1714.

I have not been thus long an Author, to be insensible No. 581. of the natural Fondness every Person must have for their Monday, own Productions; and I begin to think I have treated August 16, my Correspondents a little too uncivilly in stringing them all together on a File, and letting them lye so long unregarded. I shall therefore, for the future, think my self at least obliged to take some Notice of such Letters as I receive, and may possibly do it at the End of every Month,

In the mean time, I intend my present Paper as a short Answer to most of those which have been already sent me.

The Publick however is not to expect I should let them into all my Secrets; and though I appear abstruse to most People, it is sufficient if I am understood by my particular Correspondents.

My Well-wisher Van Nath is very arch, but not quite enough so to appear in Print.

Philadelphus will, in a little time, see his Query fully answered by a Treatise which is now in the Press.

It was very improper at that time to comply with Mr. G.

Miss Kitty must excuse me.

The Gentleman who sent me a Copy of Verses on his Mistress's Dancing, is I believe too thoroughly in Love to compose correctly,

I have too great a Respect for both the Universities, to praise one at the Expense of the other.

Tom Nimble is a very honest Fellow, and I desire him to present my humble Service to his Cousin Fill, Bumper.

I am obliged for the Letter upon Prejudice.

I

may

Grumble.

in due time animadvert on the Case of Grace

The Petition of P. S. granted.

That of Sarah Loveit, refused,

The Papers of A. S. are returned.

I thank Aristippus for his kind Invitation.

My Friend at Woodstock is a bold Man, to undertake for all within Ten Miles of him.

I am afraid the Entertainment of Tom Turnover will

IV.

2 C

hardly

hardly be relished by the good Cities of London and Westminster.

I must consider further of it, before I indulge W. F. in those Freedoms he takes with the Lady's Stockings.

I am obliged to the ingenious Gentleman, who sent me an Ode on the Subject of a late SPECTATOR, and shall take particular Notice of his last Letter.

When the Lady who wrote me a Letter, dated July the 20th, in relation to some Passages in a Lover, will be more particular in her Directions, I shall be so in my Answer.

The poor Gentleman, who fancies my Writings could reclaim an Husband who can abuse such a Wife as he describes, has I am afraid too great an Opinion of my Skill.

Philanthropos is, I dare say, a very well-meaning Man, but is a little too prolix in his Compositions.

Constantius himself must be the best Judge in the Affair he mentions,

The Letter dated from Lincoln is received.

Arethusa and her Friend may hear further from me,
Celía is a little too hasty,

Harriot is a good Girl, but must not curtsie to Folks she does not know.

I must ingeniously confess my Friend Sampson Bent staff has quite puzzled me, and writ me a long Letter which I cannot comprehend one Word of,

Collidan must also explain what he means by his Drigelling,

I think it beneath my Spectatorial Dignity to concern my self in the Affair of the boiled Dumpling.

I shall consult some Litterati on the Project sent me for the Discovery of the Longitude,

I know not how to conclude this Paper better, than by inserting a Couple of Letters which are really genuine, and which I look upon to be two of the smartest Pieces I have received from my Correspondents of either Sex.

'Brother SPEC,

While you are surveying every Object that falls in your way, I am wholly taken up with one. Had that

Sage

Sage, who demanded what Beauty was, lived to see the No. 581.
dear Angel I love, he would not have asked such a Monday,
Question. Had another seen her, he would himself have August 16,
1714.
loved the Person in whom Heaven has made Virtue
visible; and were you your self to be in her Company,
you could never, with all your Loquacity, say enough
of her good Humour and Sense. I send you the Outlines
of a Picture, which I can no more finish than I can
sufficiently admire the dear Original. I am,

Your most affectionate Brother,
Constantio Spec.'

'Good Mr. Pert,

I will allow you nothing 'till you resolve me the follow ing Question. Pray what's the Reason that while you only talk now upon Wednesdays, Fridays, and Mondays, you pretend to be a greater Tatler, than when you spoke every Day as you formerly used to do? If this be your plunging out of your Taciturnity, pray let the Length of your Speeches compensate for the Scarceness of them.

T

Scribendi cacoethes―――Juv.

HERE is a certain Distemper, which is mentioned neither by Galen nor Hippocrates, nor to be met with in the London Dispensary. Juvenal, in the Motto of my Paper, terms it a Cacoethes; which is a hard Word for a Disease called in plain English, the Itch of Writing. This Cacoethes is as Epidemical as the Small-Pox, there being very few who are not seized with it some time or other in their Lives. There is however this Difference in these two Distempers, that the first, after having indis posed you for a time, never returns again; whereas this

1714.

No. 582. I am speaking of, when it is once got into the Blood, Wednes seldom comes out of it, The British Nation is very day, much afflicted with this Malady, and tho' very many August 18, Remedies have been applied to Persons infected with it, few of them have ever proved successful. Some have been cauterized with Satyrs and Lampoons, but have received little or no Benefit from them; others have had their Heads fastened for an Hour together between a Cleft Board, which is made use of as a Cure for the Disease when it appears in its greatest Malignity. There is indeed one kind of this Malady which has been some times removed, like the Biting of a Tarantula, with the Sound of a musical Instrument, which is commonly known by the Name of a Cat-Call. But if you have a Patient of this kind under your Care, you may assure your self there is no other way of recovering him effectually, but by forbidding him the use of Pen, Ink, and Paper.

But to drop the Allegory before I have tired it out, there is no Species of Scriblers more offensive, and more incurable, than your Periodical Writers, whose Works return upon the Publick on certain Days and at stated Times. We have not the Consolation in the Perusal of these Authors, which we find at the Reading of all others, (namely) that we are sure, if we have but Patience, we may come to the End of their Labours. I have often admired a humorous Saying of Diogenes, who reading a dull Author to several of his Friends, when every one began to be tired, finding he was almost come to a Blank Leaf at the End of it, cried, Courage, Lads, I see Land. On the contrary, our Progress through that kind of Writers I am now speaking of is never at an End. One Day makes Work for another, we do not know when to promise our selves rest.

It is a melancholy thing to consider, that the Art of Printing, which might be the greatest Blessing to Mankind, should prove detrimental to us, and that it should be made use of to scatter Prejudice and Ignorance through a People, instead of conveying to them Truth and Know ledge.

I was lately reading a very whimsical Treatise, entitled,
William

William Ramsey's Vindication of Astrology. This pro- No. 582. found Author, among many mystical Passages, has the Wednes following one; 'The Absence of the Sun is not the Cause day, August 18, of Night, forasmuch as his Light is so great that it may 1714. illuminate the Earth all over at once as clear as broad Day, but there are tenebrificous and dark Stars, by whose Influence Night is brought on, and which do ray out Darkness and Obscurity upon the Earth, as the Sun does Light.'

I consider Writers in the same View this sage Astrologer does the heavenly Bodies, Some of them are Stars that scatter Light, as others do Darkness. I could mention several Authors who are tenebrificous Stars of the first Magnitude, and point out a Knot of Gentlemen who have been dull in Consort, and may be looked upon as a dark Constellation. The Nation has been a great while benighted with several of these Antiluminaries. I suffered them to ray out their Darkness as long as I was able to endure it, 'till at length I came to a Resolution of rising upon them, and hope in a little time to drive them quite out of the British Hemisphere,

No. 583,
[ADDISON.]

E

Friday, August 20,

Ipse thymum pinosque ferens de montibus altis
Tecta serat late circum, cui talia curae;

Ipse labore manum duro terat ipse feraces

Figat humo plantas, & amicos irriget imbres.-Virg.

VERY Station of Life has Duties which are proper

to it. Those who are determined by Choice to any particular kind of Business, are indeed more happy than those who are determined by Necessity, but both are under an equal Obligation of fixing on Employments, which may be either useful to themselves or beneficial to others. No one of the Sons of Adam ought to think himself exempt from that Labour and Industry which were denounced to our first Parent, and in him to all his Posterity. Those to whom Birth or Fortune may seem to make such an Application unnecessary, ought to find out some Calling or Profession for themselves, that

they