to run; to convince them, that profusion in architecture, in gardening, in equipage, in dress, &c. can serve no other purpose but to disturb their imaginations, and to give them a general distaste of themselves, and of every thing around them.

'It is by no means, however, surprising that this character of taste should be so universally sought after; as true taste is doubtless the highest point of perfection, at which human nature, in this her state of frailty, can possibly arrive. A man endowed with this quality, possesses all his senses, in the manner best adapted to receive the impression of every true pleasure, which Providence has scattered with a liberal hand for the delight of its creatures. There is nothing intrinsically beautiful, which does not furnish him with perpetual delight; as every thing ill-fashioned and deformed affects him with disgust and abhorrence. That is, in a word, the avenues of his mind are open only to those enjoyments that bring with them the passports of truth and reason.

6

Philalethes is a man of taste, according to the notion I have here given of that quality. His conduct is influenced by sentiment as well as by principle, and if he were ever so secure of secrecy and impunity, he would no more be capable of committing a low or a base action, than of admitting a vile performance into his noble collection of sculpture. His just taste of the fine arts, and his exquisite delicacy in moral conduct, are but one and the same sense, exerting itself upon different objects; a love of beauty, order, and propriety, extended to all their various intellectual and visible exhibitions. Accordingly Philalethes is consistent in every part of his character. You see the same elegant and noble simplicity, the same correct and judicious way of thinking, expressed in his dress, his equipage, his urniture, his gardens, and his actions.

Yet

'How different is Micio from Philalethes! Micio would be thought a man of taste. But the misfortune is, he has not a heart for it. I say a heart, however odd the expression may sound: for as a celebrated ancient has defined an orator to be vir bonus dicendi peritus, so I must insist upon it, that a good heart is an essential ingredient to form a good taste. When I see Micio, therefore, dissipating his health and strength in lewd embraces and midnight revels; when I see him throwing away over night at the gaming table, what he must refuse the next morning to the just clamours of his injured tradesmen; I am not the least surprised at his trimmed trees, his unnatural terraces, his French treillage, his Dutch parterres, his Chinese bells, and his tawdry equipage.

"In fine, though every man cannot arrive at the perfection of this quality, yet it may be necessary that he should be sufficiently instructed, not to be deceived in his judgment concerning the claim of it in others. To this end the few following queries may be applied with singular advantage. Is the pretender to taste proud? Is he a coxcomb? Is he a spendthrift? Is he a gamester? Is he a slanderer ? Is he a drunkard? Is he a bad neighbour? a sham patriot? or a false friend? By this short catechism every youth, even of the most slender capacity, may be capable o determining who is not a man of taste.

I am,

&c.

J. T.'

No 68. THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 1754.

'SIR,

"To Mr. FITZ-ADAM,

'THE kind reception which you gave to my letter of November last, makes me take the liberty of send

ing you some farther anecdotes of my family.

As my grandfather, Sir Josiah Pumpkin, had made a considerable figure in King Charles's court, his only son Ralph, my honoured father, was no less conspicuous for his valour, towards the latter end of King William's reign. Although the race of kings was changed, the laws of honour still remained the same. But my grandfather had retired with his family to Pumpkin-hall, about a year and a half before the revolution, much discontented with the times, and often wishing that Judge Somebody (I forget his name) had been a militia colonel, that he might have run him through the body, or cut off one of his cheeks with a broad-sword. In the same strain he frequently wished Father Peters a lifeguard-man, that he might have caned him before the court-gate of Whitehall. "These fellows," said he, "put me in mind of murderers in Popish countries, who if they run into a church after cutting a throat, are secured from all danger of punishment. Our English ruffians too are frequently safe, if they can but shew a lawyer's gown, or a priest's cowl." My grandmother, Lady Pumpkin, was a prudent woman, and, not without some difficulty, persuaded Sir Josiah to content himself with drinking constant bumpers of prosperity to the church and state, without fighting duels or breaking heads in defence of

the British constitution. Indeed he might well be content with the glory he had obtained, having been once shot through the leg, and carrying the marks of seven-and-twenty wounds in different parts of his body, all boldly acquired by single combats, in defence of nominal liberty, and real loyalty, during King Charles the Second's reign.

'My father was returned for a borough in Wales, in the second parliament of King William. This drew him every winter to London; and he never took his leave of Sir Josiah without receiving a strict command, to do some brave act, becoming a man of honour and a Pumpkin. As he was remarkably an obedient son, and indeed as we were all, not only as Pumpkins, but as old Britons, very choleric and fiery, my father scarce ever returned home without some glorious achievement, the heroism of which generally reached Pumpkin-hall before the hero. Of his several exploits, give me leave only to mention three; not so much in regard to his honour, as that they carry in them some particular and remarkable circumstances.

'There was an intimacy between my father and Major John Davis of the foot-guards. Their first acquaintance and friendship had began when the major was quartered at a market-town near Pumpkin-hall. Their regards had continued towards each other with the greatest strictness for several years; when one day at dinner with a large company at a tavern, my father jocularly in discourse said, "Ah! Major! Major! you still love to ride the fore-horse:" alluding to his desire of being foremost in all parties of pleasure. Major Davis immediately changed colour, and took the earliest opportunity of calling Mr. Pumpkin aside, and demanding satisfaction. My father asked for what? The Major made no reply but by drawing his sword. They fought, and

"Now Jack," says

the major was soon disarmed. my father, "pray tell me what we fought for.""Ah, Ralph," replied the major, "why did you reproach me with having been a postilion? It is true I was one; but by what means did you know it, and when you did know it, why would you hint it to the company, by saying that I still loved to ride the fore-horse?" My father protested his ignorance of the fact, and consequently his innocence of intending any affront. The two friends were immediately reunited as strongly as before; and the major ever afterward was particularly cautious how he discovered his original, or blindly followed the folly of his own suspicions.

One of my father's tavern-companions, Captain Shaddow, who was very young, very giddy, and almost as weak in body as in mind, challenged him on a supposed affront, in not receiving the return of a bow which he had made to my father, in the playhouse. They were to fight in Hyde-park: but as the captain was drawing his sword with the fiercest indignation, it luckily occurred to his thoughts that the provocation might possibly have been undesigned, or if otherwise, that the revenge he had meditated was of too cruel and bloody a nature; he therefore begged pardon of his adversary, and made up the affair.

'I wish this had been the last of my father's combats, but he was unhappily engaged in a duel with a French officer, who had taken the wall of him; and in that duel he received a wound, which, after throwing him several months into a languishing miserable condition, at last proved fatal by ending in a mortification. He bore his long illness with amazing fortitude; but often expressed an abhorrence of these polite and honourable murders; and wished that he might have lived some years longer, only to ave shewn that he durst not fight.