No. 585. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 25. Ipfi lætitia voces ad fidera jantant Intonfi montes: ipfæ jam carmina rupes, VIRG. Ecl. v. ver. 63. The mountain-tops unfhorn, the rocks rejoice; DRYDEN. The fequél of the ftory of Shalum and Hilpa. HE letter inferted in my last had fo good an effect upon Hilpa, that the answered it in lefs than a twelvemonth, after the following manner. T Hilpa, Miftrefs of the Valleys, to Shalum, Mafter of Mount Tirzah. In the 789th year of the Creation. • What have I to do with thee, O Shalum? Thou praifeft Hilpa's beauty, but art thou not fecretly • enamoured with the verdure of her meadows? Art • thou not more affected with the profpect of her green valleys, than thou wouldest be with the fight of her perfon? The lowings of my herds, and the bleatings of my flocks, make a pleafant echo in thy mountains, and found fweetly in thy cars. • What though I am delighted with the wavings of thy forests, and those breezes of perfumes which flow from the top of Tirzah: are thefe like the riches of the valley? I know thee, O Shalum; thou art more wife and happy than any of the fons of men. Thy dwellings are among the cedars; thou searchest out the • diver diverfity of foils, thou understandeft the influen⚫ces of the stars, and markeft the change of feafons. Can a woman appear lovely in the eyes of such a one? Difquiet me not, O Shalum, let me alone, that I may enjoy thofe goodly poffeffions which are fallen to my lot. Win me not by thy enticing ⚫ words. May thy trees increase and multiply; mayeft thou add wood to wood, and fhade to fhade: but tempt not Hilpa to deftroy thy folitude, and make thy retirement populous.' The Chinese fay, that a little time afterwards fhe accepted of a treat in one of the neighbouring hills to which Shalum had invited her. This treat lafted for two years, and is faid to have coft Shalum five hundred antelopes, two thousand oftriches, and a thoufand tun of milk; but what most of all recommended it, was that variety of delicious fruits and pot-herbs, in which no perfon then living could any way equal Shalum. He treated her in the bower which he had planted amidst the wood of nightingales. This wood was made up of fuch fruit-trees and plants as are most agreeable to the feveral kinds of finging-birds; fo that it had drawn into it all the music of the country, and was filled from one end of tire year to the other with the most agreeable concert in feafon. He fhewed her every day fome beautiful and fur. prising scene in this new region of wood-lands; and as by this means he had all the opportunities he could with for of opening his mind to her, he fucceeded fo well, that upon her departure fhe made him a kind of promise, and gave him her word to return him a pofitive anfwer in lefs than fifty years. She had not been long among her own people in the valleys, when the received new overtures, and at the fame time a moft fplended vifit from Mifbpach, who was a mighty man of old, and had built a great city, which he called after his own name. Every house was made for at least a thousand years, nay there were fome that were leafed out for three lives; fo that the quantity of ftone and timber confumed in this building is fcarce to be imagined by those who live in the prefent age of the world. This great man entertained her with the voice of mufical inftruments which had been lately invented, and danced before her to the found of the timbrel. He also presented her with feveral domeftic utenfils wrought in brass and iron, which had been newly found out for the conveniency of life. In the mean time Shalum grew very uneafy with himself, and was forely difpleafed at Hilpa for the reception which the had given to Mishpach, infomuch that he never wrote to her or spoke of her during a whole revolution of Saturn; but finding that this intercourse went no father than a visit, he again renewed his addreffes to her, who during his long filence is faid very often to have caft a wifhing eye upon mount Tirzah. Her mind continued wavering about twenty years longer between Shalum and Mifbpach; for though her inclinations favoured the former, her intereft pleaded very powerfully for the other. While her heart was in this unfettled condition, the following accident happened which determined her choice. A high tower of wood that flood in the city of Mishpach having caught fire by a flash of lightning, in a few days reduced the whole town to afhes. Mishpach refolved to rebuild the place whatever it fhould coft him and having already destroyed all the timber of the country, he was forced to have recourfe to Shalum, whofe forefts were now two hundred years old. He purchased thefe woods with fo many herds of cattle and flocks of sheep, and with such a vaft extent of fields and paftures, that Shalum was now grown more wealthy than Mifbpach; and therefore appeared fo charming in the eyes of Zilpah's daughter, that the no longer refused him in marriage. : On On the day in which he brought her up into the mountains, he raised a most prodigious pile of cedar, and of every fweet-fmelling wood, which reached above 300 cubits in height: he also caft into the pile bundles of myrrh, and fheaves of fpikenard, enriching it with every spicy fhrub, and making it fat with the gums of his plantations. This was the burnt-offering which Shalum offered in the day of his efpoufals: the smoke of it ascended up to heaven, and filled the whole country with incenfe and perfume. No. 586. FRIDAY, AUGUST 27. Que in vita ufurpant homines, cogitant, curant, vident, quæque agunt vigilantes, agitantque, ea cuique in fomno accidunt. CIC. de Div. The things which employ men's waking thoughts and actions, recur to their imaginations in fleep. BY Y the laft poft I received the following letter, which is built upon a thought that is new, and very well carried on; for which reafons I fhall give it to the public without alteration, addition, or a. mendment. SIR, It was a good piece of advice which Pythagoras gave to his fcholars, That every night before they flept, they fhould examine what they had been do ing that day, and fo difcover what actions were worthy of pursuit to-morrow, and what little vices • were a were to be prevented from flipping unawares into habit. If I might fecond the philofopher's advice, it fhould be mine, that in a morning before my scholar arose, he should confider what he had been about that night, and with the fame ftrict •ness, as if the condition he has believed himself to be in was real. Such a fcrutiny into the actions of his fancy must be of confiderable advantage, for this reafon, because the circumftances which a man imagines himfelf in during fleep, are generally fuch as entirely favour his inclinations, good or bad, and give him imaginary opportunities of pursuing them to the utmoft; fo that his temper will lie fairly open to his view, while he confiders how it is moved when free from thofe constraints which the accidents of real life put it under. Dreams are certainly the refult of our waking thoughts, and our daily hopes and fears are what < give the mind fuch nimble relishes of pleasure, and fuch fevere touches of pain in its midnight rambles. A man that murders his enemy, or deserts his friend in a dream, had need to guard his temper against revenge and ingratitude, and take heed that he be not tempted to do a vile thing in the purfuit of falfe, or the neglect of true honour. For my part, I feldom receive a benefit, but, in a night or two's time, I make most noble returns for it; which, though my benefactor is not a whit the better for, yet it pleases me to think that it was from a principle of gratitude in me, that my mind was fufceptible of fuch generous tranfport while I ⚫ thought myself repaying the kindness of my friend: ⚫ and I have often been ready to beg pardon, instead of returning an injury, after confidering, that when the offender was in my power I had carried refentments much too far. my I think it has been obferved in the course of your papers, how much one's happiness or misery may ⚫ depend |