W

tells me there is no duty at all due to an uncle. I have a brother-in-law whofe fon will win all my affection, unless you fhall think this worthy of your cog. nizance, and will be pleafed to prescribe fome rules for our future reciprocal behaviour. It will be worthy the particularity of your genius to lay down rules for his conduct, who was, as it were, born an old man, in which you will much oblige, Sir, your most obedient fervant, CORNELIUS NEPOS.

T

HOR. ARS POET, V. 142.

7HEN I confider this great city in it's feveral quarters and divifions, I look upon it as an aggregate of various nations diftinguished from each other by their respective cuftoms, manners, and interests. The courts of two countries do not fo much differ from one another, as the court and city in their peculiar ways of life and converfation. In fhort, the inhabitants of St. James's, notwithstanding they live under the fame laws, and fpeak the fame language, are a diftinct people from thofe of Cheapfide, who are likewife removed from thofe of the Temple on the one fide, and thofe of Smithfield on the other, by feveral climates and degrees in their way of thinking and converfing together.

For this reafon, when any public affair is upon the anvil, I love to hear the reflections that arife upon it in the feveral diftricts and parishes of London and Weftminster, and to ramble up and down a whole day together, in order to make myself acquainted with the opinions of my ingenious countrymen. By this means I know the faces of all the principal politicians within the bills of mortality; and as every coffee- houfe has fome particular fatefman belonging to it, who is the mouth of the street where he lives, I always take care to place my felf near him, in order to know his judgment on the prefent pofture of affairs. The laft progrefs that I made with this

ROSCOMMON.

intention, was about three month ago, when we had a current report of the King of France's death. As I forefaw this would produce a new face of things in Europe, and many curious fpeculations in our British coffee-houses, I was very defirous to learn the thoughts of our moft eminent politicians on that occafion.

That I might begin as near the fountain-head as poffible, I first of all called in at St. James's, where I found the whole outward room in a buz of politics, The fpeculations were but very indifferent towards the door, but grew finer as you advanced to the upper end of the room, and were fo very much improved by a knot of theorists, who fat in the inner room, within the teams of the coffee-pot, that I there heard the whole Spanish monarchy difpofed of, and all the line of Bourbon provided for in less than a quarter of an hour.

I afterwards called in at Giles's, where I saw a board of French gentlemen fitting upon the life and death of their Grand Monarque. Thofe among them who had efpoufed the Whig intereft, very pofitively affirmed, that he departed this life about a week fince, and therefore proceeded without any further delay to the releafe of their friends in the gal lies, and to their own re-establishment; but finding they could not agree among themselves, I proceeded on my intended progrefs,

Upon

I met with very little variation in the politics between Charing Crofs and Covent Garden. And upon my going into Will's, I found their difcourfe was gone off from the death of the French King to that of Monfieur Boileau, Racine, Corneille, and several other poets, whom they regretted on this occafion, as perfons who would have obliged the world with very noble elegies on the death of fo great a prince, and fo eminent a patron of learning.

At a coffee-house near the Temple, I found a couple of young gentlemen engaged very smartly in a difpute on the fucceffion to the Spanish monarchy. One of them seemed to have been retained as advocate for the Duke of Anjou, the other for his Imperial Majefty. They were both for regulating the title of that kingdom by the ftatute laws of England; but finding them going out of my depth, I paffed forward to Paul's church-yard, where I liftened with great attention to a learned man who gave the company an account of the deplorable itate of France during the minority of the deceafed king.

I then turned on my right-hand into Fish Street, where the chief politician of that quarter, upon hearing the news, (after having taken a pipe of tobacco, and ruminated for fome time)-If,' fays he, the King of France is certainly dead, we shall have plenty of 'mackarel this feafon : our fishery will ⚫ not be disturbed by privateers, as it has been for thefe ten years paft. He afterwards confidered how the death of this great man would affect our pilchards, and by feveral other remarks infufed a general joy into his whole audience.

I afterwards entered a by-coffee-house that stood at the upper end of a narrow

lane, where I met with a nonjuror engaged very warmly with a laceman who was the great fupport of a neighbouring conventicle. The matter in debate was, whether the late French King was most like Auguftus Cæfar or Nero. The controverfy was carried on with great heat on both fides, and as each of them looked upon me very frequently during the courfe of their debate, I was under fome apprehenfion that they would appeal to me, and therefore laid down my penny at the bar, and made the beft of my way to Cheapfide.

I here gazed upon the figns for fome time before I found one to my purpofe. The first object I met in the coffee-room, was a perfon who expreffed a great grief for the death of the French King; but upon his explaining himfelf, I found his forrow did not arife from the lofs of the monarch, but for his having fold out of the Bank about three days before he heard the news of it. Upon which a haberdasher, who was the oracle of the coffee-houfe, and had his circle of admirers about him, called several to witness that he had declared his opinion above a week before, that the French King was certainly dead; to which he added, that confidering the late advices we had received from France, it was impoffible that it could be otherwife. As he was laying thefe together, and dictating to his hearers with great authority, there came in a gentleman from Garraway's, who told us that there were feveral letters from France juft come in, with advice that the king was in good health, and was gone out a hunting the very morning the poft came away. Upon which the haberdafher ftole off his hat that hung upon a wooden peg by him, and retired to his shop with great confufion. This intelligence put a stop to my travels, which I had profecuted with fo much fatisfaction; not being a little pleafed to hear fo many different opinions upon fo great an event, and to obferve how naturally upon fuch a piece of news every one is apt to consider it with regard to his particular intereft and advantage.

L

VIRG. ECL. v. 63.

does nothing in vain:

the Creator of the univerfe has appointed every thing to a certain ufe and purpofe, and determined it to a fettled courfe and fphere of action, from which if it in the leaft deviates, it becomes unfit to answer thofe ends for which it was defigned. In like manner it is in the difpofitions of fociety, the civil economy is formed in a chain as well as the natural: and in either cafe the breach of but one link puts the whole in fome diforder. It is, I think, pretty plain, that most of the abfurdity and ridicule we meet with in the world, is generally owing to the impertinent affectation of excelling in characters men are not fit for, and for which Nature never defigned them.

Every man has one or more qualities which may make him useful both to hitafelf and others: Nature never fails of pointing them out, and while the infant continues under her guardianthip, the brings him on in his way, and then offers herfelf for a guide in what remains of the journey; if he proceeds in that courie, he can hardly mifcarry: Nature makes good her engagements; for as he never promifes what the is not able to perform, fo the never fails of performing what the promifes. But the misfortune is, men defpife what they may be mafters of, and affect what they are not fit for; they reckon themfelves already poffeffed of what their genius inclined them to, and fo bend all their ambition to excel in what is cut of their reach. Thus they deftroy the ufe of their natural talents, in the fame manner as covetous men do their quiet and repofe; they can enjoy no fatisfaction in what they have, because of the abfurd inclination they are poffeffed with for what they have not.

Cleanthes had good fenfe, a great memory, and a conftitution capable of the clofelt application. In a word, there was no profeffion in which Cleanthes might not have made a very good figure; but this would not fatisfy him, he takes

up an unaccountable fondness for the character of a fine gentleman; all his thoughts are bent upon this: inftead of attending a diffection, frequenting the courts of justice, or studying the fathers, Cleanthes reads plays, dances, dreffes, and fpends his time in drawingrooms; instead of being a good lawyer, divine, or phyfician, Cleanthes is a downright coxcomb, and will remain to all that know him a contemptible example of talents mifapplied. It is to this affectation the world owes it's whole race of coxcombs: Nature in her whole drama never drew fuch a part; the has fometimes made a fool, but a coxcomb is always of a man's own making, by applying his talents otherwife than Nature defigned, who ever bears a high refentment for being put out of her courfe, and never fails of taking her revenge on thofe that do fo. Oppofing her tendency in the application of a man's parts, has the fame fuccefs as declining from her courfe in the production of vegetables: by the affistance of art and an hot-bed, we may poffibly extort an unwilling plant, or an untimely fallad; but how weak, how taftelefs and infipid! Just as infipid as the poetry of Valerio: Valerio had an univerfal character, was genteel, had learning, thought juttly, fpoke correctly; it was believed there was nothing in which Valerio did not excel; and it was fo far true, that there was but one; Valerio had no genius for poetry, yet he is refolved to be a poet; he writes verfes, and takes great pains to convince the town, that Valerio is not that extraordinary perfon he was taken for.

If men would be content to graft upon Nature, and aflift her operations, what mighty effects might we expect? Tully would not stand fo much alone in oratory, Virgil in poetry, or Cæfar in war. To build upon Nature, is laying the foundation upon a rock; every thing difpofes itfelf into order as it were of courfe, and the whole work is half done as foon as undertaken. Cicero's genius

inclined

inclined him to oratory, Virgil's to follow the train of the Mules; they pioufly obeyed the admonition, and were rewarded. Had Virgil attended the bar, his modeft and ingenuous virtue would furely have made but a very indifferent figure; and Tully's declamatory inclination would have been as ufelefs in poetry. Nature, if left to herself, leads us on in the best courfe, but will do nothing by compulfion and constraint; and if we are not fatisfied to go her way, we are always the greateft fufferers by it. Wherever Nature defigns a production, he always difpofes feeds proper for it, which are as abfolutely neceffary to the formation of any moral or intellectual excellence, as they are to the being and growth of plants; and I know not by what fate and folly it is, that men are taught not to reckon him equally abfurd that will write verfes in fpite of Nature, with that gardener that fhould undertake to raile a jonquil or tulip without the help of their refpective feeds. As there is no good or bad quality that does not affect both fexes, fo it is not to be imagined but the fair fex must have fuffered by an affectation of this nature, at leath as much as the other. The ill effect of it is in none fo confpicuous as in the two oppofite characters of Calia and Iras: Calia has all the charms of perfon, together with an abundant fweetnefs of nature, but wants wit, and has a very ill voice; Iras is ngly and ungenteel, but has wit and good fenfe: if Cælia would be filent, her beholders would adore her; if Iras would talk, her hearers would admire her; hut Cælia's tongue runs inceffantly, while Iras gives herfelf filent airs and foft languors, fo that it is difficult

to perfuade one's felf that Cælia has beauty, and Iras wit: each neglects her own excellence, and is ambitious of the other's character; Iras would be thought to have as much beauty as Calia, and Cælia as much wit as Iras.

The great misfortune of this affectation is, that men not only lofe a good quality, but also contract a bad one: they not only are unfit for what they were defigned, but they affign themfelves to what they are not fit for; and inftead of making a very good figure one way, make a very ridiculous one another. If Semanthe would have been fatisfied with her natural complexion, the might still have been celebrated by the name of the olive beauty; but Semanthe has taken up an affectation to white and red, and is now distinguished by the character of the lady that paints fo well. In a word, could the world be reformed to the obedience of that famed dictate, Follow Nature,' which the oracle of Delphos pronounced to Cicero when he confulted what courfe of ftudies he should purfue, we should fee almost every man as eminent in his proper fphere as Tully was in his, and fhould in a very fhort time find impertinence and affectation banished from among the women, and coxcombs and falfe characters from among the men. For my part, I could never confider this prepofterous repugnancy to Nature any otherwife, than not only as the greatest folly, but alfo one of the most heinous crimes, fince it is a direct opposition to the difpofition of Providence, and (as Tully expreffes it) like the fin of the giants, an actual rebellion against Hea

veu.

HOM. ILIAD. I. V. 472.

POPE.

mufic that is now living, or that perhaps ever appeared upon a flage. I need not acquaint any reader, that I am speak

ing