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viations from the ancient orthography, I am not wholly fatisfied myself that it is authentic, and not rather the production of one of thofe Grecian fophifters, who have impofed upon the world feveral purious works of this nature.

I fpeak this by way of precaution, becaufe I know there are feveral writers, of uncommon erudition, who would not fail to expofe my ignorance, if they caught me tripping in a matter of fo great moment.

N° CCXXVIII. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 21.

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PERCUNCTATOREM FUGITO, NAM GARRULUS IDEM EST.
HOR. EP. XVIII. LIB. I. VER. 69.

SHUN THE INQUISITIVE AND CURIOUS MAN;
FOR WHAT HE HEARS HE WILL RELATE AGAIN.

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POOLT.

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what is the matter with me, but I flept very ill last night; whether I caught cold or no, I know not, but I fancy I do not wear fhoes thick enough for the weather, and I have coughed all this week: it must be fo, for the 'cuftom of washing my head winter and fummer with cold water, prevents

any injury from the feafon entering that way; fo it muft come in at my feet; but I take no notice of it: as it comes fo it goes. Mot of our evils proceed from too much tenderness; and our faces are naturally as little able to relift the cold as other parts. The Indian aufwered very well to an European, who afked him how he could go naked-" I am all face,"

HERE is a creature who has all the organs of speech, a tolerable good capacity for conceiving what is faid to it, together with a pretty proper behaviour in all the occurrences of common life; but naturally very vacant of thought in itself, and therefore forced to apply itfelf to foreign affiftances. Of this make is that man who is very inquifitive. You may often obferve, that though he speaks as good fenfe as any man upon any thing with which he is well acquainted, he cannot truft to the range of his own fancy to entertain himfelf upon that foundation, but goes on hill to new inquiries. Thus, though ayou know he is fit for the moft polite I converfation, you fhall fee him very well contented to fit by a jockey, giving an account, of the many revolutions in his horse's health, what potion he made him; take, how that agreed with him, how afterwards he came to his ftomach and his exercife, or any the like imperti-nence; and be as well pleafed as if talked to him on the most important .truths. This humour is far from making a man unhappy, though it may fubsheet him to raillery; for he generally falls in with a perfon who feems to be born for him, which is your talkative Jellow. It is fo ordered, that there is Mafecret bent, as natural as the meeting Loftferent fexes, in these two charac-good and evil that is fpeken in town are ters, to supply each other's wants. I had the honour the other day to sit in a spublic room, and faw an inquilitiye man Jook with an air of fatisfaction upon the approach of one of thele talkers. The man of ready utterance fat down by him, and rubbing his head, leaning on = his arm, and making an unealy coun.tenance, he began- There is no man

you

mer of news to day, I cannot tell

I obferved this difcourfe was as welcome to my general inquirer as any other of more confequence could have been; but fome body calling our talker to another part of the room, the inquirer. told the next man who fat by him, that Mr. Such a one, who was just gene from him, ufed to wath his head in cold water every morning; and fo repeated almoft verbatim all that had been faid to him. The truth is, the inquisitive are the funnels of converfation; they do not take in any thing for their own ufe, but merely to pafs it to anether: they are the channels through which all the

conveyed. Such as are offendeforthem or think they fuffer by their behaviour, may themfelves mend that inconvenience; for they are not a malicious people, and if you will fupply them, you may contradit any thing they have laid before by their own mouths. A farther account; of a thing is one of the gratefuleft goods that can arrive to them; and it is feldom that they are more particular than to say,

tha

the town will have it, or I have it from a good hand: so that there is room for the town to know the matter more particularly, and for a better hand to contradict what was said by a good one.

I have not known this humour more ridiculous than in a father, who has been earneftly folicitous to have an account how his fon has paffed his leisure hours; if it be in a way thoroughly infignificant, there cannot be a greater joy than an inquirer difcovers in feeing him follow fo hopefully his own fteps: but this humour among men is moft pleafant when they are faying fomething which is not wholly proper for a third perfon to hear, and yet is in itself indifferent. The other day there came in a welldreffed young fellow, and two gentlemen of this fpecies immediately fell a whispering his pedigree. I could overhear, by breaks, 'She was his aunt;' then an anfwer-Ay, fhe was of the mother's 'fide: then again in a little lower voice - His father wore generally a darker wig;' anfwer, 'Not much. But this gen⚫tleman wears higher heels to his fhoes.' As the inquifitive, in my opinion, are fuch merely from a vacancy in their own imaginations, there is nothing, methinks, fo dangerous as to communicate fecrets to them; for the fame temper of enquiry makes them as impertinently communicative: but no man, though he converfes with them, need put himself in their power, for they will be contented with matters of lefs moment as well. When there is fuel enough, no matter what it is-Thus the ends of fentences in the news-papers, as, ⚫ this wants confirmation; this occafions ⚫ many speculations, and time will difcover the event,' are read by them, and confidered not as mere expletives.

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MR. SPECTATOR,

PLUTARCH tell us, that Caius

Gracchus, the Roman, was frequently hurried by his paffion into fo loud and tumultuous a way of speaking, and fo ftrained his voice as not to be able to proceed. To remedy this excess, he had an ingenious fervant, by name Licinius, always attending him with a pitch-pipe, or inftrument to regulate the voice; who, whenever he heard his mafter begin to he high, immediately touched a foft note; at which, it is faid, Caius would presently abate and grow calm.

Upon recollecting this ftory, I have frequently wondered that this ufeful inftrument fhould have been fo long dif continued; efpecially fince we find that this good office of Licinius has preserved his memory for many hundred years, which, methinks, fhould have encouraged fome one to have revived it, if not for the public good, yet for his own credit. It may be objected, that our loud talkers are fo fond of their own noife, that they would not take it well to be checked by their fervants: but granting this to be true, furely any of their hearers have a very good title to play a foft note in their own defence. To be fhort, no Licinius appearing, and the noife increasing, I was refolved to give this late long vacation to the good of my country; and I have at One may fee now and then this hu- length, by the affiftance of an ingenious mour accompanied with an infatiable artift, who works to the Royal Society, defire of knowing what paffes, without almoft completed my design, and fhall turning it to any use in the world but be ready in a fhort time to furnish the merely their own entertainment. A public with what number of these inmind which is gratified this way is truments they please, either to lodge at adapted to humour and pleasantry, and coffee-houses, or carry for their own formed for an unconcerned character in private ufe. In the mean time, I fhall the world; and, like myself, to be a pay that refpe&t to feveral gentlemen, mere fpectator. This curiofity, without who I know will be in danger of offendmalice or felf-intereft, lays up in the ing against this inftrument, to give imagination a magazine of circumftances them notice of it by private letters, in which cannot but entertain when they which I fhall only write Get a are produced in converfation. If one Licinius.' were to know, from the man of the first quality to the meanest fervant, the different intrigues, fentiments, pleasures,

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I fhould now trouble you no longer, but that I must not conclude without defiring you to accept one of these pipes, 3 K which

which fhall be left for you with BuckJey; and which I hope will be ferviceable to you, fince as you are filent yourself, you are moft open to the infults of the noify. I am, Sir, &c.

I had almoft forgot to inform you, that as an improvement in this inftrument, there will be a particular note, which I call a hufh-note; and this is to be made use of against a long story, W. B. fwearing, obfcenenefs, and the like. T

N° CCXXIX. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 22.

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MONG the many famous pieces

of antiquity which are still to be feen at Rome, there is the trunk of a ftatue which has loft the arms, legs, and head; but difcovers fuch an exquifite workmanship in what remains of it, that Michael Angelo declared he had learned his whole art from it. Indeed he ftudied it fo attentively, that he made most of his ftatues, and even his pictures in that gufto, to make use of the Italian phrafe; for which reason this maimed ftatue is ftill called Michael Angelo's fchool.

A fragment of Sappho, which I defign for the fubject of this paper, is in as great reputation among the poets and critics, as the mutilated figure abovementioned is among the ftatuaries and painters. Several of our countrymen, and Mr. Dryden in particular, feem very often to have copied after it in their dramatic writings, and in their poems upon love.

Whatever might have been the occafion of this ode, the English reader will enter into the beauties of it, if he fuppofes it to have been written in the perfon of a lover fitting by his mifirefs. I fhall fet to view three different copies of this beautiful original; the first is a tranflation by Catullus, the fecond by Monfieur Boileau, and the laft by a gentleman whofe tranflation of the Hymn to Venus has been fo defervedly admired.

Ad LESBIAM.

Ille mi par effe Des videtur,
Ille, fi fas eft, fuperare dives,
Qui fedens adverfus identidem te
Epetiat, & audit.

CREICH,

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My learned reader will know very well the reafon why one of these verses is printed in Roman letter; and if he compares this translation with the original, will find that the three firft ftanzas are rendered almoft word for word, and not only with the fame elegance, but with the fame fhort turn of expression

which is fo remarkable in the Greek,

and fo peculiar to the Sapphic ode. I cannot imagine for what reafon Madam Dacier has told us, that this ode of Sappho is preferved entire in Longinus, fince it is manifeft to any one who looks into that author's quotation of it, that there muft at least have been another itanza, which is not tranfmitted to us.

The fecond tranflation of this fragment which I fhall here cite, is that of Monfieur Boileau.

Heureux! qui prés de toi, pour toi seule foûpire:
Qui jouït du plaifir de t'entendre parler:
Qui te veit quelquefois doucement lui fobrire.
Les Dieux, dans fon bonheur, peuvent-ils
l'égaler ?

Jefens de veine en veine une fubtile flamme
Courir par tout mon corps, fi tôt que te vois:
Et dans les doux tranfports, où s'egare mon ami,
Je ne fcaurois trouver de langue, ni de voix.
Un nuage confus fe rèpand fur ma cuï,

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Je n'entens plus, je tombe en de douces langutursz

Et pale, fans baleine, interdite éperduï, Un friffon me fait, je tremble, je me meurs.

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The reader will fee that this is rather an imitation than a tranflation. The circumitances do not lie fo thick together, and follow one another with that vehemence and emotion as in the original. In fhort, Monfieur Boileau has given us all the poetry, but not all the paffion of this famous fragment. I fhall, in the last place, prefent my reader with the English tranflation.

1.

BLEST as th' immortal gods is he,

The youth who fondly fits by thee, And hears and fees thee all the while Softly speak and sweetly smile.

II.

'Twas this depriv'd my foul of reft,
And rais'd fuch tumults in my breaft;
For while I gaz'd, in tranfport tost,
My breath was gone, my voice was loft;

III.

My bofom glow'd; the fubtle flame Ran quick thro' all my vital frame; O'er my dim eyes a darkness hung; My ears with hollow murmurs rung.

IV.

In dewy damps my limbs were chill'a;
My blood with gentle horrors thrill'd;
My feeble pulfe forgot to play;
I fainted, funk, and dy'd away.

Inftead of giving any character of this laft tranflation, I shall defire my learned reader to look into the criticisms which Longinus has made upon the original. By that means he will know to which of

the tranflations he ought to give the preference. I fhall only add, that this translation is written in the very spirit of Sappho, and as near the Greek as the genius of our language will poffibly fuffer.

Longinus has obferved, that this defcription of love in Sappho is an exact copy of nature, and that all the circumftances which follow one another in fuch an hurry of fentiments, notwithstanding they appear repugnant to each other, are really fuch as happen in the phrenzies of love.

I wonder that not one of the critics or editors, through whofe hands this ode has paffed, has taken occafion from it to mention a circumftance related by Plutarch. That author in the famous ftory of Antiochus, who fell in love with Stratonice, his mother-in-law, and, not daring to difcover his paffion, pretended to be confined to his bed by ficknefs, tells us, that Erafiftratus, the phyfician, found out the nature of his diftemper, by thofe fymptoms of love which he had learnt from Sappho's writings. Stratonice was in the room of the love-fick prince, when thefe fymptoms difcovered themfelves to his phyfician; and it is probable, that they were not very different from those which Sappho here defcribes in a lover fitting by his mistress. This itory of Antiochus is fo well known, that I need not add the fequel of it, which has no relation to my prefent fubject.

N° CCXXX. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 23.

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HOMINES AD DEOS NULLA RE PROPIUS ACCEDUNT, QUAM SALUTEM HOMINI

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MEN RESEMBLE THE GODS IN NOTHING SO MUCH, AS IN DOING GOOD TO THEIR FELLOW-CREATURES.

HUMAN nature appears a very even ashamed of our fpecies, and out of

ject, according to the different lights in which it is viewed. When we fee men of inflamed paffions, or of wicked defigns, tearing one another to pieces by open violence, or undermining each other by fecret treachery; when we obferve bafe and narrow ends purfued by ignominious and difhoneft means; when we behold men mixed in fociety as if it were for the deftruction of it; we are

another light, when we behold them mild, good, and benevolent, full of a generous regard for the public profperity, compaffionating each other's dif treffes, and relieving each other's wants, we can hardly believe they are creatures of the fame kind. In this view they appear gods to each other, in the exercife of the nobleft power, that of doing good; and the greatest compliment we 3 K 2

have

have ever been able to make to our own being, has been by calling this difpofition of mind humanity. We cannot but obferve a pleasure arifing in our own breaft upon the feeing or hearing of a generous action, even when we are wholly difinterested in it. I cannot give a more proper inftance of this, than by a letter from Pliny, in which he recomnends a friend in the most handfome manner; and, methinks, it would be a great pleasure to know the fuccefs of this epiftle, though each party concerned in it has been fo many hundred years in his grave.

TO MAXIMUS.

WHAT I should gladly do for any friend of your's, I think I may now with confidence request for a friend of mine. Arrianus Maturius is the moft confiderable man of his country; when I call him fo, I do not speak with relation to his fortune, though that is very plentiful, but to his integrity, jutice, gravity, and prudence: his advice is ufeful to me in bufinefs, and his judgment in matters of learning; his fidelity, truth, and good understanding, are very great; befides this, he loves me as you do, than which I cannot fay thing that fignifies a warmer affection. He has nothing that is afpiring; and though he might rife to the highest order of nobility, he keeps himfelf in an inferior rank; yet I think myfelf bound to use my endeavours to ferve and promote him; and would therefore find the means of adding fomething to his honours while he neither expects nor knows it, nay, though he hould refufe it. Something, in fhort, I would have for him that may be honourable, but not troublefome; and I entreat that you will procure him the first thing of this kind that offers, by which you will not only oblige me, but him allo; for though he does not covet it, I know he will be as grateful in acknowledging your favour as if he had

afked it.

MR. SPECTATOR,

THE reflections in fome of your

papers on the fervile manner of education now in ufe, have given birth to an ambition, which, unless you difcountenance it, will, I doubt, engage ine in a very difficult, though not un

grateful adventure. I am about to un dertake, for the fake of the British youth, to inftruct them in fuch a inanner, that the most dangerous page in Virgil or Homer may be read by them with much pleafure, and with perfect fafety to their perfons.

Could I prevail fo far as to be honoured with the protection of some few of them, for I am not hero enough to refcue many, my defign is to retire with them to an agreeable folitude; though within the neighbourhood of a city for the convenience of their being inftructed in mufic, dancing, drawing, defigning, or any other fuch accomplishments, which it is conceived may make as proper diverfions for them, and almost as

pleafant, as the little fordid games which dirty fchool-boys are fo much delighted with. It may eafily be imagined, how fuch a pretty fociety, converfing with none beneath themselves, and sometimes admitted as perhaps not unentertaining parties amongst better company, com mended and careffed for their little performances, and turned by fuch converfations to a certain gallantry of foul, might be brought early acquainted with fome of the moft polite English writers. This having given them fome tolerable tafte of books, they would make themfelves mafters of the Latin tongue by methods far eafier than thofe in Lilly, with as little difficulty or reluctance as young ladies learn to speak French, or to fing Italian operas. When they had advanced thus far, it would be time to form their tafte fomething more exactly: one that had any true relifh of fine writ ing, might, with great pleafure both to himself and them, run over together with them the best Roman historians, poets, and orators, and point out their more remarkable beauties; give them a short scheme of chronology, a little view of geography, medals, aftronomy, or what elfe might beft feed the busy inquifitive humour fo natural to that age. Such of them as had the leaft fpark of genius, when it was once awakened by the fhining thoughts and great fentiments of thofe admired writers, could not, I believe, be eafily withheld from attempting that more difficult fifter language, whofe exalted beauties they would have heard fo often celebrated as the pride and wonder of the whole learned world. In the mean while, it would be requisite to exercise their stile in writ

ing

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