of ignorance, vice, and folly, and attempted to substitute in their stead learning, piety and good sense. It is from this honest heart that I find myself honoured as a gentleman-usher to the arts and sciences. Mr. Tickell and Mr. Pope have, it seems, this idea. of me. The former has writ me an excellent paper of verses in praise, forsooth, of myself; and the other enclosed for my perusal an admirable poem,' which I hope will shortly see the light. In the mean time I cannot suppress any thought of his, but insert his sentiment about the dying words of Adrian." I won't determine in the case he mentions; but have thus much to say in favour of his argument, that many of his own works which I have seen, convince me that very pretty and very sublime sentiments may be lodged in the same bosom without diminution to its greatness.

MR. SPECTATOR,

'I was the other day in company with five or six men of some learning; where, chancing to mention the famous verses which the emperor Adrian spoke on his death-bed, they were all agreed that it was a piece of gaiety unworthy that prince in those circumstances. I could not but dissent from this opinion. Methinks it was by no means a gay but a very serious soliloquy to his soul at the point of his departure: in which sense I naturally took these verses at my first reading them, when I was very young, and before I knew what interpretation. the world generally put upon them.

1 The Temple of Fame. See Pope's Works, vol. v. p. 187, edit. 12mo. Lond. 1770; and Mr. Tickell's Poems.

“Animula vagula, blandula,
Hospes comesque corporis,
Quæ nunc abibis in loca?
Pallidula, rigida, nudula,

Nec (ut soles) dabis joca!"

Alas, my soul! thou pleasing companion of this body, thou fleeting thing that are now deserting it, whither art thou flying? To what unknown region? Thou art trembling, fearful, and pensive. Now what is become of thy former wit and humour? Thou shalt jest, and be gay no more."

'I confess I cannot apprehend where lies the trifling in all this; it is the most natural and obvious reflection imaginable to a dying man: and, if we consider the emperor was an heathen, that doubt concerning the future state of his soul will seem so far from being the effect of want of thought, that it was scarce reasonable he should think otherwise; not to mention that here is a plain confession included of his belief in its immortality. The diminutive epithets of vagula, blandula, and the rest, appear not to me as expressions of levity, but rather of endearment and concern: such as we find in Catullus, and the authors of Hendecasyllabi after him, where they are used to express the utmost love and tenderness for their mistresses.-If you think me right in my notion of the last words of Adrian, be pleased to insert this in the Spectator; if not, to suppress it. 'I am, &c.'n

See Pope's Works, ut supra, p. 188, 190, compared with the translation of Adrian's verses, ibidem, p. 116. See also Steele's Epistolary Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 342, and note on Pope's letter to Steele. It is there suggested, that some part of what is said in that letter to have come warm from Pope's heart, dropt originally from the pen of Flatman.

'TO THE SUPPOSED AUTHOR OF THE SPECTA

TOR.

'IN courts licentious, and a shameless stage,
How long the war shall wit with virtue wage?
Enchanted by this prostituted fair,

Our youth run headlong in the fatal snare;
In height of rapture clasp unheeded pains,

And suck pollution through their tingling veins.

'Thy spotless thoughts unshock'd the priest may hear, And the pure vestal in her bosom wear.

To conscious blushes and diminish'd pride

Thy glass betrays what treach'rous love would hide;
Nor harsh thy precepts, but infus'd by stealth,
Please while they cure, and cheat us into health.

Thy works in Chloe's toilet gain a part,
And with his tailor share the fopling's heart.
Lash'd in thy satire, the penurious cit
Laughs at himself, and finds no harm in wit:
From felon gamesters the raw squire is free,
And Britain owes her rescu'd oaks to thee,"
His miss the frolic viscount dreads to toast,
Or his third cure the shallow Templar boast;
And the rash fool, who scorn'd the beaten road,
Dares quake at thunder, and confess his God.

'The brainless stripling, who, expell'd to town,
Damn'd the stiff college and pedantic gown,
Aw'd by thy name is dumb, and thrice a week
Spells uncouth Latin, and pretends to Greek.
A sant'ring tribe! such, born to wide estates,
With 'yea' and 'no' in senates hold debates:
At length despised, each to his field retires,
First with the dogs, and king amidst the squires;
From pert to stupid sinks supinely down,

In youth a coxcomb, and in age a clown.

'Such readers scorn'd, thou wing'st thy daring flight Above the stars, and tread'st the fields of light;

• Mr. Tickell alludes here to Steele's papers against the sharpers, &c. in the Tatler, and particularly to a letter in Tat. No. 73, signed Will Trusty, and written by Mr. John Hughes. See Hughes's Correspondence, vol. iii. p. 7, and note to Tatler, No. 73, signed ut supra.

P Viscount Bolingbroke.

VOL. VI.-6

།

Fame, heav'n, and hell, are thy exalted theme,
And visions such as Jove himself might dream;
Man sunk to slav'ry, though to glory born,

Heav'n's pride when upright, and deprav'd his scorn.

'Such hints alone could British Virgil lend,
And thou alone deserve from such a friend:
A debt so borrow'd is illustrious shame,

And fame when shar'd with him is double fame;
So flush'd with sweets, by beauty's queen bestow'd,
With more than mortal charms Æneas glow'd:
Such gen'rous strifes Eugene and Marlbro' try,
And as in glory so in friendship vie.

'Permit these lines by thee to live-nor blame

A muse that pants and languishes for fame;

That fears to sink when humbled themes she sings,
Lost in the mass of mean forgotten things.
Received by thee, I prophesy my rhymes

The praise of virgins in succeeding times:

Mix'd with thy works, their life no bounds shall see,
But stand protected as inspired by thee.

'So some weak shoot which else would poorly rise
Jove's tree adopts, and lifts him to the skies:
Thro' the new pupil fost'ring juices flow,

Thrust forth the germs, and give the flowers to blow :
Aloft, immortal reigns the plant unknown,

With borrow'd life, and vigour not his own."

'TO THE SPECTATOR GENERAL.

'Mr. JOHN SLY humbly showeth,

THAT upon reading the deputation given to the said Mr. John Sly, all persons passing by his observatory behaved themselves with the same decorum as if your honour yourself had been present.

'That your said officer is preparing, according to your honour's secret instructions, hats for the

A compliment to Addison.
By Mr. Thomas Tickell.
See Spect. No. 526, and note.

several kinds of heads that make figures in the realms of Great Britain, with cocks significant of their powers and faculties.

'That your said officer has taken due notice of your instructions and admonitions concerning the internals of the head from the outward form of the same. His hats for men of the faculties of law and physic do but just turn up, to give a little life to their sagacity; his military hats glare full in the face; and he has prepared a familiar easy cock for all good companions between the above-mentioned extremes. For this end he has consulted the most learned of his acquaintance for the true form and dimensions of the lepidum caput, and made a hat fit for it.

'Your said officer does farther represent, That the young divines about town are many of them got into the cock military, and desires your instructions therein.

'That the town has been for several days very well behaved, and farther your said officer saith not.'

T.t

An entertainment by Mr. Clinch of Barnet, who imitates the flute, double cartel, the organ with three voices, the horn, huntsman and pack of hounds; the sham-doctor; the old woman; the drunken man; the bells; strife of dogs, &c. All instruments are performed by his natural voice. To which is added, an Essex song, by Mr. Clinch himself, price 18.-Spect. in folio.