tions which others have not attended to, and I should be very glad to fee any of our eminent writers publifh their dif coveries on the fame fubject. In short, I would always be understood to write my papers of criticifm in the fpirit which Horace has expreffed in thofe two famous lines -Si quid novifti rectius iftis, Er. VI. LIB. I. VER. ULT. If you have made any better remarks of your own, communicate then with cadour; if not, make use of thefe 1 prefent you with. N° CCLXIII. TUESDAY, JANUARY 1, 1712. C GRATULOR QUOD EUM QUEM NECESSE ERAT DILIGERE, QUALISCUNQUE ESSET, I REJOICE, THAT THE PERSON, WHOM IT WAS MY DUTY TO LOVE, GOOD OR BAD, IS SUCH AN ONE, THAT I CAN LOVE HIM WITH A WILLING MIND. MR. SPECTATOR, I Am the happy father of a very towardly fon, in whom I do not only fee my life, but also my manner of life, renewed. It would be extremely beneficial to fociety, if you would frequently refume fubjects which ferve to bind thefe fort of relations fafter, and endear the ties of blood with thofe of good-will, protection, obfervance, indulgence, and veneration. I would, methinks, have this done after an uncommon method, and do not think any one, who is not capable of writing a good play, fit to undertake a work wherein there will neceffarily occur fo many fecret inftincts, and biaffes of human nature which would país unobferved by common eyes. thank Heaven I have no outrageous offence against my own excellent parents to answer for; but when I am now and then alone, and look back upon my palt life, from my earlieit infancy to this time, there are many faults which I committed that did not appear to me, even until I myfelf became a father. I had not until then a notion of the yearnings of heart, which a man has when he fees his child do a laudable thing, or the fudden damp which feizes him when he fears he will act fomething unworthy. It is not to be imagined, what a remorfe touched me for a long train of childish negligences of my mother, when I faw my wife the other day look out of the window, and turn as pale as afhes upon feeing my younger boy fliding upon the ice. Thefe flight intimations will give you to understand, that there are numberless little crimes which children take no notice of while interpofes against inftinct, where it would carry either out of the interefts of the other, there arifes that happieft intercourfe of good offices between thofe deareft relations of human life. The father, according to the opportunities which are offered to him, is throwing down bleffings on the fon, and the fon endeavouring to appear the worthy offfpring of fuch a father. It is after this manner that Camillus and his firit-born dwell together. Camillus enjoys a pleafing and indolent old age, in which paffion is fubdued, and reafon exalted. He waits the day of his diffolution with a refignation mixed with delight, and the fon fears the acceffion of his father's fortune with diffidence, left he should not enjoy or become it as well as his predeceffor. Add to this, that the father knows he leaves a friend to the children of his friends, an eafy landlord to his tenants, and an agreeable companion to his acquaintance. He believes his fon's behaviour will make him frequently remembered, but never wanted. This commerce is fo well cemented, that without the pomp of faying- Son, be a friend to fuch a one when I am gone;' Camillus knows, being in his favour, is direction enough to the grateful youth who is to fucceed him, without the admonition of his mentioning it. Thefe gentlemen are honoured in all their neighbourhood, and the fame effect which the court has on the manners of a kingdom, their characters have on all who live within the influence of them. My fon and I are not of fortune to communicate our good actions or intentions to fo many as thefe gentlemen do; but I will be bold to fay, my fon has, by the applaufe and approbation which his behaviour towards me has gained him, occafioned that many an old man, befides myfelf, has rejoiced. Other men's children follow the example of mine, and I have the inexpreffible happiness of overhearing our neighbours, as we ride by, point to their children, and fay, with a voice of joy-There they go." You cannot, Mr. Spectator, pafs your time better than in infinuating the delights which these relations well regard ed bestow upon each other. Ordinary paffages are no longer fuch, but mutual love gives an importance to the mott indifferent things, and a merit to actions the most infignificant. When we look round the world, and obferve the many misunderstandings which are created by the malice and infinuation of the meanest fervants between people thus related, how neceflary will it appear that it were inculcated that men would be upon their guard to fupport a constancy of affection, and that grounded upon the principles of reafon, not the impulfes of inftin&t? It is from the common prejudices which men receive from their parents, that hatreds are kept alive from one generation to another; and when men act by instinct, hatreds will defcend when good offices are forgotten. For the degeneracy of human life is such, that our anger is more easily transferred to our children than our love. Love always gives fomething to the object it. delights in, and anger fpoils the perfon against whom it is moved of foinething laudable in him: from this degeneracy therefore, and a f rt of felf-love, we are more prone to take up the ill-will of our parents, than to follow them in their friendships. One would think there fhould need no more to make men keep up this fort of relation with the utmoft fanctity, than to examine their own hearts. If every father remembered his Own thoughts and inclinations when he was a fon, and every fon remembered what he expected from his father, when he himself was in a state of dependance, this one reflection would preferve men from being diffolute or rigid in these feveral capacities. The power and subjection between them, when broken, make them more emphatically tyrants and rebels against each other, with greater cruelty of heart, than the difruption of states and empires can poffibly produce. I fhall end this application to you with two letters which paffed between a mother and fon very lately, and are as follows. eight hundred a year to the prejudice of his fon. What Letacre faid to you upon that occafion, you ought to have borne with more decency, as he was your father's well-beloved fervant, than to have called him country-put. In the first place, Frank, I must tell you, I will have my rent duly paid, for I will make up to your fifters for the partiality I was guilty of, in making your father do. fo much as he has done for you. I may, it feems, live upon half my join ture! I lived upon much lefs, Frank, when I carried you from place to place in these arms, and could neither eat, drefs, or mind any thing for feeding and tending you a weakly child, and fhedding tears when the convulfions you were then troubled with returned upon you. By my care you out grew them, to throw away the vigour of your youth in the arms of harlots, and deny your mother what is not your's to detain. CCLXIV. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 2. -SECRETUM ITER ET FALLENTIS SEMITA VITE. Hok. EP. XVIII. LIB. I. VER. 103. CLOSE RETIREMENT, AND A LIFE BY STEALTH. T CREECH. IT has been from age to age an affec. I have often obferved, there is not a tation to love the pleasure of folitude, among those who cannot poffibly be fuppofed qualified for paffing life in that manner. This people have taken up from reading the many agreeable things which have been writ on that fubject, for which we are beholden to excellent perfons who delighted in being retired and abstracted from the pleatures that inchant the generality of the world. This way of life is recommended indeed with great beauty, and in fuch a manner as disposes the reader for the time to a pleafing forgetfulness, or negligence of the particular hurry of life in which he is engaged, together with a longing for that ftate which he is charmed with in defcription. But when we confider the world itfelf, and how few there are capable of a religious, learned, or philofophic folitude, we fhall be apt to change a regard to that fort of folitude, for being a little fingular in enjoying time after the way a man himself likes beft in the world, without going fo far as wholly to withdraw from it. man breathing who does not differ from all other men, as much in the fentiments of his mind, as the features of his face. The felicity is, when any one is fo happy as to find out and follow what is the proper bent of his genius, and turn all his endeavours to exert himself according as that prompts him. Inftead of this, which is an innocent method of enjoying a man's felf, and turning out of the general tracks wherein you have crowds of rivals, there are those who purfue their own way out of a fournefs and fpirit of contradiction: these men do every thing which they are able to fupport, as if guilt and impunity could not go together. They chufe a thing only because another dislikes it; and affect forfooth an inviolable conftancy in matters of no manner of moment. Thus fometimes an old fellow shall wear this or that fort of cut in his cloaths with great integrity, while all the reft of the world are degenerated into buttons, pockets, and loops unknown to their ancestors. As infignificant as even this 3 S 2 is, is, if it were fearched to the bottom, you perhaps would find it not fincere, but that he is in the fashion in his heart, and holds out from mere obftinacy. But I am running from my intended purpofe, which was to celebrate a certain particular manner of paffing away life, and is a contradiction to no man, but a refolution to contract none of the exorbitant defires by which others are enflaved. The best way of feparating a man's felf from the world, is to give up the defire of being known to it. After a man has preferved his innocence, and performed all duties incumbent up. on him, his time spent his own way is what makes his life differ from that of a flave. If they who affect how and pomp knew how many of their fpectators derided their trivial taste, they would be very much lefs elated, and have an inclination to examine the merit of all they have to do with: they would foon find out that there are many who make a figure below what their fortune or merit entitles them to, out of mere choice, and an elegant defire of ease and difincumbrance. It would look like a romance to tell you in this age of an old man who is contented to pafs for an humourift, and one who does not understand the figure he ought to make in the world, while he lives in a lodging of ten fhillings a week with only one fervant: while he dreffes himself according to the feafon in cloth or in ftuff, and has no one neceffary attention to any thing but the bell which calls to prayers twice a day. I fay it would look like a fable to report that this gentleman gives away all which is the overplus of a great fortune, by fecret methods, to other men. If he has not the pomp of a numerous train, and of profeflors of fervice to him, he has every day he lives the confcience that the widow, the fatherlefs, the mourner, and the ffranger, blefs his unfeen hand in their prayers. This humourift gives up all the compliments which people of his own condition could make him, for the pleafures of helping the afflicted, fupplying the needy, and befriending the neglected. This humourift keeps to himfelf much more than he wants, and gives a vaft refufe of his fuperfluities to purchafe heaven, and by freeing others from the temptations of worldly want, to carry a retinue with him thither. Of all men who affect living in a par ticular way, next to this admirable character, I am the most enamoured of Irus, whofe condition will not admit of fuch laigefles, and perhaps would not be capable of making them, if it were. Irus, though he is now turned of fifty, has not appeared in the world, in his real character, fince five and twenty, at which age he ran out a fmall patiimony, and spent fome time after with rakes who had lived upon him: a courie of ten years time, pafled in all the little alleys, by-paths, and fometimes open taverns and treets of this town, gave Trus a perfect skill in judging of the inclinations of mankind, and acting accordingly. He feriously confidered he was poor, and the general horror which moft men have of all who are in that condition. Irus judged very rightly, that while he could keep his poverty a fecret, he should not feel the weight of it; he improved this thought into an ar fectation of clofenefs and covetousness. Upon this one principle he refolved to govern his future life; and in the thirtyfixth year of his age he repaired to Long Lane, and looked upon feveral dreffes which hung there deferted by their first mafters, and expofed to the purchase of the best bidder. At this place he exchanged his gay shabbiness of cloaths fit for a much younger man, to warm ones that would be decent for a much older one. Irus came out thoroughly equipped from head to foot, with a little oaken cane in the form of a fubftantial man that did not mind his dress, turned of fifty. He had at this time fifty pounds of ready-money; and in this habit, with this fortune, he took his prefent lodging in St. John's Street, at the manfion-houfe of a taylor's widow, who washes and can clear-ftarch his bands. From that time to this he has kept the main stock, without alteration under or over, to the value of five pounds. He left off all his old acquaintance to a man, and all his arts of life, except the play of backgammon, upon which he has more than bore his charges. Irus has, ever fince he came into this neighbourhood, given all the intimation he skilfully could of being a close hunks worth money: nobody comes to vifit him, he receives no letters, and tells his money morning and evening. He has, from the public pa pers, a knowledge of what generally paffes, fhuns all difcourfes of money, but but fhrugs his shoulders when you talk of fecurities; he denies his being rich with the air, which all do who are vain of being fo: he is the oracle of a neighbouring justice of peace, who meets him at the coffee-houfe; the hopes that what he has must come to fomebody, and that he has no heirs, have that effect where ever he is known, that he every day has three or four invitations to dine at different places, which he generally takes care to chufe in fuch a manner, as not to feem inclined to the richer man. All the young men refpect him, and fay he is juft the fame man he was when they were boys. He ufes no artifice in the Bacchus to the aid of my profeffion of the theatre. So that while fome people of quality are befpeaking plays of me to be acted upon fuch a day, and others, hogfheads for their houfes against fuch a time; I am wholly employed in the agreeable fervice of wit and wine: Sir, I have fent you Sir Roger de Coverley's letter to me, which pray comply with in favour of the Bumper Tavern. Be kind, for you know a player's utmost pride is the approbation of the Spectator. I am your admirer, though unknown, RICHARD ESTCOURT. IN COVENT GARDEN. COVERLEY, DEC. THE 18th, 1711. OLD COMICAL ONES, THE hogheads of neat port came world, but makes use of men's defigns TO MR. ESTCOURT, AT HIS HOUSE upon him to get a maintenance out of them. This he carries on by a certain pcevifhnefs, (which he acts very well) that no one would believe could poffibly enter into the head of a poor fellow. His mien, his drefs, his carriage, and his language, are fuch, that you would be at a lofs to guess whether in the active part of his life he had been a fenfible citizen, or a fcholar that knew the world. Thefe are the great circumftances in the life of Irus, and thus does he pass away his days a ftranger to mankind; and at his death, the worst that will be faid of him will be, that he got by every man who had expectations from him, more than he had to leave him. I have an inclination to print the following letters; for that I have heard the author of them has fomewhere or other feen me, and by an excellent faculty in mimicry my correfpondents tell me he can affume my air, and give my taciturnity a flynefs which diverts more than any thing I could fay if I were present. Thus I am glad my filence is atoned for to the good company in town. He has carried his skill in imitation fo far, as to have forged a letter from my friend Sir Roger in fuch a manner, that any one but I, who am thoroughly acquainted with him, would have taken it for genuine. fafe, and have gotten thee good reputation in thefe parts; and I am glad to hear, that a fellow who has been laying out his money ever fince he was born, for the mere pleasure of wine, has bethought himself of joining profit Our fexton and pleafure together. (poor man) having received ftrength from thy wine fince his fit of the gout, is hugely taken with it: he fays it is given by nature for the use of families, that no steward's table can be without it, that it strengthens digeftion, excludes furfeits, fevers, and phyfic; which green wines of any kind cannot do. Pray get a pure fnug room, and I hope next term to help fill your bumper with our people of the club; but you must have no bells ftirring when the Spectator comes; I forbore ringing to dinner while he was down with me in the country. Thank you for the little hams and Por tugal onions; pray keep fome always by you. You know my fupper is only good Cheshire cheese, best mustard, a golden pippin, attended with a pipe of John Sly's beft. Sir Harry has ftolen all your fongs, and tells the story of the Fifth of November to perfection. Yours, to ferve you, ROGER DE COVERLEY. |