for getting a livelihood in this ftrange 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 ftood 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 feven daughters: He was afterwards 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 me lancholy 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 custom of the Mahometans, before he faid his prayers.

After his firft plunge into the fea, he no fooner raised his head above the water but he found himfelf 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 fuch a courfe of adventures, and betrayed him into fo long a state of mifery and fervitude; but was wonderfully furprised when hẹ heard that the ftate he talked of was only a dream and delufion; that he had not ftirred from the place where he then stood; 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 thoufand· years are but as one day, can, if he pleafes, make a fingle day, nay a fingle moment, appear to any of his creatures as a thousand years.

I fhall leave my reader to compare thefe eaftern fables with the notions of thofe two great philofophers whom I have quoted in this paper; and fhall

only,

only, by way of application, defire him to confider how we may extend life beyond its natural dimenfions, by applying ourfelves diligently to the purfuits of knowledge."

The hours of a wife man are lengthened by his ideas, as thofe of a fool are by his paffions: The time of the one is long, because he does not know what to do with it; fo is 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 withing 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 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 fpacious landfcape divided into delightful gardens, green meadows, fruitful fields, and can fcarce caft his eye on a fingle spot of his poffeffions, that is not covered with fome beautiful plant or flower.

No 95

TUESDAY, JUNE 19.

Cura leves loquuntur, ingentes ftupent,

Light forrows fpeak, great grief is dumb. HAVING read the two following letters with much pleafure, I cannot but think the good fenfe of 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 proVOL. II. duction

† F

duction of a man who is well acquainted with the generous earnings of diftrefs 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 underftanding. There is perhaps fomething in the beginning of it which I ought in modefty to conceal; but I have fo much efteem for this correfpondent, that I will not alter a tittle of what the writes, though I am thus fcrupulous at the price of being ridiculous.

I

Mr. SPECTATOR,

Was very well pleafed with your difcourfe upon general 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 preferibe rules and fathions to the most folemn affliction; fuch as the lofs of the nearest 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 prognosticks 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 meafure your affection and value for the deceafed: But there is nothing, on thefe occafions, fo 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 kindnefs 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 hiftory of our bodies will teach us that this flux of the eyes, this faculty of weeping, is peculiar only to fome conftitutions. We

observe in the tender bodies of children, when croffed in their little wills and expectations, how ⚫ diffolvable they are 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 will not 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 forC row which appears fo cafily at the eyes, cannot have pierced 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 fhallow criticks and obfervers upon forrow, that true affiction labours to be invifible, that it is a ftranger 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

F 2

6. for

1

for that reafon your animadverfions on that fubject would be the more acceptable to,

Mr. SPECTATOR,

· B. D.

June the 15th. ASI hope there are but few who have fo little

gratitude as not to acknowledge the ufefulnefs of your pen, and to efteem it a public benefit; fo I am fenfible, be that as it will, you must nevertheless find the fecret and incomparable pleasure 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 intention s more particularly for our fervice. If it be true, as it is 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 best means to our inftruction; but I think, with you, caution in that particular very ufeful, fince the improvement 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 ill-taught, 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 fcholars 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 poffibly be, and no great compliment, in my opinion, even fuppofing your comparison to reach Tom's and the Grecian : Surely you are too wife to think That a real commendation of a woman. Were it not rather to be wifhed we improved in our own fphere, and approved ourfelves better daughters, wives, mothers, and friends?

I cannot