faction. We all rofe, and walked through the inclotures for fome time, with no other trouble than the neceffity of watching left a frog fhould hop across the way, which Anthea told us would certainly kill her, if the fhould happen to fee him. Frogs, as it fell out, there were none; but when we were within a furlong of the gardens, Anthea faw fome theep, and heard the wether clink his bell, which fhe was certain was not hung upon him for nothing, and therefore no affurances nor intreaties fhould prevail upon her to to a tep farther; the was forry to dif appoift the company, but her life was dearer to her than ceremony.

We came back to the inn; and Anthea now discovered that there was no time to be loft in returning, for the night would come upon us, and a thousand misfortunes might happen in the dark. The horfes were immediately harneffed; and Anthea, having wondered what could feduce her to ftay fo long, was eager to

SIR,

A

fet out. But we had now a new fcene of terrour; every man we faw was a robber, and we were ordered sometimes to drive hard, left a traveller whom we saw behind fhould overtake us; and fometimes to ftop, left we should come up to him who was paffing before us. She alarmed many an honeft man, by begging him to ipare her life as he paffed by the coach, and drew me into fifteen quarrels with perfons who encreafed her fright, by kindly ftopping to enquire whether they could affift us. At laft we came home; and he told her company next day what a pleasant ride she had been taking.

I fuppofe, Sir, I need not enquire of you what deductions may be made from this narrative, nor what happiness can arife from the fociety of that woman who miftakes cowardice for elegance, and imagines all delicacy to confift in refusing to be pleated.

I am, &c.

TO THE RAMBLER.

S you have hitherto delayed the performance of the promife, by which you gave us reafon to hope for another paper upon Matrimony, I imagine you defirous of collecting more materials than your own experience, or obfervation, can fupply; and I fhall therefore lay candidly before you an account of my own entrance into the conjugal ftate.

I was about eight and twenty years old, when, having tried the diverlions of the towntill I began to be weary, and being awakened into attention to more ferious bufirefs by the failure of an attorney to whom I had implicitly trusted the conduct of my fortune, I refolved to take my eflate into my own care, and methodife my whole life according to the tr.ctcft rules of economical prudence.

In purfuance of this cheme, I took leave of my acquaintance, who diliniffed

OVID.

ELPHINSTON.

me with numberless jefts upon my new fyftem; having firft endeavoured to divert me from a defign fo little worthy of a man of wit, by ridiculous accounts of the ignorance and rufticity into which many had funk in their retirement, after having diftinguished themselves in taverns and playhouses, and given hopes of rifing to uncommon eminence among the gay part of mankind.

When I came firft into the country, which, by a neglect not uncommon among young heirs, I had never seen fince the death of my father, I found every thing in fuch confufion, that being utterly without practice in bufinefs, I had great difficulties to encounter in difentangling the perplexities of my circumstances; they however gave way to diligent application, and I perceived that the advantage of keeping my own accounts would very much overbalance the time which they could require.

I had now vifited my tenants, furvey. ed my land, and repaired the old houfe,

which for fome years had been running to decay. Thele proofs of pecuniary wifdom began to recommend me, as a fober, judicious, thriving gentleman, to all my graver neighbours of the country, who never failed to celebrate my management in oppofition to Thriftlefs and Latterwit, two finart fellows, who had eftates in the fame part of the kingdom, which they vifited now and then in a frolick, to take up their rents beforehand, debauch a milk-maid, make a feat for the village, and tell ftories of their own intrigues, and then rode poft back to town to fpend their money.

It was doubtful however for fome time, whether I should be able to hold my resolution; but a fhort perfeverance removed all fufpicions. I rofe every day in reputation by the decency of my converfation, and the regularity of my conduct, and was mentioned with great regard at the affizes, as a man very fit to be put in commiffion for the peace.

During the confufion of my affairs, and the daily neceflity of vifiting farms, adjusting contracts, letting leafes, and fuperintending repairs, I found very little vacuity in my life, and therefore had not many thoughts of marriage; but in a little while the tumult of bufinefs fubfided, and the exact method which I had established enabled me to difpatch my accounts with great facility. I had therefore now upon my hands the talk of finding means to fpend my time, without falling back into the poor amufements which I had hitherto indulged, or changing them for the fports of the field, which I faw purfued with fo much eagernels by the gentlemen of the country, that they were indeed the only pleafures in which I could promife myself any partaker.

The inconvenience of this fituation naturally difpofed me to with for a companion; and the known value of my eftate, with my reputation for frugality and prudence, cafily gained me admiffion into every family; for I foon found that no enquiry was made after any other virtue, nor any teftimonial neceffary, but of my freedom from incumbrances, and my care of what they termed the main chance. I faw, not without indigna tion, the eagerness with which the daughters, wherever I came, were fet out to fhow; nor could I confider them in a ftate much different from proftitution, when I found them ordered to play their

airs before me, and to exhibit, by fome feeming chance, fpecimens of their mu fick, their work, or their housewifery. No fooner was I placed at table, than the young lady was called upon to pay me fome civility or other; nor could I find means of escaping, from either father or mother, fo:ne account of their daughters excellences, with a declaration that they were now leaving the world, and had no bufinefs on this fide the grave, but to fee their children happily difpofed of; that the whom I had been pleased to compliment at table was indeed the chief plefure of their age, fo good, fo dutiful, fo great a relief to her mamina in the care of the houfe, and fo much her papa's favourite for her chearfulnets and wit, that it would be with the last reluctance that they should part; but to a worthy gentleman in the neighbourhood, whom they might often vifit, they would not fo far confult their own gratification as to refufe her; and their tenderness should be fhewn in her fortune, whenever a fuitable fttlement was propofed.

As I knew these overtures not to proceed from any preference of me, before another equally rich, I could not but look with pity on young perfons condemned to be fet to auction, and made cheap by injudicious commendations; for how could they know themselves of fered and rejected a hundred times, without fome lots of that foft elevation, and maiden dignity, fo neceffary to the completion of female excellence?

I shall not trouble you with a hiftory of the ftratagems practifed upon my judg ment, or the allurements tried upon my heart; which, if you have, in any part of your life, been acquainted with rural politicks, you will eafily conceive. Their arts have no great variety; they think nothing worth their care but money; and, fuppofing it's influence the fame upon all the world, feldom endeavour to deceive by any other means than falle computations.

I will not deny that, by hearing myfelf loudly commended for my difcretion, I began to fet fome value upon my character, and was unwilling to lote my credit by marrying for love. I therefore refolved to know the fortune of the lady whom I fhould addrefs, before I enquired after her wit, delicacy, or beauty.

This determination led me to Mitifla, the daughter of Chryfophilus, whofe perfon was at leaft withou deformity, and L 2

whate

whofe manners were free from reproach, as fhe had been bred up at a diftance from all common temptations. To Mitiffa, therefore, I obtained leave from her parents to pay my court, and was reterred by her again to her father, whofe direction the was refolved to follow. The queftion then was, only, what thould be fettled. The old gentleman made an enormous demand, with which I refufed to comply. Mitiffa was ordered to exert her power; the told me, that if I could refule her papa, I had no love for her; that he was an unhappy creature, and that I was a perfidious man; then the burst into tears, and fell into fits. All this, as I was no paflionate lover, had little effect. She next refufed to fee me; and because I thought myfelf obliged to write in terms of diftrefs, they had once hopes of ftarving me into meafures; but firding me inflexible, the father complied with my propofal, and told me he liked me the more for being fo good at a bargain.

I was now married to Mitiffa,and was to experience the happiness of a match made without paffion. Mitiffa foon difcovered that he was equally prudent with myfelf, and had taken a husband only to be at her own command, and to have a chariot at her own call. She brought with her an old maid recommended by her mother, who taught her all the arts of domeftick management; and was, on every occafion, her chief agent and directrefs. They foon invented one reafon or other to quarrel with all my fervants, and either prevailed on me to turn

them away, or treated them so ill, that they left me of theinfelves, and always fupplied their places with fome brought from my wife's relations. Thus they eltablished a family, over which I had no authority, and which was in a perpetual conipiracy against me; for Mitifa confidered herself as having a feparate intereft, and thought nothing her own but what the laid up without my knowledge. For this reafon the brought me falle accounts of the expences of the houfe, joined with my tenants in complaints of hard times, and, by means of a fteward of her own, took rewards for foliciting abatements of the rent. Her great hope is to outlive me, that the may enjoy what the hath thus accumulated, and therefore fhe is always contriving fome improvements of her jointure-land; and once tried to procuré an injunction to hinder me from felling timber upon it for repairs. Her father and mother affift her in her projects; and are frequently hinting that he is ill ufed, and reproaching me with the presents that other ladies receive from their husbands.

my

years, till at laft my patience was exSuch, Sir, was my fituation for feven haufted; and having one day invited her father to my houfe, I laid the state of my affairs before him, detected in feveral of her frauds, turned out her wife maid, took my business in my own hands, reduced her to a fettled allowance, and now write this account to warn others against marrying those whom they have no reason to esteem.

I am, &c.

ment; where every gale whifpers pleafure, and every fhade promises repofe. It has been maintained by fome, who love to talk of what they do not know, that paftoral is the most ancient poetry; and, indeed, fince it is probable that poetry is nearly of the fame antiquity with rational nature, and since the life of the first man was certainly rural, we may reasonably conjecture, that, as their ideas would neceffarily be borrowed from thofe objects with which they were acquainted, their compofures, being filled chiefly with fuch thoughts on the vifible creation as muft occur to the firit obfervers, were paftoral hymns, like thofe which Milton introduces the original pair finging, in the day of innocence, to the praife of their Maker.

For the fame reason that Paftoral poetry was the first employment of the human imagination, it is generally the firft literary amufement of our minds. We have feen fields, and meadows, and groves, from the time that our eyes opened upon life; and are pleafed with birds, and brooks, and breezes, much earlier than we engage among the actions and paffions of mankind. We are therefore delighted with rural pictures, because we know the original at an age when our curiofity can be very little awakened by defcriptions of courts which we never beheld, or reprefentations of paffions which we never felt.

The fatisfaction received from this kind of writing not only begins early, but lafts long; we do not, as we advance into the intellectual world, throw it away among other childish amufements and pastimes, but willingly return to it in any hour of indolence and relaxation. The images of true paftoral have always the power of exciting delight, becaufe the works of nature, from which they are drawn, have always the fame order and beauty, and continue to force themfelves upon our thoughts, being at once obvious to the most careless regard, and more than adequate to the ftrongest reafon, and fevereft contemplation. Our inclination to ftillness and tranquillity is feldom much leffened by long knowledge of the bufy and tumultuary part of the world. In childhood we turn our thoughts to the country, as to the region of pleafure; we recur to it in old age as a port of reft, and perhaps with that fecondary and adventitious gladnefs, which every man feels on reviewing thofe places,

or recollecting thofe occurrences, that contributed to his youthful enjoyments, and bring him back to the prime of life, when the world was gay with the bloom of novelty, when mirth wantoned at his fide, and hope fparkled before him.

The fenfe of this univerfal pleasure has invited numbers without number to try their kill in paftoral performances, in which they have generally fucceeded after the manner of other imitators, tranfmitting the fame images in the fame combination from one to another, till he that reads the title of a poem may guels at the whole feries of the composition; nor will a man, after the perufal of thonfands of thefe performances, find his knowledge enlarged with a fingle view of nature not produced before, or his imagination amufed with any new application of those views to moral purpofes.

The range of paftoral is indeed narrow; for though nature itself, philofo-. phically confi lered, be inexhauftible, yet it's general effects on the eye and on the ear are uniform, and incapable of much variety of defcription. Poetry cannot dwell upon the minuter diftinctions, by which one fpecies differs from another, without departing frein that fimplicity of grandeur which fills the imagination; nor diffect the latent qualities of things, without lofing it's general power of gratifying every mind by recalling it's conceptions. However, as each age makes fome difcoveries, and thofe difcoveries are by degrees generally known, as new plants or modes of culture are introduced, and by little and little become common, paftoral might receive, from time to time, fmall augmentations, and exhibit once in a century a fcene fomewhat varied.

But paftoral fubjects have been often, like others, taken into the hands of thofe that were not qualified to adorn them; men to whom the face of nature was fo little known, that they have drawn it only after their own imagination, and changed or distorted her features, that their portraits might appear fomething more than fervile copics from their predeceffors.

Not only the images of rural life, but the occafions on which they can be properly produced, are few and general. The state of a man confined to the employments and pleatures of the country, is fo little diverfified, and expofed to fo

few

few of thofe accidents which produce perplexities, terrours, and furprises, in more complicated tranfictions, that he can be fewn but feldom in fuch circumstances as attract curiofity. His ambition is without policy, and his love without intrigue. He has no complaints to make of his rival, but that he is richer than himself; nor any difafters to lament, but a cruel miftreís, or a bad harvelt.

The conviction of the neceffity of fome new fource of pleature induced Sannazarius to remove the fcene from the fields to the fea, to fubftitute fishermen for inepherds, and derive his fentiments from the picatory life; for which he has been cenfured by fucceeding criticks, because the fea is an object of terror, and by no means proper to amufe the mind and lay the paffions aficep. Against this objection he might be defen fed by the established maxim, that the poet has a right to felect his images, and is no anore obliged to fhew the fea in a storm, than the land under an inundation; but may difplay all the pleatures, and conceal the dangers of the water, as it may Lay his fhepherd under a fhady beech, without giving him an agus, or letting a wil! beaft loote upon him.

There are, however, two defects in the pifcatory eclogue, which perhaps cannot be fupplied. The fa, though in hot countries it is confidered by thofe who live like Sannazarius, upon the coaft, as a place of pleafure and diverfion, has notwithstanding much leis variety than the land, and therefore will be fooner exhausted by a defcriptive writer. When he hath once fhewn the fun rifing or fetting upon it, curled it's waters with the vernal breeze, rolled the waves in gentle fucceffion to the fhore, and enumerated the fifh sporting in the shallows,

IN

he has nothing remaining but what is common to all other poetry, the complaint of a nymph for a drowned lover, or the indignation of a fisher that his oyfters are refuted, and Mycon's accepted. Another obitacle to the general reception of this kind of poetry, is the ignorance of maritime pleatures, in which the greater part of mankind must always live. To all the inland inhabitants of every region, the fea is only known as an immenfe diffufion of waters, over which men pafs from one country to another, and in which life is frequently loft. They have, therefore, no opportunity of tracing in their own thoughts, the defcriptions of winding fhores, and calm bays, nor can look on the poem in which they are mentioned, with other fenfations than on a fea-chart, or the metrical geography of Dionyfius.

This defect Sannazarius was hindered from perceiving, by writing in a learned language to readers generally acquainted with the works of nature; but if he had made his attempt in any vulgar tongue, he would foon have difcovered how vainly he had endeavoured to make that loved which was not understood.

I am afraid it will not be found easy to improve the paftorals of antiquity, by any great additions or diversifications. Our defcriptions may indeed differ from thofe of Virgil, as an English from an Italian fummer, and, in fome reipects, as modern from ancient life; but as nature is in both countries nearly the fame, and as poetry has to do rather with the paffions of men, which are uniform, than their cuftoms, which are changeable, the varieties which time or place can furnifh will be inconfiderable: and I fhall endeavour to fhew, in the next paper, how little the latter ages have contributed to the improvement of the ruftick muse.

Nwriting o judging of Paftoral Poetry, neither the authors nor criticks of latter times feem to have paid fufficient regard to the originals left us by antiquity, but have entangled themiclves with unneceffary difficulties, by advanc

VIRG.

ELPHINSTON.

ing principles, which, having no foundation in the nature of things, are wholly to be rejected from a fpecies of compolition in which, above all others, mere nature is to be regarded.

It is therefore neceflary to inquire af

ter