It is certainly the greatest honour we can do our country, to diftinguish ftrangers of merit who apply to us with modefty and diffidence, which generally accompanies merit. No opportunity of this kind ought to be neglected; and a modeft behaviour fhould alarm us to examine whether we do not lofe fomething excellent under that disadvantage in the poffeffor of that quality. My fkill in paintings, where one is not directed by the paffion of the pictures, is fo inconfiderable, that I am in very great perplexity when I offer to speak of any performances of painters of landskapes, buildings, or fingle figures. This makes me at a lofs how to mention the pieces which Mr. Boul expofes to fale by auction on Wednesday next in Shandois-ftreet: But having heard him commended by thofe who have bought of him heretofore for great integrity in his dealing, and overheard him himfelf (though a laudable painter) fay, Nothing of his own was fit to come into the room with those he had to fell, I feared I fhould lose an occafion of ferving a man of worth, in omitting to fpeak of his auction. No 227. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 20. "Ω μοι ἐγώ τι παθῶ; τί ὁ δύσσο@; οὐχ ὑπακούεις T THEOCR. IN my laft Thurfday's paper I made mention of a place called The Lover's Leap, which I find has raifed a great curiofity among feveral of my correfpondents. I there told them that this leap was ufed to be taken from a promontory of Leucas. This Leucas was formerly a part of Acarnania, being joined to it by a narrow neck of land, which the fea has has by length of time overflowed and washed away; fo that at prefent Leucas is divided from the continent, and is a little island in the Ionian fea. The promontory of this ifland, from whence the lover took his leap, was formerly called Leucate. If the reader has a mind to know both the ifland and the promontory by their modern titles, he will find in his map the ancient ifland of Laucas under the name of St. Mauro, and the ancient promontory of Laucate under the name of The Cape of St. Mauro. Since I am engaged thus far in antiquity, I must obferve that Theocritus in the motto prefixed to my paper, defcribes one of his defpairing fhepherds addreffing himself to his mistress after the following manner: Alas! What will become of me! Wretch that I am! Will you not hear me? I will throw off my clothes, and take a leap into that part of the fea which is fo much frequented by Olphis the fisherman. And though I fhould efcape with my life, I know you will be pleafed with it. I fhall leave it with the criticks to determine whether the place, which this fhepherd fo particularly points out, was not the above-mentioned Leucate, or at leaft fome other Lover's Leap, which was fuppofed to have had the fame effect. I cannot believe, as all the interpreters do, that the shepherd means fomething farther here than that he would drown himself, fince he reprefents the iffue of his leap as doubtful, by adding, That if he should escape with life, he knows his mistress would be pleafed with it; which is according to our interpretation, that he would rejoice any way to get rid of a Lover who was fo troublefome to her. After this fhort preface, I fhall present my reader with fome letters which I have received upon this fubject. The firft is fent me by a physician. Mr. SPECTATOR, THE Lover's Leap, which you mention in your 223d paper, was generally, I believe, a very effectual cure for Love, and not only for Love, but for all other evils. In fhort, Sir, I am afraid it was fuch a leap as that which Hero took to get rid of her paffion for Leander. A man is in no danger of breaking his heart, who breaks his neck to prevent it. I know very well the wonders which ancient authors relate concerning this leap; and in particular, that very many perfons who tried it, efcaped not only with their lives but their limbs. If by this means they got rid of their Love, though it may be abfcribed to the reafons you give for it; why may not we fuppofe that the cold bath into which they plunged themfelves, had alfo fome fhare in their cure? A leap into the fea or into any creek of falt waters, very often gives a new motion to the spirits, and 4 a new turn to the blood; for which reafon we • prescribe it in diftempers which no other medicine will reach. I could produce a quotation out of a very venerable author, in which the frenxy produced by Love, is compared to that which is produced by the biting of a mad dog. But as this comparifon is a little too courfe for your paper, and might look as if it were cited to ridicule the author who has made ufe of it; I fhall only hint at it, and defire you to confider whether, if the frenzy produced by thefe different caufes be of the fame nature, it may not very properly be cured by the fame means. I am, SIR, . 6 your most humble fervant, 'ESCULAPIUS.' Mr. SPECTATOR, I Aм a young woman croffed in Love. My story is very long and melancholy. To give you you the heads of it: A young Gentleman, after having made his applications to me for three years together, and filled my head with a thoufand dreams of happiness, fome few days fince, married another. Pray tell me in what part of the world your promontory lies, which you call The Lover's Leap, and whether one may go to it by land? But, alas, I am afraid it has loft its virtue, and that a woman of our times would find no more relief in taking fuch a leap, than in finging an him to Venus. So that I must cry out with Dido in Dryden's Virgil, Ah! cruel heaven, that made no cure for Love! • Your difconfolate fervant, 'ATHENAIS.' · MISTER SPICTATUR, MY heart is fo full of lofes and paffions for Mrs. Gwinifred, and the is fo pettifh and over-run with cholers against me, that if I had the good happiness to have my dwelling (which "is placed by my creat-cranfather upon the pottom of an hill) no farther diftance but twenty mile 'from the Lofer's Leap, I would indeed indeafour to preak my neck upon it. on purpose. Now, good Mifter SPICTATUR of Crete Pritain, you • must know it there is in Caernarvanshire a very pig mountain, the clory of all Wales, which is ' named Penmenmaure, and you must also know it is no great journey on foot from me; but the road is ftony and bad for fhooes. Now, there is upon the forehead of this mountain a very high rock, (like a parish steeple) that cometh a huge deal over the fea; fo that when I am in my me'lancholies, and I do throw myfelf from it, I do defire my fery good friend to tell me in his Spic'tatur, if I fhall be cure of my griefous lofes; for there is the fea clear as glafs, and as creen as the leek: X 2 leek Then likewife if I be drown, and preak 'my neck, if Mrs. Gwinifred will not lofe me afterwards. Pray be fpeedy in your anfwers, for I am in crete hafte, and it is my tefires to do my bufinefs without lofs of time. I remain with cordial affections, your ever lofing friend, DAVYTH AP SHENKYN. P. S. My law-fuits have brought me to London, but I have loft my caufes; and fo have made my refolutions to go down and leap before the frofts begin; for I am apt to take colds.' Ridicule, perhaps, is a better expedient against Love than fober advice, and I am of opinion, that Hudibras and Don Quixote may be as effectual to cure the extravagancies of this paffion, as any of the old philofophers. I fhall therefore publish very fpeedily the tranflation of a little Greek manufcript, which is fent me by a learned friend. It appears. to have been a piece of thofe records which were kept in the temple of Apollo, that ftood upon the promontory of Leucate. The reader will find it to be a fummary account of feveral perfons who tried the Lover's Leap, and of the fuccefs they found in it. As there feem to be in it fome anachronisms and deviations from the ancient orthography, I am not wholly fatisfied myself that it is authentick, and not rather the production of one of thofe Grecian fophifters, who have impofed upon the world feveral spurious works of this nature. I fpeak this by way of precaution, because I know there are feveral writers of uncommon erudition, who would not fail to expose my ignorance, if they caught me tripping in a manner of fo great moment. C WEDNESDAY, |
