the place; a naked man may swim in the fea, but it is not the way to catch fish there; they are likelier to devour him, than he them, if he bring no nets, and use no deceits. I think therefore it was wife and friendly advice, which Martial gave to Fabian, when he met him newly arrived at Rome :

Honeft and poor, faithful in word and thought;
What has thee, Fabian, to the city brought?
Thou neither the buffoon nor bawd canst play,
Nor with falfe whispers th' innocent betray:
Nor corrupt wives, nor from rich beldams get
A living by thy induftry and fweat
Nor with vain promises and projects cheat,
Nor bribe or flatter any of the

;

great. But you 're a man of learning, prudent, juft;. A man of courage, firm, and fit for trust. Why you may stay, and live unenvied here; But (faith) go back, and keep you where you were.

Nay, if nothing of all this were in the cafe, yet the very fight of uncleanness is loathfome to the cleanly; the fight of folly and impiety, vexatious to the wife and pious.

Lucretius +, by his favour, though a good poet, was but an ill-natured man, when he faid, it was delightful to fee other men in a great ftorm: and no lefs illnatured should I think Democritus, who laughed at all the world, but that he retired himself fo much out of it, that we may perceive he took no great pleasure in

that kind of mirth.. I have been drawn twice or thrice by company to go to Bedlam, and have seen others very much delighted with the fantastical extravagancy of fo many various madneffes; which upon me wrought fo contrary an effect, that I always returned, not only melancholy, but even fick with the fight. My compaffion there was perhaps too tender, for I meet a thoufand madmen abroad, without any perturbation; tho', to weigh the matter juftly, the total lofs of reason is lefs deplorable than the total depravation of it. An exact judge of human bleffings, of riches, honours, beauty, even of wit itself, fhould pity the abuse of them, more than the want.

Briefly, though a wife man could pass never fo fecurely through the great roads of human life, yet he will meet perpetually with fo many objects and occafions of compaffion, grief, fhame, anger, hatred, indignation, and all paffions but envy (for he will find nothing to deserve that), that he had better strike into fome private path; nay, go fo far, if he could, out of the common way, ut nec facta audiat Pelopidarum ;". that he might not fo much as hear of the actions of the fons of Adam. But, whither fhall we fly then? into the deferts, like the ancient Hermits?

—Quà terra patet, fera regnat Erinnys,

In facinus jurâffe putes-*

One would think that all mankind had bound themfelves by an oath to do all the wickednefs they can ;

* Ovid. Metam. i. 241.

that they had all (as the scripture speaks) " fold them"felves to fin:" the difference only is, that fome are a little more crafty (and but a little, God knows) in making of the bargain. I thought, when I first went to dwell in the country, that without doubt I should have met there with the fimplicity of the old poetical golden age; I thought to have found no inhabitants there, but fuch as the shepherds of Sir Phil. Sydney in Arcadia, or of Monfieur d'Urfé upon the banks of Lignon; and began to confider with myself, which way I might recommend no lefs to pofterity the happiness and innocence of the men of Chertfea: but, to confess the truth, I perceived quickly, by infallible demonftrations, that I was ftill in Old England, and not in Arcadia, or La Forrest; that, if I could not content myfelf with any thing less than exact fidelity in human converfation, I had almost as good go back and feek for it in the Court, or the Exchange, or Westminster-hall. I ask again, then, whither shall we fly, or what fhall we do? The world may so come in a man's way, that he cannot choose but falute it; he must take heed, though, not to go a whoring after it. If, by any lawful vocation, or juft neceffity, men happen to be married to it, I can only give them St. Paul's advice: "Brethren, "the time is short; it remains, that they, that have "wives, be as though they had none.-But I would "that all men were even as I myself

In all cafes, they must be fure, that they do mundum ducere, and not mundo nubere. They must retain the

fuperiority and headship over it: happy are they, who can get out of the fight of this deceitful beauty, that they may not be led so much as into temptation; who have not only quitted the metropolis, but can abstain from ever seeing the next market-town in their country.

CLAUDIAN'S OLD MAN OF VERONA,

DE SENE VERONENSI, QUI SUBURBIUM NÚN-
QUAM EGRESSUS EST.

"FELIX, qui patriis," &c.

HAPPY the man, who his whole time doth bound
Within th' inclosure of his little ground.
Happy the man, whom the fame humble place

(Th' hereditary cottage of his race)

From his first rising infancy has known,

And by degrees fees gently bending down,
With natural propenfion, to that earth
Which both preserv'd his life, and gave him birth.
Him no false distant lights, by fortune fet,
Could ever into foolish wanderings get.
He never dangers either faw, or fear'd:
The dreadful ftorms at fea he never heard.
He never heard the thrill alarms of war,
Or the worse noifes of the lawyers' bar.
No change of confuls marks to him the year,
The change of feafons is his calendar,

The

The cold and heat, winter and fummer shows; Autumn by fruits, and spring by flowers, he knows. He measures time by land-marks, and has found For the whole day the dial of his ground.

A neighbouring wood, born with himself, he fees,
And loves his old contemporary trees.

He 'as only heard of near Verona's name,
And knows it, like the Indies, but by fame.
Does with a like concernment notice take

Of the Red-fea, and of Benacus' lake.

Thus health and ftrength he to a third age enjoys,
And fees a long pofterity of boys.

About the spacious world let others roam,
The voyage, life, is longest made at home.

IX.

THE SHORTNESS OF LIFE, AND UNCERTAINTY OF RICHES.

F you fhould fee a man, who were to cross from

bouwvery and rolicious,

and trouble himself many weeks before in making provifions for his voyage, would you commend him for a cautious and discreet person, or laugh at him for a timorous and impertinent coxcomb A man, who is exceffive in his pains and diligence, and who confumes the greatest part of his time in furnishing the remainder with all conveniences and even fuperfluities, is to an

gels