Soul, life would be infipid, and our Being but halfanimated. Human Nature would fink into deadnefs and lethargy, if not quickened with fome active principle; and as for all others, whether ambition, envy, or avarice, which are apt to poffefs the mind in the abfence of this paffion, it must be allowed that they have greater pains, without the compenfation of fuch exquifite pleafures as thofe we find in Love. The great kill is to heighten the fatisfactions, and deaden the forrows of it; which has been the end of many of my labours, and fhall continue to be fo for the fervice of the world in general, and in particular of the Fair Sex, who are always the best or the worst part of it. It is pity that a paffion, which has in it a capacity of making life happy, fhould not be cultivated to the utmoft advantage. Reafon, prudence, and good-nature, rightly applied, can thoroughly accomplish this great end, provided they have always a real and conftant Love to work upon. But this fubject I fhall treat more at large in the hiftory of my married fifter, and in the mean time fhall conclude my reflection on the pains and pleasures which attend this paffion, with one of the fineft Allegories which I think I have ever read. It is invented by the divine Plato, and to fhew the opinion he himself had of it, afcribed by him to his admired Socrates, whom he reprefents as difcourfing with his friends, and giving the hiftory of Love in the following manner. At the birth of Beauty, fays he, there was a great feast made, and many guefts invited. Among the reft, was the god Plenty, who was the fon of the goddess Prudence, and inherited many of his mother's virtues. After a full entertainment, he retired into the garden of Jupiter, which was hung with a great variety of ambrohai fruits, and feems to have been a very proper retreat for fuch a guest. In the mean time an unhappy female called Poverty, having heard of this great feaft, repaired to it in hopes of finding relief. The first place fhe lights upon was Jupiter's garden, which generally ftands open to people of all conditions. Poverty enters, and by chance finds the god Plenty afleep in it. She was immediately fired with his charms, laid herself down by his fic, and manged matters fo well, that he conceived a 6 child child by him. The world was very much in fufpenfe upon the occafion, and could not imagine to themselves what would be the nature of an infant that was to have its original from two fuch parents. At the laft, the child appears; and who fhould it be but Love. This infant grew up, and proved in all his behaviour, what he really was, a compound of oppofite Beings. As he is the fon of Plenty, who was the offspring of Prudence, he is fubtle, intriguing, full of ftratagems, and devices; as the fon of Poverty, he is fawning, begging, ferenading, delighting to lie at a threshold, or beneath a window. By the father, he is audacious, full of hopes, conscious of merit, and therefore quick of refentment: By the mother, he is doubtful, timorous, mean-fpirited, fearful of offending, and abject in fubmiffions. In the fame hour you may fee him tranfported with raptures, talking of immortal pleafures, and appearing fatisfied as a God; and immediately after, as the mortal mother prevails in his compofition, you behold him pining, languifhing, defpairing, dying. I have been always wonderfully delighted with fables, allegories, and the like inventions, which the politest and the best instructors of mankind have always made ufe of: They take off from the feverity of inftruction, and inforce it at the fame time that they conceal it. The fuppofing, Love to be conceived immediately after the birth of Beauty; the parentage of Plenty; and the inconfiftency of this paffion with its felf fo naturally derived to it, are great mafter-ftrokes in this fable; and if they fell into good hands, might farnifh out a more pleafing Canto than any in Spenfer. From my own Apartment, November 4. I came home this evening in a very penfive mood; and to divert me, took up a volume of Shakespear, where I chanced to caft my eye upon a part in the Tragedy of Richard the Third, which filled my mind with a very agreeable horror. It was the fcene in which that bold, but wicked Prince is reprefented as fleeping in his tent, the night before the battle in which he fell. The Poet takes that occafion to fet before him, in a vilion, a ter. rible affembly of apparitions, the ghofts of all those innocent perfons whom he is faid to have murdered. Prince Edward, Henry the Sixth, the Duke of Clarence, Rivers, Gray, and Vaughan; Lord Haftings, the two young Princes, fons to Edward the Fourth, his own wife, and the Duke of Buckingham, rife up in their blood before him, beginning their speeches with that dreadful falutation, "Let me fit heavy on thy Soul to-morrow;" and concluding with that dismal fentence, "Defpair and "die." This infpires the tyrant with a dream of his paft guilt, and of the approaching vengeance. He anticipates the fatal day of Bofworth, fancies himfelf dif mounted, weltering in his own blood; and in the agonies of defpair, before he is thoroughly awake, ftarts up with the following speech: Give me another horfe Bind up my wounds! A scene, written with fo great ftrength of imagina. tion, indifpofed me from further reading, and threw me into a deep contemplation. I began to reflect upon the different ends of good and bad Kings; and as this was the birth-day of our late renowned Monarch, I could not forbear thinking on the departure of that excellent Prince, whofe life was crowned with glory, and his death with peace. I let my mind go fo far into this thought, as to imagine to myfelf, what might have been the vifion of his departing flumbers. He might have feen confederate Kings applauding him in different languages; flaves that had been bound in fetters, lifting up their hands and bleffing him; and the perfecuted in their feveral forms of worship imploring comfort on his laft moments. The reflection upon this excellent Prince's mortality had been a very melancholy entertainment to me, had I not been relieved by the confideration of the glorious reign which fucceeds it. We We now fee as great a virtue as ever was on the British throne, furrounded with all the beauty of fuccefs. Our nation may not only boast of long feries of great, regular, and well laid defigns, but alfo of triumphs and victories; while we have the happiness to see our Sovereign exercife that true policy which tends to make a kingdom great and happy, and at the fame time enjoy the good and glorious effect of it. N° 91. Tuesday, November 8, 1709. I From my own Apartment, November 7. Was very much furprized this evening with a vifit from one of the top Toafts of the town, who came privately in a chair, and bolted into my room, while I was reading a chapter of Agrippa upon the Occult Sciences; but as fhe entered with all the air and bloom that Nature ever beftowed on woman, I threw down the conjurer, and met the charmer. I had no fooner placed her at my right hand by the fire, but she opened to me the reason of her vifit. "Mr. Bickerstaff, faid the fine creature, I have been your correfpondent fome time, "though I never faw you before; I have writ by the 66 name of Maria. You have told me, you were too "far gone in life to think of Love: Therefore I am "anfwered as to the paffion I fpoke of, and, continued "fhe fmiling, I will not ftay until you grow young again, as you men never fail to do in your dotage; but am come to confult you about difpofing of myself to ano"ther. My perfon you fee; my fortune is very confi"derable; but I am at prefent under much perplexity "how to act in a great conjuncture. I have two Lovers, "Craffus and Lorio: Craffus is prodigiously rich, but "has no one diftinguishing quality; though at the fame "time he is not remarkable on the defective fide. Lorio "has travelled, is well bred, pleasant in difcourfe, dif64 *creet L 3. "creet in his conduct, agreeable in his perfon; and "with all this, he has a competency of fortune without fuperfluity. When I confider Lorio, my mind is filled. "with an idea of the great fatisfaction of a pleasant "converfation. When I think of Craffus, my equipage, numerous fervants, gay liveries, and various dreffes, are oppofed to the charms of his rival. In a word, "when I caft my eyes upon Lorio, I forget and defpife "fortune; when I behold Craffus, think only of "pleafing my vanity, and enjoying an uncontrolled expence in all the pleasures of life, except Love." She paufed here. Madam, faid I, I am confident you have not fated your cafe with fincerity, and that there is fome fecret pang which you have concealed from me: For I fee by your afpect the generofity of your mind; and that open ingenuous air lets me know, that you have too great a fense of the generous paffion of Love, to prefer the oftentation of life in the arms of Craffus, to the entertainments and conveniencies of it in the company of your beloved Lorio; for fo he is indeed, Madam; you speak his name with a different accent from the rest of your difcourfe: The idea his image raifes in you, gives new life to your features, and new grace to your fpeech. Nay, blush not, Madam, there is no difhonour in loving a man of merit; I affure you, I am grieved at this dallying with yourfelf, when you put another in compatition with him, for no other reason but fuperior wealth. "To tell you then, faid fhe, the bottom of my heart, "there is Clotilda lies by, and plants herfelf in the way "of Craffus, and I am confident will fnap him, if I "refufe him. I cannot bear to think that he will shine "above me. When our coaches meet, to fee her cha"riot hung behind with four footmen, and mine with "but two: Hers, powdered, gay, and faucy, kept only "for fhow; mine, a couple of careful rogues that are "good for fomething: I own, I cannot bear that Clotilda "fhould be in all the pride and wantonnefs of wealth, "and I only in the ease and affluence of it." Here I interrupted: Well, Madam, now I fee your whole affliction; you could be happy, but that you fear another would be happier. Or rather, you could be folidly |