October may observe, that as fast as his Time wears away, his No. 210. Appetite to something future remains. The Use there Wednes Ifore I would make of it is this, that since Nature (as day, some love to express it) does nothing in vain, or, to 31, 1711. speak properly, since the Author of our Being has planted no wandering Passion in it, no Desire which has not its Object, Futurity is the proper Object of the Passion so constantly exercis'd about it; and this Rest lesness in the present, this assigning our selves over to farther Stages of Duration, this successive grasping at somewhat still to come, appears to me (whatever it may to others) as a kind of Instinct or natural Symptom which the Mind of Man has of its own Immortality, I take it at the same time for granted, that the Immortality of the Soul is sufficiently established by other Arguments; and if so, this Appetite, which otherwise would be very unaccountable and absurd, seems very reasonable, and adds Strength to the Con clusion. But I am amazed when I consider there are Creatures capable of Thought, who, in spight of every Argument, can form to themselves a sullen Satisfaction in thinking otherwise, There is something so piti fully mean in the inverted Ambition of that Man who can hope for Annihilation, and please himself to think that his whole Fabrick shall one Day crumble into Dust, and mix with the Mass of inanimate Beings, that it equally deserves our Admiration and Pity, The Mystery of such Men's Unbelief is not hard to be penetrated; and indeed amounts to nothing more than a sordid Hope, that they shall not be immortal because they dare not be so, This brings me back to my first Observation, and gives me Occasion to say further, that as worthy Actions spring from worthy Thoughts, so worthy Thoughts are likewise the Consequence of worthy Actions: But the Wretch who has degraded himself below the Char acter of Immortality, is very willing to resign his Pretensions to it, and to substitute in its Room a dark negative Happiness in the Extinction of his Being, The admirable Shakespear has given us a strong Image of the unsupported Condition of such a Person day, October No. 210. in his last Minutes, in the second Part of King Henry Wednes the Sixth, where Cardinal Beaufort, who had been concern'd in the Murder of the good Duke Humphrey, is represented on his Death-Bed. After some short confus'd Speeches which shew an Imagination disturbed with Guilt, just as he is expiring, King Henry standing by him full of Compassion, says, 31, 1711. Lord Cardinal! if thou think'st on Heaven's Bliss The Despair which is here shewn, without a Word or Action on the Part of the dying Person, is beyond what cou'd be painted by the most forcible Expressions whatever. I shall not pursue this Thought further, but_only add, that as Annihilation is not to be had with a Wish, so it is the most abject thing in the World to wish it What are Honour, Fame, Wealth, or Power, when compared with the generous Expectation of a Being without End, and a Happiness adequate to that Being? I shall trouble you no further; but, with a certain Gravity which these Thoughts have given me, I reflect upon some things People say of you (as they will of Men who distinguish themselves), which I hope are not true; and wish you as good a Man as you are an Author, Fictis jocari nos meminerit fabulis,-Phaed. AVING lately translated the Fragment of an old Poet, which describes Womankind under several Characters, and supposes them to have drawn their different Manners and Dispositions from those Animals and Elements out of which he tells us they were com pounded; I had some Thoughts of giving the Sex their Revenge Revenge, by laying together in another Paper the many No. 211, vicious Characters which prevail in the Male World, Thursday, Nov. 1, and shewing the different Ingredients that go to the 1711 making up of such different Humours and Constitutions, Horace has a Thought which is something akin to this, when, in order to excuse himself to his Mistress, for an Invective which he had written against her, and to account for that unreasonable Fury with which the Heart of Man is often transported, he tells us, that when Prometheus made his Man of Clay, in the kneading up of the Heart he seasoned it with some furious Particles of the Lion. But upon turning this Plan to and fro in my Thoughts, I observed so many unaccountable Humours in Man, that I did not know out of what Animals to fetch them. Male Souls are diversifyed with so many Characters that the World has not Variety of Materials sufficient to furnish out their different Tempers and Inclinations. The Creation, with all its Animals and Elements, would not be large enough to supply their several Extravagances. Instead therefore of pursuing the Thought of Simonides, I shall observe that as he has exposed the vicious Part of Women from the Doctrine of Prae-existence, some of the ancient Philosophers have, in a manner, satyrized the vicious Part of the Human Species in general, from a Notion of the Soul's Post-existence, if I may so call it; and that as Simonides describes Brutes entering into the Composition of Women, others have represented human Souls as entring into Brutes. This is commonly termed the Doctrine of Transmigration, which supposes that human Souls, upon their leaving the Body, become the Souls of such Kinds of Brutes as they most resemble in their Manners; or to give an Account of it, as Mr. Dryden has described it in his Translation of Pythagoras his Speech in the Fifteenth Book of Ovid, where that Philos opher dissuades his Hearers from eating Flesh Thus all things are but alter'd, nothing dies, II 165 No. 211, And actuates those according to their Kind The Soul is still the same; the Figure only lost. To please the Taste of Glutton-Appetite; Or from a Beast dislodge a Brother's Mind. Plato in the Vision of Erus the Armenian, which I may possibly make the Subject of a future Speculation, records some beautiful Transmigrations; as that the Soul of Orpheus who was musical, melancholy, and a Woman hater, entered into a Swan; The Soul of Ajax, which was all Wrath and Fierceness, into a Lion; the Soul of Aga memnon, that was Rapacious and Imperial, into an Eagle; and the Soul of Thersites, who was a Mimick and a Buffoon, into a Monkey, Mr. Congreve, in a Prologue to one of his Comedies, Or in this very House, for ought we know, I shall fill up this Paper with some Letters, which my last Tuesday's Speculation has produced. My following Correspondents will shew, what I there observed, that the Speculation of that Day affects only the lower part of the Sex 'From my House in the Strand, Octob, 30, 1711. Mr. SPECTATOR, Upon Reading your Tuesday's Paper, I find by several Symptoms in my Constitution, that I am a Bee. My Shop, or if you please to call it so, my Cell, is in that great Hive of Females which goes by the Name of the New Exchange, where I am daily employed in gathering together a little Stock of Gain from the finest Flowers about the Town, I mean the Ladies and the Beaus. I have a numerous Swarm of Children, to whom I give the best Education I am able: But, Sir, it is my Mis fortune to be married to a Drone who lives upon what I get, without bringing any thing into the Common Stock, No. 211. Now, Sir, as on the one Hand I take care not to behave my Thursday Nov, 1, self towards him like a Wasp, so likewise I would not 1711, have him look upon me as an Humble Bee; for which Reason I do all I can to put him upon laying up Pro visions for a Bad Day, and frequently represent to him the fatal Effects his Sloth and Negligence may bring upon us in our old Age, I must beg that you will join with me in your good Advice upon this Occasion, and you will for = ever oblige • Sir, Your humble Servant, MELISSA' Picadilly, October 31, 1711, I am joined in Wedlock for my Sins to one of those Fillies who are described in the old Poet with that hard Name you gave us the other Day, She has a flowing Mane, and a Skin as soft as Silk: But, Sir, she passes half her Life at her Glass, and almost ruins me in Ribbons. For my own part I am a plain Handicraft Man, and in danger of Breaking by her Laziness and Expensiveness. Pray Master, tell me in your next Paper, whether I may not expect of her so much Drudgery as to take care of her Family, and Curry her Hide in case of Refusal 'Mr. SPECTATOR, Your loving Friend, Barnaby Brittle.' Cheapside, October 30, I am mightily pleased with the Humour of the Cat, be so kind as to enlarge upon that Subject. Yours till Death, Josiah Henpeck P. S. You must know I am Married to a Grimalkin,' Wapping, October 31, 1711. 'Sir, Ever since your Spectator of Tuesday last came into our Family, my Husband is pleased to call me his Oceana, because the foolish old Poet that you have Translated says, That the Souls of some Women are made |