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among all the letters which are come to my hands, there is none so handsomely written as the following one, which I am the more pleased with as it is sent me from gentlemen who belong to a body which I shall always honour, and where (I cannot speak it without a secret pride) my speculations have met with a very kind reception. It is usual for poets, upon the publishing of their works, to print before them such copies of verses as have been made in their praise. Not that you must imagine they are pleased with their own commendations, but because the elegant compositions of their friends should not be lost. I must make the same apology for the publication of the ensuing letter, in which I have suppressed no part of those praises that are given my speculations with too lavish and good-natured an hand; though my correspondents can witness for me, that at other times I have generally blotted out those parts in the letters which I have received from them.

'MR. SPECTATOR,

0.d

Oxford, Nov. 25.

'In spite of your invincible silence you have found out a method of being the most agreeable companion in the world: that kind of conversation which you hold with the town has the good fortune of being always pleasing to the men of taste and leisure, and never offensive to those of hurry and business. You are never heard but at what Horace calls dextro tempore, and have the happiness to observe the polite rule, which the same discerning author gave his friend when he enjoined him to deliver his book to Augustus;

4 By Addison. Dated, it is thought, from his office. See final note to No. 7.

1 Ep. xiii. 3.

"Si validus, si lætus erit, si denique poscet."

"When vexing cares are fled,

When well, when merry, when he asks to read."

CREECH.

You never begin to talk but when people are desirous to hear you; and I defy any one to be out of humour until you leave off. But I am led unawares into reflections foreign to the original design of this epistle; which was to let you know, that some unfeigned admirers of your inimitable papers, who could, without any flattery, greet you with the salutation used to the eastern monarchs, viz. “O Spec, live for ever," have lately been under the same apprehensions with Mr. Philo-Spec; that the haste you have made to despatch your best friends portends no long duration to your own short visage. We could not, indeed, find any just grounds for complaint in the method you took to dissolve that venerable body; no, the world was not worthy of your Divine. Will Honeycomb could not, with any reputation, live single any longer. It was high time for the Templar to turn himself to Coke; and sir Roger's dying was the wisest thing he ever did in his life. It was, however, matter of great grief to us, to think that we were in danger of losing so elegant and valuable an entertainment. And we could not, without sorrow, reflect that we were likely to have nothing to interrupt our sips in the morning, and to suspend our coffee in mid-air, between our lips and right ear, but the ordinary trash of newspapers. We resolved, therefore, not to part with you so. But since, to make use of your own allusion, the cherries began now to crowd the market, and their season was almost over, we consulted our future enjoyments, and endeavoured to make

the exquisite pleasure that delicious fruit gave our taste as lasting as we could, and by drying them protract their stay beyond its natural date. We own that thus they have not a flavour equal to that of their juicy bloom; but yet under this disadvantage, they pique the palate, and become a salver better than any other fruit at its first appearance. To speak plain, there are a number of us who have begun your works afresh, and meet two nights in the week in order to give you a re-hearing. We never come together without drinking your health, and as seldom part without general expressions of thanks to you for our night's improvement. This we conceive to be a more useful institution than any other club whatever, not excepting even that of Ugly Faces. We have one manifest advantage over that renowned society, with respect to Mr. Spectator's company. For though they may brag that you sometimes make your personal appearance amongst them, it is impossible they should ever get a word from you, whereas you are with us the reverse of what Phædria would have his mistress be

in his rival's company, "present in your absence." We make you talk as much and as long as we please; and, let me tell you, you seldom hold your tongue for the whole evening. I promise myself you will look with an eye of favour upon a meeting which owes its original to a mutual emulation among its members, who shall show the most profound respect for your paper; not but we have a very great value for your person: and I dare say you can no where find four more sincere admirers, and humble servants, than

G. S. J. T. E. T.'

'T. F. G. S.

• See Catalogue of Oxford Graduates, ad literas.

This day is published Lord Mohun's Vindications. Printed for A. Dodd, at the Peacock without Temple-bar. Pr. 2d.-Spect. in folio, No. 553.

+ At Drury-lane will be presented, on Friday, Dec. 5, a comedy, in three acts, called A Duke and No Duke; to which will be added a comedy of two acts, called The Comical Rivals; or, the School-boy, Ibidem.—N. B. by her majesty's command, no body to be admitted behind the scenes.

No. 554. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1712.

-Tentanda via est, quâ me quoque possim
Tollere humo, victorque virum volitare per ora.

VIRG. Georg. iii. 9.

New ways I must attempt, my grovelling name
To raise aloft, and wing my flight to fame.

DRYDEN.

I AM obliged for the following essay, as well as for that which lays down rules out of Tully for pronunciation and action, to the ingenious author of a poem just published, entitled An Ode to the Creator of the World, occasioned by the Fragments of Orpheus.

'It is a remark, made as I remember by a celebrated French author, that no man ever pushed his capacity as far as it was able to extend. I shall not inquire whether this assertion be strictly true. It may suffice to say, that men of the greatest application and acquirements can look back upon many vacant spaces, and neglected parts of time, which have slipped away from them unemployed; and there is hardly any one considering person in the world but is apt to fancy with himself, at some time or other, that if his life were to begin again he could fill it up better.

No. 541, and note on the Templar.

Mr. John Hughes. See No. 537; and No. 555, adv.

The mind is most provoked to cast on itself this ingenuous reproach, when the examples of such men are presented to it as have far outshot the generality of their species in learning, arts, or any valuable improvements.

One of the most extensive and improved geniuses we have had any instance of in our own nation, or in any other, was that of sir Francis Bacon lord Verulam. This great man, by an extraordinary force of nature, compass of thought, and indefatigable study, had amassed to himself such stores of knowledge as we cannot look upon without amazement. His capacity seems to have grasped all that was revealed in books before his time; and, not satisfied with that, he began to strike out new tracks of science, too many to be travelled over by any one man in the compass of the longest life. These, therefore, he could only mark down, like imperfect coastings on maps, or supposed points of land, to be farther discovered and ascertained by the industry of afterages, who should proceed upon his notices or conjectures.

h

'The excellent Mr. Boyle was the person who seems to have been designed by nature to succeed to the labours and inquiries of that extraordinary genius I have just mentioned. " By innumerable experiments, he in a great measure filled up those plans and outlines of science, which his predecessor had sketched out. His life was spent in the pursuit of nature through a great variety of forms and changes, and in the most rational as well as devout adoration of its Divine Author.

'It would be impossible to name many persons

See Guardian, No. 175; and Spect. No. 531.
VOL. VI.-13

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