ftant refort to bathing and water-drinking places in the fummer, and above all the company of the fair fex, who mix fo much more in fociety than heretofore, have with many other confpiring caufes altogether produced fuch an ease and fuavity of manners throughout the nation, as haye totally changed the face of fociety, and levelled all those bars and barriers, which made the approaches to what was called good company so troublefome, and obstructed the intercourfe between man and man. Here then I fhall conclude upon this topic, and pass to the Arts, which I faid were the ornaments of fociety. As I am perfuaded my argument will not be contested in this quarter, I need fpend few words upon fo clear a point. If ever this country faw an age of artists, it is the prefent, Italy, Spain, Flanders and France have had their turn, but they are now in no capacity to difpute the palm, and England stands without a rival; her painters, fculptors and engravers are now the only schools, properly fo called, in Europe; Rome will bear witness that the English artifts are as fuperior in talents as they are in numbers to those of all nations befides. I referve the mention of her architects as a feparate clafs, that I may for once break in upon my general rule by indulging myself in a prediction, (upon which I am willing to ftake all my credit with the reader) that when the modeft genius of a Harrifon fhall be brought into fuller difplay, England will have to boast of a native architect, which the brightest age of Greece would glory to acknowledge. No XCV. N° XCV. Μακάριος ὅστις ουσίαν καὶ νοῦν ἔχει· (MENANDER. Circulatore.) "Abundance is a blessing to the wife; THERE are fo many ftriking advantages in the poffeffion of wealth, that the inheritance of a great eftate, devolving upon a man in the vigour of mind and body, appears to the eye of fpeculation as a lot of fingular felicity. There are fome countries, where no fubject can properly be faid to be independant; but in a conftitution fo happily tempered as our's, that bleffing feems peculiarly annexed to affluence. The English landed gentleman, who can fet his foot upon his own foil, and fay to all the world -This is my freehold; the law defends my right: Touch it who dare!-is furely as independant as any man within the rules of fociety can be, fo long as he encumbers himself by no exceedings of expence beyond the compafs of his income: If a great eftate therefore gives a man independance, it it gives him that, which all, who do not poffefs it, feem to figh for. When I confider the numberless indulgencies, which are the concomitants of a great fortune, and the facility it affords to the gratification of every generous paffion, I am mortified to find how few, who are poffeffed of these advantages, avail themselves of their fituation to any worthy purposes That happy temper, which can preferve a medium between diffipation and avarice, is not often to be found, and where I meet one man, who can laudably acquit himself under the teft of profperity, I could instance numbers, who deport themselves with honour under the vifitations of adverfity. Man must be in a certain degree the artificer of his own happiness; the tools and materials may be put into his hands by the bounty of Providence, but the workmanship must be his own. I lately took a journey into a distant county, upon a vifit to a gentleman of fortune, whom I fhall call Attalus. I had never feen him fince his acceffion to a very confiderable eftate; and as I have met with few acquaintance in life of more pleasant qualities, or a more focial temper than Attalus, before this great property unexpectedly devolved upon him, I flattered myself that fortune had in this instance bestowed her fa vours upon one who deferved them; and that I fhould find in Attalus's fociety the pleafing gratification of seeing all those maxims, which I had hitherto revolved in my mind as matter of speculation only, now brought forth into actual practice; for amongst all my obfervations upon hu man man affairs, few have given me greater and more frequent difappointment, than the almost general abufe of riches. Thofe rules of liberal economy, which would make wealth a bleffing to its owner and to all he were connected with, feem fo obvious to me, who have no other interest in the fubject than what meditation affords, that I am apt to wonder how men can make fuch false estimates of the true enjoyments of life, and wander out of the way of happiness, to which the heart and understanding feem to point the road too plainly to admit of a mistake. With these fanguine expectations I purfued my journey towards the magnificent feat of Attalus, and in my approach it was with pleasure I remarked the beauty of the country about it; I recollected how much he used to be devoted to rural exercifes, and I found him fituated in the very fpot moft favorable to his beloved amusements; the foil was clean, the hills were eafy, and the downs chequered with thick copfes, that feemed the finest nurseries in nature for a sportsman's game: When I entered upon his ornamented demefne, nothing could be more enchanting than the scenery; the ground was finely fhaped into hill and vale; the horizon every where bold and romantic, and the hand of art had evidently improved the workmanship of nature with confummate tafte; upon the broken declivity ftately groves of beech were happily difpofed; the lawn was of the fineft verdure gently floping from the house; a rapid river of the pureft tranfparency ran through it and fell over a rocky channel into a noble lake within view of the manfion; behind this upon the northern and eaftern flanks I could difcern the tops of very ftately trees, that fheltered a fpacious enclosure of pleafure-ground and gardens, with all the delicious accompaniments of hothoufes and confervatories. It was a fcene to seize the imagination with rapture; a poet's language would have run fpontaneoufly into metre at the fight of it; "What 66 a fubject," faid I within myself, "is here pre"fent for thofe ingenious bards, who have the "happy talent of defcribing nature in her faireft "forms! Oh! that I could plant the delightful "author of The Tafk in this very spot! Perhaps, "whilft his eye-in a fine phrenfy rolling-glanc"ed over this enchanting profpect, he might burft forth into the following, or fomething "like the following, rhapfody-" Bieft above men, if he perceives and feels Where can the world display a fairer scene? |