Woe to the man that's aged fixty-four, ever wrote. Her Lady ship's travels have been lately published; and certainly are the most entertaining and fprightly relations. Never was any thing more eafy or more elegant than the letters, the language ever lively and fpirited; full of the most pleafing turns, and in fhort a charming ftile: her obfervations are all new and penetrating, and her painting every where fo glowing and animated, as to place every object fhe defcribes full before our eyes. The obligations we are under to her for the practice of inoculation, are great VOL. II. H and and lafting few travellers bring home with them fo valuable a prefent for their countries, but her genius made her examine into all the cuftoms of the Turks; and this exotic admirable plant, which at prefent flourishes here fo vigorously, was tranfplanted by this celebrated woman. In the beginning of the fecond fatire, gluttony is very finely ridiculed, and the character of Avidien marked with many fatirical touches that work it up to a fine pitch of humour. On morning wings how active springs the mind, That leaves the load of yesterday behind? How eafy ev'ry labour it purfues? How coming to the poet ev'ry muse * ? I hardly know in the English language a more beautiful line than the first of * Verfe 80. thefe thefe four: they are all very good, but that is far more noble than the Alter ubi dicto citius curata fopori Membra dedit, vegetus præfcripta ad munia furgit, of Horace. In the firft epiftle the following lines are excellent: Well, but the poor-The poor have the fame itch; They change their weekly barber, weekly news, Discharge their garrets, move their beds, and run This piece of fatire against a foible fo common in the world is as just as it is beautiful, and much more fpirited than the original. How often do we fee H 2 * Verfe 155. people people of no extraction, on the least ac ceffion of wealth, give themfelves all the airs which the dulleft fpirit of mimicking their betters can dictate. For, mark th' advantage; just so many score Will gain a wife, with half as many more, Procure her beauty, make that beauty chafte, And then fuch friends-as cannot fail to laft t. The laft of thefe lines is excellent. The Rambler speaks very fenfibly of the abfurdity of friendship that is not natural. Every man must have remarked, fays he, the facility with which the kindnefs of others is fometimes gained by thofe to whom he never could have im parted his own. We are by our occupations, education, and habits of life, divided almoft into different fpecies, which regard one another for the moft part with + Verfe 77. Ep. vi. fcorn fcorn and malignity. Each of the claffes of the human race has defires, fears, and converfation, vexations and merriment, peculiar to itself; cares which another cannot feel; pleasures which he cannot partake; and modes of expreffing every fenfation which he cannot understand. That frolick which fhakes one man with laughter, will convulse another with indignation; the strains of jocularity which in one place obtains treats and patronage, would in another be heard with indifference, and in a third with abhorrence t. 1. Sure fate of all, beneath whofe rifing ray Each ftar of meaner merit fades away! Opprefs'd we feel the beam directly beat, Thofe funs of glory please not till they fet 1. Thefe noble lines are truly fublime, and most admirably imitated from the + Rambler, Vol. iv. No. 160. Book II. Ep. i. verse 19. H 3 ori. |