must be allowed to be an handsome fellow ftill."-On the other hand, he will frequently defire me to take notice of his rib, as the chances to pafs." Mind that draggle-tail'd drunken drab (he will fay) what an antidote it is-yet, for all that, Felton, fhe was a fine woman when I married her-Poor Befs, I have been the ruin of her, that is certain, and deferve to be damned for bringing her to this pafs." Thus they accommodate themfelves to each other's infirmities, and pass their time not without fome taste of plebeian enjoymentbut, name their child, they never fail to burst into tears, and still feel a return of the most poignant forrrow." Sir Launcelot Greaves did not hear this ftory unmoved. Tom Clark's cheeks were bedewed with the drops of fympathy, while with much fobbing, he declared his opinion, that an action would lie a gainst the lady's father.-Captain Crowe having liftened to the ftory, with uncommon attention, expreffed his concern that an honeft feaman fhould be fo taken in ftays: but he imputed all his calamities to the wife :" for why? (faid he) a feafaring man may have a fweet-heart in every port; but he should fteer clear of a wife, as he would avoid a quick-fand you fee, brother, how this here Clewlin lags aftern in the wake of a fniveling b-; otherwife he'd never make a weft in his enfign for the lofs of a child-odds heart! he could have done no more if he had sprung a top-mast, or ftarted a timber.” The knight declaring that he would take another view of the pri-fon in the afternoon, Mr. Felton infifted upon his doing him the ho nour to drink a difh of tea in his apartment, and Sir Launcelot accepted his invitation. Thither they accordingly repaired, after having made another circuit of the jail, and the tea-things were produced by Mrs. Felton, when she was fummoned to the door, and in a few minutes returning, communicated fomething in a whifper to her hufband. He changed colour, and repaired to the stair-cafe, where he was heard to talk aloud in an angry tone. When he came back he told the company he had been teazed by a very importunate bèggar. Addreffing himself to our adventurer, "You took notice (fays he) of a fine lady flaunting about our walk in all the frippery of the fafhion-fhe was fately a gay young widow that made a great figure at the court end of the town; the diftinguifhed herself by her fplendid equipage, her rich fiveries, her brilliant affemblies, her numerous' routs, and her elegant tafte in drefs and furniture. She is nearly related to fome of the beft families in England, and it must be owned, mistress of many fine accomplishments. But, being deficient in true delicacy, she endeavoured to hide that defect by affectation. She pretended to a thoufand antipathies which did not belong to her nature. A breast of veal threw her into mortal agonies. If the faw a fpider fhe fcreamed; and at fight of a mouse the fainted away. She could not without horror behold an entire joint of meat.; and nothing but fricaffees and other made-dishes were feen upon her fable. She caufed all her floors to be lined with green bays, that the might trip along them with more eafe and pleasure. Her footmen wore wore clogs, which were depofited in the hall, and both they and her chairmen were laid under the ftrongeft injunctions to avoid porter and tobacco. Her jointure amounted to eight hundred pounds per annum, and the made fhift to spend four times that fum: at length it was mortgaged for nearly the entire value; but, far from retrenching, fhe feemed to increase in extravagance. until her effects were taken in execution, and her perfon here depofited in fafe cuftody. When one confiders the abrupt tranfition fhe underwent from her fpacious apart ments to an hovel fcarce eight feet fquare; from fumptuous furniture to bare benches; from magnificence to meannefs; from affluence to extreme poverty; one would imagine fhe must have been totally overwhelmed by fuch a fudden gufh of mifery. But this was not the cafe: fhe has, in fact, no delicate feelings. She forthwith accommodated herself to the exigency of her fortune; yet, fhe ftill affects to keep state amidst the miseries of a gaol; and this affectation is truly ridiculous.--She lies abed till two o'clock in the afternoon: fhe maintains a female attendant for the fole purpose of dreffing her perfon. Her cabin is the least cleanly in the whole prifon; fhe has learned to eat bread and cheese, and drink porter; but she always appears once a day dressed in the pink of the fafhion. She has found means to run in debt at the chandler's fhop, the baker's, and the tap-house, tho' there is nothing got in this place but with ready money: fhe has even borrowed fmall fums from divers prifoners, who were themselves on the brink of ftarving. She takes pleasure in being furrounded with duns, obferving that by such people a person of fashion is to be distinguifhed. She writes circular letters to her former friends and acquaintance, and by this method has raised pretty confiderable contributions; for the writes in a most elegant and irrefiftible ftile. About a fortnight ago fhe received a supply of twenty guineas; when, inftead of paying her little goal-debts, or withdrawing any part of her apparel from pawn, the laid out the whole fum in a fashionable fuit and laces; and next day borrowed of me a fhilling to purchafe a neck of mutton for her dinner-She feems to think her rank in life intitles her to this kind of affiftance. She talks very pompously of her family and connexions, by whom, however, he has been long renounced. She has no fympathy nor compaffion for the diftreffes of her fellow-creatures; but she is perfe&ly well bred; the bears a repulfe the beft of any woman I ever knew ; and her temper has never been once ruffled fince her arrival at the King's-bench-She now intreated me to lend her half a guinea, for which the faid fhe had the most preffing occafion, and promised upon her honour it fhould be repaid to-morrow; but I lent a deaf ear to her requeft, and told her in plain terms that her honour was already bankrupt.-" -she has many resources. Neither dren, imploring mercy with tears fhould we number the clamorous and exclamations. He ftood this beggar among thofe who really feel fcene unmoved, and even feemed to diftrefs. He is generally gorg'd enjoy the profpect, wearing the looks with bounty mifapplied. The li- of complacency while his heart was beral hand of charity fhould be ex- fteeled with rancour. "Woman, tended to modeft want that pines (faid he) these be hopeful babes, if in filence, encountering cold, and they were duly nurtured. Go thy nakedness, and hunger, and every ways in peace; I have taken my fpecies of diftrefs. Here you may refolution." Her friends maintained find the wretch of keen fenfations, the family for fome time; but it is blafted by accident in the bloom not in human charity to persevere : of his fortune, fhivering in the fo- fome of them died; fome of them litary recefs of indigence, difdaining grew unfortunate; fome of them to beg, and even afhamed to let his fell off; and now the poor man mifery be known. Here you may is reduced to the extremity of indisee the parent who has known hap- gence, from whence he has no propier times, furrounded by his ten- fpect of being retrieved. The fourth der offspring, naked and forlorn, part of what you would have bedemanding food, which his circum- ftowed upon the lady would make ftances cannot afford.-That man this poor man and his family fing of decent appearance and melan with joy." choly afpect, who lifted his hat as you paffed him in the yard, is a perfon of unblemished character. He was a reputable tradefman in the city, and failed through inevitable loffes. A commiffion of bankruptcy was taken out against him by his fole creditor, a quaker, who refused to fign his certificate. He has lived these three years in prifon, with a wife and five fmall children. In a little time after his commitment, he had friends who offered to pay ten shillings in the pound of what he owed, and to give fecurity for paying the remainder in three years, by inftallments. The honest quaker did not charge the bankrupt with any difhoneft practices; but he rejected the propofal with the most mortifying indifference, declaring that he did not want his money. The mother repaired to his houfe, and kneeled before him with her five lovely chilAuguft 1761. He had fcarce pronounced thefe words when our hero defired the man might be called, and in a few minutes he entered the apartment with a low obeifance. "Mr. Coleby, (faid the knight) I have heard how cruelly you have been used by your creditor, and beg you will accept this trifling prefent, if it can be of any fervice to you in your diftrefs." So faying, he put five guineas into his hand. The poor man was fo confounded at fuch an unlooked-for acquifition, that he flood motionless and filent, unable to thank the donor; and Mr. Felton conveyed him to the door, obferving that his heart was too full for utterance. But, in a little time, his wife burfting into the room with her five children, looked around, and going up to Sir Launcelot, without any direction, exclaimed: "This is the angel fent by Providence to fuccour me and my poor innocents." Then lii falling 434 Introduction to the Study of the Belles Lettres, British and would have depofited it in a bank-note for twenty pounds, the hands of Mr. Felton, to be diftributed in charities among the objects of the place; but he defired it might be left with Mr. Norton, who was the proper managing his benevolence; and he promifed to affift the deputy with perfon for his advice in laying it out. [To be continued. ] 461 *** On the STUDY of the BELLES LETTRES. CHAP. I. Upon TASTE. [Continued.] NATURAL tafle is apt to be tor of Pericles, being told that feduced and debauched by vicious precept and bad example. There is a dangerous tinfel in falfe tafte, by which the unwary mind and young imagination are often fafcinated. Nothing has been fo often explained, and yet fo little underftood, as fimplicity in writing. Simplicity in this acceptation has a larger fignification than either the o of the Greeks, or the fimplex of the Latins; for it implies beauty. It is the acorn or of Demetrius Phalereus, the fimplex munditiis of Horace, and expreffed by one word, naiveté, in the French language. It is in fact, no other than beautiful nature, without affectation or extraneous ornament. In ftatuary, it is the Venus of Medicis; in architecture, the Pantheon. It would be an endless task to enumerate all the inftances of this natural fimplicity that occur in poetry and painting, among the antients and moderns. We fhall only mention two examples of it, the beauty of which confifts in thepathetic. Anaxagoras, the philofopher and precep both his fons were dead, laid his hand upon his heart, and, after a fhort paufe, confoled himself with a reflexion couched in three words, des Dantès yiyernes, they were mortal." The other inftance we select from the tragedy "I knew of Mackbeth. The gallant Macduff, being informed that his wife and children were murdered by order of the tyrant, pulls his hat over his eyes, and his internal agony bursts out into an exclamation of four words, the most expreffive, perhaps, that ever were uttered: "He has no children." This is the energic language of fimple nature, which is now grown into disrepute. By the prefent mode of education we are forcibly warped from the biafs of nature, and all fimplicity in manners is rejected. guife and diftort our fentiments, We are taught to dif until the faculty of thinking is diverted into an unnatural channel; and we quifh and forget, but alfo become incapable of our original difpofinot only relin 2 tions. We are totally changed into creatures of art and affectation. Our perception is abufed, and even our fenfes are perverted. Our minds lofe their native force and flavour. The imagination, fweated by artificial fire, produces nought but vapid bloom. The genius, inftead of growing like a vigorous tree, extending its branches on every fide, and bearing delicious fruit, refembles a stunted yew, tortured into some wretched form, projecting no fhade, difplaying no flower, diffufing no fragrance, yielding no fruit, and affording nothing but a barren conceit for the amusement of the idle fpectator. Thus debauched from Nature, how can we relith her genuine productions? As well might a man diftinguish objects through a prifm, that prefents nothing but a variety of colours to the eye; or a maid pining in the green fick nefs, prefer a bifcuit to a cinder. It has been often alledged that the paffions can never be wholly depofited; and that by appealing to thefe, a good writer will always be able to force. himself into the hearts of his readers: but, even the ftrongeft paffions are weakened; nay, fometimes totally extinguished by mutual oppofition, diffipation, and acquired infenfibility. How often, at the theatre, is the tear of fympathy and the burft of laughter repreffed by a ridiculous fpecies of pride, refufing approbation to the author and actor, and renouncing fociety with the audience? This feeming infen. fibility is not owing to any original defect. Nature has ftretched the ftring, tho' it has long ceafed to vibrate. It may have been difplaced and distracted by the violence of pride: it may have loft its tone through long difufe; or be fo twisted or overftrained, as to produce the most jarring difcords. If fo little regard is paid to nature, when fhe knocks fo powerfully at the breast, the muft be altogether neglected and defpifed in her calmer mood of ferene tranquility, when nothing appears to recommend her but fimplicity, propriety, and innocence. A perfon must have delicate feelings that can tafte the celebrated repartee in Terence: Homo Jum ; nihil bumani a me alienum puto. "I am a man; therefore think I have an intereft in every thing that concerns humanity." A clear, blue sky, fpangled with ftars, will prove an infipid object to eyes accustomed to the glare of torches, tapers, gilding and glitter: eyes that will turn with difguft from the green mantle of the fpring, fo gorgeoufly adorned with buds and foliage, flowers and bloffoms, to contemplate a gau. dy filken robe striped and interfected with unfriendly tints, that fritter the maffes of light, and diftract the vifion, pinked into the most fantastic forms, flounced, and furbelowed, and fringed with all the littlenefs of art unknown to elegance. Thofe ears that are offended by the notes of the thrufh, the blackbird, and the nightingale, will be regaled and ravished by the squeaking fiddle touched by a mufician who has no other genius than that which lies in his fingers: they will even be entertained with the rattling of coaches, and the alarming knock by which the doors of fashionable people are fo loudly diftinguifhed. The fenfe of fmelling that delights in the fcent of excrementitious ani |