ton who opened your eyes 'upon the true nature of light, and unfolded the great laws of motion, that regulate the courfe of the celeftial luminaries, and make heavy bodies tend to the center. First people of the universe, you have nothing almost that you can call your own: you love to adorn your cabinets with prints; but remember that the Florentine Finiguerra is the inventor of that elegant art which employs the graver to multiply and eternize the fublime ftrokes of the pencil : you have cloaks that measure the current of your ill-fpent time, but the invention of thefe is due to the labours of the great Huygens. On Decency in Conversation. MUC UCH of the happiness of life depends upon a ftrict obfervance of the decencies of converfation, for converfation feldom takes place but in those seasons that are fet apart for relaxation and entertainment; yet we have no inftitution among us in which the art of converfation is taught, and the laws of it ascertained. It may perhaps be thought difficult, if not impoffible, to establish such an inftitution, and many doubts may arife about the form and manner of conducting it. Inftead of evincing its practicability by reafoning upon it, or endeavouring to prescribe its form, or its operations, I fhall give the following anecdote, which is curious in itself, and may perhaps have a better effect than the mere gratification of curiofity. There is a very extenfive lordfhip near Lublin, in Poland which has been long in poffeffion of the houfe of Pfomka; the eldest branches of which are called lords of Babine, the name of the estate. There was at the court of Sigifmond Auguftus, a gentleman of the family of Pfomka, who, in concert with Peter Caffovius, bailiff of Lublin, formed a fociety which the Polish writers call 'The Republic of Babine,' and which the Germans denominate The Society of Fools.' This fociety was inftituted upon the model of the republic of Poland; it has its king, its chancellor, its counsellors, its archbishops, bifhops, judges, and other officers. In this republic Pfomka had the title of captain, and Caffovius that of chancellor : when any of the members did or faid any thing at their meetings which was unbecoming or ill-timed, they immediately gave him a place of which he was required to perform the duties till another was appointed in his ftead; for example, if any one spoke too much, so as to engross the converfation, he was appointed orator of the republic; if he spoke improperly, occafion was taken from his fubject to appoint him a fuitable employment; if, for inftance, he talked about dogs, he was made master of the buck-hounds; if he boafted of his courage, he was made a knight, or perhaps a field-marfhal; and if he expreffed a bigoted zeal for any fpeculative opinion in religion, he was made an inquifitor. The offenders being thus diftinguished for their follies, and not their wifdom, gave occafion to the Germans to call the republic The SoP 3 ⚫ciety "ciety of Fools, which, though a fatire on the individuals, was by no means fo on the inftitution. It happened that the king of Poland one day afked Plomka if they had chofen a king in their republic? To which he replied, God forbid that we fhould think of electing a king while your majefty lives: your majefty will always be king of Babine as well as Poland.' The king was not difpleafed with this fally of humour, and enquired farther to what extent their republic reached? Over the whole world,' fays Pfomka, for we are told by David, that all men are liars.' This fociety very foon increased fo much that there was fcarce any perfon at court who was not honoured with fome poft in it, and its chiefs were also in high favour with the king. The view of this fociety was to teach the young nobility a propriety of behaviour, and the arts of converfation; and it was a fundamental law that no flanderer fhould be received into it. The regiment of the Calot, which was fome years fince established in the court of France is very fimilar to the republic of Babine." J. H. farther than as it pleases the imagination. 'Perhaps the divifion of the pleafures of imagination, according as they are ftruck by the great, the various, and the beautiful, may be accurate enough for my prefent purpose: why each of them affects us with pleasure may be traced in another author. There feems, however, to be fome objects which afford a pleasure not reducible to either of the foregoing heads. A ruin, for inftance, may be neither new to us, nor majeftic, nor beautiful, yet afford that pleafing melancholy which proceeds from a reflection on decayed magnificence. For this reafon an able gardener fhould avail himself of objects, perhaps not very ftriking, if they ferve to connect ideas that convey reflections of the pleafing kind. Objects fhould indeed be lefs calculated to strike the immediate eye, than the judgment or well-formed imagination, as in painting.. It is no objection to the pleasure of novelty that it makes an ugly object more difagreeable. It is enough that it produces a fuperiority betwixt things in other refpects equal. It feems, on fome occafions, to go even further. Are there not broken rocks and rugged grounds to which we can of hardly attribute either beauty or grandeur, and yet, when introduced near an extent of lawn, im. part a pleafure equal to more fhapely fcenes? Thus a feries of lawn, though ever fo beautiful, may fa tiate and cloy, unless the eye paffes to them from wilder fcenes; and then they acquire the grace of novelty. Variety Variety appears to me to derive good part of its effect from novelty; as the eye, paffing from one form or colour to a form or colour of a different kind, finds a degree of novelty in its present object which affords immediate fatisfaction. Variety, however, in fome diftances, may be carried to fuch excefs as to lofe its whole effect. I have observed cielings fo crammed with ftucco ornaments, that, although of the most different kind, they have produced an uniformity. A fufficient quantity of undecorated fpace is neceffary to exhibit fuch decorations to advantage. Ground fhould first be confidered with an eye to its peculiar character. Whether it be the grand, the favage, the fprightly, the melancholy, the horrid, or the beautiful. As one or other of the characters prevail, one may fomewhat ftrengthen its effect by allowing every part fome denomination, and then fupporting its title by fuitable appendages. For inftance, the lover's walks may have affignation feats, with proper mottoes Urns to faithful lovers-Trophies, garlands, &c. by means of art. What an advantage must some Italian feats derive from the circumftance of being fituate on ground mentioned in the claffics? And even in England, wherever a park or garden happens to have been the scene of any event in hiftory, one would furely avail one's felf of that circumstance to make it more interefting to the imagination. Mottoes thould allude to it, columns, &c. record it; verfes moralize upon it; and curiofity receive its fhare of pleafure. In defigning a house and gar dens, it is happy when there is an opportunity of maintaining a fubordination of parts, the houfe fo luckily placed as to exhibit a view of the whole defign. I have fometimes thought that there was room for it to resemble an epic or dramatic poem. It is rather to be wifhed than required, that the more ftriking fcenes may fucceed those which are lefs fo. Taste depends much upon temper. Some prefer Tibullus to Virgil, and Virgil to HomerHagley to Persfield, and Persfield to the Welsh mountains. This occafions the different preferences that are given to fituations.-A garden ftrikes us moft where the grand and the pleating fucceed, not intermingle with each other. I believe, however, the fublime has generally a deeper effect than the merely beautiful. I use the words landscape and profpect; the former as expreffive of home fcenes, the latter of diftant images. Profpects should take in the blue diftant hills; but never fo remotely that thy be not diftinguishable from clouds. Yet this mere extent is what the vulgar value. Landfcape fhould contain variety enough to form a picture upon canvas; and this is no bad teft, as I think the landscape painter is the gardener's beft defigner. The eye requires a fort of balance here; but not fo as to encroach upon probable nature. A wood or hill may balance a houfe or obelifk; for exactnefs would be displeasing. We form our notions from what we have feen, and though, could we comprehend the universe, we might perhaps find it uniformly regular; yet the portions that we fee of it habituate our fancy to the contrary. The eye should always look rather down upon water: cuftomary nature makes this requifite. I know nothing more fenfibly difpleafing than Mr. T's flat ground betwixt his terrace and his water. It is not eafy to account for the fondness of former times for ftraitlined avenues to their houfes; ftrait-lined walks through their woods; and, in fhort, every kind of ftrait-line; where the foot is to travel over what the eye has done before this circumftance is one objection; another, fomewhat of the fame kind, is the repetition of the fame object, tree after tree, for a length of way together: a third is, that this identity is purchafed by the lofs of that variety which the natural country fupplies every where in a greater or lefs degree. To ftand ftill and furvey fuch avenues may afford fome flender fatisfaction through the change derived from perfpective; but to move on continually and find no change of scene in the leaft attendant on our change of place, muft give actual pain to a perfon of tafte. For fuch an one to be condemned to pafs along the famous vifta from *Mofcow to Peterfburgh, or that other from Agra to Lahor in India, must be as difagreeable a sentence as to be condemned to labour at the gallies. I conceived fome idea of the fenfation he muft feel from walking but a few minutes immured betwixt lord D's high-fhorn yew-hedges, which run exactly parallel, at the distance of about ten feet, and are contrived perfectly to exclude all kind of objects whatsoever. has been once viewed from is pro per point, the foot fhould never travel to it by the fame path which the eye had travelled over before. Lofe the object, and draw nigh obliquely. fo The fide trees in viftas fhould be circumftanced as to afford a probability that they grow by nature. Ruinated ftructures appear to derive their power of pleafing, from the irregularity of furface, which is variety: and the latitude they afford the imagination, to conceive an enlargement of their dimenfions, or to recollect any events or circumstances appertaining to their priftine grandeur fo far as concerns grandeur and folemni. ty. The breaks in them should be as bold and abrupt as poffible.If mere beauty be aimed at (which however is not their chief excellence) the waving line, with more eafy tranfitions, will become of greater importance.-Events relat ing to them may be fimulated by numberlefs little artifices; but it is ever to be remembered, that high hills and fudden descents are most fuitable to caftles and fertile vales near wood and water; moft imitative of the ufual fituation for abbeys and religious houses, large oaks, in particular, are effential to these latter, Whose branching arms, and re- A cottage is a pleafing object, When a building or other object Longe Longe alterius spectare laborem. In a scene prefented to the eye, objects fhould never lie fo much to the right or left, as to give any uneafinefs in the examination: fometimes, however, it may be better to admit valuable objects even with this disadvantage; they fhould elfe never be feen beyond a certain angle. The eye must be easy, be fore it can be pleased. No mere flope from one fide to the other can be agreeable ground: the eye requires a balance-i. e. a degree of uniformity: but this may be otherwise effected, and the rule fhould be understood with some limitation, -Each valley has its brother, flects the other. Let us examine what may be faid in favour of that regularity which Mr. Pope expofes. Might he not seemingly as well object to the difpofition of an human face, because it has an eye or cheek, that is the very picture of its compani on? Or does not Providence, who has obferved this regularity in the external structure of our bodies, and difregarded it within, feem to confider it as a beauty? The arms, the limbs, and the feveral parts of them correfpond, but it is not the fame cafe with the thorax and the abdomen. I believe one is generally folicitous for a kind of balance in a landscape; and if I am not mistaken, the painters generally furnish one: a building, for inftance, on one fide contrafted by a group of trees, a large oak, or a rifing hill on the other. Whence then does this tafte proceed, but from the love we bear to regularity in perfection? After all, in regard to gardens, the shape of ground, the difpofition of trees, and the figure of water, must be facred to nature, and no forms muft be allowed that make a discovery of art. All trees have a character analo gous to that of men: oaks are in all refpects the perfect image of the manly character: in former times I fhould have faid, and in prefent times I think I am authorized to fay, the British one. As a brave man is not fuddenly either elated by profperity, or depreffed by adverfity, fo the oak difplays not its verdure on the fun's first approach; nor drops it, on his first departure. Add to this its majestic appearance, the rough grandeur of its bark, and the wide projection of its branches. A large, branching, aged oak, ist perhaps the most venerable of allinanimate objects. Urns are more folemn, if large and plain; more beautiful, if lefs and ornamented. Solemnity is perhaps their point, and the fituation of them should still co-operate with it. By the way, I wonder that lead ftatues are not more in vogue in our modern gardens. Though they may not exprefs the finer lines of an human body, yet they feem perfectly well calculated on ac count of their duration, to embellish landscapes, were they fome degrees inferior to what we generally behold. A ftatue in a room challenges examination, and is to be examined critically as a statue. A ftatue in a garden is to be confidered as one part of a scene or landscape; the minuter touches are no more effential to it, than a good landscape painter would efteem them, |