fire to his house, and made a holocaust of him, his wife, and children. But now the mode is altered much for the better. We see none of those wild beasts in society. An enemy now wears the countenance of a friend; he shows you all the politeness in the world to your face, and only ruins your reputation behind your back; he lends you money, if you are much in need of it, and only throws you into jail when you are starving out of it; he would be the last man in the world to revenge himself on you by shooting or stabbing; but if through his means you grow so tired of life as to cut your own throat, to be sure it is no fault of his.

"In case, however, it should be necessary for him to be your executioner, which often happens where the injury is of a very atrocious nature; such as, if you should by chance jostle a gentleman in the street, spit by accident on his shoe, or disturb him in a private conversation with your wife; he gives you warning, in the politest manner, of his intentions; says he believes you to be in every respect a man of honour; and only requests you, by a civil card, to come and be shot through the head.

"The ancients, it must be owned, were remarkably inferior to the moderns, both in good taste and in good manners. That refinement of taste which manifests itself by a polite contempt of all homeproductions, and a generous admiration of every thing that is foreign, seems indeed to be a qualification peculiar to the moderns. A well-educated British gentleman, it may be truly said, is of no country whatever. He unites in himself the characteristics of all different nations; he talks and dresses French, and sings Italian; he rivals the Spaniard in indolence, and the German in drinking; his house is Grecian, his offices Gothic, and his

furniture Chinese. He preserves the same impartiality in his religion; and, finding no solid reasons for preferring Confucius to Brama, or Mahometanism to Christianity, he has for all their doctrines an equal indulgence.

"But how different from this the character of the Greeks and Romans! Servilely attached to their own manners and customs, they treated foreigners with contempt. What, in effect, could be expected of them, who were such barbarians themselves, as to stigmatize all other nations by that opprobrious epithet?

"There is no virtue for which the ancients have got greater credit than for their patriotism; yet, on examination, it will appear that their merits in this article have been very much exaggerated. It is true, that we find among them some striking instances of this virtue in individuals; but it never was diffused, as with us, among the great body of the people. The porters and hackney coachmen at Rome and Athens were deplorably ignorant of the affairs of state. There were no clubs in those capitals for constitutional reformation. Carpenters and bricklayers reformed the boroughs only by the axe and hammer; shoemakers and tailors were dexterous enough at the awl and needle, but could not mend the government.

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Perhaps even the patriotism of individuals among the ancients has got more than its due share of praise; and, upon a fair estimate, it might be found that the moderns could produce equal, if not superior examples of the same heroic virtue. What is there, for instance, so remarkable in the boasted example of Themistocles and Aristides? They were bitter enemies, but forgot their quarrels when their country was in danger, and joined their interest to prevent

its falling a prey to the Persians; so our modern statesmen, who the one day declare the most rooted abhorrence and detestation of each other, both in their public and private characters, the next day shake hands for the good of their country, agree in every measure, and profess for each other the most sincere esteem and veneration. Decius, it is true, devoted himself for his country, and, by sacrificing his own life, won a great victory over the enemies of Rome; but our commanders go much further for they devote whole armies, from a pure spirit of patriotism. In short, it may be confidently asserted, that all those bright examples we read of in ancient story, may find their parallels in a modern newspaper.

"And now, Sir, that I have mentioned a newspaper, allow me to observe, that those brief chronicles of the times afford every day numberless proofs of the superiority of the moderns to the ancients in many of the most useful arts and sciences. In that most noble of all arts, the art of healing, so great is the perfection to which the moderns have attained,

that one of your predecessors has very justly expressed his astonishment at reading in the bills of mortality the great number of people who choose to die of such and such distempers, for every one of which there are infallible and specific cures. To be sure, there is no helping the folly of some people, who will persist in refusing a cure till they are in a manner in articulo mortis, in the last agony; but it is to be hoped we shall hear no more of such determined suicide, when we read, that some of those modern Esculapiuses choose only such patients as are precisely in the situation of incurables, to be the subjects of their practice. One of those excellent physicians professes, in his advertisements, that he

wishes none, his words are strongly exclusive, to apply to him, but such as have been deemed incurable, or made such by the faculty; thereby encouraging the diseased of all kinds first to take every possible means to render themselves incurable, that they may thus be qualified for being perfectly cured by him.

"Somewhat analogous to the science of medicine, is the art of repairing the human figure. And here, Sir, the preeminence of the moderns is equally distinguished. In this most useful art, the skill of the ancients went no further than to give a little exterior embellishment to the countenance. They knew nothing of that creative power which extends to the making of limbs and organs as well as features. The parchment calves, the cork-rump, and bolstered spring bodice; the making of glass-eyes, and the transplantation of teeth, are all inventions absolutely modern. And since we know, for certain, that mechanism is now so perfected that a wooden man can be made to perform a solo on the violin, play a game at chess, walk, and even utter articulate sounds; I see no reason to doubt that, in process of time, we may have artificial men currently walking the streets, performing all the functions of life, and discharging their duty in society just as well, and more peaceably, than the real ones. When the art of inaking automatons has attained to this perfection, which we may reasonably hope will happen in a very few years, we may congratulate ourselves on the very great political benefits which must arise from this admirable invention. As there is no doubt that the merits of this class of men will entitle them to the highest promotions, it is then we may expect every department of the state to be supplied by a set of upright and inflexible magistrates; the

great machine of government will be most ably conducted; judges will administer justice with the most rigid impartiality; and, what is the great desideratum of the present age, a wooden king may sit at the helm of affairs, who will support the dignity of the crown with no expense to the nation, and relieve them at the same time of all their anxious fears about the extension of his prerogative.

"I could easily, Sir, draw out this estimate to a much greater length; but believing I have already said enough to produce a thorough conviction of the truth of my proposition, I subscribe myself, with great respect, yours,

"PAUL PASQUIN."

No. 20. SATURDAY, JUNE 18, 1785.

Decipit exemplar vitiis imitabile.- HOR. EPIST. i. 19. 17.

No species of composition is more generally read by one class of readers, or more undervalued by another, than that of the novel. Its favourable reception from the young and the indolent, to whom the exercise of imagination is delightful, and the labour of thought is irksome, needs not to be wondered at; but the contempt which it meets from the more respectable class of literary men, it may, perhaps, be entitled to plead that it does not deserve. Considered in the abstract, as containing an interesting relation of events, illustrative of the manners and characters of mankind, it surely merits a higher