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Je fens de veine en veine une fubtile flamme
Courir par tout mon corps, fi-toft que je te vois :
Et dans les doux transports, où s'egare mon ame,
Je ne sçaurois trouver de langue, ni de voix.

Un nuage confus se répand fur ma vuë,
Je n'entens plus, je tombe en de douces languears;
Et pafle, fans haleine, interdite, efperduë,
Un friffon me faifit, je tremble, je me meurs.

THE Reader will fee that this is rather an Imitation than a Translation. The Circumftances do not lie fo thick together, and follow one another with that Vehemence and Emotion as in the Original. In fhort, Monfieur Boileau has given us all the Poetry, but not all the Paffion of this famous Fragment, I fhall, in the laft Place, prefent my Reader with the English Tran

lation.

I.

Bleft as th' immortal Gods is he,
The Youth who fondly fits by thee,
And hears and fees thee all the while
Softly speak and fweetly fmile.

II.

'Twas this depriv'd my Soul of Reft,
And rais'd fuch Tumults in my Breaft;
For while Igaz'd, in Transport toft,
My Breath was gone, my Voice was loft:
III.

My Bofom glow'd; the fubtle Flame
Ran quick through all my vital Frame;
O'er my dim Eyes a Darkness hung;
My Ears with hollow Murmurs rung..

IV.

In dewy Damps my Limbs were chill'd;.
My Blood with gentle Horrors thrill'd;.
My feeble Pulfe forgot to play;

I fainted, funk, and dy'd away.

IN

INSTEAD of giving any Character of this laft Tranflation, I fhall defire my learned Reader to look into the Criticisms which Longinus has made upon the Original. By that means he will know to which of the Tranflations he ought to give the Preference. I fhall only add, that this Tranflation, is written in the very Spirit of Sappho, and as near the Greek as the Genius of our Language will poffibly fuffer.

LONGINUS has obferved that this Description of Love in Sappho is an exact Copy of Nature, and that all the Circumstances which follow one another in fuch an hurry of Sentiments, notwithstanding they appear repugnant to each other, are really fuch as happen in the Phrenzies of Love.

I wonder, that not one of the Criticks or Editors,' through whofe Hands this Ode has paffed, has taken Occafion from it to mention a Circumftance related by Plutarch. That Author in the famous Story of Anticchus, who fell in Love with Stratonice, his Mother-inLaw, and (not daring to difcover his Paffion) pretended to be confined to his Bed by Sicknefs, tells us, that Erafiftratus, the Phyfician, found out the Nature of his Diftemper by thofe Symptoms of Love which he had learnt from Sappho's Writings. Stratonice was in the Room of the Love-fick Prince, when thefe Symptoms discovered themselves to his Physician; and it is pro bable, that they were not very different from those which Sappho here describes in a Lover fitting by his Miftrefs. This Story of Antiochus is fo well known, that I need not add the Sequel of it, which has no Relation to my prefent Subject.'

Friday,

N° 230. Friday, November 23.

Homines ad Deos nullà re propiùs accedunt, quàm falutem
Hominibus dando.

H

Tull.

UMAN Nature appears a very deformed, or a very beautiful Object, according to the different Lights in which it is viewed. When we see Men of inflamed Paffions, or of wicked Defigns, tearing one another to Pieces by open Violence, or undermining. each other by secret Treachery; when we obferve bafe and narrow Ends purfued by ignominious and dishonest Means; when we behold Men mixed in Society as if it were for the Destruction of it; we are even afhamed of our Species, and out of Humour with our own Being: But in another Light, when we behold them mild, good, and benevolent, full of a generous Regard for the publick Profperity, compafionating each other's Diftreffes, and relieving each other's Wants, we can hardly believe they are Creatures of the fame Kind. In this View they appear Gods to each other, in the Exercise of the nobleft Power, that of doing Good; and the greatest Compliment we have ever been able to make to our own Being, has been by calling this Difpofition of Mind Humanity. We cannot but obferve à Pleafure arifing in our own Breast upon the feeing or hearing of a generous Action, even when we are wholly difinterested in it. I cannot give a more proper Inftance of this, than by a Letter from Pliny, in which he recommends a Friend in the moft handfom manner, and, methinks, it would be a great Pleasure to know the Succefs of this Epiftle, though each Party concerned in it has been fo many hundred Years in his Grave.

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To MAXIMUS.

HAT I fhould gladly do for any Friend of yours, I think I may now with Confidence requeft for a Friend of mine. Arrianus Maturius is the 'moft 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 Advice is useful to me in Bufinefs, and his Judgment 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 Affection. He has nothing that's afpiring; and though he might rife 'to the highest Order of Nobility, he keeps himself in inferior Rank; yet I think my felf bound to use 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 fhould refufe it. Something, in fhort, I 'would have for him that may be honourable, but not ⚫ troublefom; 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 asked it.

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Mr. SPECTATOR,

TH

HE Reflexions 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, tho' 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 Hobe read by them with much Pleasure, and with perfect Safety to their Persons.

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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 Solitude; though within the Neighbourhood of a City, for the Convenience of their being

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⚫ inftructed in Musick, Dancing, Drawing, Defigning, or any other fuch Accomplishments, which it is conceived may make as proper Diverfions for them, and almost as pleasant, as the little fordid Games which dirty School-boys are so much delighted with. It may eafily be imagined, how fuch a pretty Society, converfing with none beneath themselves, and fometimes admitted as perhaps not unentertaining Parties amongst better Company, commended and careffed for their little Performances, and turned by fuch Conversations to a certain Gallantry of Soul, might be brought early acquainted with fome of the moft polite English Wri ters. This having given them fome tolerable Taste of Books, they would make themselves Mafters of the Latin Tongue by Methods far easier than thofe 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 something more exactly: One that had any true Relish of fine Writing, might, with great Pleasure both to himself 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 else might beft feed the bufy inquifitive Humour fo natural to that Age. Such of them as had the leaft Spark of Genius, when it was once awakened by the fhining Thoughts and great Sentiments of those admired Writers, could not, I believe, be eafily withheld from ⚫ attempting that more difficult Sifter Language, whofe ⚫ exalted Beauties they would have heard fo often ce⚫lebrated as the Pride and Wonder of the whole • Learned World. In the mean while, it would be requifite to exercise their Stile in Writing any light • Pieces that ask more of Fancy than of Judgment; and ⚫ that frequently in their Native Language, which every 6 one methinks fhould be most concerned to cultivate, efpecially Letters in which a Gentleman muft have fo frequent Occafions to diftinguish himfelf. A Set of gen'teel good-natured Youths fallen into fuch a Manner of • Life, would form almost a little Academy, and doubt

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