THE RURAL SOCRATES. n^ 



Mfiny however had, as yet, only heard a fitnplc laborer^ 

 with great fenfc it is true j but he had faid nothing 

 but what was common about agricuhure ; not being 

 at all famiJiar, for inflance, with the new difcover- 

 ies ;*** and knowing nothing beyond the culture ufed 

 in his own part of the country, and fceking only by ob- 

 ftinate labor to perfe£l what he had in view, in the man- 

 ner I have defciibed. Others looked for learning in . 

 him, without finding it ; but they perceived inflead- of 

 it a great fund of found reafon, and a natural good 

 fenfe which he applied happily to every cafe which pre- 

 fented itfelf in the narrow fphere in which Providence 

 had placed him ; a quality which lefs creates furprize, 

 €xa<Slly as it approaches perfedlion. ' It is with this qual- 

 ity indeed, as with a natural flyle ; which is then only 

 perfe6?:, when it is equally intelligible to all the worlds' 

 and when each thinks it is that which himfelf and every 

 one elfe would have employed upon tbe,ranae occaricn-— = 

 •^**Thus Kliyogg was at iirft thought only to be a com- 

 mon peafant, and a great part of the interefl which bis 

 chara£lcr had excited, was fuppofed owirg to the co- 

 loring of the painter. But infenfibly, the aflonifhing" 

 fenfc of our fage, and his judgment which was true and' 

 never at a fault, infpired an eflcem which increaf- 

 cd continually ; infdmuch that in the end he left the 

 greateft part of his auditory in an^ admiration bordering 

 upon enthufiafm, and which by the manner in which he 

 parted from us was carried to its utraofi height. -—It: 

 was then that I found every one agreeing with me, that 

 my portrait had fallen very fhort of the beauty cf the 

 original. 



Kliyogg took leave of us by expreiling his thanks 

 fhortly and naturally, for all the marks of friendfhip 

 which had been lliewn to him 5 and after adding his 

 nun behiit euch Gott (may God now keep you), he pre- 

 fented his hand to the prince and was going, when the 

 prince Aid into it a piece of gold. — -''^ What does this 

 '^ mean, (faid Klivogg,) with the fmilc of contented' 



*' eafe I'' 



