I always merry, I fhould lofe the other. I make it therefore my endeavour to find out entertainments of both kinds, and by that means perhaps confult the good of both, more than I should do, did I always write to the particular tafte of either. As they neither of them know what I proceed upon, the fprightly reader, who takes up my paper in order to be diverted, very often finds himself engaged unawares in a ferious and profitable course of thinking; as, on the contrary, the thoughtful man, who perhaps may hope to find something folid, and full of deep reflection, is very often infenfibly betrayed into a fit of mirth. In a word, the reader fits down to my entertainment without knowing his bill of fare, and has therefore at least the pleasure of hoping there may be a difh to his palate.

I must confefs, were I left to myself, I fhould rather aim at inftructing than diverting; but if we will be useful to the world, we must take it as we find it. Authors of profeffed feverity difcourage the loofer part of mankind from having any thing to do with their writings. A man must have virtue in him, before he will enter upon the reading of a Seneca or an Epictetus. The very title of a moral treatise has fomething in it auftere and fhocking to the careless and inconfiderate.

For this reafon feveral unthinking persons fall in my way, who would give no attention to lectures delivered with a religious ferioufnefs or a philofophick gravity. They are infnared into fentiments of wisdom and virtue when they do not think of it; and if by that means they arrive only at such a degree of confideration as may difpofe them to liften to more ftudied and elaborate difcourfes, I fhall not think my fpeculations ufelefs. I might likewife obferve, that the gloominefs in which fometimes the minds of the best men are involved, very often ftands in need of fuch little incitements to mirth

and

and laughter, as are apt to disperse melancholy, and put our faculties in good humour. To which fome will add, that the British climate, more than any other, makes entertainments of this nature in a manner neceffary.

If what I have here faid does not recommend, it will at leaft excufe the variety of my fpeculations, I would not willingly laugh but in order to instruct, or if I fometimes fail in this point, when my mirth ceases to be instructive, it shall never cease to be innocent. A fcrupulous conduct in this particular, has, perhaps, more merit in it than the generality of readers imagine; did they know how many thoughts occur in a point of humour, which a difcreet author in modefty fuppreffes; how many ftrokes of rallery present themselves, which could not fail to please the ordinary taste of mankind, but are ftifled in their birth by reason of some remote tendency which they carry in them to corrupt the minds of those who read them; did they know how many glances of ill-nature are induftriously avoided for fear of doing injury to the reputation of another, they would be apt to think kindly of those writers who endeavour to make themfelves diverting, without being immoral. One may apply to these authors that paffage in Waller,

Poets lofe half the praise they would have got,
Were it but known what they difcreetly blot.

As nothing is more eafy than to be a wit, with all the abovementioned liberties, it requires fome genius and invention to appear fuch without them.

What I have here faid is not only in regard to the publick, but with an eye to my particular correfpondent, who has fent me the following letter, which I have caftrated in fome places upon these confiderations.

SIR,

HAving lately feen your difcourfe upon a match of grinning, I cannot forbear giving you an account of a whiftling match, which, with many • others, I was entertained with about three years fince at the Bath. The prize was a guinea, to be • conferred upon the ableft whiftler, that is, on him who could whistle cleareft, and go through his tune without laughing, to which at the fame time he was provoked by the antick poftures of a Merry-Andrew, who was to ftand upon the stage and play his tricks in the eye of the performer. There were three competitors for the ring. The firft was a ploughman of a very promifing afpect; his features were fteady, and his mufcles compofed in fo inflexible a ftupidity, that upon his first appearance every one gave the guinea for loft. The Pickled Herring however found the way to 'fhake him; for upon his whistling a country-jig, this unlucky wag danced to it with fuch variety of distortions and grimaces, that the countryman. could not forbear fmiling upon him, and by that means fpoiled his whistle, and loft the prize.

*

The next that mounted the stage was an undercitizen of the Bath, a perfon remarkable among the inferiour people of that place for his great 'wifdom and his broad band. He contracted his ' mouth with much gravity, and that he might difpofe his mind to be more ferious than ordinary, begun the tune of The Children in the wood, and went through part of it with good fuccefs; when on a fudden the wit at his elbow, who had appeared wonderfully grave and attentive for fome ‹ time, gave him a touch upon the left fhoulder, and ftared him in the face with fo bewitching a grin, that the whiftler relaxed his fibres into a kind of fimper, and at length burft out into an open laugh. The third who entered the lifts was a footman, who, in defiance of the Merry-Andrew VOL. III. E ' and

and all his arts, whistled a Scotch tune, and an Italian fonata, with so settled a countenance, that he bore away the prize, to the great admiration of fome hundreds of perfons, who, as well as myself, were present at this trial of skill. Now, Sir, I humbly conceive, whatever you have determined of the grinners, the whiftlers ought to be encouraged, not only as their art is practifed without diftortion, but as it improves country mufick, promotes gravity, and teaches ordinary people to keep their countenances, if they see any thing ridiculous in their betters; befides that it feems an entertainment very particularly adapted to the Bath, as it is ufual for a rider to whistle to his horfe when he would make his waters pafs. I am, Sir, &c.

POSTSCRIPT.

After having difpatched these two important points of grinning and whiffling, I hope you will oblige the world with fome reflections upon yawning, as I have feen it practifed on a twelfth-night among other Christmas gambols at the houfe of a very worthy Gentleman, who always entertains his tenants at that time of the year. They yawn for a Chefbire cheese, and begin about midnight, when the whole company is difpofed to be droufy. He that yawns wideft, and at the fame time to naturally as to produce the moft yawns among the fpectators, carries home the cheefe. If you handle this fubject as you ought, I queftion not but your paper will fet half the kingdom a yawning, though I dare promife you it will never make any body fall asleep.

L

WEDNESDAY,

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No 180. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26.

Delirant reges, plectuntur Achivi.

HOR. Ep. II. lib. i. v. 14.

The people fuffer when the prince offends.

CREECH.

TH HE following letter has fo much weight and good fenfe, that I cannot forbear inferting it, though it relates to an hardened finner, whom I have very little hopes of reforming, viz. Lewis XIV. of France.

Mr. SPECTATOR,

A Midft the variety of fubjects of which you

have treated, I could with it had fallen in your way, to expofe the vanity of conquests. This thought would naturally lead one to the French King, who has been generally esteemed the greatest conqueror of our age, until her Majefty's armies had torn from him fo many of his ' countries, and deprived him of the fruit of all • his former victories, For my own part, if I were to draw his picture, I should be for taking him no lower than to the peace of Refwick, juft at the ' end of his triumphs, and before his reverse of 'fortune: And even then I fhould not forbear thinking his ambition had been vain and unprofitable to himself and his people.

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As for himself, it is certain he can have gain'ed nothing by his conquefts, if they have not rendered him mafter of more fubjects, more 'riches, or greater power. What I fhall be able to offer upon these heads, I refolve to fubmit to your confideration.

To begin then with his increase of fubjects. From the time he came of age, and has been a manager for himself, all the people he had ac

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quired