Part 7

Calloph. Yes, Sir; you are there presented with a View of the different Quarters of the World, bringing their various Products to Britannia. It is a pretty Ornament enough for a Bridge, which, like the Art of Navigation, joins one Land to another.

Polypth. I can't say I much admire the Workmanship. There is a great Degree of Awkwardness in several of the Figures.

Calloph. Why really I am so far of your way of thinking, that I must own I am no great Admirer of this kind of Work, except it be extremely fine.----The best thing in this Way, that ever I met with, is a Piece of Alt-relief which his Lordship keeps within Doors. We shall scarce, I believe have time now, but we must take an Opportunity of seeing it before you leave the Country. You will meet with likewise in those Apartments several very good Pictures: I remember spending an Afternoon about half a Year ago, in a very agreeable Manner amongst them. But this Piece of Alt-relief struck me beyond every thing. The Story is Darius's Tent; and it is so charmingly told, that I have had, I can tell you, a meaner Opinion of Le Brun upon that Subject, ever since I have seen it: The Composition is so just, the Figures so graceful and correct, nay, the very Drapery so free and easy, that I declare I was altogether astonished at the Sight of it.

Polypth. Well; I shall find some Opportunity of paying it a Visit. There is so much Art required, and so much Difficulty attends doing any thing in this Way as it ought to be, that when we do meet with a good Piece of Workmanship of this kind, it affords us an extreme Pleasure.----So, Sir William, have I met you here! I should rather have expected to have seen you among the British Worthies.----This same Penn, Sir, I assure you, is a great Favourite of mine. I esteem him one of the most worthy Legislators upon Record. His Laws, I am told, act still with great Force in Pensylvania, and keep the honest, inoffensive People there in extreme good Order.

Calloph. Our Sailors mention his Colony as a very happy Set of People; they live entirely at Peace amongst themselves; and (bred up in a strict Observance of Probity) without any Knowledge of an Art Military amongst them, are able to preserve the most sociable Terms with their Neighbours.----These Busts seem to have escaped your Observation.

Polypth. No, Sir, I am not so incurious as to suffer any thing that has been in Italy to slip my Notice: Some of those particularly that stand on the Side next Rawleigh, I was exceedingly taken with.

Calloph. Pray what is your Opinion of checquered Marble's being made use of in Busts?

Polypth. Why, Sir, I never see any of these party-coloured Faces, but I am moved with Indignation at the Sculptor's ridiculous Humour. It is so absurd a Taste, that I cannot conceive how it should ever enter into a Workman's Head, to make every Feature of a Man's Face of a different Colour; and it amazes me, I assure you, that we meet with daily so many Instances of such Absurdity.----In several Parts of the Garden, I have had various Views of that old Gothic Building; we are now at last I hope moving towards it. I am so wonderfully pleased with its outward Appearance, that I shall be disappointed if I don't meet something answerable within.

Calloph. Why, Sir, as old as it looks, I assure you it is not yet finished. You will meet with nothing ornamental in the Inside; so I would have you persuade yourself it has already done all in its Power to entertain you. And upon my Word I think it has done a great deal: Without it, I am sure this Part of the Garden would be quite naked and lifeless; nor would any other Part appear with so much Beauty. It puts one in Mind of some generous Patriot in his Retirement; his own Neighbourhood feels most the Effects of that Bounty, which in some measure spreads itself over a whole Country.

Polypth. I like this Disposition within, I assure you, altogether as well as its Form without.----There are two or three Pieces of the best painted Glass that I have any where met with: Those little historical Pieces are exceedingly beautiful; and so are those Landskips likewise.----This Hill I think appears rather too naked.

Calloph. Throw your Eye over it then, and tell me if you are not ravished with the View before you. Nothing certainly in the kind can be more beautiful or great, than that pompous Pile rising in so magnificent a manner above the Wood. The Building cannot possibly be shewn to greater Advantage: The Appearance it makes presents you with an Idea sufficiently grand; yet your Imagination cannot be persuaded but that it is in fact much grander, and that the Wood hides a great Part of what is to be seen from your Eye. This is a most delightful manner of pleasing: A grand Object left to a good Imagination to improve upon, seldom loses by its Assistance. Our View likewise is greatly added to in point of Beauty, by those several other smaller Buildings which offer themselves, some only half hid amongst the Branches, and others just peeping from amongst tufted Trees, which make very beautiful little garnished Dishes in this most elegant Entertainment.

Polypth. As you have thus painted the near Objects, let my Pencil, I beg, come in for a few rough Touches in the backgrounds: Without something of an Off-skip, your Man of Art, you know, seldom esteems his View perfect. And in this Landskip there are as many beautiful Objects thrown off to a Distance as can well be imagined: That Variety of fine Wood; that bright Surface of Water, with the pointed Obelisk in the Midst of it; those two Pavilions upon the Banks of the Canal; and the still more distant View into the Country, are Objects which, in my Opinion, make no small Addition to the Beauty of your Landskip; or, to carry on your Allusion, may very well come in as a second Course in your Entertainment.----Our Attention, I think, in the next Place, is demanded by this venerable Assembly. That old Gentleman there sits with great Dignity: I like his Attitude extremely: If I understood the Runic Character, I might have known probably (for this Inscription I fancy would inform me) by what Title he is distinguished. But the Gracefulness of his Posture discovers him to have been nothing less than an Hero of the first Rank. He puts me in Mind of a Roman Senator, sitting in his Curule Chair to receive the Gauls.

Calloph. Why, Sir, you have done him great Honour I must own; but you have not yet honoured him according to his Dignity: He is nothing less, Sir, I assure you, than the Representative of a Saxon Deity. You see here

_Thor and Woden fabled Gods_----

with the whole System of your Ancestor's Theology. Walk round the Assembly, they will smile upon a true Briton, and try if you can acknowledge each by his distinct Symbol.

Polypth. I must confess they do not to me seem accoutered like Gods: For my Part, I should rather suspect them to be Statues of Heroes and Lawgivers, metamorphised into Divinities by the Courtesy of the Place: I shall not however go about to dispute their Titles; but like my good Ancestors before me, acquiesce piously in what other People tell me.----Tho' I cannot say but that Lady there, bearing the Sun (who represents I suppose Sunday) looks whimsical enough; and makes just such an Appearance as I could imagine the misled Conception of an enthusiastic Saxon might mould his Deities into. But in these other Figures I must own I cannot see Superstition at all characterized, which you may observe generally forms its Objects of Worship into the most mis-created things that can possibly enter the Imagination of Man.

Calloph. Why, Sir, amongst the Greeks and Romans, you may observe several very well-shaped Deities: The Hercules, the Apollo, and the Venus, are at this Day Standards of Beauty.

Polypth. Yes; but I am apt to attribute this rather to the Imagination of their Sculptors, than their Priests. To shew Art, rather than to express Religion, was the Point aimed at in these enchanting Pieces of Workmanship.----But when Superstition acted without Controul; when the fantastic Notions of Priests were put into the Hands of ordinary Workmen, even amongst the polite Greeks and Romans themselves, Lord! what misshapen Monsters crouded into Temples, and reared themselves aloft above Altars! Search other Countries likewise, Egypt and Africa, China and Japan, or any Place either ancient or modern, where Superstition prevails, and I dare engage in the whole Catalogue of their Deities you will scarce meet with one that bears any thing like the human Shape.

Calloph. Why their Demi-Gods, or canonized Heroes, of which all pagan Nations had Abundance, were generally I fancy represented in the human Form. And these Saxon Divinities, I suppose, pretend not to any superior Rank----But however, as no Degree of Veneration is exacted from you, you may I think let them rest quietly upon their Pedestals, without any farther Molestation.----We have a good View into the Country from hence. Those Woods are extremely elegant in their kind; we must certainly contrive to take a Ride thither some Evening. They are laid out in a very fine Manner, and cut into very beautiful Ridings.

Polypth. Ay, that is the kind of Improvement that takes most with me (let us step in here a Moment, we are caught I see in a Shower). I am altogether of the Poet's Opinion, that

'Tis Use alone that sanctifies Expence.

Were I a Nobleman, I should endeavour to turn my Estate into a Garden, and make my Tenants my Gardiners: Instead of useless Temples, I would build Farm-houses; and instead of cutting out unmeaning Vistas, I would beautify and mend Highways: The Country should smile upon my Labours, and the Public should partake in my Pleasures. What signifies all this ostentatious Work? Is any Man the better for it? Is it not Money most vilely squandered away?

Calloph. So far from it, that I assure you, considered even in a public Light, I look upon it as an Expence that may very properly be said to be sanctified by Use.

Polypth. I suppose you are going to tell me that it feeds two or three poor Labourers; and when you have said this, I know not what more you can say to defend it. But how is it possible for a Man to throw away his Money without doing some Service in the World?

Calloph. How? Why by spending it in gaming, to the Encouragement of Cheats and Sharpers: By squandering it away upon Lusts and Appetites, in the Support of Stews and Bawdy-houses: Or by Dealing it out in Bribes, in opposition to Honesty, and to advance Corruption. In Arts like these, what Numbers consume their Wealth! It is not enough for them to prevent Mankind's being benefited by their affluent Circumstances; but they do their utmost, while they diminish their Fortunes, to make all they can influence as worthless as themselves. So that I assure you I should look upon it as a very great Point gained, if all our Men of Fortune would only take care that their Wealth proves of no Disservice to Mankind. Tho' I am far from desiring they should stop there: I would have them endeavour to turn it into some useful Channel. And in my Opinion, it is laid out in a very laudable Manner, when it is spent, as it is here, in circulating thro' a Variety of Trades, in supporting a Number of poor Families, and in the Encouragement of Art and Industry.

Polypth. Well, Sir, I confess Wealth thus laid out, is beneficial to a Country; but still you keep from the Point: I ask whether all these good Ends would not be answered, and more too, were this Wealth laid out according to my Scheme, in public Works, or something of an useful Nature.

Calloph. And so you have no Notion of any Use arising from these elegant Productions of Art: You cannot conceive how they should be of any Service to the Public. Why you are a mere Goth, an unpolished Vandal; were you impowered to reform the Age, I suppose I should see you, like one of those wild misguided People, coursing furiously round the Land, and laying desolate every thing beautiful you met with. But in my Opinion, Sir, these noble Productions of Art, considered merely as such, may be looked upon as Works of a very public Nature. Do you think no End is answered when a Nation's Taste is regulated with regard to the most innocent, the most refined, and elegant of its Pleasures? In all polite Countries the Amusements of the People were thought highly deserving a Legislator's Inspection. To establish a just Taste in these, was esteemed in some measure as advancing the Interest of Virtue: And can it be considered as a Work entirely of a private Nature, for a superior Genius to exert itself in an Endeavour to fix a true Standard of Beauty in any of these allowed and useful kinds of Pleasure? In the Way of Gardening particularly, the Taste of the Nation has long been so depraved, that I should think we might be obliged to any one that would undertake to reform it. While a Taste for Painting, Music, Architecture, and other polite Arts, in some measure prevailed amongst us, our Gardens for the most Part were laid out in so formal, aukward, and wretched a Manner, that they were really a Scandal to the very Genius of the Nation; a Man of Taste was shocked whenever he set his Foot into them. But Stow, it is to be hoped, may work some Reformation: I would have our Country Squires flock hither two or three times in a Year, by way of Improvement, and after they have looked about them a little, return Home with new Notions, and begin to see the Absurdity of their clipped Yews, their Box-wood Borders, their flourished Parterres, and their lofty Brick-walls.----You may smile, but I assure you such an Improvement of public Taste, tho' there is no Occasion to consider it as a matter of the first Importance, is certainly a Concern that ought by no means to be neglected. Perhaps indeed I may carry the Matter farther than the generality of People; but to me I must own there appears a very visible Connection between an improved Taste for Pleasure, and a Taste for Virtue: When I sit ravished at an Oratorio, or stand astonished before the Cartoons, or enjoy myself in these happy Walks, I can feel my Mind expand itself, my Notions enlarge, and my Heart better disposed either for a religious Thought, or a benevolent Action: In a Word, I cannot help imagining a Taste for these exalted Pleasures contributes towards making me a better Man.

Polypth. Good God! what an Enthusiast you are! Polite Arts improve Virtue! an Assertion indeed for a Philosopher to make. Why are they not always considered as having a natural Tendency to Luxury, to Riot, and Licentiousness?