comforts of an INN to thole of a TA VERN. Nor was this all. It was my misfortune, Sir, that fome phylicians, without, I believe, meaning to do me an injury, were pleated to commend the falubrity of the air, and the healthy fituation in which my houfe was built. It was the temple of Hygeia, and its happy owner could difpenfe the bleffings of ftrength and longevity. The confequence was, that I became under the neceffity of varying my avocations, by adding to the comforts of an INN and a TAVERN, the more anxious cares of an HOSPITAL; and indeed I cannot conceal that many of my friends, after remaining here for four or five weeks, have recovered fo furprizingly, as to be able to complete the cure by going to Margate or Brighthelmftone. With others I have perhaps not been fo fuccessful; but of fone who died here, after a refidence of a month or two, it was faid, with a view to keep up the reputation of the house, that they employed this remedy too late. My wife and daughters, too, have not been deficient in medical hofpitality in the cafe of complaints peculiar to the fex; and I have had the felicity of adding to the births of the parish, by happening to be vifited by ladies who were fo imprudent as to venture from home when " they had not an hour to reckon." I may add, likewife, that a few chriftenings tended very much to enlarge my acquaintance, an effect which was alfo produced by the affectionate enquiries ufual during the month. There was nothing in all this, however, which I had power to refufe; and the only inttance in which I fhewed a fmall degree of inclination to be select in my company, was when a worthy friend propofed to fend a lunatic here to try what change of air would do." It is indeed wonderful how many conveniences and advantages my friends have difcovered in this houfe, which they can find no where else My dinners are not only more plentiful but better dreffed than any within ten miles of London; my port and madeira are fo excellent that even the fobereft of my guests regret that a couple of bottles fhould hurt any human being; and the fruit my garden produces exceeds both in quantity and flavour the moft favourite difplays of Covent-garden market; I have a bowling green, which exceeds all others in smoothness fo far that many gentlemen make matches on purpose to "come down and play them here;" and it is not many months fince a colone! of volunteers thought this fituation fo admirable for military manœuvres, that he ordered his regiment to permanent duty for a week on the common in my neighbourhood, and I had the honour to entertain the officers at niy "hofpitable manfion," as they chose to call it. But, Mr. PROJECTOR, you will perceive that with all the fatisfaction I have been fo happy as to afford to others, I have failed in every purpofe I propofed to myfelf; and have none of the comforts of a private gentleman, while I am renowned as the best of landlords. And I have lost one opportunity which I am fure you will not undervalue, that of fhowing a proper example to my family and fervants of regular attendance at church. I need not tell you, Sir, that Sunday is the day of all others, when I have principally to exercife the talents and patience of an innkeeper. I wish, therefore, you would endeavour to perfuade my friends, many of whom are readers of the PROJECTOR, and have more than once drank his health in my beft claret, to have fome compaffion on my cafe, and not leave me the alternative of breaking the Sabbath, or breaking up houfekeeping. Endeavour, Sir, to perfuade them that vifiting on Sunday is extremely vulgar, and that being feen on the roads near London on that day, covered with dust, gives occafion to many of the worst fufpicions to which a man of spirit can be liable. Tell them that pertons fo employing their time are fiippofed to be apprentices or journeymen upon hired horfes, or perfons whofe circumftances are fo narrow or fo embaraffed that they are not fit to be feen, or find it fafe to travel any other day. I hope, indeed, Mr. PROJECTOR, that if you will write a good, fmart paper on this fubject, it will foon be as unfashionable to ride out on Sundays, as to go to Bartholomew - Fair; and perhaps this good effect would have already taken place, if fome of our leaders of fafhion had not become tired of genteel amufements, and lately taken to thofe which are evidently borrowed from that place of vulgar refort. It is certainly a very hard cafe that in a land of liberty, a man cannot be matter of his own time, and that every perfon thinks he has a right to deprive him of a part of it, and what is worfe, expects thanks for conferring the obligation of idlenefs, and breaking in upon the regularity of domeftic tran quillity. And why this fhould be done with more impunity in the country than in town, and why the facred privileges of an Englishman's caftellum fhould not extend beyond the city of London, I am yet to learn. I may not perhaps be able to perfuade my countrymen to be of my opinion, but if they have enjoyed my experience, of which I have given you a brief sketch, they will not think much of the privilege from arreft, while the privilege from vifitors is denied. I am, Sir, Your humble fervant, PETER PLACID. P. S. As I have written this remonfrance more with a view to ferve others than myfelf, I think it neceffary to add that, whatever effect it may have, I mean at the end of this feafon to quit the buftle of a country-life, and retire to Mincing-lane for the remainder of my days, OBSERVATIONS ON THE FIRST EPISTLE OF HORACE. Herculis ad poftem (1) fixis, latet abditus agro; [ná (2). Ne populum extremâ țoties exoret are(1) With the antients every profeffion had its tutelar deity; and whoever intended to abdicate an art that he had exercifèd with reputation, ufually hung up the implements of it in fome temple of the guardian god. That the gladiators were under the patronage of Hercules, as Turnebus imagines, is, perhaps, not demonftrable: at least, however, this deified athletes was fufficiently qualified for that purpose, or Veianius might have made choice of him for his particular patron; and accordingly now confecrates to him his fword, as the Laïs of the poet Plato, in the Anthology, devotes her lookingglafs to the goddess of Love. (2) The Veianius, with whom Horace here compares himself, has occafioned great trouble to the learned expofitors. Who was he? Was he of the clafs of the vulgar gladiators who addicted themfelves for hire to this bloody trade? Or was he one of the lefs common, who, on account of their extraordinary bodily ftrength and dexterity, made profeffion of it, not fo much from neceffity as the defire of fame and a delight in the art? Was he a good or a bad combatant? If a bad one, how came he by the honour people, after he had already feveral of being repeatedly called for by the times received his difmiffion? If he often be reduced to the neceflity of were a good one, how could he fo imploring the people for his life?— All things confidered, I find myself obliged to recede from the opinion I once entertained, and to follow, the interpretation of Torrentius, who, in folving the knotty paffages of our author, is almost always among the happieft. Horace fays not, that Veianius begged his life of the people; the extremâ arená populum exorare, without ufing force, is capable of another fignification-he only fued to be difiniffed that he might be excufed from the hoonce for all; or, he earnestly defired future, as he was weary of the dangenour of being continually called for in he might be of the art, yet he always rous fport; and, as great a malter as ran the hazard of being at length overcome by a younger and more vigorous antagonist; and fo by the indifcretion of the populace, whofe favourite he his old age, be deprived at once of the had a long time been, might at last in fame he had fo hardly earned. avoid this fate, Veianius hung up his fword in the temple of Hercules, retired from Rome, and lived retired at his farm in one of the Italian provinces. By this interpretation the comparifon fuits our Poet fo well, that it would be fuperfluous to fay a word more on the fubject. To Eft mihi, purgatam crebrò qui personet aurem (3), &c. (3) This whole Epifile is fo full of for Horace here to have had in his eye allufions, that it may well be poflible Plato, or fome other of the Greeks. the Dæmon of Socrates, or a paffage of Cruquius cites Herodotus, who (I know not where) in fpeaking of the in contradiftinction to the fenfible foul, Deus in nobis, that which the Greeks, called the intelligent and divine part of feat in the ears, Ey wσ TWY afew x W v the human nature, fays: that it had its οικεει. Lambinus on this occafion calls to mind the paffage of Plato's Crito, where Socrates, after having per 66 perforified the laws and republic of Athens, and introduced them speaking, and propounding to him the reafons why it was not permitted him to flee, as he, though innocent (in his opinion), was fentenced to death by them -fubjoins: " he thought he heard all this, as perfons who are attacked by the corybantic fury, think they hear the notes of flutes; and the found of these speeches was fo ftrongly vocal in him, that he could hear nothing else for it." Francis does not tranflate the purgatam aurem at all; and, indeed it is hardly poffible to exprefs properly in English, either the beauty of the word perfonare, or the jocularity that lies, as I fuppofe, in the words purgatam aurem. Akenfide evidently had them in mind when he wrote: cra (4) pono. (4) We should do wrong to adduce this pretended proper confeffion of our Poet in favour of the opinion of thofe who hold poetry as no better than an idle paftime, unworthy of a wife man, particularly at a certain age. For, that Horace could have made the exercife of poetry very well to confift with the quid verum atque decens, we fee from his epifile to Lollius, from the Socratical philofophy which he recom mends to the young Poets in his epifile to the Pifoes, and from many other paffages of his works. The generality of interpreters have the fault of alway's taking whatever he fays too ferioully and dogmatically, fo as frequently to Seem to forget, to whom, in what circumfiances, in what tone, and in what defign he fays it. His principal bufinefs here is about getting free from the importunities of fome noble Roman, who, though his friend, yet was one who thought he had fome claims on him. It is not improbable, that Mæcenas wifhed to urge the celebrity which Horace had acquired by his ly rics, as a motive for him to continue in that courfe; and he may be fuppofed to have expreffed himself in fuch a manner as if from this applaufe he was under a fort of obligation, to fatisfy the expectation of the public and his friends by new productions. Horace was too fond of his independence and the facrofanto furniente, not to guard himself by all means against such importunate exactions. He therefore fpeaks of his poetry with a contempt not proceeding from his heart, as of mere verfifying, of idle amusement (as indeed it partly was), and affirms, that it would be more becoming one of his age to have done with it. We fhall fee from other epifiles, and particularly from the fecond to his friend Julius Florus, how much caufe a man of his delicate turn of mind had not to become a bel-efprit by profeffion, according to the fashion of the times; and the more we ftudy him, the lefs furprising will it appear, that, notwithftanding he owed his fame, the favour of Maecenas, and the happy leifure of his life principally to his poetical_talent, yet that he had fuch an averfion to being looked upon as an ordinary member of the fraternity of Poets of his time, as to make no fcruple of afferting, that mere neceffity compelled him to make verfes; and now, fince he was no longer at a lofs for a dinuer, all the freeze-wort in the world could not clear his head enough, unlefs he had rather pafs his life in fleeping than in verfe-making. Trebati Quid faciam? præfcribe. Quiefcas. Ne faciam, inquis, [non Omnino verfus? Aio. Peream malè fi Optimum erat; verum nequeo dormire. That, moreover, in the like paffages there was more of the humour of the moment, than ferioufnels and truth, is fufficiently apparent from hence, that amidft his eternal affu. rances that he will make no more verfes, yet his inclination that way was too ftrong for his refolution. Ipfe qui ego, nullos me affirmo fcribere verfus, Invenior Parthis mendacior, &c.— Quid verum atque decens, curo et rogo, et omnis in hoc fum: Condo et compono, quæ mox depromere poffim (5). (5) An allution to the well-known fable of the grafs-hopper and the ant. Horace thereby ftops the objection, that he was not yet fo old as to be forced to bid adieu to the fports of the mufes from imbecillity. Ac ne forte roges, quo me duce, quo lare tuter (6); Nullius addictus jurare in verba magiftri, Quo me cunque rapit tempeftas, deferor hofpes. (6) Philofophy, as the art of living, was treated by the Greeks in the fame manner as the other fine arts; it had its mafters and fcholars, as Sculpture and Painting had theirs. Socrates indeed formed no fect himfelf-juft becaufe he was Socrates: but all the philofophical schools and fects that fprung up after him, were either founded or occafioned by fome one of his difciples. Plato, the most celebrated of his followers, founded the Academy; Ariftotle, the most able of all Plato's difciples, the Lyceum. Ariftippus, it is true, compofed his own fyftem, but cannot, any more than Socrates, be regarded as the head of a fchool, though ufually mentioned as fush. Antifthenes, another difciple of the wifeft of the Greeks, was the father of a fect, which rose into notice under the not very honourable appellation of the doggish, and was the fame among the philofophers, as the Fraucifcan order among the monks. A hundred years after the death of Socrates, Zeno, who thought to rectify the cofinopolite maxims of Antifthenes; and Epicurus, who endeavoured to correct the felfifh fyftem of Ariftippus, were the founders of two new fchools, which in a fhort time raised their heads above all the rest, but in their ideas and maxims were perfect antipodes. The latter, which retained the name of its founder, recommended itself by its great freedom of thinking, by the open war it declared against Superftition, Fanaticism, and Prejudice, and by a morality the moft adapted to enlighten, as it promifed, with the least expence of exertion, a cheerful and painless life. The former obtained the name of Stoic, from the fou or porch at Athens, where its founder and his fucceffor were wont to teach. It diftinguished itfelf on one hand by a fyftem of phy fies, which far better comported with the prevailing religion than that of the other fects: on the other by a morality which dignified mankind, by making the most perfect exercife of virtue, and the most intenfe activity for the good of our country and the whole of human fociety, as the only condition of happinefs. Should we not think, that the most virtuous perfons, especially of those who were exerting every means to check the daily declenfion of the Grecian republics, muft have been formed in the Stoa? And yet we have no information on that head; whereas Plutarch, in a feparate treatife, upbraids them with teaching, indeed, a confiant activity for the benefit of the ftate in their schools and writings, but leaving the practice of their maxims to others a reproach that in fome meafure holds good of all other feets. Be-. tween thefe confpicuous families of the Greek philofophy, the Cynic took its place, as the parent of the Stoic, or rather as a kind of philofophical order, which placed the highest happiness in the freedom from all focial ties, and the fupreme perfection of man in difpenfing with all things which are not abfolutely indifpenfable, to exiflence. In procefs of time, likewife, the Aca demy affumed a variety of forms,. which again brought it into vogue, among a people fo indolent, fo inquifive, and fo fond of elegant jargon as the Greeks. It recommended itfelf by the perfpicacity and the eloquence of its teachers, and by the grand maxim of the ignorance of all human knowledge, which gave them an opportunity of (peaking for and againfi every propotion that came before them; and, as the art of fpeaking, and of fhewing a fubject on all its fides, or on whichever fide it was neceflary for the end in view, was the most indifpenfable inftrument to the politician in the republics of the times; fo it was held as neceffary to the good education of a young man of rank to be qualified for an orator in the new Academy, as in the Stoa for a polite and honeft man. Such is nearly the picture in miniature of the ftate of the philofophical fchools of Greece, when the illiterate Romans began to form a clofer acquaintance with them. Nothing can well be more unlike than the spirit and character of the Romans and Greeks, be even down to the time of the famous embally of Carneades*, which is the epocha when the Grecian philofophy and rhetoric, that but a few years fore had been relegated from Rome by a decree of the Senate, returned with the folemnity of a public embaffy, for obtaining a kind of triumph over the fovereigns of the half of the world, within the walls of their capital. Notwithstanding the lively impreffion made by these three philofophers (especially Carneades, the wittieft and oft eloquent of all the Greeks of the age) on the noble youths of Rome, it was a long time before the rough Roman genius could be aceuftomed to regard the Attic Mules as any thing better than a fpecies of Grecian courtezans, with whom a man might while away a couple of idle hours, but who were not deferving of a ferious attachment. The arts and fciences of the Greeks were confidered as objects of luxury, calculated to ferve the mafters of the world, but not to govern them; the great perfonages of Rome entertained in their fervice Grecian Architects, Grecian Painters, Grecian Statuaries, Grecian Lecturers, Grecian Dancers, and Balladins; their wives were dreted by Grecian girls, their children were educated by Grecian Pædagogues. But while an Antiochus and a Mithridates were to be combated, and while they were wrangling among themfelves on the important prize-queltion of who fhou'd be the mafter of the reft, they had but little time to fpend in fubtle and empty fpeculations: and not till after Julius Cæfar had de cided that grand queftion, do we fee a Cicero, in the involuntary folitude of his Tufculanum, place any value on academical difquifitions, or feek fupport and confolation in propagating the Platonic and Stoical philofophy on the Roman foil, against the inconftancy of fortune or the tribulations of life. However, it is not to be denied, that within the last 50 years of Roman liberty, Philofophy was purfted with fome earneftnels by feveral perfons of noble families, efpecially among thofe who were defirous of attaining to the highest pofts of honour rather by eloquence and kill in civil law, than by military talents. But, as it was looked upon as one of the Grecian arts, nothing was more natural, than to go and draw it from the fountain-head, that is, to learn it of the Greeks, and accordingly to enter themfelves in one or other of their fchools. A Philofopher, whether an Academic or a Stoic, : or an Epicurean, was in their eyes the fame; and it feemed more commodious to them, to apply the theories they found lying ready-made in the philofophical fhops of the Greeks, to fuch purposes as they could, than to fit down and compofe others for themfelves. It was, however, the least of. their concerns to exprefs in their lives the philofophy they profeffed, and if a Catulus, Cato, and Brutus, form exceptions to this afferion, it can fcarcely be from any other reason, than becaufe, even without the Academy and the S.oa, they would have: been what they were. But, on the death of these great men, and the revolution that followed, a fignal alteration was visible in the fpirit of the Roman philofophy. The age of the Cæfars could neither produce nor bear any more Catos. While the republic. was infenfibly changing into the phantom of ariftocracy, informed and animated by one fole perfon, eloquence gradually ceafed to be the impelling. fpring of the ftate; and the best citizen. now was he who could beft obey. Accordingly, Philofophy foon fell from the dignity to which it had been elevated by fome great fiatefmen. It now became in the capital of the world what it had long fince been at Athens, an idle art of pedantry and declamation. It was ftil neceffary to have a finattering of it, as it was a re quifire to the fashionable ftyle, to be able to prate of Literature and Philofophy, as of Paintings and Statues, but to live philofophically would have bcen nonfenfe in the etteem of the polite; and in that of the most reasonable, at *The founder of what was called the New Academy. He was at the fame time dispatched to Rome with Diogenes the Stoic, and Critolaus the Peripatetic, on affairs of the City of Athens. + Cic. ad Familiar. lib. ix. ep. 2. Modo nobis ftet illud (thus he writes to Varro) una vivere in ftudiis noftris, à quibus antea delectationem modo petebamus, nuno vero' elain falutem. GENT. MAG. September, 1806. leaft |