knight always calls him, to be a greater man than Scanderbeg. I was no fooner come into Gray's-Inn walks, but I heard my friend upon the terrace hemming twice or thrice to himself with great vigour, for he loves to clear his pipes in good air, to make ufe of his own phrafe, and is not a little pleafed with any one who takes notice of the ftrength which he ftill exerts in his morning hems. I was touched with a fecret joy at the fight of the good old man, who before he faw me was engaged in converfation with a beggar-man that had asked an alms of him. I could hear my friend chide him for not finding out fome work; but at the fame time faw him put his hand in his pocket and give him fix-pence. Our falutations were very hearty on both fides, confifting of many kind shakes of the hand, and feveral affectionate looks which we caft upon one another. After which the knight told me my good friend his chaplain was very well, and much at my fervice, and that the Sunday before he had made a moft incomparable fermon out of Dr. Barrow. I have left, fays he, all my affairs in his hands, and being willing to lay an obligation upon him, have depofited with him thirty marks, to be diftributed among his poor pa rishioners. He then proceeded to acquaint me with the welfare of Will Wimble. Upon which he put his hand in his fob and prefented me in his name with a tobaccoftopper, telling me that Will had been bufy all the beginning of the winter in turning great quantities of them; and that he made a prefent of one to every gentleman in the country who has good principles, and fmokes. He added, that poor Will was at prefent under great tribulation, for that Tom Touchy had taken the law of him for cutting fonie hazel fticks out of one of his hedges. Among other pieces of news which the knight brought from his country-feat, he informed me that Moll White was dead; and that about a month after her death the wind was fo very high, that it blew down the end of one of his barns. But for my own part, fays Sir Roger, D 3 Roger, I do not think that the old woman had any hand in it. He afterwards fell into an account of the diverfions which had paffed in his houfe during the holidays; for Sir Roger, after the laudable cuftom of his ancestors, always keeps open house at Christmas. I learned from him that he had killed eight fat hogs for this feafon, that he had dealt about his chines very liberally amongst his neighbours, and that in particular he had fent a ftring of hogs-puddings with a pack of cards to every poor family in the parish. I have often thought, fays Sir Roger, it happens very well that Chriftmas fhould fall out in the middle of winter. It is the most dead uncomfortable time of the year, when the poor people would fuffer very much from their poverty and cold, if they had not good chear, warm fires, and Christmas gambols to fupport them. I love to rejoice their poor hearts at this feafon, and to fee the whole village merry in my great hall. I allow a double quantity of malt to my fmall beer, and fet it a running for twelve days to every one that calls for it. I have always a piece. of cold beef and a mince-pye upon the table, and am wonderfully pleafed to fee my tenants pafs away a whole evening in playing their innocent tricks, and fmutting one another. Our friend Will Wimble is as merry as any of them, and fhews a thousand roguish tricks upon thefe occafions. I was very much delighted with the reflexion of my old friend, which carried fo much goodness in it. He then launched out into the praise of the late act of parliament for fecuring the church of England, and told me with great fatisfaction, that he believed it already began to take effect, for that a rigid diffenter who chanced to dine at his houfe on Christmas day, had been obferved to eat very plentifully of his plumbporridge. After having difpatched all our country matters, Sir Roger made feveral inquiries concerning the club, and particularly of his old antagonist Sir Andrew Freeport. He asked me with a kind of smile, whether Sir Andrevs had not taken the advantage of his abfence, to vent among them fome of his republican doctrines; but foon after after gathering up his countenance into a more than.or dinary ferioufnefs, tell me truly, fays he, do not you think Sir Andrew had a hand in the pope's proceffion? but without giving me time to anfwer him, well, well; fays he, I know you are a wary man, and do not care to talk of public matters. The knight then asked me, if I had feen prince Eugenio, and made me promife to get him a ftand in fome convenient place where he might have a full fight of that extraordinary man, whofe prefence does fo much honour to the British nation. He dwelt very long on the praifes of this great general, and I found that, fince I was with him in the country, he had drawn many obfervations together out of his reading in Baker's chronicle, and other authors, who always lie in his hall window, which very much redound to the honour of this prince. Having paffed away the greateft part of the morning in hearing the knight's reflexions, which were partly private, and partly political, he asked me if I would fmoke a pipe with him over a difh of coffee at Squire's. As I love the old man, I take delight in complying with every thing that is agreeable to him, and accordingly waited on him to the coffee-houfe, where his venerable figure drew upon us the eyes of the whole room. He had no fooner feated himfelf at the upper end of the high table, but he called for a clean pipe, a paper of tobacco, a diff of coffee, a wax candle, and the fupplement, with fuch an air of chearfulness and good-humour, that all the boys in the coffee-room, who feemed to take pleasure in ferving him, were at once employed on his feveral errands, infomuch that nobody elfe could come at a dish of tea, until the knight had got all his conveniencies about him. L N° 270 Wednesday, January 9. Difcit enim citiùs, meminitque libentius illud, Hor. Ep. 1. lib. 2. ver. 262. For what's derided by the cenfuring crowd, CREECH. Do not know that I have been in greater delight for thefe many years, than in beholding the boxes at the play the last time the Scornful Lady was acted. So great an affembly of ladies placed in gradual rows in all the ornaments of jewels, filks, and colours, gave fo lively and gay an impreffion to the heart, that me thought the feason of the year was vanished; and I did not think it an ill expreffion of a young fellow who food near me, that called the boxes thofe beds of tulips. It was a pretty variation of the profpect, when any one of thefe fine ladies rofe up and did honour to herself and friend at a distance, by curtefying; and gave opportunity to that friend to fhew her charms to the fame advantage in returning the falutation. Here that action is as proper and graceful, as it is at church unbecoming and impertinent. By the way, I muft take the liberty to obferve that I did not fee any one who is usu-ally fo full of civilities at church, offer at any fuch indecorum during any part of the action of the play. Such beautiful profpects gladden our minds, and when confidered in general, give innocent and pleafing ideas. He that dwells upon any one object of beauty, may fix his imagination to his difquiet; but the contemplation of a whole affembly together, is a. defence against the incroachment of defire: at least to me, who have taken pains to look at beauty abftracted from the confideration of its being the object of defire; at power, only as it fits upon another, without any hopes of partaking any hare fhare of it; at wifdom and capacity, without any pretenfions to rival or envy its acquifitions: I fay to me, who am really free from forming any hopes by beholding the perfons of beautiful women, or warming myself into ambition from the fucceffes of other men, this world is not only a mere fcene, but a very pleafant one. Did mankind but know the freedom which there is in keeping thus aloof from the world, I should have more imitators, than the powerfulleft man in the nation has followers. To be no man's rival in love, or competitor in bufinefs, is a character which if it does not recommend you as it ought to benevolence among those whom you live with, yet has it certainly this effect, that you do not stand so much in need of their approbation, as you would if you aimed at it more, in fetting your heart on the fame things which the generality dote on.. By this means, and with this eafy philofophy, I am never lefs at a play that when I am at the theatre; but indeed I am feldom fo well pleafed with action as in that place; for most men follow nature no longer than while they are in their night-gowns, and all the bufy part of the day are in characters which they neither become nor act in with pleasure to themselves or their beholders. But to return to my ladies: I was very well pleased to fee fo great a crowd of them affembled at a play, wherein the heroine, as the phrafe is, is fo just a picture of the vanity of the fex in tormenting their admirers. The lady who pines for the man whom the treats with fo much impertinence and inconftancy, is drawn with much art and humour. Her refolutions to be extremely civil, but her vanity arifing juft at the inftant that the refolved to exprefs herfelf kindly, are defcribed as by one who had ftudied the fex. But when my admiration is fixed upon this excellent character, and two or three others in the play, I must confefs I was moved with the utmost indignation at the trivial, fenfelefs, and unnatural reprefentation of the chaplain. It is poffible there may be a pedant in holy orders, and we have seen one or two of them in the world; but fuch a driveller as Sir Roger, fo bereft of all manner of pride, which is the characteristic of a pedant, is what one would not believe could come into the head of the |