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THE

SPECTATO R.

VOLUME EIGHTH.

N° 556.

Friday, June 18. 1714.

Qualis ubi in lucem coluber mala gramina pastus,
Frigida fub terra tumidum quem bruma tegebat;
Nunc pofitis novus exuviis, nitidufque juventa,
Lubrica convolvit fublato pectore terga
Arduus ad folem, et linguis micat ore trifulcis.
Virg. Æn. 2. v.

So fhines, renew'd in youth, the crefted fnake,
Who flept the winter in a thorny brake;
And calling off his flough when spring returns,
Now looks aloft, and with new glory burns ;
Reftor'd with pois'nous herbs, his ardent fides.
Reflect the fun, and rais'd on fpires he rides;
High o'er the grafs biffing he rolls along,
And brandishes by fits his forky tongue.

U

471.

Dryden...

PON laying down the office of SPECTATOR, I acquainted the world with my defign of electing a new club, and of opening my mouth in it after a moft folemn manner. Both the election and the ceremo-. ny are now paft but not finding it fo eafy, as I at first imagined, to break through a fifty years filence, I would not venture into the world under the character of a man who pretends to talk like other people,"till I had arrived at a full freedom of fpeech.

I SHALL referve for another time the hiftory of such club or clubs of which I am now a talkative, but unworthy member; and fhall here give an account of this furprifing change which has been produced in me, and which.

I look

I look upon to be as remarkable an accident as any recorded in history, fince that which happened to the son of Grosfus, after having been many years as much tonguetyed as myself.

UPON the firft opening of my mouth, I made a fpeech confifting of about half a dozen well-turned periods; but grew fo very hoarfe upon it, that for three days together, instead of finding the use of my tongue, I was afraid that I had quite loft it. Befides, the unusual extenfion of my mufcles on this occafion, made my face ake on both fides, to fuch a degree, that nothing but an invincible refolution. and prefeverance could have prevented me from falling back to my inonofyllables.

I AFTERWARDS made feveral effays towards fpeaking; and that I might not be startled at my own voice, which has happened to me more then once, I used to read aloud in my chamber, and have often stood in the middle of the street to call a coach, when I knew there was none within hearing.

WHENI was thus grown pretty well acquainted with my own voice, I laid hold of all opportunities to exert it. Not caring however to speak much by myself, and to draw upon me the whole attention of thofe I converfed with, I used, for fome time, to walk every morning in the Mall, and talk in chorus with a parcel of Frenchmen. I found my modefty greatly relieved by the communicative temper of this nation, who are so very fociable, as to think they are never better company, than when they are all opening at the fame time.

I THEN fancied I might receive great benefit from female converfation, and that I fhould have a convenience of talking with the greater freedom, when I was not under any impediment of thinking: I therefore threw myfelfinto an affembly of ladies, but could not for my life get in a word among them; and found that if I did not change my company, I was in danger of being reduced to my primitive taciturnity.

THE Coffechoufes have ever fince been my. chief places. of refort, where I have made the greatest improvements; in order to which I have taken a particular care never to be of the fame opinion with the man I converfed with. I was a Tory at Button's, and a Whig at Child's, a friend

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to the Englishman, or an advocate for the Examiner, as it beft ferved my turn: fome fancy me a great enemy to the French king, though, in reality, I only make use of him for a help to difcourfe. In fhort, I wrangle and difpute for exercise; and have carried this point fo far, that I was once like to have been run through the body for making a little too free with my betters.

In a word, I am quite another man to what I was.

Nil fuit unquam

Tam difpar fibi -
Hor. fat. 3. 1. 1. v. 18.
Nothing was ever fo unlike itself.

My old acquaintance scarce know me; nay I was asked the other day by a Jew at Jonathan's, whether I was not related to a dumb gentleman, who used to come to that coffeehouse? But I think I never was better pleafed in my life than about a week ago, when, as I was battling it across the table with a young templar, his companion gave him a pull by the fleeve, begging him to come away, for that the old prig would talk him to death.

BEING now a very good proficient in difcourfe, I fhall appear in the world with this addition to my character, that my countrymen may reap the fruits of my new-acquired loquacity.

THOSE who have been present at public difputes in the univerfity, know that it is ufual to maintain herefies for argument's fake. I have heard a man a most impudent Socinian for half an hour, who has been an orthodox divine all his life after. I have taken the fame method to accomplish myself in the gift of utterance, having talked above a twelve-month, not fo much for the benefit of my hearers, as of myself. But fince I have now gained the faculty, I have been long endeavouring after, I intend to make a right ufe of it, and shall think myself obliged, for the future, to fpeak always in truth and fincerity of heart. While a man is learning to fence, he practises both on friend and foe; but when he is mafter in the art, he never exerts it but on what he thinks the right fide.

THAT this laft allufion may not give my reader a wrong idea of my design in this paper I must here inform him, that the author of it is of no faction, that he is a friend to no

interefts

interefts but thofe of truth and virtue, nor a foe to any but thofe of vice and folly. Tho' I make more noise in the world that I ufed to do, I am ftill refolved to act in it as an indifferent Spectator. It is not my ambition to increafe the number either of Whigs or Tories, but of wife and good men, and I could heartily wish there were not faults common to both parties, which afford me fufficient matter to work upon, without defcending to those which are peculiar to either.

If in a multitude of counfellors there is fafety, we ought to think ourselves the fecureft nation in the world. Moft of our garrets are inhabited by ftatefinen, who watch over the liberties of their country, and make a shift to keep themfelves from starving, by taking into their care the properties of their fellow-fubjects

As these politicians of both fides have already worked the nation into a moft unnatural ferment, I fhall be fo far froin endeavouring to raise it to a greater height, that, on the contrary, it fhall be the chief tendency of my papers to infpire my countrymen with a mutua! good-will and benevolence. Whatever faults either party may be guilty of, they are rather inflamed than cured by thofe reproaches which they caft upon one another. The most likely method of rectifying any man's conduct is, by recommending to him the principles of truth and honour, religion and virand fo long as he acts with an eye to thefe principles, whatever party he is of, he cannot fail of being a good Englishman, and a lover of his country.

tue ;

As for the perfons concerned in this work, the names of all of them, or at least of fuch as defire it, fhall be published hereafter: 'till which time I muft entreat the courteous reader to fufpend his curiosity, and rather to confider what is written, than who they are that write it.

HAVING thus adjusted all neceffary preliminaries with my reader, I fhall not trouble him with any more prefatory difcourfes, but proceed in my old method, and entertain him with fpeculations on every useful fubject that falls in my way.

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No. 557.

Monday, June 21.

Quippe domum timet ambiguam, Tyriofque bilingues.

Virg. Æn. 1. v, 665.

He fears th' ambiguous race, and Tyrians doubletongu'd.

THERE is nothing, fays Plato, fo delightful, as the

bearing or fpeaking of truth. For this reafon there is no converfation fo agreeable as that of the man of integrity, who hears without any intention to betray, and fpeaks without any intention to deceive.

AMONG all the accounts which are given of Cato, I do not remember one that more redounds to his honour, than the following paffage related by Plutarch. As an advocate was pleading the cause of his client before one of the prætors, he could only produce a fingle witnefs in a point where the law required the teftimony of two perfons; upon which the advocate insisted on the integrity of that person whom he had produced: but the prætor told him, that where the law required two witneffes he would not accept of one, though it were Gato himfelf. Such a speech from a perfon who fat at the head of a court of juftice, while Cato was ftill living, fhews us, more than a thousand examples, the high reputation this great man had gained among his contemporaries upon the account of his fincerity.

WHEN fuch an inflexible integrity is a little foftened and qualified by the rules of converfation and good breeding, there is not a more shining virtue in the whole catalogue of focial duties. A man, however, ought to take great care not to polish himself out of his veracity, nor to refine his behaviour to the prejudice of his virtue.

THIS fubject is exquifitely treated in the most elegant fermon of the great British preacher. I fhall beg leave to transcribe out of it two or three fentences, as a proper introduction to a very curious letter, which I fhall make the chief entertainment of this fpeculation.

VOL. VIII.

B

THE

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