66 "The infernal council, at Alecto's call "Reftlefs Difeafe, and felf-difhevell'd Woe, The productions of the human genius will borrow their complexion from the times in which they originate. Ben Jonfon fays, that the players often mentioned it as an honour to Shakespear, that in his writing (whatsoever he penned) he never blotted out a line. My answer hath been (adds he) Would he had blotted out a thousand which they thought a malevolent speech. I had not told pofterity this, but for their ignorance, who chofe that circumftance to commend their friend by, wherein he most faulted; and to justify mine own candour, for I loved the man, and do honour his memory on this fide idolatry as much as any: He was indeed honeft, and of an open and free nature; had an excellent phantafie, brave noti ons and gentle expreffions, wherein he flowed with that facility, that fometime it was neceffary he should be flopped; Sufflaminandus erat, as Auguftus faid of Haterius: His wit was in his own power; would the rule of it had been fo too! I think there can be no doubt but this kind of indignant negligence with which Shakespear wrote, was greatly owing to the flight confideration he had had for his audience. Jonfon treated them with the dictatorial haughtiness of a pedant; Shakefpear with the careleffness of a gentleman who wrote at his ease, and gave them the firft flowings of his fancy without any dread of their correction. Thefe were times in which the poet indulged his genius without reftraint; he ftood alone and fupereminent, and wanted no artificial fcaffold to raife him above the heads of his contemporaries; he was natural, lofty, careless, and daringly incorrect. Place the fame man in other times, amongst a people polifhed almoft into general equality, and he fhall begin to hefitate and retract his fallies; for in this refpect poetical are like military excurfions, and it makes a wide difference in the movements of a fkilful general, whether he is to fally into a country defended by well-difciplined troops, or only by an irregular mob of unarmed barbarians. Shakespear might vault his Pegafus without a rein; mountains might rise and seas roll in vain before him; Nature herself could neither stop nor circumfcribe his career. The modern man of verfe mounts with the precaution of a riding-mafter, and prances round his little circle full-bitted and caparifoned in all the formality of a review. Whilst he is thus pacing and piaffering with every body's eyes upon him, his friends are calling out every now and then-" Seat yourself firm in the faddle! Hold your body ftraight! Keep your fpurs from his fides for fear he fets a kicking! Have a care he does not stumble; there lies a ftone, here runs a ditch; keep your whip ftill, and depend upon upon your bit, if you have not a mind to break your neck!"-On the other quarter his enemies are bawling out" How like a taylor that fellow fits on horfeback! Look at his feet, look at his arms! Set the curs upon him; tie a cracker to his horfe's tail, and make fport for the fpectator's !"-All this while perhaps the poor devil could have performed paffably well, if it were not for the mobbing and hallooing abont him: Whereas Shakespear mounts without fear, and ftarting in the jockey-phrase at score, cries out, "Stand clear, ye fons of earth! or, by the beams of my father Apollo, I'll ride over you, and trample you into duft!" N° LXXXV. I WAS in company the other day with a young gentleman, who had newly fucceeded to a confiderable eftate, and was a good deal struck with the converfation of an elderly perfon present who was very deliberately cafting up the feveral demands that the community at large had upon his property." Are you aware," fays he, "how fmall a portion of your revenue will properly remain to yourself, when you have fatisfied all the claims which you must pay to fociety and your country country for living amongst us and fupporting the character of what is called a landed gentleman ? Part of your income will be ftopt for the maintenance of them who have none, under the denomination of poor-rates; this may be called a fine upon the partiality of fortune, levied by the law of fociety, which will not truft its poor members to the precarious charity of the rich: Another part muft go to the debts and neceffities of the government, which protects you in war and peace, and is also a fine, which you must be content to pay for the honour of being an Englishman, and the advantage of living in a land of liberty and fecurity. The learned profeflions will alfo have their fhare; the church for taking care of your foul, the phyfician for looking after your body, and the lawyer must have part of your property for fuperintending the reft. The merchant, tradefman and artifan will have their profit upon all the multiplied wants, comforts and indulgences of civilized life; thefe are not to be enumerated, for they depend on the humours and habits of men; they have grown up with the refinements and elegancies of the age, and they will further encrease, as thefe fhall advance: They are the conductors, which, like the blood-veffels in the human frame, circulate your wealth, and every other man's wealth, through every limb and every fibre of the national body: The hand of induftry creates that wealth, and to the hand of induftry it finally returns, as blood does to the heart." If we trace the fituation of man from a mere ftate of nature to the higheft ftate of civilization, we fhall find thefe artificial wants and dependences encrease with every ftage and degree of his improvements; fo that if we confider each nation apart as one great machine, the several parts and fprings, which give it motion, naturally become more and more complicated and multifarious, as the uses to which it is applied are more and more diverfified. Again, if we compare two nations in an equal ftate of civilization, we may remark, that where the greater freedom obtains, there the greater variety of artificial wants will obtain alfo, and of courfe property will circulate through more channels: This I take to be the cafe upon a comparifon between France and England, arifing from the different conftitutions of them and us with refpect to civil liberty. The natural wants of men are pretty much the fame in moft ftates, but the humours of men will take different directions in different countries, and are governed in a great degree by the laws and conftitution of the realm in which they are found: There are numbers of people in England, who get their living by arts and occupations, which would not be tolerated in a defpotic government. Men's manners are fimplified in proportion to the reftraint and circumfcription under which they are kept. The country fports of English gentlemen furnifh maintenance and employment to vaft numbers of our people, whereas in France and other arbitrary ftates, men of the first rank and fortune refide in the capital, and keep no eftablishments of this fort. What a |