ANONYMOUS

Pecuniae Obediunt Omnia Money Does Master all Things, A Poem Shewing the Power and Influence of Money over all Arts, Sciences, Trades, Professions, and ways of Living, in this Sublunary World. . . York, . . . 1696. 8vo.

The promise in the title is here fairly fulfilled, for the volume contains 162 satirical pieces, written in lively doggerel verse. A good many of these border on the

character-form.

George Wither's complaint of the dishonest bookseller, made seventy years before, is still heard, and not without ample reason, Good God! how many dung-botes full of fruitles Volumnes doe they yearely foyst upon his Majesties subjectes, by lying Titles, insinuations, and disparaging of more profitable Books.'

On Joyners and Carpenters

JOYNERS and Carpenters a prey will make
Of
you when they a peece of work do take,
If you in Timber-measure have no skill,
Then they strange storyes unto you will tell,
Make you believe more Timber they must have
By far than such a peece of work doth crave,
If they perceive you've Knowledge in the thing,
Then their Contriv'd design about to bring,
They tell you Nails and pins are in their task,
So they can not abate of what they ask,

If you're not willing such a Summe to pay,
They tell you then, they'l work with you by day.
you agree but either way, O then,

If

They think themselves for that time, happy Men,

ON JOYNERS AND CARPENTERS

349

For many Idle day-workes then you'l have,
Whether by day or Task, you'l nothing save,
For they're Resolv'd good wages to bring in,
And tho unjustly got they think't no Sin,
Money's the Siren, charmes their Eares and hearts,
Her to acquire, they'l practice all their Arts.

On Book-Sellers

THE BOOK-Seller, for ready Cash, will sell
For as small profit, as another will,

But then you must take special Care and look,
You no new Title, have to an Old Book.
For they new Title-pages often paist,
Unto a Book, which purposely is plac'd,
Setting it forth to be th' Second Edition,

The third, or Fourth, with 'mendments and
Addition,

But when you come, for to peruse and look,
You will not find one word in all the Book,
Put either in or out, or yet Amended,

For that's a thing which never was intended
By th' Authour, but when e'er a Book doth fail
This is their Trick, to quicken up the Sale,
But when a new Edition comes indeed,

From all the Old Books, which they have, with speed

The Title-Pages then, they often tear,

And new ones in their places fixed are,
And have the Confidence to put to sale,

Such Books for new, they know are old and stale,
And so the Buyer, if he don't descry,
Will have a Cheat put on him purposely,
And when an Authours Books do bravely sell,
As those of th' whole duty of Man, do well,

And others, then to gain a Book a Fame
They'l set it forth, under such Authours Name,
Prefixing an Epistle to such Tract,

Declaring to the Reader matter of Fact,

How and by whom, the same was brought to light,
And who hath had the view thereof and Sight,
How worthy the same Book is of the press
And reasons why, it's publisht in such dress,
With bantering stuff, to make the Coppy sell,
Which pollicies they think, do wondrous well. . . .
On Common Swine-herds

THE Common Swine-herds course, is every Morn,
To go about the Town, and wind his horn,
Then People let their Hoggs go out at large,
And th' Swine-herd takes them all into his charge,
And into th' Fields he drives them day by day,
And there attends on them, the time they stay,
And when some signes of Rain or stormes appear,
Unto some ditch or Hedge, he then draws near,
And under Banks does sculke, till Night does come,
Then's Army he draws up, and Marches home,
And thus poor man, he spends his Slavish life,
Some Money to procure, for him and's Wife,
And Family, and tho it be but small,
He gets, it's better far, than none at all;
A little Money brings him some Relief,
But none at all, affords him nought but grief :
So when his Fair is mean, he ne'er complains,
But shapes his Mind according to his Means.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE (1645-1696)

The Characters, or the Manners of the Age. By Monsieur De La Bruyère, . . . made English by several hands. . . . London, . . . 1699.

[The Blockhead' is extracted from Of Society and Conversation, Children' from the essay Of Man.]

'With La Bruyère character became a synonym for portrait.'

Portraits are scattered freely in his sixteen chapters, which are a medley of anecdotes, portraits, and general reflections and maxims bearing, all of them, on the ' manners of the age.' It is art, and not chance, that has ruled their order. The complete chapters are pleasant to read; the thought follows on easily enough from, to take one grouping, narrative to reflection, and then to a vivid portrait that symbolises the drift of the essay. A certain bitterness is felt, but balanced as it is, by shrewd common-sense, and an underlying sympathy, it is not otherwise than stimulating.

La Bruyère was well known to Steele and Addison, and their introduction of this new type of portrait-character straight from France, with its attractive hint of personal application suggested by the use of classical names as pseudonyms, gave sufficient fresh vitality to the English character to carry it through what still seems to be the last stage of its development in the periodical essay.

A Vain Blockhead

WHO that keeps much company can promise himself to avoid meeting certain vain Blockheads, who are light, familiar and positive. These are the Speaking Men in all Conversation, and they compel every one else to hear them. They are heard in the Antichamber. They enter without

Interruption: They continue their Tales without any consideration for such as come in, or go out, or for the rank or quality of the people who make up the Company. They silence him that dares to begin a piece of News, that they may tell it after their own fashion, which to be sure is the best. They had it of Zamet, Raccelay, or Conchini, whom they name familiarly without their Title, tho they never knew 'em, or spoke to 'em in their Lives: They get themselves up sometimes to the best Man in the Company, to gratify him with something new, which no body else knows. They whisper it, and for a world will suffer none but him to partake on't. They hide Names to disguise the Story, and prevent Application. There are some things they must not tell, and some persons whom they cannot name: Their words are engaged to the contrary, 'tis a mystery, a secret of the last importance. Shou'd you ask it, you wou'd demand an impossibility; for whatever you imagine, they are equally ignorant of both persons and actions.

Children

THERE seems to be but one character of Childhood: The Manners at that age is in all much the same, and it must be with a very nice observation, that you can perceive a difference. It augments with Reason, because with it the Passions and Vices increase, which make men so unlike one another, and so contrary to themselves.

Children have in their childhood what old men lose, Imagination and Memory, which are very useful to them in their little sports and amuse