his laft fatire, where they have endeavoured to expofe the fex in general, without doing juftice to the valuable part of it. Such levelling fatires are of no use to the world, and for this reafon I have often wondered how the French author above-mentioned, who was a man of exquifite judgment, and a lover of virtue, could think human nature a proper fubject for fatire in another of his celebrated pieces, which is called The fatire upon man. What vice or frailty can a difcourfe correct, which cenfures the whole fpecies alike, and endeavours to fhew by fome fuperficial ftrokes of wit, that brutes are the moft excellent creatures of the two? A fatire fhould expofe nothing but what is corrigible, and make a due difcrimination between those who are, and thofe who are not the proper objects of it, L NO 210. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 31. Nefcio quomodo inhæret in mentibus quafi feculorum quoddam augurium futurorum; idque in maximis ingeniis altiffimifque animis et exiftit maxime et apparet facillime. CIC. Tufc. Quæft. There is, I know not how, in the minds of men a certain prefage, as it were, of a future exiftence; and thefe takes the deepest root, and is most difcoverable in the greatest geniuses and most exalted fouls. * 6 I SIR, To the SPECTATOR. AM fully perfuaded that one of the beft fprings of generous and worthy actions, is the having generous and worthy thoughts of ourfelves. Whoever has a mean opinion of the dignity of his nature, will act in no higher a rank than ' than he has allotted himself in his own estimati'on. If he confiders his being as circumfcribed by the uncertain term of a few years, his defigns will be contracted into the fame narrow fpan he imagines is to bound his exiftence. How can he 'exalt his thoughts to any thing great and noble, 'who only believes that, after a fhort turn on the ftage of this world, he is to fink into oblivion, and to lofe his consciousness for ever? For this reafon I am of opinion, that so useful and elevated a contemplation as that of the Soul's 'immortality cannot be refumed too often. There is not a more improving exercise to the human mind, than to be frequently reviewing its own great privileges and endowments; nor a more ef⚫fectual means to awaken in us an ambition raised above low objects and little pursuits, than to value ourselves as heirs of eternity. It is a very great fatisfaction to confider the beft and wifeft of mankind in all nations and ages, afferting, as with one voice, this their birthright, and to find it ratified by an exprefs revelation. • At the fame time if we turn our thoughts in'ward upon ourselves, we may meet with a kind of fecret fenfe concurring with the proofs of our own immortality. You have, in my opinion, raised a good prefumptive argument from the increasing appetite 'the mind has to knowledge, and to the extending ' its own faculties, which cannot be accomplished, as the more restrained perfection of lower crea"tures may, in the limits of a fhort life. I think ' another probable conjecture may be raifed from our appetite to duration itself, and from a reflec'tion on our progrefs through the feveral ftages of it: We are complaining, as you obferve in a 'former fpeculation, of the fhortness of life, and yet are perpetually burrying over the parts of it, to arrive at certain little fettlements, or imaginaQ2 ry ་ ry points of rest, which are difperfed up and down in it. Now let us confider what happens to us when we arrive at these imaginary points of reft: Do we ftop our motion, and fit down fatisfied in the fettlement we have gained? or are we not removing the boundary, and marking out new points. "of reft, to which we prefs forward with the like eagerness, and which ceafe to be fuch as faft as we attain them? Our cafe is like that of a traveller upon the Alps, who thould fancy that the top of the next hill muft end his journey, because it terminates his profpect; but he no fooner arrives at it, than he fees new ground and other hills beyond it, and continues to travel on as before. This is fo plainly every man's condition in life, that there is no one who has obferved any thing, but may obferve, that as fast as his time wears away, his appetite to fomething future remains. The ufe therefore I would make of it is this, that fince nature (as fome love to exprefs it) does nothing in vain, or, to, fpeak properly, fince the Author of our being has planted no wandering paffion in it, no defire which has not its object, futurity is the proper object of the paffion fo conftantly exercifed about it; and this reftleff'nefs in the prefent, this affigning ourfeves over to farther ftages of duration, this fucceffive grafping at fomewhat ftill to come, appears to me (whatever it may be to others) as a kind of in<ftinct or natural fymptom which the mind of man has of its own immortality. I take it at the fame time for granted, that the im⚫ mortality of the foul is fufficiently established by other arguments: And if fo, this appetite, wh ch otherwife would be unaccountable and abfurd, feems very reafonable, and adds ftrength to the conclufion, But I am amazed when I • confider < confider there are creatures capable of thought, who, in fpite of every argument, can form to ⚫ themselves a fullen fatisfaction in thinking other⚫ wife. There is fomething fo pitifully mean in the inverted ambition of that man who can hope for • annihilation, and please himself to think that his 'whole fabrick fhall one day crumble into duft, • and mix with the mafs of inanimate beings, that it equally deferves our admiration and pity. The myftery of fuch mens unbelief is not hard to be penetrated; and indeed amounts to nothing more ⚫ than a forded hope that they fhall not be immortal, because they dare not be fo This brings me back to my first obfervation; ' and gives me occafion to fay further, that as wor thy actions fpring from worthy thoughts, fo worthy thoughts are likewife the confequence of worthy actions: But the wretch who has degraded ⚫ himself below the character of immortality, is very willing to refign his pretenfions to it, and to fubftitute in its room a dark negative happiness • in the extinction of his being. ་ The admirable Shakespeare has given us a strong. image of the unfupported condition of fuch a perfon in his laft minutes, in the second part of King Henry the fixth, where Cardinal Beaufort, who ' had been concerned in the murder of the good Duke Humphrey, is reprefented on his death-bed. 'After fome fhort confufed fpeeches which fhew an imagination difturbed with guilt, juft as he was expiring, King Henry standing by him full of compaffion, fays, Lord Cardinal! if thou think ft on heaven's blifs, • The defpair which is here fhewn, without a word or action on the part of the dying perfon, Q:3 is beyond what could be painted by the most forcible expreffions whatever. I fhall not purfue this thought farther, but only add, That as annihilation is not to be had with a wifh, fo it is the most abject thing in the world to wifh it. What are honour, fame, wealth, or power, when compared with the generous expectation of a Being without end, and ⚫ a happiness adequate to that being? I fhall trouble you no farther; but with a certain gravity which thefe thoughts have given me, I reflect upon fome things people fay of you, (as they will of men who diftinguish themselves) ⚫ which I hope are not true and wish you as good a man as you are an author. 'I am, SIR, Your moft obedient humble fervant, 'T. D.' Let it be remembered that we sport in fabled ftories. HAVING lately tranflated the fragment of an old poet which defcribes womankind under feveral characters, and fuppofes them to have drawn their different manners and difpofitions from thofe animals and elements out of which he tells us they were compounded; I have fome thoughts of giving the fex their revenge, by laying together in another paper the many vicious characters which prevail in the male world, and fhewing the different ingredients that go to the making up of fuch different humours and conftitutions. Horace has a thought |