Page images
PDF
EPUB

No. 191.

sooner than violate his Neutrality to the two bundles Tuesday, of Hay, I shall not presume to determine; but only October 9, take Notice of the Conduct of our own Species in 1711, the same Perplexity, When a Man has a mind to

venture his Mony in a Lottery, every Figure of it
appears equally alluring, and as likely to succeed as
any of its fellows. They all of them have the same
Pretensions to good Luck, stand upon the same foot
of Competition, and no manner of Reason can be
given why a Man should prefer one to the other
before the Lottery is drawn. In this Case therefore
Caprice very often acts in the Place of Reason, and
forms to it self some Groundless Imaginary Motive,
where real and substantial ones are wanting. I know
a well-meaning Man that is very well pleased to
risque his good Fortune upon the Number 1711,
because it is the Year of our Lord. I am acquainted
with a Tacker that would give a good deal for the
Number 134. On the contrary I have been told of
a certain Zealous Dissenter who being a great Enemy
to Popery, and believing that bad Men are the most
fortunate in this World, will lay two to one on the
Number 1666 against any other Number, because,
says he, it is the Number of the Beast,
would prefer the Number 12000 before any other,
as it is the Number of the Pounds in the great
Prize. In short, some are pleased to find their
own Age in their Number; some that they have
got a Number which makes a pretty Appearance in
the Cyphers, and others because it is the same
Number that succeeded in the last Lottery, Each of
these, upon no other Grounds, thinks he stands fairest
for the great Lot, and that he is possessed of what
may not be improperly called the Golden Number.

Several

These Principles of Election are the Pastimes and Extravagances of Human Reason, which is of so busiea Nature, that it will be exerting it self in the meanest Trifles, and working even when it wants Materials. The wisest of Men are sometimes acted by such unaccountable Motives, as the Life of the Fool and the Superstitious is guided by nothing else

I am surprized that none of the Fortune-tellers, or No. 191, as the French call them, the Diseurs de bonne aven Tuesday, October 9, ture, who publish their Bills in every Quarter of 1711, the Town, have not turned our Lotteries to their Advantages did any of them set up for a Caster of Fortunate Figures, what might he not get by his pretended Discoveries and Predictions?

I remember among the Advertisements in the Post-Boy of September the 27th, I was surprized to see the following one,

This is to give Notice, That Ten Shillings over and above the Market Price, will be given for the Ticket in 1500000l. Lottery, No. 132, by Nath Cliff at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside.

This Advertisement has given great Matter of Specu lation to Coffee-house Theorists. Mr. Cliff's Principles and Conversation have been canvassed upon this Occasion, and various Conjectures made why he should thus set his Heart upon No. 132. I have examined all the Powers in those Numbers, broken them into Fractions, extracted the Square and Cube Root, divided and multiplied them all ways, but could not arrive at the Secret till about three Days ago, when I received the following Letter from an unknown Hand; by which I find that Mr. Nathaniel Cliff is only the Agent, and not the Principal, in this Advertisement,

'Mr. SPECTATOR,

I am the Person that lately advertised I would give ten Shillings more than the Current Price for the Ticket No. 132 in the Lottery now Drawing, which is a Secret I have communicated to some Friends, who rally me incessantly upon that account. You must know I have but one Ticket, for which Reason, and a certain Dream I have lately had more than once, I was resolved it should be the Number I most approved, I am so positive I have pitched upon the great Lot, that I could almost lay all I am worth of it. My Visions are so frequent and strong upon this Occasion, that I have not only possessed the Lot,

but

No. 191.

but disposed of the Money which in all probability Tuesday, it will sell for. This Morning, in particular, I set up October 9, 1711, an Equipage which I look upon to be the gayest in the Town, The Liveries are very Rich, but not Gaudy, I should be very glad to see a Speculation or two upon Lottery Subjects, in which you would oblige all People concerned, and in particular

Your most humble Servant,
George Gossling,

P. S. Dear SPEC, If I get the 12000 Pound I'll make thee a handsome Present.'

After having wished my Correspondent good Luck, and thanked him for his intended Kindness, I shall for this time dismiss the Subject of the Lottery, and only observe that the greatest part of Mankind are in some degree guilty of my Friend Gossling's Extravagance We are apt to rely upon future Prospects, and become really expensive while we are only rich in Possibility We live up to our Expectations, not to our Possessions, and make a Figure proportionable to what we may be not what we are, We out-run our present Income as not doubting to disburse our selves out of the Profits of some future Place, Project or Reversion that we have in view. It is through this Temper of Mind, which is so common among us, that we see Tradesmen break, who have met with no Misfortunes in their Business, and Men of Estates reduced to Poverty, who have never suffered from Losses or Repairs, Tenants, Taxes or Law-suits. In short, it is this foolish sanguine Temper, this depending upon Contingent Futurities that occasions Romantick Generosity, Chymerical Grandeur, Senseless Ostentation, and generally ends in Beggary and Ruin. The Man, who will live above his present Circumstances, is in great Danger of living in a little time much beneath them, or, as the Italian Proverb runs, The Man who lives by Hope will die by Hunger,

It should be an indispensable Rule in Life, to contract our Desires to our present Condition, and, whatever may be our Expectations, to live within the compass of what

we

we actually possess. It will be time enough to enjoy No. 191. an Estate when it comes into our Hands; but if we Tuesday, anticipate our good Fortune we shall lose the Pleasure October 9, of it when it arrives, and may possibly never possess what we have so foolishly counted upon.

No. 192.

L

1711.

[STEELE-]

Wednesday, October 10,

[ocr errors]

Uno ore omnes omnía

Bona dicere, & laudare fortunas meas,

Qui gnatum haberem tali ingenio praeditum-Ter.

STOOD the other Day and beheld a Father sitting in the Middle of a Room with a large Family of Children about him; and methought I could observe in his Countenance different Motions of Delight, as he turned his Eye towards the one and the other of them, The Man is a Person moderate in his Designs for their Preferment and Welfare; and as he has an easie Fortune, he is not sollicitous to make a great one. His eldest Son is a Child of a very towardly Disposition, and as much as the Father loves him I dare say he will never be a Knave to improve his Fortune. I do not know any Man who has a juster Relish of Life than the Person I am speaking of, or keeps a better Guard against the Terrours of Want or the Hopes of Gain. It is usual, in a Crowd of Children, for the Parent to name out of his own Flock all the great Officers of the Kingdom. There is something so very surprizing in the Parts of a Child of a Man's own, that there is nothing too great to be expected from his Endowments, I know a good Woman who has but three Sons, and there is, she says, nothing she expects with more Certainty than that she shall see one a Bishop, the other a Judge, and the third a Court Physician. The Humour is, that any thing which_can happen to any Man's Child, is expected by every Man for his own But my Friend whom I was going to speak of, does not flatter himself with such vain Expectations, but has his Eye more upon the Virtue and Disposition of his Children, than their Advancement or

Wealth

No. 192. Wednes day, October 10, 1711.

Wealth. Good Habits are what will certainly improve a Man's Fortune and Reputation; but on the other Side, Affluence of Fortune will not as probably produce good Affections of the Mind,

It is very natural for a Man of a kind Disposition to amuse himself with the Promises his Imagination makes to him of the future Condition of his Children, and to represent to himself the Figure they shall bear in the World after he has left it. When his Prospects of this Kind are agreeable, his Fondness gives as it were a longer Date to his own Life; and the Survivor ship of a worthy Man to his Son, is a Pleasure scarce inferior to the Hopes of the Continuance of his own Life. That Man is happy who can believe of his Son, that he will escape the Follies and Indiscretions of which he himself was guilty, and pursue and improve every thing that was valuable in him. The Con tinuance of his Virtue is much more to be regarded than that of his Life; but it is the most lamentable of all Reflections, to think that the Heir of a Man's Fortune is such a one as will be a Stranger to his Friends, alienated from the same Interests, and a Promoter of every thing which he himself disapproved An Estate in Possession of such a Successor to a good Man, is worse than laid waste; and the Family of which he is the Head, is in a more deplorable Con dition than that of being extinct.

When I visit the agreeable Seat of my honoured Friend Rurícola, and walk from Room to Room revolv ing many pleasing Occurrences, and the Expressions of many just Sentiments I have heard him utter, and see the Booby his Heir in Pain while he is doing the Honours of his House to the Friend of his Father, the Heaviness it gives one is not to be expressed. Want of Genius is not to be imputed to any Man; but want of Humanity is a Man's own Fault. The Son of Rurícola (whose Life was one continued Series of worthy Actions and Gentleman-like Inclinations) is the Companion of drunken Clowns, and knows no Sense of Praise but in the Flattery he receives from his own Servants; his Pleasures are mean and inordinate,

« PreviousContinue »