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a field, I fhall confine myself to a few general obfervations on that head.

First, I obferve, That though exceffes of both kinds are to be avoided, and though a proper medium ought to be ftudied in all productions; yet this medium lies not in a point, but admits of a very confiderable latitude.' Confider the wide distance, in this respect, between Mr. Pope and Lucretius. These feem to lie in the two greatest extremes of refinement and fimplicity, which a poet can indulge himself in, without being guilty of any blameable excefs. All this interval may be filled with poets, who may differ from each other, but may be equally admirable, each in his peculiar ftyle and manner. Corneille and Congreve, who carry their wit and refinement fomewhat farther than Mr. Pope (if poets of fo different a kind can be compared together) and Sophocles and Terence, who are more fimple than Lucretius, feem to have gone out of that medium, wherein the most perfect productions are to be found, and are guilty of fome excefs in thefe oppofite characters. Of all the great poets, Virgil and Racine, in my opinion, lie nearet the center, and are the fartheft removed from both the extremities.

My fecond obfervation on this head is, That it is very difficult, if not impoflible, to explain, by words, wherein the juft medium betwixt the exceffes of fimplicity and refinement confifls, or to give any rule, by which we can know precifely the bounds betwixt the fault and the beauty.' A critic may not only difcourfe very judiciously on this head, without intructing his readers, but even without understanding the matter perfectly himfelf. There is not in the world a finer piece of criticifun than Fontenelle's Differtation on Paftorals; wherein, by a number of reflections and philofophical reafonings, he endeavours to fix the juft medium which is fuitable to that fpecies of writing. But let any one read the paftorals of that author, and he will be convinced, that this judicious critic, notwithstanding his fine reafonings, had a falfe tafte, and fixed the point of perfection much nearer the extreme of refinement than paftoral poetry will admit of. The fentiments of his thepherds are better fuited to the toilets of Paris, than to the forefts of Arcadia. But this it is impoffible to discover from his critical reafonings. He blames all exceffive painting and ornament as much as Virgil could

have done, had he wrote a differtation on this fpecies of poetry. However different the taftes of men may be, their general difcourfes on thefe fubjects are commonly the fame. No criticifm can be very inftructive, which defcends not to particulars, and is not full of examples, and illuftrations. 'Tis allowed on all hands, that beauty, as well as virtue, lies always in a medium; but where this medium is placed is the great question, and can never be fufficiently explained by general reasonings.

I fhall deliver it as a third obfervation on this fubject, That we ought to be more on our guard against the excess of refinement than that of fimplicity; and that because the former excefs is both lefs beautiful and more dangerous than the latter."

It is a certain rule, that wit and paffion are entirely inconfiftent. When the affections are moved, there is no place for the imagination. The mind of man being na turally limited, it is impoffible all its faculties can operate at once: and the more any cne predominates, the lefs room is there for the others to exert their vigour. For this reafon, a greater degree of fimplicity is required in all compofitions, where men, and actions, and paffions are painted, than in fuch as confift in reflections and obfervations. And as the former fpecies of writing is the more engaging and beautiful, one may fafely, upon this account, give the preference to the extreme of fimplicity, above that of refinement.

We may also obferve, that thofe com pofitions which we read the oftenest, and which every man of talle has got by heart, have the recommendation of fimplicity, and have nothing furprizing in the thought, when divested of that elegance of expreffion, and harmony of numbers, with which it is cloathed. If the merit of the compofition lies in a point of wit, it may ftrike at firft: but the mind anticipates the thought in the fecond perufal, and is no longer affected by it. When I read an epigram of Martial, the first line recalls the whole; and I have no pleafure in repeating to myfelf what I know already. But each line, each word in Catullus has its merit; and I am never tired with the perufal of him. It is fufficient to run over Cowley once; but Parnel, after the fiftieth reading, is as fresh as at the first. Befides, it is with books as with women, where a certain plainnefs of

manner

manner and of dress is more engaging than that glare of paint and airs and apparel, which may dazzle the eye, but reaches not the affections. Terence is a modeft and bashful beauty, to whom we grant every thing, becaufe he affumes nothing, and whofe purity and nature make a durable, though not a violent impreffion

upon us.

But refinement, as it is the lefs beautiful, fo it is the more dangerous extreme, and what we are the aptelt to fall into. Simplicity paffes for dulnefs, when it is not accompanied with great elegance and propriety. On the contrary, there is fomething furprizing in a blaze of wit and conceit. Ordinary readers are mightily ftruck with it, and falfely imagine it to be the most dificult, as well as moit excellent way of writing. Seneca abounds with agreeable faults, lays Quinctilian, abundat dulcibus vitiis; and for that reafon is the more dangerous, and the mose apt to pervert the taite of the young and inconfider

ate.

I fhall add, that the excefs of refinement is now more to be guarded against than ever; because it is the extreme which men are the most apt to fall into, after learning has made great progrefs, and after eminent writers have appeared in every fpecies of compofition. The endeavour to pleafe by novelty, leads men wide of fimplicity and nature, and fills their writings with affectation and conceit. It was thus the age of Claudias and Nero became fo much inferior to that of Auguftus in tale and genius and perhaps there are, at prefent, fome fymptoms of a like degeneracy of tafte, in France as well as in England.

Hume.

87. An Efay on Suicide. The laft feffions deprived us of the only furviving member of a fociety, which (during its fhort exiflence) was equal both in principles and practice to the Mohocks and Hell-fire club of tremendous memory. This fociety was compofed of a few broken gamefters and defperate young rakes, who threw the fmall remains of their bankrupt fortunes into one common stock, and thence affumed the name of the Laft Guinea Club. A fhort life and a merry one, was their favourite maxim; and they determined, when their finances fhould be exhausted, to die as they had lived, like gentlemen. Some of their members had

e luck to get a reprieve by a good run

at cards, and others by fnapping up a rich heiress or a dowager; while the relt, who were not cut off in the natural way by duels or the gallows, very refolutely made their quietus with laudanum or the piftol. The laft that remained of this fociety had very calmly prepared for his own execution: he had cocked his piftol, deliberately placed the muzzle of it to his temple, and was just going to pull the trigger, when he bethought himself that he could employ it to better purpofe upon Hounslowheath. This brave man, however, had but a very fhort refpite, and was obliged to fuffer the ignominy of going out of the world in a vulgar way, by an halter.

The enemies of play will perhaps confider thofe gentlemen, who boldly ftake their whole fortunes at the gaming-table, in the fame view with thefe defperadoes; and they may even go fo far as to regard the polite and honourable affembly at White's as a kind of Laft Guinea Club. Nothing, they will fay, is fo fluctuating as the property of a gamefter, who (when luck runs against him) throws away whole acres at every caft of the dice, and whofe houfes are as unfure a poffeffion, as if they were built with cards. Many, indeed, have been reduced to their laft guinea at this genteel gaming-houfe; but the most inveterate enemies to White's must allow, that it is but now and then that a gamefter of quality, who looks upon it as an even bet whether there is another world, takes his chance, and difpatches himself, when the odds are against him in this.

But however free the gentlemen of White's may be from any imputation of this kind, it must be confeffed, that fuicide begins to prevail fo generally, that it is the most gallant exploit, by which our modern heroes chufe to fignalize themfelves; and in this, indeed, they behave with uncommon prowels. From the days of Plato down to thefe, a fuicide has always been compared to a foldier on guard deferting his poft: but I fhould rather confider a fet of thefe defperate men, who rush on certain death, as a body of troops fent out on the forlorn hope. They meet every face of death, however horrible, with the utmoft refolution: fome blow their brains out with a piftol; fome expire, like Socrates, by poifon; fome fall, like Cato, on the point of their own fwords; and others, who have lived like Nero, affect to die like Seneca, and bleed to death. The most exalted geniuses I ever remem

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ber

ber to have heard of were a party of reduced gamefters, who bravely refolved to pledge each other in a bowl of laudanum. I was lately informed of a gentleman, who went among his ufual companions at the gaming-table the day before he made away with himself, and coolly queftioned them, which they thought the eafieft and genteeleft method of going out of the world: for there is as much difference between a mean perfon and a man of quality in their manner of deftroying themselves, as in their manner of living. The poor fneaking wretch, ftarving in a garret, tucks himfelf up in his lift garters; a fecond, croft in love, drowns himself like a blind puppy in Rofamond's pond; and a third cuts his throat with his own razor. But the man of fashion almost always dies by a piftol; and even the cobler of any spirit goes off by a dofe or two extraordinary of gin.

But this falfe notion of courage, how ever noble it may appear to the defperate and abandoned, in reality amounts to no more than the refolution of the highway. man, who fhoots himfelf with his own piftol, when he finds it impoffible to avoid being taken. All practicable means, therefore, fhould be devifed to extirpate fuch abfurd bravery, and to make it appear every way horrible, odious, contemptible, and ridiculous. From reading the public prints, a foreigner might be naturally led to imagine, that we are the most lunatic people in the whole world. Almost every day informs us, that the coroner's inqueft has fat on the body of fome miferable fuicide, and brought in their verdict lunacy; but it is very well known, that the enquiry has not been made into the flate of mind of the deceased, but into his fortune and family. The law has indeed provided, the deliberate- felf-murderer fhould be treated like a brute, and denied the rites of burial: but among hundreds of lunatics by purchase, I never knew this fentence executed but on one poor cobler, who hanged himself in his own ftall. A pennylefs poor wretch, who has not left enough to defray the funeral charges, may perhaps be excluded the church-yard; but elf murder by a pistol qualifies the polite owner for a fudden death, and entitles him to a pompous burial, and a monument, fetting forth his virtues, in Westminster Abbey. Every man in his fober fenfes muft with, that the moft fevere laws that could pobly be contrived were enacted againit fuicides. This fhocking bravado

never did (and I am confident never will) prevail among the more delicate and tender fex in our own nation: though history informs us, that the Roman ladies were once fo infatuated as to throw off the softnefs of their nature, and commit violence on themfelves, till the madness was curbed by the expofing their naked bodies in the public ftreets. This, I think, would afford an hint for fixing the like mark of ignominy on our male fuicides; and I would have every lower wretch of this fort dragged at the cart's tail, and afterwards hung in chains at his own door, or have his quarters put up in terrorem in the most public places, as a rebel to his Maker. But that the fuicide of quality might be treated with more refpect, he should be indulged in having his wounded corpfe aud fhattered brains laid (as it were) in ftate for fome days; of which dreadful fpectacle we may conceive the horror from the following picture drawn by Dryden:

The flayer of himself too faw I there:
The gore congeal'd was clotted in his hair:
With eyes half clos'd, and mouth wide ope he
lay,

And grim as when he breath'd his fullen foul away.

The common murderer has his skeleton preferved at Surgeon's Hall, in order to deter others from being guilty of the fame crime; and I think it would not be improper to have a charnel-house fet apart to receive the bones of these more unnatural felf-murderers, in which monuments fhould be erected, giving an account of their deaths, and adorned with the glorious enfigns of their rafhness, the rope, the knife, the fword, or the pistol.

The cause of these frequent felf-murders among us has been generally imputed to the peculiar temperature of our climate. Thus a dull day is looked upon as a natural order of execution, and Englishmen must neceffarily fhoot, hang, and drown themfelves in November. That our fpirits are in fome meafure influenced by the air cannot be denicd; but we are not fuch mere barometers, as to be driven to defpair and death by the fmall degree of gloom that our winter brings with it. If we have not fo much funshine as fome countries in the world, we have infinitely more than many others; and I do not hear that men difpatch themfelves by dozens in Ruffia or Sweden, or that they are unable to keep up their fpirits even in the total darkness of Greenland. Our climate ex

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empts us from many difeafes, to which other more fouthern nations are naturally fubject; and I can never be perfuaded, that being born near the north pole is a phyfical caule for felf-murder.

Delpair, indeed, is the natural caufe of thefe hocking actions; but this is commonly defpair brought on by wilful extravagance and debauchery. These first involve men into difficulties, and then death at once delivers them of their lives and their cares. For my part, when I fee a young profligate wantonly fquandering his fortune in bagnios or at the gaming-table, I cannot help looking on him as hastening his own death, and in a manner digging his own grave. As he is at laft induced to kill himfelf by motives arifing from his vices, I confider him as dying of fome difeafe, which thofe vices naturally produce. If his extravagance has been chiefly in luxurious eating and drinking, I imagine him poifoned by his wines, or furfeited by a favourite dith; and if he has thrown away his eftate in bawdy-houfes, I conclude him deftroyed by rottennefs and filthy difeafes.

Another principal caufe of the frequency of fuicide is the noble fpirit of free-thinking, which has diffufed itfelf among all ranks of people. The libertine of fashion has too refined a tafte to trouble himself at all about a foul or an hereafter; but the vulgar infidel is at wonderful pains to get rid of his Bible, and labours to perfuade himself out of his religion. For this purpose he attends conftantly at the difputant focieties, where he hears a great deal about free-will, free agency, and predeftination, till at length he is convinced that man is at liberty to do as he pleafes, lays his misfortunes to the charge of Providence, and comforts himfelf that he was inevitably deftined to be tied up in his own garters. The courage of these heroes proceeds from the fame principles, whether they fall by their own hands, or thofe of Jack Ketch: the fuicide of whatever rank looks death in the face without fhrinking; as the gallant rogue affects an eafy unconcern under Tyburn, throws away the pfalm-book, bids the cart drive off with an oath, and fwings like a gentleman. Connoiffeur.

§ 88. An Enumeration of Superftitions obferved in the Country.

You must know, Mr. Town, thaam juft returned from a vifit of a fortnight to

an old aunt in the North; where I was mightily diverted with the traditional fuperftitions, which are moft religiously preferved in the family, as they have been delivered down (time out of mind) from their fagacious grandmothers.

When I arrived, I found the mistress of the houfe very bufily employed, with her two daughters, in nailing an horfefhoe to the threshold of the door. This, they told me, was to guard against the spiteful defigns of an old woman, who was a witch, and had threatened to do the family a mifchief, becaufe one of my young coufins laid two ftraws across, to fee if the old hag could walk over them. The young lady affured me, that she had several times heard Goody Cripple muttering to herself; and to be fure the was faying the Lord's Prayer backwards. Befides, the old woman had very often asked them for a pin: but they took care never to give her any thing that was fharp, because the should not bewitch them. They afterwards told me many other particulars of this kind, the fame as are mentioned with infinite humour by the SPECTATOR: and to confirm them, they affured me, that the eldest mifs, when the was little, used to have fits, till the mother flung a knife at another old witch (whom the devil had carried off in an high wind), and fetched blood from her.

When I was to go to bed, my aunt made a thousand apologies for not putting me in the best room in the house; which (fhe faid) had never been lain in fince the death of an old washerwoman, who walked every night, and haunted that room in particular. They fancied that the old woman had hid money fomewhere, and could not rett till fhe had told fomebody; and my coufin affured me, that the might have had it all to herself; for the fpirit came one night to her bed-fide, and wanted to tell her, but he had not courage to fpeak to it. I learned alfo, that they had a footman once, who hanged himself for love; and he walked for a great while, till they got the parfon to lay him in the Red Sea.

I had not been here long, when an accident happened, which very much alarmed the whole family. Towzer one night howled moft terribly; which was a fure fign, that fomebody belonging to them would die. The youngest mifs declared, that he had heard the hen crow that morning; which was another fatal prog3 M 2

noftic.

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noftic. They told me, that, juft before uncle died, Towzer howled fo for feveral nights together, that they could not quiet him; and my aunt heard the dead-watch tick as plainly as if there had been a clock in the room: the maid too, who fat up with him, heard a bell toll at the top of the flairs, the very moment the breath went out of his body. During this difcourfe I overheard one of my cousins whisper the other, that he was afraid their mamma would not live long; for the fmelt an ugly fmell, like a dead carcafe. They had a dairy-maid, who died the very week after an hearfe had ftopt at their door on its way to church: and the eldest mifs, when he was but thirteen, faw her own brother's ghoft (who was gone to the West Indies) walking in the garden; and to be fure, nine months after, they had an account, that he died on board the fhip, the very fame day, and hour of the day, that mils faw his apparition.

I need not mention to you the common incidents, which were accounted by them no less prophetic. If a cinder popped from the fire, they were in hafte to examine whether it was a purfe or a coffin. They were aware of my coming long before I arrived, because they had feen a ftranger on the grate. The youngest mifs will let nobody ufe the poker but herfelf; because, when she ftirs the fire, it always barns bright, which is a fign fhe will have a brifk hufband: and he is no lefs fure of

a good one, because the generally has ill

luck at cards. Nor is the candle lefs oracular than the fire: for the 'fquire of the parish came one night to pay them a vifit, when the tallow winding-fheet pointed towards him; and he broke his neck foon after in a fox-chafe. My aunt one night obferved with great pleafure a letter in the candle; and the very next day one came from her fon in London. We knew when a fpirit was in the room, by the candle burning blue; but poor coufin Nancy was ready to cry one time, when the fnuffed it out, and could not blow it in again; though her fifter did it at a whiff, and confequently triumphed in her fuperior virtue.

We had no occafion for an almanack or

the weather-glafs, to let us know whether it would rain or shine. One evening I propofed to ride out with my coufins the next day to fee a gentleman's houfe in the neighbourhood; but my aunt affured us it would be wet, the knew very well, from the shoot.

ing of her corn. Befides, there was a great fpider crawling up the chimney, and the blackbird in the kitchen began to fing; which were both of them as certain forerunners of rain. But the most to be depended on in thefe cafes is a tabby cat, which ufually lies bafking on the parlour hearth. If the cat turned her tail to the fire, we were to have an hard froft; if the cat ficked her tail, rain would certainly enfue. They wondered what ftranger they fhould fee; becaufe pufs wathed her face over her left ear. The old lady complained of a cold, and her eldest daughter remarked it would go through the family; for the obferved that poor Tab had fneezed feveral times. Poor Tab, however, once flew at one of my coufins; for which he had like to have been deftroyed, as the whole family began to think fhe was no other than a witch.

It is impoffible to tell you the feveral tokens by which they knew whether good or ill luck will happen to them. Spilling the falt, or laying knives acrofs, are every where accounted ill omens; but a pin with the head turned towards you, or to be fol. lowed by a strange dog, I found were very lucky. I heard one of my cousins tell the cook-maid, that the boiled away all her fweethearts, becaufe fhe had let her dishwater boil over. The fame young lady one morning came down to breakfast with ber cap the wrong fide out; which the mother obferving, charged her not to alter it all day, for fear the should turn luck.

But, above all, I could not help remarking the various prognoftics which the old lady and her daughters used to collect from almoft every part of the body. A white fpeck upon the nails made them as fure of a gift as if they had it already in their pockets. The elder fifter is to have one husband more than the youngest, because fhe has one wrinkle more in her forehead; but the other will have the advantage of her in the number of children, as was plainly proved by fnapping their fingerjoints. It would take up too much room to fet down every circumftance, which I obferved of this fort during my stay with them: I shall therefore conclude my letter with the several remarks on other parts the body, as far as I could learn them from this prophetic family: for as I was a relation, you know, they had lefs referve.

of

If the head itches, it is a fign of rain. If the head aches, it is a profitable pain. If you have the tooth-ache, you don't love true. If your eye-brow itches, you will fee a ftranger.

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