e to all
my country friends as the best kind of physick for mending a bad
constitution, and preserving a good one. I cannot do this better, than
in the following lines out of Mr. Dryden.

The first physicians by debauch were made;
Excess began, and sloth sustains the trade.
By chace our long-liv'd fathers earn'd their food;
Toil strung the nerves, and purify'd the blood;
But we their sons, a pamper'd race of men,
Are dwindled down to threescore years and ten.
Better to hunt in fields for health unbought,
Than fee the Doctor for a nauseous draught.
The wise for cure on exercise depend;
God never made his work for man to mend.

THE COUNTY ASSIZES.

A man's first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart;
his next, to escape the censures of the world. If the last interferes
with the former, it ought to be entirely neglected; but otherwise there
cannot be a greater satisfaction to an honest mind, than to see those
approbations which it gives itself seconded by the applauses of the
publick: a man is more sure of his conduct, when the verdict which he
passes upon his own behaviour is thus warranted and confirmed by the
opinion of all that know him.

My worthy friend Sir Roger is one of those who is not only at peace
within himself, but beloved and esteemed by all about him. He receives
a suitable tribute for his universal benevolence to mankind, in the
returns of affection and good-will, which are paid him by every one
that lives within his neighbourhood. I lately met with two or three odd
instances of that general respect which is shewn to the good old
Knight. He would needs carry Will Wimble and myself with him to the
county-assizes. As we were upon the road, Will Wimble join'd a couple
of plain men who rid before us, and conversed with them for some time;
during which my friend Sir Roger acquainted me with their characters.

The first of them, says he, that has a spaniel by his side, is a yeoman
of about an hundred pounds a year, an honest man: he is just within the
game-act, and qualified to kill an hare or a pheasant. He knocks down a
dinner with his gun twice or thrice a week; and by that means lives much
cheaper than those who have not so good an estate as himself. He would
be a good neighbour if he did not destroy so many partridges. In short,
he is a very sensible man; shoots flying; and has been several times
foreman of the petty-jury.