I cannot exactly tell why it was, that I felt particularly
interested in the prospectus for the _Rural Magazine_; but I
instantly resolved to become a subscriber, and fell to ruminating
upon the benefits it might confer upon the country. Whether I
conceived at once the idea of writing these essays, and took to
myself a full share of its imagined usefulness and celebrity; or
whether my satisfaction arose from disinterested motives, I felt
a glow of kind feeling towards the editors, which expanded itself
upon all around me. I dismissed my little school at an earlier hour
than usual, and having simply reprimanded some idle culprits, to
whom I should otherwise have administered the _ferule_, I devoted
the remainder of the afternoon to writing a letter to a friend in
town; in which I concluded a declamation upon the worthlessness of
literary fame, by requesting him to place my name in the list of
subscribers and contributors.
Since then, the Magazine has frequently been the subject of my
reveries; for the design is exactly what I have long desired to see
attempted. Every man who has travelled half way up the hill of life,
and has gained its fortieth milestone, will have amassed stores of
thought and observation, which he is apt to think of inestimable
value:--at least I find it so with me. There are many topics on
which I differ from my friends, and in regard to which I am anxious
to develope my opinions. Some others to which I attach a greater
importance than is usually done; and many upon which my particular
station in life has thrown lights which may be new and interesting
to the public mind. For these reasons, I have long desired to extend
my voice and authority beyond the precincts of my little kingdom,
and to try the experiment of schooling the public in some of those
great truths, which are too little regarded or understood, and
bringing back its taste to the pure and simple enjoyments of rural
life. Whether I shall succeed in my attempt to gain the public ear,
will depend, perhaps, upon accident; for while the greatest merit
has often languished in obscurity, folly and incapacity have as
often caught the gale of popular favour. If I fail, I shall not
be without consolation; for the most unsuccessful author finds it
easier to censure the public for want of penetration, than himself
for want of talent. I trust that I shall have occasion for no such
reflections. It may be an author's vanity, and yet the voice of
praise can scarcely reach my secluded abode; but my fancy already
paints the bright eyes, and glowing cheeks that will hang over
these essays, and the sober approbation with which mature age will
perceive that they are devoted to the cause of truth and sound
morality. Neighbour Schemer is welcome to pass over my numbers in
search of the newest plans of farming, so long as he allows his
blooming Emily to pause over them; and what do I care though old
Lovegain pronounce them to be stupid stuff? I had rather possess the
approbation and esteem of his lovely Sophia, than half his acres!
It is a hopeless task, and may seem full of vanity, to enter the
lists where so many have been foiled, and where all the great prizes
have been born away by the master spirits of former times. But not
to mention that fame is no object of my pursuit; the lofty rewards
I speak of, were gained by the finest geniuses in our language, and
conferred by the approbation of the world. My humbler attempt is
to please villagers and farmers; and my ambition will be attained,
if they crown me with the fragrant and perishing wreath that shall
resemble their grateful though short-lived recollections.
Custom and authority have assigned to the essayist a peculiar
character. He is privileged at all places and in every family.
Childhood loves and fondles upon him; and age and fashion, the man
of pleasure and the man of business, alike consult and confide in
him: above all, he is the particular favourite of the ladies, and is
supposed to be knowing in all the labyrinths of the female heart,
and all the points of etiquette and gallantry. He has, therefore,
from time immemorial, been their faithful adviser, transmitted their
billetsdoux, and corrected their letters. He is a notable dreamer,
a great traveller, and a universal scholar: he generally passes for
a grey headed sage, and yet is a very Proteus in his appearance and
behaviour. The family is descended from Isaac Bickerstaff, esq.; a
venerable gentleman, who made a considerable figure, and acquired
much substance in queen Anne's time. Some of his descendants have
been solemn and pedantic, and others giddy and frolicksome; but
the features I have portrayed, run more or less through the whole
family. Its enemies say that it is no longer what it was; that it
has retained its homely peculiarities, without its originality
and freshness, its wit and gallantry of character. Gentle reader,
believe me, this is an unfounded calumny!
A branch of the family settled in this country about eighty years
since, and some of the American descendants have proved worthy of
the original stock. One of them, renouncing the social habits of
his kinsmen, went abroad among the fields and the solitudes of
Nature, and there poured forth his soul in strains, of which a poet
might have been emulous. It was he who first made the English Muses
familiar with the sublimity of our native forests. Another, whose
natural disposition was checked by the force of circumstances,
devoted himself to the education of a favourite niece and nephew;
and has given a signal example that an old bachelor is not always
a useless being. A third, more merry and more melancholy, more
sarcastic and more eccentric than all who went before him, divided
his time between laughing at the world, and wandering over the
scenes of his youthful and perished enjoyments. He still lives,
although in a foreign clime and under an assumed name, to enjoy the
love and admiration of his countrymen.
Reader, I have already told thee how humble are my own pretensions.
If I do not attract thy regard from my own merits, love me for the
sake of my family; and have a kind eye to my rude speech and rustic
manners, in the recollection of those from whom I boast to have
descended.