chain : I am, however, very happy in this my | plause of the whole beard, when I had almost captivity, as you often bestow on me those kiss-eat my antagonist into convulsions. It was es and caresses which I would have given the then that I returned his mirth upon him with world for when I was a man. I hope this dis-such success, as he was hardly able to swallow, covery of my person will not tend to my disad-though prompted by a desire of fame, and a vantage, but that you will still continue your passionate fondness for distinction. I had not accustomed favours to endeavoured to excel so far, had not the company been so loud in their approbation of my victory. I don't question but the same thirst after glory has often caused a man to drink 'P. S. I would advise your little shock-quarts without taking breath, and prompted dog to keep out of my way; for, as I look men to many other as difficult enterprises; upon him to be the most formidable of my which, if otherwise pursued, might turn verivals, I may chance one time or other to ry much to a man's advantage. This ambigive him such a snap as he won't like.' 'Your most devoted humble servant, No. 844.] Friday, April 4, 1712. 'PUGG. Such tion of mine was indeed extravagantly pursued; however, I cannot help observing, that you hardly ever see a man commended for a good stomach, but he immediately falls to | eating more (though he had before dined), as well to confirm the person that commended him in his good opinion of him, as to convince any other at the table who may have been unattentive enough not to have done justice to his character. 'I am, Sir, Your humble servant, MR. SPECTATOR, I THINK it has not yet fallen into your way to discourse on little ambition, or the many whimsical ways men fall into, to distinguish themselves among their acquaintance. observations, well pursued, would make a 'I have wrote to you three or four times, to pretty history of low life. I myself am got desire you would take notice of an impertinent into a great reputation, which arose (as most custom the women, the fine women, have lateextraordinary occurrences in a man's life seem ly fallen into, of taking snuff. This silly trick to do) from a mere accident. I was some days is attended with such a coquette air in some ago unfortunately engaged among a set of ladies, and such a sedate masculine one in gentlemen, who esteem a man according to the others, that I cannot tell which most to comquantity of food he throws down at a meal. plain of; but they are to me equally disagreeNow I, who am ever for distinguishing myself able. Mrs. Santer is so impatient of being according to the notions of superiority which without it, that she takes it as often as she the rest of the company entertain, ate so im- does salt at meals and as she affects a wonmoderately for their applause, as had like to derful ease and negligence in all her manner, have cost me my life. What added to my an upper lip mixed with snuff and the sauce is misfortune was, that having naturally a good what is presented to the observation of all who stomach, and having lived soberly for some have the honour to eat with her. The pretty time, my body was as well prepared for this creature her niece does all she can to be as discontention as if it had been by appointment. agreeable as her aunt; and if she is not as ofI had quickly vanquished every glutton in com- fensive to the eye, she is quite as much to the pany but one, who was such a prodigy in his ear, and makes up all she wants in a confident way, and withal so very merry during the whole air, by a nauseous rattle of the nose, when the entertainment, that he insensibly betrayed me snuff is delivered, and the fingers make the to continue his competitor, which in a little stops and closes on the nostrils. This, pertime concluded in a complete victory over my haps, is not a very courtly image in speaking rival; after which, by way of insult, I ate a of ladies; that is very true: but where arises considerable proportion beyond what the spec- the offence? Is it in those who commit, or those tators thought me obliged in honour to do. who observe it? As for my part, I have been The effect, however, of this engagement, has so extremely disgusted with this filthy physic made me resolve never to eat more for renown; hanging on the lip, that the most agreeable and I have, pursuant to this resolution, com-conversation, or person, has not been able to pounded three wagers I had depending on the make up for it. As to those who take it for no strength of my stomach, which happened very other end but to give themselves occasion for luckily, because it had been stipulated in our pretty action, or to fill up little intervals of disarticles either to play or pay. How a man of course, I can bear with them; but then they common sense could be thus engaged is hard must not use it when another is speaking, who to determine; but the occasion of this is, to de- ought to be heard with too much respect, to adsire you to inform several gluttons of my ac-mit of offering at that time from hand to hand quaintance, who look on me with envy, that the snuff-box. But Flavilla is so far taken with they had best moderate their ambition in time, her behaviour in this kind, that she pulls out lest infamy or death attend their success. I her box (which is indeed full of good Brazil) in forgot to tell you, Sir, with what unspeakable the middle of the sermon; and, to show she has pleasure I received the acclamations and ap- the audacity of a well-bred woman, she offers T. 'Your humble servant." it to the men as well as the women who sit Adam, to detain the angel, enters afterwards near her but since by this time all the world upon his own history and relates to him the knows she has a fine hand, I am in hopes she circumstances in which he found himself upon may give herself no further trouble in this his creation; as also his conversation with his matter. On Sunday was sevennight, when Maker, and his first meeting with Eve. There they came about for the offering, she gave her is no part of the poem more apt to raise the at charity with a very good air, but at the same tention of the reader, than this discourse of our time asked the church-warden if he would take great ancestor; as nothing can be more sura pinch. Pray, sir, think of these things in prising and delightful to us, than to hear the time, and you will oblige, sentiments that arose in the first man, while he was yet new and fresh from the hands of his Creator. The poet has interwoven every thing which is delivered upon this subject in holy writ with so many beautiful imaginations of his own, that nothing can be conceived more just and natural than this whole episode. As our author knew this subject could not be agreeable to his reader, he would not throw it into the relation of the six days' work, but reserved it for a distinct episode, that he might have an opportunity of expatiating upon it more at large. Before I enter on this part of the poem, I cannot but take notice of two shining passages in the dialogue between Adam and the Angel.. The first is that wherein our ancestor gives an account of the pleasure he took in conversing with him, which contains a very noble moral. No. 345.] Saturday, April 5, 1712. Sanctius his animal, mentisque capacius altæ Dryden. A ereature of a more exalted kind Was wanting yet, and then was man design'd; Conscious of thought, of more capacious breast, For empire form'd, and fit to rule the rest. THE accounts which Raphael gives of the battle of angels, and the creation of the world have in them those qualifications which the critics judge requisite to an episode. They are nearly related to the principal action, and have a just connexion with the fable. The 'For while I sit with thee, I seem in heaven, The other I shall mention, is that in which The eighth book opens with a beautiful description of the impression which this discourse of the archangel made on our first parents. Adam afterwards, by a very natural curiosity, inquires concerning the motions of those celestial bodies which make the most glorious appearance among the six days' work. poet here, with a great deal of art, represents. Eve as withdrawing from this part of their con- the angel gives a reason why he should be glad versation, to amusements more suitable to her to sex. He well knew that the episode in this book, which is filled with Adam's account of his passion and esteem for Eve, would have been improper for her hearing, and has therefore devised very just and beautiful reasons for her retiring: So spake our sire, and by his countenance seem'd Of what was high: such pleasure she reserv'd, Her husband the relater she prefer'd Before the angel, and of him to ask Chose rather: he, she knew, would intermix The angel's returning a doubtful answer to Adam's inquiries, was not only proper for the moral reason which the poet assigns, but be cause it would have been highly absurd to have given the sanction of an archangel to any particular system of philosophy. The chief points in the Ptolemaic and Copernican hypotheses are described with great conciseness and perspicuity, and at the same time dressed in very pleasing and poetical images. bear the story Adam was about to relate. For I that day was absent as befel, There is no question but our poet drew the image in what follows from that in Virgil's sixth book, where Æneas and the Sybil stand before the adamantine gates, which are there described as shut upon the place of torment, and listen to the groans, the clank of chains, and the noise of iron whips, that were heard in those regions of pain and sorrow. Fast we found, fast shut The dismal gates, and barricado'd strong; Adam then proceeds to give an account of his condition and sentiments immediately after his creation. How agreeably does he represent the posture in which he found himself, the delightful landscape that surrounded him, and the gladness of heart which grew up in him on that occasion! -As new wak'd from soundest sleep, And gaz'd awhile the ample sky; till rais'd Birds on the branches warbling; all things smill'd Adam is afterwards described as surprised at his own existence, and taking a survey of himself and of all the works of nature. He likewise is represented as discovering, by the light| of reason, that he, and every thing about him, must have been the effect of some Being infinitely good and powerful, and that this Being had a right to his worship and adoration. His first address to to Sun, and to those parts of the creation which made the most distinguished figure, is very natural and amusing to the imagination: 'Thou Sun,' said I, 'Fair light, And thou enlighten'd earth, so fresh and gay, ment, is as fine a part as any in the whole poem. Thus I presumptuous; and the vision bright, his second sleep, and of the dream in which he The new passion that was awakened in him at the sight of her is touched very finely. 'Under his forming hands a creature grew, That what seem'd fair in all the world, seem'd now His next sentiment, when, upon his first going to sleep, he fancies himself losing his existence, and falling away into nothing, can never be sufficiently admired. His dream, in Adam's distress upon losing sight of this which he still preserves the consciousness of beautiful phantom, with his exclamations of his existence, together with his removal into joy and gratitude at the discovery of a real the garden which was prepared for his recep- creature who resembled the apparition which tion, are also circumstances finely imagined, had been presented to him in his dream; the and grounded upon what is delivered in sacred story. These and the like wonderful incidents in this part of the work, have in them all the beauties of novelty, at the same time that they have all the graces of nature. approaches he makes to her, and his manner of conrtship, are all laid together in a most exquisite propriety of sentiments. Though this part of the poem is worked up with great warmth and spirit, the love which is described in it is every way suitable to a state They are such as none but a great genius of innocence. If the reader compares the decould have thought of; though, upon the pe- scription which Adam here gives of his leading rusal of them, they seem to rise of themselves Eve to the nuptial bower, with that which from the subject of which he treats. In a word, Mr. Dryden has made on the same occasion in though they are natural, they are not obvious; a scene of his Fall of Man, he will be sensible which is the true character of all fine writing. of the great care which Milton took to avoid all The impression which the interdiction of the thoughts on so delicate a subject that might be tree of life left in the mind of our first parent offensive to religion or good manners. The senis described with great strength and judgment; as the image of the several beasts and birds passing in review before him is very beautiful and lively: -Each bird and beast behold Adam in the next place, describes a conference which he held with his Maker upon the subject of solitude. The poet here represents the Supreme Being as making an essay of his own'work, and putting to the trial that reasoning faculty with which he had endued his creature. Adam urges, in this divine colloquy, the impossibility of his being happy, though he was the inhabitant of Paradise, and lord of the whole creation, without the conversation and society of some rational creature who should partake those blessings with him. This dialogue, which is supported chiefly by the beauty of the thoughts, without other poetical orna timents are chaste, but not cold; and convey "Thus have I told thee all my state, and brought I mean of taste, sight, smell, herbs, fruits, and flowers, -When I approach] Her loveliness, so absolute she seems, fording any future assistance where it ought to be. Let him therefore reflect, that if to bestow be in itself laudable, should not a man take care to secure an ability to do things praiseworthy as long as he lives? Or could there be a more cruel piece of raillery upon a man who should have reduced his fortune below the capacity of acting according to his natural temper, than to say of him, 'That gentleman was generous?' My beloved author therefore has, in the sentence on the top of my paper, turned his eye with a certain satiety from beholding the These sentiments of love in our first parent, addresses to the people by largesses and public gave the angel such an insight into human na-entertainments, which he asserts to be in geture, that he seems apprehensive of the evils neral vicious, and are always to be regulated which might befall the species in general, as according to the circumstances of time and a well as Adam in particular, from the excess of man's own fortune. A constant benignity in his passion. He therefore fortifies him against commerce with the rest of the world, which it by timely admonitions; which very artfully ought to run through all a man's actions, has prepare the mind of the reader for the occur- effects more useful to those whom you oblige rences of the next book, where the weakness, and is less ostentatious in yourself. He turns of which Adam here gives such distant dis- his recommendation of this virtue on commercoveries, brings about that fatal event which is cial life: and, according to him, a citizen who the subject of the poem. His discourse, which is frank in his kindness, and abhors severity follows the gentle rebuke he received from the in his demands: he who, in buying, selling angel, shows that his love, however violent it lending, doing acts of good neighbourhood, is might appear, was still founded in reason, and consequently not improper for Paradise: Neither her outside form'd so fair, nor aught Adam's speech, at parting with the angel, has in it a deference and gratitude agreeable to an inferior nature, and at the same time a certain dignity and greatness suitable to the father of mankind in his state of innocence. No. 346.] Monday, April 7, 1712. L. just and easy; he who appears naturally averse to disputes, and above the sense of little sư“ ferings; bears a noble character, and does much more good to mankind than any other man's fortune, without commerce, can possibly support. For the citizen above all other men, has opportunities of arriving at the highest fruit of wealth,' to be liberal without the least expense of a man's own fortune. It is not to be denied but such a practice is liable to hazard: but this therefore adds to the obligation, that, among traders, he who obliges is as much concerned to keep the favour a secret as he who receives it. The unhappy distinctions among us in England are so great, that to celebrate the intercourse of commercial friendship (with which I am daily made acquainted) would be to raise the virtuous man so many enemies of the contrary party. I am obliged to conceal all I know of Tom the Bounteous,' who lends at the ordinary interest, to give men of less fortune opportunities of making greater advanHe conceals, under a rough air and Tull. distant behaviour, a bleeding compassion and I esteem a habit of benignity grestly preferable to mu-womanish tenderness. This is governed by the nificence. The former is peculiar to great and distin- most exact circumspection, that there is no inguished persons; the latter belongs to flatterers of the dustry wanting in the person whom he is to people, who tickle the levity of the multitude with a kind of pleasure. | serve, and that he is guilty of no improper expenses. This I know of Tom; but who dare WHEN We consider the offices of human life, say it of so known a tory? The same care I was there is, methinks, something in what we ordi- forced to use some time ago, in the report of narily call generosity, which, when carefully another's virtue, and said fifty instead of an examined, seems to flow rather from a loose and hundred, because the man I pointed at was a unguarded temper than an honest and liberal whig. Actions of this kind are popular, with, mind. For this reason it is absolutely necessary out being invidious: for every man of ordinary that all liberality should have for its basis and circumstances looks upon a man who has this support frugality. By this means the benefi-known benignity in his nature as a person ready cent spirit works in a man from convictions of to be his friend upon such terms as he ought to reason, not from the impulse of passion. The expect it; and the wealthy who may envy such generous man in the ordinary acceptation, with a character, can do no injury to its interests, out respect of the demands of his family, will but by the imitation of it, in which the good soon find upon the foot of his account, that he citizen will rejoice to be rivalled. I know not has sacrificed to fools, knaves, flatterers, or the how to form to myself a greater idea of human deservedly unhappy, all the opportunities of af-life, than in what is the practice of some wealthy Conseutudinem benignitatis largitioui munerum longe antepono. Hæc est gravium hominum atque magnorum; illa quasi assentatorum populi, multitudinis levitatem vo- tages. luptate quasi titillantium. men whom I could name, that make no step to is to tell the town, that on Friday the 11th of the improvement or their own fortunes, wherein this instant, April, there will be performed, in they do not also advance those of other men York-Buildings, a concert of vocal and instruwho would languish in poverty without that mental music, for the benefit of Mr. Edward munificence. In a nation where there are so Keen, the father of twenty children; and that many public funds to be supported, I know not this day the haughty George Powell hopes all whether he can be called a good subject, who the good-natured part of the town will favour does not embark some part of his fortune with him, whom they applauded in Alexander, Tithe state, to whose vigilance he owes the securi-mon, Lear, and Orestes, with their company ty of the whole. This certainly is an immediate this night, when he hazards all his heroic glory way of laying an obligation upon many, and for their approbation in the humble condition extending your benignity the farthest a man of honest Jack Falstaffe. can possibly, who is not engaged in commerce. T. Quis furor, ô cives! quæ tanta licentia ferri! What blind, detested fury, could afford The ter But he who trades, besides giving the state some No. 347.] Tuesday, April 8, 1712. part of this sort of credit he gives his banker, may, in all the occurrences of his life, have his eye upon removing want from the door of the industrious, and defending the unhappy upright man from bankruptcy. Without this benignity, pride or vengeance will precipitate a man to choose the receipt of half his demands from I Do not question but my county readers one whom he has undone, rather than the whole have been very much surprised at the several from one to whom he has shown mercy. This accounts they have met with in our public benignity is essential to the character of a fair papers, of that species of men among us, lately trader, and any man who designs to enjoy his known by the name of Mohocks. 1 find the wealth with honour and self-satisfaction; nay, opinions of the learned, as to their origin and it would not be hard to maintain, that the prac-designs are altogether various, insomuch that tice of supporting good and industrious men very many begin to doubt whether indeed there would carry a man farther even to his profit, were ever any such society of men. than indulging the propensity of serving and ror which spread itself over the whole nation obliging the fortunate. My author argues on some years since on account of the Irish, is this subject, in order to incline men's minds to still fresh in most people's memories, though those who want them most, after this manner. it afterwards appeared there was not the 'We must always consider the nature of things, least ground for that general consternation. and govern ourselves accordingly. The wealthy The late panic fear was, in the opinion of man, when he has repaid you, is upon a balance many deep and penetrating persons, of the with you; but the person whom you favoured same nature. These will have it, that the with a loan, if he be a good man, will think Mohocks are like those spectres and apparihimself in your debt after he has paid you. tions which frighten several towns and villages The wealthy and the conspicuous are not ob- in her majesty's dominions, though they were liged by the benefits you do them; they think never seen by any of the inhabitants. Others they conferred a benefit when they received are apt to think that these Mohocks are a kind one. Your good offices are always suspected, of bull-beggars, first invented by prudent marand it is with them the same thing to expect ried men, and masters of families, in order to their favour as to receive it. But the man deter their wives and daughters from taking below you, who knows, in the good you have the air at unseasonable hours; and that done him, you respected himself more than when they tell them 'the Mohocks will catch his circumstances, does not act like an obliged them,' it is a caution of the same nature with man only to him from whom he has received that of our forefathers, when they bid their a benefit, but also to all who are capable of children have a care of Raw-head and Bloodydoing him one. And whatever little offices he bones. can do for you, he is so far from magnifying For my own part, I am afraid there was it, that he will labour to extenuate it in all his too much reason for the great alarm the whole actions and expressions. Moreover, the regard city has been in upon this occasion; though to what you do to a great man at best is taken at the same time I must own, that I am in notice of no further than by himself or his some doubt whether the following pieces are family; but what you do to a man of an hum-genuine and authentic; the more so, because ble fortune (provided always that he is a good I am not fully satisfied that the name, by and a modest man) raises the affections to-which the emperor subscribes himself, is alwards you of all men of that character (of together conformable to the Indian orthogwhich there are many) in the whole city. raphy. There is nothing gains a reputation to a I shall only farther inform my readers, that preacher so much as his own practice; I am it was some time since I received the following therefore casting about what act of benignity letter and manifesto, though, for particular is in the power of a Spectator. Alas! that reasons, I did not think fit to publish them lies but in a very narrow compass; and I till now. think the most immediately under my patron, age are either players, or such whose circumstances bear an affinity with theirs. All, there SIR, To the Spectator. Finding that our earnest endeavours for fore, I am able to do at this time of this kind, the good of mankind have been basely and VOL. II. 17 |