heart was filled with a deep melancholy to see several dropping unexpectedly in the midst of mirth and jollity, and catching at every thing that stood by them to save themselves. Some were looking up towards the heavens in a thoughtful posture, and in the midst of a speculation stumbled and fell out of sight. Multitudes were very busy in the pursuit of bubbles that glittered in their eyes and danced before them; but often when they thought themselves within the reach of them, their footing failed and down they sunk. In this confusion of objects, I observed some with scimitars in their hands, and others with urinals, who ran to and fro upon the bridge, thrusting several persons on trap-doors which did not seem to lie in their way, and which they might have escaped had they not been thus forced upon

them.

singing birds, falling waters, human voices, and musical instruments. Gladness grew in me upon the discovery of so delightful a scene. I wished for the wings of an eagle, that I might fly away to those happy seats; but the genius told me there was no passage to them except through the gates of death that I saw opening every moment upon the bridge. "The islands," said he, "that lie so fresh and green before thee, and with which the whole face of the ocean appears spotted as far as thou canst see, are more in number than the sands on the sea-shore; there are myriads of islands behind those which thou here discoverest, reaching farther than thine eye, or even thine imagination can extend itself. These are the mansions of good men after death, who according to the degree and kinds of virtue in which they excelled, are distributed among these several islands, which abound with pleasures of different kinds and degrees, suitable to the relishes and perfections of those who are settled in them; every island is a Paradise accommodated to its respective inhabitants. Are not these, O Mirza, habitations worth contending for? Does life appear miserable, that gives thee opportunities of earning such a reward? Is death to be feared, that will convey thee to so happy an existence? Think not man was made in vain who has such an eternity reserved for him." I gazed with inexpressible pleasure on these happy islands. At length, said I, "Show me now, I beseech thee, the secrets that lie hid under those dark clouds which cover the ocean on the I here fetched a deep sigh. "Alas," other side of the rock of adamant." The said I, "man was made in vain! how is he genius making me no answer, I turned me given away to misery and mortality! tor- about to address myself to him a second tured in life, and swallowed up in death!" time, but found that he had left me; I then The genius being moved with compassion turned again to the vision which I had been towards me, bid me quit so uncomfortable so long contemplating: but, instead of the a prospect. "Look no more," said he, rolling tide, the arched bridge, and the on man in the first stage of his existence, happy islands, I saw nothing but the long, in his setting out for eternity; but cast thine hollow valley of Bagdat, with oxen, sheep, eye on that thick mist into which the tide and camels, grazing upon the sides of it. bears the several generations of mortals The end of the First Vision of Mirza. I directed my sight as I was ordered, and (whether or no the good genius strengthened it with any superna

The genius seeing me indulge myself on this melancholy prospect, told me I had dwelt long enough upon it. "Take thine eyes off the bridge," said he, "and tell me if thou yet seest any thing thou dost not comprehend." Upon looking up, "What mean," said I, "those great flights of birds that are perpetually hovering about the bridge, and settling upon it from time to time! I see vultures, harpies, ravens, cormorants, and among many other feathered creatures several little winged boys, that perch in great numbers upon the middle arches.""These," said the genius, " are Envy, Avarice, Superstition, Despair, Love, with the like cares and passions that infest human life."

that fall into it."

C.

tural force, or dissipated part of the mist No. 160.] Monday, September 3, 1711.

-Cui mens divinior, atque os
Magna sonaturum, des nominis hujus honorem.
Hor. Lib. 1. Sat. iv. 43.

On him confer the Poet's sacred name,
Whose lofty voice declares the heav'nly flame.

that was before too thick for the eye to
penetrate,) I saw the valley opening at the
farther end, and spreading forth into an
immense ocean, that had a huge rock of
adamant running through the midst of it,
and dividing it into two equal parts. The
clouds still rested on one half of it, insomuch THERE is no character more frequently
that I could discover nothing in it: but the given to a writer, than that of being a ge
other appeared to me a vast ocean planted nius. I have heard many a little sonneteer
with innumerable islands, that were covered called a fine genius. There is not an heroic
with fruits and flowers, and interwoven with scribbler in the nation, that has not his ad-
a thousand little shining seas that ran among mirers who think him a great genius; and
them. I could see persons dressed in glo- as for your smatterers in tragedy, there is
rious habits with garlands upon their heads, scarce a man among them who is not cried
passing among the trees, lying down by the up by one or other for a prodigious genius.
sides of fountains, or resting on beds of flow- My design in this paper is to consider
ers; and could hear a confused harmony of what is properly a great genius, and to

throw some thoughts together on so un- | exactness in our compositions. Our coun common a subject.

Among great geniuses those few draw the admiration of all the world upon them, and stand up as the prodigies of mankind, who by the mere strength of natural parts, and without any assistance of art or learning, have produced works that were the delight of their own times, and the wonder of posterity. There appears something nobly wild and extravagant in these great natural geniuses that is infinitely more beautiful than all the turn and polishing of what the French call a bel esprit, by which they would express a genius refined by conversation, reflection, and the reading of the most polite authors. The greatest genius which runs through the arts and sciences, takes a kind of tincture from them, and falls unavoidably into imitation.

Many of these great natural geniuses that were never disciplined and broken by rules of art, are to be found among the ancients, and in particular among those of the more eastern parts of the world. Homer has innumerable flights that Virgil was not able to reach, and in the Old Testament we find several passages more elevated and sublime than any in Homer. At the same time that we allow a greater and more daring genius to the ancients, we must own that the greatest of them very much failed in, or, if you will, that they were much above the nicety and correctness of the moderns. In their similitudes and allusions, provided there was a likeness, they did not much trouble themselves about the decency of the comparison: thus Solomon resembles the nose of his beloved to the tower of Lebanon which looketh towards Damascus; as the coming of a thief in the night, is a similitude of the same kind in the New Testament. It would be endless to make collections of this nature; Homer illustrates one of his heroes encompassed with the enemy, by an ass in a field of corn that has his sides belaboured by all the boys of the village without stirring a foot for it; and another of them tossing to and fro in his bed and burning with resentment, to a piece of flesh broiled on the coals. This particular failure in the ancients, opens a large field of raillery to the little wits, who can laugh at an indecency, but not relish the sublime in these sorts of writings. The present emperor of Persia, conformable to this eastern way of thinking, amidst a great many pompous titles, denominates himself the sun of glory,' and 'the nutmeg of delight.' In short, to cut off all cavilling against the ancients, and particularly those of the warmer climates, who had most heat and life in their imagination, we are to consider that the rule of observing what the French call the bienseance in an allusion, has been found out of later years, and in the colder regions of the world; where we would make some amends for our want of force and spirit, by a scrupulous nicety and

tryman Shakspeare was a remarkable instance of this first kind of great geniuses.

of

I cannot quit this head without observing that Pindar was a great genius of the first class, who was hurried on by a natural fire and impetuosity to vast conceptions of things and noble sallies of imagination. At the same time, can any thing be more ridiculous than for men of a sober and mode rate fancy to imitate this poet's way writing in those monstrous compositions which go among us under the name of Pindarics? When I see people copying works, which, as Horace has represented them, are singular in their kind, and inimitable: when I see men following irregularities by rule, and by the little tricks of art straining after the most unbounded flights of nature, I cannot but apply to them that passage in Terence:

-Incerta hæc si tu postules Ratione certa facere, nihilo plus agas, Quam si des operam, ut cum ratione insanias. Eun. Act 1. Sc. I. You may as well pretend to be mad and in your senses at the same time, as to think of reducing these uncertain things to any certainty by reason.

In short, a modern Pindaric writer compared with Pindar, is like a sister among the Camisars* compared with Virgil's Sibyl: there is the distortion, grimace, and outward figure, but nothing of that divine impulse which raises the mind above itself, and makes the sounds more than human.

There is another kind of great geniuses which I shall place in a second class, not as I think them inferior to the first, but only for distinction's sake, as they are of a dif ferent kind. This second class of great geniuses are those that have formed themselves by rules, and submitted the greatness of their natural talents to the corrections and restraints of art. Such among the Greeks were Plato and Aristotle; among the Romans Virgil and Tully; among the English Milton and Sir Francis Bacon.

A particular account of these people and the strango fortune of their leader, is to be found in Voltaire's "Sie cle de Louis XIV." A few of them made their appear gives the following account:ance in this country, in the year 1707, of whom Smollet

"Three Camisars, or protestants, from the Cevennois,

having made their escape, and repaired to London, acphets, from their enthusiastic gesticulations, effusions, quired about this time the appellation of French pro and convulsions; and even formed a sect of their coun trymen. The French refugees, scandalized at their be haviour, and authorized by the bishop of London, as quire into the mission of these pretended prophets, superior of the French congregations, resolved to inwhose names were Elias Marion, John Cavalier, and Durand Eage. They were declared impostors and coun confirmed by the bishops, they continued their assem blies in Soho, under the countenance of Sir Richard Bulkeley and John Lacy. They reviled the ministers against the city of London, and the whole British na of the established church: they denounced judgments tion; and published their predictions composed of uninexpense of the French churches, as disturbers of the telligible jargon. Then they were prosecuted at the public peace and false prophets. They were sentenced

terfeits.

Notwithstanding this decision, which was

to pay a fine of twenty marks each, and stand twice on
a scaffold, with papers on their breasts, denoting their
Charing Cross and the Royal-Exchange."
offence: a sentence which was executed accordingly at

The genius in both these classes of authors | correspondents, one of whom sends me the
ay be equally great, but shows itself after following letter:
different manner. In the first it is like a
ch soil in a happy climate, that produces tire from us so soon into the city, I hope
'SIR,-Though you are pleased to re-
whole wilderness of noble plants rising in
thousand beautiful landscapes, without you will not think the affairs of the coun-
ny certain order or regularity. In the try altogether unworthy of your inspec-
ther it is the same rich soil under the tion for the future. I had the honour of
ame happy climate, that has been laid out seeing your short face at Sir Roger de Co-
walks and parterres, and cut into shape verley's, and have ever since thought your
nd beauty by the skill of the gardener.
person and writings both extraordinary.
The great danger in these latter kind of would have seen a country wake, which
Had you staid there a few days longer, you
eniuses, is lest they cramp their own abili-
es too much by imitation, and form them- you know in most parts of England is the
elves altogether upon models, without giv- I was last week at one of these assemblies,
eve-feast of the dedication of our churches.
ng the full play to their own natural parts. which was held in a neighbouring parish;
An imitation of the best authors is not to where I found their green covered with a
ompare with a good original; and I believe
ve may observe that very few writers make promiscuous multitude of all ages and both
n extraordinary figure in the world, who sexes, who esteem one another more or
ave not something in their way of think-less the following part of the year, accord-

C.

time. The whole company were in their
ing as they distinguish themselves at this
parties, all of them endeavouring to show
holiday clothes, and divided into several
themselves in those exercises wherein they
excelled, and to gain the approbation of
the lookers-on.

ng or expressing themselves, that is pecu-
ar to them, and entirely their own.
It is odd to consider what great geniuses
re sometimes thrown away upon trifles.
I once saw a shepherd,' says a famous
talian author, who used to divert him-
self in his solitudes with tossing up eggs
and catching them again without breaking were breaking one another's heads in order
'I found a ring of cudgel-players, who
chem: in which he had arrived to so great to make some impression on their mis-
a degree of perfection, that he would keep tresses' hearts. I observed a lusty young
p four at a time for several minutes to- fellow, who had the misfortune of a broken
gether playing in the air, and falling into
his hands by turns. I think,' says the au-
pate; but what considerably added to the
thor, I never saw a greater severity than anguish of the wound, was his overhearing
in this man's face; for by his wonderful an old man, who shook his head and said,
perseverance and application, he had con- would marry him these three years.' I
"That he questioned now if Black Kate
tracted the seriousness and gravity of a
privy-counsellor; and I could not but re- these combatants by a foot-ball match,
was diverted from a farther observation of
fect with myself, that the same assiduity which was on the other side of the green;
and attention, had they been rightly applied, where Tom Short behaved himself so
might have made him a greater mathema- well, that most people seemed to agree, it
tician than Archimedes.'
was impossible that he should remain a
bachelor until the next wake.' Having
played many a match myself, I could have
looked longer on this sport, had I not ob-
served a country girl who was posted on
an eminence at some distance from me,
and was making so many odd grimaces,
and writhing and distorting her whole body
in so strange a manner, as made me very
desirous to know the meaning of it. Upon
my coming up to her, I found that she was
overlooking a ring of wrestlers, and that
her sweetheart, a person of small stature,
was contending with a huge brawny fellow,
who twirled him about, and shook the little
man so violently, that by a secret sympa-
thy of hearts it produced all those agita-
tions in the person of his mistress, who I
dare say, like Calia in Shakspeare on the
same occasion, could have wished herself
'invisible to catch the strong fellow by the
leg.* The 'squire of the parish treats the
whole company every year with a hogs-
head of ale; and proposes a beaver hat

No. 161.] Tuesday, September 4, 1711.

Ipse dies agitat festos: Fususque per herbam,
Ignis ubi in medio et socii cratera coronant,
Te libans, Lente, vocat: pecorisque magistris
Velocis jaculi certamina ponit in ulmo,
Corporaque agresti nudat præedura palæstra.
Hanc olim veteres vitam coluere Sabini,
Hanc Remus et frater. Sic fortis Etruria crevit,
Scilicet et rerum facta est pulcherrima Roma.
Virg. Georg. ii. 527.

Himself, in rustic pomp, on holy-days,
To rural powers a just oilation pays;
And on the green his careless limbs displays.
The hearth is in the midst: the herdsmen round

The

He calls on Bacchus, and propounds the prize;

The groom his fellow-groom at buts defies,
And bends his bow, and levels with his eyes:
Or stript for wrestling, smears his limbs with oil,
And watches with a trip his foe to foil.
Such was the life the frugal Sabines led;

So

Remus and his brother king were bred;

From whom th' austere Etrurian virtue rose;
And this rude life our homely fathers chose;
Old Rome from such a race deriv'd her birth,
The seat of empire, and the conquer'd earth.
IAM glad that my late going into the
country has increased the number of my

Dryden.

as a recompence to him who gives most

* As You Like It. Act i. Sc. 6.

falls. This has raised such a spirit of emu- | spirit of emulation, which so remarkably lation in the youth of the place, that some shows itself among our common people in of them have rendered themselves very these wakes, might be directed, proposes expert at this exercise; and I was often that for the improvement of all our handisurprised to see a fellow's heels fly up, by craft trades there should be annual prizes a trip which was given him so smartly that set up for such persons as were most exI could scarce discern it. I found that the cellent in their several arts. But laying old wrestlers seldom entered the ring until aside all these political considerations, some one was grown formidable by having which might tempt me to pass the limits thrown two or three of his opponents: but of my paper, I confess the greatest benefit kept themselves as it were in a reserved and convenience that I can observe in these body to defend the hat, which is always country festivals, is the bringing young hung up by the person who gets it in one people together, and giving them an opof the most conspicuous parts of the house, portunity of showing themselves in the and looked upon by the whole family as most advantageous light. A country fel something redounding much more to their low that throws his rival upon his back, honour than a coat of arms. There was a has generally as good success with their fellow who was so busy in regulating all common mistress; as nothing is more usual the ceremonies, and seemed to carry such than for a nimble-footed wench to get a an air of importance in his look, that I husband at the same time that she wins could not help inquiring who he was, and a smock. Love and marriages are the was immediately answered, "That he did natural effects of these anniversary as not value himself upon nothing, for that semblies. I must therefore very much he and his ancestors had won so many approve the method by which my corre hats, that his parlour looked like a haber- spondent tells me each sex endeavours dasher's shop. "However, this thirst of recommend itself to the other, since noglory in them all was the reason that no thing seems more likely to promise a man stood "lord of the ring," for above healthy offspring, or a happy cohabitathree falls while I was among them. tion. And I believe I may assure my 'The young maids who were not lookers-country friend, that there has been many on at these exercises, were themselves en- a court lady who would be contented to exgaged in some diversions: and upon my change her crazy young husband for Tom asking a farmer's son of my own parish Short, and several men of quality who what he was gazing at with so much at- would have parted with a tender yoketention, he told me, "That he was seeing fellow for Black Kate. Betty Welch," whom I knew to be his sweetheart, pitch a bar."

I am the more pleased with having love made the principal end and design of these In short, I found the men endeavoured meetings, as it seems to be more agreeable to show the women they were no cowards, to the intent for which they were at first inand that the whole company strived to re-stituted, as we are informed by the learned commend themselves to each other by Dr. Kennet,* with whose words I shall con making it appear that they were all in a clude my present paper. perfect state of health, and fit to undergo any fatigues of bodily labour.

Your judgment upon this method of love and gallantry, as it is at present practised among us in the country, will very much oblige, sir, yours, &c.'

These wakes (says he,) were in imitation of the ancient ayα, or love-feasts; and were first established in England by Pope Gregory the Great, who in an Epis tle to Melitus the abbot, gave order that they should be kept in sheds or arbories made up with the branches and boughs of trees round the church.?

If I would here put on the scholar and politician, I might inform my readers how He adds, "That this laudable custom of these bodily exercises or games were for- wakes prevailed for many ages, until the merly encouraged in all the common- nice puritans began to exclaim against it wealths of Greece; from whence the as a remnant of popery; and by degrees Romans afterwards borrowed their pen- the precise humour grew so popular, that tathlum, which was composed of running, at an Exeter assizes the Lord Chief Baron wrestling, leaping, throwing, and boxing, Walter made an order for the suppression though the prizes were generally nothing of all wakes; but on Bishop Laud's com but a crown of cypress or parsley, hats not plaining of this innovating humour, the king being in fashion in those days: that there is commanded the order to be reversed.' A an old statute, which obliges every man in

England, having such an estate, to keep and exercise the long-bow: by which means our ancestors excelled all other nations in the use of that weapon, and we had all the real advantages, without the inconvenience of a standing army: and that I once met with a book of, projects, in which the author, considering to what noble ends that

No. 162.] Wednesday, September 5, 1711

-Servetur ad imum,
Qualis ab incepto processerit, et sibi constet.
Hor. Ars Poct
Keep one consistent plan from end to end.

NOTHING that is not a real crime makes

Parochial Antiquities, 4to. 1695, p. 610, 614.

a man appear so contemptible and little in we fall into crimes and recover out of them,
the eyes of the world as inconstancy, espeare amiable or odious in the eyes of our
cially when it regards religion or party. great Judge, and pass our whole life in of
In either of these cases, though a man per- fending and asking pardon. On the con-
haps does but his duty in changing his trary, the beings underneath us are not
side, he not only makes himself hated by capable of sinning, nor those above us of
those he left, but is seldom heartily esteem- repenting. The one is out of the possibili-
ed by those he comes over to.
ties of duty, and the other fixed in an eter-
nal course of sin, or an eternal course of
virtue.

In these great articles of life, therefore,
a man's conviction ought to be very strong,
and if possible so well-timed, that worldly There is scarce a state of life, or stage in
advantages may seem to have no share in it, it, which does not produce changes and
or mankind will be ill-natured enough to revolutions in the mind of man. Our
think he does not change sides out of prin- schemes of thought in infancy are lost in
ciple, but either out of levity of temper, or those of youth; these too take a different
prospects of interest. Converts and rene- turn in manhood, until old age often leads
gadoes of all kinds should take particular us back into our former infancy. A new
care to let the world see they act upon ho- title or an unexpected success throws
nourable motives; or whatever approba- us out of ourselves, and in a manner de-
tions they may receive from themselves, stroys our identity. A cloudy day, or a lit-
and applauses from those they converse tle sunshine, has as great an influence on
with, they may be very well assured that many constitutions, as the most real bless-
they are the scorn of all good men, and the ing or misfortune. A dream varies our
public marks of infamy and derision. being, and changes our condition while it
Irresolution on the schemes of life which lasts; and every passion, not to mention
offer themselves to our choice, and incon- health and sickness, and the greater altera-
stancy in pursuing them, are the greatest tions in body and mind, makes us appear
and most universal causes of all our disquiet almost different creatures. If a man is so
and unhappiness. When ambition pulls distinguished among other beings by this
one way, interest another, inclination a infirmity, what can we think of such as
third, and perhaps reason contrary to all, make themselves remarkable for it even
a man is likely to pass his time but ill who among their own species? It is a very
has so many different parties to please. trifling character to be one of the most va-
When the mind hovers among such a variable beings of the most variable kind,
riety of allurements, one had better settle especially if we consider that he who is the
on a way of life that is not the very best great standard of perfection has in him no
we might have chosen, than grow old with- shadow of change, but is the same yester-
out determining
our choice, and go out of day, to-day, and for ever.
the world, as the greatest part of mankind As this mutability of temper and incon-
do, before we had resolved how to live in sistency with ourselves is the greatest
it. There is but one method of setting our-weakness of human nature, so it makes the
selves at rest in this particular, and that person who is remarkable for it in a very
is by adhering steadfastly to one great end particular manner more ridiculous than
as the chief and ultimate aim of all our any other infirmity whatsoever, as it sets
pursuits. If we are firmly resolved to live him in a greater variety of foolish lights,
up to the dictates of reason, without any and distinguishes him from himself by an
regard to wealth, reputation, or the like opposition of party-coloured characters.
considerations, any more than as they fall The most humorous character in Horace
principal design, we may go is founded upon this unevenness of temper
through life with steadiness and pleasure; and irregularity of conduct:
but if we act by several broken views, and
will not only be virtuous, but wealthy,
popular, and every thing that has a value
set upon it by the world, we shall live and
die in misery and repentance.

in with our

Sardus habebat

Ille Tigellius hoc: Cæsar, qui cogere posset,
Si peteret per amicitiam patris, atque suam, non
Quidquam proficeret; si collibuisset, ab ovo
Usque ad mala citaret, Io Bacche, modo summa
Voce, modo hac, resonat que chordis quatuor ima.
Nil æquale homini fuit illi: sæpe velut qui
Currebat fugiens hostem; persæpe velut qui
Junonis sacra ferret; habebat sæpe ducentos,
Sæpe decem servos: Modo reges atque tetrarchas,
Omnia magna loquens; modo, sit inihi mensa
tripes, et

Concha salis puri, et toga, quæ defendere frigus,
Quamvis crassa, queat. Decies centena dedisses
Huic parco paucis contento, quinque diebus
Nil erat in loculis. Noctes vigilabat ad ipsum
Mane: diem totum stertebat. Nil fuit unquam
Sic impar sibi-
Hor. Lib. 1. Sat. iii.

One would take more than ordinary care to guard one's self against this particular imperfection, because it is that which our nature very strongly inclines us to; for if we examine ourselves thoroughly, we shall find that we are the most changeable beings in the universe. In respect to our understanding, we often embrace and reject the very same opinions; whereas beings above and beneath us have probably no opinions at all, or at least no wavering and Instead of translating this passage in incertainties in those they have. Our su- Horace, I shall entertain my English reader periors are guided by intuition, and our in- with the description of a parallel characteriors by instinct. In respect of our wills, ter, that is wonderfully well finished by Mr.