it confifted of threefcore and ten entire arches, read over with great pleasure. I intend to give it to the public when I have no other entertain-with feveral broken arches, which added to ment for them; and I thall begin with the first vifion, which I have tranflated word for word as follows. thofe that were intire, made up the number about an hundred. As I was counting the arches, the genius told me that this bridge confifted at firit of a thousand arches; but that a N the fifth day of the moon, which accordthe of may forefathers Lilgreat flood fwept away the reft, and left the bridge in the ruinous condition I now beheld it: ways keep holy, after having washed myfelf, but tell me further, faid he, what thou difcoand offered up my morning devotions, 1 af- vereft on it, I fee multitudes of people pathing cended the high hills of Bagdat, in order to over it, faid 1, and a black cloud hanging on pafs the reft of the day in meditation and prayeach end of it. As I looked more attentively, er. As I was here airing myself on the tops of "I faw feveral of the paffengers dropping through the mountains, I fell into a profound contem- 'the bridge, into the great tide that flowed underplation on the vanity of human life; and paff-neath it; and upon farther examination, per⚫ing from one thought to another, surely, faid I, C man is but a fhadow and life a dream. Whilft I was thus mufing, I caft my eyes towards the fummit of a rock that was not far from me, where I difcovered one in the habit of a fhepherd, with a little mufical inftrument in his hand. As I looked upon him he applied it to his lips, and began to play upon it. The found of it was exceeding fweet, and wrought into a variety of tunes that were inexpreffibly melodious, and altogether different from any thing I had ever heard: they put me in mind of thofe heavenly airs that are played to the departed fouls of good men upon their first arrival in paradife, to wear out the impreffions of the laftfell through one after another, being quite tired agonies, and qualify them for the pleasures of that happy place. My heart melted away in fecret raptures. I had been often told that the rock before me was the haunt of a genius; and that feveral had ⚫ been entertained with mufic who had paffed by it, but never heard that the musician had be'fore made himflf visible. When he had raised my thoughts by thofe tranfporting airs which he played, to tatte the pleasures of his converfation, as I looked upon him like one aftonished, ⚫ he beckoned to me, and by the waving of his hand directed me to approach the place where he fat. I drew near with that reverence which is due to a fuperior nature; and as my heart was entirely fubdued by the captivating strains I had heard, I fell down at his feet and wept. The genius fmiled upon me with a look of compaffion and affability that familiarized him to my imagination, and at once difpelled all the fears and apprehenfions with which I approach. ed him. He lifted me from the ground, and taking me by the hand, Mirzah, faid he, I have heard thee in thy foliloquies; follow me. ⚫ceived there were innumerable trap-doors that lay concealed in the bridge, which the paffengers no fooner trod upon, but they fell through them into the tide and immediately disappeared. Thefe hidden pit-falls were fet very thick at the entrance of the bridge, fo that throngs of peo'ple no fooner broke through the cloud, but many of them fell into them. They grew thinner towards the middle, but multiplied and lay clofer together towards the end of the arches that were intire. There were indeed fome perfons, but their ' number was very fmall, that continued a kind of hobbling march on the broken arches, but and spent with fo long a walk. I paffed fome time in the contemplation of this wonderful ftructure, and the great variety of objects which it prefented. My heart was filled with a deep melancholy to see several dropping unexpectedly in the midst of mirth and jollity, and catching at every thing that ftood by them to fave themfelves. Some were looking up towards the heavens in a thoughtful pofture, and in the midst of a fpeculation ftumbled and fell out of fight. Multitudes were very bufy in the purfuit of bubbles that glittered in their eyes and danced before them; but often when they thought themselves within the reach of them their footing failed and down they funk. In this confufion of objects, I obferved fome with fcimitars in their hands, and others with urinals, who ran to and fro upon the bridge, thrufting feveral perfons on trapdoors which did not feem to lie in their way, and which they might have efcaped had they not been thus forced upon them. The genius feeing me indulge myself in this melancholy profpe&t, told me I had dwelt long enough upon it, take thine eyes off the bridge, faid he, and tell me if thou yet feeft any thing thou doft not comprehend. Upon looking up, What mean, faid I, thofe great flights of birds that are perpetually hovering about the bridge, and fettling upon it from time to time? I fee vultures, harpies, ravens, cormorants, and among many other feathered creatures feveral little winged boys, that perch in great numbers upon the middle arches. Thefe, faid the genius, are envy, avarice, fuperftition, defpair, love, with the like cares and paffions that infest human life. He then led me to the highest pinnacle of the rock, and placing me on the top of it, Caft thy eyes eastward, faid he, and tell me what thou feeft. I fee, faid I, a huge valley, and a prodigious tide of water rolling through it. The valley that thou feeft is part of the great tide of eternity. What is the reafon, faid I, that the tide I fee rifes out of a thick mift at one end, and again lofes itfelf in a thick mift at the other? What thou feeft, faid he, is that portion of eter nity which is called time, measured out by the fun, and reaching from the beginning of the world to its confummation. Examine now, faid he, this fea that is thus bounded with darknefs at both ends, and tell me what thou difcovereft in it. I fee a bridge, faid I, ftand'ng in the midft of the tide, The bricge thou feft,lowed up in death! The genius being moved faid he, is human life, confider it attentively. Upon a more leifurely furvey of it, I found that < I here fetched a deep figh, Alas, faid 1, man was made in vain! How is he given away to mifery and mortality? tortured in life and fwal, with compaffion towards me, bid me quit fo uncomfortable a profpect, Look ng more, faid he, on man in the first stage of his exiftence, in his fetting out for eternity; but caft thine eye on that thick mift into which the tide bears the feveral generations of mortals that fall into it. 1 directed my fight as I was ordered, and, whether or no the good genius ftrengthened it with any fupernatural force, or diffipated part of the mift that was before too thick for the eye to penetrate, I saw the valley opening at the farther end, and fpreading forth into an immenfe ocean, that had a huge rock of adamant running through the midst of it, and dividing it into two equal parts. The clouds ftill rested on one half of it, infomuch that I could difcover nothing in it; but the other appeared to me a vaft ocean, planted with innumerable islands, that were covered with fruits and flowers, and interwoven with a thousand little fhining feas that ran among them. I could fee perfons dreffed in glorious habits with garlands upon their heads, paffing among the trees, lying down ⚫ by the fides of fountains, or refting on beds of flowers; and could hear a confufed harmony of finging birds, falling waters, human voices, and mufical inftruments. Gladness grew in me upon the difcovery of fo delightful a fcene, I wished for the wings of an eagle, that I might fly away to thofe happy feats; but the genius told me there was no paffage to them, except through the gates of death that I faw opening every moment upon the bridge. The inlands, faid he, that lie fo fresh and green be⚫fore thee, and with which the whole face of the ocean appears spotted as far as thou canft fee, are more in number than the fands of the feafhore; there are myriads of islands behind those which thou here difcovereft, reaching farther than thine eye, or even thy imagination can extend itfelf. Thefe are the manfions of good men after death, who according to the degree and kinds of virtue in which they excelled, are diftributed among thefe feveral islands, which abound with pleasures of different kinds and degrees, fuitable to the relishes and perfections of those who are fettled in them; every ifland is a paradife accommodated to its refpective inhabitants. Are not thefe, O Mirzah, habitations worth contending for? Does life appear miferable, that gives thee opportunities of earning fuch a reward? Is death to be feared, that will convey thee to fo happy an existence? Think not man was made in vain, who has fuch an Eternity referved for him. 1 gazed with inexpreffible pleasure on these happy islands. • length, said I, shew me now, I befeech thee, the ་ At fecrets that lie hid under thofe dark clouds which cover the ocean on the other fide of the rock of adamant. The genius making me no anfwer, I turned about to addrefs myself to him a fecond time, but I found that he had left me; I then turned again to the vifion which I had been fo long contemplating: but instead of the rolling tide, the arched bridge, and the happy iflands, I faw nothing but the long hollow valley of Badgat, with oxen, fheep, and camels f, grazing upon the fides of it." 1 The end of the first vision of Mirzah, C nius. My defign in this paper is to confider what is properly a great genius, and to throw fome thoughts together on fo uncommon a fubje&t. miration of all the world upon them, and stand Among great geniufes thofe few draw the adup as the prodigies of mankind, who by the mere ftrength of natural parts and without any afiiftance of art or learning, have produced works that were the delight of their own times, and the wonder of pofterity. There appears something nobly wild and extravagant in thefe great natural geniufes, that is infinitely more beautiful than all the turn and polishing of what the French call a Bel Efprit, by which they would express a genius refined by converfation, reflection, and the reading of the most polite authors. The greatest genius which runs through the arts and fciences, takes a kind of tincture from them, and falls unavoidably into imitation. Many of thefe great natural geniufes that were never difciplined and broken by rules of art, are to be found among the ancients, and in particular among thofe of the more eastern parts of the world. Homer has innumerable flights that Virgil was not able to reach, and in the Old Testament we find several paffages more elevated and fublime than any in Homer. At the fame time that we allow a greater and more daring genius to the ancients, we muft own that the greateft of them very much failed in, or, if you will, that they were much above the nicety and correctness of the moderns. In their fimilitudes and allufions, provided there was a likeness, they did not much trouble themfelves about the decency of the comparifon: thus Solomon refembles the nofe of his beloved to the tower of Lebanon which look eth toward Damafcus; as the coming of a thief in the night, is a fimilitude of the fame kind in the New Teftament. It would be endless to make collections of this nature; Homer illuftrates one of his Heroes encompaffed with the enemy, by an afs in a field of corn that has his fides belaboured by all the oys of the village without stirring a foot for it: and another tofling to and fro in his bed and burning with refentment, to a piece of fiefh broiled on the coals. This particular failure in the ancients, opens a large field of raillery to the little wits, who can laugh at an indecency but not relish the fublime in thcfe forts of writings. The prefent emperor of Perfia, conformable to this eaftern way of thinking, amidst a great many pompous titles, denominates himself the Sun of Glory and the Nutmeg of Delight. In short, to cut off all cavilling against the ancients and and particularly thofe of the warmer climates, who had most heat and life in their imaginations, we are to confider that the rule of obferving what the French call the Bienfeance in an allufion, has been found out of later years, and in the colder regions of the world; where we would make fome amends for our want of force and fpirit, by a fcrupulous nicety and exactnefs in our compofitions. Our countryman Shakespeare was a remarkable instance of this first kind of great geniuffes. I cannot quit this head without obferving that Pindar was a great genius of the first clafs, who was hurried on by a natural fire and impetuofity to vaft conceptions of things and noble fallies of imagination. At the fame time, can any thing be more ridiculous than for men of a fober and moderate fancy to imitate this poet's way of writing in thofe monftrous compofitions which go among us under the name of pindarics? When I fee people copying works, which, as Horace has reprefented them, are fingular in their kind, and inimitable; when I fee men following irregularities by rule, and by the little tricks of art ftraining after the most unbounded flights of nature, cannot but apply to them that paffage in Terence: Incerta hæc fi tu poflules Ratione certa facere, nihilo plus agas, Quam fi des operam, nt cum ratione iufanias. Œun. A&t. 1. Sc. I. You may as well pretend to be mad and in your fenfes at the fame time, as to think of reducing these uncertain things to any certainty by rea• fon.' In short, a modern pindaric writer, compared with Pindar, is like a fifter among the Camifars compared with Virgil's Sibyl: there is the diftortion, grimace, and outward figure, but nothing of that divine impulfe which raifes the mind above itself, and makes the founds more than human. There is another kind of great geniuffes which I shall place in a fecond class, not as I think them inferior to the firft, but only for distinction's fake, as they are of a different kind. This fecond clafs of great geniufes are thofe that have formed themfelves by rules, and fubmitted the greatness of their natural talents to the corrections and reftraints of art. Such among the Greeks were Plato and Ariftotle; among the Romans, Virgil and Tully; among the English, Milton and Sir Francis Bacon. The genius in both these claffes of authors may be equally great, but fhews itfelf after a different manner. In the firft it is like a rich foil in a happy climate, that produces a whole wilderness of noble plants rifing in a thoufand beautiful landfcapes, without any certain order or regularity. In the other it is the fame rich foil under the fame happy climate, that has been laid out in walks and parterres, and cut into fhape and beauty by the skill of the gardener. The great danger in thefe latter kind of geniufes, is, left they cramp their own abilities too much by imitation, and form themselves altogether upon models, without giving the full play to their own natural parts. An imitation of the best authors is not to compare with a good original; and I believe we may observe that very few writers make an extraordinary figure in the world, who have not fomething in their way of thinking or expreffing themfelves that is peculiar to them, and intirely their own. It is odd to confider what great geniuses are fometimes thrown away upon trifles. I once faw a fhepherd, fays a famous Italian author, who ufed to divert himfelf in his folitudes with toffing up eggs and catching them again without breaking them: in which he had arrived to fo great a degree of perfection, that he would keep up four at a time for feveral minutes together playing in the air, and falling into his hand by turns. I think, fays the author, I never faw a greater feverity than in this man's face; for by his wonderful perfeverance and application, he had contracted the seriousness and gravity of a privy-counfellor; and I could not but reflect with myfelf, that the fame affiduity and attention, had they been rightly applied, might have made him a greater mathematician than Archimedes. C No 161. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4. Himself, in rustic pomp on holidays, crown'd. He calls on Bacchus, and propounds the prize; I DRYDEN. AM glad that my late going into the country has increased the number of my correfpondents, one of whom fends me the following letter. 6 'SIR, THOUGH HOUGH you are pleafed to retire from us fo foon into the city, I hope you will not think the affairs of the country altogether ' unworthy of your inspection for the future. I had the honour of seeing your fhort face at Sir Roger de Coverley's, and have ever fince thought your perfon and writings both extraordinary, Had you ftaid there a few days longer you would have feen a country wake, which you know in most parts of England is the eve-feaft of the dedication of our churches. I was last week at one of thefe affemblies which was held in a neighbouring parish; where I found their green covered with a promifcuous multi'tude of all ages and both fexes, who esteem one another more or lefs the following part of the year I year according as they distinguish themselves at this time. The whole company were in their holiday clothes, and divided into feveral parties, all of them endeavouring to fhew themfelves in thofe exercifes wherein they excelled, and to gain the approbation of the lookers-on. 'I found a ring of cudgel-players, who were breaking one another's heads in order to make fome impreffion on their mistresses hearts. obferved a lufty young fellow, who had the misfortune of a broken pate; but what con⚫ fiderably added to the anguifh of the wound, was his over-hearing an old man, who shook his head and faid, "that he queftioned now if "black Kate would marry him these three years." I was diverted from a farther obfervation of "these combatants, by a foot-ball match, which was on the other fide of the green; where Tom Short behaved himself fo well, that moft peo⚫ple seemed to agree "it was impoffible that he "fhould remain a bachelor until the next wake." Having played many a match myself, I could "have looked longer on this fport, had I not obferved a country girl, who was posted on an ❝eminence at fome diftance from me, and was making so many odd grimaces, and writhing and diftorting her whole body in fo ftrange a manner, as made me very defirous to know the meaning of it. Upon my coming up to her, I found that she was overlooking a wring of wrestlers, and that her sweet-heart, a perfon of small stature, was contending with an huge brawny fellow, who twirled him about, and fhook the little man fo violently, that by a fecret fympathy of hearts it produced all thofe agitations in the perfon of his mistress, who, I dare fay, like Cælia in Shakespeare on the fame occafion, could have "wifhed herself in"visible to catch the ftrong fellow by the leg.' The 'Squire of the parish treats the whole company every year with a hogfhead of ale; and propofes a beaver hat as a recompence to him who gives moft falls. This has raised fuch a fpirit of emulation in the youth of the place, that fome of them have rendered themfelves very expert at this exercife; and I was often furprised to fee a fellow's heels fly up, by a trip which was given him fo fmartly that "I could scarce difcern it. I found that the old wreftlers feldom entered the ring, until fome one was grown formidable by having thrown two or three of his opponents; but kept themfelves as it were in a referved body to defend the hat, which is always hung up by the perfon who gets it in one of the most confpicuous parts of the house, and looked upon by the whole ⚫ family as fomething redounding nuch more to their honour than a coat of arms. There was a fellow who was fo busy in regulating all the ceremonies, and feemed to carry fuch an air of importance in his looks, that I could not help inquiring who he was, and was immediately anfwered, "That he did not value himfeif Es upon nothing, for that he and his ancestors "had won so many hats, that his parlour looked "like a haberdasher's fhop:" however this thirst of glory of them all, was the reafon that no one man stood lord of the ring for above three falls while I was among them. at with fo much attention, he told me," that " he was feeing Betty Welch," who I knew to 'be his sweetheart, "pitch a bar." In fhort, I found the men endeavoured to 'fhew the women they were no cowards, and ⚫ that the whole company strived to recommend ⚫ themselves to each other, by making it appear 'that they were all in a perfect state of health, ' and fit to undergo any fatigues of bodily la'bour. Your judgment upon this method of love and gallantry, as it is at present practised ' amongst us in the country, will very much oblige, Sir, Yours, &c.' If I would here put on the scholar and politician, I might inform my readers how these bodily exercifes or games were formerly encouraged in all the common-wealths of Greece: from whence the Romans afterwards borrowed their Pentathlum, which was compofed of running, wrestling, leaping, throwing, and boxing, though the prizes were generally nothing but a crown of cypress or parsley, hats not being in fashion in those days: that there is an old ftatute, which obliges every man in England, having such an eftate, to keep and exercife the long bow; by which means our ancestors excelled all other nations in the use of that weapon, and we had all the real advantages without the inconvenience of a standing army; and that I once met with a book of projects, in which the author confidering to what noble ends that spirit of emulation, which fo remarkably fhews itself among our common people in these wakes, might be directed, proposes that for the improvement of all our handicraft trades there fhould be annual prizes fet up for fuch perfons as were most excellent in their several arts. But laying afide all these political confiderations, which might tempt me to pass the limits of my paper, I confefs the greatest benefit and convenience that can obferve in thefe country feftivals, is the bringing young people together, and giving them an opportunity of fhewing themselves in the most advantageous light. A country fellow that throws his rival upon his back, has generally as good fuccefs with their common miftrefs; as nothing is more ufual than far a nimble-footed wench to get a husband at the fame time the wins a fmock. Love and marriages are the natural effects of these anniversary affemblies. I must therefore very much approve the method by which my correfpondent tells me each fex endeavours to recommend itfelf to the other, fince nothing feems more likely to promise a healthy offspring or a happy cohabitation. And I believe I may affure my country friend, that there has been many a court lady who would be contented to exchange her crazy young husband for Tom Short, and feveral men of quality who would have parted with a tender yoke-fellow for Black Kate. I am the more pleafed with having love made the principal end and defign of thefe meetings, as it seems to be most agreeable to the intent for which they were at first instituted, as we are informed by the learned Dr. Kennet, with whofe words I fhall conclude my present paper. The young maids, who were not lookers-on "Thefe wakes, fays he, were in imitation of at these exercises, were themselves engaged in "the ancient dyámat, or love-feafts; and were fome diverfions; and upon my afking a far- "first established in England by Pope Gregory ← mer's son of my own parish what he was gazing" the Great, who in an epistle to Melitus the Abbot "Abbot gave order that they should be kept in "fheds or arbories made up with branches and "boughs of trees round the church." "He adds, "That this laudable cuftom of "wakes prevailed for many ages, until the nice "puritans began to exclaim against it as a rem« nant of popery; and by degree the precife hu66 mour grew to popular, that at an Exeter affizes "the lord chief baron Walter made an order for "the fuppreffion of all wakes; but on hifhop "Laud's complaining of this innovating hu"mour, the king commanded the order to be re"verfed." X One would take more than ordinary care to guard one's felf againft this particular imperfec tion, because it is that which our nature very, ftrongly inclines us to; for if we examine our-, felves throughly, we fhall find that we are the the most changeable beings in the universe. In refpect of our understanding, we often embrace and reject the very fame opinions; whereas beings above and beneath us have probably no opinions at all, or at leaft no wavering and uncertainties in thofe they have. Our fuperiors are guided by intuition, and our inferiors by instinct. In refpect of our wills, we fall into crimes and re-, cover out of them, are amiable or odious in the eyes of our great judge, and pass our whole life in offending and asking pardon. On the contrary, N° 162. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5. the beings underneath us are not capable of fin N OTHING that is not a real crime makes a man appear fo contemptible and little in the eyes of the world as inconftancy, especially when it regards religion or party. In either of thefe cafes, though a man perhaps does but his duty in changing his fide, he not only makes himself hated by those he left, but is feldom heartily efteemed by thofe he comes over to. In these great articles of life, therefore, a man's conviction ought to be very strong, and if poffible fo well timed that worldly advantages may feem to have no fhare in it, or mankind will be ill-natured enough to think he does not change fides out of principle, but either out of levity of temper or profpects of intereft. Converts and renegadoes of all kinds should take particular care to let the world fee they act upon honourable motives; or whatever approbations they may receive from themfelves, and applaufes from those they converfe with, they may be very well affured that they are the fccrn of all good men, and the public marks of infamy and derifion. Irrefolution on the fchemes of life which offer themselves to our choice, and inconftancy in purfuing them, are the greatest and most univerfal caufes of all our difquiet and unhappiness. When ambition pulls one way, intereft another, inclination a third, and perhaps reafon contrary to all, a man is likely to pafs his time but ill who has fo many different parties to pleafe. When the mind hovers among fuch a variety of alurements, one had better fettle on a way of life that is not the very best we might have chofen, than grow old without determining our choice, and go out of the world, as the greater part of mankind do, before we have refolved how to live in it. There is but one method of fetting ourselves at reft in this particular, and that is by adhering ftedfaftly to one great end as the chief and ultimate aim of all our purfuits. if we are firmly refolved to live up to the dictates of reafon, without any regard to wealth, reputation, or the like confiderations, any more than as they fall in with our principal defign, we may go through life with fteadiness and pleafure; but if we act by feveral broken views, and will not only be virtuous, but wealthy, popular, and every thing that has a value fet upon it by the world, we fhall live and die in miLry and repentance. ing, nor thofe above us of repenting. The one is out of the poffibilities of duty, and the other fixed in an eternal course of fin, or an eternal courfe of virtue. There is scarce a ftate of life, or stage in it, which does not produce changes and revolutions / in the mind of man. Our schemes of thought in infancy are loft in those of youth; thefe too take a different turn in manhood, until old age often leads us back into our former infancy. A new title or an unexpected fuccefs throws us out of ourfelves, and in a manner destroys our identity.. A cloudy day, or a little funshine, have as great an influence on many conftitutions, as the most real bleffings or misfortunes. A dream varies our being, and changes our condition while it lafts; and every paffion, not to mention health, and fickness, and the greater alterations in body. and mind, makes us appear almoft different creatures. If a man is fo diftinguished among other, beings by this infirmity, what can we think of. fuch as make themfelves remarkable for it even, among their own fpecies? It is a very trifling. character to be one of the moft variable beings of the most variable kind, especially if we confider that he who is the great standard of perfection has in him no fhadow of change, but "is the fame yesterday, to-day, and for ever." At this mutability of temper and inconsistency with ourfelves is the greatest weakness of human nature, fo it makes the perfon who is remarkable for it in a very particular manner more ridiculous than any other infirmity whatsoever, as it fets him' in a greater variety of foolith lights, and distinguishes him from himself by an oppofition of party-coloured characters. The most humorous character in Horace is founded upon this unevenness of temper and irregularity of conduct. -Sardus habebat "Ille Tigellius hoc: Cæfar, qui cogere poffet, Si peteret per amicitiam patris, atque fuam non "Quidquam proficeret fi collibuiffet, ab ovo "Ufque ad mala citaret Iö Bacche, modò fummâ "Voce modò hâc, refonat quæ chordis quatuor ima. Nil æquale homini fuit illi: fæpe velut qui "Currebat fugiens hoftem: perfæpe velut qui "Junonis facra ferret: habebat fæpe ducentos, "Sæpe decem fervos; modò reges atque tetrarchas, "Omnia magna loquens: modò, Sit mihi menfa "tripes, & "Concha falis puri, & toga, quæ defendere frigus, "Quamvis craffa, queat, Decies centena dediffes |