the Product of an Hundred Climates. The Muff and the Fan come together from the different Ends of the Earth. The Scarf is fent from the Torrid Zone, and the Tippet from beneath the Pole. The Brocade Petticoat rifes out of the Mines of Peru, and the Diamond Necklace out of the Bowels of Indoftan.

IF we confider our own Country in its natural Profpect, without any of the Benefits and Advantages of Commerce, what a barren uncomfortable Spot of Earth falls to our Share! Natural Hiftorians tell us, that no Fruit grows Originally among us, befides Hips and Haws, Acorns and Pig-Nutts, with other Delicacies of the like Nature; That our Climate of it felf, and without the Affiftances of Art, can make no further Advances towards a Plumb than to a Sloe, and carries an Apple to no greater a Perfection than a Crab: That our Melons, our Peaches, our Figs, our Apricots, and Cherries, are Strangers among us, imported in different Ages, and naturalized in our English Gardens ; and that they would all degenerate and fall away into the Trafh of our own Country, if they were wholly neglected by the Planter, and left to the Mercy of our Sun and Soil. Nor has Traffick more enriched our Vegetable World, than it has improved the whole Face of Nature among us. Our Ships are laden with the Harvest of every Climate: Our Tables are ftored with Spices, and Oils, and Wines: Our Rooms are filled with 'Pyramids of China, and adorned with the Workmanship of Japan: Our Morning's-Draught comes to us from the remoteft Corners of the Earth: We repair our Bodies by the Drugs of America, and repose our felves under Indian Canopies. My Friend Sir ANDREW calls the Vineyards of France our Gardens: the Spice-Iflands our Hot-beds; the Perfians our Silk-Weavers, and the Chinese our Potters. Nature indeed furnishes us with the bare Neceffaries of Life, but Traffick gives us a great Variety of what is Ufeful, and at the fame time fupplies us with every thing thing that is Convenient and Ornamental. Nor is it the leaft Part of this our Happiness, that whilft we enjoy the remoteft Products of the North and South, we are free from thofe Extremities of Weather which give them Birth; That our Eyes are refreshed with the green Fields of Britain, at the fame time that our Palates are feafted with Fruits that rife between the Tropicks. FOR

FOR thefe Reafons there are not more useful Members in a Commonwealth than Merchants. They knit Mankind together in a mutual Intercourfe of good Offices, diftribute the Gifts of Nature, find Work for the Poor, add Wealth to the Rich, and Magnificence to the Great. Our English Merchant converts the Tin of his own Country into Gold, and exchanges his Wool for Rubies. The Mahometans are cloathed in our British Manufacture, and the Inhabitants of the Frozen Zone warmed with the Fleeces of our Sheep.

WHEN I have been upon the Change, I have often fancied one of our old Kings ftanding in Perfon, where he is represented in Effigy, and looking down upon the wealthy Concourfe of People with which that Place is every Day filled. In this Cafe, how would he be furprized to hear all the Languages of Europe fpoken in this littleSpot of his former Dominions, and to fee fo many private Men, who in his Time would have been the Vaffals of fome powerful Baron, Negotiating like Princes for greater Sums of Money than were formerly to be met with in the Royal Treasury! Trade, without enlarging the British Territories, have given us a kind of additional Empire: It has multiplied the Number of the Rich, made our Landed Estates infinitely more Valuable than they were formerly, and added to them an Acceffion of other Eftates as Valuable as the Lands themselves.

C

W

Monday, May 21.

Interdum vulgus rectum videt.

Hor.

HEN I travelled, I took a particular Delight in hearing the Songs and Fables that are come from Father to Son, and are most in Vogue among the common People of the Countries through which I paffed; for it is impoffible that any thing fhould be univerfally tafted and approved by a Multitude, tho' they are only the Rabble of a Nation, which hath not in it fome peculiar Aptnefs to please and gratifie the Mind of Man. Human Nature is the fame in all reasonable Greatures;

and whatever falls in with it, will meet with Admirers amongft Readers of all Qualities and Conditions. Moliere, as we are told by Monfieur Boileau, ufed to read all his Comedies to an old Woman who was his Houfe-keeper, 1 as fhe fate with him at her Work by the Chimney-Corner; and could foretell the Succef's of his Play in the Theatre, from the Reception it met at his Fire-Side: For he tells us the Audience always followed the old Woman, and never failed to laugh in the fame Place.

I know nothing which more fhews the effential and inherent Perfection of Simplicity of Thought, above that which I call the Gothick Manner in Writing, than this, that the firft pleafes all Kinds of Palates, and the latters only fuch as have formed to themfelves a wrong artificial Tafte upon little fanciful Authors and Writers of Epigram. Homer, Virgil, or Milton, fo far as the Language of their Poems is understood, will pleafe a Reader of plain common Senfe, who would neither relish nor comprehend an Epigram of Martial, or a Poem of Cowley: So, on the contrary, an ordinary Song or Ballad that is the Delight of the common People, cannot fail to please all fuch Rea ders as are not unqualified for the Entertainment by their Affectation or Ignorance; and the Reafon is plain, becaufe the fame Paintings of Nature which recommend it to the most ordinary Reader, will appear Beautiful to the moft refined.

THE old Song of Chevy-Chafe is the favourite Ballad of the common People of England, and Ben. Johnfon used to fay he had rather have been the Author of it than of all his Works. Sir Philip Sidney in his Difcourfe of Poe try (peaks of it in the following Words; "I never heard the old song of Piercy and Douglas, that I found not my Heart more moved than with a Trumpet; and yet it is fung by fome blind Crowder with no rougher Voice than rude Style; which being fo evil apparelled in the Duft and Cobweb of that uncivil Age, what would it work trimmed in the gorgeous Eloquence of Pindar? For my own Part I am fo profeffed an Admirer of this antiquated Song, that I fhall give my Reader a Critick upon it, without any further Apology for fo doing.

THE greatest Modern Criticks have laid it down as a Rule, That an Heroick Poems fhould be founded upon

fome

fome important Precept of Morality, adapted to the Conftitution of the Country in which the Poet writes. Homer and Virgil have formed their Plans in this View. As Greece was a Collection of many Governments, who suffered very much among themselves, and gave the Persian Emperor, who was their common Enemy, many Advantages over them by their mutual Jealoufies and Animofities, Homer, in order to eftablish among them an Union, which was fo neceffary for their Safety, grounds his Poem up.. on the Discords of the feveral Grecian Princes who were engaged in a Confederacy against an Afiatick Prince, and the feveral Advantages which the Enemy gained by fuch their Difcords. At the time the Poem we are now treating of was written, the Diffentions of the Barons, who were then fo many petty Princes, ran very high, whether they quarrelled among themselves, or with their Neighbours, and produced unfpeakable Calamities to the Country: The Poet, to deter Men from fuch unnatural Contentions, defcribes a bloody Battel and dreadful Scene of Death, occafioned by the mutual Feuds which reigned in the Families of an English and Scotch Nobleman: That he defigned this for the Inftruction of his Poem, we may learn from his four laft Lines, in which, after the Example of the Modern Tragedians, he draws from it a Precept for the Benefit of his Readers.

God fave the King, and bless the Land
In Plenty, Joy, and Peace;

And grant henceforth that foul Debate
'Twixt Noblemen may cease.

The next Point obferved by the greateft Heroic Poets, hath been to celebrate Perfons and Actions which do Honour to their Country: Thus Virgil's Hero was the Founder of Rome, Homer's a Prince of Greece; and for this Reafon Valerius Flaccus and Statius, who were both Romans, might be justly derided for having chofen the Expedition of the Golden Fleece and the Wars of Thebes, for the Subjects of their Epic Writings.

THE Poet before us, has not only found out an Hero in his own Country, but raifes the Reputation of it by feveral beautiful Incidents. The English are the firft who take the Field, and the laft who quit it. The English bring

M5

enly

only Fifteen hundred to the Battel, the Scotch Two thoufand. The English keep the Field with Fifty three: The Scotch retire with Fifty five: All the reft on each fide being flain in Battel. But the moft remarkable Circumftance of this kind, is the different Manner in which the Scotch and English Kings receive the News of this Fight, and of the great Mens Death who commanded in it.

This News was brought to Edinburgh,
Where Scotland's King did reign,
That brave Earl Douglas fuddenly
Was with an Arrow flain.

O heavy News, King James did fay,
Scotland can Witness be,

I have not any Captain more
of fuch Account as he.-

Like Tidings to King Henry came
Within as fhort a Space,

That Piercy of Northumberland
Was flain in Chevy-Chase.

Now God be with him, faid our King,
Sith 'twill no better be,

I trust I have within my Realm
Five hundred as good as he.

Yet fhall not Scot nor Scotland Say
But I will Vengeance take,
And be revenged on them all

For brave Lord Piercy's Sake.

This Vow full well the King perform'd
After on Humble-down,

In one Day Fifty Knights were flan,
With Lords of great Renown.

And of the rest of Small Account

Did many Thousands dye, &c.

At the fame time that our Poet fhews a laudable Partiality to his Country-men, he represents the Scots after a Manner not unbecoming fo bold and brave a People.

Earl Douglas on a milk-white Steed,

Moft like a Baron bold,

Rode foremost of the Company

Whofe Armour fhone like Gold.

His