No 263. Thursday, December 14, 1710. Minimâ contentos nocte Britannos. Juv. Sat. 2. ver. 161. Britons contented with the shortest night. R. WYNNE, A From my own Apartment, December 13. N old friend of mine being lately come to town, I went to fee him on Tuesday laft about eight o'clock in the evening, with a defign to fit with him an hour or two, and talk over old ftories; but upon enquiring after him, his fervant told me he was just gone to bed. The next morning as foon as I was up and dreffed, and had dispatched a little bufinefs, I came again to my friend's houfe about eleven o'clock, with a defign to renew my vifit; but upon asking for him, his fervant told me he was just fat down to dinner. In fhort, I found that my old-fashioned friend religiously adhered to the example of his forefathers, and obferved the fame hours that had been kept in the family ever fince the Conqueft. It is very plain, that the Night was much longer for merly in this ifland than it is at prefent. By the night, I mean that portion of time which Nature has thrown into darkness, and which the wisdom of mankind had formerly dedicated to reit and filence. This ufed to begin at eight o'clock in the evening, and conclude at fix in the morning. The curfeu, or eight o'clock bell, was the fignal throughout the nation for putting out their candles and going to bed. Our grandmothers, though they were wont to fit up the last in the family, were all of them faft afleep, at the fame hours that their daughters are bufy at Crimp and Baffet. Modern ftatefmen are concerting fchemes, and engaged in the depth of politics, at the time when 287 their forefathers were laid down quietly to rest, and had nothing in their heads but dreams. As we have thus thrown business and pleasure into the hours of reft, and by that means made the natural Night but half as long as it should be, we are forced to piece it out with a great part of the morning; fo that near two thirds of the nation lie faft afleep for feveral hours in broad day-light. This irregularity is grown fo very fafhionable at prefent, that there is fcarce a Lady of Quality in Great Britain that ever faw the fun rife. And if the humour increases in proportion to what it has done of late years, it is not impoffible but our children may hear the Bell-man going about the streets at nine o'clock in the morning, and the Watch making their rounds until eleven. This unaccountable difpofition in mankind to continue awake in the night, and fleep in the fun-fhine, has made me enquire, whether the fame change of inclination has happened to any other animals? For this reafon, I defired a friend of mine in the country to let me knowi whether the lark rifes as early as he did formerly? And whether the cock begins to crow at his usual hour? My friend has answered me, That his poultry are as regular as ever, and that all the birds and the beafts of his neighbourhood keep the fame hours, that they have obferved in the memory of man; and the fame which, in all probability, they have kept for thefe five thousand years. If you would fee the innovations that have been made among us in this particular, you may only look into the hours of colleges, where they ftill dine at eleven, and fup at fix, which were doubtlefs the hours of the whole nation at the time when thofe places were founded. But at prefent, the Courts of Juftice are fcarce opened in Westminster-ball at the time when William Rufus ufed to go to dinner in it. All bufinefs is driven forward. The land-marks of our fathers, if I may fo call them, are removed, and planted further up into the day; infomuch, that I am afraid our clergy will be obliged, if they expect full congregations, not to look any more upon ten o'clock in the morning as a canonical hour. In my own memory the dinner has crept by degrees from twelve o'clock to three, and where it will fix no body knows. " N° 263. I have fometimes thought to draw up a memorial in the behalf of Supper against Dinner, fetting forth, That the faid Dinner has made feveral encroachments upon the faid Supper, and entered very far upon his frontiers; that he has banished him out of feveral families, and in all has driven him from his head quarters, and forced him to make his retreat into the hours of midnight; and, in short, that he is now in danger of being entirely confounded and loft in a breakfast. Those who have read Lucian, and feen the complaints of the Letter T. against S. upon account of many injuries and ufurpations of the fame nature, will not, I believe, think fuch a memorial forced and unnatural. If dinner has been thus poftponed, or, if you please, kept back from time to time, you may be fure that it has been in compliance with the other bufinefs of the day, and that fupper has ftill obferved a proportionable distance. There is a venerable proverb, which we have all of us heard in our infancy, of putting the children to bed, and laying the goofe to the fire." This was one of the jocular fayings of our forefathers, but may be properly used in the literal fenfe at prefent. Who would not wonder at this perverted relifh of those who are reckoned the most polite part of mankind, that prefer fea-coals and candles to the fun, and exchange fo many chearful morning hours, for the pleafures of midnight revels and debauches? If a man was only to confult his health, he would choose to live his whole time, if poffible, in daylight; and to retire out of the world into filence and fleep, while the raw damps and unwholesome vapours fly abroad without a fun to disperse, moderate, or controll them. For my own part, I value an hour in the morning as much as common libertines do an hour at midnight. When I find myfelf awakened into being, and perceive my life renewed within me, and at the fame time fee the whole face of Nature recovered out of the dark uncomfortable state in which it lay for feveral hours, my heart overflows with fuch fecret fentiments of joy and gratitude, as are a kind of implicit praise to the great Author of Nature. The mind in these early feafons of the day is fo refreshed in all its faculties, and borne up with fuch new supplies of animal spirits, that fhe 289 fhe finds herself in a state of youth, efpecially when the is entertained with the breath of flowers, the melody of birds, the dews that hang upon the plants, and all thofe other fweets of Nature that are peculiar to the morning. It is impoffible for a man to have this relish of being, this exquifite tafte of life, who does not come into the world before it is in all its noife and hurry; who lofes the rifing of the fun, the ftill hours of the day, and immediately upon his first getting up plunges himself into the ordinary cares or follies of the world. I fhall conclude this Paper with Milton's inimitable defcription of Adam's awakening his Eve in paradife, which indeed would have been a place as little delightful as a barren heath or defert to those who flept in it. The fondness of the pofture in which Adam is reprefented, and the foftnefs of his whifper, are paffages in this divine poem that are above all commendation, and rather to be admired than praised. Now morn her rofy steps in th' eastern clime And temperate vapours bland, which th' only found How How Nature paints her colours, how the bee Such whifp'ring wak'd her, but with startled eye On Adam, whom embracing, thus fhe fpake: O fole! in whom my thoughts find all repofe, My glory, my perfection, glad I fee Thy face, and morn return'd N° 264. Saturday, December 16, 1710. Favete linguis Favour your tongues. HOR. Od. 1. lib. 3. ver. 2. From my own Apartment, December 15. BOCCALINI, in his Parnassus, indicts a Laconic writer for fpeaking that in three words which he might have faid in two, and fentences him for his punishment to read over all the works of Guicciardini. This Guicciardini is fo very prolix and circumftantial in his writings, that I remember our countryman Doctor Donne, fpeaking of that majestic and concise manner in which Mofes has deferibed the creation of the world, adds, "That if fuch an Author as Guicciardini were to "have written on such a subject, the world itself would 66 not have been able to have contained the books that gave the hiftory of its Creation." I look upon a tedious talker, or what is generally known by the name of a ftory-teller, to be much more infufferable than even a prolix writer. An Author may be toffed out of your hand, and thrown afide when he grows dull and tirefome; but fuch liberties are so far from being allowed towards your Orators in common converfation, that I have known a challenge fent a perfon for going out of the room abruptly, and leaving a man of Honour in the midst of a differtation. This |