No. 585.1 WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 25. [1714.] Ipsi lætitia voces ad sidera jactant Intonsi montes: ipsæ jam carmina rupes, The sequel of the story of Shalum and Hilpa. THE letter inserted in my last had so good an effect upon Hilpa, that she answered it in less than a twelvemonth after the following manner. Hilpa mistress of the valleys, to Shalum master of mount Tirzah, In the 789th year of the creation. "What have I to do with thee, O Shalum? Thou praisest 5 Hilpa's beauty, but art thou not secretly enamoured with the verdure of her meadows? Art thou not more affected with the prospect of her green valleys, than thou wouldest be with the sight of her person? The lowings of my herds, and the bleatings of my flocks, make a pleasant echo in thy mountains, and sound IO Sweetly in thy ears. What though I am delighted with the wavings of thy forests, and those breezes of perfumes which flow from the top of Tirzah : are these like the riches of the valley? "I know thee, O Shalum; thou art more wise and happy than any of the sons of men. Thy dwellings are among the cedars; 15 thou searchest out the diversity of soils, thou understandest the influence of the stars, and markest the change of seasons. Can a woman appear lovely in the eyes of such a one? Disquiet me not, O Shalum; let me alone, that I may enjoy those goodly possessions which are fallen to my lot. Win me not by thy enticing 20 words. May thy trees increase and multiply; mayest thou add wood to wood, and shade to shade; but tempt not Hilpa to destroy thy solitude, and make thy retirement populous." The Chinese say that a little time afterwards she accepted of a treat in one of the neighbouring 1 This paper is wrongly numbered 586. [1714] hills to which Shalum had invited her. This treat lasted for two years, and is said to have cost Shalum five hundred antelopes, two thousand ostriches, and a thousand tun of milk; but what most of all recommended it, was that variety of delicious fruits 5 and pot-herbs, in which no person then living could any way equal Shalum. He treated her in the bower which he had planted amidst the wood of nightingales. The wood 2 was made up of such fruit trees and plants as are most 10 agreeable to the several kinds of singing birds; so that it had drawn into it all the music of the country, and was filled from one end of the year to the other with the most agreeable concert in season. He showed her every day some beautiful and sur- 15 prising scene in this new region of wood-lands; and as by this means he had all the opportunities he could wish for of opening his mind to her, he succeeded so well, that upon her departure she made him a kind of promise, and gave him her word to 20 return him a positive answer in less than fifty years. She had not been long among her own people in the valleys when she received new overtures, and at the same time a most splendid visit from Mish- 25 pach, who was a mighty man of old, and had built a great city, which he called after his own name. Every house was made for at least a thousand years, nay there were some that were leased out for three lives; so that the quantity of stone and 30 timber consumed in this building is scarce to be imagined by those who live in the present age of 2 1714, This wood. the world. This great man entertained her with the voice of musical instruments which had been lately invented, and danced before her to the sound of the timbrel. He also presented her with several 5 domestic utensils wrought in brass and iron, which had been newly found out for the conveniency of life. In the mean time Shalum grew very uneasy with himself, and was sorely displeased at Hilpa for the reception which she had given to IO Mishpach, insomuch that he never wrote to her or spoke of her during a whole revolution of Saturn; but finding that this intercourse went no further than a visit, he again renewed his addresses to her, who during his long silence is said very often to 15 have cast a wishing eye upon mount Tirzah. Her mind continued wavering about twenty years longer between Shalum and Mishpach; for though her inclinations favoured the former, her interest pleaded very powerfully for the other. While 20 her heart was in this unsettled condition, the following accident happened which determined her choice. A high tower of wood that stood in the city of Mishpach having caught fire by a flash of lightning, in a few days reduced the whole town to ashes. 25 Mishpach resolved to rebuild the place whatever it should cost him; and having already destroyed all the timber of the country, he was forced to have recourse to Shalum, whose forests were now two hundred years old. He purchased these woods 30 with so many herds of cattle and flocks of sheep, and with such a vast extent of fields and pastures, that Shalum was now grown more wealthy than Mishpach; and therefore appeared so charming in the eyes of Zilpah's daughter, that she no longer refused him in marriage. On the day in which he brought her up into the mountains, he raised a most prodigious pile of cedar, and of every sweet-smelling wood, which reached above three hundred cub- 5 its in height: he also cast into the pile bundles of myrrh and sheaves of spikenard, enriching it with every spicy shrub, and making it fat with the gums of his plantations. This was the burnt-offering which Shalum offered in the day of his espousals: 10 the smoke of it ascended up to heaven, and filled the whole country with incense and perfume. No. 22. The Freebolder MONDAY, MARCH 5. [1716.] Studiis rudis, sermone barbarus, impetu strenuus, manu promptus, cogitatione celer.-VELL. PATERC. FOR the honour of his Majesty, and the safety of his government, we cannot but observe, that those who have appeared the greatest enemies to both, are of that rank of men, who are commonly 5 distinguished by the title of Foxhunters. As several of these have had no part of their education in cities, camps, or courts, it is doubtful whether they are of greater ornament or use to the nation in which they live. It would be an everlasting 10 reproach to politics, should such men be able to overturn an establishment which has been formed by the wisest laws, and is supported by the ablest heads. The wrong notions and prejudices which cleave to many of these country gentlemen, who 15 have always lived out of the way of being better informed, are not easy to be conceived by a person who has never conversed with them. That I may give my readers an image of these rural statesmen, I shall, without farther preface, |