§ 80. Retirement of no Ufe to fome. To lead the life I propofe with fatif faction and profit, renouncing the pleatures and bufinefs of the world, and breaking the habits of both, is not fufficient; the fupine creature whofe understanding is fuperficially employed, through life, about a few general notions, and is never bent to a clofe and fteady purfuit of truth, may renounce the pleatures and bufinefs of the world, for even in the bufineis of the world we fee fuch creatures often employed, and may break the habits; nay he may retire and drone away life in folitude like a monk, or like him over the door of whofe houfe, as if his house had been his tomb, fomebody writ, "Here lies fuch an one:" but no fuch man will be able to make the true ufe of retirement. The employment of his mind, that would have been agreeable and cafy if he had accustomed himself to it early, will be unpleafant and impracticable late: fuch men lofe their intellectual powers for want of exerting them, and, having trifled away youth, are reduced to the neceflity of trifling away age. It fares with the mind just as it does with the body. He who was born with a texture of brain as ftrong as that of Newton, may become unable to perform the common rules of arithmetic; juft as he who has the fame elafticity in his muscles, the fame fupplenefs in his joints, and all his nerves and finews as well-braced as Jacob Hall, may become a fat unwieldy fluggard. Yet further; the implicit creature, who has thought it all his life needlefs, or unlawful, to examine the principles of facts that he took originally on truft, will be as little able as the other to improve his folitude to any good purpose: unless we call it a good purpofe, for that fometimes happens, to confirm and exalt his prejudices, fo that he may live and die in one continued delirium. The confirmed prejudices of a thoughtful life are as hard to change as the confirmed habits of an indolent life: and as fome muft trifle away age because they trifled away youth, others must labour on in a maze of error, because they have wandered there too long to find their way out. Bolingbroke. 81. Confequences of the Revolution of 1688. Few men at that time looked forward enough to foresee the neceffary confequences of the new conflitution of the reVenue that was foon afterwards formed, nor of the method of funding that immediately took place; which, abfurd as they are, have continued ever fince, till it is become fcarce poffible to alter them. Few people, I fay, forefaw how the creation of funds, and the multiplication of taxes, would encreafe yearly the power of the crown, and bring our liberties, by a natural and neceffary progreffion, into more real, though lefs apparent danger, than they were in before the Revolution. The exceffive ill husbandry practifed from the very beginning of King William's reign, and which laid the foundations of all we feel and all we fear, was not the effect of ignorance, mistake, or what we call chance, but of defign and fcheme in thofe who had the fway at that time. I am not fo uncharitable, however, as to believe, that they intended to bring upon their country all the mischiefs that we, who came after them, experience and apprehend. No; they faw the measures they took fingly, and unrelatively, or relatively alone to fome immediate object. The notion of attaching men to the new government, by tempting them to embark. their fortunes on the fame bottom, was a reason of state to fome: the notion of creating a new, that is, a monied intereft, in oppofition to the landed intereft, or as a balance to it, and of acquiring a fuperior influence in the city of London, at least, by establishment of great corporations, was a reafon of party to others: and I make no doubt that the opportunity of amaffing immenfe eftates by the managements of funds, by trafficking in paper, and by all the arts of jobbing, was a reafon of private intereft to thofe who fupported and improved this fcheme of iniquity, if not to those who devised it. They looked no farther. Nay, we who came after them, and have long tafted the bitter fruits of the corruption they planted, were far from taking fuch an alarm at our diftrefs, and our danger, as they deferved; till the most remote and fatal effect of caufes, laid by the laft generation, was very near becoming an object of experience in Ibid. this. $82. Defence of Riddles: in a Letter to a Lady. It is with wonderful fatisfaction I find you are grown fuch an adept in the occult arts, and that you take a laudable pleasure in the ancient and ingenious study of making and folving riddles. It is a fcience, undoubtedly, of moft neceflary acquirement, will receive by perufing this curious performance. In the mean while let it be remembered, to the immortal glory of this art, that the wifeft man, as well as the greatest prince that ever lived, is faid to have amufed himself and a neighbouring monarch in trying the strength of each other's talents in this way; feveral riddles, it feems, having paffed between Solomon and Hiram, upon condition that he who failed in the folution fhould incur a certain penalty. It is recorded likewife of the great father of poetry, even the divine Homer himself, that he had a taste of this fort; and we are told by a Greek writer of his life, that he died with vexation for not being able to discover a riddle which was propofed to him by fome fishermen at a certain island called Jo. Fitzofborne's Letters. · and deferves to make a part in the meditation of both fexes. Thofe of yours may by this means very innocently indulge their ufual curiofity of difcovering and difclofing a fecret; whilft fuch amongst ours who have a turn for deep fpeculations, and are fond of puzzling themfelves and others, may exercife their faculties this way with much private fatisfaction, and without the leaft disturbance to the public. It is an art indeed which I would recommend to the encouragement of both the univerfities, as it affords the eafieft and fhorteft method of conveying fome of the most useful principles of logic, and might therefore be introduced as a very proper fubftitute in the room of those dry fyftems which are at prefent in vogue in thofe places of education. For as it confifts in difcovering truth under borrowed appearances, it might prove of wonderful advantage in every branch cf learning, by habituating the mind to fepa- $83. The true Ufe of the Senfes perverted rate all foreign ideas, and confequently preferving it from that grand fource of error, the being deceived by falfe connections. In fhort, Timoclea, this your favourite science contains the fum of all human policy; and as there is no paffing through the world without fometimes mixing with fools and knaves; who would not choose to be mafter of the enigmatical art, in order, on proper occafions, to be able to lead afide craft and impertinence from their aim, by the convenient artifice of a prudent difguife? It was the maxim of a very wife prince, that "he who knows not how to diffemble, knows not how to reign:" and I defire you would receive it as mine, that he who knows not how to riddle, knows not how to live." But befides the general usefulness of this art, it will have a further recommendation to all true admirers of antiquity, as being practifed by the most confiderable perfonages of early times. It is almost three thousand years ago fince Samfon propofed his famous riddle so well known; though the advocates for ancient learning muft forgive me, if in this article I attribute the fuperiority to the moderns; for if we may judge of the skill of the former in this profound art by that remarkable fpecimen of it, the geniuses of thofe early ages were by no means equal to thofe which our times have produced. But as a friend of mine has lately finished, and intends very fhortly to publish, a moft learned work in folio, wherein he has fully proved that important point, I will not anticipate the pleasure you by Fashion. Nothing has been so often explained, and yet fo little understood, as fimplicity in writing; and the reason of its remaining fo much a mystery, is our own want of fimplicity in manners. By our prefent mode of education, we are forcibly warped from the bias of nature, in mind as well as in body; we are taught to disguise, diftort, and alter our fentiments until our thinking faculty is diverted into an unnatural channel; and we not only relinquish and forget, but alfo become incapable of our original difpofitions. We are totally changed into creatures of art and affectation; our perception is abused, and our fenfes are perverted; our minds lofe their nature, force, and flavour; the imagination, sweated by artificial fire, produces nought but vapid and fickly bloom; the genius, inflead of growing like a vigorous tree, that extends its branches on every fide, buds, bloffoms, and bears delicious fruit, refembles a lopped and ftunted yew, tortured into fome wretched form, projecting no fhade or fhelter, difplaying no flower, diffufing no fragrance, and producing no fruit, and exhibiting nothing but a barren conceit for the amufement of the idle fpectator. Thus debauched from nature, how can we relish her genuine productions? As well might a man diftinguish objects through the medium of a prifm, that prefents nothing but a variety of colours to the eye; or a maid pining in the green-fickness prefer a bifcuit to a cinder. It has often been alledged, that the paffions can never be wholly depofed, and that by appealing to thefe, a good writer will always be able to force himself into the hearts of his readers; but even the ftrongest paffions are weakened, nay fometimes totally extinguished and destroyed, by mutual oppofition, diffipation, and acquired infenfibility. How often at our theatre has the tear of fympathy and burst of laughter been repreffed by a malignant fpecies of pride, refufing approbation to the author and actor, and renouncing fociety with the audience! I have feen a young creature, poffeffed of the most delicate complexion, and exhibiting features that indicate fenfibility, fit without the least emotion, and behold the most tender and pathetic scenes of Otway reprefented with all the energy of action; fo happy had she been in her efforts to conquer the prejudices of nature. She had been trained up in the belief that nothing was more aukward, than to betray a fenfe of fhame or fympathy; fhe feemed to think that a confent of paffion with the vulgar, would impair the dignity of her character; and that the herself ought to be the only object of approbation. But fhe did not confider that fuch approbation is feldom acquired by difdain; and that want of feeling is a very bad recommendation to the human heart. For my own fhare, I never fail to take a furvey of the female part of an audience, at every interefting incident of the drama. When I perceive the tear ftealing down a lady's cheek, and the fudden figh efcape from her breaft, I am attracted toward her by an irresistible emotion of tenderness and efteem; her eyes shine with enchanting luftre, through the pearly moifture that furrounds them; my heart warms at the glow which humanity kindles on her cheek, and keeps time with the accelerated heavings of her fnowy bofom; I at once love her benevolence, and revere her difcernment. On the contrary, when I fee a fine woman's face unaltered by the diftrefs of the fcene, with which I myself am affected, I refent her indifference as an infult on my own understanding; I fuppofe her heart to be favage, her difpofition unfocial, her organs indelicate, and exclaim with the fox in the fable, O pulchrum caput, fed cerebrum non habet! Yet this infenfibility is not perhaps owing to any original defect. Nature may have ftretched the ftring, though it has Jong ceafed to vibrate. It may have been difplaced and diftracted by the first violence offered to the native machine; it may have loft its tone through long difufe; or be fo twifted and overftrained as to produce an effect very different from that which was primarily intended. If fo little regard is paid to nature when the knocks fo powerfully at the breaft, fhe must be altogether neglected and defpifed in her calmer mood of ferene tranquillity, when nothing appears to recommend her but fimplicity, propriety, and innocence. A clear, blue fky, fpangled with stars, will prove a homely and infipid object to eyes accustomed to the glare of torches, tapers, gilding, and glitter; they will be turned with loathing and difguft from the green mantle of the fpring, fo gorgeously adorned with buds and foliage, flowers, and bloffoms, to contemplate a gaudy negligee, ftriped and interfected with abrupt unfriendly tints that fetter the maffes of light, and distract the vifion; and cut and pinked into the most fantastic forms; and flounced and furbelowed, patched and fringed with all the littleness of art, unknown to elegance. Thofe ears that are offended by the fweetly wild notes of the thrufh, the black-bird, and the nightingale, the diftant cawing of the rook, the tender cooing of the turtle, the foft fighing of reeds and ofiers, the magic murmur of lapfing ftreams; will be regaled and ravished by the extravagant and alarming notes of a fqueaking fiddle, extracted by a musician who has no other genius than that which lies in his fingers; they will even be entertained with the rattling of coaches, the rumbling of carts, and the delicate cry of cod and mackarel. The fenfe of fmelling that delights in the fcent of excrementitious animal juices, fuch as musk, civet, and urinous falts, will loath the fragrancy of new-mown hay, the hawthorn's bloom, the fweet-briar, the honey-fuckle, and the rofe; and the organs that are gratified with the taste of fickly veal which has been bled into the pally, rotten pullets crammed into fevers, brawn made up of dropfical pig, the abortion of pigeons and of poultry, 'fparagus gorged with the crude unwholefome juice of dung, peafe without fubftance, peaches without tafte, and pine-apples without flavour, will certainly naufeate the native, genuine, and falutary taste of Welsh beef, Banftead mutton, Hampshire pork, and barn-door fowls; whofe juices are concocted by a natural digeftion, and whofe flesh is confolidated by free air and exercise, In fuch a total perverfion of the fenfes, the ideas must be mifreprefented, the powers of the imagination disordered, and the judgment of confequence unfound. Tae difeafe is attended with a falfe appetite, which the natural food of the mind will not fatisfy. It must have fauces compounded of the most heterogeneous trash. The foul feems to fink into a kind of fleepy idiotifm, or childish vacancy of thought. It is diverted by toys and baubles, which can only be pleafing to the moft fuperficial curiofity. It is enlivened by a quick fucceffion of trivial objects, that glitten, and glance, and dance before the eye; and, like an infant kept awake and infpirited by the found of a rattle, it must not only be dazzled and aroufed, but also cheated, hurried, and perplexed by the artifice of deception, bufinefs, intricacy, and intrigue, which is a kind of low juggle that may be termed the legerdemain of genius. This being the cafe, it cannot enjoy, nor indeed diftinguish, the charms of natural and moral beauty or decorum. The ingenuous blush of native innocence, the plain language of ancient faith and fincerity, the chearful refignation to the will of Heaven, the mutual affection of the charities, the voluntary respect paid to fuperior dignity or ftation, the virtue of beneficence extended even to the brute creation, nay the very crimfon glow of health and fwelling lines of beauty, are defpifed, detefted, fcorned, and ridiculed as ignorance, rudenefs, rufticity, and fuperftition. Smollett. § 84. Simplicity a principal Beauty in: Writing. If we examine the writers whofe compofitions have stood the teft of ages, and obtained that highest honour, the concurrent approbation of diftant times and nations, we fhall find that the character of fimplicity is the unvarying circumftance, which alone hath been able to gain this univerfal homage from mankind. Among the Greeks, whofe writers in general are of the fimple kind, the divineft poet, the most commanding orator, the fineft hiftorian, and deepest philofopher, are, above the reft, confpicuously eminent in this great quality. The Roman writers rife towards perfection according to that measure of true fimplicity which they mingle in their works. Indeed, they are all inferior to the Greek models. But who will deny, that Lucretius, Horace, Virgil, Livy, Te rence, Tully, are at once the fimpleft and beft of Roman writers unless we add the noble Annalift, who appeared in after-times; who, notwithstanding the political turn of his genius, which fometimes interferes, is admirable in this great quality; and by it, far fuperior to his contemporaries. It is this one circumftance that hath raised the venerable Dante, the father of modern poetry, above the fucceeding poets of his country, who could never long maintain the local and temporary honours bestowed upon them; but have fallen under that juft neglect, which time will ever decree to thofe who defert a juft fimplicity for the florid colourings of ftyle, contrafted phrafes, affected conceits, the mere trappings of compofition, and Gothic minutia. It is this hath given to Boileau the most lafting wreath in France, and to Shakespeare and Milton in England; especially to the la, whofe writings are more unmixed in this refpect, and who had formed himself en tirely on the fimple model of the best Greek writers and the facred fcriptures. As it appears from thefe inftances, that fimplicity is the only univerfal characterif. tic of juft writing; fo the fuperior eminence of the facred fcriptures in this prime quality hath been generally acknowledged. One of the greatest critics in antiquity, himself confpicuous in the fublime and fimple manner, hath borne this teftimony to the writings of Mofes and St. Paul; and by parity of reafon we must conclude, that had he been converfant with the other facred writers, his tafte and candour would have allowed them the fame encomium. Brown's Effay. §85. Simplicity confpicuous in the Scriptures, It hath been often obferved, even by writers of no mean rank, that the " fcriptures fuffer in their credit by the disadvan tage of a literal verfion, while other ancient writings enjoy the advantage of a free and embellished tranflation." But in reality thefe gentlemen's concern is ill placed and groundless. For the truth is, "That most other writings are indeed impaired by a literal tranflation; whereas, giving only a due regard to the idioms of different languages, the facred writings, when literally tranflated, are then in their full perfection." Now this is an internal proof, that in all other writings there is a mixture of local, relative, exterior ornament; which is often loft in the transfufion from one language to another. But the internal beauties, which depend not on the particular conftruction of tongues, no change of tongue can deftroy. Hence the Bible compofition preferves its native beauty and ftrength alike in every language, by the fole energy of unadorned phrafe, natural images, weight of fentiment, and great fimplicity. It is in this refpect like a rich vein of gold, which, under the feverest trials of heat, cold, and moisture, retains its original weight and fplendor, without either lofs or alloy; while bafer metals are corrupted by earth, air, water, fire, and affimilated to the various elements through which they pafs. This circumftance then may be justly regarded as fufficient to vindicate the compofition of the facred Scriptures; as it is at once their chief excellence, and greatest fecurity. It is their excellence, as it renders them intelligible and ufeful to all; it is their fecurity, as it prevents their being difguifed by the falfe and capricious ornaments of vain and weak tranflators. We may fafely appeal to experience and fact for the confirmation of thefe remarks on the fuperior fimplicity, utility, and excellence of the style of the holy Scripture. Is there any book in the world fo perfectly adapted to all capacities? that contains fuch fublime and exalted precepts, conveyed in fuch an artlefs and intelligible ftrain? that can be read with fuch pleafure and advantage by the lettered fage and the unlettered peafant? Brown's Effay. Fine writing, according to Mr. Addifon, confilts of fentiments which are natural, without being obvious. There cannot be a jufter, and more concife definition of fine writing. Sentiments which are merely natural, affect not the mind with any pleafure, and feem not worthy to engage our attention. The pleafantries of a waterman, the obfervations of a peafant, the ribaldry of a porter or hackney coachman; all these are natural and difagreeable. What an infipid comedy fhould we make of the chit chat of the tea-table, copied faithfully and at full length? Nothing can pleafe perfons of tafte, but nature drawn with all her graces and ornaments, la belle nature; or if we copy low-life, the ftrokes must be strong and remarkable, and must convey a lively image to the mind. The abfurd naïveté of Sancho Pança is represented in fuch inimitable colours by Cervantes, that it entertains as much as the picture of the most magnanimous hero or fofteit lover. The cafe is the fame with orators, philofophers, critics, or any author, who speaks in his own perfon, without introducing other speakers or actors. If his language be not elegant, his obfervations uncommon, his fenfe ftrong and mafculine, he will in vain boaft his nature and fimplicity. He may be correct; but he never will be agreeable. 'Tis the unhappiness of such authors, that they are never blamed nor cenfured. The good fortune of a book, and that of a man, are not the fame. The fecret deceiving path of life, which Horace talks of, fallentis femita vitæ, may be the happieft lot of the one; but is the greatest misfortune that the other can poffibly fall into. On the other hand, productions which are merely furprifing, without being natural, can never give any lafting entertainment to the mind. To draw chimeras is not, properly speaking, to copy or imitate. The juftnefs of the reprefentation is loft, and the mind is difpleafed to find a picture, which bears no refemblance to any original. Nor are fuch exceffive refinements more agreeable in the epiftolary or philofophic ftyle than in the epic or tragic. Too much ornament is a fault in every kind of production. Uncommon expreffions, ftrong flashes of wit, pointed fimilies, and epigrammatic turns, efpecially when laid too thick, are a disfigurement rather than any embellishment of difcourfe. As the eye, in furveying a Gothic building, is diftracted by the multiplicity of ornaments, and lofes the whole by its minute attention to the parts; fo the mind, in perufing a work overstocked with wit, is fatigued and difgufted with the constant endeavour to fhine and furprize. This is the cafe where a writer overabounds in wit, even though that wit fhould be just and agrecable. But it commonly happens to fuch writers, that they feek for their favourite ornaments, even where the subject affords them not; and by that means have twenty infipid conceits for one thought that is really beautiful. There is no fubject in critical learning more copious than this of the juft mixture of fimplicity and refinement in writing; and therefore, not to wander in too large a field, |