Having now reviewed Colonel Lindfay's Mifcellany in detail, we fhall only add that it merits a place in every military library; and that no one can read it without deriving both pleasure and inftruction.

ART. VI. The Looker-on: a periodical Paper. By the Rev. Simon Olive-branch, A. M. 12mo. 3 Vols. 13s. 6d. Boards. Evans.

1794.

THE

HESE papers have been written with certainly no undignified ambition, viz. to oppofe fomething like a barrier to that ufurping march of nonfenfe, which, under the pretext of gratifying the undiftinguishing ardour for political intelligence by which the public mind is, at this juncture, inflamed, and taking advantage of the blind adoptions of prejudice, passion, and party zeal, has gained over to its ftandard an enormous crowd of deferters from the caufe of fobriety and truth;-and to fubftitute the forfaken topics of morality, literature, and tafte, in the room of fhallow politics and newspaper philofophy.” (Concluding Paper.)

An end fo praife-worthy deferved to be attained fo well. Since the Spectator, we recollect no fimilar publication written with more urbanity and purity of diction. Several of the earlier papers are very much in Addison's manner. It may be needlefs to enumerate the contents of volumes which, in all probability, will foon be in many hands: but we fhall infert a paper, chofen, as more important things have been, by an operation analogous to the Sortes Virgiliana:

I regard it as the most fortunate occurrence of my life, that I am furrounded by a worthy fet of parithioners, who all study to make my refidence among them the most agreeable in the world. It is true, indeed, I had the advantage of fucceeding to a Rector who was not of the fame contented turn, and was more frequently at iffue with his bretheren on a point of law, than a point of doctrine. My placid temper was no fooner difcovered, than it gained me the hearts of most of my flock; and I obferve that this friendly difpofition towards me is hourly improving in them, as they find they can reckon upon a continuance of this content and tranquillity on my part.

I have often thought that a finall augmentation of tithes is dearly purchafed by the facrifice of this mutual cordiality and confidence. There is fomething in the confcioufnefs that others fhare our joys and enter into our feelings, and that our health and happiness are a real concern to our neighbours, which cherishes the foul, and feems to dilate its capacities: I glow with fatisfaction, when, after fome days confinement, I fee fincere congratulations in the looks of every one I meet: methinks at that moment I love myself the more for their fakes; and the delight of my honeft parishioners is multiplied into my own.

Since I have been fettled here, we have been gradually forming ourfelves into a fociety that has fomething novel in its principle and conflitution.

conftitution. Our number is fixteen, and includes many of the principal gentlemen in the neighbourhood. We have a difcipline among us, the object of which is, to promote the ends of company and converfation, by maintaining the most perfect order, fobriety, and peace. My quiet behaviour, and known habits of complacency, have raised me, though with fome reluctance on my part, to the place of perpetual Prefident.

The fundamental article of our conftitution, is the prohibition of every species of noise; for, as long as this is inadmiffible, we think ourselves out of all danger of quarrelling, from which a degree of noife is infeparable: and though nonfenfe is not ftatutable among us, yet we are not afraid of its going to any great lengths under the evident difadvantages of order and tranquillity. There is a certain feverity in filence, which will often check the courfe of an idle argument, when oppofition and ridicule are employed in vain. I remember hearing a plethoric young man run on with furprising volubility, for an hour and a half, by the help only of two ideas, during the violence of a debate; till a fudden pause in the rest of the company proved clearly that he was talking about a matter which bore no relation to the point in difpute. The attention of the company being now wholly turned towards him, he began to totter under the mafs of confufion he had fo long been accumulating; when with one fpring he cleared the prefent difficulty, and leaped from Seringapatam into the Minister's Budget: here, however, being nearly fmothered, he made a violent effort; and before we could turn about to affist him, he was up to his neck in tarwater. He was, twice after this, in danger of being loft in the fouthern ocean; but an African flave-veffel took him up each time, and landed him, fome how or other, at Nootka Sound. If I remember right, he held out till the fiege of Oczakow, where he was put out of his mifery by a fummons from Tartary to the tea-table. -Thus a great deal of precious time is huibanded by this rule of filent attention among the members of our fociety; and many an idle fpeech falls to the ground ere it can get three fentences forwards, and is ftrangled like a Turkish criminal by dumb executioners.

Any elevation of voice above a certain pitch, is highly illegal, and punishable accordingly; and to afcertain this proportion as duly as poffible, we have taken a room for our purpofe, in which there is a very diftinct echo, which must not be roufed from its dormant state, under very heavy penalties. Any man provoking it to repeat his last word, is judged to be defeated in the argument he is maintaining, and the difpute must be abandoned altogether; the echo pronounces his fentence, from which there is no appeal. The abufe of fuperlatives is alfo cognizable among us; and no man is allowed to fay, that his houfe is the pleafanteft in the neighbourhood, that his dogs run the beft, or that his crops are the most plentiful. Whatever carries the notion of a challenge with it, or can lead to a wager, we are pledged to discountenance. We admit neither toafting nor finging upon any pretext; and it would be as great an offence to raise a horse-laugh in a Quakers meeting, as to encourage any rude expreffion of joy among An ancient gentleman, lately admitted, was bound over laft Saturday, for an eulogy upon old Mr. Shapely's fresh countenance, and

us.

a hint at his maid Kitty's corpulency, accompanied with a wink to Mr. Barnaby the churchwarden.

We admit no betts upon any queflion whatever; and gaming is profcribed by the moft folemn inhibitions. The merits of our neighbours is a topic we are forbid to defcant upon; and it was a question at our last meeting but one, whether the mention of Mr. Courtly's carbuncle was not unconflitutional. As we are all old fellows, and have pretty well lived over the petulance and heyday of paffion, these reftaints bear lefs hard upon us, and forfeits become every day lefs frequent among us; infomuch that we are likely foon to be forced upon tome regular contributions, in place of the fines from which we have hitherto drawn our fupport. I am in hopes we fhall at last bring our plan to that fate of perfection, that a breach of any flatute will ftand upon our records as a remarkable occurrence.

The first visit of a new member is a ipcctacle diverting enough, and it is generally a full half year before we can fhape him and clip him to our standard. It is now about three year fince 'Squire Blunt bought a large eflate in our neighbourhood, and, during the first twelve months, we heard of nothing but this gentleman's quarrels and litigations. As I fometimes walk in his chefnut groves to meditate upon matter for the entertainment of my worthy readers, I have been twice indicted for a trefpafs, and for breaking down his palings in purfuit of game; and, happening one day to take a telefcope out with me, I was threatened with a profecution for carrying a gun on his manor. As it is looked upon as fome honour to be of our fociety, this rough gentleman was fuddenly feized with an unaccountable inclination to become a member; and it was aftonishing to every body, that after being well apprifed of the inconvenience and rigour of our inftitution, and his own inability to perform the engagements of it, his ambition feemed no wife difcouraged, and he still perfifted in his dengn of pro, ofing himself. As we have a certain term of probation, we rarely refufe to any body above the age of fifty (which is the age of admiffion), the favour of a trial. The following is a lift of Mr. Blunt's forfeits in the black book.

1ft day Endured his own filence fo long, that he fell asleep. On being awakened at the hour of feparation, fwore a great oath, and paid a guinea.

2d day-Had three fhillings worth of fuperlatives, and a fixpenny whiftle; befides paying a crown to the echo.

3d day-Offered to lay a bottle that he would eat two hundred oysters, and paid five fhillings:- went to fleep for the rest of the evening. 5th day-Called for a fong, and paid a fhilling inftead; nine fhillings and fix-pence for disturbing the echo; paid thirty fhillings and fix-pence for contumacy, and fwore himself to Coventry.

Here there was an interval of fome months, during which our novice abfented himfelf. We were furprised, however, one day, with his company, after we had given him up as irreclaimable. He appeared indeed to bring with him a difpofition greatly corrected, and actually incurred only two forfeits the whole evening; namely, for bursting into a horte laugh on Mr. Sidebottom's miffing his chair, and giving Mr. Barnaby a flap on the Lack that raifed the echo, and a

violent

violent fit of coughing. Since this time he has been twice off and on, but has at last fo far accommodated himfelf to the conditions of the Society, as to be counted a valuable member. Having made a great progrefs in the fcience of felf-correction, his underflanding has obtained its proper poife; his reafon has had room to excrt itfelf, and has given life and energy to a mafs of much good meaning, that lay buried at the bottom of his mind.

The fame of this mighty cure hath brought us a great accumulation of credit and power; and it hath actually been in fpeculation among the freeholders and other voters in the county, to elect their reprefentatives in future from our Society: a rule that would enfure, to them men of ripe understandings, and regular habits. We are fubject (as every good inflitution is) to ridicule from without the young gentlemen are very pleafant upon us; and we pafs under a variety of names among them, as, the Automatons, the Quietis, the Meeting, the Dummies, the Whig Club, the Rough Riders' Company, the Bearded Magdalens, the Grey Friars, the Court of Death, and the Such as have not quite turned the corner of Houfe of Correction. fifty, and want a few months of being eligible, are very fevere upon our age, call us the Antediluvians, and talk much of an Oppofition Club of Young Fellows. While we have daily proofs, however, of the good effects of our inftitution, we are indifferent to attacks of every kind. We have the fenfible pleafure of finding that the operation of our fyftem is fpreading; our married men return with fober fpirits to their homes and hearths, and adopt, in part, our peaceful regulations into the bofom of their families; and it is not uncommon to fee one of our old bachelors preferred by the ladies to beaux of five and

twenty.

But the advantages refulting from thefe our inftitutions, are not merely of a moral kind: topics of literature and criticifm come frequently under our confideration, which will neceffarily flourish under circumflances of peace and good order.'

On points of religion and politics it is but rare that we allow ourfelves to expatiate: Religion being throughout a connected and analogous fyftem, is never fairly viewed but when we take in the whole, and therefore can never properly become the object of broken and defultory converfation: Politics being a question that produces much heat, and little fatisfaction, where obliquity of views and attractions of intereft are fure to falfify the balance of our minds, we have almost entirely profcribed it; and, if it be by accident introduced, it is fently condemned by the fpiritual cenfures of the infallible Echo.'

s pre

But although we place great dependance on the efficacy of this regimen of tranquillity and order, for the cure of a great many complaints in our focial fyftem, yet there are fome which we are obliged to abandon to feverer modes of chaftifement.

An avowed party-man is utterly inadmiffible, whatever may be his other pretenfions:-we fet a higher value upon truth and temper, than upon the finest Philippic in the world.

We have no room for Atheifts, or Ideots, or any fuch enemies to rule, especially as we hear that they have a Club of their own, which meets fometimes in one place, fometimes in another, as chance directs,

but

but very often in a street called Pall-Mall, or Pell-Mell, from fome analogy in the name, which affociation, in ftrict conformity to their principles of confufion, is compofed of all forts except the good, and includes princes, and lords, and jockies, who are jumbled together like their world of atoms.

We admit no man who keeps a woman, while he is kept by his wife.

We admit no notorious parafites or hangers on. Mr. Sykes, the curate of the next parith, has been refused for having the run of the Squire's kitchen, and the combing of my lady's lap-dog. Mr. Barnaby, the church warden, has complained of fleas, and the fmell of parfnips, ever fince he came to propofe himself. When this gentleman is difpofed to be facetious, he fuggefts the idea of a Parafitical Club, on the plan of one that was formerly established among the turnfpitdogs, when this fraternity was in its full glory and confequence, who were obferved to meet every morning in the Grove at Bath, for the fake of bufinefs, friendship, or gallantry, and then distribute themfelves about the town according to their different destinations.

• We have a rooted abhorrence of all gamefters, liars, and debanchees we are therefore particularly on our guard against all fuch as have afpired to the infamy of certain great connexions. Bad hufbands and fons, and all those who fin against thefe facred duties and charities of life, we include under one folemn fentence of profcription.

We are very thy of a man who after the age of fifty continues to be called Dick or Jack fuch-a-one: fuch men have probably facrificed too much to notoriety to deferve respect.'—

We have alfo a prejudice against a defcription of perfons, who are called ingenious gentlemen, who have in general no other claim to this title than what is derived from the folution of an enigma in the Lady's Magazine, or a contribution to the Poet's corner. A rage for riddles and impromptues, were it to get footing among us, would be a mighty hindrance to the flow of converfation. It creates a kind of fcramble in the mind of one that has a turn for these pleasantries, and fcatters abroad his ideas like a ruined ant's neft; while those who are used to reafon right forward, and to keep a steady point in view, are forced to fit in vacant filence, with their faculties bound up in a stupid thraldom.'

I fhall conclude my Paper of to-day with informing my readers that the gentleman who had the principal share in drawing up our code of laws, is a Mr. Anthony Allworth, a moft valuable Member of this our Society, of whom I shall have frequent occafion to fpeak in the courfe of my fpeculations, when I wish to hold up a more animated picture than ordinary of fublime virtue, and practical religion. This gentleman is now in his feventieth year, and keeps himself in health by the diverfion of his mind, and the exercife of his body, in his unwearied fearch after objects for his beneficence. He was one of our earliest members, and ftill fuffers no weather to prevent his conftant attendance. As he paffes through many fcenes in the course of every day, he never fails to introduce fome agreeable or pathetic story, that fends us away more cheerful or more refigned. His example and admonitions are principally inftrumental in conciliating new members,