winds are lulled; fhame ftares him in the face; confcience plucks at his heart, and to divert his own tormenting thoughts, he calls in thofe of another person, no matter whom—the first idle author that stands next to his hand: he takes up a book; tis a volume of comedies; he opens it at random; 'tis all alike to him where he begins; all our poets put together are not worth a halter; he ftumbles by mere chance upon The Choleric Man; 'twas one to a thousand he should strike upon that blafted play---What an infernal title! What execrable nonfenfe! What a canting, preaching puppy of an author !---Away goes the poet with his play and half a dozen better poets than himself bound up in the fame lucklefs volume, the innocent fufferers for his offence. Tom now fits forlorn, difgufted, without a friend living or dead to chear him, gnawing his own heart for want of other diet to feed his fpleen upon: At length he flinks into a comfortlefs bed; damns his fervant as he draws the curtains round him, drops afleep and dreams of the devil. Major Manlove is a near neighbour, but no intimate of Tom Tinder's: With the enjoyments, that refult from health, the major is but rarely bleft, for a body-wound, which he received in battle, is apt upon certain changes of the climate to visit him with acute pains. He is married to one of the best of women; but she too has impaired her health by nurfing him when he was wounded, and is fubject to fevere rheumatic attacks. Love however has an opiate for all his pains, and domestic peace pours a balfam into the husband's wound. It is only by the scrutinizing eye of affection, that either can difcover when the other fuffers, for re ligion has endued both hearts with patience, and neither will permit a complaint to escape, which might invite the fympathizing friend to share its anguifh. Difabled for fervice, major Manlove has retired upon half-pay, and as he plundered neither the enemy's country nor his own during the war, he is not burthened with the fuperfluities of fortune; happily for him thefe are not amongst his regrets, and a prudent œconomy keeps him ftrait with the world and independant. One brave youth, trained under his own eye in the fame regiment with himself, is all the offspring Heaven hath beftowed upon this worthy father, and in him the hearts of the fond parents are centered; yet not fo centered, as to fhut them against the general calls of philanthropy, for in the village where they live they are beloved and bleffed by every creature. The garden furnishes amufement to Mrs. Manlove, and when the fharp north east does not blow pain into the major's wound, he is occupied with his farm: His trees, his crop, his cattle are his nurfelings, and the poor that labour in his service are his children and friends. To his fuperiors major Manlove deports himfelf with that graceful refpect, that puts them in mind of their own dignity without diminishing his; tohis inferiors. he is ever kind and condefcending: To all men he maintains a natural fincerity with a countenance fo expreffive of the benevolence, glowing in his heart, that he is beloved as foon as known, and known as foon as feen. With a foul formed for fociety, and a lively flow of fpirits, this amiable man no fooner enters into company, than his prefence diffuses joy and gladnefs over the whole circle: Every voice bids him welcome; every hand is reached out to VOL. IV. M greet greet him with a cordial shake. He fits down with a complacent fmile; chimes in with the converfation as it is going, hears all, overbears none, damps nobody's jeft, if it is harmless; cuts no man's ftory, if it is only tedious, and is the very life and foul of the table. According to annual custom I paffed some days with him laft autumn: There is a tranquillity, which tranfpires from the mafter and mistress of this family through every member belonging to it; the fervants are few, but fo affiduous in their refpective stations, that you can no where be better waited on: The table is plain, but elegant, and though the major himself is no fportfman, and has done carrying a gun, the kindness of his neighbours keeps him well fupplied with game, and every fort of rural luxury, that their farms and gardens can furnish. Nothing can be more delightful than the face of the country about him, and I was charmed with his little ornamented farm in particular: The difpofition of the garden, and the abundance of its fruits and flowers befpeak Mrs. Manlove no common adept in that fweet captivating science. One day as my friend and I were riding through his fields to enjoy the western breeze of a fine September morning, our ears were faluted with the full chorus of the hounds from a neighbouring cople, and as we were crolling one of the pastures towards them, we heard two men at high words behind a thick hedge, that concealed them from our fight, and foon after the found of blows, which feemed to be heavily laid on, acompanied with oaths and cries, that made us push to the next gate with all the speed we could muster. One of the combatants was lying on the ground, roaring for mercy under the the cudgel of his conqueror, who was belaboring him at a furious rate: The perfon of the victor was unknown to major Manlove; the vanquifht foon made him recognize the rueful features of Tom Tinder, who called upon the major by name to interpofe and fave him from being murdered. This was no fooner done than the cudgeller, who was a sturdy clown, gave us to understand, that he had been doing no more than every Englishman has a right to do returning the loan of a blow with proper intereft to the lender: This the proftrate hero did not deny, but afferted that the rafcal had headed the hare as fhe was breaking cover, and turned her into the wood again, by which means he had spoilt the day's fport.-And did you this defignedly?" said the major.---Not I, master, replied the countryman, as Heaven fhall judge me! I love the sport too well to spoil it wilfully: But if I was travelling along the road juft as pufs was popping through the hedge, could I help it? am I in the fault? And fhould this gentleman, if he be a gentleman, ride to me as if he would have trampled me like a dog under his horfe's feet, and lay the butt of his whip upon my fcull? I think no man can bear that? fo I pulled him out of the faddle, and banged him well, and I think no good man, as you appear to be, will fay otherwife than that he well deferved it.-If this be fo, answered the major, I can fay nothing to the contrary.-How fir, exclaimed the fquire, who was now upon his legs, is a rafcal like this to return blow for blow, and does major Manlove abet him in fuch infolence?I am forry, fir, replied the major calmly, you should put fuch a question to me; but when gentlemen lofe their temper-Sir, quoth Tom, interrupting him, M 2 him, I have loft my horfe, and that's the worfe lofs of the two-Tis what you are leaft ufed to, replied the major, and without more words quietly trotted homewards. As we jogged along my friend began to comment with much pleafantry upon this ridiculous incident, interlarding his difcourfe every now and then with remarks of a more ferious fort upon the ill effects of a hafly temper, and giving me fome traits of his neighbour's habits of life, which, though not fo uncommon as I could with, were nevertheless fuch, as, when contrafted with his benevolent character, may perhaps ferve to furnith out no very unedifying topic for an Effay in The Obferver. N° CLI. Mufa dedit fidibus Divos, puerofque Deorum, (HORAT.) IN times of very remote antiquity, when men were not fo lavish of their wit as they have fince been, Poetry could not furnifh employment for more than Three Mufes; but as bufinefs grew upon their hands and departments multiplied, it became neceffary to enlarge the commiffion, and a board was conftituted confifting of Nine in number, who had their feveral prefidencies allotted to them, and every branch of the art poetic thence forth |