Laertes did this, he would, perhaps, be eafier in his own fortune; but then Irus, a fellow of yesterday, who has but twelve hundred a year, would be his equal. Rather than this fhall be, Laertes goes on to bring well-born beggars into the world, and every twelvemonth charges his eftate with at leaft one year's rent more by the birth of a child. Laertes and Irus are neighbours, whofe way of living are an abomination to each other. Irus is moved by the fear of poverty, and Laertes by the fhame of it. Though the motive of action is of fo near affinity in both, and may be refolved into this, "That to each of them poverty is the greateft of "all evils," yet are their manners very widely dif ferent. Shame of poverty makes Laertes launch into unneceffary equipage, vain expence, and lavish entertainments; fear of poverty makes Irus allow himself only plain neceffaries, appear without a fervant, fell his own corn, attend his labourers, and be himself a labourer. Shame of poverty makes Laertes go every day a ftep nearer to it; and fear of poverty ftirs up Irus to make every day fome further progrefs from it. a rendi, radune Thefe different motives produce the exceffes which men are guilty of in the negligence of and provifion for themfelves. Ufury, ftock-jobbing, extortion, and oppreffion, have their feed in the dread of want; and vanity, riot and prodigality, from the fhame of it: But bath thefe exceffès are infinitely below the purfuit of a reafonable creature. After we have taken care to command fo much as is neceffary for maintaining ourfelves in the order of men fuitable to dur character, the care of fuperfluities is a vice no lefs extravagant, than the neglect of neceffaries would have been before. Certain it is, that they are both out of nature, when fhe is followed with reafon and good fenfe. It is from this reflexion that I always read Mr. Couky with the greatest pleafure: His magnanimity is as as much above that of other confiderable men, as his understanding; and it is a true diftinguifhing fpirit in the elegant author who published his works, to dwell fo much upon the temper of his mind and the moderation of his defires: By, this means he has rendered his friend as amiable as famous. That ftate of life which bears the face of poverty with Mr. Cowley's great l'ulgar, is admirably defcribed; Mr. Cowley's grall fatisfaction and it is no those of the fame turn of defire, that he produces the authority of the wifeft men of the beft age the world, to ftrengthen his opinion of the ordinary pursuits of mankind.. It would methinks be no ill maxim of life, if according to that ancestor of Sir ROGER, whom I lately mentioned, every man would point to himfelf what fum he would refolve not to exceed. He might by this means cheat himself into a tranquillity on this fide of that expectation, or convert what he fhould get above it to nobler ufes than his own pleafures or neceffities. This temper of mind would exempt a man from an ignorant envy of restlefs men above him, and a more inexcufable contempt of happy men below him. This would be failing by fome compafs, living with fome defign; but to be eternally bewildered in profpects of future gain, and putting on unneceffary armour againft impro bable blows of fortune, is a mechanick being which has not good fenfe for its direction, but is carried on by a fort of acquired inftinct towards things below our confideration and unworthy our efteem. It is poffible that the tranquillity I now enjoy at Sir ROGER'S may have created in me this way of thinking, which is fo abftracted from the common relish of the world: But as I am now in a pleafing arbour furrounded with a beautiful landscape, I find no inclination fo ftrong as to continue in thefe manfions, fo remote from the oftentatious fcenes of life; life; and am at this prefent writing philofopher enough to conclude with Mr. Cowley, habent If e'er ambition did my fancy cheat, With any wifh fo mean as to be great; T No 115. THURSDAY, JULY 12. Ut fit mens fana in corpore fano.. Juv. Sat. x. v. 356. A healthy body and a mind at eafe. OPILY labour is of two kinds, either that which BODILY a man fubmits to for his livelihood, or that which he undergoes for his pleasure. The latter of them generally changes the name of labour for that of exercife, but diffons culy from ordinary labour as it rifes from another motive. A country life abounds in both thefe kinds of labour, and for that reafon gives a man a greater ftock of health, and confequently a more perfect enjoyment of himself, than any other way of life. I confider the body as a fyftem of tubes and glands, or to ufe a more ruftic phrafe, a bundle of pipes and strainers, fitted to one another after fo wonderful a manner as to make a proper engine for the foul to work with. This defcription does not only comprehend the bowels, bones, tendons, veins, nerves, and arteries, but every mufcle and every ligature, which is a compofition of fibres, that are fo many imperceptible tubes or pipes interwoven on all fides with invifible glands or strainers. This general idea of a human body, without confidering it in its niceties of anatomy, lets us fee how abfolutely neceffary labour is for the right prefer vation of it. There must be frequent motions and agitations, to mix, digeft, and feparate the juices contained in it, as well as to clear and cleanse that infinitude of pipes and ftrainers of which it is com pofed, and to give their folid parts a more firm and lafting tone. Labour or exercife ferments the humours, cafts them into their proper channels, throws off redundancies, and helps nature in thofe fecrét diftributions, without which the body cannot fubfift in its vigour, nor the foul act with cheerfulness. I might here mention the effects which this has upon all the faculties of the mind, by keeping the understanding clear, the imagination untroubled, and refining thofe fpirits that are neceffary for the proper exertion of our intellectual faculties, during the prefent laws of union between foul and body. It is to a neglect in this particular, that we muft afcribe the spleen, which is fo frequent in men of Audious and fedentary tempers, as well as the va pours to which thofe of the other fex are so often fubject. Had not exercife been abfolutely neceffary for our well being, nature would not have made the body fo proper for it, by giving fuch an activity to the limbs, and fuch a pliancy to every part as neceffarily produce thefe compreffions, extenfions, contortions, dilatations, and all other kinds of motions that are neceffary for the prefervation of fuch a system of tubes and glands as has been before mentioned. And that we might not want inducements to engage us in fuch an exercife of the body as is proper for its welfare, it is fo ordered that nothing valuable can be procured without it. Not to mention riches and honour, even food and raiment are not to be come at without the toil of the hands and fweat of the brows. Providence furnishes materials, but expects that we fhould work them up ourfelves. The earth must be laboured before it gives its increase, and when it is forced into its feveral products. products, how many hands muft they pass through before they are fit for ufe? Manufactures, trade, and agriculture, naturally employ more than nineteen parts of the fpecies in twenty; and as for thofe who are not obliged to labour, by the condition in which they are born, they are more miserable than the rest of mankind, unless they indulge themfelves in that voluntary labour which goes by the name of exercise. My friend Sir ROGER has been an indefatigable man in bufinefs of this kind, and has hung feveral parts of his houfe with the trophies of his former labours. The walls of his great hall are covered with the horns of feveral kinds of deer that he has killed in the chace, which he thinks the most valuable furniture of his houfe, as they afford him frequent topics of difcourfe, and fhew that he has not been idle. At the lower end of the hall is a large otter's fkin ftuffed with hay, which his mother ordered to be hung up in that manner, and the Knight looks upon it with great fatisfaction, becaufe it feems he was but nine years old when his dog killed him. A little room adjoining to the hall is a kind of arfenal filled with guns of feveral fizes and inventions, with which the Knight has made great havock in the woods, and deftroyed many thousands of pheasants, partridges and woodcocks. His ftable-doors are patched with nofes that belonged to foxes of the Knight's own hunting down. Sir ROGER fhewed me one of them, that for diftinction fake has a brafs nail ftruck through it, which coft him about fifteen, hours riding, carried him through half a dozen counties, killed him a brace of geldings, and loft above half his dogs. This the knight looks upon; as one of the greateft exploits of his life. The perverfe widow, whom I have given fome account of, was the death of feveral foxes; for Sir ROGER has told me that in the courfe of his amours he patched the western door of his ftable. Whenever the |