my Sincerity, and expreffed the Truth, tho' in broken Words; and by reproachful Grimaces to the last I mimick's the Deformity of my Murderess. CUPID, who always attends the Fair, and pity'd the Fare of fo ufeful a Servant as I was, obtained of the Deftinies, that my Body fhould remain incorruptible, and retain the Qualities my Mind had poffeffed. I immediately loft the Figure of Man, and became smooth, polifhed, and bright, and to this day am the first Favourite of the Ladies. T 393. Saturday, May 31. N 393. L Nefcio quâ prater folitum dulcedine lati. Virg. OOKING over the Letters that have been fent me, I chanced to find the following one, which I received about two years ago from an ingenious Friend, who was then in Denmark. Dear Sir, T Copenhagen, May 1, 1710. HE Spring with you has already taken poffeffion of the Fields and Woods: Now is the Seafon of Solitude, and of moving Complaints upon trivial Sufferings: Now the Griefs of Lovers begin to flow, and their Wounds to bleed afresh. I too, at this diftance from the fofter Climates, an not without my Difcontents at prefent. You perhaps may laugh at me for a most Romantick Wretch, when I have disclosed to you the Occafion of my Uneafinefs; and yet I cannot help thinking my Unhappiness real, in being confined to a Region, which is the very Reverfe of Paradife. The Seafons here are all of them unpleafant, and the Coun. try quite deftitute of Rural Charms. I have not heard a Bird fing, nor a Brook murmur, nor a Breeze whif per, neither have I been bleft with the Sight of a flow ry ry Meadow these two years. Every Wind here is a Tempeft, and every Water a turbulent Ocean. I hope, · when you reflect a little, you will not think the Grounds of my Complaint in the leaft frivolous and unbecoming a Man of ferious Thought; fince the Love of Woods, of Fields and Flowers, of Rivers and Fountains, feems to be a Paffion implanted in our Natures the most early of any, even before the Fair Sex had a Being. I am, Sir, &c. COULD I transport my felf with a Wish from one Country to another, I fhould chufe to pass my Winter in Spain, my Spring in Italy, my Summer in England, and my Autumn in France. Of all these Seasons there is none that can vie with the Spring for Beauty and Delight fulness. It bears the fame Figure among the Seafons of the Year, that the Morning does among the Divifions of the Day, or Youth among the Stages of Life. The English Summer is pleasanter than that of any other Country in Europe, on no other account but because it has a greater Mixture of Spring in it. The Mildness of our Climate, with thofe frequent Refreshments of Dews and Rains that fall among us, keep up a perpetual Chearfulness in our Fields, and fill the hotteft Months of the Year with a lively Verdure. IN the opening of the Spring, when all Nature begins to recover her felf, the fame animal Pleafure which makes the Birds fing, and the whole brute Creation_rejoice, rifes very fenfibly in the Heart of Man. I know none of the Poets who have obferved fo well as Milton thofe fecret Overflowings of Gladnefs which diffuse themfelves thro' the Mind of the Beholders, upon furveying the gay Scenes of Nature; he has touched upon it twice or thrice in his Paradife Loft, and defcribes it very beautifully under the Name of Vernal Delight, in that Paffage where he represents the Devil himself as almost senfible of it. Bleffoms and Fruits at once of golden hue MANY Authors have written on the Vanity of the Creature, and reprefented the Barrennefs of every thing in this World, and its Incapacity of producing any folid or fubftantial Happiness. As Difcourfes of this Nature are very useful to the Senfual and Voluptuous; thofe Speculations which fhew the bright fide of things, and lay forth thofe innocent Entertainments which are to be met with among the feveral Objects that encompafs us, are no lefs beneficial to Men of dark and melancholy Tempers. It was for this reafon that I endeavoured to recommend a Chearfulness of Mind in my two laft Saturday's Papers, and which I would ftill inculcate, not only from the Con fideration of our felves, and of that Being on whom we depend, nor from the general Survey of that Univerfe in which we are placed at prefent, but from Reflections on the particular Seafon in which this Paper is written. The Creation is a perpetual Feaft to the Mind of a good Man, every thing he fees chears and delights him; Providence has imprinted fo many Smiles on Nature, that it is impoffible for a Mind, which is not funk in more grofs and fenfual Delights, to take a Survey of them without feveral fecret Senfarions of Pleafure The Pfalmift has in feveral of his divine Poems celebrated thofe beautiful and agreeable Scenes which make the Heart glad, and produce in it that vernal Delight which I have before taken notice of. NATURAL Philofophy quickens this Taste of the Creation, and renders it not only pleafing to the Imagination, but to the Understanding. It does not reft in the Murmur of Brooks, and the Melody of Birds, in the Shade of Groves and Woods, or in the Embroidery of Fields and Meadows, but confiders the feveral Ends of Providence which are ferved by them, and the Wonders of Divine Wifdom which appear in them. It heightens the Pleasures of the Eye, and raifes fuch a rational Admiration in the Soul as is little inferior to Devotion. IT is not in the power of every one to offer up this kind of Worship to the great Author of Nature, and to indulgethefe more refined Meditations of Heart, which are doublefs highly acceptable in his fight; I fhall therefore conclude this fhort Effay on that Pleafure which the Mind naturally conceives from the prefent Season of the Year, by the recommending of a Practice for which every one has fufficient Abilities. I would have my Readers endeavour to moralize this natural Pleasure of the Soul, and to improve this vernal Delight, as Milton calls it, into a Chriftian Virtue. When we find our felves infpired with this pleafing Inftinct, this fecret Satisfaction and Complacency arifing from the Beauties of the Creation, let us confider to whom we ftand, indebted for all these Entertainments of Senfe, and who it is that thus opens his Hand and fills the World with Good. The Apoftle inftructs us to take advantage of our prefent Temper of Mind, to graft upon it fuch a religious Exercife as is particularly conformable to it, by that Precept which advises those who are fad to pray, and those who are merry to fing, Pfalms. The Chearfulness of Heart which fprings up in us from the Survey of Nature's Work, is an admirable Preparation for Gratitude. The Mind has gone a great way towards Praife and Thanksgiving that is filled with fuch a fecret Gladness: A grated ful Reflection on the fupreme Caufe who produces it, fanctifies it in the Soul, and gives it its proper Value. Such an habitual Difpofition of Mind confecrates every Field and Wood, turns an ordinary Walk into a morning or evening Sacrifice, and will improve thofe tranfient Gleams' of Joy, which naturally brighten up and refresh the Sout on fuch Occafions, into an inviolable and perpetual State of Blifs and Happiness. I Monday, N° 394. Monday, June 2. Bene colligitur hac Pueris & Mulierculis & Servis & Servorum fimillimis Liberis effe grata. Gravi vero homine & ea qua fiunt Judicio certo ponderanti probari posse nullo modo. Tull. Have been confidering the little and frivolous things which give Men Acceffes to one another, and Power with each other, not only in the common and indifferent Accidents of Life, but also in Matters of greater importance. You fee in Elections for Members to fit in Parliament, how far faluting Rows of old Women, drinking with Clowns, and being upon a level with the lowest Part of Mankind in that wherein they themselves are lowest, their Diverfions, will carry a Candidate. A Capacity for prostituting a Man's felf in his Behaviour, and defcending to the prefent Humour of the Vulgar, is perhaps as good an Ingredient as any other for making a confiderable Figure in the World; and if a Man has nothing else, or better, to think of, he could not make his way to Wealth and Diftinction by properer Methods, than studying the particular Bent or Inclination of People with whom he converfes, and working from the Obfervations of fuch their Biafs in all matters wherein he has any Intercourfe with them: For his Eafe and Comfort he may affure himself, he need not be at the Expence of any great Talent or Virtue to please even thofe who are poffefs'd of the highest Qualifications. Pride in fome particular Difguife or other, (often a Secret to the proud Man himself) is the most ordinary Spring of Action among Men. You need no more than to difcover what a Man values himself for; then of all things admire that Quality, but be fure to be failing in it your felf in comparison of the Man whom you court. I have heard, or read, of a Secretary of State in Spain, who ferved a Prince who was happy in an elegant ufe of the Latin Tongue, and often writ Difpatches in it with his own Hand. The King fhewed his Secretary a Letter he had |