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 nations and gentle expreffions, wherein he flowed with that facility, that fometime it was neceffary he should be stopped; 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 for his audience. Jonfon treated them with the dictatorial haughtiness of a pedant; Shakespear with the carelefinefs of a gentleman who wrote at his eafe, and gave them the firft flowings of his fancy without any dread of their correction. These 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, carelefs, and daringly incorrect. Place the fame man in other times, amongft a people polished almost into general equality, and he shall begin to hefitate and retract his fallies; for in this refpect poetical are like military excurfions, and it makes a wide

difference

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 yault his Pegasus without a rein; mountains might rise and seas roll in vain before him; Nature herself could neither ftop nor circumfcribe his career. The modern man of verse mounts with the precaution of a riding-master, and prances round his little circle full-bitted and caparifoned in all the formality of a review. Whilft he is thus pacing and piaffering with every body's eyes upon him, his friends are calling out every now and then-"Seat your"felf firm in the faddle! Hold your body

A

ftraight! Keep your fpurs from his fides för "fear he fets a kicking! Have a care he does "not ftumble; there lies a ftone, here runs a "ditch; keep your whip ftill, and depend 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 sport for the fpectators!"- All this while perhaps the poor devil could have performed paffably well, if it were not for the mobbing

mobbing and hallooing about him: Whereas Shakespear mounts without fear, and starting in the jockey-phrafe at fcore, cries out, "Stand fons of earth! or, by the beams of my

clear, ye "father Apollo, I'll ride over you, and trample c you into duft !"

I

WAS in company the other day with a young gentleman, who had newly fucceeded to a confiderable eftate, and was a good deal ftruck with the conversation of an elderly person prefent, who was very deliberately cafting up the several demands that the community at large had upon his property." Are you aware," fays he," how small a portion of your revenue will "properly remain to yourself, when you have "fatisfied all the claims which you must pay to cc fociety and your 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 par«tiality

66 tiality of fortune, levied by the law of fociety, "which will not truft its poor members to the precarious charity of the rich: Another part 66 muft go to the debts and neceffities of the government, which protects you in war and peace, and is alfo a fine, which you must be cc content to pay for the honour of being an "Englishman, and the advantage of living in a "land of liberty and fecurity. The learned « profeffions will alfo have their fhare; the "church for taking care of your soul, the phy"fician for looking after your body, and the "lawyer must have part of your property for

fuperintending the reft. The merchant, trades"man and artifan will have their profit upon all "the multiplied wants, comforts and indulgen<< ces of civilized life; these are not to be enu« merated, 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 hall "advance: They are the conductors, which, "like the blood-veffels in the human frame, cir

culate your wealth, and every other man's "wealth, through every limb and even fibre "of the national body: The hand of industry "6 creates that wealth, and to the hand of

induftry

"industry 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 these artificial wants and dependen ces 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 be come more and more complicated and multifarilous, 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 course property will circulate through more channels: . This I take to be the cafe upon a comparison 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

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