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traffic gives us a great variety of what is ufeful, and at the fame time fupplies us with every thing that is convenient and ornamental. Nor is it the leaft part of this our happinefs, that whilft we enjoy the remoteft products of the north and fouth, we are free from thofe extremi ties of weather which give them birth: that our eyes are refreshed with the green fields of Britain, at the fame time that our palates are feafted with fruits that rife between the tropics.

For thefe reafons there are not more ufeful members in a commonwealth than merchants. They knit mankind together in a mutual intercourfe of good offices, diftribute the gifts of nature, find work for the poor, add wealth to the rich, and magnificence to the great. Our English merchant converts the tin of his own country into gold, and exchanges his wool for rubies. Mahometans are cloathed in our British manufacture; and the inhabitants of the frozen zone warmed with the fleeces of our sheep.

The

When I have been upon the 'Change, I have often fancied one of our kings ftanding in perfon, where he is reprefented in effigy, and looking down upon the wealthy concourfe of people with which that place is every day filled. In this cafe, how would he be furprifed to hear all the languages of Europe fpoken in this little spot of his former dominions, and to fee fo many private men, who in his time would have been the vaffals of fome powerful baron, negotiating like princes for greater fums of money than were formerly to be met with in the Royal Treafury! Trade, without enlarging the British territories, has given us a kind of additional empire: it has multiplied the number of the rich, made our landed eftates infinitely more valuable than they were formerly, and added to them an acceffion of other eftates as valuable as the lands themselves.

C

No. LXX.

No. LXX. MONDAY, MAY 21.

Interdum vulgus rectum videt.

Sometimes the vulgar fee, and judge, aright.

HOR.

WHEN I travelled, I took a particular delight in hearing the fongs and fables that are come from father to fon, and are most in vogue among the common people of the countries through which I paffed; for it is impoffible that any thing fhould be univerfally tafted and approved by a multitude, tho' they are only the rabble of a nation, which hath not in it fome peculiar aptuefs to please and gratify the mind of man. Human nature is the fame in all reasonable creatures; and whatever falls in with it, will meet with admirers amongst readers of all qualities and conditions. Moliere, we are told by Monfieur Boileau, ufed to read all his comedies to an old woman who was his houfe-keeper, as the fat with him at her work by the chimney-corner; and could foretel the fuccefs of his play in the theatre, from the reception it met at his fire-fide: for he tells us the audience always followed the old woman, and never failed to laugh in the fame place.

I know nothing which more fhews the effential and inherent perfection of fimplicity of thought, above that which I call the gothic manner in writing, than this, that the firft pleafes all kinds of palates, and the latter only fuch as have formed to themselves a wrong artificial tafte upon little fanciful authors and writers of epigrams. Homer, Virgil, or Milton, fo far as the languarge of their poems is underftood, will pleafe a reader of plain common fenfe, who would neither relish nor comprehend an epigram of Martial, or a poem of Cowley; fo, on the contrary, an ordinary fong or ballad that is the delight of the common people, cannot fail to please all fuch readers as are not unqualified for the en. tertainment by their affectation or ignorance; and the reafon is plain, because the fame paintings of nature

which recommend it to the most ordinary reader, will appear beautiful to the moft refined.

The old fong of Chevy-Chafe is the favourite ballad of the common people of England; and Ben Jonion ufed to fay he had rather have been the author of it than of all his works. Sir Philip Sidney, in his difcourfe of poetry, fpeaks of it in the following words: I never heard the old fong of Piercy and Douglas, that I found not my heart more moved than with a trumpet; and yet it is fung by fome blind crowder with no rougher voice than rude ftile; which being fo evil apparelled in the duft and cobweb of that uncivil age, what • would it work trimmed in the gorgeous eloquence of Pindar.' For my own part I am fo profeffed an admirer of this antiquated fong, that I fhall give my reader a critique upon it, without any further apology for fo doing.

The greatest modern critics have laid it down as a rule, that an heroic poem fhould be founded upon fome important precept of morality, adapted to the constitution of the country in which the poet writes. Homer and Virgil have formed their plans on this view. As Greece was a collection of many governments, who fuffered very much among themfelves, and gave the Perfian emperor, who was their common enemy, many advantages over them by their mutual jealoufies and animofities, Homer, in order to establish among them an union, which was fo neceffary for their fafety, grounds his poem upon the difcords of the feveral Grecian princes who were engaged in a confederacy against an "Afiatic prince, and the feveral advantages which the enemy gained by fuch their difcords. At the time the poem we are now treating of was written, the diffenfions of the barons, who were then fo many petty princes, ran very high, whether they quarelled among themfelves, or with their neighbours, and produced unfpeakable calamities to the country: the poct, to deter men from fuch unnatural contentions, defcribes a bloody battle and dreadful fcene of death, occafioned by the mutual feuds which reigned in the families of an English and Scotch nobleman. That he de

figned this for the inftruction of his poem, we may learn from his four laft lines, in which, after the example of the modern tragedians, he draws from it a precept for the benefit of his readers.

God fave the king, and blefs the land
In plenty, joy, and peace;

And grant henceforth that foul debate
''Twixt noblemen may cease.'

The next point obferved by the greatest heroic poets, hath been to celebrate perfons and actions which do honour to their country: thus Virgil's hero was the founder of Rome; Homer's a prince of Greece; and for this reafon Valerius Flaccus and Statius, who were both Romans, might be justly derided for having chofen the expedition of the Golden Fleece, and the Wars of Thebes, for the subjects of their epic writings.

The poet before us has not only found out an hero in his own country, but raifes the reputation of it by feveral beautiful incidents. The English are the first who take the field, and the last who quit it. The English bring only fifteen hundred to the battle; the Scotch, two thoufand. The English keep the field with fifty-threc; the Scotch retire with fifty-five: all the reft on each fide being flain in battle. But the moft remarkable circumftance of this kind, is the different manner in which the Scotch and English kings receive the news of this fight, and of the great men's deaths who commanded in it.

This news was brought to Edinburgh,
Where Scotland's king did reign,
That brave earl Douglas fuddenly
Was with an arrow flain,

O heavy news, king James did say ;

Scotland can witnefs be,

I have not any captain more

Of fuch account as he.

Like tidings to king Henry came

Within as short a space,

That

That Piercy of Northumberland
Was flain in Chevy-Chase.

Now God be with him, faid our king,
Sith 'twill no better be,

I truft I have within my realm
Five hundred as good as he.

Yet fhall not Scot nor Scotland fay
But I will vengeance take,

And be revenged on them all
For brave lord Piercy's fake.

This vow full well the king perform'd
After on Humble-down,

In one day fifty knights were fiain,
With lords of great renown.

And of the reft of fmall account
Did many thoufands die, &c.'

At the fame time that our poct fhews a laudable partiality to his countrymen, he reprefents the Scots after a manner not unbecoming fo bold and brave a people.

Earl Douglas on a milk-white fteed,

Moft like a baron bold,

Rode foremost of the company,

Whofe armour fhone like gold.'

His fentiments and actions are every way fuitable to an hero. One of us two, fays he, muft die: I am an carl as well as yourfelf, fo that you can have no pretence for refufing the combat: however, fays he, 'tis pity, and indeed would be a fin, that so many innocent men should perifh for our fakes; rather let you and I end our quar... rel in fingle fight.

Ere thus I will out-braved be,

One of us two fhall die;

I know thee well, an earl thou art,
Lord Piercy, fo am. I.

But trust me, Piercy, pity it were,
And great offence, to kill

Any