316

EXTRACT from the RAMBLER.

justly established in other refpects, if it
fhould happen that, under her reign, and
under the fanction of her name, the very
people, who, in the most dangerous con-
junctures, gave the ftrongest proofs of an
inviolable attachment, even to the facrificing
their lives and fortunes for the intereft of
their fovereign, fhould have no other reward A
for their loyalty than the lofs of their dearest
and most valuable rights and privileges,
and be thereby driven to the higheft pitch
How would the
of rage and defpair.
breaft of every impartial man be fired with
indignation against the clergy of Hungary,
if they fhould be feen to maintain the prin-
ciples lately advanced by one of their mem-
bers? And to what dangers would not B
thofe principles expofe him, if, in thofe
viciffitudes and revolutions, of which the
Almighty is the arbiter, that, or any other
country attached to the Roman church,
should fall to the fhare, and pafs into the
hands of a mafter of another communion,
that had been landered and abufed beyond
measure; especially, if that new master,
and thofe of his communion, agreeable to

C

July

towards diffenters, and heartily wifhed to fee the proteftants of Hungary delivered from the hardships they fuffer merely on the fcore of religion; but could not make any reprefentations to the Roman-catholick clergy of that kingdom, nor write in particular to the bishop of Vefprin, because he was pretty fure they would not vouch fafe him an answer. Wherefore he thought beft to fend the contents of his Pruffian majesty's letter to Rome, and folicit the Pope to employ his authority in behalf of the faid perfecuted proteftants, &c.

And from Rome we were informed, that the bishop of Breflau's remonstrances have been favourably received, the Pope judging that the equity and humanity with

which thofe of his communion are treated in the Pruffian dominions, calls upon him to give that monarch all the fatisfaction that lies in his power.

From the RAMBLER, July 2.

Of the annual Receffions into the Country.

T this time of univerfal migration,

the indifputable right of repritals, thould A when almost every one, confiderable

take it into his head to retort thofe principles upon the Hungarian clergy, and treat them accordingly?

enough to attract regard, has retired, or is preparing, with all the earnestness of diftrefs, to retire into the country; when nothing is to be heard but the hopes of a fpeedy departure, or the complaints of involuntary delay; I have often been tempted D to enquire what happiness is to be gained, or what inconvenience is to be avoided, by this ftated receffion. Of the birds of paffage, fome follow the fummer, and fome the winter, because they live upon fuftenance, which only fummer or winter can fupply; but of the annual flight of human rovers it is much harder to affign the reafon, because they do not appear either to find or feek any thing, which is not equally afforded by the town and country.

We don't know any perfon more capable than your dilection to infinuate all thefe things in a proper manner to the faid clergy, and we the more confidently charge you with the bufinefs, as we have had the fatisfaction to perceive, on feveral occafions, that your attachment to your church does not at all contract your fentiments of humanity, nor make you lefs obfervant of the principal duties of all religions, and that you are moreover extremely averfe to the fuperftitious prejudice, That it is a fa- E cred law to propagate divine truths by acts of injustice. And fo great is our confidence in you, that we cannot doubt but you will exert all your prudence and addrefs in execuring this commiffion, however thorny and perplexing it may appear to your di lect on, and bring it to a happy iffue, with cut prejudice to any perfons, according to our intentions, our hopes, and withes.

I believe, indeed, that many of these fugitives may have heard of men, whofe continual wifh was for the quiet of retirement, who watched every opportunity to steal away from obfervation, to forfake the crowd, and delight themfelves with the F fociety of folitude. There is, indeed, fcarcely any writer, who has not celebrated the happiness of rural privacy, and delighted himself and his reader with the melody of birds, the whisper of groves, and the murmur of rivulets; nor any man eminent for extent of capacity, or greatness of exploits, that has not left behind him fome memorials of lonely wisdom, and filent dignity.

Your dilection will thereby do us a moft agreeable fervice. And in conducting this affair to the defired end, which we don't propofe you should be any way answerable for, you will greatly increase our fatisfaction, and the merit you have acquired with us. Whereupon we fhall expect in due time a faithful and punctual report from G your dilection, &c.

Signed FREDERICK.

In answer to this letter, the bishop of Breflau faid, That for his part he had always been of opinion, that the church ought to hehave with patience and lenity

But almost all abfu dity of conduct arifes from the imitation of thofe, whom we cannot refemble. Thofe who thus teftified their weariness of crowds and hurry, and hafted with fo much eagerness to the lei

fure

1751. Of the annual Receffions into the Country.

fure of retreat, were either men over.
whelmed with the preffure of difficult em-
ployments, harraffed with importunities,
and diftracted with multiplicity, or men
wholly engroffed by fpeculative sciences,
who having no other end of life but to
learn and teach, found their fearches inter-
rupted by the common commerce of civili- A
ty, and their reafonings disjointed by fre-
Such men might
quent interruptions.

reasonably with for that eafe and conveni-
eace, which their condition allowed them
to find only in the country. The ftatef-
man, who devoted the greater part of his
time to the publick, was defirous of keep-
ing the remainder in his own power;
the general, ruffied with dangers, wearied B
with labours, and stunned with acclamati-
ons, gladly fnatched an interval of filence
and relaxation; the naturalift was unhap-
py where the works of nature were not
always before him; the reafoner could
adjust his fyftems only where his mind
was free from the intrusion of outward
objects.

C

D

Such examples of folitude very few of thofe who are now haftening from the town, have any pretenfions to plead in their own justification, fince they cannot pretend either wearinefs of labour, or de fire of knowledge. They purpofe nothing more than to quit one fcene of idleness for another, and after having trifled in publick to fleep in fecrecy. The utmost that they can hope to gain is the change of ridiculoufnels to obfcurity, and the privilege of having fewer witneffes to a life of folly. He who is not fufficiently important to be disturbed in his pursuits, but spends all his hours according to his own inclination, and has more hours than his mental faculties enable him to fill either with enjoy- E ments or defires, can have nothing to demand of fhades and valleys.

There are, however, pleasures and advantages in a rural fituation, which are not confined to philofophers and heroes. The freshness of the air, the verdure of the woods, the paint of the meadows, and the unexhausted variety which fummer scatters over the earth, may easily give delight to an unlearned fpectator. It is not neceffary that he who looks with pleasure on the colours of a flower, fhould ftudy the prin cipies of vegetation, or that the Ptolemaick and Copernican fyftem fhould be compared, before the light of the fun can gladden, or its warmth invigorate. Novelty is itself a fource of gratification, and Milton justly obferves, that to him who has been long pent up in cit es, no rural object can be prefented, which will not glad fome of his Lenfes with refreshment.

Yet even thefe eafy pleasures are miffed

317

by the greater part of thofe, who waste their
fummer in the country. Should any man
purfue his acquaintance to their retreats,
he would find few of them listening to Phi-
lomel, loitering in woods, or plucking
dafies, catching the healthy gale of the
morning, or watching the gentle coruf-
cations of declining day. Some will be
difcovered at a window, by the road fide,
rejoicing when a new cloud of duft ga-
thers toward them, as at the approach
of a momentary fupply of converfation,
and a fhort relief from the tediousness of
unideal vacancy.
Others are placed in

the adjacent villages, where they look
only upon houfes, as in the reft of the
year, with no change of objects, but
what a remove to any new street in Lon-
don might have given them. The fame
fet of acquaintances till fettle together,
and the form of life is no otherwife di-
verfified than by doing the fame things
in a different place. They pay and re-
ceive vifits in the ufual form, they frequent
the walks in the morning, they deal cards
at night, they attend to the fame tattle,
and dance with the fame partners; nor can
they, at their return to their former habita-
tion, congratulate themselves on any other
advantage, than that they have paffed their
time like others of the fame rank, and
have the fame right to talk of the hap-
piness and beauty of the country, of hap-
pinefs which they never felt, and beauty
which they never regarded.

To be able to procure its own entertainments, and to fubfift upon its own ftock, is not the prerogative of every mind. There are, indeed, understandings fo fertile and comprehenfive, that they can always feed reflection with new fupplies, and fuffer nothing from the preclusion of adventitious amufements, as fome cities have within their own walls enclosed ground enough to feed their inhabitants in a fiege. But others live only from day to day, and must be conftantly enabled, by foreign fupplies, to keep out the encroachSuck ments of languor and ftupidity. could not indeed be blamed for hovering within the reach of their ufual pleafures, more than any other animal for not quitting its native element, were not their faculties contracted by their own fault. But let not those who go. into the country, merely because they dare not be left alone at home, boaft their love of nature or their qualifica Gtion for folitude, nor pretend that they receive instantaneous infufions of wifdom from the dryads, and are able, when they leave fmoke and noife behind, to act, or think, or reafon for them felves.

F

Solution

318 Questions folved. Cautions about MARRIAGE. July

Solution of the firft Arithmetical Question in Mag. for April, p. 176.

ET x, y, and & be the digits; then 2y=x+, and 3y the fum of 100x+10y+ the digits. Then per queftion 535, and 160 5y = 3y

100x +10% +2. Hence z = 100x+1505y. Then again, per question, 100% +101+x=100x+10y+2—198; hence, per reduction, x=x— z 100x+1505y, and zy = ==2x-2=x+x. Whence reduced

x=3 in the hundred, y z in the tens place, z=1

Solution of the firft Mathematical Question, ibid.

ESCRIBE a circle at pleasure; call CP— Cr Pa; the diameter will beza. Infcribe an equilateral A, call its fide y; having drawn CP and Pr, it's evident that the radius is divided into 2 equal parts Cr

made his addreffes among the reft; and as his fortune enabled him to make a suitable fettlement, preliminaries were foon agreed on. Before they had been ten times together, the lawyers were bribed not to be dilatory. Several thoufands were expended in plate and jewels. The gay livery and gilded car proclaimed them the happieft couple of the feafon. But they foon found that happiness did not confift in fhew. Little contrarieties of temper were the caufe of continual differences; which, in lefs than two years, rofe to fuch a height, that they were in a manner parted. To avoid the uneafinefs of home, Eugenio publickly indulged himfelf in his amours; and Theana was only more private. His money was thrown away at hazard; hers as religiously devoted to quadrille. He was regardless of the education of his fons, because he was not fure they were his own; the inftructed her daughters in nothing but cards and romances.

gaiety and expence; which he supported
by the affiftance of good fenfe and a plen-
tiful fortune, without injuring his reputa-
tion or estate. Having no family of his
own, he made a vifit to a friend, with a
defign of paffing the fummer with him in
the country. Sophronia happened to be
there at the fame time, by the invitation of A
the lady of the house, with whom he had
always been educated. Her perfon was
nothing remarkable, but a fweet difpofi-
tion and a good natural understanding
made her conversation agreeable. Upon
his first arrival, Eugenio was too well bred
not to fhew a particular civility to one fo
much refpected by the family; and So-
phronia knew how to return it by a fuita- B
ble behaviour. They had not been long
acquainted, before the sprightliness of his
conversation, and the amiable innocence
of hers, begot a mutual defire of render-
ing themselves agreeable to each other.
Eugenio's education had been too inge-
nuous to harbour a wish that was disho-
nourable; and Sophronia willingly encou- C
raged a virtuous inclination, that would
be fo much for her advantage. She knew
he poffeffed no ill qualities, and thought
he would easily be weaned from his love of
thew and expence by a more fettled way of
life. But his defire to live fplendid got the
better of his paffion: He would not throw
himfelf away upon one, who had but D
3000l. for her portion; fo determined to
return immediately to London, and oblite-
rate his fondness by the diverfions of the

town.

Theana came up about the fame time, to
fpend the winter with her aunt. She was
the only daughter of a gentleman of for-
tune, by whofe death fhe was lately come
into the poffeffion of above 15,000l. She E
was determined never to marry a man,
who could not fupport her in the magnifi-
cence, that fuch a fortune might expe&t;
and for that reafon only had refused Eu-
pharbus, a young gentlemen bred up to a
profeffion, in which his natural abilities,
joined to a steady application, promised him
the greatest fuccefs. They had long been
acquainted, and fo perfectly agreeable to
each other, that Euphorbus had just reason
to hope he should prevail over her desire
for grandeur, which was the only failing
the poffeffed: But that paffion was predo-
minant; he was afraid it fhould be faid
he had acted imprudently, and that the
hould not be able to withstand the re-

flections of the world, for having only one
footman behind a chariot and pair, when
the might have had half a dozen powdered
valets attending her coach and fix.

Upon her coming to London, Eugenie

G

But it is time to make fome enquiry after the other two. The next winter after her difappointment, Sophronia came to London with her female friend. Euphorbus accidentally fell into her company. Frequent meetings created an acquaintance, that acquaintance encreased gradually into a mutual esteem; which, as it was not founded upon intereft, but a thorough knowledge of each other, they had good

reafon to believe would continue. With this profpect they married. The fmalinefs of their fortune was compenfated by tenderness and œconomy. The defire of providing for his children made him double his application to his profeffion; and the was in the mean time as agreeably entertained in taking care of their education. He was daily adding to their fortune; the to their virtue. In the decline of life they retired to a country house and estate, which his profeffion and her ceconomy had enabled them to buy of Eugenio, whofe extravagance and ill management had obliged him to fell part of his eftate, as foon as a booby fon was old enough to be bribed to cut off the intail. There, in the words of Agamemnon,

They know a paffion fill more deeply charming Than fever'd youth s'er felt; and that is love,

By long experience melloav'd into friendship.

Thus are Euphorbus and Sophronia, by a marriage founded on good fenfe, poifeffed of happiness, riches, and reputation; which Eugenio and Theana have lost by the contrary means.

As

320

Account of Mr. POPE and his Writings.

d Account of the celebrated Poet ALEXANDER POPE, Efq; With his HEAD, engraved from an original Painting.

R. Alexander Pope was the fon of

July

year he wrote The Rape of the Lock, in five canto's, with the most delicate strokes of humour expofing the unguarded foibles of the fair. After this appeared his Tem ple of Fame, altered from Chaucer, and

M Alexander Pope, of London, Gent. embellished with many noble decorations;

and Adithea, daughter of William Turner,
of York, Efq; He was born on June 8, A
1688. As he was of a very weakly con..
ftitution, he was educated in a private
manner, under feveral learned men, par
ticularly Mr. Deane, a gentleman, of the
Romish perfuafion, which was the religion
profeffed by Mr. Pope's parents, and in
which he himself continued, tho' entirely.
free from the bigotted and perfecuting
fpirit fo notorious in that communion; for
he bore an univerfal love and charity to
mankind, and had just notions both of
civil and religious liberty.

Poeta nafcitur, non fit, was verified in him; for his poetical genius difcovered it felf fo early, that when he was but 12 years old, he wrote a little piece in that way, which, by its elegant fimplicity of both fentiments and expreffion, procur'd' him many admirers. At 14 he wrote his Polyphemus and Acis, out of the 13th book of Ovid's Metamorphofes ; which our readers may fee in our Magazine for 1749. p. 568..

B

It was about that time he had the ho nour of being admitted to an intimacy with Sir William Trumbul, at Eaft-Hamfted, D in Windfor-Foreft. For his father having bought an estate at Bingfield, near Sir William's feat, Mr. Pope there translated the 4th book of Statius's Thebaid; which performance not only gain'd him a greater esteem with that gentleman, but drew the attention of the principal poets of the age.

and shortly after, his Effay on Criticism, containing the nicest rules to direct the judgment, and the finest obfervations, enlivened with all the graces of harmony, and fo skilfully conducted, that his lines ferve at once for precepts and examples.

After feveral other fmall pieces, he favoured the publick with a translation of Homer's Iliad and Odyffey, which vaftly enlarged his fame, and increased the number of his admirers, whilft the prodigious fale of his works was fuch a publick teftimony paid to his merit, as, at the fame time that it made his fortune' easy, gave him the greatest reason to be fatisfied with himself. Befides these, and a great number of fmaller pieces, not mentioned before, he published his Dunciad, one of the fevereft fatires that ever was written; and his Effay on Man, being a kind of fyftem of ethicks, which has all the concifenefs of profe, at the fame time that it has all the dignity and harmony of verfe.

Our poet at firft ufed great precaution in ufhering his productions into the world for he commonly fuffered them to appear fometimes for many years, before he gave them the fanction of his name, that he might not venture his reputation till he was fure of applaufe: But all his prudence could not fecure him from envy; the criticks were severe upon him, and fome of them bafely defcended fo low as to ridicule his form and fhape, he being a little man, and his body lean and crooked. Tho',

Two years after, his reputation was great-after all, it must be owned, that the

ly augmented by the publication of his Pas torals, when Sir William Trumbul introduced him to the honour of an acquaintance with the earl of Hallifax, the lord Lanfdown, Dr. Garth, Mr. Wycherly, Mr. Walfh, Mr. Gay, Mr. Addifon, Sir Richard Steele, and Mr. Congreve. And foon after, he fettled a correfpondence with many learned and poetical gentlemen, who F lived at a distance, and were ambitious of being ranked among the number of his

admirers.

Mr. Pope's next production was his Meffiah, a facred poem, in imitation of Virgil's Pollio, and wrote in fo masterly a manner, that the best judges have preferred it to that eclogue of the Roman poet. Not G long after he published his Windfor-Forest, a work remarkable for fine painting, and particularly for the metamorphofis of a nymph into the river Lodden. In his 24th

Dunciad, on account of the keennefs of the fatire, bestowed on many of Mr. Pope's warmest admirers, who had no other fault than an itch of writing, with a genius vaftly inferior to his, has tended to cloud his merit, and to caufe many to withdraw their esteem, who cannot help admiring him.

However, Mr. Pope may ether wife be ranked among the best moral writers: He difcovers the most noble and exalted fentiments, and a foul free from the bigotry and fuperftition which fetter little minds; while the tender fenfe of filial affection, which in one of his poems he expreffes for an aged mother, gives a moft agreeable. idea of the goodness of his heart.

After he had, by his various elegant, mafterly, and fublime productions, acquired univerfal fame, and reaped greater pecuniary advantages from them than any

* See this fublime poem in our Magazine for 1734, p. 4416

author