MONTRIUL.

AS La Fleur went the whole tour of France and Italy with me, and will be often upon the ftage, I muft intereft the reader a little further in his behalf, by faying, that I had never lefs reafon to repent of the impulfes which generally do determine me, than in regard to this fellow;-he was a faithful, affectionate, fimple foul as ever trudged after the heels of a philofopher; and notwith:ftanding his talents of drum-beating and fpatterdath-making, which, though very good in themselves, happened to be of no great fervice to me, yet was I hourly recompenfed by the feftivity of his temper;-it fupplied all defects:-I had a conftant refource in his looks in all difficulties and diftreffes of my own-(I was going to have added, of his too); but La Fleur was out of the reach of every thing; for whether it was hunger or thirft, or cold or nakednefs, or watchings, or whatever stripes of ill luck La Fleur met with in our journeyings, there was no index in his phyfiognomy to point them out by,-he was eternally the fame; fo that if I am a piece of a philofopher, which Satan now and then puts it into my head I am,--it always mortifies the pride of the conceit, by reflecting how much I owe to the complexional philofophy of this poor fellow, for fhaming me into one of a better kind. With all this, La Fleur had a finall caft of the coxcomb;-but he feemed, at firft fight, to be more a coxcomb of

nature

nature than of art; and before I had been three days in Paris with him,-he feemed to be no cox

comb at all.

MONTRIUL.

THE next morning, La Fleur entering upon his employment, I delivered to him the key of my portmanteau, with an inventory of my half a dozen fhirts and a filk pair of breeches: and bid him faften all upon the chaife,-get the horses put to,-and defire the landlord to come in with his bill.

-C'est un garçon de bonne fortune, faid the landlord, pointing thro' the window, to half a dozen wenches who had got round about La Fleur, and were moft kindly taking their leave of him as the poftillion was leading out the horses. La Fleur kiffed all their hands round and round again, and thrice he wiped his eyes, and thrice he promised he would bring them all pardons from Rome.

-The young fellow, faid the landlord, is beloved by all the town; and there is fcarce a corner in Montriul where the want of him will not be felt. He has but one misfortune in the world, continued he, "He is always in love."I am heartily glad of it, faid I; 'twill fave me the trouble every night of putting my breeches under my head. In faying this, I was inaking not fo much La Fleur's eloge as my own, having been in love with one Princefs or other almoft all my life, and I hope I fhall go on fo till I die, being firmly perfuaded, that

if

if ever I do a mean action, it must be in fome interval betwixt one paffion and another: whilft this interregnum lafis, I always perceive my heart locked up,---I can fearce find in it to give mifery a fixpence: and therefore I always get out of it as faft as I can; and the moment I am rekindled, I am all generofity and good-will again; and would do any thing in the world, either for or with any one, if they will bet fatisfy me there is no fin in it.

-But in faying this,-fure I am commending the paffion,-not myself.

A FRAGMENT.

THE town of Abdera, notwithstanding Democritus lived there, trying all the powers of irony and laughter to reclaim it, was the vileft and moft profligate town in all Thrace. What for poifons, confpiracies, and affaffinations,-libels, pafquinades, and tumults, there was no going there by day;-'twas worfe by night.

Now, when things were at the worst, it came to pais that the Andromeda of Euripides being reprefented at Abdera, the whole orchestra was delighted with it; but of all the paffages which delighted them, nothing operated more upon their imaginations than the tender ftrokes of nature which the poet had wrought up in that pathetic fpeech of Perfeus, O Cupid, prince of Gods and men, &c. Every man almoft fpoke pure iambics the next day, and talk'd of nothing but Perfeus his pathetic addrefs,

66

drefs,- "O Cupid, prince of Gods and men!" in every street of Abdera, in every houfe," O Cupid! Cupid!"-in every mouth, like the natural notes of fome fweet melody which drop from it, whether it will or no,-nothing but " Cupid! "Cupid! prince of Gods and men!"-The fire caught, and the whole city, like the heart of one man, open'd itself to Love.

No pharmacopolift could fell one grain of helebore, not a fingle armourer had a heart to forge one inftrument of death;-Friendship and Virtue met together, and kifs'd each other in the street;-the golden age returned, and hung over the town of Abdera ;-every Abderite took his oaten pipe; and every Abderitifh woman left her purple web, and chaftely fat her down, and liftened to the fong.

-Twas only in the power, fays the Fraginent, of the God whofe empire extendeth from heaven to earth, and even to the depths of the fea, to have done this.

MONTRIUL.

WHEN all is ready, and every article is dif puted and paid for in the inn, unless you are a little foured by the adventure, there is always a matter to compound at the door, before you can get into your chaife, and that is, with the fons and daughters of poverty who furround you. Let no man fay, "Let them go to the Devil!"--tis a cruel journey to fend a few miferables; and they have had fuf

ferings

ferings enow without it. I always think it better to take a few fous out in my hand; and I would couníel every gentle traveller to do fo likewife; he need not be fo exact in setting down his motives for giving them:-they will be regifter'd elfewhere.

For my own part, there is no man gives fo little as I do; for few, that I know, have fo little to give but as this was the firft public act of my charity in France, I took the more notice of it.

A well-a-way! faid I,-I have but eight fous in the world, fhewing them in my hand, and there are eight poor men and eight poor women. for 'em.

A poor tatter'd foul, without a fhirt on, inftantly withdrew his claim, by retiring two steps out of the circle, and making a difqualifying bow on his part. Had the whole parterre cried out, Placeaux dames, with one voice, it would not have conveyed the fentiment of a deference for the fex with half the effect.

Juft Heaven! for what wife reafons haft thou ordered it, that beggary and urbanity, which are at fuch variance in other countries, fhould find a way to be at unity in this?

I infifted upon presenting him with a single sous, merely for his politesse.

A poor little dwarfish, brifk fellow, who ftood over againfi me in the circle, putting fomething firft under his arm, which had once been a hat, took his fiuff-box out of his pocket, and generoufly offer'd a pinch on both fides of him it was a gift of confequence, and modeftly declined. The poor little fellow prefs'd it upon them with a nod of welcomeness.