"deavour 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 man only, as a hundred "watches by an hundred; for, as there is vaft 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 inen, the "cafes may be affigned to one, the dials to another, the "wheels to another, the fprings to another, and every "other part to a proper artift; as there would be no need "of perplexing any one perfon with too much variety, 66 every one would be able to perform his fingle part with greater skill and expedition; and the hundred watches "would be finished in one fourth part of the time of the "firft one, and every one of them at one fourth part of "the coft, tho' the wages of every man were equal. The "reduction of the price of the manufacture would increafe "the demand 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 whatfo" ever. And thus an addition of hands to our manufac"tures 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 every intereft in the nation would receive a benefit from "the increafe of our working people.

68

"BESIDES, I fee no occafion for this charity to common beggars, fince every beggar is an inhabitant of a parish, and every parifh is taxed to the maintainance of "their own poor. For my own part, I cannot be "mightily pleafed with the laws which have done this, "which have provided 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 infult«ed with that famous fong;

Hang forrow, and caft away care,
The parish is bound to find us, &c.

"And if we will be fo good-natured as to maintain them "without work, they can do no less in return than fing is the merry beggars.

<< WHAT

"WHAT then am I against all acts of charity? God "forbid! I know of no virtue in the gofpel that is ins 66 more pathetic expreffions recommended to our practice, "I was hungry, and ye gave me no meat; thirsty, and "6 ye gave me no drink; naked, and ye clothed me not; "a firanger, 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 performance or breach of this duty towards himself. "I fhall endeavour to obey the will of my Lord and Ma❝fter: and therefore if an industrious man (hall submit "to the hardest labour and coarseft fare, rather than en"dure the fhame of taking, relief from the parish, or "afking it in the street, this is the hungry, the thirsty, "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 in"fidels, and lives in a state of miferable captivity, this is "the man in prifon, and I fhould contribute to his ran"fom. I ought to give to an hofpital of invalids, to recover, as many ufeful fubjects as I can; but I fhall be"ftow none of my bounties upon an alms-house of idle 66 people; and, for the fame reafon, I should not think it a "reproach to me, if I had withheld my charity from thofe

common beggars. But we prescribe better rules than we are able to practise; we are afhamed not to give into "the mistaken customs of our country: but, at the fame "time, I cannot but think it a reproach worfe than that "of common fwearing, that the idle and the abandoned 66 are fuffered, in the naine of heaven and all that is facred, "to extort from Christian and tender minds, a supply to "a profligate way of life, that is always to be fupported, "but never relieved.

N° 233

N° 233.

Tuesday, November 27.

Tanquam hæc fint noftri medicina furoris, Aut deus ille malis hominum mitefcere difcat.

VIRG. Ecl. 10. v. 60.

As if by thefe my fuff'rings I could cafe,
Or by my pains the god of love appeafe.

DRYDEN.

SHALL, in this paper, difcharge myfelf of the promife I have made to the public, by obliging them with a translation of the little Greek manufcript, which is faid to have been a piece of thefe records that were preferved in the temple of Apollo, upon the promontory of Leucate: it is a fhort history of the lover's leap, and is infcribed, An account of the perfons, male and female, who offered up their vows in the temple of the Pythian Apollo, in the fortyfixth 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 translated 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 perfon who is mentioned in it. After this fhort preface take the account as follows.

BATTUS, the fon of Menalcus the Sicilian, leaped. for Bombyca the musician: got rid of his paffion with the Fofs of his right leg and arm, which were broken in the fall.

MELISSA, in love with Daphnis, very much bruifed, but efcaped with life.

CYNISCA, the wife of Efchines, being in love with Lycus; and fchines her husband being in love with Eurilla; (which had made this married couple very uneafy

to one another for feveral years) both the husband and the wife took the leap by confent; they both of them escaped, and have lived very happily together ever fince.

LARISSA, a virgin of Theffaly, deferted by Plexippus 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 he had received from Plexippus, the threw herlelf into the fea, and was taken. up alive. N. B. LARISSA, before the leaped, made an offer-. ing of a filver Cupid in the temple of Apollo.

SIMETHA, in love with Daphnis the Mindian,, perished in the fall.

CHARIXUS, the brother of Sappho, in love with Rhodope, the courtefan, having spent his whole eftate upon her, was advised by his fifter to leap in the beginning of his amour, but would not hearken to her till he was reduced to his last talent; being forfaken by Rhodope, at length refolved to take the leap. Perished in it.

ARIDEUS, a beautiful youth of Epirus, in love with Praxinoe, the wife of Thefpis, efeaped without da mage, faving only that two of his fore-teeth were struck 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, fhe there met with Dim machus the Miletian, and, after a fhort converfation with him, laid afide the thoughts of her leap, and married him in the temple of Apolls.

N. B. HER widow's weeds are ftill to be feen hanging up in the western corner of the temple.

OLPHIS, the fifherman, having received a box on the ear from Theftylis, the day before, and being determined to have no more to do with her, leaped, and escaped with life.

ATALANTA, an old maid, whofe cruelty had feveral years before driven two or three defpairing lovers to this leap; being now in the fifty-fifth year of her age, and in love with an officer of Sparta, broke her neck in the fall,

HIPPARCHUS being paffionately fond of his own. wife, who was enamoured of Bathyllus, leaped, and died of his fall; upon which his wife married her gallant.

TETTYX, the dancing-mafter, in love with Olympia, an Athenian matron, threw himfelf from the rock with great agility, but was crippled in the fall.

7

DIAGORAS, the ufurer, in love with his cookmaid; he peeped feveral times over the precipice, but his heart mifgiving him, he went back, and married her that evening.

CINE DUS, after having entered his own name in the Pythian records, being asked the name of the perfon whom he leaped for, and being afhamed to discover it, he was fet afide, and not suffered to leap..

EUNICA, a maid of Paphos, aged nineteen, in love with Eurybates. Hurt in the fall, but recovered.

N. B. THIS was her fecond time of leaping.

HESPERUS, a young man of Terentum, in love with his master's daughter. Drowned, the boats not coming in foon enough to his relief.

SAPPHO, the Lesbian, in love with Fhaon, arri-ved at the temple of Apollo, habited like a bride in garments: as white as fnow. She wore a garland of myrtle on her head, and carried in her hand the little mufical inftrument of her own invention. After having fung an hymn tó Apollo, the hung up her garland on one fide of his altar, and her harp on the other. She then tucked up her vestments, like a Spartan virgin, and amidst thousands of spectators, who were anxious for her fafety, and offered up vows for her deliverance, marched directly forwards to the utmost. fummit of the promontory, where, after having repeated a ftanza of her own verfes, which we could not hear, the threw herself off the rock with fuch an intrepidity as was never before obferved in any who had attempted that dan gerous leap. Many who were prefent related, that they faw her fall into the fea, from whence she never arofe a gain; tho' there were others who affirmed, that she never came to the bottom of her leap, but that the was changed into a fwan as the fell, and that they faw her hovering in the air under that shape. But whether or no the whiteness and fluttering of her garments might not deceive those who Looked upon her, or whether he might not really be me

tamor