pain, and remove you from all the noise and disquietude of business. The affairs of either war or peace fhall have no power to disturb you. Your whole employment shall be to make your life eafy, and to entertain every sense with its proper gratifications. Sumptuous tables, beds of roses, clouds of perfumes, concerts of mufic, crowds of beauties, are all in readiness to receive you. Come along with me into this region of delights, this world of pleasure, and bid farewel for ever to care, to pain, to business.

HERCULES hearing the lady talk after this manne defired to know her name; to which fhe answered, My friends, and those who are well acquainted with me, call me Happiness; but my enemies, and thofe who would injure my reputation, have given me the name of Pleasure.

By this time the other lady was come up, wh› addreffed herself to the young hero in a very different manner.

HERCULES, fays fhe, I offer myself to you because I know you are descended from the Gods, and give proofs of that descent by your love to virtue, and application to the ftudies proper for your age. This makes me hope you will gain, both for yourself and me, an immortal reputation. But before I invite you into my fociety and friendship, I will be open and fincere with you, and muft lay down this as an eftablished truth, that there is nothing truly valuable which can be purchased without pains and labour. The Gods have fet a price upon every real and noble pleasure. If you would gain the favour of the Deity, you must be at the pains of worshipping him; if the friendship of good men, you must ftudy to oblige them; if you would be honoured by your country, you must take care to serve it. In fhort, if you would be eminent in war or peace, you must become mafter of all the qualifications that can make you fo. These are the only terms and conditions upon which I can propofe `happiness. The Goddess of Pleasure here broke in

upon

her

difcourfe:

difcourfe: You fee, faid the, Hercules, by her own confef. fion, the way to her pleafures is long and difficult, whereas that which I propofe is fhort and eafy. Alas! faid the other lady, whofe vifage glowed with paffion made up of fcorn and pity, what are the pleasures you propose! To eat before you are hungry, drink before you are athirft, fleep before you are tired: to gratify appetites before they are raised, and raise such appetites as nature never planted. You never heard the most delicious mufic, which is the praise of one's felf; or faw the most beautiful object, which is the work of one's own hands. Your votaries pafs away their youth in a dream of mistaken pleasures, while they are hoarding up anguish, torment, and remorfe for old age.

As for me, I am the friend of Geds, and of good men, an agreeable companion to the artizan, a household guar dian to the fathers of families, a patron and protector of fervants, an affociate of all true and generous friendships. The banquets of my votaries are never coftly, but always delicious; for none eat or drink at them, who are not invited by hunger and thirft. Their flumbers are found, and their wakings cheerful. My young men have the pleasure of hearing themselves praised by thofe who are in years; and those who are in years, of being honoured by those who are young. In a word, my followers are favoured by the Gods, beloved by their acquaintance, esteemed by their country, and, after the clofe of their labours, honoured by pofterity.

We know, by the life of this memorable hero, to which of these two ladies he gave up his heart; and, I believe, every one who reads this, will do him the juftice to approve his choice.

TATLER,

CHAP. VIII.

PITY.

In the happy period of the golden age, when all the ce

leftial inhabitants defcended to the earth, and converfed familiarly with mortals, amongst the most cherished of the heavenly powers were twins, the offspring of Jupiter, Love and Joy. Wherever they appeared, the flowers fprung up beneath their feet, the fan fhone with a brighter radiance, and all nature feemed embellished by their prefence. They were infeparable companions, and their growing attachment was favoured by Jupiter, who had decreed that a lasting union fhould be folemnized between them so foon as they were arrived at maturer years. But in the mean time the fons of men deviated from their native innocence; Vice and Ruin overran the earth with giant ftrides; and Aftrea, with her train of celestial vifitants, forfook their polluted abodes. Love alone remained, having been ftolen away by Hope, who was his nurfe, and conveyed by her to the forefts of Arcadia, where he was brought up among the shepherds. But Jupiter affigned him a different partner, and commanded him to efpoufe SORROW, the daughter of Atè. He complied with reluctance; for her features were harsh and dif. agreeable, her eyes funk, her forehead contracted into-perpetual wrinkles, and her temples were covered with a wreath of cyprefs and wormwood. From this union sprung a virgin, in whom might be traced a strong refemblance to both her parents; but the fullen and unamiable features of her mother were fo mixed and blended with the sweetness of her father, that her countenance, though mournful, was highly pleafing. The maids and fhepherds of the neighbouring plains gathered round, and called her PITY. A redbreaft was obferved to build in the cabin where the was born; and while fhe was yet an infant, a dove pursued by a hawk flew into her bofum. This nymph had a dejected

appearance,

appearance, but so soft and gentle a mien that he was be loved to a degree of enthusiasm. Her voice was low and plaintive, but inexpreffibly fweet; and fhe loved to lie for hours together on the banks of fome wild and melancholy ftream, finging to her lute. She taught men to weep, for fhe took a ftrange delight in tears; and often, when the virgins of the hamlet were affembled at their evening sports, she would steal in amongst them, and captivate their hearts by her tales full of a charming fad nefs. She wore on her head a garland compofed of her father's myrtles, twisted with her mother's cypress.

ONE day as the fat mufing by the waters of Helicon, her tears by chance fell into the fountain; and ever fince, the Mufes' fpring has retained a strong taste of the infufion. Pity was commanded by Jupiter to follow the steps of her mother through the world, dropping balm into the wounds she made, and binding up the hearts she had broken. She follows with her hair loofe, her bofom bare and throbbing, her garments torn by the briers, and her feet bleeding with the roughnefs of the path. The nymph is mortal, for her mother is fo; and when she has filled her deftined courfe upon the earth, they fhall both expire together, and Love be again united to Joy, his immortal and long-betrothed bride.

CHAP. IX.

THE DEAD ASS.

MRS. BARBAULD.

AND this, faid he, putting the remains of a cruft into his wallet and this fhould have been thy portion, said he, had thou been alive to have fhared it with me. I thought, by the accent, it had been an apostrophe to his child; but it was to his afs, and to the very afs we had feen dead in the road, which had occafioned la Fleur's mifadventure. The man seemed to lament it much; and it in

C 3

ftantly

ftantly brought into my mind Sancho's lamentations for his; but he did it with more touches of nature.

THE mourner was fitting upon a ftone bench at the door, with the afs's pannel and its bridle on one fide, which he took up from time to time-then laid them downlooked at them, and fhook his head. He then took his cruft of bread out of his wallet again, as if to eat it; held it fome time in his hand-then laid it upon the bit of his afs's bridle-looking wiftfully at the little arrangement he had made-and then gave a figh.

THE fimplicity of his grief drew numbers about him, and la Fleur among the reft, while the horses were getting ready as I continued fitting in the poftchaife, I could fee and hear over their heads.

:

He said he had come laft from Spain, where he had been from the furtheft borders of Franconia; and had got fo far on his return home, when the afs died. Every one feemed defirous to know what bufinefs could have taken fo old and poor a man fo far a journey from his own home.

IT had pleafed Heaven, he faid, to blefs him with three fons, the fineft lads in all Germany; but having in one week loft two of them by the fmallpox, and the youngest falling ill of the fame diftemper, he was afraid of being bereft of them all, and made a vow, if Heaven would not take him from him alfo, he would go in gratitude to St. Iago, in Spain.

WHEN the mourner got thus far in his story, he stopped to pay nature her tribute-and wept bitterly.

He said Heaven had accepted the conditions; and that he had fet out from his cottage with this poor creature, who had been a patient partner of his journey-that it had eaten the fame bread with him all the way, and was unto him as a friend.

EVERY body who stood about, heard the poor fellow with concern-La Fleur offered him money-The mourner faid

he