid by the chymists of their darling mercury, is perhaps true of every body through the whole creation, that if a thousand lives fhould be spent upon it, all it's properties would not be found out.

Mankind muft neceffarily be diverűfied by various taites, fince life affords and requires fuch multiplicity of employments; and a nation of naturalifts is neither to be hoped nor defired: but it is furely not improper to point out a fresh amufement to those who languish in health, and repine in plenty, for want of fome fource of diverfion that may be lefs easily exhaufled, and to inform the multitudes of both fexes, who are burdened with every new day, that there are many thews which they have not feen.

He that cnlarges his curiofity after the works of nature, demonstrably multiplies the inlets to happiness; and therefore the younger part of my readers, to whom I dedicate this vernal fpeculation, must excufe me for calling upon them, to make ufe at once of the spring of the year, and the fpring of life; to acquire, while their minds may be yet impreffed with new images, a love of innocent plea

fures,

fures, and an ardour for ufeful knowledge; and to remember, that a blighted Spring makes a barren year, and that the

vernal flowers, however beautiful and gay, are only intended by nature as preparatives to autumnal fruits.

HOR.

HAT man fhould never fuffer his

circumftances, is one of the chief precepts of the Stoical philofophy; a precept, indeed, which that lofty fect has extended beyond the condition of human life, and in which some of them feem to have comprited an utter exclufion of all corporal pain and pleature from the regard or attention of a wife man.

Such fapientia infaniens, as Horace calls the doctrine of another fect, fuch extravagance of philofophy, can want neither authority nor argument for it's confutation: it is overthrown by the experience of every hour, and the powers of nature rife up against it. But we may very properly enquire, how near to this exalted itate it is in our power to approach, how far we can exempt ourfelves from outward influences, and fecure to our minds a state of tranquillity: for though the boaft of abfolute independence is ridiculous and vain, yet a mean flexibility to every impulfe, and a patient fubmiflion to the tyranny of cafual troubles, is below the dignity of that mind which, however depraved or weakened, boafts it's derivation from a celestial original, and hopes for an union with infinite goodness and unvariable felicity.

Ni vitiis pejora fovens
Proprium deferat ortum.
Unless the foul, to vice a thrall,
Defert her own original.

The neceffity of erecting ourselves to fome degree of intellectual dignity, and of preferving refources of pleafure which may not be wholly at the mercy of accident, is never more apparent than when we turn our eyes upon those whom for

ELPHINSTON.

tune has let loofe to their own conduct who, not being chained down by their condition to a regular and stated allotment of their hours, are obliged to find themfelves bufinefs or diverfion; and, having nothing within that can entertain or employ them, are compelled to try all the arts of destroying time.

The numberlefs expedients practifed by this clafs of mortals to alleviate the burden of life, is not less shameful, nor perhaps much less pitiable, than those to which a trader on the edge of bankruptcy is reduced. I have feen melancholy overfpread a whole family at the difappointment of a party for cards; and when, after the propofal of a thoufand fchemes, and the dispatch of the footmen upon a hundred meffages, they have fubmitted, with gloomy refignation, to the misfortune of paffing one evening in converiation with each other, on a sudden, fuch are the revolutions of the world, an unexpected vifitor has brought them relief, acceptable as provifion to a starving city, and enabled them to hold out till the next day.

The general remedy of those who are uneafy without knowing the caufe, is change of place; they are willing to imagine that their pain is the confequence of fome local inconvenience, and endeavour to fly from it, as children from their fhadows; always hoping for fome more fatisfactory delight from every new fcene, and always returning home with difappointment and complaints.

Who can look upon this kind of infatuation, without reflecting on thofe that fuffer under the dreadful fymptom of canine madness, termed by physicians the dread of avater? Thefe miferable wretches, unable to drink, though burn