devout when the reft of the company grow pleasant. After all, Sombrius is a religious man, and would have behaved himfelf very properly, had he lived when Chriftianity was under a general perfecution. I would by no means prefume to tax such characters with hypocrify, as is done too frequently; that being a Ivice which I think none but he, who knows the fecrets of mens hearts, fhould pretend to discover in another, where the proofs of it do not amount to a demonftration. On the contrary, as there are many excellent perfons, who are weighed down by this habitual forrow of heart, they rather deferve our compaffion than our reproaches. I think, however, they would do well to confider whether fuch a behaviour does not deter men from a religious life, by reprefenting it as an unfociable state, that extinguishes all joy and gladnefs, darkens the face of nature, and deftroys the relish of Being itself. I have, in former papers, fhewn how great a tendency there is to chearfulness in religion, and how fuch a frame of mind is not only the most lovely, but the most commendable in a virtuous perfon. In short, thofe who reprefent religion in fo unamiable a light, are like the fpies, fent by Mofes to make a discovery of the land of Promife, when by their reports they difcouraged the people from entering upon it. Thofe who fhew us the joy, the chearfulness, the good humour, that naturally fpring up in this happy ftate, are like the fpies bringing along with them the clufters of grapes, and delicious fruits, that might invite their companions into the pleafant country which produced them. An eminent pagan writer has made a difcourfe, to fhew that the atheift, who denies a God, does him less difhonour than the man who owns his Being, but at the fame time believes him to be cruel, hard to please, and terrible to human nature. For my own part, fays he, I would rather it fhould be faid of me, that there was never any fuch man as Plutarch, than that Plutarch was ill-natured, capricious, or inhumane. If we may believe our logicians, man is diftinguifhed from all other creatures by the faculty of laughter. He has a heart capable of mirth, and naturally difpofed to it. It is not the bufinefs of virtue to extirpate the affections affections of the mind, but to regulate them. It may moderate and reftrain, but was not defigned to banish gladness from the heart of man. Religion contracts the circle of our pleasures, but leads it wide enough for her votaries to expatiate in. The contemplation of the divine Being, and the exercife of virtue are in their own nature fo far from excluding all gladnefs of heart, that they are perpetual fources of it. In a word, the true fpirit of religion cheers, as well as compofes the foul; it banishes indeed all levity of behaviour, all vicious and diffolute mirth, but in exchange fills the mind with a perpetual ferenity, uninterrupted chearfulness, and an habitual inclination to please others, as well as to be pleafed in itself. N° 495 Saturday, September 27. Duris ut ilex tonfa bipennibus Hor. Od. 4. 1. 4. ver. 57. Like an oak on fome cold mountain brow, At ev'ry wound they sprout and grow: A ANON. S I am one, who, by my profeffion, am obliged to look into all kinds of men, there are none whom I confider with fo much pleasure, as thofe who have any thing new or extraordinary in their characters, or ways of living. For this reason I have often amufed myfelf with Speculations on the race of people called Jews, many of whom I have met with in most of the confiderable towns which I have paffed through in the course of my travels. They are, indeed, fo diffeminated through all the trading parts of the world, that they are become the inftruments by which the moft diftant nations converfe with one another, and by which mankind are are knit together in a general correfpondence: They are like the pegs and nails in a great building, which, though they are but little valued in themfelves, are abfolutely neceffary to keep the whole frame together. That I may not fall into any common beaten tracks of obfervation, I fhall confider this people in three views: First, with regard to their number; fecondly, their difperfion; and, thirdly, their adherence to their religion And afterwards endeavour to fhew, firft, what natural reasons, and, fecondly, what providential reafons may be affigned for these three remarkable particulars. The Jeus are looked upon by many to be as numerous at prefent, as they were formerly in the land of Canaan. This is wonderful, confidering the dreadful flaughter made of them under fome of the Roman Emperors, which hiftorians defcribe by the death of many hundred thousands in a war; and the innumerable maffacres and perfecutions they have undergone in Turky, as well as in all Chriftian nations of the world. The Rabbins, to exprefs the great havock which has been fometimes made of them, tell us, after their ufual manner of hyperbole, that there were fuch torrents of holy blood fhed as car ried rocks of an hundred yards in circumference above three miles into the fea. Their difperfion is the fecond remarkable particular in this people. They fwarm over all the Eaft; and are fettled in the remoteft parts of China: They are spread thro' most of the nations of Europe and Africa, and many families of them are established in the West-Indies: not to mention whole nations bordering on Prefter-John's country, and fome difcovered in the inner parts of America, if we may give any credit to their own writers. Their firm adherence to their religion, is no lefs remarkable than their numbers and difperfion, especially confidering it as perfecuted or contemned over the face of the whole earth. This is likewife the more remarkable, if we confider the frequent apoftafies of this people, when they lived under their Kings in the land of Promife, and within fight of their temple. If in the next place we examine, what may be the natural reasons of these three particulars which we find in other in the Jews, and which are not to be found in any religion or people, I can, in the first place, attribute their numbers to nothing but their conftant employment, their abftinence, their exemption from wars, and, above all, their frequent marriages; for they look on celibacy as an accursed state, and generally are married before twenty, as hoping the Meffiab may defcend from them. The difperfion of the Jews into all the nations of the earth, is the fecond remarkable particular of that people, though not fo hard to be accounted for. They were always in rebellions and tumults while they had the temple and holy city in view, for which reafon they have often been driven out of their old habitations in the Land of Promife. They have as often been banished out of most other places where they have fettled, which muft very much difperfe and fcatter a people, and oblige them to feel a livelihood where they can find it. Befides, the whole people is now a race of fuch merchants as are wanderers by profeffion, and, at the fame time, are in moft, if not all, places incapable of either lands or offices, that might engage them to make any part of the world their home. This difperfion would probably have loft their religion, had it not been fecured by the ftrength of its conftitution: For they are to live all in a body, and generally within the fame inclofure; to marry among themfelves, and to eat no meats that are not killed or prepared their own way. This fhuts them out from all table-converfation, and the moft agreeable intercourfes of life; and, by confequence, excludes them from the moft probable means of converfion. If, in the last place, we confider what providential reafons may be affigned for thefe three particulars, we fhall find that their numbers, dispersion, and adherence to their religion, have furnished every age, and every nation of the world, with the ftrongeft arguments for the Chriftian Faith, not only as thefe very particulars are foretold of them, but as they themselves are the depofitaries of thefe and all the other prophefies, which tend to their own confufion. Their number furnishes us with a fufficient cloud of witneffes that atteft the truth of the old Bible. Their difperfion spreads these witneffes witneffes through all parts of the world. The adherence to their religion makes their teftimony unqueftionable. Had the whole body of the Jews been converted to Chriftianity, we should certainly have thought all the prophefies of the Old Teftament, that relate to the coming and history of our bleffed Saviour, forged by Chriftians, and have looked upon them, with the prophefies of the Sibyls, as made many years after the events they pretended to foretel. No 496 Monday, September 29. Gnatum pariter uti bis decuit aut etiam ampliùs, Terent. Heaut. A&t. 1. Sec. 1. Your fon ought to have shared in these things, because youth is beft fuited to the enjoyment of them. Mr. SPECTATOR, T Hofe ancients who were the most accurate in their remarks on the genius and temper of mankind, by confidering the various bent and fcope of our actions throughout the progrefs of life, have with great exactness allotted inclinations and objects of defire particular to every stage, according to the different circumftances of our conversation and fortune, through the feveral periods of it. Hence they were difpofed eafily to excufe thofe exceffes which might poffibly arife from a too eager purfuit of the affections more immediately proper to each state: They indulged the levity of childhood with tenderness, overlooked the gaiety of youth with good nature, tempered the forward ambition and impatience of ripened manhood with difcretion, and kindly imputed the tenacious avarice of old men to their want of relish for any other enjoyment. Such allowances as thefe were no lefs advantageous to common fociety than obliging to particular perfons; for by maintaining a decency and regularity in the courfe of life, ⚫ they |