HIPPARCHUS being paffionately fond of his own Wife, who was enamoured of Bathyllus, leaped and died of his Fall; upon which his Wife married her Gallant. TETTYX, the Dancing-mafter, in Love with Olympia an Athenian Matron, threw himfelf from the Rock with great Agility, but was crippled in the Fall. DIAGORAS, the Ufurer, in Love with his CookMaid; he peeped several times over the Precipice, but his Heart mifgiving him, he went back, and married her that Evening. CINDEUS, after having entred his own Name in the Pythian Records, being afked the Name of the Perfon whom he leaped for, and being afhamed to discover it, he was fet afide, and not suffered to leap. EUNICA, a Maid of Paphos, aged Nineteen, in Love with Eurybates. Hurt in the Fall, but recovered. N. B. This was the fecond Time of her Leaping.. HESPERUS, a young Man of Tarentum, in Love with his Master's Daughter. Drowned, the Boats Lot coming in foon enough to his Relief. SAPPHO, the Lesbian, in Love with Phaon, arrived at the Temple of Apollo, habited like a Bride in Garments as white as snow. She wore a Garland of Myrtle on her Head, and carried in her Hand the little Mufical Inftrument of her own Invention. After having fungan Hymn to Apollo, fhe hung up her Garland on one Side of his Altar, and her Harp on the other. She then tuck'd up her Vestments, like a Spartan Virgin, and amidst thousands of Spectators, who were anxious for her Safety, and offered up Vows for her Deliverance, marched directly forwards to the utmost Summit of the Promontory,where after having repeated a Stanza of her own Verfes, which we could not hear,fhe threw herself off the Rock with fuch an Intrepidity, as was never before observed in any who had attempted that dangerous Leap. Many who were prefentrelated,that they faw her fall into the Sea,from whence the never rose again; tho' there were others who affirmed,that she never came to the Bottom of her Leap, but that the was changed into a Swan as the fell, and that they faw her hovering in the Air under that Shape. But whether or no the Whitenefs and fluttering of her Garments might not deceive those who looked upon her, or whether she might not not really be metamorphofed into that mufical and melancholy Bird,, is ftill a Doubt among the Leflians. ALCÆUS, the famous Lyrick Poet, who had for fome time been paffionately in Love with Sappho,arrived at the Promontory of Leucate that very Evening, in order to take the Leap upon her Account; but hearing that Sappho had been there before him, and that her Body could be no where found, he very generously lamented her Fall, and is faid to have written his hundred and twenty fifth Ode upon that Occafion. . Leaped in this Olympiad 250. Males Females Cured Males Females to to to to to to to 0 0 0 0 0 0 0☀oooooo No. 234. Wednesday, November 28. Vellem in amicitia fic erraremus. Hor. Sat. 3. 1. 1. v. 41. You CREECH very often hear People, after a Story has been told with fome entertaining Circumstances, tell it over again with Particulars that deftroy the Jeft, but give Light into the Truth of the Narration. This fort of Veracity, though it is impertinent, has fomething amiable in it, because it proceeds from the Love of Truth, even in frivolous Occafions. If fuch honeft Amendments do not promife an agreeable Companion, they do a fincere Friend; for which Reason one should allow them fo much of our Time, if we fall into their Company, as to fet us right in Matters that can do us no manner of Harm, whether the Facts be one Way or the other. Lies which are told out of Arrogance and Oftentation a Man fhould detect in his own Defence, because he should not be triumphed over; Lies which are told out of Malice he should expofe, both for his own fake and that of the reft of Mankind, because every Man fhould rife rife against a common Enemy: But the officious Liar many have argued is to be excufed, because it does fome Man good, and no Man hurt. The Man who made more than ordinary speed from a Fight in which the Athenians were beaten, and told them they had obtained a complete Victory, and put the whole City into the utmoft Joy and Exultation, was check'd by the Magiftrates for his Fallhood; but excufed himself by faying, O Athenians! am I your Enemy because I gave you two happy Days? This Fellow did to a whole People what an Acquaintance of mine does every Day he lives in fome eminent Degree to particular Perfons. He is ever lying People into good Humour,and,as Plato faid, it was allowable in Phyficians to lye to their Patients to keep up their Spirits, I am half doubtful whether my Friend's Behaviour is not as excufable. His Manner is to exprefs himself furprised at the chearful Countenance of a Man whom he obferves diffident of himfelf; and generally by that means makes his Lye a Truth. He will, as if he did not know any thing of the Circumftance, afk one whom he knows at Varience with another, what is the meaning that Mr. fuch a one, naming his Adverfary, does not applaud him with that Heartinefs which formerly he has heard him? He faid indeed, (continues he) I would rather have that Man for my Friend than any Man in England; but for an Enemy This melts the Perfon he talks to, who expected nothing but downright Raillery from that Side. According as he fees his Practices fucceed, he goes to the oppofite Party, and tells him, he cannot imagine how it happens that some People know one another fo little; you spoke with fo much Coldnefs of a Gentleman who faid more Good of you, than, let me tell you, any Man living deferves, The Succefs of one of thefe Incidents was, that the next time that one of the Adverfaries fpied the other, he hems after him in the publick Street, and they muft crack a Bottle at the next Tavern, that used to turn out of the other's Way to avoid one another's Eyeshot. He will tell one Beauty fhe was commended by another, nay, he will fay she gave the Woman he speaks to, the Preference in a Particular for which the herfelf is admired. The pleasantest Confufion imaginable is made through the whole Town by my Friend's indirect Of fices; you fhall have a Vifit returned after half a Year's Ablence, and mutual Railing at each other every Day of that Time. They meet with a thousand Lamentations for fo long a Separation, each Party naming herself for the greatest Delinquent, if the other can poffibly be fo good as to forgive her, which he has no reason in the world, but from the Knowledge of her Goodness, to hope for. Very often a whole Train of Railers of each Side tire their Horfes in fetting Matters right which they have faid during the War between the Parties; and a whole Circle of Acquaintance are put into a thousand pleasing Paffions and Sentiments, inftead of the Pangs of Anger, Envy, Detraction, and Malice. THE worst Evil I ever obferved this Man's Falfhood occafion, has been that he turned Detraction into Flattery. He is well skilled in the Manners of the World, and by over-looking what Men really are,he grounds his Artifices upon what they have a mind to be. Upon this Foundation, if two diftant Friends are brought together, and the Cement feems to be weak, he never refts till he finds new Appearances to take off all Remains of Ill-will, and that by new Misunderstandings they arethoroughly reconciled. To the SPECTATOR. SIR, Devonshire, Nov. 14, 171r. HERE arrived in this Neighbourhood two Days being attended at his Entry with a Servant of his own, befides a Countryman he had taken up for a Guide,excited theCuriofity of the Village to learn whence and what he might be. The Countryman (to whom they applied as moft easy of Accefs) knew little more than that the Gentleman came from London to travel and fee Fashior s, ' and was as he heard fay, a Free-thinker: What Relgion that might be, he could not tell; and for his own part, if they had not told him the Man was a Freethinker, he should have gueffed by his way of talking, he was little better than a Heathen; excepting only that he had been a good Gentleman to him, and made him drunk twice in one Day, over and above what 'they had bargained for.. I do not look upon the Simplicity of this, and several odd Inquiries with which I fhall not trouble VOL. III. M you, to be won ⚫ wondered at, much less can I think that our Youths of fine Wit, and enlarged Understandings, have any reason to laugh. There is no Neceffity that every Squire in Great-Britain should know what the Word Free-thinker ftands for; but it were much to be wished, that they who value themselves upon that conceited Title, were a little ⚫ better inftructed in what it ought to stand for; and that they would not perfuade themfelves a Man is really and truly a Free-thinker in any tolerable Senfe, merely by virtue of his being an Atheist, or an Infidel of any o*ther Diftinction. It may be doubted with good Reason, whether there ever was in nature a more abject, flavish, and bigotted Generation than the Tribe of Beaux Efprits, at prefent fo prevailing in this Ifland. Their ⚫ Pretenfion to be Free-thinkers, is no other than Rakes have to be Free livers, and Savages to be Free-men; that is, they can think whatever they have a mind to, and give themselves up to whatever Conceit the Extravagancy of their Inclination, or their Fancy, fhall fuggeft; they can think as wildly as they talk and act, and will not endure that their Wit should be controuled by fuch formal Things as Decency and common Senfe: Deduction, Coherence, Confiftency, ⚫ and all the Rules of Reason they accordingly difdain, as too precife and mechanical for Men of a liberal • Education. THIS, as far as I could ever learn from their Writings, ⚫or my own Obfervation, is a true Account of the British Free-thinker. Our Vifitant here, who gave occafion to this Paper, has brought with him a new Syftem of common Senfe, the Particulars of which I am not yet ac* quainted with, but will lofe no Opportunity of inform ing myself whether it contain any thing worth Mr. SPECTATOR's Notice. In the mean time, Sir, I cannot but think it would be for the good of Mankind, if you would take this Subject into your own Confiderati on, and convince the hopeful Youth of our Nation, that Licentioufness is not Freedom; or, if fuch a Paradox will not be understood, that a Prejudice towards Atheism is not Impartiality. T Iam, SIR, Your most humble Servant, Thursday, |