him (if you would have the mystery of it) of the own accord for a shoe-rag. If you talk with him, he makes a dishcloth of his own country in comparison of Spain; but if you urge him particularly wherein it exceeds, he can give no instance, but in Spain they have better bread than any we have; when (poor hungry slaves !) they may crumble it into water well enough, and make misons with it, for they have not a good morsel of meat, except it be salt pilchers, to eat with it, all the year long; and, which is more, they are poor beggars, and lie in foul straw every night.

'Italy, the paradise of the earth, and the epicure's heaven, how doth it form our young master? It makes him to kiss his hand like an ape, cringe his neck like a starveling, and play at Hey-pass-repasscome-aloft, when he salutes a man: from thence he brings the art of atheism, the art of epicurizing, the art of whoring, the art of poisoning, the art of sodomitry the only probable good thing they have to keep us from utterly condemning it, is, that it maketh a man an excellent courtier, a curious carpet-knight; which is by intrepretation a fine close letcher, a glorious hypocrite : it is now a privy note amongst the better sort of men, when they would set a singular mark or brand on a notorious villain, to say he hath been in Italy.'

I hope I need not observe that these descriptions are not here quoted for the truth they contain, but for the curiosity of them. Thomas Nashe was the bitterest satirist and controversialist of the lived in.

age he

NUMBER XL.

Απραγμόνως ζήν, ηδύ.

APOLLODORUS ADELPHIS.

'A life from cares and business free,
Is of all lives the life for me.'

NED DROWSY came into possession of a good estate at a time of life, when the humours and habits contracted by education, or more properly by the want of it, become too much a part of the constitution to be conquered but by some extraordinary effort or event. Ned's father had too tender a concern for his health and morals to admit him of a public school, and the same objections held against an university not that Ned was without his pretentions to scholarship, for it is well known that he has been sometimes found asleep upon his couch with a book open in his hand, which warrants a presumption that he could read, though I have not met any body yet, who has detected him in the act itself. The literature of the nursery he held in general contempt, and had no more passion for the feats of Jack the Giant-killer, when he was a child, than he had for the labours of Hercules in his more adult years: : I can witness to the detestation in which he held the popular allegory of the Pilgrim's Progress, and when he had been told of the many editions that book has run through, he has never failed to reply, that there is no accounting for the bad taste of the vulgar: at the same time, I speak it to his honour, I have frequently known him ex

press a tender fellow-feeling for the Sleeping Beauty in the Wood, and betray more partiality, than he was apt to be guilty of, to the edifying story of the Seven Dreamers, whom I verily believe he held in more respect than the Seven Wonders of the World. Rural sports were too boisterous for Ned's spirits: neither hares nor partridges could lay their deaths at his door, so that all his country neighbours gave him their good word, and poached his manors without mercy there was à canal in front of his house, where he would sometimes take up with the placid amusements of angling from an alcove by the side of it, with a servant in attendance for the purpose of baiting his hook, or calling upon him to pull, if by chance he was surprised with a bite; happily for his repose, this very rarely was the case, though a tradition runs in the family of his having once snapped an officious perch of extraordinary size.

There was a learned practitioner in the law, one Mr. Driver, who had a house in his parish, and him Ned appointed manager of his estate; this worthy gentleman was so considerate as seldom if ever to give him any trouble about his accounts, well knowing his aversion from items and particulars, and the little turn he had to the drudgery of arithmetic and calculations. By the kind offices of Mr. Driver, Ned was relieved from an infinite deal of disagreeable business, and Mr. Driver himself suddenly became a man of considerable property, and began to take a lead in the county. Ned, together with his estate, had succeeded to a Chancery suit, which was pending at the death of the late possessor: this suit was for a time carried on so prosperously by Mr. Driver, that nothing more seemed requisite to bring it to a favourable issue, than for Ned to make his appearance in Court for

some purposes I am not able to explain: this was an undertaking so insurmountable, that he could never be prevailed upon to set about it, and the suit was deserted accordingly. This suit, and the circumstance of a copper mine on his estate, which his agent never could engage him to work, were the only things that ever disturbed his tranquillity, and upon these topics he was rather sore, till Mr. Driver found it convenient to give up both points, and Ned heard no more of his Chancery suit or his copper mine.

These few traits of my friend's character will suffice to make my readers acquainted with him before I relate the particulars of a visit I paid him about three months ago. It was in compliance with the following letter, which I was favoured with from Mr. Driver.

SIR,

These are to inform you that Mr. Drowsy desires the favour of your company at Poppy-hall, which he has ordered me to notify to you, not doubting but you will take it in good part, as you well know how his humour stands towards writing. He bids me say that he has something of consequence to consult you upon, of which more when we meet wishing you health and a safe journey, I remain in all reasonable service,

Your's to command,

DANIEL DRIVER.'

In consequence of this summons I set off for Poppy-Hall, and arrived there early in the evening of the second day. I found my friend Drowsy in company with my correspondent the attorney, the reverend Mr. Beetle curate of the parish, and two gentlemen, strangers to me, who, as I understood

from Mr. Driver, were Mr. Sparkle senior, an eminent auctioneer in London, and Billy Sparkle his son, a city beau. My friend was in his easy chair turned towards the fire; the rest were sitting round the table at some distance, and engaged, as I soon discovered, in a very interesting conversation upon beauty, which my entrance for a while put a stop to. This intermission however lasted no longer than whilst Mr. Drowsy paid his compliments to me, which he performed in few words, asking me however if I came on horseback, which having answered in the affirmative, he sententiously observed, that he never rode. And now the elder Mr. Sparkle resumed the conversation in the following manner— What I was going to observe to you, when this gentleman came in, upon the article of beauty, is peremptorily and precisely this: beauty, gentlemen, is in the eye, I aver it to be in the eye of the beholder and not in the object itself; my beauty for instance is not your beauty, your's is not mine; it depends upon fancy and taste, fancy and taste are nothing but caprice; a collection of fine women is like a collection of fine pictures; put them up to auction, and bidders will be found for every lot. But all bidders, cries the attorney, are not bona fide buyers; I believe you find many an article in your sales sent back upon the owner's hands, and so it is with beauty; all that is bidden for is not bought in.— Here the curate interposed, and turning to his laybrother of the pulpit, reminded him that beauty was like a flower of the field; here to-day, and gone tomorrow; whereas virtue was a hardy plant and defied the scythe of time; virtue was an evergreen, and would bloom in the winter of life; virtue would flourish, when beauty was no more.-I believe it seldom makes any considerable shoot till that is the case, cried Billy Sparkle, and followed up his re