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you; and may the squire, and all such sneaking rascals, go to the devil together.'-'O fie!' says Adams, 'O fie! 'He is indeed a wicked man; but G-will, I hope, turn ' his heart to repentance. Nay, if he could but once see 'the meanness of this detestable vice; would he but เ once reflect that he is one of the most scandalous as well as pernicious liars; sure he must despise himself to so 'intolerable a degree, that it would be impossible for him 'to continue a moment in such a course. And to confess 'the truth, notwithstanding the baseness of this character, 'which he hath too well deserved, he hath in his coun'tenance sufficient symptoms of that bona indoles, that 'sweetness of disposition, which furnishes out a good ' Christian.'—' Ah, Master! Master!' says the host, 'if you had travelled as far as I have, and conversed with เ the many nations where I have traded, you would not เ give any credit to a man's countenance. Symptoms in 'his countenance, quotha! I would look there, perhaps, เ to see whether a man had had the small-pox, but for ' nothing else.' He spoke this with so little regard to the parson's observation, that it a good deal nettled him; and taking the pipe hastily from his mouth, he thus answered: 'Master of mine, perhaps I have travelled a great deal farther than you, without the assistance of a ship. Do you imagine sailing by different cities or countries is travelling? No.

• Cœlum non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt.

'I can go farther in an afternoon than you in a twelve'month. What, I suppose you have seen the Pillars of 'Hercules, and perhaps the walls of Carthage. Nay, you may have heard Scylla, and seen Charybdis; you may 'have entered the closet where Archimedes was found at 'the taking Syracuse. I suppose you have sailed among 'the Cyclades, and passed the famous straits which take

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'their name from the unfortunate Helle, whose fate is sweetly described by Apollonius Rhodius; you have passed the very spot, I conceive, where Daedalus fell 'into that sea, his waxen wings being melted by the sun; you have traversed the Euxine sea I make no doubt; nay, you may have been on the banks of the Caspian, " and called at Colchis to see if there is ever another 'golden fleece.'-'Not I, truly, Master,' answered the host: I never touched at any of these places.'— 'But I have been at all these,' replied Adams. Then, 'I suppose,' cries the host, you have been at the 'East Indies; for there are no such, I will be sworn, 'either in the West or the Levant.'-' Pray, where is 'the Levant?' quoth Adams: 'that should be in the East Indies by right.'- Oho! you are a pretty 'traveller,' cries the host, and not know the Levant. My service to you, Master; you must not talk of these things with me! you must not tip us the traveller; it เ won't go here.'-'Since thou art so dull to misunder'stand me still,' quoth Adams, 'I will inform thee, the 'travelling I mean is in books, the only way of travelling by which any knowledge is to be acquired. From เ them I learn what I asserted just now, that nature generally imprints such a portraiture of the mind in the ' countenance, that a skilful physiognomist will rarely be 'deceived. I presume you have never read the story of 'Socrates to this purpose, and therefore I will tell it you: 'A certain physiognomist asserted of Socrates that he 'plainly discovered by his features that he was a rogue ' in his nature. A character so contrary to the tenour of 'all this great man's actions, and the generally received opinion concerning him, incensed the boys of Athens so that they threw stones at the physiognomist, and 'would have demolished him for his ignorance, had not 'Socrates himself prevented them by confessing the truth

' of his observations, and acknowledging, that, though he 'corrected his disposition by philosophy, he was indeed 'naturally as inclined to vice as had been predicted of 'him. Now, pray resolve me,-How should a man 'know this story, if he had not read it?'-' Well, 'Master,' said the host, and what signifies it whether a 6 man knows it or no? He who goes abroad as I 'have done, will always have opportunities enough ' of knowing the world, without troubling his head 'with Socrates, or any such fellows.'-' Friend,' cries Adams, if a man should sail round the world, and ' anchor in every harbour of it, without learning, he 'would return home as ignorant as he went out.'-' Lord 'help you,' answered the host: 'there was my boatswain, poor fellow he would navigate a ship with any master เ of a man of war; and a very pretty knowledge of trade 'he had too.'-' Trade,' answered Adams, 'as Aristotle proves in his first chapter of Politics, is below a 'philosopher, and unnatural as it is managed now.' The host looked steadfastly at Adams, and after a minute's silence asked him, 'If he was one of the writers of the 'Gazetteers? for I have heard,' says he, 'they are writ by parsons.'-' Gazetteers!' answered Adams; 'What is that?''It is a dirty newspaper,' replied the host, 'which hath been given away all over the nation for 'these many years, to abuse trade and honest men, which 'I would not suffer to lie on my table, though it hath 'been offered me for nothing.'-'Not I truly,' said Adams; I never write any thing but sermons; and I เ assure you I am no enemy to trade, whilst it is con'sistent with honesty; nay, I have always looked on the 'tradesman as a very valuable member of society, and, perhaps, inferior to none but the man of learning.'No, I believe he is not, nor to him neither,' answered the host.

Of what use would learning be in a country

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218

THE ADVENTURES OF JOSEPH ANDREWS.

' without trade? What would all you parsons do to clothe your backs and feed your bellies? Who fetches you your silks, and your linens, and your wines, and all the other necessaries of life? I speak chiefly with regard to the sailors.'-'You should say the extravaเ gances of life,' replied the parson ; 'but admit they เ were the necessaries, there is something more necessary ' than life itself, which is provided by learning; I mean 'the learning of the clergy. Who clothes you with piety, 'meekness, humility, charity, patience, and all the other 'Christian virtues? Who feeds your souls with the milk of 'brotherly love, and diets them with all the dainty food of holiness, which at once cleanses them of all impure carnal affections, and fattens them with the truly rich spirit of grace. Who doth this?'-'Ay, who indeed!' cries the host; for I do not remember ever to have seen เ any such clothing, or such feeding. And so in the เ mean time, Master, my service to you.'-Adams was going to answer with some severity, when Joseph and Fanny returned, and pressed his departure so eagerly, that he would not refuse them; and so, grasping his crabstick, he took leave of his host (neither of them being so well pleased with each other as they had been at their first sitting down together), and with Joseph and Fanny, who both expressed much impatience, departed, and now all together renewed their journey.

Matter prefatory in praise of biography. NOTWITHSTANDING the preference which may be vulgarly given to the authority of those romance writers who entitle their books, 'The History of England, the History of France, of Spain, &c.,' it is most certain, that truth is to be found only in the works of those who celebrate the lives of great men, and are commonly called biographers, as the others should indeed be termed topographers, or chorographers: words which might well mark the distinction between them; it being the business of the latter, chiefly to describe countries and cities, which, with the assistance of maps, they do pretty justly, and may be depended upon: but as to the actions and characters of men their writings are not quite so authentic, of which there needs no other proof than those eternal contradictions occurring between two topographers, who