"chance: nor have I ought to fay either against

my judges or accufers, but that they thought "they did me an injury- -But I detain "you too long, it is time that I retire to death, "and you to your affairs of life; which of us has "the better is known to the Gods, but to no "mortal man."

The divine Socrates is here reprefented in a figure worthy his great wisdom and philofophy, worthy the greatest mere man that ever breathed. But the modern difcourfe is written upon a fubject no less than the diffolution of nature itself. O how glorious is the old age of that great man, who has spent his time in fuch contemplations as has made this being, what only it fhould be, an education for Heaven! He has, according to the lights of Reafon and Revelation, which feemed to him cleareft, traced the fteps of Omnipotence: he has, with a celeftial ambition, as far as it is confiftent with humility and devotion, examined the ways of Providence, from the creation to the diffolution of the vifible world. How pleafing must have been the fpeculation, to obferve Nature and Providence move together, the phyfical and moral world march the fame pace: to obferve paradife and eternal fpring the feat of innocence, troubled feafons and angry fkies the portion of wickedness and vice. When this admirable author has reviewed all that has paffed, or is to come, which relates to the habitable world, and run through the whole face of it, how could a guardian angel, that had attended it through all its courfes or changes, fpeak more emphatically at the end of his charge, than does our author when he makes, as it were, a funeral oration over this globe looking to the point where it once flood?

"Let us only, if you pleafe, to take leave of "this fubject, reflect upon this occafion on the "vanity and tranfient glory of this habitable "world. How by the force of one element "breaking loose upon the reft, all the vanities of "nature, all the works of art, all the labours of "men, are reduced to nothing. All that we ad"mired and adored before as great and magnifi"cent, is obliterated or vanished; and another <form and face of things, plain, fimple, and "every where the fame, overfpreads the whole

earth. Where are now the great empires of "the world, and their great imperial cities? "Their pillars, trophies and monuments of glo"ry? Shew me where they ftood, read the in"fcription, tell me the victor's name. What "remains, what impreffions, what difference, or "diftinction, do you fee in this mafs of fire? "Rome itself, eternal Rome, the great city, the "emprefs of the world, whofe domination and "fuperftition, ancient and modern, make a great "part of the history of this earth, what is become "of her now? She laid her foundations deep, "and her palaces were ftrong and fumptuous:" "She glorified herself, and lived deliciously, and "faid in her heart, I fit a Queen, and fhall fee 66 no forrow" "but her hour is come, the is "wiped away from the face of the earth, and "buried in everlafting oblivion. But it is not "cities only, and works of mens hands, but the "everlafting hills, the mountains and rocks of "the earth are melted as wax before the fun, and "their place is no where found." "Here ftood the Alpes, the load of the earth, that covered many countries, and reached their arms from "the ocean to the Black Sea this huge mass of

"ftone is foftened and diffolved as a tender cloud into rain. Here ftood the African mountains, and Atlas with his top above the clouds; "there was frozen Caucafus, and Taurus, and "Imaus, and the mountains of Afia; and yen"der towards the north, flood the Riphæan hills, "clothed in ice and fnow. All thefe are vanish❝ed, dropped away as the fnow upon their heads. "Great and marvellous are thy works, juft and "true are thy ways, thou King of Saints! Hal"lelujah." T

6

• Mr. Spectator,

TH

HE well reading of the Common-prayer is of fo great importance, and fo much neglected, that I take the liberty to offer to your • confideration fome particulars on that fubject: and what more worthy your obfervation than this? A thing fo public, and of fo high confequence. It is indeed wonderful, that the fre< quent exercife of it should not make the performers of that duty more expert in it. This inability, as I conceive, proceeds from the little care that is taken of their reading, while boys and at fchool, where when they are got into Latin, they are looked upon as above English, the "reading of which is wholly neglected, or at least read to very little purpofe, without any due obI fervations made to them of the proper accent and manner of reading; by this means they have acquired fuch ill habits as will not eafily be removed. The only way that I know of to remedy this, is to propofe fome perfon of great ability that way as a pattern for them; exam'ple being moft effectual to convince the learned, as well as inftruct the ignorant.

You must know, Sir, I have been a conftant frequenter of the fervice of the church of England for above these four years laft paft, and until Sunday was feven-night never difcovered, to fo great a degree, the excellency of the common-prayer. When being at St. James's Garlick-Hill church, I heard the fervice read fo diftinctly, fo emphatically, and fo fervently, that it was next to an impoffibility to be unattentive. My eyes and my thoughts could not wonder as ufual, but were confined to my prayers: I then confidered I addreffed myfelf to the Almighty, and not to a beautiful face. And when I reflected on my former performances of that duty, I found I had run it over as a matter of form, in comparison to the manner in which I then difcharged it. My mind was really affected, and fervent wishes accompanied my words. The confeffion was read with fuch a refigned humility, the abfolution with fuch a comfortable authority, the thanksgivings with such a religious joy, as made <me feel thofe affections of the mind in the manner I never did before. To remedy therefore the grievance above complained of, I humbly propofe, that this excellent reader, upon the next and every annual assembly of the clergy of Sion-College, and all other conventions, fhould read prayers before them. For then those that

are

are afraid of ftretching their mouths, and spoiling their foft voice, will learn to read with clearnefs, loudnefs, and ftrength. Others that affect a rakish negligent air by folding their arms, and lolling on their book, will be taught a decent behaviour,, and comely erection of body. Thofe that read fo faft as if impatient of their work, may learn to fpeak deliberately. There is another fort of perfons whom I call pindaric readers, as being confined to no fet meafure; thefe pronounce five or fix words with great deliberation, and the five or fix fubfequent ones with as great celerity: the first part of a fentence with a very exalted voice, and the latter part with a fubmiffive one: fometimes again with one fort of a tone, and immediately after with a very different Thefe gentlemen will learn of my admired reader an evennefs of voice and delivery. And all who are innocent of thefe affectations, but read with fuch an indifferency as if they did not understand the language, may then be informed of the art of reading movingly and fervently, how to place the emphafis, and give the proper accent to each word, and how to vary the voice according to the nature of the fentence. There is certainly a very great difference between the reading a prayer and a gazette, which I beg of you to inform a fet of readers, who affect, forfooth, a certain gentleman-like familiarity of tone, and mend the language as they go on, crying instead of pardoneth and abfolveth, pardons and abfolves. Thefe are often pretty claffical scholars, and would think it an unpardonable fin to read Virgil or Martial with fo little tafte as they do divine fervice.

one.

our worship, difpofed in moft proper order? and void of all confufion; what influence, I fay, would thefe prayers have, were they delivered with a due emphafis, and appofite rifing and variation of voice, the fentence concluded with a gentle cadence, and, in a word, with 'fuch an accent and turn of fpeech as is peculiar to prayer?

This indifferency feems to me to arife from the endeavour of avoiding the imputation of cant, and the falfe notion of it. It will be proper therefore to trace the original and fignification of this word. Cant is, by fome peopie, derived from one Andrew Cant, who, they' fay, was a Prefbyterian minifter in fome illite rate part of Scotland, who by exercise and use had obtained the faculty, alias gift, of talking in the pulpit in fuch a dialect, that it is faid he was understood by none but his own congregation, and not by all of them. Since Maf, Cant's tine it has been understood in a larger fenfe, and fignifies all fudden exclamations, whinings, unusual tones, and in fine all praying and preaching, like the unlearned of the Prefbyterians. But I hope a proper elevation of voice, a due emphafs and accent, are not to come within this. defcription: fo that our readers may ftill be as unlike the Prefbyterians as they pleafe. The Diffenters, I mean fuch as I have heard, do indeed clevate their voices, but it is with fudden jumps from the lower to the higher part of them; and that with fo little fenfe or fkill, that their elevation and cadence is bawling and muttering. They make ufe of an emphafis, but fo improperly, that it is often placed on fome very infignificant particle, as upon if, or ⚫ and.

.

As the matter of worship is now managed, in diffenting congregations, you find infignificant words and phrafes raifed by a lively vehemence; in our own churches, the motit exalted fenfe depreciated, by a difpaffionate in'dolence. I remember to have heard Dr. S-e fay in his pulpit, of the Common-prayer, that, at least, it was as perfect as any thing of human inftitution: if the gentlemen who err in this kind would pleafe to recolle& the many pleafantries they have read upon those who recite good things with an ill grace, they would go on to think that what in that cafe is only ridiculous, in themfelves is impious. But leaving this to their own reflections, I fhall conclude this trouble with what Cæfar faid upon the irregularity of tone in one who read before him, "Do you read or fing? If you fing, you "fing very ill,”

Now if these improprieties have fo great an effect on the people, as we fee they have, how great an influence would the fervice of our church, containing the best prayers that ever were compofed, and that in terms most affecting, moft humble, and most expreffive of our wants, and dependence on the object of

T

Your most humble fervant.,

N° 148. MONDAY, AUGUST 20.
-Exempta juvat spinis è pluribus una.

HOR. Ep, 2. 1. 2. V. 212. Better one thorn pluck'd out, than all remain.

MY

Y correfpondents affure me that the enor mities which they lately complained of, and I published an account of, are fo far from being amended, that new evils arife every day to interrupt their converfation, in contempt of my reproofs. My friend who writes from the coffeehoufe near the Temple informs me that the gentleman who conftantly fings a voluntary in spite of the whole company, was more musical than ordinary after reading my paper; and has not been contented with that, but has danced up to the glafs in the middle of the room, and practised minuet-fteps to his own humming. The incorrigible creature has gone ftill farther, and in the open coffee-houfe, with one hand extended as leading a lady in it, he has danced both French and country-dances, and admonished his fuppofed partner by fmiles and nods to hold up her head, and fall back, according to the refpective facings and evolutions of the dance. Before this gentleman began this his exercife, he was pleased to clear his throat by coughing and fpitting a full half hour; and as foon as he ftruck up, he appealed to an attorney's clerk in the room, whether he hit as he ought, "Since you from death "have faved me?" and then afked the young fellow, pointing to a chancery-bill under his arm, whether that was an opera-fcore he carried or not? Without ftaying for an answer he fell into the exercife above-mentioned, and practifed his airs to the full house who were turned upon him, without the leaft fhame or repentance for his former tranfgreffions.

I am to the laft degree at a les what to do with this young fellow, except I declare him an outlaw, and pronounce it penal for any one to fpeak to him in the faid houfe which he frequents, and direct that he be obliged to drink

his tea and coffee without fugar, and not receive from any perfon whatsoever any thing above mere neceffaries.

As we in England are a fober people, and generally inclined rather to a certain bashfulness of behaviour in public, it is amazing whence fome fellows come whom one meets within this town; they do not at all feem to be the growth of our ifland; the pert, the talkative, all fuch as have no fenfe of the observation of others, are certainly of foreign extraction. As for my part, I am as much surprised when I see a talkative Englishman, as I should be to fee the Indian pine grow ing on one of our quickfet hedges. Where thefe creatures get fun enough, to make them fuch lively animals and dull men, is above my philofophy.

There are another kind of impertinents which a man is perplexed with in mixed company, and thofe are your loud speakers: thefe treat mankind as if we were all deaf; they do not exprefs but declare themfelves. Many of these are guilty of this outrage out of vanity, because they think all they fay is well; or that they have their own perfons in fuch veneration, that they believe nothing which concerns them can be infignificant to any body else. For thefe peoples fake, I have often lamented that we cannot clofe our ears with as much eafe as we can our eyes: it is very uneafy that we must neceffarily be under perfecution. Next to thefe bawlers, is a troublesome creature who comes with the air of your friend and your intimate, and that is your whifperer. There is one of them at a coffee-house which I myself frequent, who cbferving me to be a man pretty well made for fecrets, gets by me, and with a whisper tells me things which all the town knows. It is no very hard matter to guess at the fource of this impertinence, which is nothing else but a method or mechanic art of being wife. You never fee any frequent in it, whom you can suppose to have any thing in the world to do. These perfons are worse than bawlers, as much as a fecret enemy is more dangerous than a declared one. I wish this my coffee-house friend would take this for an intimation, that I have not heard one word he has told me for thefe feveral years: whereas he now thinks me the moft trufty repofitory of his fecrets. The whifperers have a pleafant way of ending the clofe converfation, with faying aloud, "Do not you "think fo?" Then whisper again, and then aloud, "but you know that perfon;" then whifper again. The thing would be well enough, if they whispered to keep the folly of what they fay among friends; but alas, they do it to preferve the importance of their thoughts. I am fure I could name you more than one perfon whom no man living ever heard talk upon any fubject in nature, or ever faw in his whole life with a book in his hand, that I know not how can whisper fomething like knowledge of what has and does pafs in the world; which you would think he learned from fome familiar fpirit that did not think him worthy to receive the whole ftory. But in truth whifperers deal only in half accounts of what they entertain you with. A great help to their difcourfe is, "That the "town fays, and people begin to talk very free"ly, and they had it from perfons too confider

able to be named what they will tell you when "things are riper." My friend has winked upon me many a day fince I came to town last, and

has communicated to me as a fecret, that he defigned in a very short time to tell me a fecret; but I fhall know what he means, he now affures me, in less than a fortnight's time.

But I must not omit the dearer part of mankind, I mean the ladies, to take up a whole paper upon grievances which concern the men only; but fhall humbly propose, that we change fools for an experiment only. A certain fet of ladies complain they are frequently perplexed with a vifitant, who affects to be wifer than they are; which character he hopes to preserve by an obftinate gravity, and great guard against difcovering his opinion upon any occafion whatsoever. A painful filence has hitherto gained him no farther advantage, than that as he might, if he had behaved himfelf with freedom, been excepted against, but as to this and that particular, he now offends in the whole. To relieve there ladies, my good friends and correfpondents, I fhall exchange my dancing outlaw for their dumb vifitant, and affign the filent gentleman all the haunts of the dancer: in order to which, i have fent them by the penny-poft the following letters for their conduct in their new converfations.

6

SIR,

regularities without regard to my obfervations upon you; but shall not treat you with fo much rigour as you deserve. If you will give yourself the trouble to repair to the place ' mentioned in the poftfcript to this letter at 'feven this evening, you will be conducted into a fpacious room well lighted, where there are ladies and mufic. You will fee a young lady laughing next the window to the ftreet; you may take her out, for fhe loves you as well as the does any man, though the never faw you before. She never thought in her life any more than yourself. She will not be surprised when you accoft her, nor concerned when you leave her. Haften from a place where you are laughed at, to one where you will be admired. You are of no confequence, therefore go where you will be welcome for being fo.

SIR,

TH

Your most humble fervant.'

HE ladies whom you vifit, think a wife man the most impertinent creature living, therefore you cannot be offended that they are difpleafed with you. Why will you, take pains to appear wife, where you would not be the more esteemed for being really fo? Come to us; forget the gigglers; and let your inclination go along with you whether you fpeak or are filent; and let all fuch women as are in a clan or fifterhood, go their own way; there is no room for you in that company who are of the common tafte of the fex.

N° 149. TUESDAY, AUGUST 21.
Cui in manu fit quem effe dementem velit,
Quem fapere, quem fanari, quem in morbum injici,
Quem contrà amari, quem accerfiri, quem experi.
CECIL. apud Tull.
Who has it in her power to make any man mad,
or in his fenfes; fick or in health: and who
can choose the object of her affections at plea-

fure.

TH

• Mr. Spectator,

Am the young widow of a country gentleman who has left me entire miftrefs of a large fortune, which he agreed to as an equivalent for the difference in our years. In thefe circumftances it is not extraordinary to have a crowd of admirers; which I have abridged in my own thoughts, and reduced to a couple of candidates only, both young, and neither of them difagreeable in their perfons; accord" ing to the common way of computing, in one the eftate more than déferves my fortune, in the other my fortune more than deferves the eftate. When I confider the first, I own I am fo far a woman I cannot avoid being delighted with the thoughts of living great; but then he feems to receive fuch a degree of courage from the knowledge of what he has, he looks C as if he was going to confer an obligation on me; and the readiness he accofts me with, makes me jealous I am only hearing a repeti⚫tion of the fame things he has faid to a hundred women before. When I confider the other, I fee myself approached with fo much modefty ⚫ and refpect, and such a doubt of himself, as betrays methinks, an affection within, and a belief at the fame time that he himself would be the only gainer by my confent. What an unexceptionable husband could I make out of both! but fince that is impoffible, I beg to be concluded by your opinion; it is abfolutely in your power to difpofe of

MADAM,

Y

Your moft obedient fervant,

Sylvia. OU do me great honour in your application to me on this important occasion; I fhall therefore talk to you with the tenderness of a father, in gratitude for your giving me the authority of one. You do not seem to make any great diftin&tion between thefe gentlemen as to their perfons; the whole queftion lies upon their circumftances and behaviour; if the one is lefs refpectful because he is rich, and the other more obfequious because he is not fo, they are in that point moved by the fame principle, the confiderition of fortune, and you must place them in each other's circumftances, before you can judge of their inclination. To avoid confufion in difcuffing this point, I will call the richer man Strephon, and the other Florio. If you believe Fiorio with Strephon's eftate would behave himfelf as he does now, Florio is certainly your man; but if you think Strephion, were he in Florio's condition, would be as obfequious as Florio is now, you ought for your own fake to choose Strephon; for where the men are equal, there is no doubt riches ought to be a reafon for preferAfter this manner, my dear child, I

ence.

to him a mercenary creature: and you are still the fame thing to Strephon, in taking him for his wealth only: you are therefore to confider whether you had rather oblige, than receive an obligation.

The marriage life is always an infipid, a vexatious, or an happy condition. The first is, when two people of no genius or tafte for themselves meet together, upon fuch a fettlement as has been thought reasonable by parents and conveyancers from an exact valuation of the land and cath of both parties: in this cafe the young lady's perfon is no more regarded, than the houfe and improvements in purchase of an eftate; but fhe goes with her fortune, rather than her fortune with her. Thefe make up the crowd or vulgar of the rich, and fill up the lumber of human race without beneficence towards thofe below them, or respect towards those above them; and lead a defpicable, independent and ufelefs life, without fenfe of the laws of kindnefs, good-nature, mutual offices, and the elegant fatisfaction which flow from reafon and virtue.

The vexatious life arifes from a cunjunction of two people of quick taste and refentment, put together for reasons well known to their friends, in which efpecial care is taken to avoid, what they think the chief of evils, poverty, and enfure to them riches, with every evil befides. Thefe good people live in a conftant constraint before company, and too great familiarity alone; when they are within obfervation they fret at each other's carriage and behaviour; when alone they revile each other's perfon and conduct: in company they are in a purgatory, when only together

in an hell.

The happy marriage is, where two perfons meet and voluntarily make choice of each other, without principally regarding or neglecting the circumftances of fortune or beauty. These may ftill love in spite of adversity or fickness: the former we may in fome meafure defend ourselves from, the other is the portion of our very make. When you have a true notion of this fort of paffion, your humour of living great will vanifh out of your imagination, and you will find love has nothing to do with ftate. Solitude, with the perfon beloved, has a pleasure, even in a woman's mind, beyond fhow or pomp. You are therefore to confider which of your lovers will like you beft undressed, which will bear with you most when out of humour; and your way to this is to afk of yourself, which of them you value moft for his own fake? and by that judge which gives the greater inftances of his valuing you for yourself only.

After you have expreffed fome fenfe of the humble approach of Florio, and a little disdain at Strephon's affurance in his addrefs, you cry out, "What an unexceptionable hufband could I

"make

"make out of both!" It would therefore, methinks, be a good way to determine yourself: take him in whom what you like is not transferable to another, for if you choose otherwise, there is no hopes your husband will ever have what you liked in his rival; but intrinfic qualities in one man may very probably purchase every thing that is adventitious in another. In plainer terms; he whom you take for his perfonal perfections will fooner arrive at the gifts of fortune, than he whom you take for the fake of his fortune attain to perfonal perfections. If Strephon is not as accomplished and agreeable as Florio, marriage to you will never make him fo; but marriage to you may make Florio as rich as Strephon: therefore to make a fure purchafe, employ fortune upon certainties, but do not facrifice certainties to fortune.

DRYDEN,

Want is the fcorn of ev'ry wealthy fool, And wit in rags is turn'd to ridicule.

A

DRYDEN.

SI was walking in my chamber the morning before I went laft into the country, I heard the hawkers with great vehemence crying about a paper, intitled, "The ninety-nine plagues * of an empty purfe." I had indeed fome time before observed, that the orators of Grub-street had dealt very much in Plagues. They have already published in the fame month, "The "Plagues of Matrimony; The Plagues of a "fingle Life; the nineteen Plagues of a Chambermaid; The Plagues of a Coachman; The "Plagues of a Footman; and The Plague of "Plagues." The fuccefs these feveral plagues met with, probably gave occafion to the abovementioned poem on an empty purse. However that be, the fame noife fo frequently repeated under my window, drew me infenfibly to think on fome of those inconveniencies and mortifications which usually attend on poverty, and in fhort, gave birth to the prefent fpeculation: for after my fancy had run over the most obvious and common calamities which men of mean fortunes are liable to, it descended to those little infults and contempts, which though they may feem to dwindle into nothing when a man offers to defcribe them, are perhaps in themselves more cutting and infupportable than the former. Juvenal, with a great deal of reason and humour tells us, that nothing bore harder upon a poor man in his time, than the continual ridicule which his habit and drefs afforded to the beaux

of Rome,

Quid, quòd materiam præbet caufafque jocarum
Omnibus bic idem; fi feeda & fciffa lacerna,
Si toga fordidula eft, & rupta calceus alter
Pelle patet, vel fi confuto vulnere craffum
Atque recens linum oftendit non una cicatrix.

Juv. Sat. 3. v. 147. Add that the rich have ftill a gibe in store, • And will be monstrous witty on the poor i

mence a floven. It is certain nothing has fo much debased that, which must have been otherwife fo great a character; and I know not how to account for it, unless it may poffibly be in complaifance to thofe narrow minds who can have no notion of the fame perfon's poffeffing different accomplishments; or that it is a fort of facrifice which fome men are contented to make to calumny, by allowing it to faften on one part of their character, while they are endeavourYet however unacing to establish another. countable this foolish cuftom is, I am afraid it

could plead a long prefcription; and probably gave too much occafion for the vulgar definition ftill remaining among us of an Heathen Phile fopher.

I have feen the fpeech of a Terræ-filius, fpoken in King Charles the Second's reign; in which he defcribes two very eminent men, who were perhaps the greatest fcholars of their age; and after having mentioned the intire friendfip between them, concludes, "That they had but "one mind, one purfe, one chamber, and one "hat." The men of bufinefs were alfo infected with a fort of fingularity little better than this. I have heard my father say, that a broad-brimmed hat, fhort hair, and unfolded handkerchief,

were in his time abfolutely neceffary to denote a notable man; and that he had known two or three, who afpired to the character of very notable, wear fhoe-ftrings with great fuccefs.

To the honour of our prefent age it must be allowed, that fome of our greateft genius's for wit and bufinefs have almoft intirely broke the

neck of thefe abfurdities.

Victor, after having difpatched the most important affairs of the commonwealth, has appeared at an affembly, where all the ladies have declared him the genteeleft man in the comppany; and in Atticus, though every way one of the greatest genius's the age has produced, one fees nothing particular in his drefs or carriage to denote his pretenfions to wit and learning fo that at prefent a man may venture to Bb

cock