might methinks receive a very happy turn; and, if it were rightly directed, contribute as much to a perfon's advantage, as it generally does to his uneafinels and difquiet. I fhall therefore put together fome thoughts on this fubject, which I have not met with in other writers; and hall fet them down as they have occurred to me, without being at the pains to connect or methodize them. All fuperiority and pre-eminence that one man can have over another, may be reduced to the notion of quality, which, confidered at large, is either that of fortune, body, or mind. The firft is that which confifts in birth, title, or riches; and is the most foreign to our natures, and what we can the leaft call our own of any of the three kinds of quality. In relation to the body, quality arifes from health, ftrength, or beauty; which are nearer to us, and more a part of ourfelves than the former. Quality, as it regards the mind, has it's rife from knowledge or virtue; and is that which is more effential to us, and more intimately united with us than either of the other two. The quality of fortune, though a man has lefs reafon to value himself upon it than on that of the body or mind, is however the kind of quality which makes the most shining figure in the eye of the world. As virtue is the most reasonable and genuine fource of honour, we generally find in titles an intimation of fome particular merit that should recommend men to the high ftations which they poffefs. Holiness is afcribed to the pope; majefty to kings; ferenity or mildnefs of temper to princes; excellence or perfection to ambaffadors; grace to archbifhops; honour to peers; worship or venerable behaviour to magiftrates; and reverence, which is of the fame import as the former, to the inferior clergy. In the founders of great families, fuch attributes of honour are generally correfpondent with the virtues of the perfon to whom they are applied; but in the defcendents they are too often the marks rather of grandeur than of merit. The ftamp and denomination ftill continues, but the intrinsic value is frequently loft. The death-bed fhews the emptinels of titles in a true light. A poor difpirited finner lies trembling under the apprehenfions of the ftate he is entering on; and is afked by a grave attendant how his Holiness does? Another hears himfelf addreffed to under the title of Highnefs or Excellency, who lies under fuch mean circumstances of mortality, as are Titles the difgrace of human nature. at fuch a time look rather like infults and mockery than respect. The truth of it is, honours are in this world under no regulation; true quality is neglected, virtue is oppreffed, and vice triumphant. The last day will rectify this diforder, and affign to every one a ftation fuitable to the dignity of his character; ranks will be then adjusted, and precedency fet right. Methinks we fhould have an ambition, if not to advance ourselves in another world, at least to preserve our poft in it, and outfhine our inferiors in virtue here, that they may not be put above us in a state which is to fettle the diftinction for eternity. Men in Scripture are called ftrangers and fojourners upon earth,' and life a pilgrimage. Several Heathen, as well as Chriftian authors, under the fame kind of metaphor, have represented the world as an inn, which was only defigned to furnish us with accommodations in this our paffage. It is therefore very abfurd to think of fetting up our reft before we come to our journey's end, and not rather to take care of the reception we fhall there meet, than to fix our thoughts on the little conveniencies and advantages which we enjoy one above another in the way to it. The Epictetus makes ufe of another kind of allufion, which is very beautiful, and wonderfully proper to incline us to be fatisfied with the poft in which Provi6 We are here," dence has placed us. fays he, as in a theatre, where every one has a part allotted to him. great duty which lies upon a man is to act his part in perfection. We may indeed fay, that our part does not fuit us, and we could act another better. But this,' fays the philofopher, is not our bulinefs. All that we are concerned in is to excel in the part which is given us. If it be an improper one, the fault is not in us, but in him who has caft our feveral parts, and is the great Difpofer of the drama. The part that was acted by this phi lofopher himself was but a very indifferent one, for he lived and died a flave. His motive to contentment in this par ticular ticular, receives a very great enforcement from the above-mentioned confideration, if we remember that our parts in the other world will be new caft, and that mankind will be there ranged in different stations of fuperiority and preeminence, in proportion as they have here excelled one another in virtue, and performed in their feveral pofts of life the duties which belong to them. There are many beautiful paffages in the little apocryphal book, intituled, The Wisdom of Solomon,' to set forth the vanity of honour, and the like temporal bleffings which are in fo great re. pute among men, and to comfort thofe who have not the poffeffion of them. It represents in very warm and noble terins this advancement of a good man in the other world, and the great furprife which it will produce among thofe who are his fuperiors in this. Then fhall the righteous man stand in great bold nefs before the face of fuch as have afflicted him, and made no account of his labours. When they fee it, they fhall be troubled with terrible fear, and fhall be amazed at the trangeness of his falvation, fo far beyond all that they looked for. And they repenting and groaning for an SIR, guish of spirit, fhall fay within themfelves-"This was he whom we had "fome time in derifion, and a proverb "of reproach. We fools accounted his "life madness, and his end to be without honour. How is he numbered among the children of God, and his "lot is among the faints!" If the reader would fee the defcription of a life that is paffed away in va nity, and among the fhadows of pomp and greatnefs, he may fee it very finely drawn in the fame place. In the mean time, fince it is neceffary in the prefent conftitution of things, that order and diftinction fhould be kept in the world, we should be happy, if those who enjoy the upper ftations in it, would endeavour to furpafs others in virtue, as much as in rank, and by their humanity and condefcenfion make their fuperiority eafy and acceptable to thofe who are beneath them; and if, on the contrary, those who are in meaner pofts of life, would confider how they may better their condition hereafter, and by a juft deference and fubmiffion to their fuperiors, make them happy in thofe bleflings with which Providence thought fit to diftinguith them. N° CCXX. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 12, RUMORESQUE SERIT VARIOS A THOUSAND RUMOURS SPREADS. HY will you apply to my father he will give you my perfon; but I affure you it is not in his power, nor even in my own, to give you my heart. Dear Sir, do but confider the ill-confequence of fuch a match; you are fifty-five, I twenty-one. You are a man of bufinefs, and mightily converfant in arithmetic and making calculations; be pleafed therefore to confider what proportion your fpirits bear to mine, and when you have made a juft eftimate of the neceffary decay on one fide, and the redundance on the other, you will act accordingly. This perhaps is fuch language as you may not expect from a young lady; but my happiness is at stake, and I must talk plainly. I mortally hate you; and fo, as you and my father VIRG. N. XII. v. 228. THERE are fo many artifices and modes of falle wit, and fuch a variety of humour difcovers itself among it's votaries, that it would be impoffible to exhaust fo fertile a fubject, if you would think fit to refume it. The following inftances may, if you think fit, be added by way of appendix to your difcourfes on that subject. That feat of poetical activity mentioned by Horace, of an author who could compofe two hundred verfes while he stood upon one leg, has been imitat ed, as I have heard, by a modern writ er; who priding himself on the hurry of his invention, thought it no small addition to his fame to have each piece minuted with the exact number of hours or days it coft him in the compofition. He could taste no praife until he had acquainted you in how short space of time he had deferved it; and was not fo much led to an oftentation of his art, as of his dispatch. -Accipe, fi vis, Accipiam tabulas; detur nobis locus, bora, Cuftodes: videamus uter pius fcribere poffit. HOR. SAT. IV. LIB. I. VER. 14. Here's pen and ink, and time, and place; let's try, Who can write moft, and fastest, you or I. This was the whole of his ambition; and therefore I cannot but think the flights of this rapid author very proper to be oppofed to thofe laborious nothings which you have obferved were the delight of the German wits, and in which they fo happily got rid of fuch a tedious quantity of their time. down in order according to the problem, ftart of themselves into hexameter and pentameter verfes? A friend of mine, who is a student in aftrology, meeting with this book, performed the operation, by the rules there fet down; he fhewed his verses to the next of his acquaintance, who happened to understand Latin; and being informed they defcribed a tempeft of wind, very luckily prefixed them, together with a tranfla tion, to an almanack he was just then printing, and was supposed to have foretold the last great form. I think the only improvement beyond this, would be that which the late Duke of Buckingham mentioned to a ftupid I pretender to poetry, as the project of a Dutch mechanic, viz. a mill to make verses. This being the most compendious method of all which have yet been propofed, may deserve the thoughts of our modern virtuofi who are employed. in new difcoveries for the public good: and it may be worth the while to confider, whether in an island where few are content without being thought wits, it will not be a common benefit, that wit as well as labour should be made cheap. I am, Sir, your humble fervant, &c. I have known a gentleman of another turn of humour, who, defpifing the name of an author, never printed his works, but contracted his talent, and by the help of a very fine diamond which he wore on his little finger, was a conI fiderable poet upon glafs. He had a very good epigrammatic wit; and there was not a parlour or tavern-window where he vifited or dined for fome years, which did not receive fome sketches or memorials of it. It was his misfortune at laft to lose his genius and his ring to a fharper at play, and he has not attempted to make a verse fince. But of all contractions or expedients for wit, I admire that of an ingenious projector whole book I have seen. This virtuofo being a mathematician, has, according to his tate, thrown the art of poetry into a fhort problem, and contrived tables by which any one, without knowing a word of grammar or fenfe, may, to his great comfort, be able to compofe, or rather to erect Latin verses. His tables are a kind of poetical logarithms, which being divided into feveral fquares, and all infcribed with fo many incoherent words, appear to the eye fomewhat like a fortune-telling fcreen. What a joy muft it be to the unlearned operator to find that thefe words being carefully collected and writ MR. SPECTATOR, Often dine at a gentleman's house, where there are two young ladies, in themfelves very agreeable, but very cold in their behaviour, because they underftand me for a perfon that is to break my mind, as the phrafe is, very fuddenly to one of them. But I take this way to acquaint them, that I am not in love with either of them, in hopes they will use me with that agreeable freedom and indifference which they do all the reft of the world, and not to drink to one another only, but fometimes cast a kind look, with their fervice to, Sir, I Your humble fervant, MR. SPECTATOR, Am a young gentleman, and take it for a piece of good-breeding to pull off my hat when I fee any thing peculiarly charming in any woman, whether I know her or not.. I take care that there is nothing ludicrous or arch in my manner, as if I were to betray a woman into a falutation by way of jest or humour; and except I am acquainted with her, I find the ever takes it for a rule, that the is to look upon this civility and FROM EGGS WHICH FIRST ARE SET UPON THE BOARD, WHEN I have finished any of my ufe to an unlearned reader, for which fpeculations, it is my method to confider which of the ancient authors have touched upon the fubject that I treat of. By this means I meet with fome celebrated thought upon it, or a thought of my own expreffed in better words, or fome fimilitude for the illuftration of my fubject. This is what gives birth to the motto of a speculation, which I rather choose to take out of the poets than the profe-writers, as the former generally give a finer turn to a thought than the latter, and by couching it in few words, and in harmonious numbers, make it more portable to the memory. My reader is therefore fure to meet with at least one good line in every paper, and very often finds his imagination entertained by a hint that awakens in his memory fome beautiful paffage of a claffic author. It was a faying of an ancient philofopher, which I find fome of our writers have afcribed to Queen Elizabeth, who perhaps might have taken occafion to repeat it, that a good face is a letter of recommendation.' It naturally makes the beholders inquifitive into the perfon who is the owner of it, and generally prepoffeffes them in his favour. A handfome motto has the fame effect; befides that it always gives a fupernumerary beauty to a paper, and is fometimes in a manner neceffary when the writer is engaged in what may appear a paradox to vulgar minds, as it thews that he is fupported by good authorities, and is not fingular in his opinion. I must confefs, the motto is of little reafon I confider it only as a word to the wife. But as for my unlearned friends, if they cannot relish the motto, I take care to make provifion for them in the body of my paper. If they do not understand the fign that is hung out, they know very well by it, that they may meet with entertainment in the house; and I think I was never better pleased than with a plain man's compliment, who, upon his friend's telling him that he would like the Spectator much better if he understood the motto, replied, that good wine needs no bush.' I have heard of a couple of preachers in a country town, who endeavoured which thould outfhine one another, and draw together the greatest congregation. One of them being well verfed in the fathers, ufed to quote every now and then a Latin fenience to his illiterate hearers, who it feems found themselves fo edified by it, that they flocked in greater numbers to this learned man than to his rival. The other finding his congregation mouldering every Sunday, and hearing at length what was the occafion of it, refolved to give his parifh a little Latin in his turn; but being unacquainted with any of the fathers, he digefted into his fermons the whole book of Que Genus, adding however fuch explications to it as he thought might be for the benefit of his people. He afterwards entered upon As in præfenti, which he converted in the fame manner to the ufe of his parishioners. This in a very little time thickened his audience, filled his church, and routed his antagonist. 3 H 2 The The natural love to Latin, which is fo prevalent in our common people, makes me think that my fpeculations fare never the worfe among them from that little fcrap which appears at the head of them; and what the more encourages me in the ufe of quotations in an unknown tongue, is, that I hear the ladies, whofe approbation I value more than that of the whole learned world, declare themfelves in a more particular manner pleafed with my Greek mottos. Defigning this day's work for a differtation upon the two extremities of my paper, and having already difpatched my motto, I fhall, in the next place, difcourfe upon thofe fingle capital letters, which are placed at the end of it, and which have afforded great matter of fpeculation to the curious. I have heard various conjectures upon this subject. Some tell us that C is the mark of thofe papers that are written by the clergyman, though others afcribe them to the club in general: that the papers marked with R were written by my friend Sir Roger: that L fignifies the lawyer, whom I have defcribed in my fecond fpeculation; and that T ftands for the trader or merchants but the letter X, which is placed at the end of fome few of my papers, is that which has puzzled the whole town, as they cannot think of any name which begins with that letter, except Xenophon and Xerxes, who can neither of them be fuppofed to have had any hand in thefe Speculations. In answer to these inquifitive gentlemen, who have many of them made nquiries of me by letter, I must tell them the reply of an ancient philofopher, who carried fomething hidden under his cloke. A certain acquaintance defiring him to let him know what it was he covered fo carefully- I cover it,' fays he, on purpote that you fhould not know.' I have made ufe of thefe obfcure marks for the fame purpose. They are, perhaps, little amulets or charms to preferve the paper against the fafcination and malice of evil eyes; for which reafon I would not have my reader, furprized, if hereafter he fees any of my papers marked with a Q, a Z, a Y, an &c. or with the word Abracadabra. I fhall, however, fo far explain myfelf to the reader, as to let him know that the letters C, L, and X, are cabaliftical, and carry more in them than it is proper for the world to be acquainted with. Those who are versed in the philofophy of Pythagoras, and fwear by the Tetrachtys, that is, the number Four, will know very well that the num ber Ten, which is fignified by the letter X, (and which has fo much perplexed the town) has in it many particular powers; that it is called by platonic writers the complete number; that one, two, three, and four, put together, make up the num ber ten; and that ten is all. But these are not mysteries for ordinary readers to be let into. A man must have spent many years in hard study before he can arrive to the knowledge of them. We had a rabbinical divine in England, who was chaplain to the Earl of Effex in Queen Elizabeth's time, that had an admirable head for fecrets of this nature. Upon his taking the doctor of divinity's degree, he preached before the univerfity of Cambridge upon the firit verfe of the first chapter of the firtt book of Chronicles, in which, fays he, you have the three following words, Adam, Sheth, Enofh. He divided this fhort text into many parts, and by difcovering feveral myiteries in each word, made a moft learned and elaborate discourse. The name of this profound preacher was Dr. Alabafter, of whom the reader may find a more particular account in Dr. Fuller's book of English Worthies. This inftance will, I hope, convince my readers that there may be a great deal of fine writing in the capital letters which bring up the rear of my paper, and give then fome fatisfaction in that particular. But as for the full explication of thefe matters, I must refer them to time, which difcovers all things. C N⚫ CCXXII. |