All which is humbly fubmitted to your confideration by, Sir, your moft humble fervant, GENEROSITY THRIFT. ADVERTISEMENT, FOR THE PROTECTION OF HONOUR, TRUTH, VIRTUE, AND INNOCENCE. MR. Ironfide has ordered his amanuenfis to prepare for his perufal whatever he may have gathered, from his table-talk or otherwife, a volume to be printed in twelves, called The Art of Defamation Difcovered. This piece is to confift of the true characters of all perfons calumniated by the Examiner; and after fuch characters, the true and only method of fullying them fet forth in examples from the ingenious and artificial author, the faid Examiner. N.B. To this will be added the true characters of perfons he has commended, with obfervations to fhew that panegyric is not that author's talent. N° CLXXI. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 26. FUIT ISTA QUONDAM IN HAC REPUBLICA VIRTUS, UT VIRI FORTES ACRIORI BUS SUPPLICIIS CIVEM PERNICIOSUM, QUAM ACERBISSIMUM HOSTEM COERCICER. IN CATILIN. CERENT. THERE WAS ONCE THAT VIRTUE IN THIS COMMONWEALTH, THAT A BAD FILLOW-CITIZEN WAS THOUGHT TO DESERVE A SEVERER CORRECTION THAN THE BITTEREST ENEMY. I Have received letters of congratula tion and thanks from feveral of the noft eminent chocolate-houses and coffee-houfes, upon my late gallantry and fuccefs in oppofing myfelf to the long fwords. One tells me, that whereas his rooms were too little before, now his customers can faunter up and down from corner to corner, and table to table, without any let or molestation. find I have likewife cleared a great many alleys and by-lanes, made the public walks about town more fpacious, and all the paffages about Court and the Exchange more free and open. Several of my female wards have fent me the kindeft billets upon this occafion, in which they tell me, that I have faved them fome pounds in the year, by freeing their furbelows, flounces, and hoops, from the annoyance both of hilt and point. A fcout whom I fent abroad to obferve the poiture, and to pry into the intentions- of the enemy, brings me word that the Terrible Club is quite blown up, and that I have totally rout ed the men that feemed to delight in arms. My lion, whofe jaws are at all hours open to intelligence, informs me, that there are a few enormous weapons ftill in being; but that they are to be met with only in gaming-houses, and fome of the obfcure retreats of lovers in and about Drury Lane and Covent Garden. I am highly delighted with an adventure that befel my witty antagonist Tom Swagger, captain of the band of long fwords. He had the misfortune three days ago to fall into company with a mafter of the noble science of defence, who taking Mr. Swagger, by his habit, and the airs he gave himself, to be one of the profeffion, gave him a fair invitation to Marybone, to exercise at the ufual weapons. The captain thought this fo foul a disgrace to a gentleman, that he flunk away in the greatest confusion, and has never been seen since at the Tilt-yard Coffee-house, nor in any of his ufual haunts. As there is nothing made in vain, and as every plant and every animal, though never fo noifome, has it's ufe in the creation; fo thefe men of terror may be difpofed of, fo as to make a figure in the polite world. It was in this view that I received a vifit last night from a perfon who pretends to be employed here from feveral foreign princes in negociating matters of lefs importance. He tells me, that the continual wars in Europe have, in a manner, quite drained the Cantons of Swifferland of their fupernumerary fubjects, and that he forefees there will be a great fcarcity of them to serve at the entrance of courts, and the palaces of great men. He is of opinion this want may very feafonably be fupplied out of the great numbers of fuch gentlemen as I have given notice of in my paper of the 25th paft, and that his defign is in a few weeks, when the holiday writer, and never conld find in my heart to let my pen to a work of above five or fix periods long. My friends tell me my performances are little and pretty. As they have no man write them upon loofe pieces of paper, and throw them into a drawer by themfelves; this drawer I call the Lion's Pantry. I give you my word, I put nothing into it but what is clean and wholefome nouriture. Therefore remember me to the lion, and let him know, that I shall always pick and cull the pantry for him; and there are morfels in it, I can affure you, will make his chaps to water. the town fills, to put out public advertifements to this effect, not queftioning but it may turn to a good accountThat if any perfon of good ftature and fierce demeanor, as well members of the Terrible Club, as others of the like ex-ner of connexion one with the other, I terior ferocity, whofe ambition is to cock and look big, without exposing themselves to any bodily danger, will repair to his lodgings, they fhall (provided they bring their fwords with them) be furnished with shoulder-belts, broad hats, red feathers, and halberts, and be transported without farther trouble into feveral courts and families of diftinction, where they may eat and drink, and strut at free coft.-As this project was not communicated to me for a fecret, I thought it might be for the fervice of the abovefaid perions to divulge it with all convenient speed; that thofe who are difpofed to employ their talents to the best advantage, and to fhine in the station of life for which they feem to be born, may have time to adorn their upper lip, by railing a quick-let beard there in the form of whiskers, that they may pafs to all intents and purposes for true Swillers. INDEFATIGABLE NESTOR, GIVE me leave to thank you, in be half of myself and my whole family, for the daily diverfion and improvements we receive from your labours. At the fame time I must acquaint you, that we have all of us taken a mighty liking to your lion. His roarings are the joy of my heart; and I have a little boy, not three years old, that talks of nothing else, and who, I hope, will be more afraid of him as he grows up. That your animal may be kept in good plight, and not roar for want of prey; I ihall, out of my esteem and affection for you, contribute what I can towards his fuftenance; Love me, love my lion, fays the proverb. I will not pretend, at any time, to furnish out a full meal for him; but I fhall now and then fend him a favoury morfel, a tid-bit. You must know, I am but a kind of I am, with the greatest respect, Sir, And most affiduous reader. I must ask pardon of Mrs. Dorothy Care, that I have fuffered her billet to lie by me thefe three weeks without taking the leaft notice of it. But I believe the kind warning in it, to our fex, will not be now too late. GOOD MR. IRONSIDE, I Have waited with impatience for that fame Unicorn you promifèd fhould be erected for the fair-fex. My bufi- • nefs is, before winter comes on, to defire you would precaution your own sex against being Adamites, by expofing their bare breafts to the rigour of the feafon. It was this practice amongst the fellows which at firft encouraged our fex to fhew fo much of their necks. The downy dock-leaves you speak of would make good stomachers for the beaus. In a word, good Neftor, fo long as the men take a pride in thewing their hairy fkins, we may with a much betview. We are, we own, the weaker, ter grace fet out our fnowy chefts to but, at the fame time, you must own, much the more beautiful fex. I am, Sir, your humble reader, DOROTHY CARE. N° CLXXII. N° CLXXII. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 28. VITAM EXCOLUERE PER ARTES. VIRG. Æn. 6. v. 663. THEY GRAC'D THEIR AGE WITH NEW-INVENTED ARTS. MR. IRONSIDE, DRYDEN. thoughts by words or founds, because I Have been a long time in expecta. this way we are confined to narrow li tion of fomething from you on the fubject of fpeech and letters. I believe the world might be as agreeably entertained on that fubiect, as with any thing that ever came into the Lion's mouth. For this end I fend you the following sketch; and am, yours, PHILOGRAM. UPON taking a view of the feveral fpecies of living creatures our earth is ftocked with, we may eafily obferve, that the lower orders of them, fuch as infects and fishes, are wholly without a power of making known their wants and calamities: others, which are converfant with man, have fome few ways of expreffing the pleature and pain they undergo by certain founds and geftures; but man has articulate founds whereby to make known his inward fentiments and affections, though his organs of fpeech are no other than what he has in common with many other lefs perfect animals. But the ufe of letters, as fignificative of thefe founds, is fuch an additional improvement to them, that I know not whether we ought not to attribute the invention of them to the affiftance of a power more than human. There is this great difficulty which could not but attend the first invention of letters, to wit, that all the world must confpire in affixing fteadily the fame figns to their founds; which affix. ing was at first as arbitrary as poffible, there being no more connexion between the letters and the founds they are expreffive of, than there is between thofe founds and the ideas of the mind they immediately stand for: notwithstanding which difficulty, and the variety of languages, the povers of the letters in each are very nearly the fame, being in all places about twenty-four. But be the difficulty of the invention as great as it will, the use of it is manifeft, particularly in the advantage it has above the method of conveying our mits of place and time: whereas we may have occafion to correspond with a friend at a diflance; or delire, upon a particular occafion, to take the opinion of arr honeft gentleman who has been dead this thousand years. Both which defects are fupplied by the noble invention of letters. By this means we materialize our ideas, and make them as lafting as the ink and paper, their vehicles. This making our thoughts by art vifible to the eye, which nature had made intelligible only by the ear, is next to the adding a fixth fenfe, as it is a fupply in cafe of the defect of one of the five nature gave us, namely, hearing, by making the voice become vifible. Have any of any school of painters gotten themfelves an immortal name by drawing a face or painting a landfcape; by laying down on a piece of canvas a reprefentation only of what nature had given them originals? What applaufes will he merit, who first made his ideas fit to his pencil, and drew to his eye the picture of his mind! Painting reprefents the outward man, or the fhell; but cannot reach the inhabitant within, or the very organ by which the inhabitant is revealed: this art may reach to reprefent a face, but cannot paint a voice. Kneller can draw the majefty of the queen's perfon; Kneller can draw her fublime air, and paint her beftowing hand as fair as the lily; but the hiftorian mutt inform pofterity, that fhe has one peculiar excellence above all other mortals, that her ordinary fpeech is more charming than fong. But to drop the comparison of this art with any other, let us fee the benefit of it in itself. By it the English trader may hold commerce. with the inhabitants of the Eaft or Weft Indies, without the trouble of a journey. Aftro. nomers feated at a diftance of the earth's diameter afunder may confer; what is spoken and thought at one pole, may be heard and understood at the other. The The philofopher who wished he had a window in his breast, to lay open his heart to all the world, might as eafily have revealed the fecrets of it this way, and as eafily left them to the world, as wifhed it. This filent art of speaking by letters, remedies the inconvenience arifing from diftance of time,as well as place; and is much beyond that of the Egyptians, who could preferve their mummies for ten centuries. This preferves the works of the immortal part of men, fo as to make the dead still useful to the living. To this we are beholden for the works of Demofthenes and Cicero, of Seneca and Plato: without it the Iliad of Homer, and Æneid of Virgil, had died with their authors; but by this art those excellent men still speak to us. I shall be glad if what I have faid on this art gives you any new hints for the more useful or agreeable application of it. I am, Sir, &c. I fhall conclude this paper with an extract from a poem in praise of the invention of writing, 'Written by a Lady.' I am glad of fuch a quotation, which is not only another inftance how much the world is obliged to this art, but also a shining example of what I have hereto fore afferted, that the fair-fex are as capable as men of the liberal sciences; and indeed there is no very good argument against the frequent inftruction of females of condition this way, but that they are but too powerful without that advantage. The verfes of the charming author are as follow. Bleft be the man! his memory at least, And abfence feparated, like the grave. But had the known of melting words and No CLXXIII. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29. NEC SERO COMANTEM NARCISSUM, AUT FLEXI TACUISSEM VIMEN ACANTHI, VIRG. GEORG, 4. V. 122. THE LATE NARCISSUS, AND THE WINDING TRAIL I Lately took a particular friend of mine to my house in the country, not without fome apprehenfion that it could afford little entertainment to a man of his polite tafte, particularly in architecture and gardening, who had fo long been converfant with all that is beautiful and great in either. But it was a pleafant furprize to me, to hear him often declare, he had found in my little retirement that beauty which he always thought wanting in the most celebrated feats, or, if you will, villas of the nation. This he defcribed to me in thofe verfes with which Martial begins one of his epigrams: Baiana noftri villa, Basse, Fauftini, DRYDEN. Viduaque platano, tonfilique buxeto, EP. 58. L.3. Our friend Fauftinus' country feat I've seen: The ufelefs foil unprofitably share; There is certainly fomething in the amiable fimplicity of unadorned nature, that fpreads over the mind a more noble fort of tranquillity, and a loftier fenfation of pleasure, than can be raised from the nicer fcenes of art. This was the taste of the ancients in Xx their their gardens, as we may difcover from the defcription extant of them. The two most celebrated wits of the world have each of them left us a particular picture of a garden; wherein thofe great mafters, being wholly unconfined, and painting at pleasure, may be thought to have given a full idea of what they efteemed moft excellent in this way. Thefe, one may obferve, confift entirely of the ufeful part of horticulture, fruit-trees, herbs, water, &c. The pieces I am fpeaking of are, Virgil's account of the garden of the old Corycian, and Homer's of that of Alcinous. The firit of thefe is already known to the English reader, by the excellent verfions of Mr. Dryden and Mr. Addifon. The other having never been attempted in our language with any elegance, and being the mott beautiful plan of this fort that can be imagined, thall here prefent the reader with a tranflation of it, THE GARDEN OF ALCINOUS, FROM HOMER'S ODYSS. 7. CLOSE to the gates a fpacious garden lies, From ftorms defended and inclement skies: Four acres was th' allotted space of ground, Fenc'd with a green inclosure all around. Tall thriving trees confeft the fruitful mold; The redd'ning apple ripens here to gold: Here the blue fig with luscious juice o'erflows, With deeper red the full pomegranate glows: The branch here bends beneath the weighty pear, And verdant olives flourish round the year. The buds to harden, and the fruits to grow. wine. Here are the vines in early flow'r defcry'd, Here grapes difcolour d on the funny fide, And there in Autumn's richest purple dy'd. Beds of all various herbs, for ever green, In beauteous order terminate the scene. Two plenteous fountains the whole profpect crown'd; This thro' the gardens leads it's freams around, Vintseach plant,and waters all the ground: While that in pipes beneath the palace Яows, And thence it's current on the town bestows; To various ufe their various ftreams they bring, The people one, and one fupplics the king. Sir William Temple has remarked, that this defcription contains all the justeft rules and provifions which can go toward compofing the best gardens. It's extent was four acres, which in those times of fimplicity was looked upon as a large one, even for a prince: it was inclofed all round for defence; and, for conveniency, joined clofe to the gates of the palace. He mentions next the trees which were ftandards, and fuffered to grow to their full height. The fine defcription of the fruits that never failed, and the eternal zephyrs, is only a more noble and poetical way of expreffing the continual fucceffion of one fruit after another throughout the year. The vineyard feems to have been a plantation diftinct from the garden; as alfo the beds of greens mentioned afterwards at the extremity of the inclosure, in the nature and usual place of our kitchen-gardens. The two fountains are difpofed very remarkably. They rofe within the inclofure, and were brought by conduits, or ducts; one of them to water all parts of the gardens, and the other underneath the palace into the town for the service of the public. How contrary to this fimplicity is the modern practice of gardening? We seem to make it our study to recede from nature, not only in the various tonsure of greens into the most regular and formal hapes, but even in monftreus attempts beyond the reach of the art itself. We run into fculpture; and are yet better pleased to have our trees in the moft aukward figures of men and animals, than in the most regular of their own. Hinc et nexilibus vineas è frondibus bertes, Implexos latè muros, et mœnia circùm Porrigere, et latas è ramis furgere turres; Deflexam-et myrtum in puppes, atque æres rofira: In buxifque undare fretum, atque è rore ra dentes. Parte alia frondere fuis tentoria caftris; |