N° 627. Wednesday, December 1. Tantum inter denfas umbrofa cacumina fagos T Virg. HE following Account, which came to my Hands fome time ago, may be no difagreeable Entertainment to fuch of my Readers as have tender Hearts and nothing to do. Mr. SPECTATOR, Friend of mine died of a Fever laft Week, A which he caught by walking too late in a dewy Evening amongst his Reapers. I must inform you that his greatest Pleasure was in Husbandry and Gardening. He had fome Humours which feemed inconfiftent with that good Senfe he was otherwife Master of. His Uneafinefs in the Company of Women was very remarkable in a Man of fuch perfect Good-breeding, and his avoiding one particular Walk in his Garden, where he had ufe to pafs the greateft Part of his Time, raised abundance of idle Conjectures in the Village where he lived. Upon looking over his Papers we found out the Reason, which he never intimated to his nearest Friends. He was, it feems, a paffionate Lover in his Youth, of which a large Parcel of Letters he left behind him are a 'Witnefs. I fend you a Copy of the last he ever wrote upon that Subject, by which you will find that he 'concealed the true Name of his Mistress under that of Zelinda. 6 6 A Long Month's Abfence would be infupportable to me, if the Bufinefs I am employed in were not for the Service of my Zelinda, and of fuch a Nature as to place her her every Moment in my Mind. I have furnished the Houfe exactly according to your Fancy, or, if you please, my own; for I have long fince learned to like nothing but what you do. The Apartment defigned for your Ufe is fo exact a Copy of that which you live in, that I often think my felf in your House when I step into it, but figh when I find it without its proper Inhabitant. You will have the most delicious Profpect from your Closet Window that England affords: I am fure I fhould think it fo, if the Landskip that shows fuch Variety did not at the fame time fuggeft to me the Greatness of the Space that lies between us. THE Gardens are laid out very beautifully; I have dreffed up every Hedge in Woodbines, Sprinkled Bowers and Arbours in every Corner, and made a little Paradife round me; yet I am fill like the firft Man in his Solitude, but half bleft without a Partner in my Happiness. I have directed one Walk to be made for two Perfons, where I promife ten thousand Satisfactions to my self in your Converfation. I already take my Evening's Turn in it, and have worn a Path upon the Edge of this little Alley, while I foothed my felf with the Thought of your avalking by my Side. I have held many imaginary Dif courfes with you in this Retirement; and when I have been weary, have fat down with you in the midst of a Row of Jeffamines. The many Expreffions of Joy and Rapture I ufe in thefe filent Converfations have made me, for fome time, the Talk of the Parish; but a neighbouring young Fellow, who makes Love to the Farmer's Daughter, bath found me out, and made my Cafe known to the whole Neighbourhood. IN planting of the Fruit-Trees I have not forget the Peach you are fe fond of. I have made a Walk of Elms along the River Side, and intend to fow all the Place a bout with Cowflips, which I hope you will like as well as that I have heard you talk of by your Father's House in the Country. OH! Zelinda, What a Scheme of Delight have I drawn up in my Imagination! What Day-Dreams do I indulge my felf in! When will the Six Weeks be at an End, that lie between me and my promifed Happiness? VOL. VIII. M HOW HOW could you break off fo abruptly in your last, and tell me you must go and dress for the Play? If you loved es I do, you would find no more Company in a Crowd, than I have in my Solitude. I am, &c. ON the Back of this Letter is written in the Hand of the Deceased, the following Piece of Hiftory. Mem. HAVING waited a whole Week for an Anfwer to this Letter, I hurried to Town, where I found the perfidious Creature married to my Rival. I will bear it as becomes a Man, and endeavour to find out Happiness for my felf in that Retirement, which I had prepared in vain for a falfe ungrateful Woman. I am, &c. N° 628. Friday, December 3. Labitur et labetur in omne volubilis avum. Mr. SPECTATOR, T Hor. HERE are none of your Speculations which please me more than those upon Infinitude and Eternity. You have already confidered that Part of Eternity which is past, and I wish you would give us your Thoughts upon that which is to come. YOUR Readers will perhaps receive greater fure from this View of Eternity than the former, fince we have every one of us a Concern in that which is to come: Whereas a Speculation on that which is past is rather curious than ufeful. Plea BESIDES, we can easily conceive it poffible for 'fucceffive Duration never to have an End; tho', as you have justly obferved, that Eternity which never had had a Beginning is altogether incomprehenfible That is, we can conceive an Eternal Duration which may be, though we cannot an Eternal Duration which hath been; or, if I may use the Philofophical Terms, we may apprehend a Potential though not an Actual Eternity. THIS Notion of a future Eternity, which is natural to the Mind of Man, is an unaniwerable Argument that he is a Being defigned for it; efpecially if we confider that he is capable of being Virtuous or Vicious here; that he hath Faculties improveable to all Eternity; and by a proper or wrong Employment of them, may be happy or miferable throughout that infinite Duration. Our Idea indeed of this Eternity is not of an adequate or fixed Nature, but is perpetually growing and enlarging itfelf toward the Object, which is too big for human Comprehenfion. As we are now in the Beginnings of Existence, fo fhall we always appear to our felves as if we were for ever entring upon it. After a Million or two of Centuries, fome confiderable Things, already paft, may flip out of our Memory; which, if it be not ftrengthened in a wonderful manner, may poffibly forget that C ever there was a Sun or Planets. And yet, notwithftanding the long Race that we shall then have run, we fhall ftill imagine our felves juft ftarting from the Goal, and find no Proportion between that Space which we know had a Beginning, and what we are fure will never have an End. BUT I fhall leave this Subject to your Management, and queftion not but you will throw it into fuch Lights as fhall at once improve and entertain your Reader. I have inclos'd fent you a Tranflation of the Speech of Cato on this Occafion, which hath accidentally fallen into my Hands, and which for Concifenefs, Purity, and Elegance of Phrafe, cannot be fufficiently admired, A CT. V. SCEN. I. CATO folus, &c. SIC, fic fe habere rem neceffe prorsùs eft, Quid enim dediffet, Quæ dedit fruftra nibil, Natura? Quorfum hæc dulcis Expectatio; Que demigrabitur alia hinc in corpora? [Enfi manum admovens. In |