SIR WILLIAM TEMPLE. Sir William Temple was born in London in 1628, and died at Moor Park, Surrey, in 1699. The epithet of "genteel" which has stuck to his style is unfortunate, because the adjective has perpetually sunk in value, till it has become, at least in educated mouths and pens, definitely satirical. In its proper sense of refinement combined with urbanity, and dignity associated with grace, it is applicable enough. THE ENGLISH CLIMATE. MY orange-trees are as large as any I saw, when I was young, in France, except those of Fontainebleau, or what I have seen since in the Low Countries, except some very old ones of the prince of Orange's; as laden with flowers as any can well be, as full of fruit as I suffer or desire them, and as well tasted as are commonly brought over, except the best sorts of Seville and Portugal. And thus much I could not but say in defence of our climate, which is so much and so generally decried abroad by those who never saw it; or, if they have been here, have yet perhaps seen no more of it than what belongs to inns, or to taverns and ordinaries; who accuse our country for their own defaults, and speak ill, not only of our gardens and houses, but of our humours, our breeding, our customs and manners of life, by what they have observed of the meaner and baser sort of mankind; and of company among us, because they wanted themselves, perhaps, either fortune or birth, either quality or merit, to introduce them among the good, I must needs add one thing more in favour of our climate, which I heard the king say, and I thought new and right, and truly like a king of England, that loved and esteemed his own country; it was in reply to some of the company that were reviling our climate, and extolling those of Italy and Spain, or at least of France: he said, he thought that was the best climate, where he could be abroad in the air with pleasure, or at least without trouble or inconvenience, the most days of the year, and the most hours of the day; and this he thought he could be in England, more than in any country he knew of in Europe. And I believe it is true, not only of the hot and the cold, but even among our neighbours in France, and the Low Countries themselves, where the heats or the colds, and changes of seasons, are less treatable than they are with us. The truth is, our climate wants no heat to produce excellent fruits; and the default of it is only the short season of our heats or summers, by which many of the latter are left behind and imperfect with us. But all such as are ripe before the end of August, are, for aught I know, as good with us as any where else. This makes me esteem the true region of gardens in England to be the compass of ten miles about London, where the accidental warmth of air, from the fires and steams of so vast a town, makes fruits, as well as corn, a great deal forwarder than in Hampshire or Wiltshire, though more southward by a full degree. There are, besides the temper of our climate, two things particular to us, that contribute much to the beauty and elegance of our gardens, which are the gravel of our walks, and the fineness and almost perpetual greenness of our turf. The first is not known anywhere else, which leaves all their dry walks in other countries, very unpleasant and uneasy. The other cannot be found in France or in Holland as we have it, the soil not admitting that fineness of blade in Holland, nor the sun that greenness in France, during most of the summer; nor indeed is it to be found but in the finest of our soils. Essay on Gardening. THE USE OF POETRY AND MUSIC. WHETHER it be that the fierceness of the Gothic humours, or noise of their perpetual wars, frighted it away, or that the unequal mixture of the modern languages would not bear it; certain it is, that the great heights and excellency both of poetry and music fell with the Roman learning and empire, and have never since recovered the admiration and applauses that before attended them; yet, such as they are among us, they must be confessed to be the softest and sweetest, the most general and most innocent amusements of common time and life. They still find room in the courts of princes and the cottages of shepherds they serve to revive and animate the dead calm of poor or idle lives, and to allay or divert the violent passions and perturbations of the greatest and the busiest men. And both these effects are of equal use to human life: for the mind of man is like the sea, which is neither agreeable to the beholder nor the voyager in a calm or in a storm, but is so to both when a little agitated by gentle gales; and so the mind, when moved by soft and easy passions and affections. I know very well that many, who pretend to be wise by the forms of being grave, are apt to despise both poetry and music as toys and trifles too light for the use or entertainment of serious men but whoever find themselves wholly insensible to these charms, would, I think, do well to keep their own counsel, for fear of reproaching their own temper, and bringing the goodness of their natures, if not of their understandings, into question: it may be thought at least an ill sign, if not an ill constitution, since some of the fathers went so far, as to esteem the love of music a sign of predestination, as a thing divine, and reserved for the felicities of heaven itself. While this world lasts, I doubt not but the pleasure and requests of these two entertainments will do so too and happy those that content themselves with these, or any other so easy and so innocent and do not trouble the world, or other men, because they cannot be quiet themselves though no body hurts them! H When all is done, human life is, at the greatest and the best, but like a froward child, that must be played with and humoured a little to keep it quiet till it falls asleep, and then the care is over. Essay on Poetry. P. 95, 1. 10. It. Here Sir William falls into the obscurity of the elder style, for what follows concerns not "climate" but "country." In itself, however, the censure is just, and has not lost its force to-day. P. 95, l. 19. The king. Charles II. P. 96, 15. The latter is not a slip of Temple's; it is opposed, not to “former," but to " early." But the distinct use of the two forms “later” and “latter” in modern English is certainly a gain in clearness, as this instance, among many, shows. P. 97, L. 1. The assertion in the first sentence of this passage cannot of course be admitted, but the singular beauty of the passage itself far more than redeems it. GEORGE SAVILE, George Savile, Marquess of Halifax, was born in THE CHARACTER OF A TRIMMER. To conclude; our Trimmer is so fully satisfied of the truth of these principles by which he is directed, in reference to the public, that he will neither be hectored and threatened, laughed nor drunk out of them; and instead of being converted by the arguments of his adversaries to their opinions, he is very much confirmed in his own by them. He professes solemnly, that were it in his power to choose, he would rather have his ambition bounded by the commands of a great and wise master, than let it range with a popular license, though crowned with success; yet he cannot commit such a sin against the glorious thing called Liberty, nor let his soul stoop so much below itself, as to be content without repining to have his reason wholly subdued, or the privilege of acting like a sensible creature torn from him by the imperious dictates of unlimited authority, in what hand soever it happens to be placed. What is there in this that is so criminal, as to deserve the penalty of that most singular apophthegm, "A Trimmer is worse than a rebel!" What do angry men ail, to rail so against moderation? Does it not look as if they were going to some very scurvy extreme, that is too strong |