in this undertaking in fuch a manner, that all English · men who have any fkill in mufic may be furthered in it for their profit or diverfion by what new things we fhall produce; never pretending to furpafs others, or afferting that any thing which is a fcience is not attainable by all men of all nations who have proper genius for it: we fay, Sir, what we hope for is not expected will arrive to us by contemning others, but through the utmost diligence recommending ourselves. Quod decet honeftum eft, & quod honeftum eft decet. Tull. What is becoming is honourable, and what is honourable is becoming. TH HERE are fome things which cannot come under certain rules, but which one would think could not need them. Of this kind are outward civilities and falutations. Thefe one would imagine might be regulated by every man's common fenfe, without the help of an inftructor; but that which we call common sense suffers under that word; for it fometimes implies no more than that faculty which is common to all men, but fometimes fignifies right reafon, and what all men fhould confent to. In this latter acceptation of the phrafe, it is no great wonder people err fo much against it, fince it is not every one who is poffeffed of it, and there are fewer, who, against common rules and fashions, dare obey its dictates. As to falutations, which I was about to talk of, I obferve, as I ftroll about town, there are great enormities committed with regard to this particular. 5 You You fhall fometimes fee a man begin the offer of a falutation, and obferve a forbidding air, or efcaping eye, in the perfon he is going to falute, and ftop fhort in the pole of his neck. This in the perfon who believed he could do it with a good grace, and was refufed the opportunity, is juftly refented with a coldness the whole enfuing feafon.. Your great beauties, people in much favour, or by any means or for any purpose over-flattered, are apt to practife this, which one may call the preventing afpect, and throw their attention another way, left they should confer a bow or a courtesy upon a person who might not appear to deserve that dignity. Others you fhall find fo obfequious, and fo very courteous, as there is no escaping their favours of this kind. Of this fort may be a man who is in the fifth or fixth degree of favour with a minister; this good creature is refolved to fhew the world, that great honours cannot at all change his manners; he is the fame civil perfon he ever was; he will venture his neck to bow out of a coach in full speed, at once, to fhew he is full of business, and yet is not fo taken up as to forget his old friend. With a man who is not fo well formed for courtship and elegant behaviour, fuch a gen tleman as this feldom finds his account in the return of his compliments, but he will ftill go on, for he is in hisown way, and muft not omit; let the neglect fall on your fide, or where it will, his business is ftill to be wellbred to the end. I think I have read, in one of our English comedies, a description of a fellow that affected knowing every body, and for want of judgment in time and place, would bow and fmile in the face of a judge fitting in the court, would fit in an oppofite gallery and fmile in the minifter's face as he came up into the pulpit, and nod as if he alluded to fome familiarities between them in another place. But now I happen to speak of falutation at church, I must take notice that feveral of my correfpondents have importuned me to confider that fubject, and fettle the point of decorum in that particular. I do not pretend to be the best courtier in the world, but I have often on public occafions thought it a very great abfurdity in the company (during the royal prefence) to exchange falutations from all parts of the room, when when certainly common fenfe fhould fuggeft, that all regards at that time fhould be engaged, and cannot be diverted to any other object, without difrefpect to the fovereign. But as to the complaint of my correfpondents, it is not to be imagined what offence fome of them take at the custom of faluting in places of worship. I have a very angry letter from a lady, who tells me of one of her acquaintance, who, out of mere pride and a pretence to be rude, takes upon her to return no civilities done to her in time of divine fervice, and is the most religious woman for no other reafon but to appear a woman of the beft quality in the church. This abfurd custom had better be abolished than retained, if it were but to prevent evils of no higher a nature than this is; but I am informed of objections much more confiderable: a diffenter of rank and distinction was lately prevailed upon by a friend of his to come to one of the greatest congregations of the church of England about town: after the fervice was over, he declared he was very well fatisfied with the little ceremony which was ufed towards God Almighty; but at the fame time he feared he should not be able to go through thofe required towards one another as to this point he was in a state of despair, and feared he was not well-bred enough to be a convert. There have been many fcandals of this kind given to our proteftant diffenters from the outward pomp and refpect we take to ourselves in our religious affemblies. A quaker who came one day into a church, fixed his eye upon an old lady with a carpet larger than that from the pulpit before her, expecting when she would hold forth. An anabaptift who defigns to come over himself, and all his family, within few months, is fenfible they want breeding enough for our congregations, and has fent his two eldeft daughters to learn to dance, that they may not misbehave themselves at church it is worth confidering whether, in regard to aukward people with fcrupulous confciences, a good chriftian of the best air in the world ought not rather to deny herself the opportunity of fhewing fo many graces, than keep a bafhful profelyte without the pale of the church. T Friday N° 260 Friday, December 28. Hor. Ep. 2. 1. 2. ver. 55. Singula de nobis anni prædantur euntes. Years following years steal something ev'ry day, • Mr. Spectator, I POPE. Am now in the fixty-fifth year of my age, and having been the greater part of my days a man of pleafure, the decay of my faculties is a stagna-> tion of my life. But how is it, Sir, that my appetites are increafed upon me with the lofs of power to gratify them? I write this, like a criminal, to warn people to enter upon what reformation they pleafe to make in themselves in their youth, and not expect they shall be capable of it from a fond opinion fome have often in their mouths, that if we do not leave our defires they ⚫ will leave us. It is far otherwife; I am now as vain in my drefs, and as flippant if I fee a pretty woman, as when in my youth I ftood upon a bench in the pit to furvey the whole circle of beauties. The folly is fo extravagant with me, and I went on with fo little check of my defires, or refignation of them, that I can affure you, I very often, merely to entertain my own thoughts, fit with my fpectacles on, writing love-letters to the beauties that have been long fince in their graves. This is to warm my heart with the faint memory of delights which were once agreeable to me; but how ⚫ much happier would my life have been now, if I could ⚫ have looked back on any worthy action done for my country? If I had laid out that which I profufed in luxury and wantonnefs, in acts of generofity or charity ♪ I have lived a bachelor to this day; and inftead of a numerous offspring, with which, in the regular ways of life, I might poffibly have delighted myfelf, I have only : only to amufe myfelf with the repetition of old ftories. and intrigues which no one will believe I ever was concerned in. I do not know whether you have ever treat 'ed of it or not; but you cannot fall on a-better fubject, than that of the art of growing old. In fuch a lecture you muft propofe, that no one fet his heart upon what is tranfient; the beauty grows wrinkled while we are yet gazing at her. The witty man finks into an humourift imperceptibly, for want of reflecting that all things around him are in a flux, and continually changing thus he is in the fpace of ten or fifteen years fur-· rounded by a new fet of people, whofe manners are as natural to them as his delights, method of thinking, and mode of living, were formerly to him and his friends. But the mifchief is, he looks upon the fame • kind of errors which he himself was guilty of with an eye of fcorn, and with that fort of ill-will which men entertain against each other for different opinions: thus a crazy conftitution, and an uneafy mind is fretted with vexatious paffions for young men's doing foolishly what it is folly to do at all. Dear Sir, this is my pre fent ftate of mind; I hate those I fhould laugh at, and " envy thofe I contemn. The time of youth and vigorous manhood, paffed the way in which I have difpofed. of it, is attended with thefe confequences; but to those who live and pafs away life as they ought, all parts of it are equally pleafant; only the memory of good and worthy actions is a feaft which muft give a quicker relifh to the foul than ever it could poffibly tafte in the highest enjoyments or jollities of youth. As for me, if I fit down in my great chair and begin to ponder, the vagaries of a child are not more ridiculous than the • circumstances which are heaped up in my memory; fine gowns, country dances, ends of tunes, interrupted 'converfations, and midnight quarrels, are what muft neceffarily compofe my foliloquy. I beg of you to print this, that fome ladies of my acquaintance, and my years, may be perfuaded to wear warm night-caps this cold feafon : and that my old friend Jack Tawdry may buy him a cane, and not creep with the air of a • ftrut. I must add to all this, that if it were not for one pleasure, which I thought a very mean one until 6 · of |