Lawyer Willis never went to any other, when ⚫ he came to thofe parts. That for her part, the ⚫ did not get her livelihood by travellers, who were gone and away, and the never expected to fee them more, but that her neighbours might come again; wherefore, to be fure, they had the only right to complain.'

She was proceeding thus, and from her volubility of tongue feemed likely to ftretch the dif courfe to an immoderate length, when I fuddenly cut all short by paying the bill.

This morning our ladies went to church, more, I fear, from curiofity than religion; they were attended by the captain in a most military attire, with his cockade in his hat, and his fword by his fide. So unufual an appearance in this little chapel drew the attention of all present, and probably difconcerted the women, who were in difhabille, and wifhed themfelves dreft, for the fake of the curate, who was the greatest of their beholders.

While I was left alone, I received a visit from Mr. Humphrys himself, who was much more confiderable as a farmer, than as an innholder. Indeed he left the latter entirely to the care of his wife, and he acted wifely, I believe, in fo doing.

As nothing more remarkable paft on this day, I will clofe it with the account of these two characters, as far as a few days refidence could inform me of them. If they thould appear as new to the reader as they did to me, he will not be difpleated at finding them here.

This amiable couple feemed to border hard on their grand climacteric; nor indeed were they hy of owning enough to fix their ages

within a year or two of that time. They appeared to be rather proud of having employed their time weil, than afhamed of having lived fo long; the only reafon which I could ever af-. fign, why fome fine ladies, and fine gentlemen too, fhould defire to be thought younger than they really are by the cotemporaries of their grandchildren. Some, indeed, who too haftily credit appearances, might doubt whether they had made fo good a use of their time as I would infinuate, fince there was no appearance of any thing but poverty, want, and wretchedness about their houfe; nor could they produce any thing: to a customer in exchange for his money, but a few bottles of wind, and fpirituous liquors, and fome very bad ale, to drink; with rufty bacon, and worfe cheese to eat. But then it fhould be confidered, on the other fide, that whatever they received was almoft as entirely clear profit as the bleffing of a wreck itself; fuch an inn being the very reverfe of a coffee-houfe: for here neither fit for nothing, nor have any thing for: your money.

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Again, as many marks of want abounded every where, fo were the marks of antiquity vifible. Scarce any thing was to be feen which had not fome fear upon it, made by the hand of time; not an utenfil, it was manifeft, had been purchased within a dozen years laft paft; fo that whatever money had come into the houfe during that period, at least, must have remained in it, unless it had been fent abroad for food, or other perishable commodities; but thefe were fupplied by a fmall portion of the fruits of the farin, în which the farmer allowed he had a very good

bargain. In fact, it is inconceivable what fums may be collected by Itarving only, and how eaty it is for a man to die rich, if he will but be contented to live miferable.

Nor is there in this kind of ftarving any thing fo terrible as fome apprehended. It neither waftes a man's flesh, nor robs him of his chearfulness. The famous Cornaro's cafe well proves the contrary; and fo did farmer Humphrys, who was of a round ftature, had a plump round face, with a kind of fmile on it, and feemed to borrow an an air of wretchednefs, rather from his coat's age, than from his own.

The truth is, there is a certain diet which emaciates men more than any poffible degree of abftinence; though I do not remember to have feent any caution against it, either in Cheney, Arbuthnot, or in any other modern writer on regimen. Nay, the very name is not, I believe, in the learned Dr. James's dictionary. All which is the more extraordinary, as it is a very com-* mon food in this kingdom.

But though it should not be found among our English phyfical writers, we may be affured of meeting with it among the Greeks: for nothing confiderable in nature efcapes their notice; though many things confiderable in them, it is to be feared, have efcaped the notice of their readers. The Greeks then, to all fuch as feed too voraciously on this diet, give the name of HEAUTOFAGI, which our phyficians will, I fuppofe, tranflate men that eat themselves.

As nothing is fo deftructive to the body as this kind of food, fo nothing is fo plentiful and cheap; but it was, perhaps, the only cheap thing the farmer difliked. Probably living much on fish

might produce this difgutt; for Diodorus Siculus attributes the fame averfion in a people of Æthiopia to the fame caufe: he calls them the fisheaters; and afferts, that they cannot be brought to eat a fingle meal with the Heautofagi by any perfuafion, threat, or violence whatever, not even though they should kill their children be<fore their faces.

What hath puzzled our phyficians, and prevented them from fetting this matter in the clearest light, is poffibly one fimple mistake, arifing from a very excufable ignorance, that the paffions of men are capable of fwallowing food as well as their appetites; that the former, in feeding, refemble the late of those animals who chew the cud, and therefore fuch men, in fome fenfe, may be faid to prey on themselves, and as it were, to devour their own entrails. And hence enfues a meagre afpect, and thin habit of body, as fure as from what is called a confumption. Our farmer was none of thefe. He had no more paffion than an Ichthuofagus or Ethiopian fifher. He wifhed not for any thing, thought not of any thing; indeed, he fcarce did any thing, or faid any thing. Here I cannot be understood Strictly, for then I must defcribe a non-entity; whereas I would rob him of nothing but that free-agency which is the caufe of all the corruption, and of all the mifery of human nature. No man, indeed, ever did more than the farmer, for he was an abfolute flave to labour all the week; but, in truth, as my fagacious reader muft have at firft apprehended, when I faid, he refigned the care of the house to his wife, I meant more than I then expreffed; even the

houfe and all that belonged to it; for he was really a farmer, only under the direction of his wife. In word, fo composed, so serene, so placid a countenance I never faw; and he fatisfed himself by answering to every question he was asked, "I don't know any thing about it, fir, I leaves all that to my wife.”

Now as a couple of this kind would, like two veffels of oil, have made no compofition in life, and for want of all favour must have palled every tafte; nature, or fortune, or both of them, took care to provide a proper quantity of acid, in the materials that formed the wife, and to render her a perfect Helpmate for fo tranquil a husband. She abounded in whatfoever he was defective; that is to say, in almost every thing. She was indeed, as vinegar to oil, or a brifk wind to a standing-pool, and preferved all from stagnation and corruption.

Quin the plaver, on taking a nice and fevere furvey of a fellow-comedian, burft forth into this exclamation, "If that fellow be not a rogue, "the Creator doth not write a legible hand!" Whether he gueffed right or no, is not worth my while to examine. Certain it is, that the latter, having wrought his features into a proper harmony to become the characters of Iago, Shylock, and others of the fame caft, gave a femblance of truth to the obfervation, that was fufficient to confirm the wit of it. Indeed, we may remark, in favour of the phyfiognomist, though the law hath made him a rogue and a vagabond, that nature is feldom curious in her works within, without employing fome little pains on the outfide; and this more particularly in mifchievous characters, in forming which as Mr. Der