Suppofing this quantity to colt only four fhillings a bottle, which I take to be the lowest price of claret, the fum amounts to eight hundred and eighty-two pounds. Allowing every fiphon but fix hours a day to fuck his two bottles in, which is a fhort allowance, that time amounts to fix hundred and thirty-eight days, eighteen hours; one full quarter of his life, for the above-mentioned seven years. Can any rational being coolly confider these three grofs fums, of wine, and confequently distempers swallowed, of money lavished, and time loft, without shame, regret, and a refolution of reformation? I am well aware that the numerous fociety of fiphons will fay, like fir Tunbelly, "What would "this fellow have us do?" To which I am at no lofs for an answer. Do any thing else. Preferve and improve that reafon, which was given you to be your guide through this world, and to a better. Attend to, and difcharge, your religious, your moral, and your focial duties. These are occupations worthy of a rational being, they will agreeably and ufefully employ your time, and will banish from your breasts that tiresome liftleffness, or those tormenting thoughts, from which you endeavour, though in vain, to fly. Is your retrofpect uncomfortable? Exert yourselves in time to make your profpect better; and let the former ferve as a back-ground to the latter. Cultivate and improve your minds, according to your several educations and capacities. There are feveral useful books fuited to them all. True religion and virtue give a chearful and happy turn to VOL. II the meaning into them, he would, to a certain degree, check and cramp the genius of the composer of the mufic, who perhaps might think himself obliged to adapt his founds to the fenfe: whereas now he is at liberty to scatter indifcriminately, among the kings, queens, heroes, and heroines, his ADAGIOS, his ALLEGROS, his PATHETICS, his CHROMATICS, and his JIGGS. It would alfo have been a reftraint upon the actors and actreffes, who might poffibly have attempted to form their action upon the meaning of their parts; but as it is, if they do but feem, by turns, to be angry and forry in the two firft acts, and very merry in the laft fcene of the laft, they are fure to meet with the deferved applaufe. Signior Metaftafio attempted fome time ago a very dangerous innovation. He tried gently to throw fome fenfe into his operas; but it did not take: the confequences were obvious; and nobody knew where they would stop. The whole fkill and judgment of the poet now confifts in felecting about a hundred words, for the opera vocabulary does not exceed that number, that terminate in liquids and vowels, and rhyme to each other, Thefe words excite ideas in the hearer, though they were not the refult of any in the poet. Thus the word tortorella, ftretched out to a quaver of a quarter of an hour, excites in us the ideas of tender and faithful love; but if it is fucceeded by navicella, that foothing idea gives way to the boiflerous and horrid one of a fkiff, that is, a heart, toffed by the winds and waves upon the main ocean of love. The handcuffs and fetters in which the hero com monly monly appears, at the end of the fecond, or beginning of the third act, indicate captivity; and when properly jingled to a pathetic piece of recitativo upon questi ceppi, are really very moving, and infpire a love of liberty. Can any thing be more innocent, or more moral, than this mufical pantomime, in which there is not one indecent word or action, but where, on the contrary, the moft generous fentiments are, however imperfectly, pointed out and inculcated? I was once indeed afraid, that the licentioufnefs of the times had infected even the opera: for in that of Alexander, the hero going into the heroine's apartment, found her taking a nap in an easy-chair. Tempted by fo much beauty, and invited by fo favourable an opportunity, he gently approached, and Stole a pair of gloves. I confefs, I dreaded the confequences of this bold ftep; and the more fo, as it was taken by the celebrated fignior Senefino. But all went off very well; for the hero contented himfelf with giving the good company a fong, in which he declared the lips he had juft kiffed were a couple of rubies. Another good effect of the Italian operas is, that they contribute extremely to the keeping of good hours; the whole audience, though paffionately fond of mufic, being fo tired before they are half, and fo fleepy before they are quite, done, that they make the best of their way home, too drowsy to enter upon fresh spirits that night. Having thus refcued thefe excellent mufical dramas from the unjust ridicule, which fome people of vulgar and illiberal taftes have endeavoured to throw upon faoulerent grandement, et fe divertirent moult triftement à ta mode de leur païs. A very skilful furgeon of my acquaintance affured me, that, having opened the body of a SOAKER, who died of an apoplexy, he had found all the finer tubes and veffels plugged up with the tartar of the wine he had swallowed, fo as to render the circulation of the blood abfolutely impoffible, and the folds of the ftomach fo ftiffened with it, that it could not perform its functions. He compared the body of the deceased to a fiphon, fo choaked up with the tartar and dregs of the wine that had run through it, as to be im. pervious. I adopted this image, which feemed to me a just one, and I shall for the future typify the SOAKER by the fiphon, fuction being equally the bufinefs of both. An object, viewed at once, and in its full extent, will fometimes ftrike the mind, when the feveral parts and gradations of it, feparately feen, would be but little attended to. I fhall therefore here prefent the fociety of fiphons with a calculation, of which they cannot difpute the truth, and will not, I believe, deny the moderation; and yet perhaps they will be furprized when they fee the grofs fums of the wine they fuck, of the money they pay for it, and of the time they lofe, in the courfe of feven years only. I reckon that I put a staunch fiphon very low, when I put him only at two bottles a day, one with another. This in feven years amounts to four thoufand four hundred and ten bottles", which makes twenty hogsheads and feventy bottles. This calculation is defective, the number of bottles drank in that time amounting to 5110. Suppofing Seppeling this quantity to cot only four fhillings a bottle, which I take to be the lowest price of claret, the fum amounts to eight hundred and eighty-two pounds. Allowing every fiphon but fix hours a day to fuck his two bottles in, which is a fhort allowance, that time amounts to fix hundred and thirty-eight days, eighteen hours; one full quarter of his life, for the above-mentioned feven years. Can any rational being coolly confider these three grofs fums, of wine, and confequently diftempers fwallowed, of money lavished, and time loft, without shame, regret, and a resolution of reformation ? I am well aware that the numerous fociety of fiphons will fay, like fir Tunbelly, "What would "this fellow have us do?" To which I am at nolofs for an answer. Do any thing elfe. Preferve and improve that reason, which was given you to be your guide through this world, and to a better. Attend to, and difcharge, your religious, your moral, and your focial duties. Thefe are occupations worthy of a rational being, they will agreeably and ufefully employ your time, and will banish from your breafts that tirefome liftleffnefs, or those tormenting thoughts, from which you endeavour, though in vain, to fly. Is your retrofpect uncomfortable? Exert yourselves in time to make your prospect better; and let the former ferve as a back-ground to the lat ter. Cultivate and improve your minds, according to your several educations and capacities. There are feveral useful books suited to them all. True religion and virtue give a chearful and happy turn to VOL. II. the |