and undiftinguishing applaufe among men. What pious men call the teftimony of a good confcience, fhould be the measure of our ambition in this kind; that is to fay, a man of spirit fhould contemn the praife of the ignorant, and like being applauded for nothing but what he knows in his own heart he deferves. Befides which, the cha racter of the perfon who commends you is to be confidered, before you fet a value upon his esteem. The praise of an ignorant man is only good will, and you should receive his kindness as he is a good neighbour in fociety, and not as a good judge of your actions in point of fame and reputation. The fatyrift fid very well of popular praife and acclamations, give the tinkers and coblers their prefents again, and learn to live of yourself. It is an argument of a loose and ungoverned mind to be affected with the promifcuous approbation of the generality of mankind; and a man of virtue thould be too delicate for fo coarse an appetite of fame. Men of honour should endeavour only to please the worthy, and the man of merit fhould defire to be tried only by his peers. I thought it a noble fentiment which I heard yesterday uttered in converfation; I know faid a gentleman, a way to be greater than any man : if he has worth in him, I can rejoice in his fuperiority to me, and that fatisfaction is a greater act of the foul in me, than any in him which tan poffibly appear to me. thought could not proceed but from a candid and generous fpirit; and the approbation of fuch minds is what may be efteemed true praife: for with the common rate of men there is nothing cominendable but what they themselves may hope to be partakers of, and arrive at: but the motive truly glorious is, when the mind is fet rather to do things laudable, than to purchase reputation. Where there is that fincerity as the foundation of a good name, the kind opinion of virtuous men will be an unfought, but a neceffary confequence. The Lacedemonians, tho' a plain people, and no pretenders to politeness, had a certain delicacy in their fenfe of glory, and facrificed to the mufes when they entered upon any great enterprize. They would have the commemoration of their actions be tranfmitted by the purest and most untainted memorialifts. The din which attends victories and public triumphs is by far les e igible, than the recital of the actions of great men by honeft This and and wife hiftorians. It is a frivolous pleafure to be the admiration of gaping crouds; but to have the approbation of a good man in the cool reflections of his clofet, is a gratification worthy an heroic fpirit. The applaufe of the croud makes the head giddy, but the attestation of a reafonable map makes the heart glad. WHAT makes the love of popular or general praise ftill more ridiculous, is, that it is ufually given for circumftances which are foreign to the perfons admired. Thus they are the ordinary attendants on power and riches, which may be taken out of one man's hands, and put into another's. The application only, and not the poffeffion, makes thofe outward things honourable. The vulgar and men of fenfe agree in admiring men, for not having what they themfelves would rather be poffeffed of; the wife man applauds him whom he thinks most virtuous, the rest of the world him who is moft wealthy. WHEN a man is in this way of thinking, I do not know what can occur to one more monftrous, than to fee perfons of ingenuity addrefs their fervice and performances to men no way addicted to liberal arts: in thefe cafes the. praife on one hand, and the patronage on the other, are, equally the objets of ridicule. Dedications to ignorant men are as abfurd as any of the fpeeches of Bullfinchkin the droll; fuch an address one is apt to tranflate into other words; and when the different parties are thoroughly confidered, the panegyric generally implies no more, than if the author fhould fay to the patron; my very good lord, You and I can never understand one another, therefore I humbly defire we may be intimate friends for the future. THE rich may as well afk to borrow of the poor, as the man of virtue or merit hope for addition to his character from any but fuch as himself. He that commends another engages fo much of his own reputation as he gives to that perfon commended; and he that has nothing laudable in himself is not of ability to be fuch a farety. The wife Phocion was fo fenfible how dangerous it was to be touched with what the multitude approved, that upon a general acclamation made when he was making an oration, he turned to an intelligent friend who ftood near him, and afked in a furprized manner, What flip have I made? G 2 I SHAI I SHALL Conclude this paper with a billet which has fallen into my hands, and was written to a lady from a gentleman whom the had highly commended. The author of it had formerly been her lover. When all poffibility of commerce between them on the subject of love was cut off, the spoke fo handfomly of him as to give occafion for this letter. Madam, I SHOULD be infenfible to a ftupidity, if I could forbear making you my acknowledgements for your late mention of me with fo much applaufe. It is, I think, your fate to give me new fentiments; as you formerly infpired me with the true fenfe of love, fo do you now with the true fenfe of glory. As defire had the least part in the paffion. I heretofore profeffed towards you, fo has < vanity no share in the glory to which you have now raif⚫ed me. Innocence, knowledge, beauty, virtue, fincerity, and difcretion, are the conftant ornaments of her who has faid this of me. Fame is a babbler, but I have arrived at the highest glory in this world, the commendation of the most deferving perfon in it. No 189. Saturday, October 6. -Patria pietatis imago. T VIRG. n. 10. v. 824 An image of paternal tenderness. T HE following letter being written to my bookfeller, upon a fubject of which I treated fome time fince, I fhall publifh it in this paper, together with the letter that was inclofed in it. Mr Buckley, M R SPECTATOR having of late defcanted upon the cruelty of parents to their children, I have been induced (at the request of feveral of Mr SPECTATOR'S admirers) to inclose this letter, which I affure you is the 6. original. original from a father to his own fon, notwithstanding the latter gave but little or no provocation. It would be wonderfully obliging to the world, if Mr SPECTATOR would give his opinion of it in fome of his fpeculations, and particularly to SIRRAH, Y (Mr Buckley) Your humble fervant. OU are a faucy audacious rafcal, and both fool and mad, and I care not a farthing whether you comply or no; that does not raze out my impreffions of your infolence, going about railing at me, and the next day to follicit my favour: thefe are inconfiftencies, fuch as difcover thy reafon depraved. To be brief, I never defire to fee your face: and, Sirrah if you go to the work-house, it is no difgrace to me for you to be fupported there; and if you starve in the ftreets, I'll never give any thing underhand in your behalf. If I have any <more of your fcribling nonfenfe, I'll break your head the first time I fet fight on you. You are a ftubborn beast; is this your gratitude for my giving you money? You 6 rogue, I'll better your judgment, and give you a greater fenfe of your duty to (I regret to fay) your father, &c. P. S. It is prudence for you to keep out of my fight; for to reproach me, that Might overcomes Right, on the outfide of your letter, I fhall give you a great knock on the skull for it. WAS there ever fuch an image of paternal tenderness! It was ufual among fome of the Greeks to make their flaves drink to excess, and then expose them to their children, who by that means conceived an early averfion to a vice which makes men appear fo monftrous and irrational. I have exposed this picture of an unnatural father with the fame intention, that its deformity may deter others from its resemblance. If the reader has a mind to fee a father of the fame ftamp reprefented in the most exquifite ftrokes of humour, he may meet with it in one of the finest come dies that ever appeared upon the English stage: I mean the part of Sir Sampfon in Love for love. G 3 I MUST I MUST not however engage myself blindly on the fide of the fon, to whom the fond letter above-written was directed. His father calls him a faucy and audacious rafcal in the first line, and I am afraid upon examination he will prove but an ungracious youth. To go about railing at his father, and to find no other place but the outside of his letter to tell him that might overcomes right, if it does not discover his reafon to be depraved, and that he is either fool or mad, as the choleric old gentleman tells him, we may at leaft allow that the father will do very well in endeavouring to better his judgement, and give him a greater fenfe of his duty. But whether this may be brought about by breaking his head, or giving him a great knock on the fkull, ought, I think, to be well confidered. Upon the whole, I with the father has not met with his match, and that he may not be as equally paired with a fon as the mother in Virgil. Crudelis tu quoque mater·· Grudelis mater magis, an puer improbus ille ? Cruel alike the mother and the fon.. Ecl. 8. v. 48% Or like the crow and her egg, in the Greek proverb, Bad the crow and bad the egg. I MUST here take notice of a letter which I have recei ved from an unknown correfpondent, upon the subject of my paper, upon which the foregoing letter is likeways. founded. The writer of it feeins very much concerned left that paper should seem to give encouragement to the difobedience of children towards their parents; but if the writer of it--will take the pains to read it over again attentively, I dare fay his apprehenfions will vanifh. Pardon and reconciliation, are all the penitent daughter requests, and all that I contend for in her behalf; and in this cafel may ufe the faying of an eminent wit, who, upon fome great mens preffing him to forgive his daughter who had marricd. against his confent, told them he could refufe nothing to. |
