facetious wit; or could poffibly pretend that there is not famething inimitably unforced and diverting in his manner of delivering all his fentiments in his converfation, if he were able to conceal the strong defire of applaufe which he betrays in every fyllable he utters. But they who converfe with him, fee that all the civilities they could do to him, or the kind things they could fay to him, would fall fhort of what he expects; and therefore instead of fhewing him the efteem they have for his merit, their reflections turn only upon that they observe he has of it himself.

If you go among the women, and behold Gloriana trip into a room with that theatrical oftentation of her charms, Mirtilla with that foft regularity in her motion, Chloe with fuch an indifferent familiarity, Corinna with fuch a fond approach, and Roxana with such a demand of refpect in the great gravity of her entrance; you find all the fex, who understand themselves and act naturally, wait only for their abfence, to tell you that all these ladies would impofe themfelves upon you; and each of them carry in their behaviour a confcioufnefs of fo much more than they should pretend to, that they lose what would otherwife be given them.

I remember the last time I faw Macbeth, I was wonderfully taken with the fkill of the poet, in making the murderer form fears to himself from the moderation of the prince whofe life he was going to take away. He fays of the king He bore his faculties fo meek ly; and justly inferred from thence, that all divine and human power would join to avenge his death, who had made fuch an abstinent ufe of dominion. All that is in a man's power to do to advance his own pomp and glory, and forbears, is fo much laid up against the day of diftrefs; and pity will always be his portion in adverfity, who acted with gentleness in profperity.

The great officer who foregoes the advantages he might take to himself, and renounces all prudential regards to his own perfon in danger, has fo far the merit of a volunteer; and all his honours and glories are unenvied for fharing the common fate with the fame franknefs as they do who have no fuch en dearing circumftances to part with. But

if there were no fuch confiderations as the good effect which felf-denial has upon the fenfe of other men toward us, it is of all qualities the most defirable for the agreeable disposition in which it places our own minds. I cannot tell what better to fay of it, than that it is the very contrary of ambition; and that modefty allays all thofe paffions and inquietudes to which that vice expofes us. He that is moderate in his wishes from reafon and choice, and not refigned from fournefs, distaste, or difappointment, doubles all the pleafures of his life. The air, the feafon, a fun-fhiny day, or a fair profpect, are inftances of happiness, and that which he enjoys in common with all the world, (by his exemption from the enchantments by which all the world are bewitched) are to him uncommon benefits and new acquifitions. Health is not eaten up with care, nor pleafure interrupted by envy. It is not to him of any confequence what this man is famed for, or for what the other is preferred. He knows there is in fuch a place an uninterrupted walk; he can meet in fuch a company an agreeable converfation; he has no emulation, he is no man's rival, but every man's wellwither; can look at a profperous man, with a pleafure in reflecting that he hopes he is as happy as himfelf; and has his mind and his fortune, as far as prudence will allow, open to the unhappy and to the ftranger.

Lucceius has learning, wit, humour, eloquence, but no ambitious profpects to pursue with thefe advantages; therefore to the ordinary world he is perhaps thought to want fpirit, but known among his friends to have a mind of the most confummate greatness. He wants no man's admiration, is in no need of pomp. His clothes please him if they are fashionable and warm; his companions are agreeable if they are civil and wellnatured. There is with him no occafion for fuperfluity at meals, for jollity in company; in a word, for any thing extraordinary to adminifter delight to him. Want of prejudice and command of appetite are the companions which make his journey of life fo eafy, that he in all places meets with more wit, more good cheer, and more good-humour, than is neceffary to make him enjoy himfelf with pleasure and fatisfaction.

3 E

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N° CCVII.

of that which is his chief good, and the most fuitable to the excellency of his

nature.

In the third and laft place, he informs him, that the best methods he could make ufe of to draw down bleffings upon himself, and to render his prayers acceptable, would be to live in a conftant practice of his duty towards the gods, and towards men. Under this head he very much recommends a form of prayer the Lacedæmonians make ufe of, in which they petition the gods, to give them all good things fo long as they were virtuous. Under this head likewife he gives a very remarkable account of an oracle to the following puri pofe.

When the Athenians in the war with the Lacedæmonians received many defeats both by fea and land, they fent a meffage to the oracle of Jupiter Ammon, to ask the reafon why they who erected fo many temples to the gods, and adorned them with fuch costly offerings; why they who had inftituted fo many festivals, and accompanied them with fuch pomps and ceremonies; in fhort, why they who had flain so many hecatombs at their altars, fhould be left fuccefsful than the Lacedæmonians, who fell fo fhort of them in all thefe particulars. To this, fays he, the oracle made the following reply- I am better pleafed with the prayers of the Lacedæmonians, than with all the oblations ' of the Greeks.' As this prayer implied and encouraged virtue in those who made it; the philofopher proceeds to fhew how the most vicious man might be devout, so far as victims could make him, but that his offerings were regarded by the gods as bribes, and his petitions as blafphemies. He likewife quotes on this occafion two verfes out of Homer, in which the poet fays, that the fcent of the Trojan facrifices was caried up to heaven by the winds; but that it was not acceptable to the gods, who were difpleafed with Priam and all his people.

The conclufion of this dialogue is very remarkable. Socrates having deterred Alcibiades from the prayers and facrifice which he was going to offer, by fetting forth the above-mentioned difficulties of performing that duty as he ought, adds thefe words We must therefore wait until fuch time as we $ may learn how we ought to behave

ourselves towards the gods, and to'wards men.' But when will that

time come,' fays Alcibiades, and' who is it that will inftru&t us? For I 'would fain fee this man, whoever he is. It is one,' fays Socrates, who 'takes care of you; but as Homer tells us, that Minerva removed the mitt from Diomedes his eyes, that he might plainly difcover both gods and men; fo the darkness that hangs upon your mind must be removed before you are able to difcern what is good and what is evil. Let him remove from my mind,' fays Alcibiades, the darknefs, and what elfe he pleafes, I am determined to refufe nothing he shall order me, whoever he is, fo that I 'may become the better man by it.' The remaining part of this dialogue is very obfcure: there is fomething in it that would make us think Socrates hinted at himself, when he spoke of this divine teacher who was to come into the world, did not he own that he himself was in this refpect as much at a lofs, and in as great diftrefs as the rest of mankind.

Some learned men look upon this conclufion as a prediction of our Saviour; or at leaft that Socrates, like the high-prieft,prophefied unknowingly, and pointed at that Divine Teacher who was to come into the world fome ages after him. However that may be, we find that this great philofopher faw, by the light of reafon, that it was fuitable to the goodness of the Divine Nature, to fend a perfon into the world who should inftruct mankind in the duties of religion, and, in particular, teach them how to pray.

Whoever reads this abftra&t of Plato's Difcourfe on Prayer, will, I believe, naturally make this reflection, that the great Founder of our religion, as well by his own example, as in the form of prayer which he taught his disciples, did not only keep up to thofe rules which the light of nature had fuggefted to this great philofopher, but inftructed his difciples in the whole extent of this duty, as well as of all others. He directed them to the proper object of adoration, and taught them, according to the third rule above-mentioned, to apply themfelves to him in their clofets, without show or oftentation, and to worship him

in fpirit and in truth.' As the Lacedæmonians in their form of prayer im3 E 2

plored

accounts for their prepoffeffions against this reasonable delight in the following manner. The prude,' fays he,

as

the acts always in contradiction, fo the is gravely fullen at a comedy, and extravagantly gay at a tragedy. The coquette is fo much taken up with throwing her eyes around the audience, and confidering the effect of them, that he cannot be expected to 'observe the actors but as they are her ⚫ rivals, and take off the observation of the men from herself. Befides thefe • fpecies of women, there are the ex'amples, or the first of the mode: these are to be fuppofed too well acquainted with what the actor is going to say to be moved at it. After thefe one might ⚫ mention a certain flippant fet of fe'males who are mimics, and are won'derfully diverted with the conduct of all the people around them, and are fpectators only of the audience. But

"what is of all the most to be lamented, is the lofs of a party whom it would be worth preferving in their right fenfes upon all occafions, and thefe are those whom we may indifferently call the innocent or the unaffected. You may sometimes fee one of thefe ⚫ fenfibly touched with a well-wrought incident; but then the is immediately fo impertinently obferved by the men, and frowned at by fome infenfible fuperior of her own fex, that he is afhamed, and lofes the enjoyment of "the moft laudable concern, pity. Thus ⚫ the whole audience is afraid of letting fall a tear, and fhun as a weakness the best and worthieft part of our 'fenfe.'

SIR,

AS you are one that doth not only pretend to reform, but effect it amongst people of any fenfe; makes me (who am one of the greatest of your admirers) give you this trouble to defire you will fettle the method of us females knowing when one another is in town: for they have now got a trick of never fending to their acquaintance when they firft come; and if one does not vifit them within the week which they ftay at home, it is a mortal quarrel. Now, dear Mr. Spec, either command them to put it in the advertisement of your paper, which is generally read by our fex, or else order them to breathe their faucy footmen,

who are good for nothing elfe, by sending them to tell all their acquaintance. If you think to print this, pray put it in a better ftile, as to the spelling part. The town is now filling every day, and it cannot be deferred, because people take advantage of one another by this means and break off acquaintance, and are rude: therefore pray put this in your paper as foon as you can poffibly, to prevent any future mifcarriages of this nature. I am, as I ever fhall be, dear Spec, your most obedient humble fer

vant,

MARY MEANWELL.

Pray fettle what is to be a proper notification of a perfon's being in town, and how that differs according to peo❤ ple's quality.

MR. SPECTATOR,

OCT. THE 20th, Have been out of town, so did not meet with your paper dated September the 28th, wherein you, to my heart's defire, expofe that curfed vice of infnaring poor young girls, and drawing them from their friends. I affure you, without flattery, it has faved a 'prentice of mine from ruin; and in token of gratitude, as well as for the benefit of my family, I have put it in a frame and glafs, and hung it behind my counter. I fhall take care to make my young ones read it every morning, to fortify them against fuch pernicious rafcals. I know not whether what you writ was matter of fact, or your own invention; but this I will take my oath on, the first part is fo exactly like what happened to my 'prentice, that had I read your paper then, I fhould have taken your method to have fecured a villain. Go on