exclude chance from the government of the world, But Agenor did not before reflect that any gratitude was due to providence but for a miracle; he did not enjoy his preferment as a gift, nor estimate his gainbut by the probability of lofs. As fuccefs and disappointment are under the influence of imagination, fo are eafe and health; each of which may be confidered as a kind of negative good, that may either degenerate into wearifomeness and difcontent, or be improved into complacency and enjoyment. About three weeks ago I paid an afternoon vifit to Curio. Curio is the proprietor of an eftate which produces three thousand pounds a year, and the husband of a lady remarkable for her beauty and her wit; his age is that in which manhood is faid to be complete ; his conftitution is vigorous, his perfon graceful, and his understanding ftrong. I found him in full health, lolling in an eafy chair; his countenance was florid, he was gayly dreffed, and furrounded with all the means of happiness which wealth well ufed could bestow, After the first ceremonies had paffed, he threw himself again back in his chair upon my having refused it, looked wiftfully at his finger ends, croffed his legs, inquired the news of the day, and in the midst of all poffible advantages feemed to poffefs life with a liftlefs indiffe rence, which, if he could have prferved in contrary circumftances, would have invested him with the dignity of a foic. It happened that yesterday I paid Curio another vifit. I found him in his chamber; his head was fwathed in flannel, and his countenance was pale. I was alarmed at thefe appearances of difeafe; and inquired. with an honest folicitude how he did. The moment he heard my question, he started from his feat, sprang towards me, caught me by the hand, and told me, in an ecftacy, that he was in heaven. What difference in Curio's circumftances produced this difference in his fenfations and behaviour? What prodigious advantage had now accrued to the man, who before had eafe and health, youth, affluence, and beauty? Curio, during the ten days that preceded my last visit, had been tormented with the tooth-ach ; and had, within the laft hour, been restored to eafe, by having the tooth drawn. And is human reafon fo impotent, and imagination fo perverfe, that eafe cannot be enjoyed till it has been taken away? Is it not poffible to improve negative into pofitive happiness, by reflection? Can he, whe poffeffes eafe and health, whofe food is tafteful, and whofe fleep is fweet, remember, without exultation and delight, the feafons in which he has pined in the langour of inappetence, and counted the watches of the night with reflefs anxiety? Is an acquiefcence in the difpenfations of unerring wisdom, by which fome advantage appears to be denied, without recalling trivial and accidental circumstances, that can only aggravate difappointment, impoffible to reasonable beings? And is a fenfe of the divine bounty neceffarily languid, in proportion as that bounty appears to be lefs doubtful and interrupted? Every man furely would blush to admit these fup. pofitions; let every man, therefore, deny them by his life, he, who brings imagination under the dominion of reason, will be able to diminish the evil of life, and to increase the good; he will learn to refign with. com. placency, placency, to receive with gratitude, and poffefs with cheerfulness: and as in this conduct there is not only wisdom but virtue, he will under every calamity be able to rejoice in hope, and to anticipate the felicity of that state, in which, "the fpirits of the juft fhall be "made perfect." No. XCVII. Tuefday, October 9. 1753. Χρη δε και εν τοις ήθεσιν ωσπερ και εν τη των πραγματων συστασεις σε ζητειν, ἢ σε αναγκαίον, ἢ το εικος. ARIST. POET. As well in the conduct of the manners, as in the conftitution of the fable, we must always endeavour to produce either what is neceffary or what is probable. "WHOEVER Ventures, fays Horace,"to form a "character totally original, let him endeavour to preserve it with uniformity and confiftency; but "the formation of an original character is a work of 66 great difficulty and hazard.” In this arduous and uncommon task, however, Shakespeare has wonderfully fucceeded fucceeded in his Tempeft: the monfter Calyban is the creature of his own imagination; in the formation of which he could derive no affistance from obfervation or experience. Calyban is the fon of a witch, begotten by a demon. The forceries of his mother were fo terrible, that her countrymen banished her into this defert ifland, as unfit for human fociety. In conformity, therefore, to this diabolical propagation, he is reprefented as a prodigy of cruelty, malice, pride, ignorance, idlenefs, gluttony, and luft. He is introduced with great propriety, curfing Profpero and Miranda, whom he had endeavoured to defile; and his execràtions are artfully contrived to have reference to the occupation of his mother: As wicked dew as e'er my mother brush'd, With raven's feather, from unwhole fome fen, -All the charms Of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you! His kindness is afterwards expreffed as much in cha racter, as his hatred, by an enumeration of offices, that could be of value only in a defolate ifland, and in the estimation of a favage: I pr'ythee, let me bring thee where crabs grow; I'll fhew thee the best springs; I'll pluck thee berries; Which laft is, indeed, a circumstance o fgreat use, in a place, where to be defended from the cold was neither eafy nor ufual; and it has a farther peculiar beauty, because the gathering wood was the occupation to which Calyban was subjected by Profpero, who, therefore, deemed it a service of high importance. The grofs ignorance of this menster is represented with delicate judgment: he knew not the names of the fun and moon, which he calls the bigger light and the lefs; and he believes that Stephano was the man in the moon, whom his mistress had often fhewn him: and when Profpero reminds him that he first taught him to pronounce articulately, his answer is full of malevolence and rage: You taught me language; and my profit on't the propereft return for fuch a fiend to make for fuch a favour. The fpirits whom he supposes to be employed by Profpero perpetually to torment him, and the many forms and different methods they take for this purpose, are described with the utmost liveliness and force of fancy: Sometimes like apes, that moe and chatter at me, It is fcarcely poffible for any fpeech to be more expreffive of the manners and fentiments, than that in which our poet has painted the brutal barbarity an unfeeling |