natives of the several parts of the globe might have a kind of dependence upon one another, and be united together by their common intereft. Almost every degree produces fomething peculiar to it. The food often grows in one country, and the fauce in another. The fruits of Portugal are corrected by the products of Barbadoes: the infufion of a China plant fweetened with the pith of an Indian cane. The Philippine iflands give a flavour to our European bowls. The fingle drefs of a woman of quality is often the product of an hundred climates. The muff and the fan come together from the different ends of the earth. The fcarf is fent from the torrid zone; and the tippet from beneath the pole. The brocade petticoat rifes out of the mines of Peru; and the diamond necklace out of the bowels of Indoftan. If we confider our own country in it's natural profpect, without any of the benefits and advantages of commerce, what a barren uncomfortable spot of treaties, and maintain a good correfpondence between thofe wealthy focieties of men that are divided from one another by feas and oceans, or live on the different extremities of a continent. I have often been pleased to hear difputes adjusted between an inhabitant of Japan and an alderman of London, or to fee a fubject of the Great Mogul entering into a league with one of the Czar of Mufcovy. I am infinitely delighted in mixing with thefe feveral minifters of commerce, as they are diftinguished by their different walks and different languages: fometimes I am juttled among a body of Armenians: fometimes I am loft in a crowd of Jews; and fometimes make one in a groupe of Dutchmen. I am'a Dane, Swede, or Frenchman, at different times; or rather fancy myfelf Kke the old philofopher, who, upon being afked what countryman he was, replied, that he was a citizen of the world. Though I very frequently vifit this busy multitude of people, I am known to nobody there but my friend Sir An-earth falls to our fhate! Natural hiftodrew, who often fmiles upon me as he fees me bustling in the crowd, but at the fame time connives at my prefence without taking any further notice of me. There is indeed a merchant of Egypt, who just knows me by fight, having formerly remitted me fome money to Grand Cairo; but as I am not verfed in the modern Coptic, our conferences go no further than a bow and a grimace. This grand fcene of bufinefs gives me an infinite variety of folid and fubitantial entertainments. As I am a great lover of mankind, my heart naturally over flows with pleasure at the fight of a profperous and happy multitude, infomuch that at many public folemnities I cannot forbear expreffing my joy with fears that have ftolen down my cheeks. For this reason I am wonderfully delighted to fee fuch a body of men thriving in their own private fortunes, and at the fame time promoting the public ftock; or, in other words, raiting eftates for their own families, by bringing into their country whatever is wanting, and carrying out of it whatever is fuperflu อus. Nature feems to have taken a particular care to diffeminate her bleflings among the different regions of the world, with an eye to this mutual intercourfe and traffic among mankind, that the rians tell us, that no fruit grows originally among us, befides hips and haws, acorns and pig-nuts, with other delicacies of the like nature; that our climate of itfelf, and without the affistances of art, can make no further advances towards a plum than to a floe, and carries an apple to no greater perfection than a crab; that our melons, our peaches, our figs, our apricots, and cherries, are ftrangers among us, imported in different ages, and naturalized in our English gardens; and that they would all degenerate and fall away into the trash of our own country, if they were wholly neglected by the planter, and left to the mercy of our fun and foil. Nor has traffic more enriched our vegetable world, than it has improved the whole face of nature among us. Our fhips are laden with the harvest of every climate: our tables are flored with fpices, and oils, and wines; our rooms are filled with pyramids of China, and adorned with the workmanship of Japan: our morning's draught comes to us from the remoteft corners of the earth: we repair our bodies by the drugs of America, and repofe ourfelves under Indian canopies. My friend Sir Andrew calls the vineyards of France our gardens; the fpice-iflands, our hot-beds; the Perfians our filk weavers, and the Chinese our potters. potters. Nature indeed furnishes us with the bare neceffaries of life; but traffic, gives us a great variety of what is ufeful, and at the fame fupplies us with every thing that is convenient and ornamental. Nor is it the leaft part of this our happiness, that whilst we enjoy the remotest products of the north and fouth, we are free from thofe extremities of weather which give them birth: that our eves are refreshed with the green fields of Britain, at the fame time that our palates are feafted with fruits that rife between the tropics. For thefe reafons there are not more ufeful members in a commonwealth than merchants. They knit mankind together in a mutual intercourfe of good offices, diftribute the gifts of nature, find work for the poor, add wealth to the rich, and magnificence to the great. Our English merchant converts the tin of his own country into gold, and exchanges his wool for rubies. The Mahometans are cloathed in our British manufacture; and the inhabitants of the frozen zone warmed with the fleeces of our heep. When I have been upon the 'Change, I have often fancied one of our kings ftanding in perfon, where he is reprefented in effigy, and looking down upon the wealthy concourfe of people with which that place is every day filled. In this cafe, how would he be furprised to hear all the languages of Europe fpoken in this little pot of his former dominions, and to fee fo many private men, who in his time would have been the vatfals of fome powerful baron, negotiating like princes for greater fums of money than were formerly to be met with in the Royal Treafury! Trade, without enlarging the Britisk territories, has given us a kind of additional empire: it has multiplied the number of the rich, made our landed eftates infinitely more valuable than they were formerly, and added to them an acceffion of other cftates as valuable as the lands themfelves. N° LXX. MONDAY, MAY 21. INTERDUM VULGUS RECTUM VIDET. HOR. Er. II. 1. 63. SOMETIMES THE VULGAR SEE, AND JUDGE, ARIGHT. HEN I travelled, I took a par C and never failed to laugh in the fame Wicular delight in hearing the place. fengs and fables that are come from father to fon, and are moft in vogue among the common people of the countries through which I paffed; for it is impoffible that any thing fhould be univerfally tafted and approved by a multitude, though they are only the rabble of a nation, which hath not in it fome peculiar aptnefs to please and gratify the mind of man. Human nature is the fame in all reasonable creatures; and whatever falls in with it, will meet with admirers amongst readers of all qualities and conditions. Moliere, we are told by Monfieur Boileau, used to read all his comedies to an old woman who was his houfe-keeper, as fhe fat with him at her work by the chimney-corner; and could foretel the fuccefs of his play in the theatre, from the reception it met at his fire-fide: for he tells us the audiEnce always followed the old woman, I know nothing which more fhews the effential and inherent perfection of fimplicity of thought, above that which I call the Gothic manner in writing, than this, that the firit pleafes all kinds of palates, and the latter only fuch as have formed to themselves a wrong artificial tafte upon little fanciful authors and writers of epigrams. Homer, Virgil, or Milton, fo far as the language of their poems is understood, will please a reader of plain common fenfe, who would neither relish nor comprehend an epigram of Martial; or a poem of Cowley; fo, on the contrary, an ordinary fong or ballad that is the delight of the common people, cannot fail to please all fuch readers as are not unqualified for the entertainment by their affectation or ignorance; and the reason is plain, becaufe the fame paintings of nature which recommend it to the most ordinary S 2 reader, reader, will appear beautiful to the most refined. The old fong of Chevy-Chafe is the favourite ballad of the common people of England; and Ben Jonfon ufed to fay he had rather have been the author of it than of all his works. Sir Philip Sidney, in his difcourfe of poetry, speaks of it in the following words: 'I never heard the old fong of Piercy and Douglas, that I found not my heart more moved than with a trumpet; and yet it is fung by fome blind crowder with "no rougher voice than rude ftile; which being fo evil apparelled in the dust and cobweb of that uncivil age, what would it work trimmed in the gorgeous eloquence of Pindar? For my own part, I am fo profeffed an admirer of this antiquated fong, that I fhall give my reader a critique upon it, without any further apology for fo doing. The greatest modern critics have laid it down as a rule, that an heroic poem fhould be founded upon fome important precept of morality, adapted to the conftitution of the country in which the poet writes. Homer and Virgil have formed their plans in this view. As Greece was a collection of many governments, who fuffered very much among themfelves, and gave the Perfian emperor, who was their common enemy, many advantages over them by their mutual jealousies and animofities, Homer, in order to establish among them an union, which was fo necessary for their safety, grounds his poem upon the difcords of the feveral Grecian princes who were engaged in a confederacy against an Afiatic prince, and the feveral advantages which the enemy gained by fuch their difcords. At the time the poem we are now treating of was written, the diffentions of the barons, who were then fo many petty princes, ran very high, whether they quarrelled among themselves, or with their neighbours, and produced unfpeakable calamities to the country: the poet, to deter men from fuch unnatural contentions, deferibes a bloody battle and dreadful fcene of death, occafioned by the mutual feuds which reigned in the families of an English and Scotch nobleman. That he defigned this for the inftruction of his poem, we may learn from his four laft lines, in which, after the example of the modern tragedians, he God fave the king, and biefs the land The next point observed by the greatest The poet before us has not only found out an hero in his own country, but raifes the reputation of it by feveral beautiful incidents. The English are the first who take the field, and the last who quit it. The English bring only fifteen hundred to the battle; the Scotch, two thousand. The English keep the field with fifty-three; the Scotch retire with fifty-five: all the rest on each fide being flain in battle. But the most remarkable circumftance of this kind, is the different manner in which the Scotch and English kings receive the news of this fight, and of the great men's deaths who commanded in it. This news was brought to Edinburgh, O heavy news,' King James did fay; I have not any captain more Like tidings to King Henry came Within as fhrt a space, That Piercy of Northumberland Now God be with him,' faid our king, I trust I have within my reali Yet fhall not Scot nor Scotland fay For brave Lord Piercy's fake." In one day fifty knights were flain, And And of the reft, of small account, Did many thousands die, &c. At the fame time that our poet fhews a laudable partiality to his countrymen, he represents the Scots after a manner not unbecoming fo bold and brave a people. Earl Douglas on a milk-white fteed, Moft like a baron bold, Rode foremost of the company, Whofe armour fhone like gold. His fentiments and actions are every Ere thus I will out-braved be, I know thee well, an earl thou art, • But trust me, Piercy, pity it were, • Let thou and I the battle try, And fet our men afide.'- By whom this is deny'd.' When thefe brave men had diftinguished themselves in the battle and in ingle combat with each other, in the midit of a generous parley, full of heroic fentiments, the Scotch earl falls; and with his dying words encourages his men to revenge his death, reprefenting to them, as the most bitter circumftance of it, that his rival faw him fall. With that there came an arrow keen Who never spoke more words than thefe, 'Fight on, my merry men all, For why, my life is at an end, Lord Piercy fees my fail.' Merry Men, in the language of thofe times, is no more than a chearful word for companions and fellow-foldiers. A paffage in the eleventh book of Virgil's neid is very much to be admired, here Camilla in her laft agonies, inftead of weeping over the wound the had received, as one might have expected from a warrior of her fex, confiders only, like the hero of whom we are now Conficit et tenebris nigrefcunt omnia circume Effuge, et hæc Turno mandata novissima perfer; Succedat pugna, Trojanosque arceat urbes Turnus did not die in fo heroie a manner; though our poet feems to have had his eye upon Turnus's fpeech in the laft verfe, Lord Piercy fees my fall." -Vicifi, ct vium tendere palmas Aufonii videre AN. XH. .9369 The Latian chiefs have feen me beg my life. DRYDEN Earl Piercy's lamentation over his enemy is generous, beautiful, and paffionate; I must only caution the reader not to let the fimplicity of the ftile, which one may well pardon in fo old a poet, prejudice him against the greatness of the thought. Then leaving life, Ear! Piercy took The dead man by the hand, And faid- Earl Douglas, for thy life Would I had lost my land. 10 Chrift! my very heart doth bleed With forrow for thy fake; For fure a more renowned knight Mifchance did never take.' That beautiful line, Taking the dead man by the hand, will put the reader in mind of Æneas's behaviour towards Laufus, whom he himself had flain as he came to the refcue of his aged father. At verò ut qu'tum vidit morientis, et ora, Ora modis Anchifiades pallentia miris; Ingemuit, miferans grauiter, dextramque te tendit. N. x. 8221 The pious prince beheld young Laufus dead; He griev'd, he wept; then grafp'd his hand, and faid, &c. DRYDEN. T N° LXXI. TUESDAY, MAY 22. -SCRIBERE JUSSIT AMOR. LOVE BADE ME WRITE. HE intire conqueft of our paffions is fo difficult a work, that they who defpair of it fhould think of a lefs difficult task, and only attempt to regulate them. But there is a third thing, which may contribute not only to the eafe, but also to the pleafure of our life; and that is, refining our paffions to a greater elegance than we receive them from nature. When the paffion is love, this work is performed in innocent, though rude and uncultivated minds, by the mere force and dignity of the object. There are forms which naturally create respect in the beholders, and at once inflame and chaftife the imagination. Such an impreffion as this gives an immediate ambition to defe: ve, in order to plenfe. This caufe and effect are beautifully defcribed by Mr. Dryden in the fable of Cimon and Iphigenia. After he has reprefented Cimon fo ftupid, that He whistled as he went, for want of thought he makes him fall into the following fcene, and fhews it's influence upon him fo excellently, that it appears as natural as wonderful. It happen'd on a fummer's holiday The deep recefles of the grove he gain'd; To reft by cool Eurotas they refort. The dame herfelf the goddess well exprefs'd,. care, Her body fhaded with a flight cymarr; Her bofom to the view was only bare: OVID. EPIST. IV. 18. First found his want of words, and fear'd of, fence; Doubted for what he was he should be known, By his clown-accent, and his country tone. But left this fine defcription fhould be excepted againft, as the creation of that great mafter, Mr. Dryden, and not an account of what has really ever happened in the world; I fhall give you, verbatim, the epiftle of an enamoured footman in the country to his miftrefs. Their furnames fhall not be inferted, becaufe their paffion demands a greater refpect than is due to their quality. James is fervant in a great family, and Elizabeth waits upon the daughter of one as numerous, fome miles off of her lover. James, before he beheld Betty, ler, and quarrelfome cudgel player; was vain of his ftrength, a rough wreitBetty a public dancer at may-poles, a romp at ftool ball: he always following idle women, fhe playing among the peafants; he a country bully, the a country coquette. But love has made her conftantly in her miftrefs's chamber, where the young lady gratifies a fecret paffion of her own, by making Betty talk of James; and James is become a conftant waiter near his master's apartment, in reading, as well as he can, romances. I cannot learn who Molly is, who it feems walked ten miles to carry the angry meffage, which gave occafion to what follows, |