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was not fitter for any purpose in this life, than after that spark of virtue is extinguished in him, though he is able to write twenty verses in an evening?

Seneca says, after his exalted way of talking, "As the iminortal gods never learnt any virtue, though they are endued with all that is good; so there are some men who have so natural a propensity to what they should follow, that they learn it almost as soon as they hear it." Plants and vegetables are cultivated into the production of finer fruits than they would yield without that care; and yet we cannot entertain hopes of producing a tender conscious spirit into acts of virtue, without the same methods as are used to cut timber, or give new shape to a piece of stone.

Caesar sold him to a nobleman (coming five years
old, when he had but one sweat) for three hundred
guineas. A guinea a leap and trial, and a shilling
the man.
"ENOS THOMAS."

T.

No. 158.] FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 1711.
-Nos hæc novimus esse nihil.--MARTIAL, xiii. 2.
We know these things to be mere trifles.
OUT of a firm regard to impartiality, I print these
letters, let them make for me or not.

"MR. SPECTATOR,

"I have observed through the whole course of It is wholly to this dreadful practice, that we may your rhapsodies (as you once very well called them) attribute a certain hardiness and ferocity which some you are very industrious to overthrow all that many men, though liberally educated, carry about them your superiors, who have gone before you, have in all their behaviour. To be bred like a gentle-made their rule of writing. I am now between fifty man, and punished like a malefactor, must, as we see it does, produce that illiberal sauciness which we see sometimes in men of letters.

The Spartan boy who suffered the fox (which he had stolen and hid under his coat) to eat into his bowels, I dare say had not half the wit or petulance which we learn at great schools among us: but the glorious sense of honour, or rather fear of shame, which he demonstrated in that action, was worth all the learning in the world without it.

and sixty, and had the honour to be well with the first men of taste and gallantry in the joyous reign of Charles the Second. We then had, I humbly presume, as good understandings among us as any now can pretend to. As for yourself, Mr. Spectator, you seem with the utmost arrogance to undermine the very fundamentals upon which we conducted ourselves. It is monstrous to set up for a man of wit, and yet deny that honour in a woman is any thing else but peevishness, that inclination is "not"* It is, methinks, a very melancholy consideration, the best rule of life, or virtue and vice any thing that a little negligence can spoil us, but great in- else but health and disease. We had no more to do dustry is necessary to improve us; the most excel- but to put a lady into a good humour, and all we lent natures are soon depreciated, but evil tempers could wish followed of course, Then, again, your are long before they are exalted into good habits. Tully, and your discourses of another life, are the To help this by punishments, is the same thing as very bane of mirth and good humour. Pr'ythee do killing a man to cure him of a distemper; when he not value thyself on thy reason at that exorbitant comes to suffer punishment in that one circumstance, rate, and the dignity of human nature; take my he is brought below the existence of a rational crea-word for it, a setting-dog has as good reason as any ture, and is in the state of a brute that moves only by the admonition of stripes. But since this custom of educating by the lash is suffered by the gentry of Great Britain, I would prevail only that honest heavy lads may be dismissed from slavery sooner than they are at present, and not whipped on to their fourteenth or fifteenth year, whether they expect any progress from them or not. Let the child's capacity be forthwith examined, and he sent to some mechanic way of life, without respect to his birth, if nature designed him for nothing higher: let him go before he has innocently suffered, and is debased into a dereliction of mind for being what it is no guilt to be, a plain man. I would not here be supposed to have said, that our learned men of either robe who have been whipped at school, are not still men of noble and liberal minds; but I am sure they would have been much more so than they are, had they never suffered that infamy.

man in England. Had you (as by your diurnals
one would think you do) set up for being in vogue
in town, you should have fallen in with the bent of
passion and appetite; your songs had then been in
every pretty mouth in England, and your little dis-
tiches had been the maxims of the fair and the witty
to walk by: but, alas, Sir, what can you hope for
from entertaining people with what must needs
make them like themselves worse than they did be-
fore they read you? Had you made it your business
to describe Corinna charming, though inconstant;
to find something in human nature itself to make
Zoilus excuse himself for being fond of her; and to
make every man in good commerce with his own
reflections, you had done something worthy our ap-
plause; but indeed, Sir, we shall not commend you
for disapproving us. I have a great deal more to say
to you, but I shall sum it all up in this one remark.
In short, Sir, you do not write like a gentleman.
I am, Sir, your most humble servant."
"MR. SPECTATOR,

"The other day we were several of us at a tea-
table, and according to custom and your own advice
had the Spectator read among us.
of

But though there is so little care, as I have observed, taken, or observation made of the natural strain of men, it is no small comfort to me, as a Spectator, that there is any right value set upon the bena indoles of other animals; as appears by the following advertisement handed about the county Lincoln, and subscribed by Enos Thomas, a person whom I have not the honour to know, but suppose to be profoundly learned in horse-flesh :

"A chesnut horse called Cæsar, bred by James Darcy, Esquire, at Sedbury, near Richmond, in the county of York; his grandam was his old royal mare, and got by Blunderbuss, which was got by Helmsley Turk, and he got by Mr. Courant's Arabian, which got Mr. Minshul's Jew's-Trump. Mr.

It was that pa

dom that character which you call a woman's man. per wherein you are pleased to treat with great freeWe gave up all the kinds you have mentioned, except those who, you say, are our constant visitants. was upon the occasion commissioned by the company to write to you and tell you, that we shall not part with the men we have at present, until the men

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*Spect. in folio. Altered in the 8vo. of 1712, when "not" was left out.

-Omnem, quæ nunc obducta tuenti
Mortales hebetat visus tibi, et humida circum
Caligat, nubem eripiam- VIRG. Æn. ii. 604.
The cloud, which, intercepting the clear light,
Hangs o'er thy eyes, and blunts thy mortal sight,
I will remove

WHEN I was at Grand Cairo, I picked up several oriental manuscripts, which I have still by me.Among others I met with one entitled, The Visions of Mirza, which I have read over with great pleasure. I intend to give it to the public when I have no other entertainment for them; and shall begin with the first vision, which I have translated word for word as follows:

of sense think fit to relieve them, and give us their No. 159.] SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1711. company in their stead.' You cannot imagine but that we love to hear reason and good sense better than the ribaldry we are at present entertained with, but we must have company, and among us very inconsiderable is better than none at all. We are made for the cements of society, and came into the world to create relations amongst mankind; and solitude is an unnatural being to us. If the men of good understanding would forget a little of their severity, they would find their account in it; and their wisdom would have a pleasure in it, to which they are now strangers. It is natural among us, when men have a true relish of our company and our value, to say every thing with a better grace and there is without designing it something ornamental in what men utter before women, which is lost or neglected in conversations of men only. Give me leave to tell you, Sir, it would do you no great harm if you yourself came a little more into our company it would certainly cure you of a certain positive and determining manner in which you talk sometimes. In hopes of your amendment,

"I am, Sir, your gentle reader."

"MR. SPECTATOR,

"Your professed regard to the fair sex may, perhaps, make them value your admonitions when they will not those of other men. I desire you, Sir, to repeat some lectures upon subjects which you have now and then in a cursory manner only just touched. I would have a Spectator wholly writ upon good breeding; and after you have asserted that time and place are to be very much considered in all our actions, it will be proper to dwell upon behaviour at church. On Sunday last, a grave and reverend man preached at our church. There was something particular in his accent, but without any manner of affectation. This particularity a set of gigglers thought the most necessary thing to be taken notice of in his whole discourse, and made it an occasion of mirth during the whole time of sermon. You should see one of them ready to burst behind a fan, another pointing to a companion in another seat, and a fourth with an arch composure, as if she would if possible stifle her laughter. There were many gentlemen who looked at them steadfastly, but this they took for ogling and admiring them. There was one of the merry ones in particular, that found out but just then that she had but five fingers, for she fell a reckoning the pretty pieces of ivory over and over again, to find herself employment and not laugh out. Would it not be expedient, Mr. Spectator, that the churchwarden should hold up his wand on these occasions, and keep the decency of the place as a magistrate does the peace in a tumult elsewhere ?"

"MR. SPECTATOR,

"I am a woman's man, and read with a very fine lady your paper, wherein you fall upon us whom you envy: what do you think I did? You must know she was dressing: I read the Spectator to her, and she laughed at the places where she thought I was touched; I threw away your moral, and taking up her girdle, cried out,

Give me but what this riband bound,
Take all the rest the "sun"
goes round.t

"She smiled, Sir, and said you were a pedant;
so say of me what you please, read Seneca and quote
him against me if you think fit,
T.

• World.

66

I am, Sir, your humble servant."

↑ From Waller's verses on a lady's girdle.

and

"On the fifth day of the moon, which according to the custom of my forefathers I always keep holy after having washed myself, and offered up my morn ing devotions, I ascended the high hills of Bagdat in order to pass the rest of the day in meditation and prayer. As I was here airing myself on the tops of the mountains, I fell into a profound contemplation on the vanity of human life; passing from one thought to another, Surely,' said I, 'man is but a shadow, and life a dream.' Whilst I was thus musing, I cast my eyes towards the summit of a rock that was not far from me, where I discovered one in the habit of a shepherd, with a little musical instrument in his hand. As I looked upon him he applied it to his lips, and began to play upon it. The sound of it was exceeding sweet, and wrought into a variety of tunes that were inexpressibly melodious, and altogether different from any thing I had ever heard. They put me in miud of those heavenly airs that are played to the departed souls of good men upon their first arrival in `Paradise, to wear out the impressions of the last agonies, and qualify them for the pleasures of that happy place. My heart melted away in secret raptures.

"I had been often told that the rock before me was the haunt of genius; and that several had been entertained with music who had passed by it, but never heard that the musician had before made himself visible. When he had raised my thoughts by those transporting airs which he played, to taste the upon him pleasures of his conversation, as I looked like one astonished, he beckoned to me, and by the waving of his hand directed me to approach the I drew near with that reverplace where he sat.

ence which is due to a superior nature; and as my heart was entirely subdued by the captivating strains I had heard, I fell down at his feet and wept. The genius smiled upon me with a look of compassion and affability that familiarized him to my imagination, and at once dispelled all the fears and appre hensions with which I approached him. He lifted me from the ground, and taking me by the hand, Mirza,' said he, I have heard thee in thy solilo quies; follow me.'

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"He then led me to the highest pinnacle of the rock, and placing me on the top of it- Cast thy eyes eastward,' said he, and tell me what thou seest.'-' I see,' said I, a huge valley, and a prodigious tide of water rolling through it. The valley that thou seest,' said he, is the Vale of Misery, and the tide of water that thou seest is part of the great tide of eternity. What is the rea son,' said I, that the tide I see rises out of a thick mist at one end, and again loses itself in a thick mist at the other? What thou seest,' said he, is that portion of eternity which is called time, measured out by the sun, and reaching from the begin

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ning of the world to its consummation.

now,' said he, this sea that is bounded with darkness at both ends, and tell me what thou discoverest in it. I see a bridge,' said I, standing in the midst of the tide.'-' The bridge thou seest,' said he, 'is human life; consider it attentively.' Upon a more leisurely survey of it, I found that it consisted of threescore and ten entire arches, with several broken arches, which, added to those that were entire, made up the number about a hundred. As I was counting the arches, the genius told me that this bridge consisted at first of a thousand arches: but that a great flood swept away the rest, and left the bridge in the ruinous condition I now beheld it. * But tell me farther,' said he, what thou discoverest on it. I see multitudes of people passing over it.' said I, and a black cloud hanging on each end of it.' As I looked more attentively, I saw several of the passengers dropping through the bridge into the great tide that flowed underneath it: and, upon farther examination, perceived there were innumerable trap-doors that lay concealed in the bridge, which the passengers no sooner trod upon, but they fell through them into the tide, and immediately disappeared. These hidden pit-falls were set very thick at the entrance of the bridge, so that throngs of people no sooner broke through the cloud, but many of them fell into them. They grew thinner towards the middle, but multiplied and lay closer together towards the end of the arches that were entire.

Examine compassion towards me, bid me quit so uncomfortable a prospect. 'Look no more,' said he, on man in the first stage of his existence, in his setting out for eternity; but cast thine eye on that thick mist into which the tide bears the several generations of mortals that fall into it.' I directed my sight as I was ordered, and (whether or no the good genius strengthened it with any supernatural force, or dissipated part of the mist that was before too thick for the eye to penetrate) I saw the valley opening at the farther end, and spreading forth into an immense ocean, that had a huge rock of adamant running through the midst of it, and dividing it into two equal parts. The clouds still rested on one half of it, insomuch that I could discover nothing in it: but the other appeared to me a vast ocean planted with innumerable islands, that were covered with fruits and flowers, and interwoven with a thousand little shining seas that ran among them. I could see persons dressed in glorious habits with garlands upon their heads, passing among the trees, lying down by the sides of fountains, or resting on beds of flowers; and could hear a confused harmony of singing-birds, falling waters, human voices, and musical instru ments. Gladness grew in me upon the discovery of so delightful a scene. I wished for the wings of an eagle, that I might fly away to those happy seats: but the genius told me there was no passage to them, except through the gates of death that I saw opening every moment upon the bridge. • The islands,' said he, that lie so fresh and green before thee, and with which the whole face of the ocean appears spotted as far as thou canst see, are more in number than the sands on the sea-shore; there are myriads of islands behind those which thou here discoverest, "I passed some time in the contemplation of this reaching farther than thine eye, or even thine imagiwonderful structure, and the great variety of objects nation can extend itself. These are the mansions which it presented. My heart was filled with a deep of good men after death, who, according to the demelancholy to see several dropping unexpectedly in gree and kinds of virtue in which they excelled, are the midst of mirth and jollity, and catching at every distributed among these several islands; which thing that stood by them to save themselves. Some abound with pleasures of different kinds and dewere looking up towards heaven in a thoughtful pos-grees, suitable to the relishes and perfections of ture, and in the midst of a speculation stumbled and those who are settled in them; every island is a pafell out of sight. Multitudes were very busy in the radise accommodated to its respective inhabitants. pursuit of bubbles that glittered in their eyes and Are not these, O Mirza, habitations worth contenddanced before them; but often when they thought ing for? Does life appear miserable, that gives themselves within the reach of them, their footing thee opportunities of earning such a reward? Is failed, and down they sank. In this confusion of death to be feared, that will convey thee to so happy objects, I observed some with scimitars in their an existence? Think not man was made in vain, hands, and others with urinals, who ran to and fro who has such an eternity reserved for him.' I gazed upon the bridge, thrusting several persons on trap-with inexpressible pleasure on these happy islands. doors which did not seem to lie in their way, and which they might have escaped had they not been thus forced upon them.

"There were indeed some persons, but their number was very small, that continued a kind of hobbling march on the broken arches, but fell through one after another, being quite tired and spent with so long a walk.

"The genius seeing me indulge myself on this melancholy prospect, told me I had dwelt long enough upon it. Take thine eyes off the bridge,' said he, and tell me if thou yet seest any thing thou dost not comprehend.' Upon looking up, 'What mean,' said I, those great flights of birds that are perpetually hovering about the bridge, and settling upon it from time to time? I see vultures, harpies, ravens, cormorants, and among many other feathered creatures several little winged boys, that perch in great numbers upon the middle arches.'These,' said the genius, are Envy, Avarice, Superstition, Despair, Love, with the like cares and passions that infest human life.'

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"I here fetched a deep sigh. Alas,' said I, 'man was made in vain! how is he given away to misery and mortality! tortured in life, and swal lowed up in death!' The genius, being moved with

At length, said I, show me now, I beseech thee, the secrets that lie hid under those dark clouds which cover the ocean on the other side of the rock of adamant. The genius making me no answer, I turned about to address myself to him a second time, but I found that he had left me: I then turned again to the vision which I had been so long contemplating; but instead of the rolling tide, the arched bridge, and the happy islands, I saw nothing but the long hollow valley of Bagdat, with oxen, sheep, and camels, grazing upon the sides of it."

C.

The End of the First Vision of Mirza.
No. 160.] MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1711.
-Cui mens divinior, atque os
Magna sonaturum des nominis hujus honorem.
HOR. I Sat. iv. 43.
On him confer the Poet's sacred name.
Whose lofty voice declares the heavenly flame.
THERE is no character more frequently given to

a writer, than that of being a genius. I have heard many a little sonnetteer called a fine genius. There is not an heroic scribbler in the nation, that has not his admirers who think him a great genius; and as for your smatterers in tragedy, there is scarce a man among them who is not cried up by one or other for a prodigious genius.

My design in this paper is to consider what is properly, a great genius, and to throw some thoughts together on so uncommon a subject.

Among great geniuses those few draw the admiration of all the world upon them, and stand up as the prodigies of mankind, who by the mere strength of natural parts, and without any assistance of art or learning, have produced works that were the delight of their own times, and the wonder of posterity. There appears something nobly wild and extravagant in these great natural geniuses, that is infinitely more beautiful than all turn and polishing of what the French call a bel esprit, by which they would express a genius refined by conversation, reflection, and the reading of the most polite authors. The greatest genius which runs through the arts and sciences, takes a kind of tincture from them, and falls unavoidably into imitation.

conceptions of things and noble sallies of imagina
tion. At the same time, can any thing be more ri-
diculous than for men of a sober and moderate
fancy to imitate this poet's way of writing, in those
monstrous compositions which go among us under
the name of Pindarics? When I see people copy-
ing works, which, as Horace has represented them,
are singular in their kind, and inimitable; when I
see men following irregularities by rule, and by the
little tricks of art straining after the most unbounded
flights of nature, I cannot but apply to them that
passage in Terence:

Incerta hæc si tu postules
Ratione certa facere, nihilo plus agas.
Quam si des operam, ut cum ratione insanias.
EUN. act. 1. sc. 1.

the same time, as to think of reducing these uncertain things
to any certainty by reason.

You may as well pretend to be mad and in your senses at

with Pindar, is like a sister among the Camisars* In short, a modern Pindaric writer, compared compared with Virgil's Sibyl: there is the distorthat divine impulse which raises the mind above tion, grimace, and outward figure, but nothing of itself, and makes the sounds more than human.

There is another kind of great genuises which I Many of these great natural geniuses that were shall place in a second class, not as I think them never disciplined and broken by rules of art, are to inferior to the first, but only for distinction's sake, as be found among the ancients, and in particular among those of the more eastern parts of the world. they are of a different kind. The second class of Homer has innumerable flights that Virgil was not great genuises are those that have formed themseives able to reach, and in the Old Testament we find se-tural talents to the corrections and restraints of art. by rules, and submitted the greatness of their naveral passages more elevated and sublime than any Such among the Greeks were Plato and Aristotle; among the Romans, Virgil and Tully; among the English, Milton and Sir Francis Bacon.

in Homer. At the same time that we allow a

greater and more daring genius to the ancients, we must own that the greatest of them very much failed The genius in both these classes of authors may in, or, if you will, that they were much above, be equally great, but shows itself after a different the nicety and correctness of the moderns. In their similitudes and allusions, provided there was a like-manner. In the first, it is like a rich soil in a happy ness, they did not much trouble themselves about plants rising in a thousand beautiful landscapes climate, that produces a whole wilderness of noble the decency of the comparison: thus Solomon re- without any certain order or regularity. In the other sembles the nose of his beloved to the tower of Le-it is the same rich soil under the same happy clibanon, which looketh towards Damascus; as the coming of a thief in the night, is a similitude of the and cut into shape and beauty by the skill of the mate, that has been laid out in walks and parterres, same kind in the New Testament. It would be gardener.

endless to make collections of this nature; Homer illustrates one of his heroes encompassed with the lest they cramp their own abilities too much by imi. The great danger in the latter kind of genuises is, enemy, by an ass in a field of corn that has his sides tation, and form themselves altogether upon models, belaboured by all the boys of the village without without giving the full play to their own natural stirring a foot for it; and another of them tossing to and fro in his bed and burning with resentment, parts. An imitation of the best authors is not to to a piece o. flesh broiled on the coals. This par- compare with a good original; and I believe we ticular failure in the ancients opens a large field of may observe that very few writers make an extraorraillery to the little wits, who can laugh at an inde-dinary figure in the world, who have not something cency, but not relish the sublime in these sorts of in their way of thinking or expressing themselves, that is peculiar to them, and entirely their own. writing. The present emperor of Persia, conformIt is odd, to consider what great geniuses are ably to this eastern way of thinking, amidst a great sometimes thrown away upon trifles. many pompous titles, denominates himself the sun of glory," and "the nutmeg of delight." In author, "who used to divert himself in his solitudes "I once saw a shepherd," says a famous Italian short, to cut off all cavilling against the ancients, with tossing up eggs and catching them again withand particularly those of the warmer climates, who had most heat and life in their imaginations, we are to out breaking them: in which he had arrived to so consider that the rule of observing what the French great a degree of perfection, that he would keep up call the bienséance in an allusion, has been found out of later years, and in the colder regions of the world; where we could make some amends for our want of force and spirit, by a scrupulous nicety and exactness in our compositions. Our countryman, Shakspeare, was a remarkable instance of this first kind of great geniuses.

I cannot quit this head without observing that Pindar was a great genius of the first class, who was hurried on by a natural fire and impetuosity to vast

four at a time for several minutes together playing

More commonly known by the name of the French Prophets, a set of enthusiasts originally of the Cevennes in France, who came into England about the year 1707, and had at first a considerable number of votaries. A fuller account of the rise and progress of this strange sect may be gained from two pamphlets; one in French, entitled. Le Theatre sacre de

Cevennes, ou Recit de diverses Merveilles nouvellement operees dans cette Partie de la Province de Languedoc. Lond 1707, 12mo." The other in English, viz. "A Brand plucked from the Burning: exemplified in the unparalleled case of Samuel Keimer &c. London, 1718, 12mo"

in the air, and falling into his hands by turns. I myself, I could have looked longer on this sport,
think," says the author, "I never saw a greater had I not observed a country girl, who was posted
severity than in this man's face; for by his wonder- on an eminence at some distance from me, and was
fal perseverance and application, he had contracted making so many odd grimaces, and writhing and
the seriousness and gravity of a privy-counsellor; distorting her whole body in so strange a manner,
and I could not but reflect with myself, that the as made me very desirous to know the meaning of
same assiduity and attention, had they been rightly it. Upon my coming up to her, I found that she
applied, 'might have made him a greater mathe- was overlooking a ring of wrestlers, and that her
matician than Archimedes."
sweetheart, a person of small stature, was contending
with a huge brawny fellow, who twirled him about,
and shook the little man so violently, that by a

No. 161.] TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1711. secret sympathy of hearts it produced all those agi

Ipse dies agitat festos, fususque per herbam,
Ignis ubi in medio et socii cratera coronant,
Te libans, Lenæe, vocat; pecorisque magistris
Velocis jaculi certamina ponit in ulmo,
Corporaque agresti nudat prædura palæsira.
Hanc olim veteres vitam coluere Sabini,
Hanc Remus et frater. Sic fortis Etruria crevit,
Scilicet et rerum facta est pulcherrima Roma.
VIRG. Georg. ii. 527.
Himself, in rustic pomp, on holydays,
To rural pow'rs a just oblation pays;
And on the green his careless limbs displays :
The hearth is in the midst: the herdsmen, round
The cheerful fire, provoke his health in goblets crown'd.
He calls on Bacchus, and propounds the prize,
The groom his fellow-groom at buts defies,
And bends his bow, and levels with his eyes:
Or, stript for wrestling, smears his limbs with oil,
And watches with a trip his foe to foil.
Such was the life the frugal Sabines led;
So Remus and his brother king were bred:
From whom th' austere Etrurian virtue rose;
And this rude life our homely fathers chose;
Old Rome from such a race deriv'd her birth,
The seat of empire, and the conquer'd earth.-DRYDEN.

I AM glad that my late going into the country has increased the number of my correspondents, one of whom sends me the following letter:

"SIR,

"Though you are pleased to retire from us so soon into the city, I hope you will not think the affairs of the country altogether unworthy of your inspection for the future. I had the honor of seeing your short face at Sir Roger de Coverley's, and have ever since thought your person and writings both extraordinary. Had you stayed there a few days longer, you would have seen a country wake, which you know in most parts of England is the eve-feast of the dedication of our churches. I was last week at one of these assemblies which was held in a neighbouring parish; where I found their green covered with a promiscuous multitude of all ages and both sexes, who esteem one another more or less

tations in the person of his mistress, who, I dare
say, like Celia in Shakspeare on the same occasion,
could have wished herself invisible to catch the
strong fellow by the leg.'* The 'squire of the parish
treats the whole company every year with a hogshead
of ale; and proposes a beaver hat as a recompense
to him who gives most falls. This has raised such
a spirit of emulation in the youth of the place, that
some of them have rendered themselves very expert
at this exercise! and I was often surprised to see a
fellow's heels fly up, by a trip which was given him
so smartly that I could scarcely discern it. I found
that the old wrestlers seldom entered the ring until
some one was grown formidable by having thrown
two or three of his opponents; but kept them.
selves as it were a reserved body to defend the hat,
which is always hung up by the person who gets it
in one of the most conspicuous parts of the house,
and looked upon by the whole family as redounding
much more to their honor than a coat of arms.

There was a fellow who was so busy in regulating
air of importance in his looks, that I could not help
all the ceremonies, and seemed to carry such an
inquiring who he was, and was immediately an-
swered, That he did not value himself upon no-
thing, for that he and his ancestors had won so
dasher's shop.' However, this thirst of glory in
many hats, that his parlour looked like a haber-
them all was the reason that no one man stood
lord of the ring' for above three falls while I was
among them.

16

these exercises, were themselves engaged in some
"The young maids who were not lookers-on at
diversion; and upon my asking a farmer's son of
my own parish what he was gazing at with so
Betty Welch,' whom I knew to be his sweetheart,
much attention, he told me, 'That he was seeing
pitch a bar.'

the women they were no cowards, and that the
"In short, I found the men endeavoured to shew

whole
strived to recommend themselves
company
all in a perfect state of health, and fit to undergo
to each other, by making it appear that they were
any fatigues of bodily labour.

the following part of the year, according as they
distinguish themselves at this time. The whole
company were in their holiday clothes, and divided
into several parties, all of them endeavouring to
shew themselves in those exercises wherein they ex-
celled, and to gain the approbation of the lookers-on.
"I found a ring of cudgel players, who were break- "Your judgment upon this method of love and
ing one another's heads in order to make some im-gallantry, as it is at present practised among us in
pression on their mistresses' hearts. I observed a lusty the country, will very much oblige, Sir, your's," &c.
young fellow, who had the misfortune of a broken If I would here put on the scholar and politician,
pate; but what considerably added to the anguish I might inform my readers how these bodily exer-
of the wound, was his overhearing an old man who cises or games were formerly encouraged in all the
shook his head, and said, 'That he questioned now commonwealths of Greece; from whence the Ro-
if Black Kate would marry him these three years.' mans afterward borrowed their pentathlum, which was
I was diverted from a farther observation of these composed of running, wrestling, leaping, throwing,
combatants by a foot-ball match, which was on the and boxing, though the prizes were generally no-
other side of the green: where Tom Short behaved thing but a crown of cypress or parsley, hats not
himself so well, that most people seemed to agree, being in fashion in those days: that there is an old
'it was impossible that he should remain a bachelor statute, which obliges every man in England,
until the next wake.' Having played many a match having such an estate, to keep and exercise the

• Would, Spect. in folio.

"As You Like it," act. i. sc. 6.

4

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