"chant and the gentleman; our liberality to com mon beggars, and every other obftruction to the "increase of labourers, muft be equally pernicious (6 to both." Sir Andrew then went on to affirm, That the reduction of the prices of our manufactures by the addition of fo many new hands, would be no inconvenience to any man: But obferving I was fomething ftartled at the affertion, he made a fhort pause, and then refumed the difcourfe." It may feem, fays he, a paradox, that the price of la"bour fhould be reduced without an abatement "of wages, or that wages can be abated without any inconvenience to the labourer, and yet "nothing is more certain than that both these things may happen. The wages of the labour ers make the greatest part of the price of every "thing that is ufeful; and if in proportion with "the wages the prices of all other things fhould "be abated, every labourer with lefs wages would "ftill be able to purchase as many neceffaries of "life; where then would be the inconvenience? "But the price of labour may be reduced by he " addition of more hands to a manufacture, and yet the wages of perfons remain as high as ever. "The admirable Sir William Petty has given ex amples of this in fome of his writings: One of " them, as I remember, is that of a watch, which "I fhall endeavour to explain fo as fhall fuit my "prefent purpose. It is certain that a fingle watch "could not be made fo cheap in proportion by one "only man, as an hundred watches by an hundred; "for as there is a vast variety in the work, no one perfon could equally fuit himself to all the parts of it; the manufacture would be tedious and at ❝ last but clumfily performed: But if an hundred "watches were to be made by an hundred men, "the cafes may be affigned to one, the dials to * to another, the wheels to another, the fprings VOL. III. A a " to to another, and every other part to a proper ar"tift; as there would be no need of perplexing any one perfon with too much variety, every "one would be able to perform his fingle part with greater fkill and expedition; and the hundred "watches would be finished in one fourth part of "the time of the first one, and every one of them "at one fourth part of the coft, though the wages "of every man were equal. The reduction of the price of the manufacture would increase the de"mand of it, all the fame hands would be still em ployed, and as well paid. The fame rule will "hold in the clothing, the fhipping, and all other "trades whatsoever. And thus an addition of "hands to our manufactures will only reduce the "price of them; the labourer will ftill have as "much wages, and will confequently be enabled to "purchase more conveniencies of life; fo that e46 very intereft in the nation would receive a benefit from the increase of our working people. Befides, I fee no occafion for this charity to "common beggars, fince every beggar is an inhabitant of a parith, and every parifh is taxed to "the maintenance of their own poor. For my "own part, 'I cannot be mightily pleafed with the laws which have done this, which have provid"ed better to feed than employ the poor. We "have a tradition from our forefathers, that after the firft of thofe laws was made, they were infulted with that famous fong;' Hang forrow, and caft away care, "And if we will be fo good-natured as to main"tain them without work, they can do no less in "return than fing us The Merry Beggars. "What then? Am I againft all acts of charity? "God forbid! I know of no virtue in the gospel that is in more pathetick expreffions recommend sed 66. "ed to our practice. I was hungry and ye gave me no meat, thirsty and ye gave me no drink, nak"ed and ye clothed me not, a stranger and ye took me not in, fick and in prison and ye vifited me not. "Our bleffed Saviour treats the exercife or neglect of charity towards a poor man, as the perforinance or breach of this duty towards himself. I "fhall endeavour to obey the will of my Lord and "Mafter: And therefore if an induftrious man "fhall fubmit to the hardest labour and courfest "fare, rather than endure the fhame of taking re 66 66 66 lief from the parish, or afking it in the ftrect, "this is the hungry, the thirfty, the naked; and "I ought to believe, if any man is come hither "for fhelter against perfecution or oppreffion, this "is the ftranger, and I ought to take him in. If any countryman of our own is fallen into the hands of infidels, and lives in a state of miserable captivity, this is the man in prifon, and I fhould "contribute to his ranfom. I ought to give to an "hofpital of invalids, to recover as many ufeful "fubjects as I can; but I fhall bestow none of my "bounties upon an alms-houfe of idle people ; "and for the fame reafon I fhall not think it a re"6 proach to me if I had with-held my charity from "thofe common beggars. But we prefcribe better "rules than we are able to practife; we are afham"ed not to give into the mistaken cuftoms of our 66 country: But at the fame time, I cannot but "think it a reproach worse than that of common fwearing, that the idle and the abandoned are fuffered, in the name of heaven and all that is2 facred, to extort from chriftian and tender minds "a fupply to a profligate way of life, that is al-ways to be fupported, but never relieved.” 86. Tanquam hac fint noftri medicina furoris, As if by thefe my fufferings I could ease, DRYDEN. SHALL, in this paper, difcharge myfelf of the promife I have made to the publick, by obliging them with a tranflation of the little Greek manufcript, which is faid to have been a piece of thofe records that were preferved in the temple of Apollo, upon the promontory of Leucate: It is a thort hiftory of the lover's leap, and is infcribed, An account of perfons male and female, who offered up their vows in the temple of the Pythian Apollo, in the forty-fixth Olympiad, and leaped from the promontory of Leucate into the Ionian fea, in order to cure themselves of the paffion of love. This account is very dry in many parts, as only mentioning the name of the lover who leaped, the perfon he leaped for, and relating, in fhort, that he was either cured, or killed, or maimed by the fall. It indeed gives the names of fo many who died by it, that it would have looked like a bill of mortality, had I tranflated it at full length; I have therefore made an abridgment of it, and only extracted fuch particular paffages as have fomething extraordinary, either in the cafe, or in the cure, or in the fate of the person who is mentioned in it. After this fhort preface take the account as follows. Battus, the fon of Menalcas the Sicilian, leaped for Bombyca the mufician: got rid of his paffion with the lofs of his right leg and arm, which were broken in the fall. Meliffa, in love with Daphnis, very much bruised, but escaped with life. Cynifca, the wife of Æfchines, being in love with Lycus; and Efchines her husband being in love with Eurilla; (which had made this married cou ple very uneafy to one another for feveral years) both the hufband and the wife took the leap by confent; they both of them efcaped, and have liv-ed very happily together ever fince. Lariffa, a virgin of Theffaly, deferted by Plexip-pus, after a courtship of three years; the ftood upon the brow of the promontory for fome time, and after having thrown down a ring, a bracelet, and a little picture, with other prefents which fhe received from Plexippus, fhe threw herfelf into the fea, and was taken up alive. N. B. Lariffa, before the leaped, made an offer ing of a filver Cupid in the temple of Apollo. Simatha, in love with Daphnis the Myndian, perished in the fall.. Charixus, the brother of Sappho, in love with Rhodope the courtefan, having spent his whole estate upon her, was advised by his fifter to leap in the beginning of his amour, but would not hearken to her until he was reduced to his laft talent; being forfaken by Rhodope, at length refolved to take the leap. Perifhed in it.. Aridaus, a beautiful youth of Epirus, in love with Praxinoe, the wife of Thefpis, efcaped with-out damage, faving only that two of his foreteeth were ftruck out, and his nofe a little flatted. Cleora, a widow of Ephefus, being inconfolable for the death of her husband, was refolved to take this leap in order to get rid of her paffion for his memory; but being arrived at the promontory, she there met with Dimmachus the Miletian, and after a fhort converfation with him, laid afide the |