supplied the liquor. Every man born healthful is indeed naturally capable of distinguishing one juice from another; but if he hath de bauched himself with sophisticated mixtures, it is odds that he will prefer the bad to the good; that he will swallow with transport what was squeezed from the sloe, and make faces at the Burgundian grape.

Since the pleasure arising from the polite arts is infinitely beyond the most refined sen sations, he cannot be esteemed an useless man to his country, who endeavours to direct mankind in the choice of the most exquisite and elegant satisfaction. It is yet further an encouragement to men of fine spirits and beautiful imaginations, to have their works exhibited advantageously to the world, and rescued from ignorance or envy. There is not, perhaps, so much vigour of mind and vivacity required in a critick as in an author; but delicacy alone can discover delicacy. An ordinary spectator is able to describe the fine mouth of Cleora; the full eye, the open forehead of Chloe; but who shall explain why Amoret is agreeable? what that air is, which is not to be accounted for in any one or other feature, but results from the union of all? Who can tell what is the con texture and shape of those particles which pro

duce an idea of a grateful taste to the palate? and what beau knows the philosophy of the perfume which emboldens him to appear among the ladies? Much more difficult is the task to explain the perplexed delicacies of poetry, to present its beauties to the eye, to make the majesty of it familiar, and account for its glorious confusion.

ENGLISHMAN, No. 7, Oct. 20, 1713.

Of the few works of Steele which have not lately been republished, I believe THE ENGLISHMAN to be one. It contains, however, notwithstanding its political origin, a large portion of miscellaneous matter, of merit little, if at all, inferior to his contributions in the Guardian. I have, therefore, thought that it would not be unacceptable to my readers, should I present them with a couple of specimens from this production. As the other minor periodical works of Steele and Addison have within these few years revisited the Press, I have, on that account, forborne to select from their pages.

No. III.

Somnia, terrores magicos, miracula, sagas,
Nocturnos lemures, portentaque, Thessala, rides ?

Say can you laugh indignant at the schemes
Of magic terrors, visionary dreams,
Portentous wonders, witching imps of hell,
The nightly goblin, and enchanting spell ?

FRANCIS.

HORATIUS,

THERE seem to be a certain set of unhappy prepossessions peculiar to the lower part of mankind, which being drawn in with their milk, and conveyed to them sooner than their letters, never forsake them even till they bend upon the stick, and pore through spectacles. Such are the notions of fairies, demons, spectres, the powers of natural magick, and the terrors of witchcraft; all which they entertain with a positive confidence of their being true; and,what is worse, make them a part of religion itself; so that a wise man would find it a matter of no small difficulty to cut off this branch of superstition from their minds, without doing an injury to the stock they graft it upon, and removing the best principle of happiness at the same time with the worst and most fruitful of miseries. Neither can we say that this evil is

confined to the under and less polite part of the world; it has spread from the cottage to the farm, from the farm to the squire's hall; and, like the imaginary tortures it represents, though it most frequents the scenes of ruin and spots of darkness, yet it sometimes glares in open day, and haunts the better breasts of learning and education. It is matter for our wonder that people of sense should indulge the garrulity of nurses and servants, which are the vessels this spirit resides most powerfully in, and suffer them to convey these ridiculous horrors to their children, which often take such firm possession of their younger heads, that no future powers of reason and religion are able to banish them; but, like some hereditary dis tempers in the blood, they may be indeed abated by wholesome prescriptions, but can never be eradicated; and will certainly break forth anew, when they are most dangerous, at the decline of age.

I fancy every man may find a bigot of this kind within the circle of his acquaintance; and, for my own part, I know too many, to be un concerned at the growth of a folly, which creates so much uneasiness in the soul, and fills it with legions of foreign fears which have no foundation in nature or reason. Should a stran

ger of sound sense, or one who had no notion of the prevalence of this evil, be presented with a faithful catalogue of all the believers in spirits and incantations, within the kingdom of Great Britain, he might be inclined to suspect that the greater part of the nation were yet unconverted to Christianity, and under the tyranny of a pagan priesthood. To give only a few instances of what has fallen within the compass of my own observation.

4

I have frequently had twenty vouchers at one time for the real cause of the fairies' ring in a country meadow, who have actually seen those diminutive beings tripping in their circular dance, and would for my conviction have taken their oaths of it before a justice of the peace. I own, that I could not allow myself to accept of this way of proof; but they, good people, interpreted that only as if I had been ashamed to recant.

I remember a poor country girl at my friend 'Squire Gosling's, who suffered under the persecution of these little demons for not cleaning her dairy, as much as Sir John Falstaff did by their substitutes in Windsor Park. The marks were so visible, and the truth so undisputed, that I had like to have affronted the whole family,