nor fear

The bait of honied words; a rougher tongue Draws hitherward, I know him by his ftride, The giant Harapha

And yet more defpicable are the lines in which Manoah's paternal kindness is commended by the chorus.

Fathers are wont to lay up for their fons,
Thou for thy fon art bent to lay out all.➡

Samfon's complaint of the inconveniencies of imprifonment is not wholly without verbal quaintnefs.

-Ia prifoner chain'd, fcarce freely draw
The air, imprifon'd alfo, close and damp.

From the fentiments we may properly defcend to the confideration of the language, which, in imitation of the ancients, is through the whole dialogue remarkably fimple and unadorned, feldoin heightened by epithets, or varied by figures; yet fometimes metaphors find admiffion, even where their con

fiftency is not accurately preferved. Thus Samfon confounds loquacity with a fhipwreck.

How could I once look up, or heave the head,
Who, like a foolish pilot, have shipwreck'd
My eel trufted to me from above,

Gloriously rigg'd; and for a word, a tear,
Fool, have divulg'd the fecret gift of God
To a deceitful woman!-

And the chorus talks of adding fuel to flame in a report.

He's gone, and who knows how he may report Thy words, by adding fuel to the flame?

Since I have thus pointed out the faults of Milton, critical integrity requires that I fhould endeavour to dif play his excellencies, though they will not easily be difcovered in thort quotations, becaufe they confift in the juftnefs of diffuse reafonings, or in the contexture and method of continued dialogues; this play having none of these deferiptions, fimilies, or fplendid fentences, with which other tragedies are fo lavishly adorned.

Yet fome paffages may be selected which feem to deserve particular notice, either as containing fentiments of paffion, reprefentations of life, precepts of conduct, or fallies of imagination. It is not cafy to give a ftronger reprefen tation of the weariness of defpondency, than in the words of Samfon to his father.

-I feel my genial spirits droop, My hopes all flatz nature within me seems In all her functions weary of herfelf; My race of glory run, and race of fhame; And I fhall thortly be with them that reft.

Dalilah affords a juft and striking deThe reply of Samfon to the flattering fcription of the ftratagems and allurements of feminine hypocrify.

Thefe are thy wonted arts,
And arts of ev'ry woman falfe like thee,
To break all faith, all vows, deceive, betray,
Then as repentant to fubmit, befeech,
And reconcilement move with feign'd re.
morfe,

Confefs and promife wonders in her change;
Not truly penitent, but chief to try
Her husband, how far urg'd his patience bears,
His virtue or weakness which way to affail:
Then with more cautious and inftructed flzill
Again tranfgreffes, and again fubmits.

When Samfon has refufed to make himfelfa fpectacle at the feast of Dagon, he firft juftifics his behaviour to the chorus, who charge him with having fervved the Philiftines, by a very juft dift.nction; and then deftroys the common excufe of cowardice and fervility, which always confound temptation with conpulfion.

SIR,

O firft created beam, and thou great Word Let there be light, and light was over all; Why am I thus bereav'd thy prime decree? The fun to me is dark,

And filent as the moon

When the deferts the night,

Hid in her vacant interlunar cave.
Since light fo neceffary is to life,
And almoft life itfelf! if it be true,
That light is in the foul,

She all in ev'ry part; why was the fight
To fuch a tender ball as th' eye confin'd,
So obvious and fo cafy to be quench'd,
And not, as feeling, thro' all parts diffus'd,
That she may look at will thro' ev'ry pore.

Such are the faults and fuch the beauties of Samfon Agonistes, which I have fhewn with no other purpofe than to promote the knowledge of true criticism. The everlafting verdure of Milton's laurels has nothing to fear from the blasts of malignity; nor can my attempt produce any other effect, than to ftrengthen their fhoots by lopping their luxu riance.

TO THE RAMBLER.

OLITICIANS have long

STAT.

different employments of men, with the neutrality of inexperience; and we come forth from the nursery or the

often traced back to slender caufes. Pet. ty competition or cafual friendship, the prudence of a flave, or the garrulity of a woman, have hindered or promoted the moft important fchemes, and haftened or retarded the revolutions of empire.

Whoever shall review his life will generally find, that the whole tenor of his conduct has been determined by fome accident of no apparent moment, or by a combination of inconfiderable cir. cumftances, acting when his imagination was unoccupied, and his judgment unfettled; and that his principles and actions have taken their colour from fome fecret infufion, mingled without defign in the current of his ideas. The defires that predominate in cur hearts, are inftilled by imperceptible cominuications at the time when we look upon the various fcenes of the world, and the

fuit of great acquifitions, or petty ac complishments.

Such was the impulfe by which I have been kept in motion from my earliest years. I was born to an inheritance which gave my childhood a claim to diftinction and careffes, and was accuftomed to hear applaufes, before they had much influence on my thoughts. The first praife of which I remember myself fenfible, was that of good humour, which, whether I deferved it or not when it was beftowed, I have fince made it my whole business to propagate and maintain.

When I was fent to fchool, the gaiety of my look, and the liveliness of my loquacity, foon gained me admiffion to hearts not yet fortified against affection by artifice or intereft. I was entrusted with every ftratagem, and affociated in

every fport; my company gave alacrity to a frolick, and gladnefs to a holiday. I was indeed fo much employed in adjufting or executing schemes of diverfion, that I had no leifure for my tasks, but was furnished with exercifes, and inftructed in my leffons, by fome kind patron of the higher claffes. My maiter, not fufpecting my deficiency, or unwilling to detect what his kindnefs would not punish, nor his impartiality excufe, allowed me to efcape with a flight examination, laughed at the pertnefs of my ignorance, and the fprightlinefs of my abfurdities, and could not forbear to fhew that he regarded me with fuch tenderness, as genius and learning I can feldom excite.

From school I was difiniffed to the univerfity, where I foon drew upon me the notice of the younger ftudents, and was the conftant partner of their morning walks, and evening compotations. I was not indeed much celebrated for literature, but was looked on with indulgence as a man of parts, who wanted nothing but the dulnefs of a fcholar, and might become eminent whenever he fhould condefcend to labour and attention. My tutor a while reproached me with negligence; and repreffed my fallies with fupercilious gravity; yet having natural good-humour lurking in his heart, he could not long hold out against the power of hilarity, but after a few months began to relax the mufcles of difciplinarian morofenefs, received me with miles after an elope. ment, and, that he might not betray his truft to his fondnefs, was content to fpare my diligence by increafing his

own.

Thus I continued to diffipate the gloom of collegiate aufterity, to wafte my own life in idlenefs, and lure others from their ftudies, till the happy hour arrived, when I was fent to London. I foon discovered the town to be the proper element of youth and gaiety, and was quickly diftinguifhed as a wit by the ladies, a fpecies of beings only heard of at the university, whom I had no fooner the happiness of approaching than I devoted all my faculties to the ambition of pleafing them.

A wit, Mr. Rambler, in the dialect of ladies, is not always a man who, by the action of a vigorous fancy upon comprehenfive knowledge, brings dif

tant ideas unexpectedly together, who by fome peculiar acutenefs difcovers refemblance in objects diffimilar to common eyes, or by mixing heterogeneous notions, dazzles the attention with fudden fcintillations of conceit. A lady's wit is a man who can make ladies laugh, to which, however eafy it may feem, many gifts of nature, and attainments of art, must commonly occur. He that hopes to be conceived as a wit in female affemblies, fhould have a form neither fo amiable as to strike with admiration, nor fo coarfe as to raise difguft, with an understanding too feeble to be dreaded, and too forcible to be defpifed. The other parts of the character are more fubject to variation; it was formerly effential to a wit, that half his back fhould be covered with a fnowy fleece, and at a time yet more remote no man was a wit without his boots. In the days of the Spectator a fnuff-box feems to have been indifpenfible; but in my time an embroidered coat was fufficient, without any precife regulation of the reft of his drefs.

But wigs and boots and fnuff-boxes are vain without a perpetual refolution to be merry; and who can always find fupplies of mirth! Juvenal, indeed, in his comparifon of the two oppofite philofophers, wonders only whence an unexhaufted fountain of tears could be difcharged: but had Juvenal, with all his fpirit, undertaken my province, he would have found conftant gaiety equally difficult to be fupported. Confider, Mr. Rambler, and compaffionate the condition of a man, who has taught every company to expect from him a continual feat of laughter, an unintermitted fream of jocularity. The talk of every other flave has an end. The rower in time reaches the port; the lexicographer at laft finds the conclufion of his alphabet; only the hapless wit has his labour always to begin, the call for novelty is never fatisfied, and one jest only raises expectation of another.

I know that, among men of learning and afperity, the retainers to the female world are not much regarded; yet I cannot but hope that if you knew at how dear a rate our honours are purchased, you would look with fome gratulation on our fuccefs, and with fome pity on our miscarriages. Think on the mifery of him who is condemned to culti

vate

vate barrenness and ranfack vacuity; who is obliged to continue his talk when his meaning is spent, to raise merriment without images, to harafs his imagination in queft of thoughts which he can not ftart, and his memory in purfuit of narratives which he cannot overtake; obferve the effort with which he strains to conceal defpondency by a fmile, and the diftrefs in which he fits while the eyes of the company are fixed upon him as their laft refuge from filence and dejec

tion.

It were endless to recount the fhifts to which I have been reduced, or to enumerate the different fpecies of artificial wit. I regularly frequented coffee-houses, and have often lived a week upon an expreffion, of which he who dropped it did not know the value. When fortune did not favour my erratick industry, I gleaned jefts at home from obfolete farces. To collect wit was indeed fafe, for I conforted with none that looked much into books; but to difperfe it was the difficulty. A feeming negligence was often ufeful, and I have very fuccessfully made a reply not to what the lady had faid, but to what it was convenient for me to hear; for very few were fo perverfe as to rectify a mistake which had

given occafion to a burst of merriment. Sometimes I drew the conversation up by degrees to a proper point, and produced a conceit which I had treasured up, like sportsmen who boast of killing the foxes which they lodge in the covert. Eminence is however in fome happy mo ments gained at lefs expence; I have delighted a whole circle at one time with a series of quibbles, and made myself good company at another, by fcalding my fingers, or mistaking a lady's lap for my own chair.

These are artful deceits and useful expedients; but expedients are at length exhaufted, and deceits detected. Time itfelf, among other injuries, diminishes the power of pleafing, and I now find in my forty-fifth year many pranks and pleafantries very coldly received, which had formerly filled a whole room with jollity and acclamation. I am under the melancholy neceffity of fupporting that character by ftudy, which I gained by levity, having learned too late that gaiety muft be recommended by higher qualities, and that mirth can never please long but as the efflorescence of a mind loved for it's luxuriance, but esteemed for it's ufefulness. I am, &c.

PAPILIUS.

GIRS

HOMER.

TO THE RAMBLER.

AVING been accustomed to re

we examined every wild mountain ant medicinal fpring, criticifed every edifice, contemplated every ruin, and compared every scene with the narratives

lately accepted the invitation of Eugedio, who has an estate and seat in a diftant county. As we were unwilling to travel without improvement, we turned often from the direct road to please ourfelves with the view of nature or of art;

amufements we enjoyed the exercife of a journey without fuffering the fatigue, and had nothing to regret but that, by a progrefs fo leifurely and gentle, we miffed the adventures of a poft-chaife, and the pleasure of alarming villages with the

tumult

tumult of our paffage, and of difguifing our infignificancy by the dignity of hurry.

The first week after our arrival at Eugenio's houfe was paffed in receiving vifits from his neighbours, who crowded about him with all the eagerness of benevolence; fome impatient to learn the news of the court and town, that they might be qualified by authentick information to dictate to the rural politicians on the next bowling day; others defirous of his intereft to accommodate difputes, or of his advice to the fettlement of their fortunes and the marriage of their children.

The civilities which he had received were foon to be returned; and I paffed fome time with great fatisfaction in roving through the country, and viewing the feats, gardens, and plantations, which are fcattered over it. My pleasure would indeed have been greater had I been fometimes allowed to wander in a park or wilderness alone, but to appear as the friend of Eugenio was an honour not to be enjoyed without fome inconveniencies; fo much was every one folicitous for my regard, that I could feldom efcape to folitude, or fteal a moment from the emulation of complaifance, and the vigilance of officioufnefs.

In these rambles of good neighbourhood, we frequently paffed by a houfe of unufual magnificence. While I had my curiofity yet diftracted among many novelties, it did not much attract my obfervation; but in a fhort time I could not forbear furveying it with particular notice; for the length of the wall which inclofed the gardens, the difpofition of the fhades that waved over it, and the canals, of which I could obtain some glimpses through the trees from our own windows, gave me reafon to expect more grandeur and beauty than I had yet feen in that province. I therefore enquired, as we rode by it, why we never, amongst our excurfions, ípent an hour where there was fuch an appearance of fplendor and affluence. Eugenio told me that the feat which I fo much admired, was commonly called in the country the baunted boufe, and that no vifits were paid there by any of the gentlemen whom I had yet feen. As the haunts of incorporeal beings are generally ruinous, neglected, and defolate, I easily conceived that there was fomething to be explained, and told him that I fuppofed it only

fairy ground, on which we might venture by day-light without danger. ← The danger,' says he, is indeed only that of appearing to folicit the acquaintance of a man, with whom it is not poffible to converfe without infamy, and who has driven from him, by his infolence or malignity, every human being who can live without him.'

Our converfation was then acciden

tally interrupted; but my inquifitive humour being now in motion, could not reft without a full account of this newly difcovered prodigy. I was foon informed that the fine house and fpacious gardens were haunted by Squire Blufter, of whom it was very easy to learn the character, fince nobody had regard for him fufficient to hinder them from telling whatever they could discover.

Squire Blufter is defcended of an ancient family. The eftate which his ancestors had immemorially poffeffed was much augmented by Captain Blufter, who ferved under Drake in the reign of Elizabeth; and the Blufters, who were before only petty gentlemen, have from that time frequently reprefented the fhire in parliament, been chofen to present addreffes, and given laws at huntingmatches and races. They were eminently hofpitable and popular, till the father of this gentleman died of an election. His lady went to the grave foon after him, and left the heir, then only ten years old, to the care of his grandmother, who would not fuffer him to be controlled, because the could not bear to hear him cry; and never fent him to fchool, becaufe fhe was not able to live without his company. She taught him however very early to inspect the steward's accounts, to dog the butler from the cellar, and to catch the fervants at a junket; fo that he was at the age of eighteen a complete mafter of all the lower arts of domeftick policy, had often on the road detected combinations between the coachman and the oftler, and procured the difcharge of nineteen maids for illicit correfpondence with cottagers and chair-women.

By the opportunities of parfimony which minority affords, and which the probity of his guardians had diligently improved, a very large fum of money was accumulated, and he found himfelf, when he took his affairs into his own hands, the richest man in the county. It has been long the cuftom of this Siz family