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IT is an ordinary criticism, that my Lord Shaftesbury, and Sir William Temple, are models of the geyle in writing. We should prefer saying -- of the lordly, and the gentlemanly. Nothing be more uhan the inflated finical rhapsodies of Shaftesbury, and the plain natural chit-chat of Temple. The man of rank is disible in both writers; but in the o is only insinuated gracefully, iher it stands out offensively. The peer seems to have written with his et on, and his Earls mantle before him; the oner in his elbow chair and undress. -- What be more pleasant than the way in which the retired statesman peeps out in the essays, penned by the latter in his delightful retreat at Shehey st of Nimeguen, and the Hague. Scar authority is quoted under an ambassador. Don Francisco de Melo, a "Pal Envoy in England," tells him it was frequent in his try for men, spent with age or other decays, so as they could not hope for above a year or two of life, to ship themselves away in a Brazil fleet, and after their arrival there to go on a great length, sometimes of twenty or thirty years, or more, by the force of that vigour they recovered with that remove. "Whether su effect (Temple beautifully adds) might grow from the air, or the fruits of that climate, or by approag he sun, which is the fountain of light a, when their natural heat was so far <tt>藏书网</tt>decayed: or whether the pieg out of an old mans life were worth the pains; I ot tell: perhaps the play is not worth the dle." -- Monsieur Pompone, "French Ambassador in his (Sir Williams) time at the Hague, "certifies him, that in his life he had never heard of any man in Frahat arrived at a hundred years of age; a limitation of life which the old gentleman imputes to the excellence of their climate, giving them such a liveliness of temper and humour, as disposes them to more pleasures of all kinds than in other tries; and moralises upoter very sensibly. The "late Robert Earl of Leicester" furnishes him with a story of a tess of Desmond, married out of England in Edward the Fourths time, and who lived far in King Jamess reign. The "same noble person" gives him an at, how such a year, in the same reign, there went about the try a set of morrice-dancers, posed of ten men who danced, a Maid Marian, and a tabor and pipe; and how these twelve, oh another, made up twelve hundred years. "It was not so much (says Temple) that so many in one small ty (Herefordshire) should live to that age, as that they should be in vigour and in humour to travel and to dance." Monsieur Zulichem, one of his "colleagues at the Hague," informs him of a cure for the gout; which is firmed by another "Envoy," Monsieur Serinchamps, in that town, who had tried it. -- Old Prince Maurice of Nassau reends to him the use of hammocks in that plaint; having been allured to sleep, while suffering u himself, by the "stant motion or swinging of those airy beds." t Egmont, and the R<u>.9９ｌib.</u>hinegrave who "was killed last summer before Maestricht," impart to him their experiences.But the rank of the writer is never more ily disclosed, than where he takes frahe pliments paid by fo his fruit-trees. For the taste and perfe of what we esteem the best, he truly say, that the French, who have eaten his peaches and grapes at Shene in no very ill year, have generally cluded that the last are as good as any they have eaten in Fran this side Fontainebleau; and the first as good as any they have eat in Gasy. Italians have agreed his white figs to be as good as any of that sort in Italy, which is the earlier kind of white fig there; for ier kind and the blue, we ot e he warm climates, no more than in the Frontignauscat grape. His e-trees too, are as large as any he saw when he was young in France, except those of Fontainebleau, or what he has seen sin the Low tries; except some very old ones of the Prince es. Of grapes he had the honour ing over four sorts into England, which he ees, and supposes that they are all by this time pretty ong some gardeners in his neighbourhood, as well as several persons of quality; for he ever thought all things of this kind "the ohey are made the better." The gardery with which he asserts that `tis to little purpose to plant any of the best fruits, as peaches rapes, hardly, he doubts, beyond Northamptonshire at the furthest northwards; and praises the "Bishop of Mu Cosevelt," for attempting nothing beyond cherries in that cold climate; pleasant and in character. "I may per藏书网haps" (he thus ends his sweet Garden Essay with a passage worthy of Cowley) "be allowed to know something of this trade, since I have so long allowed myself to be good for nothing else, which few men will do, or enjoy their gardens, without often looking abroad to see how other matters play, what motions iate, and what invitations they may hope for into other ses. For my own part, as the try life, and this part of it more particularly, were the ination of my youth itself, so they are the pleasure of my age; and I truly say that, among many great employments that have fallen to my share, I have never asked or sought for any of them, but have often endeavoured to escape from them, into the ease and freedom of a private se, where a man may go his own way and his own pace, in the on paths and circles of life. The measure of choosing well is whether a man likes what he has chosen, which I thank God has befallen me; and though among the follies of my life, building and planting have not been the least, and have e more than I have the fideo owhey have been fully repensed by the sweetness and satisfa of this retreat, where, since my resolution taken of never entering again into any public employments, I have passed five years without ever once going to town, though I am almost in sight of it, and have a house there always ready to receive me. Nor has this been any sort of affectation as some have thought it, but a mere want of desire or humour to make so small a remove; for when I am in this er, I truly say with Horace, Me quoties reficit, &c.
"Me, when the cold Digentian stream revives,
What does my friend believe I think or ask?
Let me yet less possess, so I may live,
Whateer of life remains, unto myself.
May I have books enough; and one years store,
Not to depend upon each doubtful hour:
This is enough of mighty Jove to pray,
Who, as he pleases, gives and takes away."
The writings of Temple are, in general, after this easy copy. On one occasion, indeed, his wit, which was mostly subordio nature and tenderness, has seduced him into a string of felicitous antitheses; which, it is obvious to remark, have been a model to Addison and succeeding essayists. "Who would not be covetous, and with reason," he says, "if health could be purchased with gold? who not ambitious, if it were at the and of power, or restored by honour? but, alas! a white staff will not help gouty feet to walk better than a on e; nor a blue riband bind up a wound so well as a fillet. The glitter of gold, or of diamonds, will but hurt sore eyes instead of g them; and an ag head will be no more eased by wearing a , than a on nightcap." In a far better style, and more accordant with his own humour of plainness, are the cludiences of his "Discourse upory." Temple took a part in the troversy about the a and the modern learning ; and, with that partiality so natural and so graceful in an old man, whose state es had left him little leisure to look into modern produ, while his retirement gave him occasion to look back upon the classic studies of his youth -- decided in favour of the latter. "Certain it is," he says, "that, whether the fieress of the Gothic humours, or noise of their perpetual wars, frighted it away, or t? the unequal mixture of the modern languages would not bear it -- the great heights and excellency both of poetry and music fell with the Roman learning and empire, and have never since recovered the admiration and applauses that before attehem. Yet, such as they are amongst us, they must be fessed to be the softest and sweetest, the most general and most i amusements of on time and life. They still find room in the courts of princes, and the cottages of shepherds. They serve to revive and animate the dead calm of poor and idle lives, and to allay or divert the violent passions aurbations of the greatest and the busiest men. And both these effects are of equal use to human life; for the mind of man is like the sea, which is her agreeable to the beholder nor the voyager, in a calm or in a storm, but is so to both when a little agitated by gentle gales; and so the mind, when moved by soft and easy passions or affes. I know very well that many who pretend to be wise by the forms of being grave, are apt to despise both poetry and music, as toys and trifles too light for the use or eai of serious men. But whoever find themselves wholly insensible to their charms, would, I think, do well to keep their own sel, for fear of reproag their own temper, and bringing the goodness of their natures, if not of their uandings, into question. While this world lasts, I doubt not but the pleasure and request of these two eais will do so too; and happy those that tent themselves with these, or any other so easy and so i, and do not trouble the world or other men, because they ot be quiet themselves, thoug<var></var>h nobody hurts them." "When all is done (he cludes), human life is at the greatest and the best but like a froward child, that must be played with, and humoured a little, to keep it quiet, till it falls asleep, and then the care is over."
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