WHat Hat I fhould gladly do for any friend of yours, I think I may now with confidence request for a friend of mine. Arrianus Maturius. ⚫is the most confiderable man of his country; when • I call him fo, I do not fpeak with relation to his • fortune, though that is very plentiful, but to his integrity, juftice, gravity, and prudence; his ad. ⚫vice is ufeful to me in bufinefs, and his judg•ment in matters of learning: His fidelity, truth, and good understanding, are very great; befides this, he loves me as you do, than which I cannot fay any thing that fignifies a warmer affecti on. He has nothing that is afpiring; and tho ⚫he might rife to the highest order of nobility, he keeps himself in an inferior rank; yet I think myfelf bound to ufe my endeavours to ferve and promote him; and would therefore find the means of adding fomething to his honours while •he neither expects nor knows it, nay, though he should refuse it. Something, in fhort, I would. have for him that may be honourable, but not • troublesome ; and I intreat that you will procure him the first thing of this kind that offers, by which you will not only oblige me, but him alfo; for though he does not covet it, I know he will be as grateful in acknowledging your favour as if he had afked it.? • Mr. SPECTATOR, THE 7 HE reflections in fome of your papers on the fervile manner of education now in use, have given birth to an ambition, which, unless you. discountenance it, will, I doubt, engage me in a very difficult, though not ungrateful adventure. I am about to undertake, for the fake of the • British youth, to inftruct them in fuch a manner,. * that the most dangerous page in Virgil or Homer • may ་ may be read by them with much pleasure, and with perfect fafety to their perfons. Could I prevail fo far as to be honoured with the protection of fome few of them, (for I am not hero enough to rescue many) my defign is to retire with them to an agreeable folitude; though within the neighbourhood of a city, for the con venience of their being inftructed in mufick, dancing, drawing, defigning, or any other fuch accomplishments, which it is conceived may make as proper diverfions for them, and almost as pleafant, as the little fordid games which dirty fchool-boys are fo much delighted with. It may eafily be immagined how fuch a pretty fociety, converfing with none beneath themfelves, and fometimes admitted as perhaps not unentertaining parties amongst better company, commended and careffed for their little performances, and turned by fuch converfations to a certain galantry of foul, might be brought early acquainted with fome of the moft polite Engl writers. Thus having given them fome tolerable tafte of books; they would make themselves mafters of the Latin tongue by methods far easier than those in Lilly, with as little difficulty or reluctance as young Ladies learn to fpeak French, or to fing Italian operas, When they had advanced thus far, it would be time to form their taste fomething more exactly One that had any true relish of fine writing, might, with great pleasure both to him• felf and them, run over together with them the best Roman hiftorians, poets, and orators, and point out their more remarkable beauties; give them a fhort scheme of chronology, a little view of geography, medals, aftronomy, or what elfe might beft feed the bufy inquifitive humour fo ⚫ natural to that age. Such of them as had the leaft fpark of genius, when it was once awakened by the fhining thoughts and great fentiments of ་ those thofe admired writers, could not, I believe, be 'cafily withheld from attempting that more diffi'cult fifter language, whofe exalted beauties they 'would have heard fo often celebrated as the pride.. ' and wonder of the whole learned world. In the ♦ mean while, it would be requifite to exercise their 'ftile in writing any light pieces that afk more of fancy than of judgment: And that frequently in 'their native language, which every one methinks • fhould be moft concerned to cultivate, efpecially, letters in which a Gentleman must have fo frequent occafions to diftinguish himself. A fet of genteel good-natured youths fallen into fuch a · manner of life, would form almost a little academy, and doubtlefs prove no fuch contemptible companions, as. might not often tempt a wifer · man to mingle himself in their diverfions, and. ⚫ draw them into fuch ferious fports as might prove ⚫ nothing lefs inftructing than the graveft leffons... • I doubt not but it might be made fome of their favourite plays, to contend which of them fhould • recite a beautiful part of a poem or oration most gracefully, or fometimes to join in acting a scene. of Terence, Sophocles, or our own Shakespear.. • The cause of Milo might again be pleaded before more favourable judges, Cafar a fecond time be ⚫ taught to tremble, and another race of Athenians ⚫ be a fresh enraged at the ambition of another Philip. Amidst thefe noble amufements, we could hope to fee the early dawnings of their imagination daily brighten into fenfe, their innocence improve into virtue, and their unexperienced good-nature directed to a generous love of their r • country... . I am, be.... ********************** No 231. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 24. O Pudor! O Pietas! O Modesty ! O Piety! MART. LOOKING over the letters which I have lately received from my correfpondents, I met with the following one, which is written with fuch a fpirit of politenefs, that I could not but be very much pleafed with it myself, and queftion not but it will be as acceptable to the reader. • Mr. SPECTATOR, YOU, who are no ftranger to publick affemblies, cannot but have obferved the awe they often ftrike on fuch as are obliged to exert any talent before them. This is a fort of elegant diftrefs, to which ingenious minds are the moft liable, and may therefore deferve fome remarks in your paper. Many a brave fellow, who " has put his enemy to flight in the field, has been in the utmost diforder upon making a fpeech be*fore a body of his friends at home: One would think there was fome kind of fafcination in the eyes of a large circle of people, when darting altogether upon one perfon. I have feen a new actor in a tragedy fo bound up by it as to be fcarce able to fpeak or move, and have expected he would have died above three acts before the dagger or cup of poifon were brought in. It would not be amifs, if fuch an one were at first introduced as a ghost, or a ftatue, until he recovered his fpirits, and grew fit for fome living part. As this fudden desertion of one's felf fhews a diffidence, which is not difpleafing, it implies at the fame time the greatest respect to an audience that can be. It is a fort of mute eloquence, which • pleads pleads for their favour much better than words could do and we find their generofity naturally moved to fupport those who are in fo much per "plexity to entertain them. I was extremely pleafed with a late inftance of this kind at the opera of Almahide, in the encouragement given to a young finger, whose more than ordinary concern on her first appearance, recommended her no less than her agreeable voice, and just performance. Mere bafhfulness without merit is awkward; and merit without modefty, infolent.. But modeft merit has a double claim to acceptance, and generally meets with as many patrons as: beholders. I am, &c. It is impoffible that a perfon fhould exert himfelf to advantage in an affembly, whether it be his part either to fing or fpeak, who lies under too great oppreffions of modefty. I remember, upon talking with a friend of mine concerning the force of pronunciation, our difcourfe led us into the enumeration of the feveral organs of fpeech which an orator ought to have in perfection, as the tongue, the teeth, the lips, the nofe, the palate, and the wind-pipe. Upon which, fays, my friend, you have omitted the most material organ of them all, and that is the forehead. But notwithstanding an excefs of modefty ob fructs the tongue, and renders it unfit for its of fices, a due proportion of it is thought fo requifite to an orator, that rhetoricians have recommended Giit to their disciples as a particular in their art. cero tells us that he never liked an orator, who did not appear in fome little confufion at the beginning. of his speech, and confeffes that he himself never entered upon an oration without trembling and concern. It is indeed a kind of deference which is due to a great affembly, and feldom fails to raise a be |