N° 85 Thursday, June 7. Interdum fpeciofa locis, morataque real HOR. Ars Poet. v. 319, Sometimes in rough and undigested plays ROSCOMMON. T is the cuftom of the Mahometans, if they see any I printed or written paper upon the ground, to take it up and lay it afide carefully, as not knowing but it may contain fome piece of their Alcoran. I must confefs I have fo much of the Muffulman in me, that I cannot forbear looking into every printed paper which comes in my way, under whatsoever defpicable circumftances it may appear; for as no mortal author, in the ordinary fate and viciffitude of things, knows to what ufe his works may, fome time or other, be applied, a man may often meet with very celebrated names in a paper of tobacco. I have lighted my pipe more than once with the writings of a prelate; and know a friend of mine, who, for thefe feveral years, has converted the effays of a man of quality into a kind of fringe for his candlesticks. I remember in particular, after having read over a poem of an eminent author on a victory, I met with feveral fragments of it upon the next rejoicing day, which had been employed in fquibs and crackers, and by that means celebrated its fubject in a double capacity. I once met with a page of Mr. Baxter under a Christmas pye. Whether or no the pastry-cook had made use of it through chance or waggery, for the defence of that fuperftitious viande, I know not; but upon the perufal of it, I conceived fo good an idea of the the author's piety, that I bought the whole book. I have often profited by thefe áccidental readings, and have fometimes found very curious pieces, that are either out of print, or not to be met with in the fhops of our London bookfellers. For this reason, when my friends take a furvey of my library, they are very much furprized to find, upon the shelf of folios, two long band-boxes ftanding upright among my books, until I let them fee that they are both of them lined with deep erudition and abftrufe literature. I might likewife mention a paper-kite, from which I have received great improvement; and a hatcafe, which I would not exchange for all the beavers in Great-Britain. This my inquifitive temper, or rather impertinent humour of prying into all forts of writing, with my natural averfion to loquacity, give me a good deal of employment when I enter any house in the country; for I cannot for my heart leave a room, before I have thoroughly ftudied the walls of it, and examined the several printed papers which are ufually pafted upon them. The laft piece that I met with upon this occafion gave me a moft exquifite pleafure. My reader will think I am not ferious, when I acquaint him that the piece I am going to fpeak of was the old ballad of the Twe "Children in the Wood," which is one of the darling fongs of the common people, and has been the delight of moft Englishmen in fome part of their age. This fong is a plain fimple copy of nature, deftitute of the helps and ornaments of art. The tale of it is a pretty tragical ftory, and pleases for no other reafon but because it is a copy of nature. There is even a despicable fimplicity in the verfe; and yet because the fentiments appear genuine and unaffected, they are able to move the mind of the most polite reader with inward meltings. of humanity and compaffion. The incidents grow out of the fubject, and are fuch as are the moft proper to excite pity; for which reafon the whole narration has fomething in it very moving, notwithstanding the author of it, whoever he was, has delivered it in fuch an abject phrafe and poornefs of expreffion, that the quoting any part of it would look like a defign of turning it into ridicule. But though the language is mean, the thoughts, as I have before faid, from one end to the other, are 5 natural, natural, and therefore cannot fail to please those who are not judges of language, or thofe who, notwithstanding they are judges of language, have a true and unprejudiced tafte of nature. The condition, speech, and behaviour of the dying parents, with the age, innocence, and distress of the children, are fet forth in fuch tender circumftances, that it is impoffible for a reader of common humanity not to be affected with them. As for the circumftance of the Robin-red-breast, it is indeed a little poetical ornament; and to fhew the genius of the author amidst all his fimplicity, it is juft the fame kind of fiction which one of the greatest of the Latin poets has made ufe of upon a parallel occafion; I mean that paffion in Horace, where he describes himself when he was a child, fallen afleep in a defert wood, and covered with leaves by the turtles that took pity on him. Me fabulofa Vulture in Apulo, Texere Od. 4. 1. 3. v. 9. In lofty Vulture's rifing grounds, CREECH. I have heard that the late Lord Dorfet, who had the greatest wit tempered with the greatest candor, and was one of the fineft critics as well as the beft poets of his age, had a numerous collection of old English ballads, and took a particular pleasure in the reading of them. I can affirm the fame of Mr. Dryden, and know feveral of the most refined writers of our present age who are of the fame humour. I might likewife refer my reader to Moliere's thoughts on this fubject, as he has expreffed them in the character of the Mifanthrope; but thofe only who are endowed with a true greatnefs of foul and genius can diveft themselves of the images of ridicule, and admire mature in her fimplicity and nakedness. As for the little con conceited wits of the age, who can only fhew their judgment by finding fault, they cannot be fuppofed to admire thefe productions which have nothing to recommend them but the beauties of nature, when they do not know how to relish even thofe compofitions that, with all the beauties of nature, have alfo the additional advantages of art. L Heu quàm difficile eft crimen non prodere vultu! OVID. Met. 1. 2. v. 447. How in the looks does confcious guilt appear! T ADDISON. HERE are several arts which all men are in fome measure mafters of, without having been at the pains of learning them. Every one that fpeaks or reafons is a grammarian and a logician, though he may be wholly unacquainted with the rules of grammar or logic, as they are delivered in books and fyftems. In the fame manner, every one is in fome, degree a master of that art which is generally diftinguifhed by the name of Phyfiognomy; and naturally forms to himself the character or fortune of a ftranger, from the features and lineaments of his face. We are no fooner prefented to any one we never faw before, but we are immediately ftruck with the idea of a proud, a referved, an affable, or a good-natured man; and upon our firft going into a company of strangers, our benevolence or averfion, awe or contempt, rifes naturally towards feveral particular perfons, before we have heard them fpeak a fingle word, or fo much as know who they are. Every paffion gives a particular caft to the countenance, and is apt to difcover itfelf in fome feature or other. I have feen an eye curfe for half an hour together, and an eyebrow call a man a fcoundrel. Nothing is more common than for lovers to complain, refent, languifh, defpair, and die in dumb fhow. For my own part, VOL. II. B I am I am fo apt to frame a notion of every man's humour or circumstances by his looks, that I have sometimes employed myself from Charing Crofs to the Royal-Exchange in drawing the characters of those who have paffed by me. When I fee a man with a four rivelled face, I cannot forbear pitying his wife; and when I meet with an open ingenuous countenance, think on the happiness of his friends, his family, and relations. Speak that I I cannot recollect the author of a famous faying to a ftranger who stood filent in his company, may fee thee.” But with fubmiffion, I think we may be better known by our looks than by our words, and that a man's fpeech is much more eafily disguised than his countenance. In this cafe, however, I think the air of the whole face is much more expreffive than the lines of it the truth of it is, the air is generally nothing else but the inward difpofition of the mind made visible. Those who have established phyfiognomy into an art, and laid down rules of judging mens tempers by their faces, have regarded the features much more than the air. Martial has a pretty epigram on this fubject. Crine ruber, niger ore, brevis pede, lumine læfus : Epig. 54. 1. 12. Thy beard and head are of a diff'rent dye; "Short of one foot, diftorted in an eye : "With all thefe tokens of a knave complete, "Should't thou be honeft, thou'rt a dev'lifh cheat." I have seen a very ingenious author on this fubject, who founds his fpeculations on the fuppofition, that as à man hath in the mould of his face a remote likeness to that of an ox, a fheep, a lion, an hog, or any other creature; he hath the fame refemblance in the frame of his mind, and is fubject to thofe paffions which are predominant in the creature that appears in his countenance. Accordingly he gives the prints of feveral faces that are of a different mould, and by a little overcharging the likeness, difcovers the figures of these feveral kinds of brutal faces in human features. I remember, in the life of the famous Prince of Conde, the writer observes, the face of that Prince was like the face of an eagle, and 3 |