because neither of them found himself in | face, and by a little aggravation of the fea- These several adventures, with the knight's behaviour in them, gave me as pleasant a day as ever I met with in any of my travels. Doctrina sed vim promovet insitam, I was highly delighted when the court No. 123.] Saturday, July 21, 1711. rose to see the gentlemen of the country gathering about my old friend, and striving who should compliment him most; at the same time that the ordinary people gazed upon him at a distance, not a little admiring his courage that was not afraid to speak to the judge. In our return home we met with a very odd accident; which I cannot forbear relating, because it shows how desirous all who know Sir Roger, are of giving him marks of their esteem. When we arrived upon the verge of his estate, we stopped at a little inn to rest ourselves and our horses. The man of the house had, it seems, been formerly a servant in the knight's family; and to do honour to his old master, had, some time since, unknown to Sir Roger, put him up in a sign-post before the door; so that the knight's head had hung out upon the road about a week before he himself knew any thing of the matter. As soon as Sir Roger was acquainted with it, finding that his servant's indiscretion proceeded wholly from affection and good-will, he only told him that he had made him too high a compliment; and when the fellow seemed to think that could hardly be, added with a more decisive look, that it was too great an honour for any man under a duke; but told him at the same time, that it might be altered by a very few touches, and that he himself would be at the charge of it. Accordingly they got a painter by the knight's directions to add a pair of whiskers to the L. Hor. Lib. 4. Od. iv. 33. Yet the best blood by learning is refin'd, As I was yesterday taking the air with The truth of it is, since my residing in these parts I have seen and heard innume rable instances of young heirs and elder This makes me often think on a story I have heard of two friends, which I shall give my reader at large, under feigned names. The moral of it may, I hope, be useful, though there are some circumstances which make it rather appear like a novel, than a true story. brothers, who, either from their own re- | had not he been comforted by the daily flecting upon the estates they are born to, visits and conversation of his friend. As and therefore thinking all other accom- they were one day talking together with plishments unnecessary, or from hearing their usual intimacy, Leontine, considering these notions frequently inculcated to them how incapable he was of giving his daughby the flattery of their servants and domes- ter a proper education in his own house, tics, or from the same foolish thought pre- and Eudoxus reflecting on the ordinary vailing in those who have the care of their behaviour of a son who knows himself to education, are of no manner of use but to be the heir of a great estate, they both keep up their families, and transmit their agreed upon an exchange of children, lands and houses in a line to posterity. namely, that the boy should be bred up with Leontine as his son, and that the girl should live with Eudoxus as his daughter, until they were each of them arrived at years of discretion. The wife of Eudoxus, knowing that her son could not be so advantageously brought up as under the care of Leontine, and considering at the same Eudoxus and Leontine began the world time that he would be perpetually under with small estates. They were both of them her own eye, was by degrees prevailed men of good sense and great virtue. They upon to fall in with the project. She there prosecuted their studies together in their fore took Leonilla, for that was the name earlier years, and entered into such a friend- of the girl, and educated her as her own ship as lasted to the end of their lives. daughter. The two friends on each side Eudoxus, at his first setting out in the had wrought themselves to such an habitual world, threw himself into a court, where tenderness for the children who were un by his natural endowments and his acquired der their direction, that each of them had abilities he made his way from one post to the real passion of a father, where the title another, until at length he had raised a very was but imaginary. Florio, the name of considerable fortune. Leontine on the con- the young heir that lived with Leontine, trary sought all opportunities of improving though he had all the duty and affection his mind, by study, conversation, and travel. imaginable for his supposed parent, was He was not only acquainted with all the taught to rejoice at the sight of Eudoxus, sciences, but with the most eminent pro- who visited his friend very frequently, and fessors of them throughout Europe. He was dictated by his natural affection, as knew perfectly well the interest of its well as by the rules of prudence, to make princes, with the customs and fashions of himself esteemed and beloved by Florio. their courts, and could scarce meet with The boy was now old enough to know his the name of an extraordinary person in the supposed father's circumstances, and that Gazette whom he had not either talked to therefore he was to make his way in the or seen. In short, he had so well mixed and world by his own industry. This considera digested his knowledge of men and books, tion grew stronger in him every day, and that he made one of the most accomplished produced so good an effect, that he applied persons of his age. During the whole course himself with more than ordinary attention of his studies and travels he kept up a punc- to the pursuit of every thing which Leontual correspondence with Eudoxus, who tine recommended to him. His natural often made himself acceptable to the prin- abilities, which were very good, assisted cipal men about court by the intelligence by the directions of so excellent a counwhich he received from Leontine. When sellor, enabled him to make a quicker pro they were both turned of forty, (an age in gress than ordinary through all the parts which, according to Mr. Cowley, there is of his education. Before he was twenty no dallying with life,') they determined, years of age, having finished his studies pursuant to the resolution they had taken and exercises with great applause, he was in the beginning of their lives, to retire, removed from the university to the inns of and pass the remainder of their days in the court, where there are very few that make country. In order to this, they both of them themselves considerable proficients in the married much about the same time. Leon- studies of the place, who know they shall tine, with his own and wife's fortune, bought arrive at great estates without them. This a farm of three hundred a year, which lay was not Florio's case; he found that three within the neighbourhood of his friend Eu- hundred a year was but a poor estate for doxus, who had purchased an estate of as Leontine and himself to live upon, so that many thousands. They were both of them he studied without intermission till he gainfathers about the same time, Eudoxus hav-ed a very good insight into the constitution ing a son born to him, and Leontine, a and laws of his country. daughter; but to the unspeakable grief of the latter, his young wife (in whom all his happiness was wrapt up,) died in a few days after the birth of her daughter. His affliction would have been insupportable, I should have told my reader, that whilst Florio lived at the house of his foster-father, he was always an acceptable guest in the family of Eudoxus, where he became ac quainted with Leonilla from her infancy. His acquaintance with her by degrees grew of that care which they had bestowed upon into love, which in a mind trained up in all them in their education. the sentiments of honour and virtue became a very uneasy passion. He despaired of Μεγα βιβλίον, μέγα κακον. A great book is a great evil L. gaining an heiress of so great a fortune, and No. 124.] Monday, July 23, 1711. not expect to meet with any thing in a might help the eye of a man, could be of no use to a mole. It is not therefore for the benefit of moles that I publish these my daily essays. their thoughts to the world after such a manner: though I must confess I am amazed that the press should be only made use of in this way by news-writers, and the zealots of parties; as if it were not more advan- But besides such as are moles through tageous to mankind, to be instructed in wis- ignorance, there are others who are moles dom and virtue, than in politics; and to be through envy. As it is said in the Latin made good fathers, husbands, and sons, than proverb, 'That one man is a wolf to ancounsellors and statesmen. Had the philo- other,' so generally speaking, one author is sophers and great men of antiquity, who a mole to another. It is impossible for them took so much pains in order to instruct man- to discover beauties in one another's works; kind, and leave the world wiser and better they have eyes only for spots and blemishes: than they found it; had they, I say, been they can indeed see the light, as it is said possessed of the art of printing, there is no of the animals which are their namesakes, question but they would have made such but the idea of it is painful to them; they an advantage of it, in dealing out their lec- immediately shut their eyes upon it, and tures to the public. Our common prints withdraw themselves into a wilful obscuwould be of great use were they thus cal-rity. I have already caught two or three culated to diffuse good sense through the of these dark undermining vermin, and inbulk of a people, to clear up their under- tend to make a string of them, in order to standings, animate their minds with virtue, hang them up in one of my papers, as an dissipate the sorrows of a heavy heart, or example to all such voluntary moles. C. unbend the mind from its more severe employments with innocent amusements. When knowledge, instead of being bound up in books and kept in libraries and re- No. 125.] Tuesday, July 24, 1711. tirements, is thus obtruded upon the public; when it is canvassed in every assembly and exposed upon every table, I cannot forbear reflecting upon that passage in the Proverbs: Wisdom crieth without, she uttereth her voice in the streets: she crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates. In the city she uttereth her words, saying, How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning? and fools hate knowledge?' The many letters which come to me from persons of the best sense in both sexes, (for I may pronounce their characters from their way of writing) do not a little encourage me in the prosecution of this my undertaking; besides that my bookseller tells me, the demand for these my papers increases daily. It is at his instance that I shall continue my rural speculations to the end of this month; several having made up separate sets of them, as they have done before of those relating to wit, to operas, to points of morality, or subjects of humour. Ne, pueri, ne tanta animis assuescite bella, Virg. n. vi. 832. My worthy friend Sir Roger, when we are talking of the malice of parties, very frequently tells us an accident that hap pened to him when he was a school-boy, which was at the time when the feuds ran high between the Round-heads and Cavaliers. This worthy knight, being then but a stripling, had occasion to inquire which was the way to St. Anne's Lane; upon which the person whom he spoke to, instead of answering his question, called him a young popish cur, and asked him who had made Anne a saint? The boy, being in some confusion, inquired of the next he met, which was the way to Anne's Lane; but was called a prick-eared cur for his pains, and instead of being shown the way, was told that she had been a saint before he was born, and would be am not at all mortified, when sometimes one after he was hanged. Upon this, I see my works thrown aside by men of no says Sir Roger, I did not think fit to retaste nor learning. There is a kind of hea-peat the former questions, but going into viness and ignorance that hangs upon the minds of ordinary men, which is too thick for knowledge to break through. Their souls are to be enlightened. -Nox atra cava circumvolat umbra. Virg. Æn. ii. 360. Black night enwraps them in her gloomy shade. To these I must apply the fable of the mole, that after having consulted many oculists for the bettering of his sight, was at last provided with a good pair of spectacles; but upon his endeavouring to make use of them, his mother told him very prudently, 'That spectacles, though they every lane of the neighbourhood, asked what they called the name of that lane?" By which ingenious artifice he found out the place he inquired after without giving offence to any party. Sir Roger generally closes this narrative with reflections on the mischief that parties do in the country how they spoil a good neighbourhood, and make honest gentlemen hate one another besides that they manifestly tend to the prejudice of the land-tax, and the destruction of the game. There cannot a greater judgment befa a country than such a dreadful spirit o division as rends a government into tw distinct people, and makes them greater] which at present prevails amongst all them. If this shameless practice of the There is one piece of sophistry practised of Viz. by Jesus Christ. See Luke vi. 27-32 &c. For my own part I could heartily wish that all honest men would enter into an association, for the support of one another against the endeavours of those whom they ought to look upon as their common enemies, whatsoever side they may belong to. Were there such an honest body of neutral forces, we should never see the worst of men in great figures of life, because they are useful to a party; nor the best unregarded, because they are above practising those methods which would be grateful to |