thoughts by words or sounds, because this way we are confined to narrow limits of place and time: whereas we may have occasion to correspond with a friend at a distance; or a desire, upon a particular occasion, to take the opinion of an honest gentleman who has been dead this* thousand years. Both which defects are supplied by the noble invention of letters. By this means we materialize our ideas, and make them as lasting as the ink and paper, their vehicles. This making our thoughts by art visible to the which nature had made intelligible only by the ear, is next to the adding a sixth sense, as it is a supply in case of the defect of one of the five nature gave us, namely, hearing, by making the voice become visible. eye, "Have any, of any school of painters, gotten themselves an immortal name, by drawing a face, or painting a landscape; by laying down on a piece of canvas a representation only of what nature had given them originals? What applauses will he merit, who first made his ideas sit to his pencil, and drew to his eye the picture of his mind! Painting represents the outward man, or the shell; but cannot reach the inhabitant within, or the very organ by which the inhabitant is revealed. This art may reach to represent a face, but cannot paint a voice. Kneller can draw the majesty of the queen's person; Kneller can draw her sublime air, and paint her bestowing hand as fair as the lily; but the historian must inform posterity, that she has one peculiar excellence above all other mortals, that her ordinary speech is more charming than song. "But to drop the comparison of this art with any other, let us see the benefit of it in itself. By it the English trader may hold commerce with the inhabit * These thousand years. ants of the East or West Indies, without the trouble of a journey. Astronomers, seated at a distance of the earth's diameter asunder, may confer; what is spoken and thought at one pole, may be heard and understood at the other. The philosopher who wished he had a window in his breast to lay open his heart to all the world, might as easily have revealed the secrets of it this way, and as easily have left them to the world, as wished it. This silent art of speaking by letters, remedies the inconvenience arising from distance of time, as well as place; and is much beyond that of the Egyptians, who could preserve their mummies for ten centuries. This preserves the works of the immortal part of men, so as to make the dead still useful to the living. To this we are beholden for the works of Demosthenes and Cicero, of Seneca and Plato: without it the Iliad of Homer, and Æneid of Virgil had died with their authors; but by this art those excellent men still speak to us. "I shall be glad if what I have said on this art, gives you any new hints for the more useful or agreeable application of it. "I am, SIR," &c. I shall conclude this paper with an extract from a poem in praise of the invention of writing, written by a lady. I am glad of such a quotation, which is not only another instance how much the world is obliged to this art, but also a shining example of what I have heretofore asserted, that the fair sex are as capable as men of the liberal sciences; and indeed there is no very good argument against the frequent instruction of females of condition this way, but that they are but too powerful without that advantage. The verses of the charming author are as follow: Blest be the man! his memory at least, When for a wife the youthful patriarch sent, To catch the soul, when drawn into the eye! Nor her soft heart in chains of pearl been tied. No. 173. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1713. Nec sera comantem Narcissum, aut flexi tacuissem vimen acanthi, VIRG. GEORG. iv. 122. The late narcissus, and the winding trail DRYDEN. I LATELY took a particular friend of mine to my house in the country, not without some apprehension that it could afford little entertainment to a man of his polite taste, particularly in architecture and gar◄ dening, who had so long been conversant with all that is beautiful and great in either. But it was a pleasant surprise to me, to hear him often declare, he had found in my little retirement that beauty which he always thought wanting in the most celebrated seats, or, if you will, villas, of the nation. This he described to me in those verses, with which Martial begins one of his epigrams: Baiana nostri villa, Basse, Faustini, EPIG. iii. 58. Our friend Faustinus' country seat I've seen: But simple nature's hand, with nobler grace, There is certainly something in the amiable simplicity of unadorned nature, that spreads over the mind a more noble sort of tranquillity, and a loftier sensation of pleasure, than can be raised from the nicer scenes of art. This was the taste of the ancients in their gardens, as we may discover from the descriptions extant of them. The two most celebrated wits of the world have each of them left us a particular picture of a garden; wherein those great masters, being wholly unconfined, and painting at pleasure, may be thought to have given a full idea of what they esteemed most excellent in this way. These, one may observe, consist entirely of the useful part of horticulture, fruittrees, herbs, water, &c. The pieces I am speaking of, are Virgil's account of the garden of the old Corycian, and Homer's of that of Alcinous. The first of these is already known to the English reader, by the excellent versions of Mr. Dryden and Mr. Addison. The other having never been attempted in our language with any elegance, and being the most beautiful plan of this sort that can be imagined, I shall here present the reader with a translation of it. THE GARDEN OF ALCINOUS, FROM HOMER'S Close to the gates a spacious garden lies, year. The same mild season gives the blooms to blow, Here order'd vines in equal ranks appear, Beds of all various herbs for ever green, Two plenteous fountains the whole prospect crown'd; |