-Here to thee fhall plenty flow,

And all her riches show,

To raise the honour of the quiet plain.

H

CREECH.

AVING often received an invitation from my friend Sir ROGER DE COVERLEY to pafs, away a month with him in the country, I laft week accompanied him thither, and am fettled with him for fome time at his country-houfe, where I intend to form feveral of my enfuing Speculations. Sir ROGER, who is very well acquainted with my humour, lets me rifé and go to bed when I pleafe, dine at his own table or in my chamber as I think fit, fit ftill and fay nothing without bidding me be merry. When the gentlemen of the country come to fee him, he only fhews me at a distance: As I have been walking in his fields I have obferved them ftealing a fight of me over an hedge, and have heard the Knight defiring them not to let me fee them, for that I hated to be ftared at.

I am the more at eafe in Sir ROGER's family, because it confifts of fober and ftaid perfons; for as the Knight is the best mafter in the world, he feidom changes his fervants; and as he is beloved by all about him, his servants never care for leaving him; by this means his domefticks are all in years, and grown old with their master. You would take his valet de chambre for his brother, his butler is gray-headed, his groom is one of the graveft men that I have ever feen, and his coachman has the looks of a privy-counfellor. You fee the goodness of the mafter even in the old houfe-dog, and in a gray pad that is kept in the ftable with great care

and tenderness out of regard to his paft fervices, tho' he has been useless for several years.

I could not but obferve with a great deal of pleasure the joy that appeared in the countenance of these ancient domefticks upon my friend's arrival at his country-feat. Some of them could not refrain from tears at the fight of their old mafter; every one of them prefs'd forward to do fomething for him, and feemed difcouraged if they were not employed. At the fame time the good old Knight, with a mixture of the father and the master of the family, tempered the enquiries after his own affairs with several kind questions relating to themfelves. This humanity and good-nature engages every body to him, fo that when he is pleafant upon any of them, all his family are in good humour, and none fo much as the perfon whom he diverts himself with: On the contrary, if he coughs, or betrays any infirmity of old age, it is eafy for a stander-by to obferve a fecret concern in the looks of all his fervants.

My worthy friend has put me under the particular care of his butler, who is a very prudent man, and, as well as the reft of his fellow-fervants, wonderfully defirous of pleafing me, because they have often heard their master talk of me as of his particular friend.

My chief companion, when Sir ROGER is diverting himself in the woods or the fields, is a very venerable man who is ever with Sir ROGER, and has lived at his houfe in the nature of a chaplain above thirty years. This gentleman is a perfon of good fenfe and fome learning, of a very regular life and obliging converfation: He heartily loves Sir ROGER, and knows that he is very much in the old Knight's efteem, fo that he lives in the family rather as a relation than a dependent.

I have obferved in feveral of my papers, that my friend Sir ROGER, amidst all his good qualities, is fomething of an humorift; and that his virtues, as well as imperfections, are as it were tinged by a certain extravagance, which makes them particularly bis, and diftinguishes them from thofe of other men. This caft of

mind, as it is generally very innocent in itself, fo it renders his converfation highly agreeable, and more delightful than the fame degree of fenfe and virtue

E 2

would

would appear in their common and ordinary colours. As I was walking with him last night, he asked me how I liked the good man whom I have just now mentioned and without ftaying for my anfwer told me, That he was afraid of being infulted with Latin and Greek at his own table; for which reafon he defired a particular friend of his at the Univerfity to find him. out a clergyman rather of plain fenfe than much learning, of a good afpect, a clear voice, a fociable temper, and, if poffible, a man that understood a little of back-gammon. My friend, fays Sir ROGER, found me cut this gentleman, who, befides the endowments required of him, is, they tell me, a good fcholar, tho' he does not fhew it: I have given him the parfonage of the parish; and because I know his value, have fettled upon him a good annuity for life. If he outlives me, he fhall find that he was higher in my esteem than perhaps he thinks he is. He has now been with me thirty years; and tho' he does not know I have taken notice of it, has never in all that time afked any thing of me for himfelf, tho' he is every day foliciting me for fomething in behalf of one or other of my tenants his parishioners. There has not been a law-fuit in the parish fince he has liv'd among them: If any difpute arifes they apply themselves to him for the decifion; if they do not acquiefce in his judgment, which I think never happened above once or twice at moft, they appeal to me. At his first fettling with me, I made him a prefent of all the good fermons which have been printed in English, and only begg'd of him that every Sunday he would pronounce one of them in the pulpit. Accordingly, he has digefted them into fuch a feries, that they follow one another naturally, and make a continued fyftem of practical divinity.

As Sir ROGER was going on in his ftory, the gentleman we were talking of came up to us; and upon the Knight's afking him who preached to morrow (for it was Saturday night) told us, the Bishop of St. Ajaph in the morning, and Dr. South in the afternoon. He then fhewed us his lift of preachers for the whole year, where I faw with a great deal of pleasure Archbishop Tillotson, Bishop Saunderson, Dr. Barrow, Dr. Calamy,

with feveral living authors who have published difcourfes. of practical divinity. I no fooner faw this venerable man in the pulpit, but I very much approved of my friend's infifting upon the qualifications of a good afpect and a clear voice; for I was fo charmed with the gracefulness of his figure and delivery, as well as with the difcourfes he pronounced, that I think I never paffed any time more to my satisfaction. A fermon repeated after this manner, is like the compofition of a poet in the mouth of a graceful actor.

I could heartily wish that more of our country-clergy would follow this example; and inftead of wafting their fpirits in laborious compofitions of their own, would endeavour after a handfome elocution, and all those other talents that are proper to enforce what has been penned by greater masters. This would not only be more eafy to themselves, but more edifying to the people.

PIERFREMANTL

N° 107

Tuesday, July 3.

Efopo ingentem ftatuam pofuere Attici,
Servumque collocârunt æterna in bafi,
Patere honoris fcirent ut cunctis viam.

L

Phædr. Epilog. 1. 2. The Athenians erected a large ftatue to Esop, and placed him, tho' a flave, on a lafting pedestal; to Thew, that the way to honour lies open indifferently to all.

T

HE reception, manner of attendance, undisturb ed freedom and quiet which I meet with here in the country, has confirm'd me in the opinion I always had, that the general corruption of manners in fervants is owing to the conduct of mafters. The afpect of every one in the family carries fo much fatisfaction that it appears he knows the happy lot which has befallen him in being a member of it. There is one particular which I have feldom feen but at Sir ROGER's; it is ufual in all other places, that fervants

fly from the parts of the house through which their mafter is paffing; on the contrary, here they induftriously place themselves in his way; and it is on both fides, as it were, understood as a vifit, when the fervants appear without calling. This proceeds from the humane and equal temper of the man of the house, who alfo perfectly well knows how to enjoy a great eftate, with fuch economy as ever to be much leforehand. This makes his own mind untroubled, and confequently unapt to vent peevish expreffions, or give paffionate or inconfiftent orders to thofe about him. Thus respect and love go together; and a certain chearfulness in performance of their duty is the particular diftinction of the lower part of this family. When a fervant is called before his master, he does not come with an expectation to hear himfelf rated for fome trivial fault, threaten'd to be ftripped or ufed with any other unbecoming language, which mean masters often give to worthy fervants; but it is often to know, what road he took that he came fo readily back according to order; whether he paffed by fuch a ground, if the old man who rents it is in good health; or whether he gave Sir ROGER's love to him, or the like.

A man who preferves a refpect, founded on his benevolence to his dependents, lives rather like a prince than a master in his family; his orders are received as favours, rather than duties; and the distinction of approaching him is part of the reward for executing what is commanded by him.

There is another circumstance in which my friend excels in his management, which is the manner of rewarding his fervants: He has ever been of opinion, that giving his caft clothes to be worn by valets has a very ill effect upon little minds, and creates a filly fenfe of equality between the parties, in perfons affected only with outward things. I have heard him often pleasant on this occafion, and defcribe a young gentleman abu fing his man in that coat, which a month or two before was the most pleasing diftinction he was confcious of in himself. He would turn his difcourfe ftill more pleafantly upon the ladies bounties of this kind; and I have heard him fay he knew a fine woman, who diftri

buted