Obrázky stránek
PDF
ePub

N° 243 Saturday, December 8, 1711.

mirabiles amores

Formam quidem ipfam, Marce fili, & tanquam faciem Honefti vides: quæ fi oculis cerneretur, (ut ait Plato) excitaret Sapientiæ.

I

Tull. Offic.

You fee, my fon Marcus, the very fhape and coun"tenance, as it were, of VIRTUE; which if it could "be made the object of fight, would (as Plato fays) “excite in us a wonderful love of WISDOM."

Do not remember to have read any discourse written expressly upon the beauty and loveliness of VIRTUE, without confidering it as a duty, and as the means of making us happy both now and hereafter. I defign therefore this Speculation as an Effay upon that fubject, in which I fhall confider Virtue no farther than as it is in itself of an amiable nature, after having premifed, that I understand by the word VIRTUE fuch a general notion as is affixed to it by the writers of morality, and which by devout men generally goes under the name of RELIGION, and by men of the world under the name of HONOUR.

Hypocrify itself does great honour, or rather juftice; to RELIGION, and tacitly acknowledges it to be an ornament to human nature. The hypocrite would not be at fo much pains to put on the appearance of Virtue, if he did not know it was the moit proper and effectual means to gain the love and efteem of mankind.

We learn from Hierocles, it was a common faying among the heathens, that the wife man hates no body, but only loves the Virtuous *.

Tully has a very beautiful gradation of thoughts to fhew how amiable Virtue is. We love a Virtuous man, fays he, who lives in the remoteft parts of the earth, though we are altogether out of the reach of his Vir

Hierocles, p. 56. edit. Needham,

tue,

tue, and can receive from it no manner of benefit. Nay, one who died feveral ages ago, raifes a fecret fondness and benevolence for him in our minds, when we read his story. Nay, what is ftill more, one who has been the enemy of our country, provided his wars were regulated by juftice and humanity, as in the inftance of Pyrrhus whom Tully mentions on this occafion in op. pofition to Hannibal. Such is the natural beauty and loveliness of VIRTUE.

Stoicifm, which was the pedantry of Virtue, ascribes all good qualifications, of what kind foever, to the Virtuous man. Accordingly Cato, in the character Tully has left of him, carried matters fo far, that he would not allow any one but a Virtuous man to be handsome. This indeed looks more like a philofophical rant than the real opinion of a wife man; yet this was what Cato very feriously maintained. In short, the Stoics thought they could not fufficiently reprefent the excellence of Virtue, if they did not comprehend in the notion of it all poffible perfections; and therefore did not only fuppofe, that it was tranfcendently beautiful in itself, but that it made the very body amiable, and banished every kind of deformity from the perfon in whom it refided.

It is a common obfervation, that the most abandoned to all fenfe of goodness, are apt to with those who are related to them of a different character; and it is very obfervable, that none are more ftruck with the charms of Virtue in the fair fex, than thofe who by their very admiration of it are carried to a defire of ruining it.

A Virtuous mind in a fair body is indeed a fine picture in a good light, and therefore it is no wonder that it makes the beautiful fex all over charms.

As Virtue in general is of an amiable and lovely nature, there are fome particular kinds of it which are more fo than others, and these are fuch as difpofe us to do good to mankind. Temperance and abftinence, faith and devotion, are in themselves perhaps as laudable as any other Virtues; but those which make a man popular and beloved, are justice, charity, munificence, and, in fhort, all the good qualities that render us beneficial to each other. For which reafon even an extravagant

travagant man, who has nothing else to recommend him but a falfe generofity, is often more beloved and esteemed than a perfon of a much more finished character, who is defective in this particular.

The two great ornaments of Virtue, which fhew her in the most advantageous views, and make her altogether lovely, are chearfulness and good-nature. These generally go together, as a man cannot be agreeable to others who is not eafy within himself. They are both very requifite in a Virtuous mind, to keep out melancholy from the many ferious thoughts it is engaged in, and to hinder its natural hatred of vice from fouring into feverity and cenforioufnefs.

If Virtue is of this amiable nature, what can we think of those who can look upon it with an eye of hatred and ill-will, or can fuffer their averfion for a party to blot out all the merit of the perfon who is engaged in it. A man must be exceffively stupid, as well as uncharitable, who believes that there is no Virtue but on his own fide, and that there are not men as honest as himself who may differ from him in political principles. Men may oppofe one another in fome particulars, but ought not to carry their hatred to thofe qualities which are of fo amiable a nature in themfelves, and have nothing to do with the points in difpute. Men of Virtue, though of different interefts, ought to confider themselves as more nearly united with one another, than with the vicious part of mankind, who embark with them in the fame civil concerns. We should bear the fame love towards a man of honour, who is a living antagonist, which Tully tells us in the forementioned paffage every one naturally does to an enemy that is dead. In fhort, we should efteem Virtue though in a foe, and abhor vice though in a friend.

I fpeak this with an eye to thofe cruel treatments which men of all fides are apt to give the characters of those who do not agree with them. How many perfons of undoubted probity, and exemplary Virtue, on either fide, are blackened and defamed? How many men of honour exposed to public obloquy and reproach? Those therefore who are either the inftruments or abettors in fuch infernal dealings, ought to be looked upon as perfons

perfons who make ufe of RELIGION to promote their cause *, not of their caufe to promote RELIGION. Ct

* Alluding to the popular cry of thofe times, that "the Church was in Danger," artfully made ufe of by the leaders of one party, to effect the downfall of the other. P.

† By ADDISON; dated it seems, from Chelsea.

N° 244 Monday, December 10, 1711.

[ocr errors]

Judex & callidus audis. Hor. 2 Sat. vii. 101. "A judge of painting you a connoiffeur."

• Mr. SPECTATOR,

Covent-Garden, December 7. Cannot, without a double injuftice, forbear expreffing to you the fatisfaction which a whole clan

of virtuofos have received from those hints which you have lately given the town on the Cartons of the inimitable Raphael . It fhould be methinks the bufinefs of a SPECTATOR to improve the pleasures of fight, and there cannot be a more immediate way <to it than recommending the ftudy and obfervation of excellent drawings and pictures. When I first went to view those of Raphael which you have celebrated, I must confefs I was but barely pleafed; the next < time I liked them better, but at laft as I grew better acquainted with them, I fell deeply in love with them; like wife fpeeches, they funk deep into my heart for you know, Mr. Spectator, that a man of wit may extremely affect one for the prefent, but if he has not difcretion, his merit foon vanishes away: while a wife man that has not fo great a ftock of wit, fhall nevertheless give you a far greater and more lafting fatisfaction. Juft fo it is in a picture that is fmartly touched, but not well ftudied; one may call it a witty picture, though the painter in the nean time may be in danger of being called a fool. On the other hand, a picture that is thoroughly under• ftood in the whole, and well performed in the partiSee N° 226.

culars,

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

culars, that is begun on the foundation of geometry, carried on by the rules of perfpective, architecture, and anatomy, and perfected by a good harmony, a juft and natural colouring, and fuch paffions, and expreffions of the mind as are almoft peculiar to Raphael; this is what you may juftly ftile a wife picture, and which feldom fails to ftrike us dumb, until we can affemble all our faculties to make but a tolerable judgment upon it. Other pictures are made for the eyes only, as rattles are made for children's ears; and certainly that picture that only pleafes the eye, without reprefenting fome well-chofen part of nature or other, does but fhew what fine colours are to be fold at the colour-fhop, and mocks the works of the CREATOR. If the beft imitator of nature is not to be 'esteemed the best painter, but he that makes the greatest fhow and glare of colours; it will neceffarily follow, that he who can array himself in the most gaudy draperies is best dreft, and he that can speak loudeft the best orator. Every man when he looks on a picture should examine it according to that share of reafon he is mafter of, or he will be in danger of making a wrong judgment. If men as they walk abroad would make more frequent obfervations on thofe beauties of nature which every moment prefent themselves to their view, they would be better judges when they faw her well imitated at home. This would help to correct thofe errors which moft pretenders fall into, who are over hafty in their judgments, and will not stay to let reafon come in for a share in the decifion. It is for want of this that men mistake in this cafe, and in common life, a wild extravagant pencil for one that is truly bold and great, an impudent fellow for a man of true courage and bravery, hally and unreasonable actions for enterprises of sprit and refolution, gaudy colouring for that which is truly beautiful, a falfe and infinuating difcourfe for fimple truth elegantly recommended. The parallel will hold through all the parts of life and painting too; and the virtuous abovementioned will be glad to see you draw it with your terms of art. As the 'fhadows in a picture reprefent the ferious or melan

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

choly,

« PředchozíPokračovat »