were our fates?_

I despair of ever hearing so many fine things said of me, as so
extraordinary a death would have given occasion for.

I AM at this present moment writing in a house situated on the banks
of the Hebrus, which runs under my chamber window. My garden is full
of all cypress trees, upon the branches of which several couple of
true turtles are saying soft things to one another from morning till
night. How naturally do _boughs_ and _vows_ come into my mind, at
this minute? and must not you confess, to my praise, that 'tis more
than an ordinary discretion that can resist the wicked suggestions of
poetry, in a place where truth, for once, furnishes all the ideas of
pastoral. The summer is already far advanced in this part of the
world; and, for some miles round Adrianople, the whole ground is laid
out in gardens, and the banks of the rivers are set with rows of
fruit-trees, under which all the most considerable Turks divert
themselves every evening, not with walking, that is not one of their
pleasures; but a set party of them chuse out a green spot, where the
shade is very thick, and, there they spread a carpet, on which they
sit drinking their coffee, and are generally attended by some slave
with a fine voice, or that plays on some instrument. Every twenty
paces you may see one of these little companies listening to the
dashing of the river; and this taste is so universal, that the very
gardeners are not without it. I have often seen them and their
children sitting on the banks of the river, and playing on a rural
instrument, perfectly answering the description of the ancient
_fistula_, being composed of unequal reeds, with a simple, but
agreeable softness in the sound.

MR ADDISON might here make the experiment he speaks of in his travels;
there not being one instrument Of music among the Greek or Roman
statues, that is not to be found in the hands of the people of this
country. The young lads generally divert themselves with making
garlands for their favourite lambs, which I have often seen painted
and adorned with flowers, lying at their feet, while they sung or
played. It is not that they ever read romances, but these are the
ancient amusements here, and as natural to them as cudgel-playing and
foot-ball to our British swains; the softness and warmth of the
climate forbidding all rough exercises, which were never so much as
heard of amongst them, and naturally inspiring a laziness and
aversion