out her fupernumerary horrors upon every thing in it, I do not at all wonder that weak minds fill it with spectres and apparitions. ftance. Mr. Locke, in his chapter of the affociation of ideas, has very curious remarks to thew how by the prejudice of education one idea often introduces into the mind a whole fet that bear no refemblance to one another in the nature of things. Among feveral examples of this kind he produces the following inThe ideas of goblins and fprites have really no more to do with darkness than light: yet let but a for th maid inculcate thefe often on the mind of a child, and raife them there together, poffibly he fhall never be able to feparate them again fo long as he lives; but darknels fhall ever ' afterwards bring with it thofe frightful ideas, and they fhall be fo joined ⚫ that he can no more bear the one than 'the other.' As I was walking in this folitude, where the dusk of the evening confpired with fo many other occafions of terror, I obferved a cow grazing not far from me, which an imagination that was apt to ftartle might easily have construed into a black horfe without an head; and I dare fay the poor footman loft his wits upon fome fuch trivial occation. My friend Sir Roger has often told me with a good deal of mirth, that at his first coming to his eftate he found three parts of his houfe altogether ufelefs; that the beft room in it had the reputation of being haunted, and by that means was locked up; that noifes had been heard in his long gallery, fo that he could not get a fervant to enter it after eight of the clock at night; that the door of one of his chambers was nailed up, becaufe there went a story in the family that a butler had formerly hanged himfelf in it; and that his mother, who lived to a great age, had fhut up half the rooms in the house, in which either her husband, a fon, or daughter had died. knight feeing his habitation reduced to fo fmall a compafs, and himself in a manner hut out of his own house, upon the death of his mother ordered all the apartments to be flung open, and exorcifed by his chaplain, who lay in every room one after another, and by that means diffipated the fears which had fo long reigned in the family. The I should not have been thus particular upon thefe ridiculous horrors, did not I find, them fo very much prevail in all parts of the country. At the fame time I think a perfon who is thus terrified with the imagination of ghofts and fpe&tres much more reafonable than one who, contrary to the reports of all hiftorians facred and profane, ancient and modern, and to the traditions of all na-, tions, thinks the appearance of fpirits. fabulous and groundlefs. Could not I give myfelf up to this general teftimony of mankind, I fhould to the relations of particular perfons who are now living, and whom I cannot diftruft in other matters of fact. I might here add, that not only the hiftorians, to whom we may join the poets, but likewife the philofophers of antiquity have favoured this opinion. Lucretius himself, though by the courfe of his philofophy he was obliged to maintain that the foul did not exift feparate from the body, makes no doubt of the reality of apparitions, and that men have often appeared after their death. This I think very remarkable; he was fo preffed with the matter of fact which he could not have the confidence to deny, that he was forced to account for it by one of the moft abfurd unphilofophical notions that ever was started. He tells us, that the furfaces of all bodies are perpetually flying off from their refpective bodies, one after another; and that thefe furfaces or thin cafes that included each other whilft they were joined in the body like the coats of an onion, are fometimes feen entire when they are separated from it; by which means we often behold the fhapes and fhadows of perfons who are either dead or abfent. I fhall difmifs this paper with a story out of Jofephus, not fo much for the fake of the story itself, as for the moral reflections with which the author concludes it, and which I shall here fet down in his own words. Glaphyra, the daughter of King Archelaus, after the death of her two firft husbands, " being married to a third, who was brother to her first husband, and so paflionately in love with her that he turned off his former wife to make room for this marriage, had a very odd kind of dream. She fancied that the faw her first husband coming towards her, and that the embraced him with great tendernefs; when in the midit of the pleafure which the ex⚫ prefied 2 E " preffed at the fight of him, he reproached her after the following manner: Glaphyra," fays he, "thou "haft made good the old faying, that women are not to be trufted. Was " not I the husband of thy virginity? "Have I not children by thee? How could't thou forget our loves fo far as to enter into a fecond marriage, "and after that into a third, nay to "to take for thy husband a man who "has fo fhamefully crept into the bed "of his brother? However, for the "fake of our paffed loves, I fhall free "thee from thy prefent reproach, and "make thee mine for ever." Glaphyra told this dream to feveral women of her acquaintance, and died foon after. 'I thought this story might not be im'pertinent in this place, wherein I speak of thofe kings: befides that the exC ample deferves to be taken notice of, as it contains a moft certain proof of the immortality of the foul, and of Divine Providence. If any man thinks thefe facts incredible, let him enjoy his own opinion to himself, but let him not endeavour to disturb the belief of others, who by inftances of this 'nature are excited to the study of vir'tue.' N° CXI. SATURDAY, JULY 7. INTER SILVAS ACADEMI QUÆRERE VERUM. HOR. EP. II. L. 2. v. 45. TO SEARCH FOR TRUTH IN ACADEMIC GROVES. HE courfe of my laft fpeculation upon which I always meditate with great delight, I mean the immortality of the foul. I was yesterday walking alone in one of my friend's woods, and lost myfelf in it very agreeably, as I was running over in my mind the feveral arguments that establish this great point, which is the bafis of morality, and the fource of all the pleafing hopes and fecret joys that can arife in the heart of a reafonable creature. I confidered those feveral proofs, drawn First, From the nature of the foul itfelf, and particularly it's immateriality; which, though not abfolutely neceflary to the eternity of it's duration, has, I think, been evinced to almost a demonftration. Secondly, From it's paffions and fentiments, as particularly from it's love of existence, it's horror of annihilation, and it's hopes of immortality, with that fecret, fatisfaction which it finds in the practice of virtue, and that uneafinefs which follows in it upon the commiffion of vice. Thirdly, From the nature of the Supreme Being, whofe justice, goodness, wifdom and veracity, are all concerned in this point. But among these and other excellent arguments for the immortality of the foul, there is one drawn from the per L petual progrefs of the foul to it's per riving at it; which is a hint that I de not remember to have feen opened and improved by others who have written on this subject, though it seems to me to carry a great weight with it. How can it enter into the thoughts of man, that the foul, which is capable of fuch immenfe perfections, and of receiving new improvements to all eternity, fhall fall away into nothing almoft as foon as it is created! Are fuch abilities made for no purpose? A brute arrives at à point of perfection that he can never pafs; in a few years he has all the endowments he is capable of; and were he to live ten thousand more, would be the fame thing he is at present. Were a human foul thus at a stand in her accomplishments, were her faculties to be full blown, and incapable of farther enlargements, I could imagine it might fall away infenfibly, and drop at once into a state of annihilation. But can we believe a thinking being that is in a perpetual progrefs of improvements, and travelling on from perfection to perfection, after having just looked abroad into the works of his Creator, and made a few difcoveries of his infinite goodness, wifdom and power, must perish at her firft fetting out, and in the very beginning of her inquiries? A man, confidered in his prefent ftate, feems feems only fent into the world to propagate his kind. He provides himself with a fucceffor, and immediately quits his post to make room for him. Hæres Hæredem alterius, velut unda fupervenit un- -Heir crouds heir, as in a rolling flood He does not seem born to enjoy life, but to deliver it down to others. This is not furprising to confider in animals, which are formed for our use, and can finith their bufinefs in a fhort life. The filk-worm, after having fpun her task, lays her eggs and dies. But a man can never have taken in his full measure of knowledge, has not time to fubdue his paffions, establish his foul in virtue, and come up to the perfection of his nature, before he is hurried off the stage. Would an infinitely wife Being make fuch glorious creatures for fo mean a purpose? Can he delight in the production of such abortive intelligences, fuch short-lived reasonable beings? Would he give us talents that are not to be exerted? Capacities that are never to be gratified? How can we find that wisdom which shines through all his works, in the formation of man, without looking on this world as only a nurfery for the next, and believing that the feveral generations of rational creatures, which rife up and disappear in fuch quick fucceffions, are only to receive their first rudiments of existence here, and afterwards to be transplanted into a more friendly climate, where they may spread and flourish to all eternity? There is not, in my opinion, a more pleafing and triumphant confideration in religion than this of the perpetual progress which the foul makes towards the perfection of it's nature, without ever arriving at a period in it. To look upon the foul as going on from ftrength to ftrength; to confider that she is to fhine for ever with new acceffions of glory, and brighten to all eternity; that The will be still adding virtue to virtue, and knowledge to knowledge; carries in it fomething wonderfully agreeable to that ambition which is natural to the mind of man. Nay, it must be a profpect pleafing to God himself, to fee his creation for ever beautifying in his eyes, and drawing nearer to him, by greater degrees of refemblance. Methinks this fingle confideration, of the progrefs of a finite fpirit to perfection, will be fufficient to extinguish all envy in inferior natures, and all contempt in fuperior, That cherubim, which now appears as a god to a human foul, knows very well that the period will come about in eternity, when the human foul fhall be as perfect as he himself now is: nay, when she shall look down upon that degree of perfection, as much as the now falls fhort of it. It is true the higher nature still advances, and by that means preferves his distance and fuperiority in the scale of being; but he knows that, how high foever the station is of which he stands poffeffed at present, the inferior nature will at length mount up to it, and shine forth in the fame degree of glory. With what aftonishment and veneration may we look into our own fouls, where there are fuch hidden ftores of virtue and knowledge, fuch inexhausted fources of perfection? We know not yet what we shall be, nor will it ever enter into the heart of man to conceive the glory that will be always in reserve for him. The foul, confidered with it's Creator, is like one of thofe mathematical lines that may draw nearer to another for all eternity without a poffibility of touching it: and can there be a thought fo tranfporting, as to confider ourselves in these perpetual approaches to Him, who is not only the ftandard of perfection but of happiness! L I N° CXII. MONDAY, JULY 9. ̓Αθανάτως μὲν πρῶτα Θεοὺς, νόμῳ ὡς διάκειται, PYTHAG. FIRST, IN OBEDIENCE TO THY COUNTRY'S RITES, WORSHIP TH IMMORTAL GODS. Am always very well pleafed with a country Sunday, and think, if keeping holy the feventh day were only a human institution, it would be the beft method that could have been thought of for the polishing and civilizing of mankind. It is certain the country people would foon degenerate into a kind of favages and barbarians, were there not fuch frequent returns of a stated time, in which the whole village meet together with their best faces, and in their clean lieft habits, to converfe with one another upon indifferent fubjects, hear their duties explained to them, and join together in adoration of the Supreme Being. Sunday clears away the ruit of the whole week, not only as it refreshes in their minds the notions of religion, but as it puts both the fexes upon appearing in their most agreeable forms, and exerting all fuch qualities as are apt to give them a figure in the eye of the village. A country fellow diftinguifhes himself as much in the church-yard, as a citizen does upon the 'Change, the whole parith-politics being generally difcuffed in that place either after fermon or before the bell rings. My friend Sir Roger, being a good church-man, has beautified the infide of his church with feveral texts of his own chuting; he has likewife given a handfome pulpit-cloth, and railed-in the communion-table at his own expence. He has often told me, that at his coming to his eftate he found his parishioners, very irregular; and that in order to make them kneel and join in the refponfes, he gave every one of them a halloc and a common prayer book; and at the fame time employed an itinerant finging-master, who goes about the country for that purpote, to inftruct them rightly in the tunes of the pfalms; upon which they now very much value themselves; and indeed out-do most of the country churches that I have ever heard. As Sir Roger is lan lord to the whole congregation, he keeps them in very good order, and will fuffer nobody to leep in it befides himself; for if by chance he has been furprifed into a short nap at fermon, upon recovering out of it he ftands up and looks about him, and if he fees any body else nodding, either wakes them himself, or fends his fervant to them. Several other of the old knight's particularities break out upon thefe occafions: fometimes he will be lengthening out a verfe in the finging-pfalms, half a minute after the reft of the congregation have done with it; fometimes, when he is pleafed with the matter of his devotion, he pronounces Amen' three or four times to the fame prayer; and fometimes ftands up when every body elfe is upon their knees, to count the congregation, or fee if any o his tenants are miffing. of I was yesterday very much furprifed to hear my old friend, in the midt of the fervice, calling out to one John Matthews to mind what he was about, and not difturb the congregation. This John Matthews it feems is remarkable for being an idle fellow, and at that time was kicking his heels for his diverfion. This authority of the knight, though exerted in that odd manner which accompanies him in all circumftances of life, has a very good effect upon the parish, who are not polite enough to fee any thing ridiculous in his behaviour; beides that the general good fenfe and worthiness of his character makes his friends obferve thefe little fingularities as foils that rather fet off than blemish his good qualities. As foon as the fermon is finished, nobody prefumes to ftir until Sir Roger is gone out of the church. The knight walks down from his feat in the chancel between a double row of his tenants, that stand bowing to him on each fide : and every now and then enquires how fuch an one's wife, or mother, or son, or or father do, whom he does not fee at church; which is understood as a fecret reprimand to the perfon that is absent. The chaplain has often told me, that upon a catechifing-day, when Sir Roger has been pleafed with a boy that anfwers well, he has ordered a Bible to be given him the next day for his encouragement; and fometimes accompanies it with a flitch of bacon to his mother. Sir Roger has likewife added five pounds a year to the clerk's place; and that he may encourage the young fellows to make themselves perfect in the church-fervice, has promifed upon the death of the prefent incumbent, who is very old, to beftow it according to merit. The fair understanding between Sir Roger and his chaplain, and their tual concurrence in doing good, is the more remarkable, because the very next village is famous for the differences and contentions that rife between the parfon and the squire, who live in a perpetual ftate of war. The parfon is always preaching at the fquire, and the fquire to be revenged on the parfon never comes to church. The fquire has made all his tenants atheifts and tithe stealers; while the parfon inftructs them every Sunday in the dignity of his order, and infinuates to them in almost every fermon, that he is a better man than his patron. In short, matters are come to fuch an extremity, that the fquire has not faid his prayers either in public or private this half year; and that the parfon threatens him, if he does not mend his manners, to pray for him in the face of the whole congregation. Feuds of this nature, though too frequent in the country, are very fatal to the ordinary people; who are fo used to be dazzled with riches, that they pay as much deference to the understanding of a man of an eftate, as of a man of learning; and are very hardly brought to regard any truth, how important foever it may be, that is preached to them, when they know there are feveral men of five hundred a year who do not believe it. N° CXIII. TUESDAY, JULY 10. HERENT INFIXI PECTORE VULTUS. VIRG. N. IV. V. 4. HER LOOKS WERE DEEP IMPRINTED IN HIS HEART. N my first defcription of the company may be remembered that I mentioned a great affliction which my friend Sir Roger had met with in his youth; which was no less than a disappointment in love. It happened this evening that we fell into a very pleafing walk at a diftance from his houfe. As foon as we came into it- It is,' quoth the good old man, looking round him with a fmile, very hard, that any part of my land fhould be fettled upon one who has ufed me fo ill as the perverfe ' widow did; and yet I am fure I could not fee a sprig of any bough of this 'whole walk of trees, but I should re'flect upon her and her feverity. She has certainly the finest hand of any woman in the world. You are to know this was the place wherein I used to muse upon her; and by that custom I can never come into it, but the fame tender fen'timents revive in my mind, as if I ' had actually walked with that beau L ⚫tiful creature under thefe fhades. I have been fool enough to carve her name on the bark of feveral of thefe trees; fo unhappy is the condition of men in love, to attempt the removing of their paffions by the methods which ferve only to imprint it deeper. She has certainly the finest hand of any woman in the world.' Here followed a profound filence; and I was not difpleafed to obferve my friend falling fo naturally into a difcourfe, which I had ever before taken notice he industriously avoided. After a very long paufe he entered upon an account of this great circumftance in his life, with an air which I thought raised my idea of him above what I had ever had before; and gave me the picture of that chearful mind of his, before it received that stroke which has ever since affected his words and actions. But he went on as follows. I came to my eftate in my twentyfecond year, and refolved to follow the |