That joyful day they loft each hoftile name,
The fame their afpect, and their voice the fame.

So two fair twins, whofe features were defign'd
At one foft moment in the mother's mind,
Show each the other with reflected grace,
And the fame beauties bloom in either face;
The puzzled ftrangers which is which enquire;
Delufion grateful to the fmiling fire.

*

From that fair hill, where hoary fages boaft
To name the stars, and count the heav'nly hoft,
By the next dawn doth great Augusta rise,
Proud town! the nobleft fcene beneath the fkies.
Q'er Thames her thousand fpires their luftre fhed,
And a vaft navy hides his ample bed,

A floating foreft. From the diftant ftrand
A line of golden carrs strikes o'er the land :
Britannia's peers in pomp and rich array,
Before their king, triumphant, lead the way.
Far as the eye can reach, the gaudy train,
A bright proceffion, shines along the plain.

So haply through the heav'n's wide pathlefs ways
A comet draws a long extended blaze ;
From east to west burns through th' ethereal frame,
And half heav'n's convex glitters with the flame.

Now to the regal towers fecurely brought,
He plans Britannia's glories in his thought;
Refumes the delegated power he gave,
Rewards the faithful, and reftores the brave.
Whom hall the Mufe from out the fhining throng
Select, to heighten and adorn her fong?
Thee, Halifax. To thy capacious mind,
O man approv'd, is Britain's wealth confign'd.
Her coin (while Naffau fought) debas'd and rude,
By thee in beauty and in truth renew'd,
An arduous work! again thy charge we fee,
And thy own care once more returns to thee.
O! form'd in ev'ry feene to awe and pleafe,
Mix wit with pomp, and dignity with ease::

*Mr Flamstead's houfe..

Though

Though call'd to shine aloft, thou wilt not fcorn
To fmile on arts thyfelf did once adorn:
For this thy name fucceeding times fhall praife,
And envy lefs thy garter, than thy bays.

The mufe, if fir'd with thy enlivening beams,
Perhaps fhall aim at more exalted themes,
Record our monarch in a nobler strain,
And fing the op'ning wonders of his reign;
Bright Carolina's heav'nly beauties trace,
Her valiant confort, and his blooming race.
A train of kings their fruitful love fupplies,
A glorious fcene to Albion's ravish'd eyes;
Who fees by Brunfwick's hand her fceptre fway'd,
And through his line from age to age convey'd.

N° 621. Wednesday, November 17.

-Poftquam fe lumine puro

Implevit, ftellafque vagas miratur et aftra
Fixa polis, vidit quanta fub nocte jaceret
Noftra dies, rifitque fui ludibria-

Lucan. 1. 9. v. II.

New to the bleft abode, with wonder fill'd, The fun and moving planets he beheld; Then looking down on the fun's feeble ray -Survey'd our dusky, faint, imperfect day, And under what a cloud of night we lay.

Rowe.

HE following letter having in it fome obfervations out of the common road, I fhall make it the entertainment of this day.

Mr SPECTATOR,

T

HE common topics against the pride of man, which are laboured by florid and declamatory writers, are taken from the bafeness of his original, the imper⚫fections of his nature, or the fhort duration of thofe goods in which he makes his boast. Though it be true

• that

that we can have nothing in us that ought to raise our ' vanity, yet a consciousness of our own merit may be 'fometimes laudable. The folly therefore lies here: we are apt to pride ourselves in worthlefs, or perhaps 'fhameful things; and, on the other hand, count that difgraceful which is our trueft glory.

'HENCE it is, that the lovers of praife take wrong. < measures to attain it. Would a vain man confult his own heart, he would find, that if others knew his weaknesses < as well as he himself doth, he could not have the impu'dence to expect the public esteem. Pride therefore flows 'from want of reflection, and ignorance of ourselves. Knowledge and humility come upon us together.

*

THE proper way to make an eftimate of ourfelves, is to confider feriously what it is we value or defpife in o'thers. A man who boasts of the goods of fortune, a gay drefs or a new title, is generally the mark of ridi'cule. We ought therefore not to admire in ourselves, 'what we are fo ready to laugh at in other men.

'

6

MUCH lefs can we with reafon pride ourselves in those things, which at fome time of our life we fhall certainly defpife. And yet, if we will give ourselves the 'trouble of looking backward and forward on the feveral changes which we have already undergone, and hereafter muft try, we shall find that the greater degrees of our knowledge and wisdom ferve only to fhew us our own imperfections..

As we rife from childhood to youth, we look with contempt on the toys and trifles which our hearts have hitherto been fet upon. When we advance to manhood, we are held wife in proportion to our fhame and regret for the rashness and extravagance of youth. Old age fills us with mortifying reflections upon a life mispent in the purfuit of anxious wealth or uncertain honour. Agreeable to this gradation of thought in this life, it may be reafonably fuppofed, that in a future ftate, the wifdom, the experience, and the maxims of old age, will be looked upon by a feparate fpirit in much the fame light as an ancient man now fees the little follies and toyings of infants. The pomps, the honours, the policies, and • arts of mortal men, will be thought as trifling as hobbyhorfes, mock-battles, or any other sports that now em

ploy

ploy all the cunning, and ftrength, and ambition of rational beings from four years old to nine or ten.

IF the notion of a gradual rife in beings, from the 'meanest to the Moft High, be not a vain imagination, it ' is not improbable that an angel looks down upon a man,

as a man doth upon a creature which approaches the 'nearest to the rational nature. By the fame rule (if I ⚫ may indulge my fancy in this particular) a fuperior brute looks with a kind of pride on one of an inferior fpecies. If they could reflect, we might imagine from the gestures ' of fome of them, that they think themselves the fove' reigns of the world, and that all things were made for them. Such a thought would not be more abfurd in brute creatures, than one which men are apt to entertain, namely, that all the stars in the firmament were 'created only to please their eyes, and amuse their imaginations. Mr Dryden, in his fable of the Cock and the Fox, makes a speech for his hero the cock, which is a pretty instance for this purpose.

'

Then turning, faid to Partlet, fee, my dear,
How lavish nature hath adorn'd the year;
How the pale primrofe and the violet spring,
And birds effay their throats, difus'd to fing
All these are ours, and I with pleasure fee
Man ftrutting on two legs, and aping me.

What I would obferve from the whole is this, That we ought to value ourselves upon thofe things only which fuperior beings think valuable, fince that is the only way for us not to fink in our own esteem hereafter.'

NO

N° 622. Friday, November 19.

-Fallentis femita vita.

Hor. Ep. 18. 1. 1. v. 103.

A Jafe private quiet, which betrays Itfelf to cafe, and cheats away the days.

‹ Mr SPECTATOR,

Pooly.

Igreatness deth not confift in that pomp and noife

N a former fpeculation you have observed, that true

wherein the generality of mankind are apt to place it. • You have there taken notice, that virtue in obscurity of'ten appears more illuftrious in the eye of fuperior beings, than all that paffes for grandeur and magnificence s among men.

'WHEN We look back upon the hiftory of those who have borne the parts of kings, statesmen, or commanders, they appear to us ftripped of those outside ornaments that dazzled their contemporaries; and we regard their perfons as great or little, in proportion to the eminence of their virtues or vices. The wife fayings, generous fentiments, or difinterested conduct of a philofopher under mean circumstances of life, fet him higher in our 'esteem than the mighty potentates of the earth, when we view them both through the long profpect of many ages. Were the memoirs of an obfcure man, who lived up to the dignity of his nature, and according to the rules of virtue, to be laid before us, we fhould find nothing in fuch a character which might not fet him on a level with men of the highest stations. The following extract out of the private papers of an honest country gentleman will fet this matter in a clear light. Your reader will perhaps conceive a greater idea of him from thefe actions done in fecret, and without a witness, than of those which have drawn upon them the admiration of multitudes.'

MEMOIRS,