have nothing to do. Our attention is only engaged by the favage of the woods. While man continued thus an inmate of the foreft, it is poffible he might have fagacity to build himself a hut of boughs, which he might cover with clods; and yet it is more pro bable, that while he continued the mere child of nature, he was contented with the fimple fhelter which Virgil above fuppofes his common mother furnish ed, the imbowering thicket or the hollow trunk; as fummer or winter led him to prefer an open or a clofer cover. Strabo fpeaks of certain Afiatics, even fo late in the hiftory of mankind as the times of Pompey the Great, who harboured, like birds, in the tops of trees. And I think the favages about Botany Bay are not reprefented by our late discoverers in a much more improved condition. Man in this folitary ftate (for fearcity of food forbade any enlarged ideas of fociety) waged but unequal war with his brother favages the brutes.Moft of them out tripped him in fpeed, many of them contended with him in ftrength, and fome nearly equalled him in fagacity. 1 The human favage thus finding hinafelf hard put to it, even to defend his own, might look round for affift ance. him to procure a better ally than that he had chofen. He had yet but little connection with his fellow. To join, now and then, in a hunting party was all the intercourfe he knew. It was little more than fuch a league as is found a mong jackalls and other animals that hunt in packs. Ideas of fociety, however, by degrees took place. The dawnings of focial compact appeared. Man now threw off the brute, and thought it good to leave his scattered tenements, and to affemble in hoards. The rudiments of law were traced, and fome rude fketch of fubordination. In earneft he began now to fhew his dominion. By fellowship he had increased his ftrength; the horse, the bullock, and other animals were reclaimed from the foreft; fome for focial affistance, and others for a lefs precarious fupply of food; while the fhaggy tenants of the foreft, which were hoftile to his plans, began every where to give way, prowing only by night, and fkulking by day in fuch deep receffes as might beft fecure them from the formidable affociation which had taken place. But ftill his native foreft was man's delight. Here, in fome opening furrunded with woods the hoard first fettled. Here the firft attempts of architecture were made; the krail was laid out by rule and line, and the first The dog, whofe friendly man- draughts of regular defence were imaners might folicit his acquaintance, gined. Cafar, with all his boasted was probably one of his firit affociates conquests, found the Gauls, the Briin thofe countries where dogs were to tons, and the Germans farce emer be found. This union made a power- ging from this ftate of barbarism. His ful party in the forest. The great ob- commentaries every where fhew them ject of it however was rather food to have been forest people; retreating than conqueft. The dog and his ma- before him into their faftneffes, and fter were both carnivorous animals; impeding his march by felling timber and they foon began to gratify their in his way. The Britons, he exprefsappetites at the expence of their felly tells us, gave the name of a town low-brutes. The one conducting, and the other executing the plan, few creatures could oppofe them. But man, from the beginning, was an ambitious animal. Having filled his belly, he afpired after dominionFor this purpose it was neceffary for to a part of a forest which they had fortified with a rampart and a ditch. But Cæfar faw the British town only in time of war. Strabo gives us a picture of one in time of peace. "Fo"refts, fays he, were the only towns "in ufe among them, which were "s formed formed by cutting down a large circle "of wood, and erecting huts within it, and fheds for cattle." The fame author, afterwards defcribing a town of this kind, fhews more exactly the mode of fortifying it. It was the practice, he tells us, to intermix and weave together the branches of thorny trees, and strengthen them with ftakes. As the arts of civilization increased, man began to feel that the foreft could not afford him all the conveniences he wifhed. Wants multiplied upon him which he could not indulge anidft its receffes. He chofe fertile fituations for tillage the neighbourhood of rivers for mills and manufactures and defcended to the fea-coaft for commerce, which he extended to the most diftant parts. Thus genial intercourfe, and mutual aid, fhade; Call'd nature from her ivy-mantled den, And foftened human rock-work into men. When man became thus refined, we leave him. When he relinquifhed the foreft, we have no farther connection with him. His haunts and habits are no longer the object of conjecture. They become the fubject of recorded hiftory. To the fage hiftorian therefore we now confign him; and return to the foreft, which at this day in moft parts of the world, where any forets remain, is left in poffeffion of the brute creation.. fingle, attacks the whole. He is received by a brigade of pointed fpears, and foon overpowered; but in the bravery of his foul he dies without a wish to retreat. In the forefts of Malabar and Bengall the tyger roams. Of this animal there are various kinds; the largest and fierceft is called the royal tyger. Of all the favages of the forelt he is the most active, the moft infidious, and the most cruel. The forests of India are inhabited alfo by the gentle and inoffensive elephant. This animal commonly marches in focial bands. The traveller hears them at a distance, as they traverfe the foreft; marking their rout by the crush and defolation of thickets and intervening woods. He liftens with out difmay, and even waits to be a fpectator of the unwieldy proceffion as it moves along. The monkey inhabits the woods both of Africa and India; and, what is fingular, where he chufes to take poffeffion he may be called the lord of the foreft. The lion himself gives way-not being able to bear, as travelders report, the inceffant tricking of that mifchievous brute, whofe agility prevents correction. But the Human figure is of all others the object of his higheft derision. If fuch a phenomenon appear in his domains, the whole fociety are called together by a whoop ; from curiofity they proceed to infolence, chattering, grinning, and throwing down fruit, cones, withered fticks, or any thing their fituation furnishes. Fire-arms can fcarce reprefs them. In fome forefts where the ape, the baboon, and other large fpecies of this difgufting tribe inhabit, the traveller must be well guarded to pass in fecu Under the burning funs of Lybia, in the forefts of Zara and Bildulgerid, the lordly lion reigns. He harbours too in the woods of India; but there he is an ignoble brute, compared with the lion of Africa. The African lion is a beast of unrivalled prowess; nothing appalls him. From his dark re-rity, intubongg caffes in the foreft he fometimes eyes the numerous caravan, confifting of men, horfes, and camels, marching flowly along the burning fands of Barca. He lathes his tail, colle&s his Riength, and bounding forward, tho' In South-America, in the wide forefts of Brazil and Paraguay, along the banks of the Amazon, the cougar, a fpecies of tyger, is the most formidable animal. Poffeffed of Amphibious nature; he plunges into the river, and carries carries his devaftations beyond that mighty ftream. Buffon relates, that he has been known to cross the sea in large companies, between the continent and the island of Cayenne; and, in the infancy of that colony, to have kept it in conftant alarms. In North America the moofe-deer feems intitled to the appellation of lord of the foreft; an animal reprefented by many travellers as high as an elephant, and of a nature as gentle. With fately tread he traverses the vaft woods of fir; and crops the cones and pine-tops beyond the reach of any other animal. When the foreft is covered with fnow, and crufted over with froft, the wild American marks him for certain deftruction. His feet fink deep in the faithlefs furface, and his flight is impeded; while his purfuers, mounted on fnow-fhoes, attack and retreat at pleasure, affailing him with fhot or arrows on every fide, and when he falls, half a township is em. ployed to drag him to their habitations; where the noble carcafe is received in triumph, and at once fufpends the effects of famine. If food be plentiful he is hunted for his fkin. But though his nature is gentle, like many other animals, he will turn upon his purfuer, if he be wounded. He fights with his fore-feet. We have a ftory well authenticated of a hunter, on whom a wounded moofe-deer turn ed, he was found in the woods pounded into a jelly: his very bones were broken in pieces; and the deer, having exhaufted his fury, was found lying dead befide him. The woods of Germany nourish the wild boar, a beaft by no means among the moft ignoble of the foreft. His form, the fhape of his head, his fhort erect ears, his tufks, his thick mufcular fhoulders, adorned with briftles, and the lightness of his hind quarters, fo contrary to the domeftic hog, which is a round lump, are all highly picturefque. Such alfo are his colour, a grifly brown; and his coat, covered in many parts, as well as his shoulders, with long fweeping briftles, Nor are his gait, attitude, and motion, at all inferior to his form. This beaft, during the three first years of his life, herds with the litter, among which he was produced. He then is called by forrefters a beaft of company. In his fourth year he affumes the title of a wild boar-ranges the foreft alone becomes royal game-and at this day. furnishes the chief amufement of half the princes of the empire. From the forefts of the Pyrennees, when winter rages, the famished wolves ruth down in troops. All the coun try is in arms, and the utmost vigilance of men and dogs can fcarce reprefs fuch a torrent of invafion. In the gloomy forefts of Lapland, where the pine is covered with black mofs, the hardy rein-deer browzes. If he defcend into the plain, his food differs only in hue. With thofe two kinds of mofs, the black and the white, the whole face of Lapland is difcoloured; and when the diminutive native, of the country fees the waftes around him abound with this femi vegetable, he bleffes his ftars, and calls it luxu ry. His rein-deer, fupported by this cheerlefs pafturage, fupplies him with every thing that nature wants. gives him food-it gives him milk→→→ it gives him cloathing-and carries him, wrapped in fur, and feated in his fledge, with amazing velocity from one defart to another. It' Thus moft of the forefts of the earth became the poffeffion of the brute creation. In the forefls of Sumatra, we are told that wild beafts at this very day depopulate whole villages. In other favage countries, man and beaft are still joint-tenants; yet, in general, even the barbarian is taught by example to leave the foreft for a more convenient abode. But though man had deferted the foreft as a dwelling, and had left it to be inhabited by beats, it foon appeared that he had no intention of giving "and bulls." To fhelter beafts of the latter kind we know a forest must be of fome magnificence. These woods, contiguous even to the capital, conti nued clofe and thick many ages afterwards. Even fo late as Henry VII's time we are informed by Polidore Vir gil, that," Tertia propemodum Anglia pars pecori, aut cervis, damis, "capreolis (nam et ii quoque in ea par giving up his right of dominion over it. In a course of ages, as population increased, he began to find it in his way. In one part, it occupied grounds fit for his plough; in another, for the pafturage of his domeftic cattle; and in fome parts it afforded fhelter for his enemies. He foon fhewed the beafts, they were only tenants at will. He began amain to lay about him with his axe. The foreft groaned; and rete funt, quæ ad feptentrionem eft) cu"niculifee nutriendis relicta eft inculta; quippe paffim funt ejufmodi ferarum' vivaria, feu roboraria, quæ lignis ro• "boreis funt claufa : unde multa vena+ "tio, qua fe nobiles cum primis exeri "cent." eeded from its ancient bounds. It is amazing what ravages he made in his original habitation, through every quarter of the globe. The fable was realized; man begged of the foreft a handle to his hatchet, and when he had obtained the boon, he used it in felling the whole. Britain, like other countries, abounded once in wood. When Caffibalan, Caractacus, and Boadicia, defended their country's rights, the country itself was a fortress. An extenfive plain was then as uncommon as a foreft is now. Fitz-Stephen, a monk of Canterbury, in the time of Henry II. tells us, that a large foreft lay round London, "in which were "woody groves, in the covers where "of lurked bucks and does, wild boars, ર In this paffage the foreft feems to be diftinguifhed from the park, which latter was fenced in thofe days with oak pales, as it is now. As Britain became more cultivated, its woods of courfe receded. They gave way, as in other places, to the plough, to pafturage, to fhip-building, to architecture, and all other objects of human industry, in which timber is the principal material; obtaining for that reafon, among the Romans, the pointed appellation of materies Letter from Dr Johnson to Mr James Elphinfton, on the death of his Mother. DEAR SIR, OU have, as I find by every kind of evidence, loft an excellent mother, and I hope you will not think me incapable of partaking of your grief. I have a mother, now eighty-two years of age, whom there fore I muft foon lofe, unlefs it pleafe God, that she rather fhould mourn for me. I read the letters, in which you relate your mother's death to Mrs Strachan; and I think I do mfelf honour, when I tell you that I read them with tears. But tears are neither to me nor to you of any farther ufe, when once the tribute of na ture has been paid. The bufinefs of life fummons us away from useless grief, and calls to the exercife of thofe virtues, of which we are lamenting our deprivation. The great benefit which one friend can confer upon another, is to guard, and incite, and elevate his virtues. This your mother will ftill perform, if you dili gently preferve the memory of her life, and of her death: a life, fo far as I can learn, ufeful and wife, and innocent; and a death refigned, peaceful and holy. I cannot forbear to mention that neither reafon nor revelation denies you to hope, that you may encrease her happiness by obeying her precepts; prefence. If you write down minute and that the may, in her prefent ftate, look with pleasure upon every act of virtue, to which her inftructions or example have contributed. Whether this be more than a pleafing dream, or a juft opinion of feparate fpirits, is indeed of no great importance to us, when we confider ourselves as acting under the eye of God.. Yet furely there is fomething pleafing in the belief, that our feparation from thofe whom we love, is merely corporeal; and it may be a great incite ment to virtuous friendship, if it can be made probable, that a union, which has received the divine approbation, fhall continue to eternity. There is one expedient, by which ly what you can remember of her Your moft obliged moft obedient and moft humble fervant, SAM. JOHNSON, you may in fome degree continue her Sept. 25, 1750. Extract of a Letter from Lord Bolingbroke to Monf. Pouily de Champeaux, with a Commentary, and Remarks. ENFIN, mon cher Pouilly, dans "as Montaigne would perhaps choose falfe modefty, of which there is "fometimes a neceffity for making a fhield again ft envy. I fhall then "tell you boldly, that these three men afe You; MYSELF, and POPE." cette foule d'hommes que j'ai " to exprefs himself, too frank and free pu connoitre, et dont j'ai cherché â "in its paces for me to need, with etudier l'efprit et le caractere, je n'en" you, the wrapping myfelf up in that ai vu que TROIS qui m'aient paru dignes qu'on leur confiát le foin de gouverner des nations. Notre amitié" eft trop etroite, elle eft, ainfi que le ditoit Montaigne, trop libre et trop franche dans fes allures, pour que je m'enveloppe avec vous de cette fauffe modeftie, dont il faut quelquefois fe faire un bouclier contre l'envie. Je vous dirai donc bardiment que ces trois hommes font Vous, Moi, et POPE, To begin here with Bolingbroke; it is, with truth, nothing but just to add to what has been elsewhere fard of him, that, in this opinion of himfelf, he ftands no exception to the generality of mankind, ever practically ftrangers to the divinely moral injunction of SELF KNOWLEDGE. It is not that he is reprehenfible here for that franknefs of fpirit with which, believing himself fully qualified for the arduous task of government, he confidentially to his friend afferts that claim, in difdain of the grimace of mock modefty, than which fheer impudence iiflf is a thousand times lefe loathfome, |