WE fhall very readily, replied Mr. ADDISON, acknowledge the bravery and other virtues of the young hero, whose fortunes you hint at. He was, in truth, to speak the language of that time, the very flower of knighthood, and contributed more than any body else, by his pen, as well as fword, to throw a luftre on the profeffion of chivalry. But the thing itself, however adorned by his wit and recommended by his manners, was barbarous; the offspring of Gothic fiercenefs; and fhews the times, which favoured it fo much, to have fcarcely emerged from their original rudenefs and brutality. You may celebrate, as loudly as you please, the deeds of thefe wonder working knights. Alas, what affinity have fuch prodigies to our life and manners? The old poet, you quoted juft now with approbation, fhall tell us the difference:

These were bold ftories of our Arthur's age ;
But here are other acts, another stage

And scene appears; it is not fince as then;
No giants, dwarfs, or monfters here, but
MEN [z]

OR, if you want a higher authority, we fhould not, methinks, on such an occafion, forget the admiral CERVANTES, whofe ridicule hath brought eternal difhonour on the profeffion of knighterrantry.

WITH your leave, interrupted Dr. ARBUTHNOT, I have reafon to except against both your authorities. At best, they do but condemn the abuses of chivalry, and the madness of continuing the old romantic spirit in times when, from a change of manners and policy, it was no longer in season. Adventures, we will fay, were of course to ceafe, when giants and monsters disappeared. And yet have they totally disappeared, and have giants

[*] Speeches at Prince HENRY's barriers.

and

and monsters been no where heard of out of the castles and forests of our old romancers? 'Tis odds, methinks, but, in the fenfe of ELIZABETH'S good fubjects, PHILIP II. might be a giant at least: and,' without a little of this adventurous fpirit, it may be a queftion whether all her enchanters, I mean her BURLEIGHS and WALSINGHAMS, would have proved a match for him. I mention this the rather to fhew you, how little obligation his countrymen have to your CERVANTES for laughing away the remains of that prowefs, which was the best support of the Spanish monarchy.

As if, faid Mr. ADDISON, the prowess of any people were only to be kept alive. by their running mad. But let the cafe. of the Spaniards be what it will, furely we, of this country, have little obligation to the spirit of chivalry, if it were only. that it produced, or encouraged at least, and hath now entailed upon us, the curse

of duelling; which even yet domineers in the fashionable world, in fpite of all that wit, and reafon, and religion itself, have done to fubdue it. 'Tis true, at present this law of arms is appealed to only in the cafe of fome high point of nice and mysterious honour. But in the happier days you celebrate, it was called in aid, on common occafions. Even queftions of right and property, you know, were determined at the barriers [a]: and brute force was allowed the most equitable, as well as fhorteft, way of deciding all difputes both concerning a man's estate and honour.

[a] There was an inftance of this kind, and perhaps the latest upon record in our hiftory, in the 13th year of the queen, when "a combat was appointed to have been fought for a certain manor, and demain lands belonging thereto, in Kent." The matter was compromised in the end. But not till afrer the ufual forms had been obferved, by the two parties: of which we have a curious and circumftantial detail in Holing fbead's Chronicles, p. 1225.

You

You might obferve too, interpofed Dr. ARBUTHNOT, that this was the way in which those fiercer difputes concern-. ing a mistress, or a kingdom, were frequently decided. And, if this fort of decifion, in fuch cafes, were still in ufe among Chriftian prrinces, you might call it perhaps a barbarous cuftom: but would it be ever the worfe, do you think, for their good fubjects?

PERHAPS it would not, returned Mr. ADDISON, in fome inftances. And yet will you affirm, that thofe good fubjects were in any enviable fituation, under their fighting masters? After all, allowing you to put the best construction you can on these usages of our forefathers,

"all we find

Is, that they did their work and din'd."

And though fuch feats may argue a found athletic conftitution, you must ex

cufe