-

fhe has many refources. Neither fhould we number the clamorous beggar among thofe who really feel diftrefs. He is generally gorg'd with bounty mifapplied. The liberal hand of charity fhould be extended to modeft want that pines in filence, encountering cold, and nakedness, and hunger, and every fpecies of diftrefs. Here you may find the wretch of keen fenfations, blafted by accident in the bloffom of his fortune, shivering in the folitary recefs of indigence, difdaining to beg, and even afhamed to let his mifery be known. Here you may fee the parent who has known happier times, furrounded by his tender offspring, naked and forlorn, demanding food, which his circumftances cannot afford.-That man of decent appearance and melancholy afpect, who lifted his hat as you paffed him in the yard, is a perfon of unblemished character. He was a reputable tradefiman 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 fhillings in the pound of what he owed, and to give fecurity for paying the remainder in three years, by inftallments. The honeft quaker did not charge the bankrupt with any difhoneft prac tices; but he rejected the propofal with the most mortifying indifference, declaring that he did not want his money. The mother repaired to his house, and kneeled before him with her five lovely chilAugust 1761.

dren, imploring mercy with tears and exclamations. He stood this fcene unmoved, and even seemed to enjoy the profpect, wearing the looks of complacency while his heart was fteeled with rancour. "Woman, (faid he) thefe be hopeful babes, if they were duly nurtured. Go thy ways in peace; I have taken my refolution." Her friends maintained the family for fome time; but it is not in human charity to persevere : fome of them died; fome of them grew unfortunate; fome of them fell off; and now the poor man is reduced to the extremity of indigence, from whence he has no profpect of being retrieved. The fourth part of what you would have beftowed upon the lady would make this poor man and his family fing with joy."

He had scarce 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 present, 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 ftood motionless and filent, unable to thank the donor; and Mr. Felton conveyed him to the door, cbferving that his heart was too full for utterance. But, in a little time, his wife bursting 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

faliing

TATURAL tafte is apt to be 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 dor of the Greeks, or the fimplex of the Latins; for it implies beauty. It is the co zal dúr of Demetrius Phalereus, the fimplex munditiis of Horace, and exprefied 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

NAT
Neduced and

[Continued.]

tor of Pericles, being told that 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, ᾔδειν θνητὸς γεγεννηκώς, " I knew they were mortal." The other inftance we felect from the tragedy 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. We are taught to dif guife and distort our fentiments, until the faculty of thinking is diverted into an unnatural channel; and we not only relinquifh and forget, but also become incapable of our original difpofi

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 fome wretched form, projecting no fhade, difplaying no flower, diffufing no fragrance, yielding no fruit, and affording nothing but a barren conceit for the amufement of the idle spectator.

Thus debauched from Nature, how can we relish 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 ficknefs, 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 burit 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 diftrated 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 breaft, fhe must 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 taste the celebrated repartee in Terence: Homo fum; nihil humani 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 gorgeously adorned with buds and foliage, flowers and bloffoms, to contemplate a gaudy filken robe ftriped and interfected with unfriendly tints, that fritter the maffes of light, and diftract the vision, pinked into the moft fantastic forms, flounced, and furbelowed, and fringed with all the littleness 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 fqueaking fiddle touched by a musician 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 diftinguished. The fenfe of fmelling that delights in the fcent of excrementitious ani

mal juices, fuch as mufk, civet, and urinous falts, will loathe the fragrance of new-mown hay, the fweetbriar, the honey-fuckle, and the rofe. The organs that are gratified with the taste of fickly veal bled into a palfey, crammed fowls, and dropfical brawn, peafe without fubftance, peaches without tafte, and pineapples without flavour, will certainly naufeate the native, genuine, and falutary taste of Welch beef, Banftead mutton, and barn door fowls, whofe juices are concocted by a natural digestion, and whofe flesh is confolidated by free air and exercise. In fuch a total perverfion of the fenfes, the ideas must be mifreprefented; the powers of the imagination difordered, and the judgment, of confequence, unfound. The dif ease is attended with a falfe appetite, which the natural food of the mind will not fatisfy. It will prefer Ovid to Tibullus, and the rant of Lee to the tenderness of Otway. The foul finks into a kind of fleepy ideotifm; and is diverted by toys and baubles, which can only be pleafing to the moft fuperficial curiofity. It is enlivened by a quick fucceffion of trivial objects, that gliften and dance before the eye; and, like an infant, is kept awake and infpirited by the found of a rattle. It must not only be dazzled and arroufed, but also cheated, hurried, and perplexed by the artifice of deception, bufinefs, intricacy, and intrigue; a kind of low juggle, which may be termed the leger. demain of genius. In this ftate of depravity the mind cannot enjoy, nor indeed, diftinguifh the charms of natural, and of moral beauty and decorum. The ingenuous blush of native innocence, the plain lan

guage of antient faith and fincerity, the chearful refignation to the will of heaven, the mutual affection of the charities, the voluntary respec paid to fuperior dignity or station, the virtue of beneficence extended even to the brute creation; nay, the very crimfon glow of health, and fwelling lines of beauty, are defpifed, detefted, fcorned, and ridiculed as ignorance, rudeness, rufticity, and fuperftition. Thus we fee how moral and natural beauty are connected; and what importance it is, even to the formation of taste, that the manners fhould be feverely fuperintended. This is a talk which ought to take the lead of fcience; for we will venture to fay, that virtue is the foundation of tafte; or, rather, that virtue and tafte are built upon the fame foundation of fenfibility, and cannot be disjoined without offering violence to both. But virtue must be informed, and tafte inftructed: otherwife they will both remain imperfect and ineffectual.

Qui didicit patriæ quid debeat, et quid amicis ; Quo fit amore parens, quo frater amaħdus et baffes;

Quod fit confcripti, qued judicis officium; quæ
Partes in bellum milli ducis; ille profeció
Reddere perfonæ fcit convenientia cuique.
The critic, who with nice difcernment
knows
[owes;
What to his country and his friends he
How various nature warms the human

breast,

To love the parent, brother, friend, or guest;
What the great functions of our judges are,
Of fenators, and general fent to war;
He can diftinguish with unerring art,
The ftrokes peculiar to each different part.
HOR.

Thus we fee tafte is compofed of nature improved by art; of feeling, tutored by inftruction.

[To be continued.]

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