Alike the busy and the gay But flutter thro' life's little day, Methinks I hear, in accents low, The sportive kind reply: "Poor moralist! and what art thou ?"A solitary fly! No. XVII. Utile dulci. HORAT. To blend instruction with delight, It is said of the late Duke of Buckingham, who was famous for being equally lavish of his wit and his money, that when he invited a sprightly mixed company to dine with him, he would often have a concealed amanuensis to take minutes of the table-talk; that, in the evening, he might divert his more intimate companions with the several digressions, incoherences, and odd notions, which were started at dinner. It hap pened one day (as my story goes), that one of the guests, who was a chymist, while he was over eager in an argument, ate salt with powdered beef, which the rest of the company thought had lain too long in the brine. Hereupon a musician, who sat over against the chymist, asked him, if he could give a reason for his extraordinary manner of diet. The virtuoso (thinking it a reflection on his profession, to seem ignorant in the use of salts) replied, the beef was over-seasoned: and a general laughter arising upon his answer, he gravely added, that salt beef, eaten with salt, was as fresh as fresh beef; and in some respects, fresher. This aphorism, when it came to be read at night, was (for the singularity of it) thought worthy to be recorded, as a standing jest upon the adepts. This practice of the Duke's might be improved to very good purpose, in the eveningconversations of ingenious men; who, in the run of discourse, often strike out observations which they would be glad to recollect the next morning. To explain myself by an example: six gentlemen (well met) sat one evening over a moderate bowl of punch. "A standish and a sheet of paper lying on the table (says Bianco) will be no interruption to good fellowship: who knows but we may give the FreeThinker a holiday, by throwing one hour's conversation into some method? We have not studied to converse only like brocaded things: do we not know, that men accustomed to think, can raise useful reflections out of the slightest hints?" The motion was agreed to; when Fidelio proposed, for a trial of skill, that every other person should tell a short story; upon which his right hand man should be obliged to furnish some uncommon remarks. This motion was likewise assented to, and they drew lots; whereby it was Bianco's chance to begin with a story, which he introduced in the following manner: “I congratulate myself doubly upon the favourableness of my lot; first, in that the labouring oar does not lie on me; and next, that I have a partner whose invention can adorn the most barren subject: therefore, I shall not have recourse to either history or fiction for a story fraught with instruction; but give you a late incident in low life (the truth of which I can attest), seemingly of little significancy. About the time of the late unnatural rebellion, there were two foot soldiers in Ireland, who, upon a rejoicing day, were greatly distressed for want of powder to express their joy. To their misfortune, they contrived to get by stealth into the magazine belonging to their barracks; where, finding no loose powder, one of them had the ingenuity to pierce a barrel with a red-hot iron: instantly the whole store of powder was blown up, and both the poor wretches destroyed." "I am pleased (says Euphues) to observe the struggle there is between mirth and compassion in all your countenances, upon this ridiculous disaster: but my friend has set me a task, of which I know not how I shall be able to acquit myself." Then pausing a while, he said, "We need not be very much surprised at the awkward ingenuity of this simple fellow, if we consider, that politicians, courtiers, divines, lawyers, physicians, and merchants, are often guilty of as obvious and fatal oversights in their different ways of reasoning. How many go to work with improper tools! how many think by halves, and (like the soldier) do not see an inch before them! how many controversialists (of late) have blown up the cause they undertook to defend! in a word, every rash, inconsiderate man, runs a red-hot iron into a barrel of gunpowder." When those two gentlemen had received the thanks of the company, Irenarchus took his turn next, saying:-"I shall follow the example of Bianco, by taking likewise a story in low life, to which I happened to be a witness; and I question not, but my right-hand man will answer our expectations, in animadverting upon it. On the eighth of June last, there was an execution of five malefactors; and a surgeon obtained one of the bodies, to be dissected. The body was conveyed to his house, though not so privately but some of the populace got notice of it, and the widow of the deceased was soon informed where the corpse of her very late husband lay. The woman came immediately to the surgeon's house, attended with a cla 2 |