And now, Madam, as I am a profest priest of the goddess, you may depend upon my best intereft with her to fhower down upon you a double portion of her favours. For I am, Madam, Your moft obedient humble fervant. ON HUSBANDRY. Omnes homines, qui sese student præftare cæteris animalibus, fumma ope niti decet, ne vitam filentio tranfeant, veluti pecora, quæ natura prona atque ventri obedientia finxit. SALL. TH HIS world hath often been compared to a wide theatre, where every man hath a part allotted him to act; and it highly becomes every man to acquit himself properly in that character which he perfonates; that when he retires from the ftage, there may be conferred upon him the defirable encomiums of a diligent actor, a faithful friend, and a generous patriot. What excufe then can be made for that portion of mankind who pass their days in a culpable indolence or in a criminal activity; whofe knowledge is circumscribed to a just taste in claret, and actions extend little further than to the drinking of it! men, whose ambition rifes no higher than to a pre-eminence in their horfes and hounds; and who experience only those fenfual delights, which their dogs perhaps enjoy in a degree fuperior to themselves? There are, indeed, feveral fall trivial qualifications, which, when joined with greater, may occafionally render the poffeffor the more agreeable; but which, if once once drawn out, and exposed to light by themfelves, are incapable of exciting the least esteem; like particular fhades in a picture, which, while they are connected with the main defign, may be laudable decorations, but if once abftracted, appear inferior to the paintings of a fign-poft. What is a greater argument of a mean and ignoble spirit, than to dance life away in a perpetuated affembly, or to play away threescore years and ten at repeated games at cards? When perfons of this character make their exit, they are as little regarded, after the curtain is dropped, as those dramatis perfonæ which are hired to fill up the retinue of the hero. There are a vast number and variety in the provinces of life, infomuch that there is no excuse left for an ungenerous indolence. Though all men are not alike capable of acting in an exalted fphere, of perfonating the general or the statesman, yet every man is capacitated to act some part or another well. Gentlemen of estates can never be at a lofs to employ their time; because to fuch a large field lies open, where they may expatiate with the greatest fatisfaction to themselves, and usefulness to others. There are unnumbered pleasures, which a mere estate itself entitles a man to; and he who will be fo juft to himself, and good to others, as to lay hold on the happy opportunities portunities that money offers, hath this peculiar privilege, that at the fame time he is promoting the benefit of others, he is procuring to himself, by fuch acts of benevolence, the greatest happiness attainable in life. And here I fhall addrefs myself to a particular advantage, which gentlemen, whofe eftates lie in land, may enjoy, I mean that of culture and improvement, which at once dilates and inftructs the mind, makes conftant acceffions to the eftate, confirms and invigorates the health, and is of diffufive fervice to the poorer part of the nation. To a man of a philofophical turn here are continually new scenes prefenting themselves to the imagination, fresh wonders opening to curiofity, and a continued stream of pleasure ever pouring in upon the foul. The earth feems, as it were, in filent gratitude, amply to repay the industry bestowed upon her; while nature puts on all her gaudy dreffes, and appears with a variety of beauties, at once to please and inform the mind, and at the fame time to charm and gratify the fenfes. This employment, under proper regulations, is a theme worthy of a refined taste, and fuited to a fublime genius; whence accordingly we find, that the greatest and the wifeft men were frequently withdrawing themselves from affairs of state, to retire into the country, where we may obferve them, in the most luxuriant style and paffionate expreffions, enlarging upon the rich profusion and satisfactory pleasures of the fame. The vegetable kingdom may be said to be in one continual bloom to a contemplative mind; and every gradual change, which nature introduces, exhibits a new subject for the employ of his thoughts. How delightful is it to survey the different growths, ftages, and progreffive fucceffions of plants, trees, and fruits, from their firft fwelling and expanding into life, to their shooting into a flender youth, and thence terminating in a beautiful maturity! What led me into the above train of thought, was a vifit I lately paid to a friend of mine in the country; with whose character I fhall beg leave to close this fpeculation. Cornelius is a man of fifteen hundred pounds per annum. When he came to his eftate, the net income thereof fcarcely exceeded half its present value; but by a frugal and prudent conduct, he hath paid a large debt, with which his land had been encumbered during many years. He was always of a thoughtful and ftudious difpofition; and, as men of this character are generally enemies to pomp and noise, fo Cornelius. was ever averse to public employments. He had arrived to fuch a knowledge of mankind, at an age when |