Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

-I

worst of diseases, poverty, to which I would beg leave to apply the infallible remedy of CASTLE-BUILDING. doubt not but every individual, who is capable of reading this book, has often met with the following most exquifite lines, the moral of which can never be sufficiently admired; and let me add the truth too, for if they had not been true, no one ever would have seen this chapter.

"WHEN HOUSE AND LAND IS GONE AND SPENT, "THEN LEARNING IS MOST EXCELLENT.

When a man has made away with all his temporal estate, 'tis high time to have recourse to his mental one; and when he has fold all his tenements made of perifhable brick and stone, he may have leifure enough to build CASTLES IN THe Air, whose nothingness will fecure them from deftruction.

Befides this, there are many and fingular advantages, which an ideal eftate has above a real one, too many indeed to be recounted, but fome of the principal ones are as follows. The parish and the parfon, tythes and taxes, tenants and repairs, wind and weather, murrains and lawyers are eternal incumbrances of wealth and INDEPENDENCY. The villainy of stewards, the impudence of fervants, the danger of riding in a coach, the precariousness of life under the conduct of eminent phyficians, and profufenefs of expenfive viands are infurmountable objections to riches and honour. On the contrary, the sparest diet, perpetual exercife, (unless the party be in prison) no fervants, no danglers, none of the inconveniences of fortune attend an ideal eftate, which you may create, alter, or encreafe, as your judgment, whim, or pleasure prompts you.

It must be own'd indeed, that meat, drink, washing and lodging are not always abfolutely unneceffary, and are no parts of an ideal estate; I therefore would advise my genius to fecure thofe, for while the imagination is link'd to this muddy vesture of decay, as that most incomparable CASTLE

BUILDER,

BUILDER, SHAKESPEARE, expreffes it, she must now and then condescend to partake the carnality of a beef-stake, or mutton-chop.

Moreover it is the opinion of several great men, that the trifling requifites of meat and drink are so many spurs to make men excel; the poorer a man is kept, the more he'll endeavour to merit the publick favour; and out of neceffity (if not out of gratitude) muft do something for the common utility. Those therefore that encourage learning least are in fact the greatest MACENAS's, upon which principle our N- ty are all POLLIO's and MESSALA'S, LEO's and SYDNEY's, and fing Io triumphe, WE LIVE IN AN AU

GUSTAN AGE.

Ο

CHIMERICUS CANTABRIGIENSIS.

On the diverfity of STYLE S.

UR common converfation, or, what amounts to the fame thing, our writings, are the mark or characteristic of our fouls: our paffions, our humours, our inclinations are exprefsly painted in our words: in short, every one without thinking or design suits his style and manner of converfing to his natural difpofition. Hence arifes the difficulty of difguifing our real fentiments, and giving a contrary direction to our tongue, which is properly the index of our heart. But we may carry this matter yet further: we may not only learn the humours of a person from his style, but his very country. Every climate has a ftyle peculiar to itself. The Afiatics, whose imaginations are warm, fertile, and full of images, converse by allusions, by fimilies, by metaphors, by allegories: their style is therefore dark and unintelligible to those, whose imagination is less lively, and lefs quick. The more northern nations, who have less fire and think flowly, are much more simple in their fentiments and expreffions. It

is

very

is very well known, that the Spaniards, and the Italians are different in their manner of compofition; nor would you expect to find the eafy gaiety of a French critic in the laborious Dutch commentator.

The ancient Rhetoricians divided the ftyles, which people from different inclinations are induced to make use of, into three claffs. The fir is the Afiatic, lofty, founding, and magnificent: the natives of Afia have ever been proud and ambitious their life is a life of luxury and coft; their discourfes therefore are images of their tempers, and their language is enrich'd with many vain ornaments, which minds of

a more fevere and serious caft connot relish. The fecond is the Attic ftyle: the Athenians were more regular and correct in their manner of living: they were therefore more exact, and, I may fay too, more modeft in their language. The third and laft, is the Rhodian: the people of Rhodes had much ambition in their tempers, but their paffions were equally inclined to the luxury of the Afiatics, and the modefty of the Athenians. This is expreffed in their style, which keeps a due medium between the licentious extravagancy of the Afiatic, and the referved clofenefs of the Attic.

But the diversity of ftyles proceeds alfo from another cause, and that is, from the favourable prejudices we have entertained of that particular manner in which we delight to speak or write. When we have conceived a more than ordinary efteem for any way of writing, we draw to ourselves a model to which we endeavour to conform. The ftyle that is in prefent ufe or fashion is follow'd by every body; but as modes alter, and those who have invented them, upon their becoming common, invent new ones to diftinguish themfelves from the common, a perpetual change muft enfue, and it thence happens, that every age has its particular modes. difcerning criticks will from hence point out the very time in which an author wrote, from his manner only. By the ftyle of each age we may alfo learn the inclinations of those

who

who lived in that age, as we can tell the country of a perfon very often from his pronounciation. Thus the ftyle for the most part is close, and auftere, and without any ornament, in those ages wherein the people were ferious, and obferved a regular way of living: for we find that luxury, during the irregular degeneracy of particular republicks, introduced itself into their languages, as well as their drefs, their tables, and their buildings.

F.

Mr. EDMUND SMITH's Burlesque on his own ODE on the Death of Dr. POCOCKE.

After the death of the famous Dr. PocockE, Mr. JOHN URRY, Student of Chrift Church, Oxford, prevailed on Mr. SMITH to write that excellent Ode, which is printed in his works, and which we beg our readers to confult, or the exquifite humour of the following letter will be loft. As foon as finif'd, Mr. SMITH fent it to Mr. URRY with this very droll epistle.

O

Pufculum hoc,* halberdarie ampliffime, in lucem pro

ferre hactenus diftuli, judicii tui acumen fubveritus magis quàm bipennis. Tandem aliquandò oden hanc ad te mitto fublimem, teneram, flebilem, fuavem, qualem demùm divinus (fi mufis vacaret) fcripfiffet Gaftrillus: adeò fcilicet fublimem, ut inter legendum dormire, adeò flebilem, ut ridere velis. Cujus elegantiam ut meliùs infpicias, versûs ordinem & materiam breviter retexam.- -Ius. verfus de duobus præliis decantatis. 2us & 3us de Lotharingio, cuni

It is to be noted, that Mr. URRY had enlifted himself in the Oxford regiment raised at the time of the Monmouth rebellion.

culis

culis fubterraneis, faxis, ponto, hoftibus, & Afia. gus de catenis, fubibus uncis, draconibus, tigribus, & crocodilis. 6us. 7us. 8us. 9us. de Gomorrhâ, de Babylone; Babele, & quodam domi fuæ peregrino. 1ous. aliquid de quodam Pocockio. IIus. 12us. de Syriâ, Solymâ. 13us. 14us. de Hofeâ, & quercu, & de juvene quodam valdè fene. 15us. 16us. de Ætnâ, et quodmodo Ætna Pocockio fit valdè fimilis. 17us. 18us. de tubâ, astro, umbrâ, flammis, rotis, Pocockio non neglecto.- -Cætera de Xtianis, Ottomanis, Babyloniis, Arabibus, & graviffimâ agrorum melancholiâ; dé Cæfare, Glaveo, Neftore, & miferando juvenis cujufdam fato, anno ætatis fuæ centefimo præmaturè abrepti. Quæ omnia cùm accuratè expenderis, necesse est ut Oden hanc meam admirandâ planè veritate conftare fatearis : citò ad Batavos proficifcor lauro ab illis donandus: priùs verò Pembrochienfes voco ad certamen poeticum. Vale,

Illuftriffima tua deofculor crura,

E. SMITH.

ODE

« AnteriorContinuar »