There is a famous paffage in the Alcoran, which looks as if Mahomet had been poffeffed of the notion we are now speaking of. It is there faid, That the angel Gabriel took Mahomet out of his bed one morning to give him a fight of all things in the Seven Heavens, in Paradife, and in Hell, which the Prophet took a diftinct view of; and after having held ninety thousand conferences with God, was brought back again to his bed. All this, fays the Alcoran, was tranfacted in fo finall a space of time, that Mahomet at his return found his bed ftill warm, and took up an earthen pitcher, (which was thrown down at the very inftant that the angel Gabriel carried him away) before the water was all fpilt. There is a very pretty flory in the Turki tales which relates to this paffage of that famous impoftor, and bears fome affinity to the fubject we are now upon. A fultan of Egypt, who was an infidel, used to laugh at this circumftance in Mahomet's life, as what was altogether impoffible and abfurd: But converfing one day with a great doctor in the law, who had the gift of working miracles, the doctor told him he would quickly convince him of the truth of this paffage in the hiftory of Mahomet, if he would confent to do what he fhould defire of him. Upon this the fultan was directed to place himself by an huge tub of water, which he did accordingly; and as he stood by the tub amidst a circle of his great men, the holy man bid him plunge his head into the water, and draw it up again: The king accordingly thruft his head into the water, and at the fame time found himself at the foot of a mountain on a fea-fhore. The king immediately began to rage against his doctor for this piece of treachery and witchcraft; but at length, knowing it was in vain to be angry, he fet himself to think on proper methods for getting a livelihood in this frange country: Accordingly he applied himself to fome people whom he faw at work in a neighbouring wood; thefe people conducted him to a town that flood at a little distance from the wood, where, after fome adventures, he married a woman of great beauty and fortune. He lived with this woman fo long till he had by her feven fons and seven daughters: He was afterwards reduced reduced to great want, and forced to think of plying in the streets as a porter for his livelihood. One day as he was walking alone by the fea fide, being feized with many melancholy reflections upon his former and his prefent ftate of life, which had raised a fit of devotion in him, he threw off his clothes with a defign to wash himfelf, according to the cuftom of the Mahometans, before he faid his prayers. After his firft plunge into the fea, he no fooner raifed his head above the water but he found himself ftanding by the fide of the tub, with the great men of his court about him, and the holy man at his fide. He immediately upbraided his teacher for having fent him on a fuch courfe of adventures, and betrayed him into fo long a ftate of mifery and fervitude; but was wonderfully furprised when he heard that the ftate he talked of was only a dream and delufion; that he had not ftirred from the place where he then ftood; and that he had only dipped his head into the water, and immediately taken it out again. The Mahometan doctor took this occafion of inftructing the fultan, that nothing was impoffible with God; and that He, with whom a thousand years are but as one day, can, if he pleases, make a fingle day, nay a fingle moment, appear to any of his creatures as a thou fand years. I fhall leave my reader to compare these eastern fables with the notions of thofe two great philofophers whom I have quoted in this paper; and fhall only, by way of application, defire him to confider how we may extend life beyond its natural dimenfions, by applying ourfelves diligently to the purfaits of knowledge. one The hours of a wife man are lengthened by his ideas, as thofe of a fool are by his paffions: The time of the is long, because he does not know what to do with it; fois that of the other, because he diftinguishes every moment of it with ufeful or amufing thoughts; or in other words, becaufe the one is always wishing it away, and the other always enjoying it. How different is the view of paft life, in the man who is grown old in knowledge and wifdom, from that of him who is grown old in ignorance and folly The C 6 latter latter is like the owner of a barren country that fills his eye with the profpect of naked hills and plains, which produce nothing either profitable or ornamental; the other beholds a beautiful and spacious landskip divided into delightful gardens, green meadows, fruitful fields, and can fearce caft his eye on a fingle fpot of his poffeffions, that is not covered with fome beautiful plant or flower. L N° 95 Tuesday June 19.. Cura leves loquuntur, ingentes fupent. H AVING read the two following letters with much pleasure, I cannot but think the good fenfeof them will be as agreeable to the town as any thing I could fay either on the topicks they treat of, or any other. They both allude to former papers of mine, and I do not question but the firft, which is upon inward mourning, will be thought the production of a man who is well acquainted with the generous earnings of distress in a manly temper, which is above the relief of tears. A fpeculation of my own on that fubject I fhall defer till another occafion. The fecond letter is from a lady of a mind as great as her understanding. There is perhaps fomething in the beginning of it which I ought in modefty to conceal; but I have fa much efteem for this correfpondent, that I will not alter a tittle of what he writes, tho' I am thus fcrupulous at the price of being ridiculous. Mr. SPECTATOR,. I Was very well pleafed with your difcourfe upongeneral mourning, and fhould be obliged to you if you would enter into the matter more deeply, and give us your thoughts upon the common fenfe the ordinary people have of the demonftrations of grief, who prefcribe prescribe rules and fashions to the most folemn, affiction; fuch as the lofs of the neareft relations and. - dearest friends. You cannot go to vifit a fick friend, but fome impertinent waiter about him obferves the mufcles of your face, as ftrictly as if they were prognofticks of his death or recovery. If he happens to be ⚫ taken from you, you are immediately furrounded with numbers of thefe fpectators, who expect a melancholy fhrug of your fhoulders, a pathetical fhake of your head, and an expreffive diftortion of your face, to measure your affection and value for the deceafed: But there is nothing, on thefe occafions, so much in their favour as immoderate weeping. As all their paffions are fuperficial, they imagine the feat of love and friendship to be placed vifibly in the eyes: They judge what ftock of kindness you had for the living, by the quantity of tears you pour out for the dead; fo that if one body wants that quantity of falt-water another abounds with, he is in great danger of being thought infenfible or ill-natured: They are ftrangers to friendship, whofe grief happens not to be moist enough to wet fuch a parcel of handkerchiefs. But ⚫ experience has told us, nothing is fo fallacious as this outward fign of forrow; and the natural history of our bodies will teach us that this flux of the eyes, this faculty of weeping, is peculiar only to fome conftitutions. We obferve in the tender bodies of children, when croffed in their little wills and expectations, how diffolvable are they into tears. If this were what grief is in men, nature would not be able to fupport them in the excefs of it for one moment. Add to this obfervation, how quick is their tranfition from this paffion to that of their joy. I won't fay we fee often, in the next tender things to children, tears fhed without much grieving.. Thus it is common to fhed tears without much forrow, and as common to fuffer much forrow without fhedding tears. Grief and weeping are indeed frequent companions: But, I believe, never in their higheft exceffes. As laughter does not proceed from profound joy, fo neither does weeping from profound forrow. The forrow which appears fo easily at the eyes, cannot have pierced deeply deeply into the heart. The heart diftended with grief, ftops all the paffages for tears or lamentations. Now, Sir, what I would incline you to in all this, is, that you would inform the shallow criticks and obfervers upon forrow, that true affliction labours to be invifible, that it is a stranger to ceremony, and that it bears in its own nature a dignity much above the little circumftances which are affected under the notion of decency. You must know, Sir, I have lately loft a dear friend, for whom I have not yet fhed a tear, and for that reafon your animadverfions on that subject would be the more acceptable to, SIR, Your most humble fervant, B. D. June the 15th. Mr. SPECTATOR, A gra SI hope there are but few who have fo little titude as not to acknowledge the ufefulness of your pen, and to efteem it a publick benefit; fo I am fenfible, be that as it will, you must nevertheless find the fecret and incomparable pleafure of doing good, and be a great fharer in the entertainment you give. I acknowledge our fex to be much obliged, and I hope improved by your labours, and even your intentions more particularly for our fervice. If it be true, as 'tis fometimes faid, that our fex have an influence on the other, your paper may be a yet more general good. Your directing us to reading is certainly the beft means to our inftruction; but I think, with you, caution in that particular very ufeful, fince the im⚫provement of our understandings may, or may not be of fervice to us, according as it is managed. It has ⚫ been thought we are not generally fo ignorant as illtaught, or that our fex does fo often want wit, judgment, or knowledge, as the right application of them: You are fo well-bred, as to fay your fair readers are already deeper scholars than the beaus, and that you could name fome of them that talk much better than feveral gentlemen that make a figure at Will's: This " may |