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Should the whole frame of nature round him break,

In ruin and confufion hurl'd,

He, unconcern'd, would hear the mighty erack,
And stand secure amidst a falling world.

The vanity of fear may be yet farther illustrated, if we reflect,

First, What we fear may not come to pass. No human fcheme can be fo accurately projected, but fome little circumftance intervening may spoil it. He who directs the heart of man at his pleafure, and understands the thoughts long before, may by ten thousand accidents, or an immediate change in the inclinations of men, difconcert the moft fubtle project, and turn it to the benefit of his own fervants.

In the next place we fhould confider, though the evil we imagine fhould come to pafs, it may be much more fupportable than it appeared to be. As there is no profperous ftate of life without its calamities, fo there is no adverfity without its benefits. Afk the great and powerful, if they do not feel the pangs of envy and ambition. Enquire of the poor and needy, if they have not tasted the fweets of quiet and contentment. Even under the

pains of body, the infidelity of friends, or the mif conftructions put upon our laudable actions, our minds (when for fome time accustomed to these preffures) are fenfible of fecret flowings of comfort, the prefent reward of a pious refignation. The evils of this life appear like rocks and precipices, rugged and barren at a distance, but at our nearer approach, we find little fruitful fpots, and refrefhing fprings, mixed with the harshness and defor mities of nature.

In the laft place, we may comfort ourselves with this confideration; that, as the thing feared may not reach us, so we may not reach what we fear.

Qur

Our lives may not extend to that dreadful point, which we have in view. He who knows all our failings, and will not fuffer us to be tempted beyond our ftrength, is often pleased in his tender feverity, to feparate the foul from its body and miferies together.

If we look forward to him for help, we shall never be in danger of falling down thofe precipices which our imagination is apt to create. Like thofe who walk upon a line, if we keep our eye fixed upon one point, we may ftep forward fecurely; whereas an imprudent or cowardly glance on either fide will infallibly destroy us.

No 616. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 5.

Qui bellus homo eft, Cotta, pufillus homo eft.

MARTIAL, Epig. x. I. 1.

A pretty fellow is but half a man.

CICERO hath obferved, that a jeft is never uttered with a better grace, than when it is accompanied with a ferious countenance. When a pleafant thought plays in the features, before it discovers itfelf in words, it raifes too great an expectation, and loses the advantage of giving furprise. Wit and humour are no less poorly recommended by a levity of phrafe, and that kind of language which may be diftinguished by the name of Cant. Ridicule is never more ftrong, than when it is concealed in gravity. True humour lies in the thought, and arifes from the representation of images in odd circumftances and uncommon lights. A pleasant thought ftrikes us by the force of its natural beauty; and the mirth of it is generally rather palled than heightened by that ridiculous phrafeology which is fo much in fafhion among the pretenders to hu

mour

mour and pleasantry. This tribe of men are like our mountebanks; they make a man a wit, by putting him in a fantastic habit.

Our little burlesque authors, who are the delight of ordinary readers, generally abound in thefe pert phrafes, which have in them more vivacity than wit.

I lately faw an instance of this kind of writing, which gave me fo lively an idea of it, that I could not forbear begging a copy of the letter from the gentleman who fhewed it to me. It is written by a country wit, upon the occafion of the rejoicings on the day of the King's coronation.

• Dear JACK,

:I

Paft two o'clock, and a frosty morning. HAVE just left the right worshipful and his myrmidons about a sneaker of five gallons. The whole magiftracy was pretty well difguised before I gave them the flip. Our friend the alderman was half feas over before the bonfire was We had with us the attorney, and two or three bright other fellows. The doctor plays leaft in fight.

· out.

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At nine o'clock in the evening we fet fire to the whore of Babylon. The devil acted his part to a miracle. He has made his fortune by it. We equipped the young dog with a tefter apiece. Honeft old Brown of England was very drunk, ' and thowed his loyalty to the tune of a hundred 'rockets. The mob drank the King's health on their marrow-bones, in mother Day's double. They whipped us half a dozen hogfheads. Poor Tom Tylor had like to have been demolished with the end of a fky-rocket that fell upon the bridge of his nofe as he was drinking the King's health, and fpoiled his tip. The mob were very loyal until about midnight, when they grew a ⚫ little mutinous for more liquor. They had like

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• to have dumfounded the juftice; but his clerk • came in to his affiftance, and took them all down in black and white.

. When I had been huzza'd out of my feven • fenfes, I made a vifit to the women, who were guzzling very comfortably. Mrs. Mayoress clipped the King's English. Clack was the

• word.

I forgot to tell thee, that every one of the poffe had his hat cocked with a diftich: The fe⚫nators fent us down a cargo of ribbon and metre for the occafion.

Sir Richard, to fhew his zeal for the proteftant religion, is at the expence of a tar-barrel and a ball. I peeped into the knight's great hall, and faw a very pretty bevy of spinfters My dear relict was amongst them, and ambled in a country. 7-dance as notably as the best of them.

May all his Majefty's liege fubjects love him as well as his good people of this his ancient borough. Adieu."

MONDAY,

1

**X*X*X*XX*X*>

No 617. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 8.

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Tarva Mimalloneis implerunt cornua bombis,
Et raptum vitulo caput ablatura Juperbo
Baffaris, et lyncem Manas flexura corymbis,
Evion ingeminat: reparabilis aafonat echo.
PERS. Sat. i. ver. 194.

Their crooked horns the Mimallonian crew
With blafts infpir'd; and Baffaris, who flew
The fcornful calf, with fword advanc'd on high,
Made from his neck his haughty head to fly.
And Menas, when, with ivy bridles bound,
She led the spotted Lynx, then Evion rung a-
round,

Evion from woods and floods repairing echoes

found.

THERE

DRYDEN.

HERE are two extremes in the stile of humour, one of which confifts in the ufe of that little pert phrafeology which I took notice of in my laft paper; the other in the affectation of ftrained and pompous expreffions, fetched from the learned languages. The first favours too much of the town, the other of the college.

As nothing illuftrates better than example, I fhall here prefent my reader with a letter of pedantic humour, which was written by a young gentleman of the univerfity to his friend, on the fame occafion, and from the fame place, as the lively epiftle published in my laft Spectator.

Dear CHUм,

IT

T is now the third watch of the night, the greatest part of which I have fpent round a capacious bowl of China, filled with the choiceft. products of both the Indies I was placed at a VOL. VIII. Y quadrangular

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