N° CCCLXXXVII. SATURDAY, MAY 24. QUID PURE TRANQUILLET HOR. EP. XVIII. L. I. v. 102. WHAT CALMS THE BREAST, AND MAKES THE MIND SERENE. 'N my last Saturday's paper I fpoke of the mind, and accordingly mentioned fuch moral motives as are apt to cherish and keep alive this happy temper in the foul of man: I fhall now confider chearfulness in it's natural ftate, and reflect on thofe motives to it, which are indifferent either as to virtue or vice. Chearfulness is, in the first place, the beft promoter of health. Repinings and fecret murmurs of heart, give imperceptible strokes to thofe delicate fibres of which the vital parts are compofed, and wear out the machine infenfibly; not to mention thofe violent ferments which they stir up in the blood, and thofe irregular difturbed motions, which they raise in the animal fpirits. I fcarce remember, in my own obfervation, to have met with many old men, or with fuch, who (to ufe our English phrafe) ' wear well,' that had not at least a certain indolence in their humour, if not a more than ordinary gaiety and chearfulness of heart. The truth of it is, health and chearfulness mutually beget each other; with this difference, that we seldom meet with a great degree of health which is not attended with a certain chearfulness, but very often fee chearfulness where there is no great degree of health. Chearfulness bears the fame friendly regard to the mind as to the body: it banishes all anxious care and difcontent, foothes and compofes the paffions, and keeps the foul in a perpetual calm. But having already touched on this last confideration, I fhall here take notice, that the world, in which we are placed, is filled with innumerable objects that are proper to raife and keep alive this happy temper of mind. If we confider the world in it's fubferviency to man, one would think it was made for our ufe; but if we confider it in it's natural beauty and har mony, one would be apt to conclude it was made for our pleasure. The fun, which is as the great foul of the uni verfe, and produces all the neceffaries chearing the mind of man, and making the heart glad. Thofe feveral living creatures which are made for our fervice or fuftenance, at the fame time either fill the woods with their mufic, furnish us with game, or raife pleafing ideas in us by the delightfulness of their appearance. Fountains, lakes, and rivers, are as refreshing to the imagination, as to the foil through which they pafs. All There are writers of great diftinction, who have made it an argument for Providence, that the whole earth is covered with green, rather than with any other colour, as being fuch a right mixture of light and fhade, that it comforts and ftrengthens the eye inftead of weakening or grieving it. For this reafon feveral painters have a green cloth hanging near them, to ease the eye upon, after too great an application to their colouring. A famous modern philofopher accounts for it in the following manner. colours that are more luminous, overpower and diffipate the animal fpirits which are employed in fight: on the contrary, thofe that are more obfcure do not give the animal fpirits a fufficient exercife; whereas the rays that produce in us the idea of green, fall upon the eye in fuch a due proportion, that they give the animal fpirits their proper play, and, by keeping up the struggle in a juft balance, excite a very pleating and agreeable fenfation. Let the caule be what it will, the effect is certain, for which reafon the poets afcribe to this particular colour the epithet of Chearful. To confider further this double end in the works of Nature, and how they are at the fame time both useful and en tertaining, we find that the most important parts in the vegetable world are thofe which are the moit beautiful. These are the feeds by which the several races of plants are propagated and continued, and which are always lodged in flowers or bloffoms. Nature fecins to 5 F 2 hide her principal defign, and to be induftrious in making the earth gay and delightful, while fle is carrying on her great work, and intent upon her own prefervation. The husbandman after the fame manner is employed in laying out the whole country into a kind of garden or landfkip, and making every thing fimile about him, whilft in reality he thinks of nothing but the harvelt, and increase which is to arife from it. We may further obferve how Providence has taken care to keep up this chearfulness in the mind of man, by having formed it after fuch a manner, as to make it capable of conceiving deJight from feveral objects which feem to have very little use in them; as from the wildness of rocks and defarts, and the like grotefque parts of nature. Thofe who are verfed in philofophy may still carry this confideration higher, by obferving that if matter had appeared to us endowed only with those real quali ties which it actually poffeffes, it would have made but a very joylefs and uncomfortable figure, and why has Providence given it a power of producing in us fuch imaginary qualities, as taltes and colours, founds and fmells, heat and cold, but that man, while he is converfant in the lower ftations of nature, might have his mind cheared and delighted with agreeable fenfations? In fhort, the whole univerfe is a kind of theatre filled with objects that either raife in us pleasure, amufement, or admiration. The reader's own thoughts will fuggeft to him the viciffitude of day and night, the change of feafons, with all that variety of fcenes which diverfify the face of nature, and fill the mind with a perpetual fucceffion of beautiful and pleafing images. I fhall not here mention the feveral entertainments of art, with the pleasures of friendship, books, converfation, and other accidental diverfions of life, because I would only take notice of fuch incitements to a chearful temper, as offer themselves to perfons of all ranks and conditions; and which may fufficiently fhew us that Providence did not defign this world thould be filled with murmurs and repinings, or that the heart of man fhould be involved in gloom and melancholy. I the more inculcate this chearfulness of temper, as it is a virtue in which our countrymen are obferved to be more deficient than any other nation. Melancholy is a kind of demon that haunts our island, and often conveys herself to us in an easterly wind. A celebrated French novelit, in oppofition to those who begin their romances with the flowery season of the year, enters on his ftory thus: In the gloomy month of November, when the people of England hang and drown themfelves, a difconfolate lover walked out into the 'fields,' &c. Every one ought to fence against the temper of his climate or conftitution, and frequently to indulge in himself thofe confiderations which may give him a ferenity of mind, and enable him to bear up chearfully against thofe little evils and misfortunes which are common to human nature, and which by a right improvement of them will produce a fatiety of joy, and an uninterrupted happiness. At the fame time that I would engage my reader to confider the world in it's molt agreeable lights, I must own there are many evils which naturally fpring up amidst the entertainments that are provided for us; but thefe, if rightly confidered, fhould be far from overcafting the mind with forrow, or destroying that chearfulness of temper which Ï have been recommending. This interfperfion of evil with good, and pain with pleasure, in the works of nature, is very truly afcribed by Mr. Locke, in his Effay on Human Understanding, to a moral reafon, in the following words: Beyond all this, we may find an' other reason why God hath scattered up and down feveral degrees of pleafure and pain, in all the things that 'environ and affect us, and blended them together, in almost all that our thoughts and fenfes have to do with; that we finding imperfection, dissatiffaction, and want of compleat happinefs, in all the enjoyments which the creatures can afford us, might be led to feck it in the enjoyment of him, "with whom there is fulness of joy, "and at whofe right-hand are pleatures "for evermore." L N° CCCLXXXVIII. N° CCCLXXXVIII. MONDAY, MAY 26. TIBI RES ANTIQUE LAUDIS ET ARTIS FOR THEE, I DARE UNLOCK THE SACRED SPRING, MR. SPECTATOR, Τ IT is my cuftom, when I read your papers, to read over the quotations in the authors from whence you take them as you mentioned a paffage lately out of the fecond chapter of Solomon's Song, it occafioned my looking into it; and upon reading it I thought the ideas fo exquifitely foft and tender, that I could not help making this paraphrafe of it; which, now it is done, I can as little forbear fending to you. Some marks of your approbation, which I have already received, have given me fo fenfible a taste of them, that I cannot forbear endeavouring after them as often as I can with any appearance of fuccefs. I am, Sir, your moft obedient humble fervant. THE SECOND CHAPTER OF SOLOMON'S SONG. AS I. when in Sharon's field the blushing rofe Does it's chafte bofom to the morn difciofe, Whilft all around the Zephyrs bear The fragrant odours through the air: Or as the lily in the shady vale, Does o'er each flow'r with beauteous pride prevail, And ftands with dews and kindeft fun-fhine bleft, In fair pre-eminence, fuperior to the rest: 5 if my love, with happy influence, fhed His eyes bright funshine on his lover's head, Then fhall the rofe of Sharon's field, And whiteft lilies to my beauties yield. Then fairest flow'rs with ftudious art com-" bine, The roles with the lilies join, And their united charms are lefs than mine.. II. As much as faireft Elies can furpafs A thorn in beauty, or in height the grafs; So does my love among the virgins fhine, Adorn'd with graces more than half divine; Or as a tree, that, glorious to behold, I hung with apples all of ruddy goid, Hefperian fruit; and beautifully high, Extends it's branches to the sky; VII. Already fee the teeming earth The dews, and foft-defcending fhow`rs, VIII. As to it's mate the conftant dove Flies thro' the covert of the spicy grove, So let us haften to fome lonely fhase, There let me fate in thy lov'd arms be laid, N N° CCCLXXXIX. TUESDAY, MAY 27. MELIORA PII DOCUERE PARENTES. THEIR PIOUS SIRES A BETTER LESSON TAUGHT. OTHING has more furprifed the learned in England, than the price which a finall book, intitled Spaccio della Deftia triomfante, bore in a late auction. This book was fold for thirty pounds. As it was written by one Jordanus Brunus, a profeft atheist, with a defign to depreciate religion, every one was apt to fancy, from the extravagant price it bore, that there must be fomething in it very formidable. I must confefs, that happening to get a fight of one of them myself, I could not forbear perufing it with this apprehenfion; but found there was fo very little danger in it, that I fhall venture to give my readers a fair account of the whole plan upon which this wonderful treatife is built. The author pretends that Jupiter, once upon a time refolved on a reformation of the conftellations: for which purpofe having fummoned the ftars together, he complains to them of the great decay of the worship of the gods, which he thought fo much the harder, having called feveral of thofe celeftial bodies by the names of the heathen deities, and by that means made the heavens as it were a book of the Pagan theology. Momus tells him that this is not to be wondered at, fince HOR. there were fo many fcandalous ftories of the deities; upon which the author takes occafion to caft reflections upon all other religions, concluding, that Jupiter, after a full hearing, difcarded the deities out of heaven, and called the ftars by the names of the moral virtues. This fhort fable, which has no pretence in it to reafon or argument, and but a very finall thare of wit, has however recommended itfelf wholly by it's impiety, to thofe weak men, who would diftinguish themselves by the fingularity of their opinions. There are two confiderations which have been often urged against atheists, and which they never yet could get over. The first is, that the greatest and molt eminent perfons of all ages have been againt them, and always complied with the public forms of worship established in their respective countries, when there was nothing in them either derogatory to the honour of the Supreme Being, or prejudicial to the good of mankind. The Platos and Ciceros among the ancients; the Bacons, the Boyles, and the Lockes, among our own countrymen, are all inftances of what I have been faying, not to mention any of the divines, however celebrated, fince our adverfaries adverfaries challenge all thofe, as men who have too much intereft in this cafe to be impartial evidences. But what has been often urged as a confi leration of much more weight, is, not only the opinion of the better fort, but the general confent of mankind to this great truth: which I think could not poffibly have come to pafs, but from one of the three following reafons; either that the idea of a God is innate and coexiftent with the mind itfelf; or that this truth is fo very obvious, that it is difcovered by the first exertion of reafon in perfons of the moft ordinary capacities; or laftly, that it has been delivered down to us through all ages by a tradition from the first inan. The atheists are equally confounded, to which ever of these three causes we affign it; they have been fo preffe by this last argument from the general confent of mankind, that after great fearch and pains they pretend to have found out a nation of atheifts, I mean that polite people the Hottentots. I dare not fhock my readers with the description of the customs and manners of thefe barbarians, who are in every refpect fcarce one degree above brutes, having no language among them but a confuled gabble, which is neither well understood by themselves or others. It is not however to be imagined how much the atheists have gloried in thefe their good friends and allies. If we boaft of a Socrates or a Seneca, they may now confront them with these great philofophers the Hottentots. Though even this point has, not without reafon, been feveral times controverted, I fee no manner of harm it could do religion, if we should intirely give them up this elegant part of mankind. Methinks nothing more thews the weakness of their caufe, than that no divifion of their fellow-creatures join with them, but thofe among whom they themfelves own reason is almost defaced, and who have little elfe but their fhape, which can intitle them to any place in the fpecies. Befides thefe poor creatures, there have now and then been inftances of a few crazy people in feveral nations, who have denied the existence of a Deity. The catalogue of these is however very fhort; even Vanini, the most celebrated champion for the caufe, profeffed before his judges that he believed the existence of a God, and taking up a straw which lay before him on the ground, affuredthem, that alone was fufficient to con‚vince him of it; alledging feveral arguments to prove that it was impoilible nature alone could create any thing. I was the other day reading an account of Cafimir Lifzynfki, a gentleman of Poland, who was convicted and executed for this crime. The manner of his punishment was very particular. As foon as his body was burnt, his afhes were put into a cannon, and shot into the air towards Tartary. I am apt to believe, that if fomething like this method of punishment should prevail in England, fuch is the natural good fenfe of the British nation, that whether we rammed an atheist whole into a great gun, or pulverifed our infidels, as they do in Poland, we fhould not have many charges. I should, however, propofe, while our ammunition lafted, that instead of Tartary, we should always keep two or three cannons ready pointed towards the Cape of Good Hope, in order to fhoot our unbelievers into the country of the Hot tentots. In my opinion, a folemn judicial death is too great an honour for an atheist, though I must allow the method of exploding him, as it is practifed in this ludicrous kind of martyrdom, has fomething in it proper enough to the nature of his offence. There is indeed a great objection against this manner of treating them. Zeal for religion is of fo active a nature, that it feldom knows where to reft; for which reafon I am afraid, after having difcharged our atheifts, we might poffibly think of fhooting off our fectaries; and as one does not foresee the viciffitude of human affairs, it might one time or other come to a man's own turn to fly out of the mouth of a demiculverin. If any of my readers imagine that I have treated thefe gentlemen in too ludicrous a manner, I must confefs for my own part, I think reasoning against fuch unbelievers upon a point that shocks the common fenfe of mankind, is doing them too great an honour, giving them a figure in the eye of the world, and making people fancy that they have more in them than they really have. As for thofe perfons who have any fcheme of religious worship, I am for treating fuch with the utmoit tenderness, and |