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which for fome years had been running to decay. Thefe proofs of pecuniary wildom 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 fmart fellows, who had estates 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 fhould be able to hold my refolution; 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 neceffity of vifiting farms, adjufting 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 task 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 pursued with fo much eagernefs by the gentlemen of the country, that they were indeed the only pleasures in which I could promife myself any partaker.

The inconvenience of this fituation naturally difpofed me to wish for a companion; and the known value of my eftate, with my reputation for frugality and prudence, eafily gained me admiffion into every family; for I foon found that no enquiry was made after any other virtue, nor any testimonial neceffary, but of my freedom from incumbrances, and my care of what they termed the main chance. I faw, not without indignation, 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 efcaping, from either father or mother, fome 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 see their children happily difpofed of; that the whom I had been pleafed to compli ment at table was indeed the chief pleafure of their age, fo good, fo dutiful, fo great a relief to her mamma in the care of the houfe, and fo much her papa's favourite for her cheerfulness 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 fhould be fhewn in her fortune, whenever a fuitable fettlement was propofed.

As I knew thefe overtures not to procced 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 offered and rejected a hundred times, without fome lofs of that foft elevation, and maiden dignity, fo neceffary to the completion of female excellence?

I fhall 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 falfe computations.

I will not deny that, by hearing myfelf loudly commended for my discre tion, I began to fet fome value upon my character, and was unwilling to lofe 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 Mitiffa, the daughter of Chryfophilus, whofe perfon was at leaft without deformity, and

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whofe manners were free from reproach, as fhe had been bred up at a distance from all common temptations. To Mitiffa, therefore, I obtained leave from her parents to pay my court, and was referred by her again to her father, whofe direction fhe was refolved to follow. The queftion then was, only, what should be fettled. The old gentleman made an enormous demand, with which I refufed to comply. Mitiffa was ordered to exert her power; she told me, that if I could refufe her papa, I had no love for her; that she 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 paffionate lover, had little effect. She next refused to see me; and because I thought myself obliged to write in terms of diftrefs, they had once • hopes of ftarving me into measures; but finding 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 toMitiffa, and was to experience the happiness of a match made without paffion. Mitifla 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 fo ill, that

they left me of themselves, and always fupplied their places with fome brought from my wife's relations. Thus they established a family, over which I had no authority, and which was in a perpetual confpiracy against me; for Mitiffa confidered herself as having a feparate intereft, and thought nothing her own but what he laid up without my knowledge. For this reafon fhe brought me falfe accounts of the expences of the house, joined with my tenants in complaints of hard times, and, by means of a steward of her own, took rewards for foliciting abatements of the rent. Her great hope is to outlive me, that she may enjoy what fhe has thus accumulated, and therefore fhe is always contriving fome improvements of her jointure-land; and once tried to procure 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 the is ill ufed, and reproaching me with the presents that other ladies receive from their hufbands.

Such, Sir, was my fituation for seven years, till at laft my patience was exhaufted; and having one day invited her father to my houfe, I laid the state of my affairs before him, detected my wife in feveral of her frauds, turned out her steward, charged a conftable with her 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 esteemi.

I am, &c.

· N° XXXVI. SATURDAY, JULY 21, 1750.

*Αμ ̓ ἔσολο νομπες

Τερπόμενοι σύριγξι. δόλον δ ̓ ότι προνόησαν.

HOMER.

PIPING ON THEIR REEDS, THE SHEPHERDS Goj
NOR FEAR AN AMBUSH, NOR SUSPECT A FOE.

THERE is fcarcely any fpecies of

poetry that has allured more readers, or excited more writers, than the Paftoral. It is generally pleafing, because it entertains the mind with reprefentations of fcenes familiar to almost every imagination, and of which all can equally judge whether they are well defcribed. It exhibits a life to which we

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have been always accustomed to affociate peace, and leifure, and innocence; and therefore we readily fet open the heart for the admiffion of it's images, which contribute to drive away cares and perturbations, and fuffer ourselves, without refistance, to be tranfported to ely fian regions, where we are to meet with nothing but joy, and plenty, and content

ment

ment; where every gale whispers plea fure, and every fhade promifes repose.

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 fince 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 firft 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 firft employment of the human imagination, it is generally the firft literary amufement of our minds. We have seen fields, and meadows, and groves, from the time that our eyes opened upon life; and are pleased 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, becaufe we know the original at an age when our curiofity can be very little awakened by defcriptions of courts which we never beheld, or representations of paffion 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 the intellectual world, throw it away among other childish amusements and paftimes, but willingly return to it in any hour of indolence and relaxation. The images of true paftoral have always the power of exciting delight, because 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 moft carelefs regard, and more than adequate to the strongest reafon, and feverest 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 pleasure; 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 pleafurehas invited numbers without number to try their skill in paftoral performances, in which they have generally fucceeded after the manner of other imitators, transmitting the fame images in the fame combination from one to another, till he that reads the title of a poem may guss at the whole feries of the compofition; nor will a man, after the perufal of thoufands of these performances, find his knowledge enlarged with a single view of nature not produced before, or his imagination amused with any new application of thofe views to moral purpofes.

The range of paftoral is indeed narrow; for though nature itself, philofophically confidered, 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 from 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 those discoveries 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, finall 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 diftorted her features, that their portraits might appear fomething more than fervile copies 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 em ployments and pleasures of the country, is fo little diverfified, and expofed to fo

few of thofe accidents which produce perplexities, terrours, and furprifes, in more complicated tranfactions, that he can be fhewn but feldom in fuch circumftances 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 mistress, or a bad harvest..

The conviction of the neceffity of fome new fource of pleasure induced Sannazarins to remove the feene from the fields to the fea, to substitute fishermen for fhepherds, and derive his fentiments from the pifcatory 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 afleep. Against this objection he might be defended by the established imaxin, that the poet has a right to felect his images, and is no more obliged to thew the fea in a ftorm, than the land under an inundation; but may difplay all the pleasures, and conceal the dangers of the water, as he may lay his fhepherd under a fhady beech, without giving him an ague, or letting a wild beast loofe upon him.

There are, however, two defects in the pifcatory eclogue, which perhaps cannot be fupplied. The fea, though in hot countries it is confidered by thofe who live like Sannazarius, upon the coaft, as a place of pleasure and diverhon, has notwithstanding much lefs variety than the land, and therefore will be fooner exhausted by a defcriptive writer. When he has 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 fish fporting in the fhallows,

he has nothing remaining but what common to all other poetry, the complaint of a nymph for a drowned lover, or the indignation of a fifher that his oyfters are refuted, and Mycon's accepted. Another obftacle to the general reception of this kind of poetry, is the ignorance of maritime pleasures, 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 luit. 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 eafy to improve the paftorals of antiquity, by any great additions or diverfifications. Our defcriptions may indeed differ from thofe of Virgil, as an English from an Italian fummer, and, in fome respects, 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 customs, which are changeable, the varieties which time or place can furnifh will be inconfiderable: and I shall endeavour to fhew, in the next paper,how little the latter ages have contributed to the improvement of the rustick muse,

N° XXXVII. TUESDAY, JULY 24, 1750,

CANTO QUE SOLITUS, SI QUANDO ARMENTA VOCABAT,
AMPHION DIRCEUS.

VIRG.

SUCH STRAINS I SING AS ONCE AMPHION PLAY D.
WHEN LISTENING FLOCKS THE POWERFUL CALL OBEY'D,

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ter fome more diftinct and exact idea of this kind of writing. This may, I think, be eafily found in the Paftorals of Virgil, from whofe opinion it will not appear very fafe to depart, if we confider that every advantage of nature, and of fortune, concurred to complete his productions; that he was born with great accuracy and feverity of judgment, enlightened with all the learning of one of the brightest ages, and embellished with the elegance of the Roman court; that he employed his powers rather in improving than inventing, and therefore muft have endeavoured to recompenfe the want of novelty by exactnefs; that taking Theocritus for his original, he found paftoral far advanced towards perfection, and that having fo great a rival, he must have proceeded with uncommon caution.

If we fearch the writings of Virgil for the true definition of a pastoral, it will be found a poem in which any action er paffion is reprefented by it's effects upon a country life. Whatfoever therefore may, according to the common course of things, happen in the country, may afford a fubject for a paftoral poet.

In this definition, it will immediately occur to those who are verfed in the writings of the modern criticks, that there is no mention of the golden age. I cannot indeed easily difcover why it is thought neceffary to refer descriptions of a rural ftate to remote times, nor can I perceive that any writer has confiftently preferved the Arcadian manners and fentiments. The only reafon, that I have read, on which this rule has been founded, is, that, according to the cuf toms of modern life, it is improbable that fhepherds fhould be capable of harmonious numbers, or delicate fentiments; and therefore the reader muft exalt his ideas of the paftoral character, by carry ing his thoughts back to the age in which the care of herds and flocks was the employment of the wifeft and greatest

men.

Thefe reafoners feem to have been led into their hypothefis, by confidering paftoral, not in general, as a reprefentation of rural nature, and confequently as exhibiting the ideas and fentiments of thofe, whoever they are, to whom the country affords pleasure or employment, but fimply as a dialogue, or narrative of men actually tending theep, and buhed in the lowest and most laborious of

fices; from whence they very readily concluded, fince characters must neceffarily be preferved, that either the fentiments must fink to the level of the fpeakers, or the speakers must be raised to the height of the fentiments.

In confequence of thefe original errors, a thoufand precepts have been given, which have only contributed to perplex and confound. Some have thought it neceffary that the imaginary manners of the golden age fhould be univerfally preferved, and have therefore believed, that nothing more could be admitted in pafloral, than lilies and roles, and rocks and ftreams, among which are heard the gentle whispers of chaite fondness, or the foft complaints of amorous impatience. In paftoral, as in other writings, chaltity of fentiment ought doubtlefs to be observed, and purity of manners to be reprefented; not because the poet is confined to the images of the golden age, but because, having the fubject in his own choice, lie ought always to confult the interest of virtue.

Thefe advocates for the golden age lay down other principles, not very confiftent with their general plan; for they tell us, that, to fupport the character of the fhepherd, it is proper that all refinement fhould be avoided, and that fome flight inftances of ignorance should be interfperfed. Thus the fhepherd in Virgil is fuppfed to have forgot the name of Anaximander; and, in Pope, the term Zodiack is too hard for a ruftick apprehenfion. But if we place our flepherds in their primitive condition, we may give them learning among their other qualifications; and if we fuffer thern to allude at all to things of latter exiftence, which perhaps cannot with any great propriety be allowed, there can be no danger of making them fpeak with too much accuracy, fince they converfed with divinities, and tranfmitted to fucceeding ages the arts of life.

Other writers having the mean and defpicable condition of a fhepherd always before them, conceive it necellary to degrade the language of paftoral, by obfolete terms and ruftick words, which they very learnedly call Dorick, without reflecting, that they thus become authers of a mangled dialect, which no human being ever could have spoken, that they may as well refine the speech as the fentiments of their perfonage, and

that

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