He then entered into a meditation on those unsubstantial beings; which was soon interrupted by several voices, which he thought almost at his elbow, though in fact they were not so extremely near. How ever, he could distinctly hear them agree on the murder of any one they met. And a little after heard one of them say, 'He had killed a dozen since that day fortnight.' Adams now fell on his knees, and com-lieve them from the fears which they had conmitted himself to the care of Providence; and poor Fanny, who likewise heard those terrible words, embraced Joseph so closely, that had not he, whose ears were also open, been apprehensive on her account, he would have thought no danger which threatened only himself too dear a price for such embraces.

house, and so were her company.' He then and supposed that honest man was his footushered them into a very decent room, where man.'-Sir,' answered Adams, 'I am a his wife was sitting at a table: she imme- clergyman, at your service; but as to that diately rose up, and assisted them in setting young man, whom you have rightly termed forth chairs, and desired them to sit down; honest, he is at present in nobody's service; which they had no sooner done, than the he never lived in any other family than that man of the house asked them if they would of Lady Booby, from whence he was dishave any thing to refresh themselves with? charged, I assure you, for no crime.' JoAdams thanked him, and answered, he should seph said, 'He did not wonder the gentlebe obliged to him for a cup of his ale, which man was surprised to see one of Mr. was likewise chosen by Joseph and Fanny. Adams's character condescend to so much Whilst he was gone to fill a very large jug goodness with a poor man.'—' Child,' said with this liquor, his wife told Fanny she Adams, I should be ashamed of my cloth, seemed greatly fatigued, and desired her to if I thought a poor man, who is honest, betake something stronger than ale; but she low my notice or my familiarity. I know refused with many thanks, saying it was not how those who think otherwise can true she was very much tired, but a little profess themselves followers and servants rest she hoped would restore her. of Him who made no distinction, unless As soon as the company were all seated, peradventure, by preferring the poor to the Mr Adams, who had filled himself with ale, rich.'- Sir,' said he, addressing himself to and by public permission had lighted his the gentleman, 'these two poor young peopipe, turned to the master of the house, ple are my parishioners, and I look on them asking him, 'If evil spirits did not use to and love them as my children. There is walk in that neighbourhood? To which something singular enough in their history, receiving no answer, he began to inform him but I have not now time to recount it.' The of the adventure which they had met with master of the house, notwithstanding the on the downs; nor had he proceeded far in simplicity which discovered itself in Adams, his story, when somebody knocked very knew too much of the world to give a hasty hard at the door. The company expressed belief to professions. He was not yet quite some amazement, and Fanny and the good certain that Adams had any more of the woman turned pale: her husband went clergyman in him than his cassock. To try forth, and whilst he was absent, which was him therefore further, he asked him, 'If some time, they all remained silent, looking Mr. Pope had lately published any thing at one another, and heard several voices new? Adams answered, 'He had heard discoursing pretty loudly. Adams was fully great commendations of that poet, but that persuaded that spirits were abroad, and be- he had never read, nor knew any of his gan to meditate some exorcisms; Joseph a works.'-Ho! ho!' says the gentleman to little inclined to the same opinion; Fanny himself, 'have I caught you?-What,' says was more afraid of men; and the good he, have you never seen his Homer?” woman herself began to suspect her guests, Adams answered, 'He had never read any and imagined those without were rogues translation of the classics.'-'Why truly,' belonging to their gang. At length the replied the gentleman, there is a dignity in master of the house returned, and, laugh- the Greek language, which I think no moding, told Adams he had discovered his ap-ern tongue can reach.'-'Do you underparition; that the murderers were sheep-stand Greek, sir?' said Adams, hastily. A stealers, and the twelve persons murdered, little, sir,' answered the gentleman. Do were no other than twelve sheep; adding, you know, sir,' cried Adams, 'where I can that the shepherds had got the better of buy an Eschylus? an unlucky misfortune them, had secured two, and were proceed- lately happened to mine.' ing with them to a justice of peace. This account greatly relieved the fears of the whole company; but Adams murmured to himself,, ' He was convinced of the truth of apparitions for all that.'

They now sat cheerfully round the fire, till the master of the house, having surveyed his guests, and conceiving that the cassock, which having fallen down, appeared under Adams's great-coat, and the shabby livery on Joseph Andrews, did not well suit with the familiarity between them, began to entertain some suspicions, not much to their advantage: addressing himself therefore to Adams, he said, 'He perceived he was a clergyman by his dress,

Eschylus was beyond the gentleman, though he knew him very well by name; he therefore, returning back to Homer, asked Adams, What part of the Iliad he thought most excellent?" Adams returned, 'His question would be properer, What kind of beauty was the chief in poetry? for that Homer was equally excellent in them all. And, indeed,' continued he, what Cicero says of a complete orator, may well be applied to a great poet: "He ought to comprehend all perfections." Homer did this in the most excellent degree: it is not without reason, therefore, that the philosopher, in the twenty-second chapter of his Poetics, mentions him by no other appellation than

that of the Poet. He was the father of the | ter the death, of Hector. The images are drama, as well as the epic: not of tragedy so extremely tender in these, that I am cononly, but of comedy also; for his Margites, vinced the poet had the worthiest and best which is deplorably lost, bore, says Aristotle, heart imaginable. Nor can I help observing the same analogy to comedy, as his Odyssey how Sophocles falls short of the beauties of and Iliad to tragedy. To him, therefore, the original, in that imitation of the dissuawe owe Aristophanes, as well as Euripides, sive speech of Andromache, which he hath Sophocles, and my poor Eschylus. But, put into the mouth of Tecmessa. And yet if you please, we will confine ourselves (at Sophocles was the greatest genius who ever least for the present) to the Iliad, his noblest wrote tragedy: nor has any of his succeswork, though neither Aristotle nor Horace sors in that art, that is to say, neither Eurigive it the preference, as I remember, to the pides nor Seneca the tragedian, been able Odyssey. First, then, as to his subject; can to come near him. As to his sentiments and any thing be more simple, and at the same diction I need say nothing; the former are time more noble? He is rightly praised by particularly remarkable for the utmost perthe first of those judicious critics, for not fection on that head, namely, propriety; and choosing the whole war, which, though he as to the latter, Aristotle, whom, doubtless, says it hath a complete beginning and end, you have read over and over, is very diffuse. would have been too great for the under- I shall mention but one thing more, which standing to comprehend at one view. I that great critic, in his division of tragedy have, therefore, often wondered why so cor- calls Opsis, or the scenery; and which is as rect a writer as Horace should, in his epistle proper to the epic as to the drama, with to Lollius, call him the Trojani Belli Scrip- this difference, that in the former it falls to torem. Secondly, his action, termed, by the share of the poet, and in the latter to Aristotle, Pragmaton Systassis; is it possi- that of the painter. But did ever painter ble for the mind of man to conceive an idea imagine a scene like that in the thirteenth of such perfect unity, and at the same time and fourteenth Iliads? where the reader so replete with greatness? And here I must sees at one view the prospect of Troy, with observe what I do not remember to have the army drawn up before it; the Grecian seen noticed by any, the Harmotton, that army, camp, and fleet; Jupiter sitting on agreement of his action to his subject; for, mount Ida, with his head wrapt in a cloud, as the subject is anger, how agreeable is his and a thunderbolt in his hand, looking toaction, which is war; from which every in-wards Thrace; Neptune driving through cident arises, and to which every episode the sea, which divides on each side to perimmediately relates. Thirdly, his manners, mit his passage, and then seating himself which Aristotle places second in his descrip- on mount Samos: the heavens opened and tion of the several parts of tragedy, and the deities all seated on their thrones. This which, he says, are included in the action; is sublime! This is poetry!' Adams then I am at a loss whether I should rather ad-rapt out a hundred Greek verses, and with mire the exactness of his judgment in the nice distinction, or the immensity of his imagination in their variety. For, as to the former of these, how accurately is the sedate, injured resentment of Achilles, distinguished from the hot insulting passion of Agamemnon! how widely doth the brutal courage of Ajax differ from the amiable bravery of Diomedes; and the wisdom of Nestor, which is the result of long reflection and experience, from the cunning of Ulysses, the effect of art and subtlety only! if we consider their variety, we may cry out with Aristotle, in his twenty-fourth chapter, that no part of this divine poem is destitute of manners. Indeed, I might affirm, that there is scarce a character in human nature untouched in some part or other. And as there is no passion which he is not able to describe, so is there none in his reader which he cannot raise. If he hath any superior excellence to the rest, I have been inclined to fancy it is in the pathetic. I am sure I never read with dry eyes the two episodes where Andromache is introduced, in the former lamenting the danger, and in the lat

such a voice, emphasis, and action, that he almost frightened the women; and as for the gentleman, he was so far from entertaining any further suspicion of Adams, that he now doubted whether he had not a bishop in his house. He ran into the most extravagant encomiums on his learning: and the goodness of his heart began to dilate to all the strangers. He said he had great compassion for the poor young woman, who looked pale and faint with her journey: and in truth he conceived a much higher opinion of her quality than it deserved. He said he was sorry he could not accommodate them all; but if they were contented with his fireside, he would sit up with the men, and the young woman might, if she pleased, partake his wife's bed, which he advised her to; for that they must walk upwards of a mile to any house of entertainment, and that not very good neither. Adams, who liked his seat, his ale, his tobacco, and his company, persuaded Fanny to accept this kind proposal, in which solicitation, he was seconded by Joseph. Nor was she very difficultly prevailed on; for she had

L

slept but little the last night, and not at all to find under such a roof, had raised in him the preceding; so that love itself was more curiosity than he had ever known. scarce able to keep her eyes open anyTherefore,' said he, if it be not too longer. The offer, therefore, being kindly troublesome, sir, your history, if you please.' accepted, the good woman produced every thing eatable in her house on the table, and the guests being heartily invited, as heartily regaled themselves, especially Parson Adams. As to the other two, they were examples of the truth of that physical observation, that love, like other sweet things, is no whetter of the stomach.

The gentleman answered, he could not refuse him what he had so much right to insist on; and after some of the common apologies, which are the usual preface to a story, he thus began.

CHAPTER III.

life.

Supper was no sooner ended, than Fanny, at her own request, retired, and the good In which the gentleman relates the history of his woman bore her company. The man of the house, Adams, and Joseph, who would modestly have withdrawn, had not the gentleman insisted on the contrary, drew round the fireside, where Adams, (to use his own words,) replenished his pipe, and the gentleman produced a bottle of excellent beer, being the best liquor in his house.

SIR, I am descended of a good family, and was born a gentleman. My education was liberal, and at a public school, in which I proceeded so far as to become master of the Latin, and to be tolerably versed in the Greek language. My father died when I was sixteen, and left me master of myself. The modest behaviour of Joseph, with He bequeathed me a moderate fortune, the gracefulness of his person, the charac- which he intended I should not receive till ter which Adams gave of him, and the friend- I attained the age of twenty-five: for he ship he seemed to entertain for him, began constantly asserted that was full early to work on the gentleman's affections, and enough to give up any man entirely to the raised in him a curiosity to know the singu-guidance of his own discretion. However, larity which Adams had mentioned in his as this intention was so obscurely worded history. This curiosity Adams, was no in his will that the lawyers advised me to sooner informed of, than with Joseph's consent, he agreed to gratify it; and accordingly related all he knew, with as much tenderness as was possible for the character of Lady Booby, and concluded with the long, faithful, and mutual passion between him and Fanny, not concealing the meanness of her birth and education. These latter circumstances entirely cured a jealousy which had lately risen in the gentleman's mind, that Fanny was the daughter of some perI staid a very little while at school after his son of fashion, and that Joseph had run death; for, being a forward youth, I was exaway with her, and Adams was concerned tremely impatient to be in the world: for in the plot. He was now enamoured of his which I thought my parts, knowledge, and guests, drank their healths with great cheer-manhood, thoroughly qualified me. And to fulness, and returned many thanks to Adams, who had spent much breath, for he was a circumstantial teller of a story.

Adams told him it was now in his power to return that favour; for his extraordinary goodness, as well as that fund of literature he was master of,* which he did not expect

*The author hath by some been represented to have made a blunder here; for Adams had indeed shown some learning, (say they,) perhaps all the author had; but the gentleman hath shown none, unless his approbation of Mr. Adams be such but surely it would be preposterous in him to call it so. I have, however, notwithstanding this criticism, which I am told came from the mouth of a great orator in a public coffee-house, left this blunder as it stood in the first edition. I will not have the vanity to apply to any thing in this work the observation which M. Dacier makes in her preface to her Aristophanes: Je tiens pour une maxime constante qu'une beauté mediocre plait plus generalement qu'une beauté sans defaut. Mr.

contest the point with my trustees, I own I paid so little regard to the inclinations of my dead father, which were sufficiently certain to me, that I followed their advice, and soon succeeded, for the trustees did not contest the matter very obstinately on their side. Sir,' said Adams, may I crave the favour of your name? The gentleman answered, 'his name was Wilson,' and then proceeded.

this early introduction into life, without a guide, I impute all my future misfortunes; for besides the obvious mischiefs which attend this, there is one which hath not been so generally observed: the first impression which mankind receives of you will be very difficult to eradicate. How unhappy, therefore, must it be to fix your character in life, before you can possibly know its value, or weigh the consequences of those actions which are to establish your future reputation?

A little under seventeen, I left my school, and went to London, with no more than six pounds in my pocket, a great sum, as I

Congreve hath made such another blunder in his Love for Love, where Tattle tells Miss Prue, 'She should admire him as much for the beauty he commends in her as if he himself was possessed of it.'

then conceived, and which I was afterwards | pains I have taken, and the absurd methods surprised to find so soon consumed. I employed, to traduce the charactor of The character I was ambitious of obtain- women of distinction. When another had spoken in raptures of any one, I have answered, D-n her, she! We shall have have her at H-d's very soon.' When he hath replied, "He thought her virtuous,' I have answered, 'Ay, thou wilt always think a woman virtuous, till she is in the streets; but you and I, Jack or Tom, (turning to another in company,) know better.' At which, I have drawn a paper out of my pocket, perhaps a tailor's bill, and kissed it, crying, at the same time, 'By Gad, I was once fond of her.'