rity, by any other Method. It is the Phrafe of a Friend of mine, when any useful Country Neighbour dies, that you may trace him: which I look upon as a good Funeral Oration, at the Death of an honeft Husbandman, who hath left the Impreffions of his Induftry behind him, in the Place where he has lived. UPON the foregoing Confiderations, I can fcarce forbear reprefenting the Subject of this Paper as a kind of Moral Virtue: Which, as I have already shown, recommends it felf likewife by the Pleafure that attends it. It must be confeffed, that this is none of those turbulent Pleasures 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 ourselves with Profpects of our own making, and to walk under thofe Shades which our own Industry has raifed. Amufements of this Nature compose the Mind, and lay at reft all thofe Paffions which are uneafy 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 greateft Parts of their Lives among their Gardens. Epicurus himself could not think fenfual Pleasure attainable in any other 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 efpecially adapted to the Nature of Man in his Primeval State, when he had Life enough to fee his Productions flourish in their utmoft Beauty, and gradually decay with him. One who lived before the Flood might have seen a Wood of the talleft Oaks in the Acorn. 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 prata, Lycori, H ILPA was one of the 150 Daughters of Zilpah, of the Race of Cohu, by whom fome 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 thefe were two Brothers, Harpath and Shalum; Harpath, being the First-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 said that, among the Antediluvian Women, the Daughters of Cohu had their Minds wholly fet upon Riches; for which Reason the beautiful Hilpa preferr'd Harpath to Shalum, because 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 Difpatch 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 Mafter 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 to have prayed that that one of his Mountains might fall upon his Head if ever he came within the Shadow it. FROM this Time forward Harpath would never venture out of the Vallies, but came to an untimely End in the 250th Year of his Age, being drowned in a River as he attempted to cross it. This River is called to this Day, from his Name who perished in it, the River Harpath, and, what is very remarkable, iffues out of one of thofe Mountains which Shalum wished might fall upon his Brother, when he curfed him in the Bitternefs of his Heart. HILPA was in the 160th Year of her Age at the Death of her Husband, having brought him but 50 Children, before he was fnatched away, as has been already related. Many of the Antediluvians made Love to the young Widow, tho' no one was thought fo likely to fucceed in her Affections as her firft Lover Shalum, who renewed his Court to her about ten Years after the Death of Harpath; for it was not thought decent in those Days that a Widow fhould be seen by a Man within ten Years after the Decease of her Husband. SHALUM falling into a deep Melancholy, and refolving to take away that Objection which had been raised against him when he made his firft Addreffes to Hilpa, began immediately, after her Marriage with Harpath, to plant all that mountainous Region which fell to his Lot in the Divifion of this Country. He knew how to adapt every Plant to its proper Soil, and is thought to have inherited many traditional Secrets of that Art from the firft Man. This Employment turn'd at length to his Profit as well as to his Amusement : His Mountains were in a few Years fhaded with young Trees, that gradually fhot up into Groves, Woods, and Forefts, intermixed with Walks, and Lawns, and Gardens; infomuch that the whole Region, from a naked and defolate Profpect, began now to look like a fecond Paradife. The Pleafantnefs of the Place, and the agreeable Difpofition of Shalum, who was reckoned one of the mildeft and wifeft of all who lived before the Flood, drew into it Multitudes of People, who were perpetually employed in the finking of Wells, the dig ging ging of Trenches, and the hollowing of Trees, for the better Diftribution of Water through every Part of this fpacious Plantation. THE Habitations of Shalum looked every Year more beautiful in the Eyes of Hilpa, who, after the Space of 79 70 Autumns, was wonderfully pleafed with the diftant Profpect of Shalum's Hills, which were then covered with innumerable Tufts of Trees and gloomy Scenes that gave a Magnificence to the Place, and converted it into one of the fineft Landskips the Eye of Man could behold. THE Chinese record a Letter which Shalum is faid to have written to Hilpa, in the Eleventh Year of her Widowhood. I fhall here tranflate it, without departing from that noble Simplicity of Sentiments, and Plainnets of Manners which appears in the Original. SHALUM was at this Time 180 Years old, and Hilpa 170. Shalum, Master of Mount Tirzah, to Hilpa, Mistress of the Vallies. In the 788th Year of the Creation. My HAT have I not fuffered, O thou Daughter of Zilpah, fince thou gaveft thy felf away in Marriage to my Rival? I grew weary of the Light of the Sun, and have been ever fince covering my felf with Woods and Forefts. Thefe threefcore and ten Years have I bewailed the Lofs of thee on the Tops of Mount Tirzab, and foothed my Melancholy among a thoufand gloomy Shades of my own raifing. Dwellings are at prefent as the Garden of God; every Part of them is filled with Fruits, and Flowers, and Fountains. The whole Mountain is perfumed for thy Reception. Come up into it, O my Beloved, and let us People this Spot of the new World with a beautiful Race of Mortals; let us multiply exceedingly among thefe delightful Shades, and fill every Quarter of them with Sons and Daughters. Remember, O thou Daughter of Zilpah, that the Age of Man is but a thousand Years; that Beauty is the Admiration but of 6 a few Centuries. It flourishes as a Mountain Qak, or as a Cedar on the Top of Tirzah, which in three or four hundred Years will fade away, and never be thought of by Pofterity, unless a young Wood springs 'from its Roots. Think well on this, and remember 6 thy Neighbour in the Mountains. 6 HAVING here inferted this Letter, which I look upon as the only Antediluvian Billet-doux now extan', I fhall in my next Paper give the Anfwer to it, and the Sequel of this Story. N° 585. Wednesday, August 25. Ipfi letitia voces ad fidera jactant Intonfi montes: ipfæ jam carmina rupes, T Virg. The Sequel of the Story of Shalum and Hilpa. HE Letter inserted in my laft had fo good an Effect upon Hilpa, that the answered it in less than a Twelvemonth, after the following manner. Hilpa, Miftrefs of the Vallies, to Shalum, Mafter of Mount Tirzah. W In the 789th Year of the Creation. HAT have I to do with thee, O Shalum? Thou praifeft Hilpa's Beauty, but art thou not fecretly enamoured with the Verdure of her Meadows? Art thou not more affected with the Profpect of her green Vallies, than thou wouldest be with the Sight of her Perfon? The Lowings of my Herds, and the Bleatings of my Flocks, make a pleafant Echo in thy Mountains, and found fweetly in thy Ears. What tho' I am delighted with the Wavings of thy Forefts, and those Breezes of Perfumes which flow • from |