her answers rather increafing than gratifying his curiofity, he fet her before him on his beaft, and carried her to his house in the next village, at the diftance of about fix leagues. In his family, fhe was the jest of fome, and the pity of others. She was employed in the meanest offices; and her figure procured her the name of Goblin. But, amidst all the difadvantages of her fituation, he enjoyed the utmost felicity of food and reft as the formed no wishes, fhe fuffered no difappointment: her body was healthful, and her mind at peace.

In this station fhe had continued four years; when the heralds appeared in the village with the proclamation of Soliman. Shelimah ran out with others to gaze at the parade. She liftened to the proclamation with great attention; and, when it was ended, fhe perceived that the eyes of the multitude were fixed upon her. One of the horsemen at the fame time alighted; and, with great ceremony, intreated her to enter a chariot, which was in the retinue; telling her, that he was, without doubt, the person whom Nature and Soliman had deftined to be their queen. Shelimah replied with a fmile, that she had no defire to be great; "but," faid the, "if your proclamation be

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my

true, I fhould rejoice to be the inftrument of fuch "admonition to mankind; and, upon this condition, "I wish that I were indeed the most deformed of "fpecies. " The moment this wish was uttered, the fpell of Farimina produced the contrary effect: ber fkin, which was fcaly and yellow, became fmooth and white, her ftature was perceived gradually to increase, her neck rofe like a pillar of ivory, her bofom expanded, and her waift became lefs; her hair, which before

was

was thin and of a dirty red, was now black as the feathers of the raven, and flowed in large ringlets on her fhoulders; the most exquifite fenfibility now sparkled in her eye, her cheeks were tinged with the blushes of the morning, and her lips moistened with the dew; every limb was perfect, and every motion was graceful a white robe was thrown over her by an invisible hand; the crowd fell back in aftonishment, and gazed with infatiable curiofity upon fuch beauty as before they had never feen. Shelimah was not less astonished than the crowd: fhe ftood a while with her eyes fixed upon the ground, and, finding her confufion increase, would have retired in filence; but he was prevented by the heralds; who, having with much importunity prevailed upon her to enter the chariot, returned with her to the metropolis, prefented her to Soliman, and related the prodigy.

Soliman looked round upon the affembly, in doubt, whether to profecute or relinquish his purpofe; when Abbaran, a hoary fage, who had prefided in the council of his father, came forward, and placing his forehead on the foot-flool of the throne, "Let the king," faid he, accept the reward of virtue, and take Shelimah to his bed. In what age, and in what nation, "fall not the beauty of Shelimah be honoured? to "whom will it be tranfmitted alone? Will not the

fory of the wife of Soliman defcend with her name? "will it not be known, that thy defire of beauty was

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not gratified, till it had been fubdued? that by an "iniquitous purpofe beauty became hideous, and by a "virtuous with deformity became fair?

Soliman, who had fixed his eyes upon Shelimah, dif. covered a mixture of joy and confufion in her coun VOL. III.

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tenance

tenance, which determined his choice, and was an earneft of his felicity; for at that moment, Love, who, during her state of deformity, had been excluded by the fairy Elfarina's interdiction, took poffeffion of her breaft.

The nuptial ceremony was not long delayed, and Elfarina honoured it with her prefence. When the departed, the bestowed on both her benediction; and put into the hand of Shelimah a scroll of vellum, on which was this infcription in letters of gold :

"Remember, Shelimah, the fate of Almerine, who "ftill lives the reproach of parental folly, of degraded "beauty, and perverted fenfe. Remember Almerine; " and let her example and thy own experience teach "thee, that wit and beauty, learning, affluence, and "honour, are not effential to human felicity; with thefe fhe was wretched, and without them thou wast

8.6

happy. The advantages which I have hitherto bef"towed, must now be obtained by an effort of thy

own: that which gives relish to the coarseft food, "is Temperance; the apparel and the dwelling of a "peafant and a prince, are equal in the estimation of

humility; and the torment of ineffectual defiręs. is "prevented, by the refignation of Piety to the will of "Heaven; advantages which are in the power of

every wretch, who repines at the unequal diftribu"tion of good and evil, and imputes to Nature the effects of his own folly."

The King, to whom Shelimah communicated these precepts of the Fairy, caufed them to be transcribed, and with an account of the events which had produced them, distributed over all his dominions. Precepts which

w.ere

were thus enforced, had an immediate and extenfive influence; and the happiness of Soliman and of Shelimah was thus communicated to the multitude whom they governed.

No. CV. Tuesday, November 6. 1753.

Novam comicam Menandrus, æqualefque ejus ætatis magis quam operis, Philemon ac Diphilus, et invenere intra pauciffimus annos, neque imitandam reliquere. VELL. PATErcul.

Menander, together with Philemon and Diphilus, who must be named with him rather as his contemporaries than his equals, invented within the compafs of a few years a new kind of comedy, and left it beyond the reach of imitation.

To the ADVENTURER.

SIR,

MORALITY, tafte and literature, fcarcely ever fuffered more irreparably, than by the lofs of the comedies of Men

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Menander; fome of those fragments, agreeble to my promife, I am now going to lay before you, which I fhould imagine would be as highly prized by the curi. ous, as was the Coan Venus which Appelles left im perfect and unfinished.

Menander was celebrated for the sweetness, brevity, "He was fond of Eu and fententioufnefs of his ftile. "ripides," fays Quintilian, "and nearly imitated the "manner of this tragic writer, though in a different "kind of work. He is a complete pattern of oratorial "excellence: ità omnem vitæ imaginem expreffit, tan

ta in eo inveniendi copia, et eloquendi facultas; ità "eft omnibus rebus, perfonis, affectibus, accomodatus: "fo various and so just are all his pictures of life; fo "copious is his invention, fo mafterly his elocution; "fo wonderfully is he adapted to all kinds of subjects, "perfons, and paffions." This panegyric reflects equal honour on the critic, and on the comedian. Quintilian has here painted Menander with as lively and expres five ftrokes, as Menander had characterised the Athe nians.

Boileau, in his celebrated eighth fatire, has not pre fented the mifery and folly of man, fo forcibly or hu mourously as Menander.