372 Cipriani's Mode of perpetuating his Name.-The Trifler, No. V.

heat of his beams, made me to transpire and fweat, that I arrived there diminifhed many pounds weight, befides fariguing my lungs in fuch a manner, that for feveral days I could not lift up a fy with my breath. We are come at length to the pleasure of partridge fhooting, of which we have found great plenty. But it has happened to me, as it ordinarily fucceeds in all human defigns, for whercas it was prefixed to have the pleasure of the whole month of September, it died the inftant it was born. A gun, either faulty in itself, or badly loaded, at the firft difcharge gave me fo powerful a blow, that almost beat out all my teeth from my mouth; from whence I have a cheek which refembles a great tumour of ten pounds, and I fhall be obliged to stay within doors eight days, because the wind, which blows here with great ftrength, hould not compleatly ruin my power of eating. Add to this, certain curfed invifible infects, which they call here harvest lice [mokini di mietitura], which have in a thousand places of my legs drawn blood, and have brought on a worfe itching than if I had the measles or fmall-pox. Your brother has the gout; but the pleafure of purfuing the game is fo powerful, that though anable to ride, he follows the dogs in a chair, from whence the huntfman is obliged to force the hare towards the old horfe which draws the chair when his mafter has the gout. The next poft, at eight days end, I hope to be longer, as time will furnish matter, and my check will naturally be turned to its fize. 1 semain with esteem, and moft humble obfequioufnefs, &c. &c. Bratton, Aug. 31, 175.

Mr. URBAN,

As

May 1.

S but few Italians that come among us deferve that encouragement which they rather indifcriminately meet with, it is but juftice to mention one very lately dead, and who has left a good name behind him. This was the late J. B. Cipriani, who was not only a capital artift, but, in other refpe&ts, a valuable member of fociety. There is a particular of him but little known, and will probably pleafe many of his admirers by making the fame more public. This is a modeft mode of perpetuating his own name, in the plate to the 35th canto of Ariofto, in which the fwans are refcuing the names of the poets from oblivion. Here we find his

own in the mouth of one in a small medallion, fo diminutive, as hardly to be diftinguished without a magnifying glafs. Nothing doubting but this bit of information will be acceptable, I tranfmit the fame. Yours, C. D.

N. B. I have had it from good authority, that this compliment was paid him by the engraver.

THE TRIFLER, N° V.

mores bominum multorum vidit et urbes.

Wand'ring from clime to clime, obfervant
ftray'd,
Their manners noted, and their ftates fure
vey'd.
POPE.

S

the fashion of running through France, Italy, and Germany, or, as it is called, making the tour of Eu. rope, has of late become fo univerfal, that no gentleman of competent fortune is deemed to have received a finished education without it; it may not, perhaps, be unpleafing to the generality of triflers, who lounge from coffee houfe to coffee-house, and from one place of public entertainment to another, in quest of fome amufement to put off the time that hangs heavy on their hands, to know the causes that first induced men to leave their native foil, their friends, and their relations, to wander on diflant fhores, and expofe themfelves to the dangers of ftormy oceans and unhealthy climates; at leaft, in reading this, they will be full as well employed for themfelves, and much better for their neigh bours, than by engaging in political fquabbles, debating on fubjects they do not underkand, and fettling finances they will never have the management of, expofing themselves publicly to ri dicule and contempt, and disturbing all who have the unhappiness to fit near them; nor may it, perhaps, be altoge ther ufelefs to many of the travellers themselves, as they will be informed of what, may be, their tutor forgot to tell them, that fome other employment might have been found than fauntering away their time on the Thuilleries, and ruining their fortunes and conftitutions with gamefters and opera-girls. The first traveller of this terreftrial world, whom we find upon record, was Cain, who, after the murther of Abel, is faid, in the 4th chapter of Genfis, to have gone into the land of Nod, not by choice, but by the exprefs and abfolute command of the Supreme Being, who

condemns

THE TRIFLER,

N° V.

373

condemns him to be a wanderer and a the land was then, as now, divided into vagabond on the face of the earrth. It ten thousand ifles and continents, while will be unneceffary here to enter into a the ocean was deformed by rocks and difcuffion where this land of Nod was; breakers, and agitated by the howling whether it was China, or America, or tempeft; are points that must be left to any other place more or lefs diftant the learned; and the reader of this must from the fatal fpot; these points have be contented with the fimple narrative already been controverted by much which was at firft propofed, and in abler heads; but unfortunately thefe which we are now arrived at an iminveftigators, in fpite of their inde- portant æra. By the invention of fatigable refearches, have been un- fhip-building, of which the ark was eiable hitherto to determine the critical ther the first fpecimen, or, at least, a fpot where the Garden of Eden ftood; confiderable improvement, men were and, till that difficulty is previously re- enabled to tranfport themfelves, their moved, it will puzzle the ableft geo- families and neceffaries, when they graphers to point out the countries that went in fearch of more convenient fetlie to the eastward of it. In all proba- tlements, in a much more eafy and exbility, however, he was not banifhed peditious manner than by traverfing the farther than the confines of the inhabit fultry plains, exposed to the parching ed countries; for we are told in Gen. heat of the fun, and the noxious exhavi. that the fons of God fa the lations of the night; nor does it appear daughters of men that they were fair, that they were either ignorant of thefe and they took them wives of all that advantages, or neglected to make use they chofe." This, which was one of of them; for we are told, that within the caufes of the deluge, could not have 250 years after the flood, not only those happened in the common courfe of parts of Afia, Africa, and Europe, things, had they been feparated by any that were neareft to the fettlement of confiderable diftance. It is not unlikely, Noah, were inhabited, but that they from the fimilarity of the crime which had penetrated as far as Italy, Spain, caufed the curfe, the fimilarity of the Germany, France, and even to the curfe which followed the crime, and British Ifles, which are faid to have from the little which is tranfmitted to been peopled by Gomer, the grandion us of the manners of the Cainites, that of Noah, and from him the inhabitants they much refembled the Jews of the affumed the name of Cymru, which is prefent day, living more by trade and to this day preferved among the Welsh, commerce than by the culture of the It may perhaps feem fomething strange, earth, which, in thofe times, was con- that the human race, which confifted, fidered as the most honourable employ after the flood, of only eight perfons, ment. As there is no other mention of fhould, in the fhort fpacef 250 years, antediluvian travellers, it will not, on multiply fo faft, as to make it neceffary the following grounds, be unfair to to go in fearch of habitations to fuch conclude, that there were none. Mo- difiant climates; but we are not to inney, the indifpenfable attendant of fer from hence, that all the intermedievery fashionable traveller, was yet un- ate countries were filled with people. known, and, on account of the curfe They might proceed fo far in order to denounced agamst Cain, travelling was difcover the most convenient places for doubtlefs a difgrace: add to this, that fettlement; they might do it in order there was fo little variety to be met to avoid that rage for conqueft which with where husbandry was the general had already begun to difturb fociety. Occupation, when cities were yet un- Being ignorant of the ufe of the combuilt, and courts were yet unknown, pafs, they night frequently be driven that few would be hardy enough, under farther than they intended, as is often thefe difadvantages, to make what the cafe ftill with the natives of the would now be ftyled a polite tour. To South-fea iflands, which accounts for fay that natural curiofities would have the human fpecies being found on ifles repaid their toils, and compenfated for feparated 2 or 300 leagues from any their difgrace, would only be engaging other land. But it would be tedious to in difputes relative to the figure of the enumerate the various expeditions of earth before the deluge. Whether it thefe early adventurers; the hopes of a was then, as now, diverfified by hills better fettlement, by conqueft or difcoand vallies; whether the beds of rivers very, appear to have been the prevailing were then broken by cataracts? whether motives that ftimulated their attempts, GENT. MAG. May, 1786.

nor

374

any

nor did any one quit his country with-
out fome felf-interested view till about
the year of the world 2200, when Ofiris
left Egypt, at that time the feat of
learning, and proceeded through Greece,
Italy, Spain, Gaul, and Britain, to ci-
vilize the manners of the people, and
teach them the art of agriculture; his
example was followed by Cecrops,
Agung, by whom the Greeks were firt
inftructed in religious knowledge. The
next after him, who had public fpirit
enough to hazard his life for the benefit
of fociety, was Hercules, who traverfed
Greece, Italy, and Spain, to extermi-
nate the bands of robbers with which
thofe countries were infefted; an under-
taking which was compleated by The-
feus, his fucceffor in thefe dangerous
enterprifes. It might, perhaps, feem
unpardonable to pafs over here the ce-
lebrated adventures of Ulyffes; but as
they were the refult, not of choice, but
of neceffity, and the knowledge that
Ulyffes derived from them induced no
one to follow his example, however en-
tertaining or inftructive they may be to
the reader, it is certainly unneceffary to
take notice of them here. It is in
deed fomething strange, that fo polite
and wife a people as the Greeks were
fo little inclined to go in fearch of
knowledge and improvement into other
countries. But for this, feveral reafons
may be affigned: they were divided in-
to a number of petty flates, which were
feldom at peace with one another, or
even with themselves, fo that every in-
dividual found fufficient employment
for his time and thoughts in the fac-
tions and hoftilities he was concerned
in, and had no opportunity of spending
three or four years in vifiting other
countries. Befides, looking upon them-
felves already as the wifeft and moft
polished of mankind, they held other
nations in too great contempt to enter-
tain an idea of adopting their fentiments
and manners. That there were fome
indeed who went into Perfia, and ferved
in the armies of the Peitan monarch,
cannot be denied; thefe, however,
were rather hoftages for the fidelity of
their countrymen, than men who acted
from choice or inclination. Another
reafon, not lefs cogent, might be added
to thefe, their poverty, which would
alone be fufficient to give them a dif-
tate for travelling; for, although a
name well known, or a fplendid title,
may be very pretty travelling paffports,
yet nothing gives fo much real import-

ance as a pocket full of money. Gold
is the fovereign talifman that opens
every door for pleasure or information,
and is a better remedy for every ill than
even patience itfelf; it is that alone
which will extract fincerity from a
Frenchman, make a Dutchman hofpi-
table, and the haughty Spaniard fami-
liar. Let not then my lord Anglois
fuppofe that the refpect he is treated
with is paid to his merit or his coun-
try; the cringing flaves that, furround
him are indifferent about the former,
and esteem the latter for no other rea-
fon than that they get moft by it. They
affect to love his country because they
know it is an Englishman's weak fide;
they applaud his generofity that they
may partake of it and attend him
with the utmoft affiduity because he
pays them for it better than they deferve.
If any gentleman is inclined to difbe-
lieve thefe affertions, he may prove the
truth of them by a much less expence
than he is at to be deceived; he need
only forget to furnish his pocket-book,
and he will foon perceive, without the
help of extraordinary penetration, that
his continental friends can very well
difpen'e with his company; that Eng-
lifh gallantry is by no means trrefift-
ible; that English home-bred humour
may fometimes give offence; and that
impertinent waiters and poftillions are
not always to be terrified by the threat
of a horfewhip or a piftol. But to re-
turn to the ancients. The Romans, who
fucceeded the Greeks in arts and em-
pire, were, as well as their predecef-
fors, too proud to fearch after improve-
ment among nations whom they styled
flaves and barbarians. The Roman
youths for many centuries were edu-
cated at home; till, after the deftruc-
tion of Carthage, it became fashionable
to fend them to profecute their acade-
mical ftudies at Athens, which at that
time abounded with philofophers, fo-
phifts, and orators of every denomina-
tion, and was, in fhort, the university
of the world: perhaps they might have
difcovered it worth while to have pro-
ceeded farther; but the factions which
foon after begah to distract the state
into another
turned their thoughts
channel: these factions (except during
the reign of Auguftus) continued with
very little intermiflion till the irrup -
tions of the Goths and Vandals over-

threw that mighty empire. All now
became a fcene of anarchy and confu-
fion, ignorance and barbarifm univer-

fally

A Passage in Hamlet' illuftrated.-Curious old Seals explained. 375

fally prevailed, men, provided they lived themfelves, were careless how their neighbours lived; and, during the fpace of more than 700 years, the chief, and almoft only travellers, were Chriftians, who traver fed every region of the then known world to propagate their religion. The gallant reign however of Charlemagne, which happened about the latter end of the eighth century, altered the face of affairs, and, by its confequences, once more revived that paffion for novelty, which hath fince led Europe, but particularly this country, into fo many extravagances. But, having now come down to that period called the middle ages, and exceeded the ufual limits of this paper, it may not be amifs to poftpone the remainder to a future number, together with fome reflections and remarks on the ufe and abufe of travelling.

In N° IV. p. 31c.1. 4. r. project for object.

"Let the Devil wear black, I'll have a fuit "of fables."

I

MR. URBAN,

May 5.

SEND you herewith impreflions of two feals which I have been favoured with, and which fome one of your nu merous correfpondents may be able to explain. [See plate II.]

The matrix of fig. 1. is made of tolerably pure copper, with a perforation through a little projecting piece of metal over the head of the figure, the mark of which you may obferve in the wax. The legend approaches nearest in my opinion to figillum Guadincli—but this laft word can scarce be any way forced into a tole rable meaning. It has been read Gulielmi by a great man in these matters: I believe I may mention the name of Mr. Aile. But I cannot reconcile the letters with this reading.

The feal, of which A, fig. 2. is the impreflion, is made of a kind of mixed metal; and I found it in a bag among feveral coins of little value. B, exhibits it in perfpective; C, in profile. A little piece of the metal is formed on the back like a ftaple, and may have ferved to fix it into a wooden handle. I read the legend, Sigillum Willelmi Saracini, and fhould be obliged to any one who would

THIS ftrange Speech of tamucidation take the trouble of giving me an expla

perhaps, receive fome from part of a ftatute of Brazen Nofe College, Oxford, which was fhewn to me in MS. by a deceafed friend. The ftatutes bear date primo die Februarii, anno Regis Henrici Octavo tertio-decimo, A.D. 1522. It should seem that fables were reckoned finery in those days, and had nothing to do with mourning." Statuimus præterea, quod omnes et finguli prædicti togis longis in parte anteriori confutis infra univerfitatem utantur, et quod nullus corum pelluris pretiofis et fumptuofis, vulgariter dictis fabills, five matrons, pannove de velvet, damafco, fattin, aut chamblet, in fuis veftibus, internis five externis, aut earum fimbriis five extremitatibus, vel in eorum liripipiis in univerfitate quoquo modo utatur."-Let the Devil mourn for me, I'll drefs gaily," is Hamlet's meaning, and I think this interpretation is countenanced by the quotation. A picture of Richard Gardiner, fome time rector of Whitechapel, hangs in the veftry-room there. It was painted in 1617, the 15th of James I. and is an hard, poor picture. Gardiner is reprefented with fables, which occupy the place at this day filled with the fcarf. He was 48 years rector of the parish, and his name appears in the lift of benefactors to it. Yours, &c.

D. N.

nation of it.

D.

376 Extracts, by Conftitutional Society, from Fletcher of Saltoun.

moft art and violence to procure their eftablishment; and by fuch men almoft the whole world has been trampled under foot and fubjected to tyranny, for want of understanding by what means and methods they are enflaved: for though mankind take great care and pains to inftruct themselves in other arts and fciences, yet very few apply themfelves to confider the nature of government, an inquiry fo ufeful and neceffary both to magiftrate and people. Nay, in most countries, the arts of ftate being altogether directed either to enflave the people or to keep them under flavery, it is become almost every where a crime to reafon about matters of government: but if men would beftow fmall part of the time and application which they throw away upon curious but useless ftudies or endlefs gaming, in perufing those excellent rules and examples of government which the ancients have left us, they would foon be enabled to discover all fuch abuses and corruptions as tend to the ruin of public focieties. It is therefore very ftrange, that they should think ftudy and knowledge neceffary in every thing they go about, except in the nobleft and moft ufeful of all applications, the art of go

vernment.

*

Since in our time moft prinees of Europe are in poffeflion of the fword, by ftanding mercenary forces kept up in time of peace abfolutely depending upon them, I fay that all fuch governments are changed from monarchies to tyrannies; nor can the power of granting or refufing money, though vefted in the fubject, be a fufficient fecurity for liberty, where a ftanding mercenary army is kept up in time of peace; for he that is armed is always mafter of him that is unarmed. And not only that government is tyrannical which is tyrannically exercifed, but all goverments are tyrannical which have not in their conftitutio, a fufficient lecurity against the arbitrary power of the

vernment, made her miftrefs of the world; but ftanding armies enflaved that great people, and their excellent militia and freedom perished together. The Lacedemonians continued eight hundred years free, and in great honour, becaufe they had a good militia. The Swiffes at this day are the freeft, happiest, and the people of all Europe who can beft defend themselves, because they have the best militia.

That the whole free people of any nation ought to be exercifed to, arms, not only the example of our ancestors, as appears by the acts of parliament made in both kingdoms to that purpose, and that of the wifeft governments among the ancients; but the advantage of choofing out of great numbers feems clearly to demonftrate: for in countries, where hufbandry, trade, manufactures, and other mechanical arts, are carried on, even in time of war the impediments of men are fo many any fo various, that, thiefs the whole people be exercifed, no confiderable numbers of men can be drawn out without difturbing thofe employments which are the vitals of the political body: befides, that upon great defeats, and under extreme calamities, from which no government was ever exempted, every nation ftands in need of all the people, as the ancients fometimes did of their flaves. And I cannot fee why arms fhould be denied to any man who is not a flave, fince they are the only true badges of liberty, and ought never, but in times of utmoft neceflity, to be put into the hands of mercenaries or flaves; neither can I underftand why any man that has arms fhould not be taught the ufe of them. [Ordered to be printed April 7, 1786.]

MR. URBAN,

May 4.

UR critics do not feem to estimate 0 the merit of poetical genius with fufficient accuracy and precifion. The writer of a good tragedy ought to be placed far above the author of the belt moral or fatyrical epiftle, or didactic poem, that ever was produced. If this remark be well founded, it will undoubtedly follow, that the "Siege of Damaicus" and "Marianne," ought to rank above the "Ethic Epiftles" and " Ellay on Man," by Pope; tho' Pope himself has pronounced, in a letter quoted by Dr. Johaton with approbation, that Hughes was only among the mediocribus. Johnfon indeed feems to have to little idea of this fort of

poctical