just reference to another. Of the fahions prevalent in every country, a few have arifen, perhaps, from particular temperatures of the climate; a few more from the conftitution of the government; but the greater part have grown up by chance, been started by caprice, been contrived by affectation, or borrowed without any just motives of choice from other countries.

Of all thefe, the favage that hunts his prey upon the mountains, and the fage that fpeculates in his closet, must neceffarily live in equal ignorance; yet by the obfervation of thefe trifles it is, that the ranks of mankind are kept in order, that the addrefs of one to another is regulated, and the general business of the world carried on with facility and method.

These things, therefore, though small in themselves, become great by their frequency; and he very much mistakes his own intereft, who, to the unavoidable unfkilfulness of abftraction and retirement, adds a voluntary neglect of common forms, and increases the difadvantages of a studious courfe of life by an arrogant contempt of thofe practices, by which others endeavour to gain favour and multiply friendfhips.

A real and interior disdain of fashion and ceremony is, indeed, not very often to be found: much the greater part of those who pretend to laugh at foppery and formality, fecretly wish to have pof feiled thofe qualifications which they pretend to defpife; and because they find it difficult to wash away the tincture" which they have so deeply imbibed, endeavour to harden themfelves in a fullen approbation of their own colour. Neutrality is a ftate into which the bufy paflions of man cannot easily fubfide; and he who is in danger of the pangs of envy, is generally forced to recreate his imagination with an effort of comfort.

Some, however, may be found, who, fupported by the coniciouinefs of great abilities, and elevated by a long courfe of reputation and applaufe, voluntarily confign themfelves to fingularity, affect to cross the roads of life because they know that they fhall not be jostled, and indulge a boundlefs gratification of will because they perceive that they fhall be quietly obeyed. Men of this kind are generally known by the name of Humourifts, an appellation by which he shat has obtained it, and can be eon

tented to keep it, is fet free at once from the fhackles of fashion; and can go in or out, fit or ftand, be talkative or filent, gloomy or merry, advance abfurdities or oppofe demonftration, without any other reprehenfion from mankind, than that it is his way, that he is an odd fellow, and must be let alone.

This fecins to many an eafy paffport through the various factions of mankind; and those on whom it is bestowed appear too frequently to confider the patience with which their caprices are fuffered as an undoubted evidence of their own importance, of a genius to which fubmiflion is universally paid, and whofe irregularities are only confidered as confequences of it's vigour. Thefe peculiarities, however, are always found to fpot a character, though they may not totally obfcure it; and he who expects from mankind, that they should give up eftablished cuftoms in compli ance with his fingle will, and exacts that deference which he does not pay, may be endured, but can never be approved.

Singularity is, I think, in it's own nature univerfally and invariably dif pleafing. In whatever refpect a man differs from others, he must be confidered by them as either worse or better: by being better, it is well known that a man gains admiration oftener than love, fince all approbation of his practice must neceflarily condemn him that gives it; and though a man often pleafes by inferiority, there are few who defire to give fuch pleasure. Yet the truth is, that fingularity is almost always regarded as a brand of flight reproach; and where it is affociated with acknowledged merit, ferves as an abatement or an allay of excellence, by which weak eyes are reconciled to it's luftre, and by which, though kindness is not gained, at least envy is averted.

But let no man be in hafte to conclude his own merit fo great or confpi, cuous, as to require or justify singularity: it is as hazardous for a moderate understanding to ufurp the prerogatives of genius, as for a common form to play over the airs of uncontested beauty. The pride of men will not patiently endure to fee one, whofe understanding of attainments are but level with their own, break the rules by which they have confented to be bound, or forfake the di rection which they fubmiffively follow,

All

ject not only of affection but reverence. On the contrary, the devotion of the felfish, whether it be thought to avert the punishment which every one withes to be inflicted, or to infure it by the complication of hypocrify with guilt, never fails to excite indignation and abhorrence. Carazan, therefore, when he had locked his door, and turning round with a look of circumfpective fufpicion, proceeded to the mofque, was followed by every eye with filent malignity; the poor fufpended their fupplication when he paffed by; and though he was known by every man, no man faluted him.

Such had long been the life of Carazan, and fuch was the character which he had acquired, when notice was given by proclamation, that he was removed to a magnificent building in the center of the city, that his table fhould be fpread for the public, and that the stranger fhould be welcome to his bed; the multitude foon rufhed like a torrent to his door, where they behold him diftributing bread to the hungry and apparel to the naked, his eye foftened with compaffion, and his check glowing with delight. Every one gazed with aftonishment at the prodigy; and the murmur of innumerable voices increafing like the found of approaching thunder, Carazan beckoned with his hand; attention fufpended the tumult in a moment, and he thus gratified the curiofity which had procured him audience.

TO Him who touches the mountains

and they fmoke, The Almighty and The Moft Merciful, be everlafting honour! He has ordained fleep to be the minifter of inftruction, and his vifions have reproved me in the night. As I was fitting alone in my harain, with my lamp burning before me, computing the product of my merchandize, and exulting in the increafe of my wealth, I fell into a decp fleep, and the hand of Him who dwells in the third heaven was upon me. I beheld the angel of death coming forward like a whirlwind, and he fmote me before I could deprecate the blow. At the fame moment I felt myfelf lifted from the ground, and tranfported with aftonishing rapidity through the regions of the air. The earth was contracted to an atom beneath; and the ftars glowed round me with a luftre that obfcured the fun. The gate of

Paradife was now in fight; and I was intercepted by a fudden brightnefs which no human eye could behold: the irrevocable fentence was now to be pronounced; my day of probation was pait; and from the evil of my life nothing could be taken away, nor could any thing be added to the good. When I reflected that my lot for eternity was caft, which not all the powers of nature could reverfe, my confidence totally forfook me; and while I ftood trembang and filent, covered with confusion and chilled with horror, I was thus addressed by the radiance that flamed before

me.

Carazan, thy worship has not been accepted, because it was not prompted by Love of God: neither can thy righteoufnefs be rewarded, because it was not produced by Love of Man : for thy own fake only hast thou rendered to every man his due; and thou haft approached the ALMIGHTY only for thyfelf. Thou hast not looked up 'with gratitude, nor round thee with kindness. Around thee, thou haft indeed beheld vice and folly; but if vice and folly could justify thy parfimony, would they not condemn the bounty of Heaven? If not upon the foolish and the vicious, where fhall the fun diffuse his light, or the clouds diftil their dew? Where fhall the lips of the fpring breathe fragrance, or the hand of autumn diffufe plenty? Remember, Carazan, that thou haft • shut compassion from thine heart, and grafped thy treafures with a hand of iron: thou haft lived for thyself; and therefore, henceforth for ever, thou fhalt fubfift alone. From the light of heaven, and from the fociety of all beings, fhalt thou be driven; folitude fhall protract the lingering hours of eternity, and darknefs aggravate the horrors of despair." At this moment I was driven by fome fecret and irrefiftible power through the glowing fystem of creation, and paffed innumerable worlds in a moment. As I approached the verge of nature, I perceived the fhadows of total and boundless vacuity deepen before me, a dreadful region of eternal filence, folitude, and darkness! Unutterable horror feized me at the profpect, and this exclamation burft from me with all the vehemence of defire:

O! that I had been doomed for ever to the common receptacle of impeni

tence

tence and guilt! there fociety would ⚫ have alleviated the torment of despair, and the rage of fire could not have excluded the comfort of light. Or if I had been condemned to refide in a comet, that would return but once ' in a thousand years to the regions of light and life; the hope of these periods, however diftant, would cheer 'men in the dread interval of cold and darkness, and the viciffitude would 'divide eternity into time.' While this thought paffed over my mind, I loft fight of the remoteft ftar, and the laft glimmering of light was quenched in utter darkness. The agonies of defpair every moment increased, as every moment augmented my distance from the laft habitable world. I reflected with intolerable anguish, that when ten thousand thoufand years had carried me beyond the reach of all but that Power who fills infinitude, I should still look forward into an immenfe abyfs of darknefs, through which I fhould ftill drive without fuccour and without fociety, farther and farther ftill, for ever and

for ever. I then ftretched out my hand towards the regions of exiftence, with an emotion that awaked me. Thus have I been taught to eftimate fociety, like every other bleffing, by it's lofs. My heart is warmed to liberality; and I am zealous to communicate the hap pinefs which I feel, to thofe from whom it is derived; for the fociety of one wretch, whom in the pride of prosperity I would have fpurned from my door, would, in the dreadful folitude to which I was condemned, have been more highly prized than the gold of Afiic, or the gems of Golconda.

At this reflection upon his dream, Carazan became fuddenly filent, and looked upward in extafy of gratitude and devotion. The multitude were ftruck at once with the precept and example; and the Caliph, to whom the event was related, that he might be liberal beyond the power of gold, commanded it to be recorded for the benefit of pofterity.

HOR

TH

FRANCIS.

As Ariftophanes wrote to please the multitude, at a time when the licentioufnefs of the Athenians was boundiefs, his pleasantries are coarfe and unpolite, his characters extravagantly forced, and distorted with unnatural deformity, like. the monstrous caricaturas of Callot. He is full of the groffeft obfcenity, indecency, and inurbanity; and as the populace always delight to hear their fu periors, abufed and mitreprefented, he fcatters the rankeft calumnies on the wifeft and worthieft perfonages of his country. His ftyle is unequal, occa fioned by a frequent introduction of pa rodies on Sophocles and Euripides. It is, however, certain, that he abounds

in artful allufions to the state of Athens at the time when he wrote; and, perhaps, he is more valuable, confidered as a political fatirift, than a writer of comedy.

Plautus has adulterated a rich vein of genuine wit and humour, with a mixture of the bafett buffoonry. No writer feems to have been born with a more forcible or more fertile genius for comedy. He has drawn fome characters with incomparable fpirit: we are indebted to him for the first good miler, and for that worn-out character among the Romans, a bootful Thrafo. But his love degenerates into lewdnets; and his jefts are infupportably low and illiberal, and fit only for the dregs of Romulus' to ufe and to hear; he has furnished examples of every species of true and falfe wit, even down to a quibble and a pun. Plautus lived in an age when the Romans were but juft emerging into poBenefs; and I cannot forbear thinking, that if he had been referved for the age of Auguftus, he would have produced more perfect plays than even the clegant difciple of Menander.

Delicacy, fweetnefs, and correctnefs, are the characteristics of Terence. His polite images are all reprefented in the most clear and perfpicuous expreflion; but his characters are too general and uniform, nor are they marked with thofe difcriminating peculiarities that diftinguish one man from another; there is a tedious and difgulting famenefs.of incidents in his plots, which, as hath been obferved in a former paper, are too complicated and intricate. It may be added, that he fuperabounds in foliloquics; and that nothing can be more inartificial or improper, than the manner in which he hath introduced them.

To thefe three celebrated ancients I venture to oppofe fingly the matchlefs Moliere, as the moft confummate mafter of comedy that former or later ages have produced He was not content with painting obvious and common characters, but fet himfelf clofely to examine the numberless varieties of human nature: he foon difcovered every difference, however minute; and by a proper management could make it ftriking: his portraits, therefore, though they apar to be new, are yet difcovered to be juft. The Tartuffe and the Mifantrope are the moft fingular, and yet, perhaps, the most proper and perfect

characters that comedy can reprefent; and his Mifer excels that of any other nation. He feems to have hit upon the true nature of comedy; which is, to exhibit one fingular and unfamiliar character, by fuch a feries of incidents as may belt contribute to fhew it's fingu larities. All the circumftances in the Milantrope tend to manifeft the peevish and captious difguft of the hero; all the circunftances in the Tartuffe are calculated to fhew the treachery of an ac complished hypocrite. I am forry that no English writer of comedy can be produced as a rival to Moliere: although it must be confeffed, that Falstaff and Morofe are two admirable characters, excellently fupported and difplayed; for Shakespeare has contrived all the incidents to illuftrate the gluttony, lewdnefs, cowardice, and boastfulness of the fat old knight: and Johnton has with equal art difplayed the oddity of a whimfical humourift, who could endure no kind of noife.

Will it be deemed a paradox to affert, that Congreve's dramatic perfons have no ftriking and natural characteristic? His Fondlewife and Forefight are but faint portraits of common characters, and Ben is a forced and unnatural caricatura. His plays appear not to be legitimate comedies, but ftrings of repartees and fallics of wit, the mcft poignant and polite, indeed, but unnatural and ill place. The trite and trivial character of a fop hath ftrangely engrofled the English stage, and given an infipid fimilarity to our beft comic pieces: originals can never be wanting in fuch a kingdom as this, where each man follows his natural inclinations and prepenfities, if our writers would really contemplate nature, and endeavour to open thofe mines of humour which have been fo long and fo unaccountably negJected.

If we proceed to confider the Satirifts of antiquity, I fhall not foruple to prefer Boileau and Pope to Horace and Juvenal; the arrows of whofe ridicule are more fharp, in proportion as they are more polished. That reformers fhould abound in obfcenities, as is the cafe of the two Roman poets, is furely an impropriety of the most extraordinary kind; the courtly Horace alfo fometimes finks into mean and farcical abufe, as in the firft lines of the feventh fatire of the first book; but Boi

leau