cept the late Mrs. Harcourt's in Richmondfhire; which I fhall give my Reader a defcription of, when I travel him up those English Alpes. It was not only, that Mifs Noel's happy fancy had blended all these things in the wildest and most beautiful difpofition over the walls of the rotunda; but her fine genius had produced a variety of grotts within her grotto, and falling waters and points of view. In one place, was the famous Atalanta, and her delightful cave and in another part, the Goddess and Ulyffes's fon appeared at the entrance of that grott, which under the appearance of a rural plainness had every thing could charm the eye: the roof was ornamented with fhell-work; the tapestry was a tender vine; and limpid fountains fweetly purled round. An image of Epictetus and Legend. a remarkable But what above all the finely fancied works in Mifs Noel's grotto pleafed me, was, a figure of the philofopher Epitetus, in the centre of the grott. He fat at the door of a cave, by the fide of a falling water, and held a book of his philofophy in his hand, that was written in the manner of the ancients, that is, on parchment rolled up clofe together. He appeared in deep meditation, and as part of the book had been unwrapped and gra dually extended, from his knee on the ground, one could read very plain, in large Greek characters, about fifty lines. The English of the leffon was this. The MASTER SCIENCE. All things have their nature, their make and form, by which they act, and by which they fuffer. The vegetable proceeds with perfect infenfibility. The brute poffeffes a fenfe of what is pleasurable and painful, but tops at mere fenfation. The rational, like the brute, has all the powers of mere fenfation, but enjoys a farther tranfcendent faculty. To him is imparted the mafter-Science of what he is, where he is, and the end to which he is deftined. He is directed by the canon of reason to reverence the dignity of his own fuperior character, and never wretchedly degrade himfelf into natures to him fubordinate. The master science (he is told) confifts in having juft ideas of pleafures and pains, true notions of the moments. and confequences of different actions and purfuits, whereby he may be able to meafure, direct or controul his defires or averGions, and never merge into miferies. Remember this, Arrianus. Then only you are qualified for life, when you are able to oppofe oppose your appetites, and bravely dare to call your opinions to account; when you have established judgment or reafon as the ruler in your mind, and by a patience of thinking, and a power of refifting, before: you choose, can bring your fancy to the teft of truth. By this means, furnished with the knowledge of the effects and confequences of actions, you will know how you ought to behave in every cafe. You will fteer wifely through the various rocks and fhelves of life. In fhort, Arrianus, the deliberate habit is the proper business of man; and his duty, to exert, upon the first proper call, the virtues natural to his mind ;. that piety, that love, that justice, that veracity, that gratitude, that benevolence; which are the glory of human kind. Whatever is fated in that order of incontroulable: events, by which the divine power preferves and adorns the whole, meet the incidents with magnanimity, and co-operate with chearfulness in whatever the fuprememind ordains. Let a fortitude be always exerted in endurings; a juftice in diftributions; a prudence in moral offices; and a temperance in your natural appetites and purfuits.This is the most perfect humanity. This do, and you will be a fit actor in the general drama; and the only end of your existence is the due performance of the part allotted you.. D. 6 Such Old Mr. Noel's character. Such was Mifs Noel's grotto, and with her, if it had been in my power to choose, I had rather have paffed in it the day in talking of the various fine fubjects it contained, than go in to dinner; which a fervant informed us was ferving up, just as I had done reading the above recited philofophical leffon. Back then we returned to the parlour, and there found the old Gentleman. We fat down immediately to two very good dishes, and when that was over, Mr. Noel and I drank a bottle of old Alicant. Though this Gentleman was upwards of eighty, yet years had not deprived hirn of reafon and fpirit. He was lively and fenfible, and still a moft agreeable companion. He talked of Greece and Rome, as if he had lived there before the Era of christianity. The court of Auguftus he was fo far from being a stranger to, that he defcribed the principal perfons in it; their actions, their pleasures, and their caprices, as if he had been their contemporary. We talked of all these great characters. We went into the gallery of Verres. We looked over the ancient theatres. Several of the moft beautiful paffages in the Roman poets this fine old man repeated, and made very pleasant, but moral remarks upon them. The The cry (faid he) ftill is as it was in the days of Horace O cives, cives, quaerenda pecunia primum, Unde babeas nemo quaerit, fed oportet habere. Quorum animis, a prima lanugine, non infedit illud? And what Catullus told his Lefbia, is it not approved to this day by the largest part of the great female world? Vivamus, mea Lesbia, atque amemus, Soles occidere et redire poffunt, Hæc difcunt omnes ante Alpha & Beta puellæ. The girls all learn this leffon before their A. B. C: And as to the opinion of the poet, it fhews how fadly the Auguftan age, with all its learning, and polite advantages, was corrupted and as Virgil makes a jeft of his own fine defcription of a paradife or the Elyfian fields; as is evident from his difmiffing his hero out of the ivory gate; which fhews he was of the school of Epicu rus |