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gentleman in his dominions, they hardly murmured at acts of mal-administration, which, in a price of less engaging difpofitions, would have been deemed unpardonable.

This admiration, however, must have been temporary only, and would have died away with the courtiers who betowed it; the illufion arifing from his private virtues must have ceased, and pofterity would have judged of his public conduct with its ufual impartiality: but another circumstance prevented this; and his name hath been tranfmitted to pofterity with increafing reputation. Science and the arts, had, at that time, made little progrefs in France. They were juft beginning to advance beyond the limits of Italy, where they had revived, and which had hitherto been their only feat. Francis took them immediately under his protection, and vied with Leo himself in the zeal and munificence with which he encouraged them. He invited learned men to his court, he converfed with them familiarly, he employed them in bufinefs, he raised them to offices of dignity, and honoured them with his confidence. That race of men, not more prone to complain when denied the respect to which they fancy themfelves intitled, than apt to be pleafed when treated with the distinction which they confider as their due, thought they could not exceed in gratitude to fuch a benefactor, and trained their invention, and employed all their ingenuity, in panegyric.

Succeeding authors, warmed with their defcriptions of Francis's bounty, adopted their encomiums, and refined upon them. The appellation of Father of Letters, beltowed upon Francis, hath rendered his memory facred among hiftorians; and they feem to have regarded it as a fort of impiety, to uncover his infirmities, or to 'point out his defects. Thus Francis, notwithstanding his inferiour abilities and want of fuccefs, hath more than equalled the fame of Charles. The virtues which he poffeffed as a man, have intitled him to greater admiration and praife, than have been bestowed upon the extenfive genius, and fortunate arts, of a more capable, but lefs amiable rival.

XVII. The

XVII. The Supper and Grace.

A SHOE Coming loofe from the fore-foot of the thillhorfe, at the beginning of the afcent of mount Taurira, the poftilion difmounted, twisted the fhoe off, and. put it in his pocket as the afcent was of five or fix miles, and that horse our main dependance, 1 made a point of having the fhoe faftened on again, as well as we could; but the poftilion had thrown away the nails, and the hammer in the chaife-box being of no great ufe without them, I fubmitted to go on.

He had not mounted half a mile higher, when, coming to a flinty piece of road, the poor devil loft a fecond fhoe, and from off his other fore-foot. I then got out of the chaife in good earneft; and, feeing a houfe about a quarter of a mile to the left hand, with a great deal to do I prevailed upon the poftilion to turn up to it. The look of the houfe, and of every thing about it, as we drew nearer, foon reconciled me to the difafter. It was a little farm-house, furrounded with about twenty acres of vineyard, about as much corn; and, close to the house, on one fide, was a potagerie of an acre and a half, full of every thing which could make plenty in a French peafant's houfe; and, on the other fide, was a little wood which furnished wherewithal to dress it. It was about eight in the evening when I got to the houfe: fo I left the poftilion to manage his point as he could; and, for mine, I walked directly into the house.

The family confifted of an old gray-headed man and his wife, with five or fix fons and fons-in-law and their feveral wives, and a joyous genealogy out of them.

They were all fitting down together to their lentilfoup; a large wheaten loaf was in the middle of the table; and a flagon of wine at each end of it promised joy through the ftages of the repaft 'twas a feaft of love.

The old man rofe up to meet me, and, with a refpectful cordiality, would have me fit down at the table. My heart was fet down the moment I entered the room: fo I fat down at once like a fon of the family; and to inveft myself in the character as fpeedily as I could, I inftantly borrowed the old man's knife, and taking up the loaf,,

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loaf, cut myself a hearty luncheon; and, as I did it, I faw a teftimony in every eye, not only of an honeft welcome, but of a welcome mixed with thanks that I had not feemed to doubt it.

Was it this; or tell me, Nature, what elfe it was that made this morfel fo fweet-and to what magic I owe it, that the draught I took of their flagon was fo de licious with it, that it remains upon my palate to this hour?

If the fupper was to my tafte, the grace which followed was much more fo.

When fupper was over, the old man gave a knock upon the table with the haft of his knife, to bid them prepare for the dance. The moment the fignal was gi ven, the women and girls ran altogether into the backapartment to tie up their hair, and the young men to the door to wafh their faces, and change their fabots, (wooden shoes); and in three minutes every foul was ready, upon a little efplanade before the houfe, to begin. The old man and his wife came out laft, and placing me betwixt them, fat down upon a fopha of turf by the door.

The old man had fome fifty years ago been no mean performer upon the vielle; and, at the age he was then of, touched it well enough for the purpofe. His wife, fung now-and-then a little to the tune, then intermitted, and joined her old man again, as their children and grandchildren danced before them.

It was not till the middle of the fecond dance, when, for fome paufes in the movement wherein they all feemed to look up, I fancied I could diftinguish an elevation of fpirit different from that which is the caufe or the effect of fimple jollity. In a word, I thought I beheld religion mixing in the dance; but, as I had never feen her fo engaged, I fhould have looked upon it now as one of the illufions of an imagination which is eternally mifleading me, had not the old man, as foon as the dance ended, faid, that this was their conftant way; and that all his life long, he made it a rule, after fupper was over, to call out his family to dance and rejoice; believing, he faid, that a cheerful and contented mind was the best fort of thanks to heaven that an illiterate peas fant could pay. Or a learned prelate either, faid I.

XVII. Ruftic

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XVIII. Ruftic Felicity.

MANY are the filent pleafures of the honeft peafant, who rifes cheerfully to his labour.-Look into his dwelling, where the fcene of every man's happiness. chiefly lies he has the fame domestic endearments,as much joy and comfort in his children, and as flattering hopes of their doing well,-to enliven his hours and gladden his heart, as you could conceive in the moil afAuent ftation. And I make no doubt, in general, but if the true account of his joys and fufferings were to be balanced with thofe of his betters,-that the upfhot would prove to be little more than this ;-that the rich man had the more meat,-but the poor man the better ftomach;-the one had more luxury,-more able physicians to attend and fet him to rights; the other, more health and foundness in his bones, and lefs occafion for their help; that, after these two articles betwixt them were balanced, in all other things they stood upon a level that the fun fhines as warm, the air blows as fresh, and the earth breathes as fragrant upon the one as the other; and that they have an equal share in all the beauties and real benefits of nature.

XIX. Houfe of mourning.

LET us go into the houfe of mourning, made fo by fuch afflictions as have been brought in merely by the common crofs accidents and difafters to which our condition is expofed,-where, perhaps, the aged parents fit broken-hearted, pierced to their fouls with the folly and indiscretion of a thanklefs child-the child of their prayers, in whom all their hopes and expectations centered: perhaps a more affecting fcene-a virtuous fa mily lying pinched with want, where the unfortunate fupport of it having long ftruggled with a train of misfortumes, and bravely fought up against them,--is now piteously borne down at the laft-overwhelmed with a cruel blow which no forecast or frugality could have prevented. O God! look upon his afflictions.-Behold him distracted with many forrows, furrounded with the tender pledges of his love, and the partner of his cares -without

-without bread to give them; unable, from the remembrance of better days, to dig;-to beg, afhamed.

When we enter into the house of mourning fuch as this -it is impoffible to infult the unfortunate even with an improper look-Under whatever levity and diffipation of heart fuch objects catch our eyes, they catch likewife our attentions, collect and call home our scattered thoughts, and exercise them with wifdom. A tranfient fcene of diftrefs, fuch as is here sketched, how foon does it furnish materials to fet the mind at work! how neceffarily does it engage it to the confideration of the miferies and misfortunes, the dangers and calamities, to which the life of man is fubject! By holding up fuch a glafs before it, it forces the mind to fee and reflect upon the vanity-the perifhing condition and uncertain tenure, of every thing in this world. From reflections of this ferious caft, how infenfibly do the thoughts carry us farther and from confidering what we are, what kind of world we live in, and what evil befals us in it, how naturally do they fet us to look forward at what poffibly we fhall be for what kind of world we are intended-what evils may befal us there-and what provifion we fhould make against them here whilst we have time and opportunity!f these lellons are fo infeparable from the house of mourning here fuppofedwe fhall find it a itill more inftructive school of wifdem when we take a view of the place in that affecting light in which the wife man feems to confine it in the text; in which, by the houfe of mourning, I believe he means that particular scene of forrow, where there is lamentation and mourning for the dead. Turn in hither, I beseech you, for a moment. Behold a dead man ready to be carried out, the only fon of his mother, and the a widow. Perhaps a ftill more affecting fpectacle, a kind and indulgent father of a numerous family lies breathlefs-fnatched away in the ftrength of his age-torn in an evil hour from his children and the bofom of a difconfolate wife. Behold much people of the city gathered together to mix their tears, with fettled forrow in their looks, going heavily along to the houfe of mourning, to perform that laft melancholy office, which, when the debt of nature is paid, we are

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