the country along with me, and there am endeavouring to plump him up, so as to be no disgrace to his pedigree; for I assure you it was never known in the memory of man, that any one of the family of the Ringwoods ever fell into a consumption, except Mrs. Dorothy Ringwood, who died a maid at 45. În order to bring him to himself, and to be one of us again, I make him go to bed at ten, and rise at half an hour past five; and when he is a puling for bohea tea and cream, I place upon a table a jolly piece of cold roast beef, or well-powdered ham, and bid him eat and live; then take him into the fields to observe the reapers, how the harvest goes forwards. There is nobody pleased with his present constitution but his gay cousin, who spirits him up, and tells him, he looks fair, and is grown well-shaped; but the honest tenants shake their heads and cry, Lack-a-day, how thin is poor young master fallen!' The other day, when I told him of it, he had the impudence to reply, I hope, Sir, you would not have me as fat as Mr. Alas what would then become of me? how would the ladies 'pish' at such a great monstrous thing!'-If you are truly what your title imports, a Guardian, pray, Sir, be pleased to consider what a noble generation must in all probability ensue from the lives which the town-bred gentlemen too often lead. A friend of mine, not long ago, as we were complaining of the times, repeated two stanzas out of my lord Roscommon, which, I think, may here be applicable:

'Twas not the spawn of such as these,

6

That dy'd with Punic blood the conquer'd seas, acides;

And quash'd the stern

Made the proud Asian monarch feel,

How weak his gold was against Europe's steel;
Forced e'en dire Hannibal to yield;

And won the long-disputed world at Zama's fatal field;

But soldiers of a rustic mould,

Rough, hardy, season'd, manly, bold;

Either they dug the stubborn ground,

Or through hewn woods their weighty strokes did sound:
And after the declining sun

Had changed the shadows, and their task was done!
Home with their weary team, they took their way,
And drown'd in friendly bowls the labour of the day.

"I am, SIR,

"Your very

humble servant,

"JONATHAN RINGWOOD.

"P. S. I forgot to tell you, that while I waited in my son's anti-chamber, I found upon the table the following bill.

Sold to Mr. Jonathan Ringwood, a plain muslin head and ruffles, with col-1 bertine lace.

Six pair of white kid gloves for ma

dam Sally.

Three handkerchiefs for Madam

Sally.

£. s. d.

18 6

0 14 0

0 15 0

"In his chamber window I saw his shoe-maker's bill with this remarkable article,

For Mr. Ringwood, three pair of 3

laced shoes.

0 0

"And in the drawer of the table was the following billet.

'I DESIRE, that because you are such a country booby, that you forget the use and care of your snuff-box, you would not call me thief. Pray see my face no more.

Your abused friend,

6 SARAH GALLOP.'

"Under these words, my hopeful heir had writ,

Memorandum, to send her word I have found my box, though I know she has it."

No. 152. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1713.

Quin potiùs pacem æternam pactosque hymenaeos

Exercemus

VIRG. ÆN. iv. 99.

Rather in leagues of endless peace unite,

And celebrate the hymeneal rite.

THERE is no rule in Longinus which I more admire than that wherein he advises an author who would attain to the sublime, and writes for eternity, to consider, when he is engaged in his composition, what Homer or Plato, or any other of those heroes in the learned world, would have said or thought upon the same occasion. I have often practised this rule with regard to the best authors among the ancients, as well as among the moderns. With what success, I must leave to the judgement of others. I may at least venture to say, with Mr. Dryden, where he professes to have imitated Shakspeare's style, that in imitating such great authors I have always excelled myself.

I have also by this means revived several antiquated ways of writing, which though very instructive and entertaining, had been laid aside and forgotten for some ages. I shall in this place only mention those allegories wherein virtues, vices, and human passions, are introduced as real actors. Though this kind of composition was practised by

the finest authors among the ancients, our countryman Spenser is the last writer of note who has applied himself to it with success.

That an allegory may be both delightful and instructive; in the first place, the fable of it ought to be perfect, and if possible to be filled with surprising turns and incidents. In the next, there ought to be useful morals and reflections couched under it, which still receive a greater value from their being new and uncommon; as also from their appearing difficult to have been thrown into emblematical types and shadows.

I was once thinking to have written a whole canto in the Spirit of Spenser, and in order to it, contrived a fable of imaginary persons and characters. I raised it on that common dispute between the comparative perfections and pre-eminence of the two sexes, each of which have very frequently had their advocates among the men of letters. Since I have not time to accomplish this work, I shall present my reader with the naked fable, reserving the embellishments of verse and poetry to another opportunity.

The two sexes contending for superiority, were once at war with each other, which was chiefly carried on by their auxiliaries. The males were drawn up on the one side of a very spacious plain, the females on the other; between them was left a very large interval for their auxiliaries to engage in. At each extremity of this middle space lay encamped several bodies of neutral forces, who waited for the event of the battle before they would declare themselves, that they might then act as they saw occasion.

The main body of the male auxiliaries was commanded by Fortitude; that of the female by Beauty. Fortitude began the onset on Beauty, but found to

his cost, that she had such a particular witchcraft in her looks, as withered all his strength. She played upon him so many smiles and glances that she quite weakened and disarmed him.

In short, he was ready to call for quarter, had not Wisdom come to his aid: this was the commander of the male right wing, and would have turned the fate of the day, had not he been timely opposed by Cunning, who commanded the left wing of the female auxiliaries. Cunning was the chief engineer of the fair army; but upon this occasion was posted, as I have here said, to receive the attacks of Wisdom. It was very entertaining to see the workings of these two antagonists; the conduct of the one, and the stratagems of the other. Never was there a more equal match. Those who beheld it gave the victory sometimes to the one, and sometimes to the other, though most declared the advantage was on the side of the female commander.

In the mean time, the conflict was very great in the left wing of the army, where the battle began to turn to the male side. This wing was commanded by an old experienced officer called Patience, and on the female side by a general known by the name of Scorn. The latter, that fought after the manner of the Parthians, had the better of it all the beginning of the day; but being quite tired out with the long pursuits, and repeated attacks of the enemy, who had been repulsed above a hundred. times, and rallied as often, began to think of yielding. When on a sudden, a body of neutral forces began to move. The leader was of an ugly look, and gigantic stature. He acted like a drawcansir,* sparing neither friend nor foe. His name was Lust. On the Female side he was opposed by a select body

* A character drawn in The Rehearsal.