Darkness as long as I was able to endure it, till at length I came to a Refolution of rifing upon them, and hope in a little time to drive them quite out of the British Hemisphere. N° 583. Friday, August 20. Ipfe thymum pinofque ferens de montibus altis, E Virg. OVERY Station of Life has Duties which are proper to it. Those who are determined by Choice to any particular kind of Business, are indeed more happy than thofe who are determined by Neceffity, but both are under an equal Obligation of fixing on Employments, which may be either ufeful to themselves or beneficial to others. No one of the Sons of Alam ought to think himself exempt from that Labour and Industry, which were denounced to our first Parent, and in him to all his Pofterity. Those to whom Birth or Fortune may feem to make fuch an Application unneceffary, ought to find out fome Calling or Profeffion for themfelves, that they may not lie as a Burden on the Species, and be the only useless Parts of the Creation. MANY of our Country Gentlemen in their bufic Hours apply themselves wholly to the Chafe, or to fome other Diverfion which they find in the Fields and Woods. This gave occafion to one of our most eminent English Writers to reprefent every one of them as lying under a kind of Curfe pronounced to them in the Words of Goliah, I will give thee to the fowls of the Air and to the beasts of the field. THO' Exercises of this Kind, when indulged with Moderation, may have a good Influence both on the the Mind and Body, the Country affords many other Amusements of a more noble Kind. AMONG thefe I know none more delightful in itself, and beneficial to the Publick, than that of PLANTING. I could mention a Nobleman whose Fortune has placed him in feveral Parts of England, and who has always left these visible Marks behind him, which fhow he has been there: He never hired a House in his Life, without leaving all about it the Seeds of Wealth, and bestowing Legacies on the Pofterity of the Owner. Had all the Gentlemen of England made the fame Improvements upon their Estates, our whole Country would have been at this time as one great Garden. Nor ought fuch an Employment to be look ed upon as too inglorious for Men of the highest Rank. There have been Heroes in this Art, as well as in others. We are told in particular of Cyrus the Great, that he planted all the Leffer Afia. There is indeed fomething truly magnificent in this kind of Amufement: It gives a nobler Air to feveral Parts of Nature; it fills the Earth with a Variety of beautiful Scenes, and has fomething in it like Creation. For this Reason the Pleasure of one who plants is fomething like that of a Poct, who, as Ariftotle obferves, is more delighted with his Productions than any other Writer or Artist whatsoever. PLANTATIONS have one Advantage in them which is not to be found in moft other Works, as they give a Pleasure of a more lafting Date, and continually improve in the Eye of the Planter. When you have fi nifhed a Building, or any other Undertaking of the like Nature, it immediately decays upon our Hands; you fee it brought to the utmost Point of Perfection, and from that time haftening to its Ruin. On the contrary, when you have finished your Plantations, they are ftill arriving at greater Degrees of Perfection as long as you live, and appear more delightful in every fucceeding Year, than they did in the foregoing. BUT I do not only recommend this Art to Men of Estates as a pleafing Amusement, but as it is a kind of Virtuous Employment, and may therefore be in culcated · 105 culcated by moral Motives; particularly from the Love which we ought to have for cur Country, and the Regard which we ought to bear to our Pofterity. As for the firft, I need only mention what is frequently obferved by others, that the Increase of ForeftTrees does by no Means bear a Proportion to the Deftruction of them, infomuch that in a few Ages the Nation may be at a Lofs to supply itself with Timber fufficient for the Fleets of England. I know when a Man talks of Pofterity in Matters of this Nature, he is looked upon with an Eye of Ridicule by the cunning and selfish Part of Mankind. Moft People are of the Humour of an old Fellow of a Colledge, who, when he was preffed by the Society to come into fomething that night redound to the good of their Succeffors, grew very peevish, We are always doing, fays he, fomething for Pofterity, but I would fain fee Pofterity do fomething for us. BUT I think Men are inexcufable, who fail in a Duty of this Nature, fince it is fo easily discharged. When a Man confiders, that the putting a few Twigs into the Ground, is doing good to one who will make his Appearance in the World about Fifty Years hence, or that he is perhaps making one of his own Defcendants, eafie or rich, by fo inconfiderable an Expence, if he finds himfelf averfe to it, he must conclude that he has a poor and bafe Heart, void of all generous Principles and Love to Mankind. THERE is one Confideration, which may very much inforce what I have here faid. Many honest Minds that are naturally difpofed to do good in the World, and become Beneficial to Mankind, complain within themselves that they have not Talents for it. This therefore is a good Office, which is fuited to the meaneft Capacities, and which may be performed by Multitudes, who have not Abilities fufficient to deferve well of their Country and to recommend themfelves to their Pofterity, by any other Method. It is the Phrafe of a Friend of mine, when any ufeful Country Neighbour dics, that you may trace him: which I VOL, VIII. F look look upon as a good Funeral Oration, at the Death of an honeft Husbandman, who hath left the Impreffions of his Industry behind him, in the Place where he has lived. UPON the foregoing Confiderations, I can scarce forbear representing the Subject of this Paper as a Kind of Moral Virtue: which, as I have already shown, recommends itself likewife by the Pleasure that attends it. It must be confessed, that this is none of thofe turbulent Pleafures which is apt to gratify a Man in the Heats of Youth; but if it be not fo Tumultuous, it is more Lafting. Nothing can be more delightful, than to entertain our felves with Profpects of our own making, and to walk under thofe Shades which our own Industry has raised. Amusements of this Nature compofe the Mind, and lay at reft all. thofe Paffions which are uneafie to the Soul of Man, befides, that they naturally engender good Thoughts, and difpofe us to laudable Contemplations. Many of the old Philofophers paffed away the greatest Parts of their Lives among their Gardens. Epicurus himself · could not think fenfual Pleasure attainable in any o-、 ther Scene. Every Reader who is acquainted with Homer, Virgil and Horace, the greatest Genius's of all Antiquity, knows very well with how much Rapture they have spoken on this Subject; and that Virgil in particular has Written a whole Book on the Art of Planting. THIS Art feems to have been more especially adapted to the Nature of Man in his Primeval State, when he had Life enough to fee his Productions flourifh in their utmoft Beauty, and gradually decay with him. One who lived before the Flood might have feen a Wood of the tallest Oakes in the Acron. But I only mention this Particular, in order to introduce in my next Paper, a Hiftory which I have found among the Accounts of China, and which may be looked upon as an "Antediluvian Novel. Monday, N° 584. Monday, August 23. Hic gelidi fontes, hic mollia trata, Lycori, H Virg. ILPA was one of the 150 Daughters of Zilpah, of the Race of Cohu, by whom some of the Learned think is meant Cain. She was exceedingly beautiful, and when she was but a Girl of Threefcore and ten Years of Age, received the Addreffes of feveral who made Love to her. Among these were two Brothers, Harpath and Shalum; Harpath, being the Firft-born, was Mafter of that fruitful Region which lies at the Foot of Mount Tirzah, in the Southern Parts of China. Shalum (which is to fay the Planter in the Chinese Language) poffeffed all the neighbouring Hills, and that great Range of Mountains which goes under the Name of Tirzah. Harpath was of a haughty contemptuous Spirit; Shalum was of a gentle Difpofition, beloved both by God and Man. IT is faid that, among the Antediluvian Women, the Daughters of Cohu had their Minds wholly fet upon Riches; for which Reafon the beautiful Hilpa preferr'd Harpath to Shalum, becaufe of his numerous Flocks and Herds, that covered all the low Country which runs along the Foot of Mount Tirzah, and is watered by feveral Fountains and Streams breaking out of the Sides of that Mountain, HARPATH made fo quick a Dispatch of his Courtship, that he married Hilpa in the Hundredth Year of her Age; and being of an infolent Temper, laughed to Scorn his Brother Shalum for having pretended to the beautiful Hilpa, when he was Master of nothing but a long Chain of Rocks and Mountains. This fo much provoked Shalum, that he is faid to have curfed his Brother in the Bitterness of his Heart, and |